001and Kate's not coming. Emily, are you good? Ready? Ready. Okay. What time is it? Oh, 7:33. Okay. You ready? He's a boy. Okay. Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening and for coming out. Um, in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231PL1975 announcement, I wish to announce that the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the school district of the Chattam Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the board administrative offices,
002sent to the clerks of Chattam Burough and Chattam Township, the library of the Cadams, the Chattam Courier, the Daily Record, and TAP. Mr. Dquilla here. Ms. Ross here. Miss Allen here. Mr. Delandro here. Miss Peek, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Mr. Smith here, Miss Weber here, Dr. Zang here, and Miss Cherelli here. Seven president and accounted for. We may proceed. Perfect. If you are able, please join us for the pledge of allegiance. The flag is to my left. United States of America and to the stands one. There we go. Okay. Um, I do not have any additional comments at this time. I'm going to pass this along to the superintendent report. I've got quite a list. So, I'm going to start with thanking our maintenance and custodial staff for the tremendous amount of snow that they cleaned
003up over the last storm. They worked around the clock. Some of them slept in the schools to keep everything safe, the buildings heated, and all the snow and ice removed. So, thank you all so much. [applause] The girls swim team are the county champions for the 17th consecutive time. They're number one in the state rankings. Girls, that's crazy. There's a lot. Girls fencing are the county champs for the fifth consecutive time. Boys fencing county champs for the seventh consecutive time. Snowden Lang is the all-time saves leader for boys ice hockey. So, congratulations to Snowden. He spoke to us earlier this year. Um, Chadam High School has been invited to the state finals to compete for a spot in the National Science Olympiad. They earned an impressive seventh place finish at the regional competition. Seventh and
004eighth grade is having their school production of Something Rotten Juniors. Tickets are on sale now and the show is later on this weekend and weekend. The CEA collected food donations for the Helping Hands Food Bank. They also are purchasing a thousand dollars of fresh food from a PEP grant. So, thank you very much to the CE for once again doing a food collection. I had the opportunity to attend catwalk on Sunday. Congratulations to all of the designers and participants and specifically to Vin Gondo who for the first time ever both modeled and designed the winning uh dress. So, congratulations Vin. Um, thank you to the CEF for providing the opportunity for the New Jersey Symphony Symph Symphony Orchestra to send coaches to work with our Lafayette CMS and CHS band and Orchestra students. They're coming
005on February 11th and the kids are very excited about that. The Blizzard Bash at CMS was Friday night. It was a huge success. The kids all had a great time. So, thank you so much for the PTO for coordinating that. The Lunar New Year celebration is on February 20th at 5:30 CHS. They'll have a dinner in cultural performances. Uh, and I also just wanted to briefly discuss the upcoming school year budget. The board has been diligently working on analyzing all of the finances and in anticipation of a potential 17% increase in health insurance premiums, which is millions of dollars to the budget. I just want to inform everyone that we're, you know, really working hard and diligently on creating a balanced and fiscally responsible budget. So you'll hear from me most likely by the end
006of this week with a letter to the community just talking about next steps of the budget process and then in the March board of education meeting you'll see a more extensive presentation. So I just wanted to say that there's a letter forthcoming and I also the demographer is here tonight to do a presentation. Uh he just finished the larger demographic study for our district. So he'll be talking about the results of that report right now. So, if you'd like to take a seat in the crowd, that would be great. Carry on, Dr. Grip. Okay, there we go. Um, tonight we'll be going over the results of the demographic study that was recently completed for your district. Probably should take about 20 minutes and then I'll open it up to questions from the board. So just
007as a brief um overview of our company, our company um does only this kind of work, demographic services for school districts in the New York, New Jersey metropolitan area since 1998. We've done approximately 200 plus school districts in the metropolitan area since um 1998, maybe it's actually closer to 250 now. We're the demographic consultant for the New York City public schools since 2006. So, we do all of the largest school district in the nation, all of their enrollment projections. Um, a little bit about myself. I'm the executive director. I have a doctorate from Ruckers University, uh, the Graduate School of Ed in educational statistics and measurement. Most of us wind up working in a field called psychometrics where we work with e in the ETS educational testing service or college board um, dealing with reliability
