001Mr Anderson present Mrs conduit present Miss ibach present Dr gendrano present Mrs Howard present Mr saoi present Miss Shimp present Mrs CHP pres Mr Walker is not here and that's it okay we have awesome thank you Mr Pepe oh so moving on to item number three executive session the dellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the open public meetings act C and JSA uh 10 4-12 B the confidential matters discussed by the board during this executive session include items related to uh individual privacy uh collective bargaining agreements uh pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege as well as Personnel anything else any other ones okay um any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it
002is practical minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists all individuals who may be discussed in executive session have been adequately notified action will take place after the the conclusion of the executive session may have a motion to move into executive session please move to go to exec seconded all those in favor I I I opposed okay we're in executive see you at about 7:30 e e e okay we are back welcome welcome welcome okay moving on to item number uh four uh the Pledge of Allegiance oh sorry sorry we need to make a motion uh may I have a motion please uh to come back to public Mo have to go back to public all those in favor I I opposed okay moving on to
003item number four Pledge of Allegiance and moment of silence the flag is over here please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all will you all please remain standing for a moment of reflection and respect for our troops serving throughout the world our troops who have served and our troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our United States of America thank you okay moving on to item number five approval of minutes uh looking for a motion uh to to approve uh 5A which is the um our our minutes from our last board meeting on February 25th 2025 move to approve the minutes second open for questions or comments
004last call okay Mr pepy could you please take the role Mr Anderson Mrs Condit yes Miss ibach yes Dr jenjo yes Mrs Howard yes Mr satoi yes Miss Shimp yes Mrs Shep yes motion passes wonderful thank you moving on to item number six student recognition I'll turn this over to Mr Ross great thank you Dr jonro it's lovely to see you all here um students parents we're very very proud of you for uh being selected as the student of the month for uh for this month of March and we have our administrators here we have a little bit of a different process today we actually have our our step and repeat uh Banner which is here so students what's going to happen is your name is going to be called and you're going to come
005up and you're going to receive your certificate from your administrator and you're going to stay up here and then when all the students are called then we're going to take a little pause parents you can get up you can take pictures we'll we'll give everybody a second and um we hope that this will help make the pictures nicer and uh a little bit more memorable for everyone so without further Ado we're going to start with denell in high school and Mr [Applause] Lynch you want to turn it around do you want to turn it around do you want to turn around all right good evening everyone I'm very happy to be here to recognize our students of the month I'll start with 12th grade because unfortunately the student couldn't be here tonight they had a
006family commitment they were celebrating someone's birthday at uh out in camel back so great reason not to be here uh our first student of the month is Lily Martin she's in 12th grade uh she's a cheerleader she is an active student in our school a fantastic student and one of the things that one can always say about Lily is she has always got a smile on her face one of the happiest people that uh you will ever meet and she's just a fantastic student we're excited to see where she's uh going next year once she graduates so our 12th grade student of the month although she couldn't be here is Lily Martin our 11th grade student of the month Jackson poric [Applause] Jackson has a long Legacy here in uh dellan his dad was a
007graduate of dellan high school and a big member of the community Jackson's done a great job here at the high school he's one of those students that gets up early in the morning for band so he's at school before 7:00 every day which is fantastic he plays football he plays baseball and one interesting note about Jackson and I mentioned this to the student body and I know he will enjoy the story is he is one of those students he's kind of our modernday L gig or Cal Ripken he had perfect attendance all through Elementary School all through middle school and just last month he got sick and had his first day out of school so quite a record amazing says a lot about the parents getting them there to school but uh his first day
008out of school pretty amazing but student of the month Jackson poric our 10th grade student of the month Xavier Moya [Applause] Xavier another student that's doing a fantastic job here at dellan high school he just played basketball back in the winter uh as we sit back and we talk to the teachers about students that are deserving of this award uh Xavier is one of those students that is on the quieter side but continues day in and day out to do just a fantastic job in his classes he's got a lot of friends uh he's one of those that we hope continues to pull his friends up to continue to improve academically and he does such a great job uh in in school so our 10th grade student of the month Xavier Moya and our ninth
009grade student of the month Katherine Martinez Vidal Katherine also doing a fantastic job here at the high school uh she is a class officer in with the with her class uh she is in mostly honors classes a fantastic student very outgoing very nice she has big shoes to fill because she is a fantastic older sister as well uh she's one of these that always also is very happy in school as we can see a smile on her face our ninth grade student of the month Katherine Martinez [Applause] Vidal don't don't have can you give me that let me know when they're done let me know when it's pretty it's it's good right yeah we good good okay all right awesome thank you so much high school students of the month all right now for Lincoln
010Middle School we have the the esteemed principal Mr Alm [Applause] good evening and welcome I am very proud to announce our three students from Lincoln Middle School as our students of the month students when your name is announced please come forward our sixth grade student of the month is Giana [Applause] salana the sixth grade team of teachers would like to congratulate Gian salana for being selected as student of the month she is always willing to assist other students and demonstrates leadership in the classroom Giana is kind and respectful to her teachers and classmates something that I have to point out she has had a tremendous role model in her older brother who is a high school student she consistently maintains excellent grades and has achieved high honor role Giana is conscientious about the work she
011produces congratulations on being recognized and keep up the outstanding [Applause] performance our seventh grade student of the month Tyler clava [Applause] the seventh grade teachers are proud to recognize Tyler clava as student of the month he consistently brings a positive attitude to the classroom putting forth great effort in all tasks Tyler actively participates in discussions and is always eager to contribute one of his greatest strengths is the ability to work well with anyone whether collaborating on a project or assisting a classmate he demonstrates kindness and teamwork be Beyond academics Tyler brightens the classroom with his positive energy his dedication and enthusiasm make him a role model for others on a personal note Tyler does something very special for me especially during the football season he is a DieHard Dallas Cowboys fan so unfortunately we spend
012a lot of Monday mornings um you know with our disappointment from the uh the Sunday loss and I should say that he always comes in with an OP optimistic attitude and when I'm down he'll sit there and say you know what we still have four games to go whatever it may be so I appreciate that from Tyler congratulations Tyler keep up the great work our eighth grade representative Abigail srant the eighth grade team is excited to announce Abigail srant as the student of the month she has earned all A's on her report card for the second marking period and achieved high honor rooll status Abigail consistently demonstrates excellent work habits strong organizational skills and a positive and respectful attitude in class she is cooperative attentive and actively participates showing both interest and enthusiasm in her
013learning her dedication and positive contributions make her a valued member of the LMS Community congratulations Abigail on this well-deserved recognition finally congratulations again to our three students of the month and we appreciate them for making LMS and outstanding place to learn and [Applause] develop parents come forward if you'd like to take a picture you [Applause] I need no introduction he just let the mic that's what I do um congratulations to all students of the month I represent fa I'm the principal brenon tenant and our first student is Landon valz from the Shaheen's class Landon come on up that just like that Landon is an enthusiastic student he is always happy to participate in class and we're so proud of his efforts in small group instruction when he always tries his very best clap it up