008and testing issues. um validity issues for say the SAT or AP tests, but I wanted a more applied approach and uh my dissertation was on a multiple regression model to project enrollment. So here we are today uh 27 years later after getting that degree. So I still like to publish in the field of school demography. That's what it's called. And I've testified as an expert witness in the field um in several administrative law court hearings when school districts want to divorce from each other. That's usually in sending receiving relationships where a K to8 district sends their high schools somewhere else their students. So what's the purpose of the study? Well, the purpose most people think of it as just looking at projecting enrollments. And I'm going to say that most of your interest probably will
009be that tonight, but I'm going to dig deeper and peel away the layers of the onion here to explain a lot more that's going on. So yes, we did project for fiveyear period from 2627 that's next year through 3031. The last time I came here was in 2022. Uh I remember it was a equally cold night um with I was talking to Michaelusa at the time. So I do remember it well. Um so that was our last report a little over three and a half years ago. So we look at each community's population trends uh different demographic characteristics such as socioeconomic status the age structure the community's birth counts fertility rates looked at the historical enrollment trends districtwide and also by grade configuration and by school. Then we looked at the historical enrollments by race
010and poverty status to see if there are any different trends. Um, we computed the historical birth counts in each elementary attendance area. And that's by using some birth by census block data from the state department of health. We computed student yields. That's simply the number of children per housing unit by the different housing types in the two towns and we separated into one to four family, townhouse, condo, and apartment. Um, we contacted each community to find out about new housing starts and how that would potentially impact a school district. And finally, we compared the current and projected enrollments to school building capacities to find out if there's going to be shortages or surplus seating in the future. So, here's the two communities um side by side are actually over top of each other actually, the
011burrow in blue and township in uh purple. And you can see that in 1980 that the township passed um the burrow in the population count. So the vertical line that you see 2/3 to the way to the right of the screen is kind of where it was is in 2020. So that far value to the right which is in 2050 is from a third party agency called the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. that's where they're projecting um both communities populations to be in the future. So you can see continued growth. Um you can see that they're uh that the everything left of the vertical line is from 1940 to 2020 which is from the census. So who are you as communities? Well um first of all you're very similar uh racially. You can see up
012there the township and the burrow are identical in its white percentage. slightly more Asian in the township as compared to the burrow. But if we compare the population from um 2010 to 2020, what we find is that we have a declining white population in both communities. Slightly increasing Asian very similar foreignb born population you can see up there but much lower than that of the state which is around 25%. India and China are the two largest sources. incredibly educated communities, as you can see, in the 80 82 to 85% for a bachelor's degree or higher, much higher than the state. For the income in a household, the median is a 50th percentile, meaning that 50% of the homes have a value income higher than that value. So, the census stops reporting income at 250,000 plus.
013That's the highest it goes. It doesn't go any higher than that. each median household income is that value which is double more than double that of the state. Um, regarding the housing types, 83% roughly of the homes in the burrow and about 77% in the township are single family detached or attached, which would mean a townhouse. Um, in terms of renters, the burrow has a higher percentage of renters than the township slightly. And the median value of an owner occupied unit is 944,000 in the burrow and over 1.05 million in the township. That's much much higher than that of the state of 496,000. So very educated wealthy communities. So here our GIS analysts put together a basically a map of both communities and where the schools are located. And if we go to the next
014map, you can see still keeping the boundaries of the burrow and the township in place where are the ele the three elementary attendance areas. So you can see um Milton Avenue and Southern Boulevard and Washington Avenue where they are. Uh the green area that part of Chadam Township is the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. That's why there's no color in there. So let's talk about your enrollments historically. Let's look for the last 10 years. So, the last time I was here, we were talking about declining enrollment. So, if you go to this past October, the 15th, and you may wonder why I'm using that date up there, your enrollment was 3550. That's because that's the date that you send your enrollment to the state of New Jersey in Trenton um in the Department of Ed.
015So, that's our census date. So, all the enrollment counts that you see in this report are from roughly around October 15th of every year. So that's the enrollment 3550. Go back 10 years to 201617 it was just about 40 4205 that half student there as a shared time student. So a decline of 654 and a half students which is a lot in 10 years. The big decline actually was in 2020 and 2021 which were the pandemic years. um in overall in that 10-year period, we've seen declining enrollment through the 23 24 year before it's began to stabilize and we use something called the cohort survivor ratio method to project future enrollments five years out. I'll talk about that in a moment. So, this is just showing you the the um graph of enrollment over time
016and you can see how it's stabilized in the last couple of years. So this is showing the enrollment broken down by the former grade configuration. So you know we had nine years of data with your former uh grade configuration since you just changed it and one year of the new grade configuration. So we just took this current enrollment and reconfigured it back to the old so you can at least see what's been happening. So the prek to3 enrollment which um is in green up there declined through the 23 22 23 school year before um reversing trend. And that's kind of important to think about and keep that in your brain. So you have increasing enrollment at the elementary level in the last couple years. Um, for grades four to five, which was the former configuration
017of Lafayette, which is in purple, you can see that pretty much enrollment's been declining the last decade. For the middle school, which is in um like that brownish color, which is the third line down from the top, enrollment's been declining over the last decade. And for the high school, which is the top line, you can see that enrollment kind of increased for a few years up through 1920 before reversing trend. So when you're a demographer and you look at this graph, you kind of understand what's happening. You see, if you have declining enrollment for a period at the elementary, eventually it's going to catch up and go into the upper level grades. And eventually, you could see what happened to the high school in red. it turned it from an increasing enrollment to a declining
018enrollment. So, how is this enrollment projection method um used to project your enrollment? It's called the cohort survival ratio method. I just give a really simple example up there. So, if you have a 100 first graders in 2425 and they become 95 second graders in 2526, the survival rate we call it or a progression rate is 95 over 100 or 0 n5. So we compute that for the past 10 years and we do it for all the grade progressions starting with birth to kindergarten all the way up through 11th to 12th. Now that's 13 possible grade progressions and if the values are above one it means you have inward migration and like in this fictitious example if they're below one you have outward migration. So usually what we do is we compute an average from
019the last four or five years and apply that to the most current enrollments to um get your enrollment projections. So when we looked at your ratios um nine of the 13 averages from the last say five years were above one. So in the net you have a lot of inward migration compared to outward migration. Of the four ratios that were below one, three were at the high school grades. That is not unusual for an influent affluent district because many people choose to send their kids to private high schools. In 2020, which was the first year of the pandemic, four of the survival ratios were the lowest value in the last decade and they were all in the elementary and middle school grades. People were not maybe if you had a hybrid program um they just
020weren't sending kids into the school. That's not unusual. So, we did exclude those ratios um going forward. So again, we take those average ratios, we apply them to the current enrollments, and that how that's how you get your future enrollments. So you have a phenomena in this district called negative kindergarten replacement. And you can see um from that graph, it's varied between 26 and a half students to 132 students over the last 10 years. And it's you also see the title, it says historical kindergarten and first grade. So um what kindergarten replacement is is negative kindergarten replacement is when the number of kindergarten students entering the district let's say in 2526 is less than the number of 12th grade students who graduated from the district the prior year. So let me give you a simple
021example. If you have 500 seniors leaving the district, you really need 500 kindergarten students entering the district the following year to keep things level. Um, forget about the interior grades. So, you're not getting a big enough K population to balance out what's leaving. Now, why do I have first grade up there? because we compare it to the first grade for the years that you had a half day kindergarten because a lot of people send their children to private K programs um before enrolling them in the district. So the last two years there are from the kindergarten and the prior years are for first grade. So when we compare the kindergarten replacement with respect to the actual enrollment change in the district, focus on the last three years. Um what you're seeing is that the negative
022kindergarten replacement has either been partially um eradicated or completely by the inward migration of students. So for instance this year there was no change in enrollment because you have an inward migration of approximately 60 students to um offset that negative kindergarten replacement. We use births to project kindergarten counts 5 years later and we analyze births from 2011 to 24. When we aggregate the birth counts from the two communities, basically birth counts declined through 2017 before they reverse trend. This is really important because in the last four years births have been much higher. Um if we look at the longer the endpoint years, you can see from that last bullet point there really hasn't been much of a change. 179 in 2011, 188 in 2024. But if you look at this graph, you can see when