014for Landon please kindergarten I have Ryan Mundy where's Ryan you dressed up man look at this Ryan is a hardworking student who always puts his best effort and stays focused during lessons as in m sco's class he is the class bullying Ambassador he helps create a safe and respectful environment by encouraging kindness among his classmates he is also a great helper always making sure that his classroom is clean and organized whether it's picking up materials or reminding others to put things away Ryan takes pride in our space congratulations Ryan first grade Mar [Applause] claudo Mark is all around a great kid he always gives his best at whatever he's doing he is a great reader and writer and unbelievable artist he is a kind friend to all Mrs cortiz has witnessed Mark taking time during
015recess to teach his friends how to play football and in class help his friends in drawing with computer issues he's also a huge Ronaldo fan I'm a Messi fan I know we get this argument all the time look at the face I get all day long all day long congratulations Mark give a round of applause second grade I have AAS Bita Tista come on up congratulations face you got it okay acias joining our class in October is a is a right fit from the rest of the group he is kind caring student who loves to be around others in the classroom he has worked so hard to learn English and is getting better and better each day he even helps the teacher out speaking Spanish at times which is awesome asai his loves to learn
016and make sure that he checks work every single day and helps the teachers keep the students in line congratulations great job in second grade we also have Jasline soles Lopez J come on up congratulations you're very welcome J Jasline is respectful kind and always follows directions she always does her work on time and does a great job with her homework she gets along with others and helps people in the classroom to be a loving friend congratulations jasine great work third grade we have Jackson Oliver he's in the back there what up [Applause] Jackson Jackson is a true leader in the classroom he is extremely selfless and always looks to help others in his peers first he is always making the right choice and helping others stay on task especially in small group great job Jackson
017clap it up in fourth grade Dylan paa Dylan com on up Dylan is a new student this year and has been a great addition of the Faber family he is friendly and positive to teachers and peers Dy demonstrates ambition and hard work in the classroom by participating in classes and challenging himself to excel in his academics great job Dylan clap it up fifth grade Sierra scia come on up soccer for Life soccer for life that's it Sierra comes to class ready to work and improve every day her drive to be great in the classroom has recently been fueled by her drive to be a great soccer golender she always has she plays multiple soccer leagues who she also participates on weekdays and weekends it's a lot of time for soccer isn't it yeah got to
018put in the time uh the Improvement she's seen has been unrivaled and she continues to be a leader in the classroom and on the field great job Sierra well done and last but certainly not least fate Patel come on up the special area team has selected Fay for the student of the month Fay is extremely focused student she is considerate gracious and well-mannered faay strives to do her best she's always willing to do what it what is needed in the classroom and makes a great effort to succeed in class Fay is compassionate and warm-hearted with her classmates and teachers congratulations Fay clap it up for favorite student of the month there he is [Applause] so first of all thank you to our administrators congratulations all the students of the month let's give everyone a big
019round of applause one more time we do have a uh we have a bunch of business that the board will do we're going to take a couple minutes of a a Break um I know it's a late night we're going to keep the step and repeat up here so if you want to come by with your child and take a picture feel free to do so and then we'll we'll take about a 10-minute break or so for the meeting all right thank you it's wonderful seeing you all congratulations students [Music] e e e yeah president's remarks okay we'll uh continue on so uh moving on to item number uh number seven president remarks so uh just wanted to take a moment again to congratulate all the students uh who were recognized this evening we're so
020proud of all the accomplishments you've made uh please keep up the great work wanted to mention about um uh the read Across America program that happened uh just recently uh I had the honor to read to our elementary students in the read Across America program on March 7th and there were many folks who participated msix County Sheriff Mildred Scott County Commissioner Dr Chanel McCullum state representative Michelle matsakis mayor Jason salento burough officials the nellan police officer conduit and others and other notable folks in our community and adjacent communities this was an incredibly uh uh highly successful event students and the teachers were all so engaged and appreciative and the classroom doors were decorated in support of um of supporting books and favor School itself was decked out in all sorts of Whimsy all in the
021name of promoting reading big thank you and kudos to uh Miss Willoughby and miss lubliner Mr tenant Miss Moody and their teams for making this event such a great success probably hear more uh about this a little bit later but just wanted to mention about um spring musical The Adams Family last weekend the DHS drama club completed their run of the spring musical The Adams Family bravo bravo bravo to the cast The Crew The Musicians Miss Clemens Mr sua Mr guer Miss piano our school administrators Mr Lynch and Mr Tobin our District staff the PTO and parents of the drama club our community volunteers our broader denell and community and anyone who I may miss that helped make the show a resounding success the show was fire and exceptionally done Bravo uh staying healthy you
022know as the weather changes again and again and again and the temperature yo-yos it's important to underscore healthy kids means healthy schools means healthy community so bottom line encourage you to take the common sense precautions to minimize the spread of infectious infectious disease or infections that can really impact our school year as I do um uh during President remarks I wanted to me mention our monthly celebrations so March is women's History Month it's also National Irish ameran heritage month National developmental disabilities month on the 21st of March it's International Day for the elimination of racial discrimination and the 31st of March is the international transgender day of visibility and I mentioned these to underscore the importance of diversity Equity inclusion and most importantly belonging in the fabric of our daily lives and the impact that
023that has on our community open honest and Equitable communication that is respectful positive supportive fair and most of all kind goes a long way in strengthening a community lastly I know we will go into more detail uh in the presentation later this evening but I'm excited for all the great things that the draft budget proposal gives us going into next year thank you to Mr Ross Mr Pepe and all their teams um administrators and such and all the other folks involved in putting this together for your hard work in putting this together we most certainly appreciate it so thank you everyone for your time and listening moving on to superintendent report Mr Ross thank you Dr gendrano so we'll start the superintendence report off with um Douglas and the student report good evening everybody it's
024nice to see everybody again this uh month uh we started this meeting early in the month so we I don't have that much information I triy to collect as much as much as possible um adding the fact that I had little time to get everything ready I just made it like two hours ago so for elementary I have that at favor School March kick out kickoff with honoring SE day we celebrated the day by minding our emotional and turning the holes of the school into our emotions through color pink represented low love yellow and joy yellow was joy happiness purple was kindness and green for growth and blue for calm and peace they hallways have never looked so great at favor they then celebrated red across was America week the students were really excited to
025have guest readers while celebrating this Spirit Week what made it even better was that we participated in a door decorating contest where we picked our favorite books characters that represented us as a group congratulations to Mrs Curry Johnson's class for w winning the first place Mrs Capriola and the g Ops for going in the second place and Mrs the lighter the liers class for winning the third place our aquaponics Club is making great Advance advances Mrs G gutter was recently interviewed by rockers and a great article was published that will be in our newsletter Mrs gutters started our aquaponics two years ago and she has been doing great things and favor student council is hosting a guest the coins in the jar for the month of March for Lincoln Middle School students at linoln at