023we aggregate the BERS, which is the top line, you can see how many more BERS there are in the last four years um compared to the years prior. And those are going to be your kindergarten students five years later. So already by looking at this, you should be thinking, oh, we're going to have bigger kindergarten kids coming in the future. And that would be what I'm suspecting. So when we look at the birth counts and how they compare to the kindergarten students five years later, um you can see in the middle there, you can see how many kindergarten kids show up five years later compared to the total number of births in each community and then the computed ratio right to the right of that and then the birth to first grade survival ratio. So
024in blue I'm showing you what happened once you converted to a full day K. So once that happened, not really much of a change in the survival ratio in 2024, but this past year, 1.571, that's really really high. Um, typically um when districts have a half day K program, the birth to Kay ratios are below one, but yours were not. And you can see they range from say, you know, 1.011 up to almost 1.25. So they just really been jumping up in the last two years because of the full day program. But you can see in the far right if we look at birth to first grade, you do get a significant number of children between births and kind and first grade because what's happening here, you're not just getting kids that were born in
025the burrow and the township. You're getting kids that were born in other communities that um five years later they're moving in because they want to attend your school district. That's in a nutshell what's happening here. So we looked at the BERS by attendance area. We did it through 2023, not 2024 for this because in 2024 the BERS by block were not available yet. But you can see that the Southern Boulevard area had the most number of births um over that time period and the greatest change in the number of BERS when we look at the endpoint years. So when we look at the BertSts by block in 2011, um our GIS analysts geocoded the Berts by block and you can see the darkest blue is where the greatest number of Berts are in 2011. But
026watch what happens now as we fast forward to 2023. You see how much more blue darker shades of blue we're getting. So we're getting a lot more increase in those particular census blocks of BERS. And when we aggregate them over that entire period, those dark blue regions are where the greatest number of births are occurring. And you can see they're overlaid with the attendance areas. So you can kind of see um which ones they would affect. So as a demographer, what we do is we look at the age sex pyramid of each of the communities. And age sex pyramid is simply the percentage of males and females plotted backto back by fiveyear increments. So it starts with under five which is really the 0 to4 population all the way up to 85 plus. So this
027is back in 2010. You can see males on the left, females on the right. Um for the burrow the largest population for both males and females was 5 to nine. But notice this the few number of people that are in their 20s and early 30s. Um this is very common. what I see in high socioeconomic districts, you see what I refer as like the missing missing age cohorts of that because they can't afford to live here. Um, so if I fast forward it to 2020, the largest groups were the 10 to 14 population in 2020, but still um, you know, you're missing a lot of people in those 20s and 30s. It's kind of the same story for the township. Um, but we'll get to that in a moment. This is an overlay of how
028it actually changed over that 10-year period. So the bright colors in blue or in orange are showing increases and the grayish colors on both side are showing contractions. And what we're really seeing here uh for the burrow is that there were gains in every population from 50 and up. So an aging community and there were declines for the 0 to four and 5 to9 population which is basically your elementary cohort and kids that are about to enter school. in fact that the points in red that you see on the lower part of the screen are um the biggest decliners over that time period. It's pretty much the same story in the township. Um however, the biggest groups with a 45 to 49 population. We advance it to the next slide. The biggest are the 10
029to 14 population. And again you can see for this group 55 to 50 55 to 79 there were increases across the board and declines as well in the 0 to4 big declines in the 0 to4 and 5 to9 population. So it's sort of you're relying on migration to keep your enrollments up. It's not so much from at least this chart showing that it's due to um you know people in the community itself. So, we looked at your enrollments by race. And this is showing the enrollments over time. This is for the entire district. So, you can see the declining white population, which is the largest bar down there in dark blue. Um, there was an 8.7 percentage point decline. Asians and Hispanics had very small declines. Those are the next two largest races um in
030light blue and orange, respectively. So, this is showing what the enrollments by race are in each one of the schools. It's pretty much the same story in each school. This is in 2526. Everything in blue is the largest race, which is white in every school. And I believe Hispanics, sorry, Asians are the second largest race in every school as well. So when we looked at economically disadvantaged students, 56 students in 2020 or 1.4% of the population were economically disadvantaged, which is very very small. That would be a poverty uh metric probably on free and reduced lunch. Um however, the number of economically disadvantaged students was fairly stable before increasing to 95 students in this current year, which is now 2.7% of the population and a gain of 39 students or a 1.3 percentage point gain.
031So if we look at who what's the percentage of economically disadvantaged by school, you can see very very low across the board. Nobody exceeds 4%. So housing was a key issue when I came here about three and a half years ago and it's kind of subsided since then. So when we contact um the municipalities of the burrow and the township, we we ask them point blank um what is approved, what is before the planning board. We don't dis we don't talk about um projects that are possible may. We need things that uh have some type of application before the planning board. So in the burrow there are 37 units that are proposed or approved. All of which are multif family units like apartments, duplexes or town houses. They're all in the Milton Avenue and Washington
032Avenue attendance areas in the township. Right now there's nothing going on. However, there is the potential for some development in the future to meet the fourth round of affordable housing obligation, but nothing concrete. So, at the moment, for the 37 units that are proposed, we're only projecting 10 students, which is not much. So, here are the developments that you're seeing. um the proposed 311 Main Street and 589 Main Street. We could not project um the um number of students for those two developments for one reason. The 589 does not have the bedroom distribution which we need to project it and the other one is simply proposed and there's no developer in place at this uh point in time. But those are the bedroom counts, the number of units at the burrow, um possible developments. When
033we look at historically what's happened in each community, you can see these are the number of units by year from 2019 to 2024 that were built and there were 620 units, which is quite a lot. Um we can tell you that over this time period, there were a few developments that were uh constructed, the Ashton and the ivy and the barrel. In fact, I passed the Ivy this this evening coming to the school. Uh Arbor Green and uh Cornerstone at Chadam, which are both all affordable units were constructed as well as the Enclave. Um there were also 162 units, housing units demolished during this period, usually knockdowns. So that 620 units, if you subtract out the 162 demolished, it's more like about 458 net housing units in the last six years. So, our our GIS
034analyst mapped the location of all those new housing units. It's going to be very hard for you to see from where you are, but some of the units are circles and some of the units are squares. If it's a square, it's got five or more units, which would be more say something like the ivy or the cornerstone of Chattam. But you can see where the clusters of a lot of these developments are located uh particularly in the eastern part of Chadam Township. So when we look at home sales over time, um the burrow had the greatest number of sales in the early 2000s before declining um between 2008 and 2012 due to the housing market and banking crisis and then peaked at 191 sales during COVID, which is around 2021. And you can see what's
035happened the last three years. A lot of decline in home sales because of the higher interest rates that are uh present. No one wants to sell their home if they have a 3% mortgage and then take on one with a 7% mortgage. That's absolutely crazy. When we look at the township, it's not as um diff it's it's a little different actually. Um there is a decline around the 2008 period, but you can see that the home sales were fairly robust in the last couple years except for declining in this past year. When we look at the home sales by census block, the dark blue is showing where the greatest number of sales have occurred in the last six years. We just looked the last six-year period. One thing that the district asked us to do
036was to compute student yields. Now, student yields are simply the number of children in a housing unit. Um, and we computed it by housing type. And we joined the address database from your school district to the burrow and township property databases. And here's a summary of what we found. A single family home, and I say that loosely because it's really one to four families, but they're mostly single families in the database. The yield is 837, which is really high. There's not many children living in townous or apartments, as you can see, at 0079 and.184 per unit. This is showing us um townhouse yields. We researched every single townhouse development in both communities. So what you're seeing in on the far right, the very far right is the student yield in each one of the developments,
037which is simply the number of students divided by the number of units. And we compared it the column right before that is the 2122 student yield. So that was from our prior report. So have the yields changed significantly in the last four years? And the answer is no. Uh you can see how low the um total yields are in the burrow around 158 and 092 since the last um 092 is the current and at the township it's 0.078. So and we combine and aggregate both communities the very far uh corner lower right corner you can see it's 0.079 which is the number you just saw on the screen. We did the same thing for apartments. It's again really hard to see. We show the rent. We show the town, the year built, bedroom distribution, so
038on so forth. The one in red there is cornerstone of Chadam. I neglected to also do the one in red for Arbor Green which is three rows above which is 792. So what happened here is with the um new those two new developments, new developments which occurred since our last study, it really changed the overall yield in Chattam Township. So you can see that it was 0.073 073 in our last study at the township level. Now it's 0.185. So the effect of affordable housing uh as compared to market rate housing where anyone can come in definitely has had effect on the number of students in the communities. So we projected enrollments for the last next five years. This is we're wrapping it up and we did two sets of projections. one using ratios, survival ratios