026Lincoln wrote affirmations to celebrate SE week each students grow positive messages about themselves and are now displayed in our hallways in Lincoln Middle School students have been working hard in their classes as students in language arts classes have been working in Concepts like fiction literature writing essays and identifying and analyze themes in novels and some students writing an alternative ending or continuation of The Giver the social student classes are working on local governments Medieval Age and major religions of the world on Thursday the for M mayor sento visited our school to speak for the sixth graders he spoke uh to the students about his role as a mayor and what he does to serve D noan for thean high school and I think also the district wise spring Sports started yesterday as prly mentioned by
027Mr gendrano the spring musical The Adams Family just finished last week it was a great performance and every everybody involved did such a great job in getting everything together juniors are currently taking the NJ GPA since it's it is now a graduation requirement they are starting on the first period through third period And I think they are going through a little stress about it we are doing our best to get the best score ever you know so let's see how the scores end up being tomorrow students are going to the th Art Festival uh sponsored by the New Jersey which they are going to be doing a lot of activities and receiving H reviews and feedback from professional artists in a festival where they are going to be learning a lot and also practicing a
028lot of their skills and I think that will conclude my report great thank you very much Douglas um moving on in the superintendent report the next piece of this will be the tentative budget presentation so we will get it up on the screen and do that in one sec so just uh bear with us e going all right so um as a every year um it is budget season as many of you know state aid numbers came out two weeks ago and by Statute we have uh to do a budget tentative budget presentation so this presentation is going to be posted online very shortly um if it's not already and you can find that by going to the Board of Education page going to agendas and then um finding today's agenda and then it'll be
029posted under there addition we will create a budget page and that will have both the presentation and the recording of the presentation tonight so presentation objectives for the budget uh we have out outlined here we're going to describe I'm going to describe the budget process and timeline I'm going to talk about what's happened over the last couple of years and what's put us in the the current position we have plans for next year our revenues and expense drivers we will present a balanced budget and then lastly we will talk about the proposed tax impact of the presented budget so we really anchor everything as you know in the district goals so we have our four District goals outlined here um this is really at the heart of the work that we do and so um
030you know we always want to lead with this um you'll see much more about the district goals and sort of their focus areas as we move forward student enrollment projected for next year is 1,318 and this is K through 12 so this doesn't include preschool students um as you know we've expanded preschool significantly um but if you look over the last four years or so three years four years five years there really has been a significant increase in enrollment we seem to perhaps have leveled off um a little bit we we know from the demographic report that we are expecting more students um potentially we haven't necessarily seen that so far um but we are over over 1300 students and and pretty firmly there so budget process and timeline uh the objectives of the budget
031process is really about understanding short-term and long-term goals how everything fits in with our objectives and our district goals um providing the confidence to the community that what we're spending money on is aligned to uh student needs and then the demonstration that our budgeting needs um will will serve us not just next year but then moving forward we we have three levels of budget priorities that we work on with our staff members um and our budget managers the first is level one priorities which are required by law the second one are required by board policy so many of you know dun high school has a credit requirement uh well above the state requirements and so that requires perhaps um higher Staffing levels or those sorts of things and then level three is really about Community
032interest so we have strong Athletics uh programs performance uh performance Arts initiatives and level three budget priorities really speak to those points here's the budget process and timeline this process starts really in the fall um in November and um we work with the budget managers Mr Pepe does a really good job sort of facilitating meetings with each of the budget managers and then we go through December and January have a lot of conversations with those folks Whittle the budget down to a reasonable place and then we essentially wait for state aid this year we anticipated about a four to 5% state aid cut um we were very fortunate to receive a 2.67% increase and so we had a pretty balanced budget um before state aid and then the additional funding helps us um expand programming
033and and enhance some of the services that we're providing the next time we'll talk about the budget um fully will be May 6th which is the next uh the the the May board meeting we will have the public hearing for the budget and we will adopt the final budget for 2526 so what is sort of the denell and Public School Story right when we talk about the budget what we want to do is understand where we've been over the last three school years so we have our three pillars which we've established building relationships creativity and Innovation and small town Vibes we talk about these internally quite a bit I message these every week with staff and our core mission is listed here and this is really just sort of an adaptation of our actual mission
034statement um our core mission is to prepare our students to meet the emotional and Social Challenges of the future by providing them with essential skills and a safe caring stimulating learning environment so with that in mind we really have tried to think about you know where where did we come from and what have we done over the last three years so the primary drivers of our work is really has been these Improvement cycles that we've been working on St starting with a clear Mission we're trying to understand what our our core beliefs are what what the foundation of our work is and what our non-negotiables are we've had a lot of conversations about what we believe um and what we believe is the thing that drives us forward when we make budget budget decisions and
035program decisions we then look at our desired outcomes and obviously we've focused this quite a bit this year with goal setting so what are our goals what does success look like and what is achievable um we have to be reasonable given our our population of students and where we've started um but we set ambitious goals and plan accordingly our actions in data collection really have to do with what the behaviors are so what are people doing to influence um Student Success right what type of teaching and learning is occurring what type of professional development is there what are administrators doing in terms of instructional walkthroughs or support what programming is there right these are our always behaviors right what are our key drivers for these things and then monitor andjust so what is working what's
036not and then how do we track progress and change course if needed so the next two slides are very they're very thorough um and what I've tried to do is really talk about over the last three years this is being the third year right where we've put in just tremendous amount of support so on the left side you see academics and on the right side you see operations and operational enhancements and on the bottom you see community so our primary focus um in terms of academics andal really has been inclusion we have done a tremendous amount of work in making in creating a more inclusive learning environment for multilingual Learners and and students with special needs um that has been done through Staffing and programming and just a a real focus on trying to get
037students in the least restrictive environment we've done a lot of work with ass assessment and data analysis we have strengthened our science of reading uh programming at the elementary school we have supported and uh enhanced our Arts uh programming um which includes you know purchasing new instruments um a new Kiln at Faber um the district partnership with Arts High which has been wonderful uh and many other things we have new curriculum adoptions across multiple areas we've got pretty pretty pretty new K12 uh stem computer science realignment uh and programming we've been working with Urban assembly onal programming we have a thriving uh aquaponics and hydroponics setup at Faber in three uh three different areas and also the um the elementary Gardens in the courtyard and then we've created our school-based Wellness specialist program which has
038allowed us to take um what was being done by a contracted service provider and and bring that in house from an operational perspective um we have had obviously just if you've sort of board members you've been here you've seen all of this we've had a tremendous amount of construction work and enhancements to our facilities over the last three years we have our new preschool Wing our new stem class our new music classroom um the first uh rendition of our New Media Center which is getting another sort of facelift um as as we as we plann for the spring at the middle school we created a new assistant principal's office a new small group instruction space and we moved the conference room at the high school as part of the referendum project we finished the auditorium