039based in the last four years and one based in the last five years. Regardless, enrollments are projected to increase throughout the projection period. So, in the next 5 years, we're looking at a gain of 312 students in the first projection and 238 students in the second projection. Now, this is very different from when I was here three years ago or three and a half years ago where we were projecting declining enrollment. So, definitely a change. um since we've last seen each other. And this is showing us the enrollment by grade configuration. So it's now prek to four, five to 8, 912, your new configuration. And you can see the blue ones uh that you're seeing the projections for both the four and the five-year cohort survivor ratios, but the blue are showing gains and the
040minuses in red declines. That's at the high school. So you're seeing enrollment gains in elementary, middle, and declines at the high school because what's happening is the smaller cohorts at the elementary and middle school existing currently now have to move through the system. That's why I made you kind of take a look at that graph earlier tonight uh because I knew I'd be referencing it later on. It's very important to to remember that graph because they have to move through the system. So it's not a uniform change across the board. So when we compare each school up there and its current enrollment, its future enrollment with respect to its capacity, you'll see blue numbers which means surplus and red numbers which means inadequate or shortage of seating in the buzzwords that we use in the
041field. We call them unhoused students, but no one's really unhoused, but that's what the DOE likes to call them. Um the capacity figures are the way the district is currently using the building. It's derived from your long range facility plan. I do not come up with those numbers. They're from your architect. And you can see that currently um you really have the largest shortage at the middle school, 184 seats. But due to that increasing enrollment, there's even projected a larger shortfall at the middle school um coming forward in five years as well as in Lafayette and to some extent at Southern Boulevard. The high school is projected to have a surplus due to the declining enrollment. So, let's wrap it up with a little summary tonight. Um, the enrollments in the district have had been
042declining before stabilizing in the last couple years. In a change in trend, enrollments are projected to steadily go up throughout the 5-year projection period, which is really due to two things. It's due to an increase in the birth rate in each community in the last four years as well as steady inward migration as nine of those 13 grade progressions are showing an influx of children from one year to the next. Um the enrollment gain is not projected to be uniform across the three grade configurations. The elementary and middle school enrollments are projected to increase while a decline is projected to occur in the high school grades as the smaller existing cohorts advance up into the upper grades. So with that I will entertain questions. [snorts] It's my mind. Okay, thank you so much for that
043extensive report. Um, who's got the first question? Miss Weber. Sure. Hi, Dr. Grip. Welcome back. um you had projected and told us that this is going to be you know very cyclical enrollment is going to go down you know depending on how quickly old people like me sell their house and it also depends on am I selling it to the von trap family or am I selling it to an who's going to downsize and want to stay in Chadam and have no kids but my question is and I I'm in a panic because I feel like I'm in my college statistics class and I didn't prepare so I'm in a little bit of a sweat but the colors that you're showing correct me if I'm wrong. It looks like Southern Boulevard, I'm just thinking about
044our elementary school. Southern Boulevard is going to be um bursting at the seams. I don't know if I'd want to use that word because it really you this is where the principles come into play. Um so that I can't since I don't have the numbers up in front of me anymore. I think it wasund and something students in the next five years, 137 or something like that. Um really they would be the person pe person to ask whether or not you're really bursting at the seams. Gotcha. Because it gets spread that number gets don't forget that number gets spread across many many many classrooms. So you know it could be a kid or two over the capacity in a classroom. So that would be the person I would ask. I gotcha. I gotcha. Yeah. We're
045already there. We're already at, you know, capacity. It's an old school. A lot of people move into the township. Um, it has bigger homes, so potentially, you know, more kids. I'm just thinking in the future, Dr. Sortino, we have to think about shifting some of those students. You know, I know nobody likes to talk about redistricting, but I'm going to say it. We may have to shift some of the southern the kids in the township to Washington and some of the Washington kids to Milton. Again, you're the educator. I don't know, but I want to maybe have a conversation about that. We did briefly discuss it with the administrative team, the de demographers report. Dr. Grip, thank you. Um, but there is definitely more to talk about as a team to better understand it. It
046appears that as enrollment continues to slightly decline at Milton and Washington, Southern and Lafayette specifically appear to go much higher. Gotcha. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, do you see any um anomalies that we're we're missing here? Like real gotchas, like what do we need to look out for? Or no, you're in great shape. Don't worry, go have a drink. Well, I mean, you know, when you look at the those some of those the capacity sheet, the last or second to last slide is is kind of one of the things I think, you know, the administrative team's going to want to look at. uh because you know when we look at shortages of seating you know 20 30 students that easily can be absorbed um I think it's probably worth for you to understand how capacity