039the wood shop the cafeteria the tech center we've done a lot of work with both gymnasiums um new floor finish wall pads bleachers at the high school um we've done uh planning for the long range facilities plan a lot of beautification lots of painting lots of fixing things that just had been broken uh for some time and and just really trying to to make this a welcoming uh place for students and staff we have pretty much all new HVAC upgrades with a new building management system we have strong healthy Reserve accounts which uh which we use for future planning we've invested District funds that were sitting in a no interest saving account into high interest accounts and that has yielded us um close to a million dollars over the last couple of years so really
040really significant we have uh been very very ambitious with Grant opport opportunities and cost-saving Partnerships probably have earned over half a million dollars in competitive grants over the last few years we had the um DEA salary guide adjustment which was over 15% uh of an increase that was able to be put in so that we could retra uh retain and recruit um our valued DEA members we also adjusted custodial salaries so that we could be paying our custodians a livable wage um that they they felt valued as well but the district we have a the Faber Paving and drainage project There's A New Path from palaski Street and we've done a lot with security in terms of our process our signage and our cameras in terms of community engagement we have our ESL parent classes
041going on we have class tonight there are 35 uh adults um who are being instructed um which is incredible we've done a lot of title one and title three Family Outreach activities and events um we had our trees for schools Grant which was a great partnership with the burrow um where we had new trees planted um throughout gorick Park um in the schools Columbia Park um and other areas we redesigned the website we uh we adopted parent Square which we've pushed out we've been expanding preschool to try to get to Universal and we have other Partnerships and burough support um within dellan and also um external to that so just a tremendous amount of work really focused on building the profile of the district and creating a more positive environment for everyone here in terms
042of Staffing um putting this list together is actually pretty amazing because it speaks to not only the number of Staff members that we've added U but also the types of Staff members that we've added um over the last three years we've added over 30 FTE um and if you look at the list it is a list filled with staff members whose primary job is to to support students who are in need so counselors interventionists ESL teachers in-class support teachers school-based Wellness Specialists behaviorists right these are these are staff members who who are working with vulnerable students with students who need additional services and um you know we've we've also added strategic instructional positions as well um but this is really uh it's all about support we have been able to support our students we've been
043able to support staff members um and um you know thinking about cutting staff right if we had received a you know a 10% cut in state aid thinking about cutting staff I'm not sure where we would cut right and we've added over 30 positions and so it's it's these are positions that I think are really necessary for the success of our district in terms of General Staffing supports we've also expanded coaching at all levels um we have a significant expansion of PD opportunities um I gave this presentation to uh staff members after school today and I noted that in the 2122 school year which is the year before I arrived um we had 100% carryover in title two right title two is the federal fund that is designated for staff professional development and that means
044that no title two funds were spent to support staff members um going on professional development opportunities so we've significantly expanded that we've also added certif C certification and graduate degree options that are paid for by the district um which includes uh Wilson certification or Orton Gillingham certification we have students uh staff members now who are working uh towards their master's degrees in computer science um and this is really all obviously it's to better the staff member but it's all in service of bettering the student experience so with that as the backdrop um you know we want to understand what's going to come next and how do we think about next year um we we maintain our three pillars we talk about our core Mission um you know the district goals are the district goals there's
045no reason to change them they're strong and so when we think about what are we going to do next right here's where we are the first thing is that as of next year denalan Public Schools will be able to offer Universal preschool for all three and four year olds this is a Monumental achievement we have seats for over 90% of Avail of possible three and four year olds in dellan and working with two private providers next year we will have a projected total number of seats of 165 if you look at the Timeline there from October 18th 2023 which is when um we first communicated preschool expansion to no uh September 2nd which is the first school day of next year we will have added one 130 seats which means that every three-year-old and every
046four-year-old in dellan will be able to go to school for free in a highquality preschool uh learning environment so this is the foundation of students that are coming into the district right have this as their experience right as we move forward we have continued focus on our four goal areas so in terms of uh mtss which is a multi-tiered system of support we have academics we have SE and wellness operational efficacy and Community engagement and you will notice that many of these things are are the same as what we're doing now because we're doing the right things so instructional improvements assessment screening and data collection aligning our interventions working with plcs and staff collaboration inclusive environments for multilingual Learners and special students with special needs staff training right thinking about seal you have all of
047that information there school climate goal setting and student goal setting which has really begun this year push in behavioral supports which is something that we've not been able to offer in the past but now with the behaviorist and and uh rbts we have that data collection on behavior and other indicators absenteeism School avoidance other sorts of things from a operational efficacy place we're looking at infrastructure technology and e-rate um projects Grant offsets we will continue construction and room upgrades um the business office improvements has been something that's somewhat invisible um from the student side but our business office processes have become much more efficient in terms of working with vendors and purchase orders requisitions and that sort of thing uh and you'll recall that the audit that was presented at the end of January had
048no findings which meant that the work from last year was very very strong and um and you know done according to the law and then HR excellence is something that we're really trying to work on in terms of being able to provide service for our staff members so we have uh a a staff handbook which is 98% done but not yet set um passed out or sent out distributed to staff members um where we basically identify all of the kinds of things that we um can do for staff how staff members can be serviced by um the Department of Human Resources um who to go to those sorts of things things so that we don't bring someone on and then them just sort of flounder because they don't know what types of supports are available
049so that's a that's a really big important issue that that we're working on as well in terms of community engagement we still will be working with parents square and we're going to try to figure out new ways to get um parents using the app um more family engagement improving our Partnerships with dellan in Middle County we've been working trying to get a food bank partnership um through replenish um which is something that we are very likely to move forward with um so that is that's been a very cool thing and obviously we're going to continue with our adult ESL classes in terms of updates and Improvement curriculum and instruction you can see the list there it is primarily new new resources and new structures right in terms of math we've been working with building thinking
050classrooms in terms of Staff support we will continue um our uh certification and training programs for Wilson Reading certification um we're also looking at multi-sensory math um we'll continue our work with up the bar Diana opatovsky at um uh at the elementary level we'll start to push into the middle school um supporting our new El Ela resource implementation and in terms of special education we're going to be expanding in-class resource model so that we have more special education teachers cert certificated staff members in those classrooms um and uh we're adding registered behavioral therapist IST s which are uh paraprofessional positions who have background in uh behavioral uh support um so they'll be able to assist um in challenging situations and then we're also updating curriculum tools there we're looking at some additional staff members for