047is really derived so there's a couple different methodologies that the state uses the most common one is something called district practices so you you basically have through board policy a number of students that you're willing to teach uh teach in a particular general ed classroom. I'm going to make up a number and say 20. So if you have 20 general ed classrooms and 25 classrooms, you have a capacity of 500. Now if the district starts converting some of those gened classrooms over to special ed to gifted and talented other small group instruction, you're not going to have 25 and 20 kids in there anymore. You may have eight or nine. So you can change your capacity very easily depending upon how the building is used. It's a very fluid number. So there can be some
048creativity on how you use some of the rooms um if you want to increase capacity without even building anything. Right. Okay. Great. The rooms are fluid, but the brick is pretty stationary. So we'll have to work on that. I'm sorry. I I yield the floor to whoever else has questions. No, it's okay. Anybody else? No, it's all you, Joe. You have any more? I do actually. Okay, go. You talked about the smaller cohorts um in your what you've seen because you've done this now for 10 years for us. That's smaller group is very big and we've seen bubbles go through the district before. I mean, a few years ago, we had 360 kids, you know, graduate and then it started going down. Um and we managed the staff to that, you know, decline. As the
049numbers get higher, we're going to need more staff, not less staff. But in your in your experience, have you seen some of that? Will people be moving out or no? No, no, no. It's going to be the other way around. So, some of that smaller group, oh, we moved to Chadam, but you know what? I want to I'm going to New Providence. They have better downtown stores. I mean, that's it's kind of hard to say. Uh, so one of the options we we do is a housing turnover analysis, which was not something that the board picked up as one of our options. So, we would kind of study that a little more in detail in that kind of particular situation. But even if you, you know, even saying because you didn't do it, I can
050still kind of speak to it. Um, you know, what we usually find is that, and I've been doing this a long time, um, is that really we don't see a surge just because of an aging population of people selling their homes all at once. It just doesn't happen that way. Yeah. I I've seen this and I read an AARP article I have to say about it and it's because two reasons that people say over the age of 55 are staying in their homes. Number one, typically they have family nearby, grandchildren, something to that effect. Um the empty nesters like myself um also are tied to um community. So for me, I'm very very much involved in my my community, my church, the playhouse where I act a little bit. So, you know, I don't want
051to leave that area. And I think that's those intrinsic things that we're talking about that cause people to stay beyond when you may think they're actually ready to move on. Gotcha. Interesting. I didn't know you were a thespian. Oh, yeah. Cool. For 35 years. Wow. Good for you. Very cool. Um, I don't have any questions right now. I'm just in a panic right now over, you know, how do we pay for this? But that's not your problem. That's ours. No need to panic. No, no need. No need to panic yet. And said I don't have to panic yet. Look at Emily. She's as cool as a cuc. She'll have it all figured out. She's an actor, too. She's an actor. [laughter] Anybody else have any further questions? No. Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate
052your time and all of your efforts. Thanks for coming back, Dr. Grip. Oh, thank you. We love seeing you. Take care, everybody. Bye. Thanks, Dr. Grip. Yeah. Okay, Emily, does that wrap it up for you? I'm sorry. Does that wrap it up for you? Yes. Thank you. I apologize. Okay. No, that's okay. Um, okay. We're going to move on to the business administrator's report. Mr. Jquila, as far as the construction goes, we are still reviewing all of the projects that we uh would like to include in the 2627 budget. Uh so that'll be part of the budget that we're putting together. Uh which will be upcoming for the budget of 2627. Um due to the budget calendar, both the March and April board meetings will be changed. Uh the March meeting will need will be
053changed from March 16th to March 23rd of then we will approve the preliminary and tentative budget and the April 20th board meeting will be changed to April 27th which will be the public hearing and approval of the final budget. That's all I have at this time. And actually, I'd like to follow with Emily and really do thank the custodial and maintenance staff because a lot of them for the snow work because a lot of them go through and they spend their time here and when they finish here after being thoroughly exhausted and walking around like zombies, they need to go home and do their own properties and their own houses. So, they are really dedicated, you know, to the staff, the children, and the teachers. So they they do go way above and beyond and
054you know when the snow comes and that's all I have. Okay. Thank you so much Mr. Dquilla. And moving on to our student liaison Avery. Hi everyone. Um it's been quite the busy month here at CHS. So we have quite a few things to catch up on. Um first like Miss Ortino said we had our annual catwalk that took place here on Sunday night. And Vin was our first student to design and model her outfit and she took home the first place, meaning that her designs are now going to be featured in the fashion show in March. So that's super exciting. Um, for our performing arts students, they traveled to the Governor's Awards, which is a statewide competition and the highest honor for high school performing arts students. We had 11 different students who each
055won awards. So, congrats to all the performers. Um, we also recently had our physics Olympics and the top students traveled to a statewide competition and they crushed it. Um, they captured the first place for the third year in a row. On January 15th, we had our military and law enforcement open house which was super cool. We had representatives from six different military branches, militarymies and law enforcement all share information about some education opportunities and some job trainings um, with students in the library. Our play unified basketball team competed on January 23rd for their biggest game of the season. Um we had our wonderful student section come and support the players. It was a great game and there should be many more to come. Um for our upcoming schedule, we have our school spirit event on