051next year we haven't made final decisions final decisions will be shared at the May uh budget presentation but again interventionists um potentially in grade 6 through 12 special education teachers a speech therapist another uh enl teacher ESL teacher rbts and um instructional coach from a facilities perspective um we have a capital capital projects and reserves information listed we have a uh an anticipated balance of over $5 million in capital reserve um at the end of this year that is anticipated right we won't know that number until it is audited in in uh January of 2026 but we we also have a significant decrease um pending um because of the upk uh Universal prek facilities project and that is about $26 million from the district share that will be dedicated to that so we're projecting a
052balance of about 870,000 um at the end of next year and obviously these are all anticipated and project projected numbers they're not audited numbers in terms of capital projects we have some significant things that we're looking at from the operating budget Ada upgrades window replacements uh we've had a lot of conversation about Windows for the last couple of years um there are some some you know situations that need to be remedied um and then a lot of exterior signage for student safety Community safety and wayfinding and then through the capital reserve obviously our upk grant which is a $6 million project the state is paying for 3. 4 six million of it and we will pay for the rest through capital reserve we have a lot of masonry repairs facade repair issues um primarily at
053at in this building um which we'll address and then we also have um bathroom or toilet room Renovations um which will be a significant uh cost as well all that is to say that uh we we don't do this alone we also have a number of Partnerships um and shared services that we take advantage of of so the district is strong but we also have a very strong and positive relationship with the burrow obviously Columbia Park is sort of the big one but we also have shared services in custodial and maintenance services in technology and school security uh we've been working on one project there's been tremendous amount of collaboration between denell and PD and the district um and uh and they've been very helpful with us in terms of transportation we have Partnerships with
054uh a number of of school districts in the area and then one thing that that really has exploded this year is the expansion of our Cooperative uh Cooperative pricing systems um and that is really Mr pepy looking at um where where can we find vendors that will provide us with more competitive pricing um and the co-op systems really have been very beneficial for the district so all right so that is the overview of things right now I'm going to get into to the the money part of it I'm going to go a little faster through this all the information is there again this is all posted on the website I don't need to do all the math uh on the Fly for you but this is uh this is where we talk about the the
055the specific funding so we have three buckets of revenues the first is the general fund and so we're looking at a local tax levy increase of 2% um we also receive state categorical Aid uh federal aid through semi which is Medicare reimbursement um which we understand is going to be slashed significantly across the country and then we also have miscellaneous revenues from revenues right we also have to take uh into account withdrawal from reserves so we when we take our Reserve accounts and we bring them into the general fund to pay for things right that counts as a withdrawal from reserves but it also counts as a revenue on the Gen on the general fund side budgeted fund balance is money uh in excess Surplus from the prior year and so we're carrying $1.7 million
056in budgeted fund balance um which is a a slight increase from last year our special revenues fund is three sources it's federal state through pea and local uh sort of other sources so you'll see this same slide on the appropriation side but we are budgeting 75% for our title funds typically we've in the past budgeted 85% um but with the uncertainty around funding um for Title One title two title three and title four we're budgeting 75% which we think is a safe number idea we're still going to budget 85% it seems to be that Ida idea is not going to be significantly cut um and certainly we hope that it's not we have preschool expansion Aid uh we increased the number of seats and we increased the amount of um Revenue as well so we
057received 97,000 more in state aid for preschool so we're up to 2.5 million um that's about as high as we're going to get um not too much more as we keep going and then we have other sources we have the NJ Sig safety Grant which um which the funding information is not yet available our general fund contribution uh to pea is money we shift from the general fund to the pre preschool expansion account um to service students with special needs that are in our preschool programs and then we also have Student Activities so in summary oh no one more and then The Debt Service fund which is uh the money that we owe on bonds and so this is revenues related to Debt Service so we have part of our local tax levy um goes
058to the repayment of the 2012 bonds we also withdraw money every year from our capital reserve to pay for the 2019 referendum project and that was one of the sort of deals that was made uh between the prior Administration and the taxpayers when those projects were put were put together and then we have state Debt Service Aid which we collect as well um and and those those items allow us to pay uh towards the bonds that we have collected that we've borrowed against so in summary we have revenues here right you will notice that um there is a significant increase in in revenues a lot of that does have to do with the preschool uh expansion um uh facilities project but you can see sort of the overview there on the Appropriations side we have
059um Appropriations is sort of like expenditures but we haven't spent it yet so it's what it's the money that we're putting towards future spending so we have general education special education facilities benefits and administrative costs and you can see the increases there that difference in facilities from 4 million to 6.8 million is primarily again because of the preschool uh facilities project and so uh really the biggest the biggest driver here other than that is employee benefits we have um a significant health benefits increase uh and Social Security and things like that but we also have more staff members and so as we build staff right then we also acrw additional costs and benefit costs um which sort of comes with um with that sort of expansion this is the same exact slide as the as
060the revenue side because our goal is to basically spend all of the um the title funds that we can so whatever we're allocated we we we spend it so it comes in and it comes out and then in terms of Appropriations for Debt Service we pay our uh debt obligations in two ways just as as anyone does if you have a mortgage part of your payment goes to principle and part of your payment goes to interest and um as you can see as as time goes on um and as you know you pay more towards principle then you do interest and that's really sort of the direction that we're going on so uh 10% decrease in interest is good it means that we're getting towards the end of you know some of the bond payments
061that are going to be required and so in summary we have the uh the the the Appropriations overall and again if you want to go back the details are listed on the slide that's shown there um so you can double check that by type our general general fund Appropriations we have 42.5% of our uh general fund is allocated to salaries and 17.4% of it is employee benefits now this is about 60% of the overall budget um and typically districts carry about 70 to 80% of their budget in Staffing um the reason that hours is about 60% is really again because of the significant facilities project um and because that counts as an appropriation that sort of bumps everything up there um but you can see kind of how we how we break things down but
062that that 99.6% of capital outlay um is sort of you know messes with the chart a little bit and then by category this is basically the information that I showed on the chart um but done as a pie chart so you can see you know kind of the the share of general education special education facilities benefits Etc so in summary we have a balanced budget um this is the slide I I joke uh I have joked the last few years um this is Mr Pepe's favorite slide um it shows that the revenues are equal to the uh Appropriations and the dark box shows exactly the same information um which means that your balance is budget all the revenues equal the uh proposed Appropriations and so we're good to go when we look at tax impact
063uh the district uh is planning a 2% overall increase uh the net tax impact is 1.94% on a uh this is an incremental change of $418 per $100,000 in assessed value so the average assessed home in dellan is 46164 which means that uh that home would see a $193 increase um in the school tax portion of taxes for next year which is um about $15 per month or so and so with that the budget process has been an inclusive and collaborative process our administrative team has been very and very involved in this um our tentative budget maintains all of the existing programs and staff also provides additional enhancements and uh this now gets sub subed to the executive County superintendent's office they will review the tenative budget submission if if they have any feedback we'll
064make some adjustments and then we will plan to adopt the final Budget on May 6th and with that I will open up to questions or comments seeing none thank you for uh allowing me to present this I appreciate it thank you that was very clear well so just from for folks at home the we're having a conversation about the tax impact so again the incremental tax impact is $ 4181 for $100,000 of assessed value so that means that if your home is worth $500,000 right you pay your increase would be five times 4181 which would be 200 whatever it would be n dollar and change so um with that I will uh continue with the superintendent report obviously I want to thank Mr Pepe for all of his very uh diligent work with the budget
065we uh these numbers are hard to square sometimes um and uh I know that Mr pepy spends a lot of time during the work day and then beyond the work day um checking his numbers and adding and subtracting and and doing all of that so I really appreciate your work on this um I also want to thank board members we had a lot of uh robust conversation about the tax impact I will say I didn't share this in the presentation but the district had um allowable adjustments and um expiring Bank cap that would have allowed the district to um increase the tax levy up to 4.65% without needing taxpayer approval um the conversation of the board and thinking about the current Financial uh circumstances that families find themselves in um we made the decision to
066um allow the uh the bank cap to expire uh and also not take the allowable adjustment which was determined by the by the state so um we're we're sort of underfunding ourselves in a way according to the state um and what what the district needs but obviously we believe that we're in a strong financial situation and strong position with a 2% tax increase um and um and yeah so that's the budget um other items in terms of the superintendence report um I am uh uh I'll start with something that uh Douglas mentioned which is the Rucker's climate change work so there was a really wonderful article po published in the Rucker's computer science math and Engineering uh website today regarding the grant funded climate change work being done at Faber uh and there were also
067a couple of other districts that were highlighted there is a uh we've had two days of Hydroponics workshops with a professor from ruter that was February 18th and February 26th and then tomorrow we actually have a ruers client Summit um it is called local voices Global choices student and educator Summit it's being put on at ruter University co-sponsored by ruers and NJ Autobon and our uh Miss Gunther uh and a number of the third grade students will be presenting um about their climate change uh topics and this is really the work that they've done with the Hydroponics and the aquaponics and also the the garden um in the courtyard which has been really wonderful so we also applied for an additional $115,000 um for the climate change Grant which we believe that we're going to
068get but we have not yet um have uh we haven't gotten final confirmation on that would allow us to expand the climate change work to grades K through two um also coming up this week we have a presentation um at the New Jersey Association of federal program administrators this is a um a state program a state organization that is uh folks that work on federal grants and state grants and those sorts of things um and miss drapkin Mr tenant and Cody Parker from drop the beat Farms will be presenting on really sort of the same work it's the use of title four funds which support well-rounded educational opportunities um to support and Implement a student-led climate change program through Hands-On Environmental Education using aquaponics Hydroponics and outdoor garden beds that teaches students about sustainable farming
069water conservation and the impacts of climate change so this is a very it's a a great conference uh to be presenting at um and I'm excited that our team is going to be there representing the district tomorrow we also have Arts High um the middle sex County teen Arts Festival is taking place at middle sex College we have over 60 students from the middle school and the high school who will be attending they will be doing work in uh Theater Arts Visual Arts uh vocal music and jazz band and Miss piano Miss Clemens Mr Royal and Mr sua all will be joining them so it's a very very exciting opportunity they'll be working with students from across the county um on really cool arts projects uh read Across America was last week as has been
070mentioned Monday the 3 was also World Seal day um and Faber looks incredible um amazing hallway and door decorations um we've have had a lot of special guest readers there was a a beautiful lunch in today for staff and special guests um there was also work done at the middle school for World Seal day as well so um really just a wonderful event uh as it is every year preschool expansion I spoke about during the budget presentation um I'll also just add that we had a really nice in-person registration that was provided on Saturday morning um we had a number of our staff members here welcoming folks from the community getting them registered helping them with paperwork and um and really just trying to you know welcome those folks into the community into the school
071community over the next couple of weeks we also have um a lot of tree work happening um this is a this is a a project that has to do with both Safety and Security and beautification so there's tree and shrub removal work that's going to be taking place over the next few weeks um at Faber and the high school there are a lot of large shrubs which are going to be removed from the building perimeters um and uh this is again Safety and Security reasons there's uh pretty strict guidance or recommendations about having large shrubs next to um entryways at buildings um these are these pose uh potential hazards areas where people can stash things um there's also lines of sight that can be affected and so working with Mr marenberg we identified some things
072that could be cut back um and then also some things that need to be removed um there's a lot of stuff that's also overgrown um and so really taking a look at you know the exterior of of our building and thinking about the masonry but also thinking about the the living piece of what we have outside the building um has been very helpful at Columbia Park uh the woods line in the back of the park behind the varsity baseball field um is sort of falling in um so there's going to be trees that are trees and branches that are going to be removed there the South fence of the track uh throwing field um on the hill um and basically there's been good collaboration with the rec department in the burrow the area will be
073roped off and barricaded while the tree crews are there um and then we also at Faber have the tree line um in the what is it the south side of the building outs past the parking lot so you go through the Horseshoe and then there's the parking lot in front and then there's a tree line there there's just F trees and you know just debris that's sort of built up over the last few years that that's going to be removed as well um a couple other items I guess one other sort of District item uh and then I'll talk about two personal uh professional things so the first is the district calendar for the current year we have used zero snow days um and uh because of that we have two two days that are
074built into the calendar as school days that are going to be returned as uh days off for staff and students the calendar reads that a fewer days are needed the the following days will be be removed and they are May 27th and May 28th which is Tuesday and Wednesday after Memorial Day which means that Memorial Day then becomes a five-day weekend um I'm not recommending the new calendar today um because I thought that might be something that we talk about uh whether we want to do that or if we want to find another day somewhere else uh but it you know again part of the reason that we put that into the calendar is to give folks notice about what would happen so I'm I'm a little reluctant to change that um we do have
075a board meeting scheduled for May 27th and so if we have that meeting uh on the 27th that's going to be very hard so we will have to if we do have that not be a school day we would have to move that because May 27th is also a board meeting where we would do staff recognition um of either retirees or teachers of the year and certainly those folks are not going to come in if we don't have school that day so um so we've got a just plan for that we can have some conversation in the Committees uh and and I'll speak certainly with the DEA uh on and hear their recommendations and then we can approve the new calendar in April uh and notify families and then uh two things just real quick
076uh the NJ dooe working group on evaluation uh my next meeting for that is Thursday and so uh I'll be working with folks from ja and other organizations to try to make this process um which has really uh become very sour for staff members and administrators and sort of everybody um we're trying to sort of improve on that and then um you know I know there's been a lot of conversation about the musical uh I was in New Orleans last week um for the week I uh completed the national superintendent certification program which was a two-year program um so I had a little graduation C which was cute yeah thank you I got a nice little certificate um and uh that was that was excellent and then we had two days of the National Conference
077on Thursday and Friday and it really you know there were there was there's always great learning um and great networking in terms of finding districts that are doing cool things um but I think one of the things that I I really took away and I share this with the staff last week is that we are we're we're doing the right things we're moving in the right direction we're not doing all the right things as perfectly as we could be doing them um but we are doing the right things and we're we're our focus is is a good Focus so we've got a lot of work to do on the admin side to ensure that the work that we're doing translates properly to staff members um but uh you know the way that we've cared about
078students the way that we've supported staff the way that we've looked at our structures we're certainly moving in the right direction so um you know all in all it was it was really nice to be there um and uh quite a quite a good positive experience um the last thing I think is the enrollment report and I did give the enrollment report two weeks ago um but we do have some small changes I don't know that I I did not print it so enrollment for March currently we're down two students students from February um we have 626 students at Faber 333 students at the middle school and 413 students at the high school um as compared to last year at this point or I guess at the end of the year we are down 14
079students from at Faber we're exactly the same at the middle school and we're up 12 students at the high school so uh a little bit of variability um but we're now including the the private pre preschool were over 1,400 with 1414 currently in the district and 1372 being serviced in housee and with that uh that's the superintendent report okay thank you Mr Ross any questions guys uh yes I do have a question just the variability between 2023 is enrollment of 1374 with the increase in the pre services uh we see a decrease of 13372 by two students what caused that variability even though we increased uh enrollment for prek the decrease is um not at prek so if you look at the if you look no no the increase was we we had more for
080the PK we went from 41 to 62 but overall we saw a decrease in overall students by two yeah yeah so we I mean again if you you can just sort of Look Look row by row so in you know June 24 we're down four students in kindergarten um we're down 10 students in second grade and the fifth grade class moved out of Faber um and also seems dropped by 11 um so you know there we there is definitely some transience in the community um and I think that speaks to some of the variability even with the increase in um like the development work we saw some transients in there yeah I mean transience is not necessarily relevant to the development work the development work is really about new residents right um I think that
081we've had we have a we have a fair Fairly High number of students who are here for part of a school year and then who might exit um and so with with such small margins right I think we're we're we're always going to see a little bit of up and down I think large large scale Trends is pretty much where we need to be looking um and you know we're we're down a little bit from last school year um but we're still way above where we were in 2223 okay thank you yeah and we're also tracking I mean we we get sort of regular updates or regular queries from the folks at the Nell and the um Crossings The Crossings right about enrollment um and as of now all the projections have been pretty spoton
082um so we know that there's more building and obviously we talked about uh you know other projects that are that are pending um but so far those haven't yielded a really significant uptick thank you any other questions all right let's moving along uh public comments on agenda items only so the um board invites public comment on agenda items only from members of our community in accordance with board policy 01 67 public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest the board and administration will be taking notes during public comments but will not provide sub substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers if necessary the superintendent May provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed
083the board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community but is not at Liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting prior to making your public comment please state your name and municipality uh please note that all statements U must be directed to the presiding officer please come to the microphone at this time if you'd like to make comments on agenda items only last call okay moving on to item 10 educ ation uh discussion uh items we did not meet in committee so there is not an education committee report so we'll move on to item 11 uh education action items so looking for a motion to approve uh 11a through d as a block motion to move 11 a through d as a block
084seconded open for questions or comments ask call okay Mr Pepe can you please call tooll yes Mr Anderson got you Mrs Condit yes Miss ibeck yes Dr gendrano yes Mrs Howard yes Mr satano yes Miss Shimp yes Mrs Shep yes but abing from B sorry abstain from B okay motion passes okay wonderful moving on to item 12 uh Personnel discussion items uh we did not have a Personnel committee meeting prior to uh this one so uh we'll move along so no report at this time we move on to Personnel action items so looking for a motion to approve uh 13A through e as a block I move to approve items 13 a through e as a block second open for questions or comments yes um for item uh 13B um I used to coach with
085Jeff poric and Chris Young And I'd just like to thank them for volunteering their time publicly and on uh e i' like I'm very happy to see that there are more of our female leaders signed up for the Women's Conference thank you Mr Eris any other questions or comments last call okay Mr Pepe can you please call the rooll Mr Anderson yes Mrs Condit yes Miss ibach yes Dr jenjo yes Mrs Howard yes Mr saoi yes Miss Shimp yes Mrs Shep yes motion passes all right wonderful moving right along to item number 14 operations discussion items um also we did not meet as an operations committee so there is no report to um relay so moving on to item uh 15 operations action items looking for a motion to approve 15 a through m as
086in Mary as a block move to approve items a through f as a Block M as a Block M as a block yes second okay we are open for questions uh comments first um I would like to just say real quick I know that so items um e andf were updated from the you know from the um agenda earlier this week so please make a note of that and I perhaps ask Mr Pepe to give us a little more information on that um uh also M was added as a PD session on April 3rd and L um I did also want to just uh mention convey a really great big thank you to the PTO uh for the donations uh the1 th000 for um the senior class trip as well as the 2131 for LMS
087and DHS choir and ban programs it's gra greatly appreciated thank you very much yeah and I'll just add my thanks uh to the PTO um the email came in recently and we were very very excited to be able to put that on tonight's agenda so thank you um and you can thank Dr gendrano as well when you see her oh yes I will not you not me um but I do want to point out uh item e is the um the the budget approval item f is the approval of the capital reserve withdrawal um item G is uh general fund appropriation which will be approved for a capital reserve account for future funding there's the Pea information which is H and then I is related to staff travel as is J and so um these
088are really the budget approvals that are required for today um and these will go in certified form to the county off office County Executive superintendent's office um as part of the budget submission uh submission process can you just give us or Bri give us a little breakdown on I and J please absolutely Mr pepy these are required um motions we had these last year but we modified the language a little bit to make it fit the normal um whereas now therefore be it resolved um basically the first one I is establishing a maximum amount for professional development the board is just is authorizing us to provide professional development based on um what Mr Ross finds to be the you know important needs of the district and we've done a lot of this uh we have
089come nowhere close to this maximum in the last few years so it's just it's just a cealing just saying if we wanted to spend more than $100,000 on professional development we'd have to come back to the board to ask for you know for approval to spend more that's I so Jay is um basically saying that we there there's kind of two parts to it it's saying that we can have uh we can reimburse F uh staff members for up to $150 a year for what's considered regular business travel so if a staff member is going to a required meeting for their Association or if they're um driving regularly back and forth which is more of an issue in larger districts but still here um we can reimburse them for that mileage without having to actually
090put it on the agenda for approval thank you great questions any other questions or comments okay last call all right Mr Pepe can you please call the role Mr Anderson yes Mrs Condit yes Miss ibeck yes Dr gendrano yes Mrs Howard yes Mr saoi yes Miss Shimp yes Mrs Shep yes motion passes all right wonderful and uh the budget moves along and we have a budget ative a tentative budget tentative budget that's right okay moving on to item 16 uh old business um uh I would like to just bring up a a point from our last uh board meeting um we had Maryanne fredman come talk with us about U the CSA EV valuation but also to talk about the board self- evaluation process um I I asked to add this as an item in
091Old business um so we can um just have a a brief discussion if this is something that we would be interested in taking on I mean we learned a lot last time last last session um but for something where we would do this in the I want to say September October time frame I don't believe we've actually done a self uh a board self- evaluation at least the time that I've been on the board maybe perhaps before but yeah ever so I think you know it might be um a good time uh to to give it a try but I wanted to open this up this isn't a unilateral decision ision this is something that we would want to decide on as a board so want to take this moment to open that uh you
092know that thought up and see what you guys think is there something we would want to do don't all speak up at once um I'll I'll chime in I I wasn't here for the last meeting for the Pres the full presentation but thank you for the copies um this is my going on Ninth year on the board we've never done a board evalu self- evaluation um I'm kind of leaning toward sure why not we've had a lot of new um new faces and and a lot happening in The District in the last three years so maybe it's a time for us to take a look at our work in addition to the work that the administration and the teachers have been doing I think it's um you know we'd be in lock step with what
093we expect of our District employees and maybe doing the same for ourselves would be good thank you Mrs Howard was Z back I second that oh there was no motion on the table just but sorry yeah okay fine she's VP you made a motion it's emotions any other comments Mr sanoi oh okay I saw the I saw the hand on the button so any other comments so is this something um we would think we'd want to do we don't have to decide tonight but at the very least something to think about um I think I I do think it would be a worthwhile exercise for us um you know for the um reasons that Mrs Howard mentioned but also you know we we've never done it this is something something new something to to challenge
094us you know um but also to see how we're doing so oh go ahead I mean if I am uh I'm not an elected board member um certainly uh as a a member of the you know the the conversation and um you know observing the board and understanding how governance Works um I think that you've all been very trusting of me as a as a superintendent and you know I feel like I've been very transparent with you I think it is also probably important to get a sense as a board if there are things that you want to see that are different that might not be in my purview or that might not be the things that I'm focusing on um and from a governance perspective it might be the case that you do a
095self-evaluation and the processes that are in place are good and you're happy with them and you're satisfied that you're getting the most out of this there also might be opportunities that you hadn't considered that I haven't considered or that aren't sort of my focal areas that might be worthwhile for the board to pursue um there might be you know advocacy there might be different types of resolutions that make you know public statements there might be structures that you want to explore I think it's probably a good idea just to take a look at it and if nothing comes at it of it then you know you've taken a look at it you've gone through the process I I can't imagine it's an extremely um complicated process um as marann explained at last meeting um but
096I I I think it's it's there's only upside from doing the self- evaluation so I don't want to make more work for you um and I know that some of you are reluctant to do it uh because of the potential time commitment but I do think that as a as an exercise in sort of reviewing where you are as a board and trying to come together as a you know a single Voice or understand what that looks like I think it it's probably a beneficial process to go through thank you Mr Ross and again this wouldn't necessarily I'm starting the conversation early this is something that we wouldn't want we wouldn't try to tackle until well until the September October time frame we still have CSA evaluation to go through and we don't want the
097two things overlapping not for any reason just that you know work on top of for so um all right so i' um I'll leave that there you know we can certainly talk uh offline as well during committees wherever and um check in next time to see how we're doing on this topic so any um other old business that anyone would like to to talk about yes I would like to bring back the topic I've been floating around in regards to federal grants for Emergency Management just want to make sure as Mr marenberg is he hasn't returned yet right um just awareness that we keep this on the board or at least keep awareness that there's opportunity to obtain federal grants that we can leverage uh in a different um you know mindset working with either
098FEMA Department of Education Department of Justice which currently have grants that are available for uh Emergency Management exercises and reunification stuff that we need to take a look at so we did um we collated the information that you shared um we did some research we do have a document that's pending that has all the appropriate links um to all of those those uh those pieces that was actually done in the business office so we we have forward movement on that process and it's a sort of a question of getting to the right point of you know understanding what our needs are what's available what the timelines are and then moving forward but it's very very very helpful so thank you I believe it'll also help with with the the bureau itself uh to get in
099on this uh it would really facilitate and hopefully defer some of the the labor to get these grants out there and the funds available to us all as a commity Community great yeah absolutely thank you thank you thank you Mr satoi any other old business okay moving along to new business item number 17 is there any new business that anyone would like to bring up I just want to share um in the vein of celebrating our students um I'm just reading off of his mom's Facebook post here um senior Luke Pon was um awarded the let me read this right The Scholar athlete a he was one of the state scholar athlete Awards of the bill Denny ruter football letter winners chapter so um there was a lunch in held last weekend um and there
100were um football players scholar athlete fo scholar athletes in football from all over the state there um Mr denapoli attended um so did U my husband as his one of Luke's assistant coaches and I think this was just a really cool award um for our little district for a student to be recognized at the state level not just for athletics but for his um achievements in the classroom as well and there was a program and um I think Mr gapol pulled some strings for us because he got a full page ad in the Statewide program so Luke peton represented Us full page as a um as a state scholar athlete and he just committed to Kane University so um great for a member of our senior class awesome that's fantastic all right um all right
101any other uh any other new business or things to share here all right let's move along to president's remarks um I have nothing further to add to what I said before but would happily at this time if there if anyone would like to make any statements or comments or kind of back to anything we've talked about okay all right then moving along to uh item number 19 public comments so the board invites public comment on any issue any topic from members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167 public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest the board and administration will be taking notes during the public comment but during public comment but will not provide substantive responses to
102questions or concerns raised by individual speakers if necessary the superintendent May provide a brief response after the entire uh public comment period is completed the board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community but is not at Liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting prior to making your public comment please state your name and municipality please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer please come to the microphone at this time if you'd like to make comments on any issue or any topic last call okay so uh moving on to item 20 Executive session the dellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the open public meetings act C
103njsa 10 4-12 B the confidential matters uh discussed by the board during the executive session include items related to individual privacy collective bargaining agreements uh pending or anticipate litigation and Personnel um any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it is practical minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality is no longer uh needed uh or it exists all individuals who may be discussed in an executive session have been adequately notified action uh will not take place after the conclusion of the executive session so I have a motion to move into executive session please move to go into executive session second all those in favor I I opposed okay we will see you uh next time uh in uh in April
104April 8th