056February 13th where seniors will compete against juniors and the sophomores will compete against the freshmen. Um it was a huge hit last year. I loved it and I know a lot of people are excited to compete. And lastly, we have our Chinese Lunar New Year celebration on February 20th. Um, and all the students are preparing for their celebrations. I hear there are going to be some great performances, so I would highly recommend stopping by. Awesome. Thank you so much, Avery. Um, okay, moving on to our committee reports for personnel. Miss Weber. Yes, thank you, Ann. Um, busy busy the HR department. So there were several resignations and retirements. We also covered um a leave replacement appointment and we also approved extra class uh stipen pay where a a teacher or several teachers will pick up
057that and cover that that leave replacement. Um there was a successful campaign by the HR department to increase activity in our applications for substitutes and support staff. So that's great. Um and then we also talked about um what Dr. STO mentioned the budget a little bit and how that's going to impact next year 26 27 staffing. Um we changed some job descriptions um for some of our athletic coaches and also some of the our supervisor positions just to tighten those up. Um quick question Bradley, are we going to are you going to talk about the budget in your report? We are meeting next Wednesday. We're going to go through the preliminary budget, but we've got a lot of hard decisions and conversations that have to take place. Gotcha. Got you. Gotcha. So, on the budget
058topic, since we're going to we're going to be in a shortfall. Absolutely. Big big shortfall. Big shortfall. We're better than most districts, but we're better because we've planned in the past, but we are in it's a we have to make a lot of hard decisions. Sure. Okay. So, as part of that conversation, like if we need to make up, you know, $7 million, my question is to you, and I should know the answer, and I don't to you and Peter. If we ask the community for half of that, for example, half of that 7 million, if it passes, great. Woohoo. If it fails, what's the ramifications? Or is that only for capital improvement? depending how you ask for it. It's all staffing once the first measure the district has to combat the um decrease because
059we were discussing this today. We do have we have been offered an enrollment waiver for this year's budget because our increase enroll of enrollment which is predominantly going from half decay to full day uh this fi this current fiscal year. We'll also be entitled to a health uh benefit waiver because our benefits are projected to increase 17% which is 15% above the 2% cap. And we also do have bank cap uh that is expire that will expire this year. So it will be the appetite of how high of a tax increase if we want to use all three of those opportunities how high of a tax increase we want. Okay. If you want to go above and beyond that with a second question. The question then gets would get presented to the voters in November.
060The budget has to start without that funding. If the passes, the objects can be added in January. If it fails, you can't add those items back until the following budget. So, depending what you said you were going to do away with. Gotcha. Would you know be the Well, I mean, that's not it's not okay if it fails, but if it does, we're no worse off than we would have been. No, but if it fails, we're worse off because if it goes towards staffing and it fails, we can't put it in the budget for another year. Well, we don't have the money to put in the budget anyway. That's correct. So, that's what I'm saying. We're no worse off. If we have to, you know, I I just back of envelope. 10 teachers have to be
061laid off whether it passes or fails. We can't afford the 10. That's correct. Regardless. So, that's correct. So, there's no real risk. That's correct. Okay. I'm again, I'm not on finance, but I look forward to your um report, but hopefully, you know, I I just kick around the idea of maybe asking the residents um to help. Certainly an option there. There's not a lot of levers. We we talk about it every year, right? We only have a very limited amount of levers that we can pull. No, no, we pulled every lever we could over the last 10 or so years. Um we haven't replaced many positions. I can't I lost count of how many administrators we have either cut or not replaced over the years. So I know there's not too many levers. I mean
062this town is known for, you know, small class sizes, good programming, uh including extracurriculars, multiple languages, etc. there there's there's no leverage left. Okay. Yeah. That's why I'm saying we may have to ask the residents to help um you know cover that. I mean we read in the paper I mean some of the districts are like 30 million in the hole. Some like matters. Yeah. Some that are not that different than ours. No, I don't want to name names but um Okay. So, just, you know, if you could just kick that around with your with your team. Um, you know, maybe looking at a split rate, you know, if we need 8 million, then maybe four million and that would be that would be like a 5% increase back of the envelope, right? But not
063using waivers. Maybe if we use all our waivers, it would be 2%. I don't know. But good luck. Thank you. So, I I have a question. So if we use all our waiverss and we finalize a budget in April with the assumption that we have to go out to taxpayers for a vote in November. Are we expected I assume we're expected to start the year with the budget that we passed in April which is making the assumption are we making the assumption that if the taxpayers pass the budget? Okay. So we wouldn't necessarily we we won't know the answer. No the assumption that wouldn't know the answer. So we'd have to pass a budget with the assumption that there's no more money. Correct. Or just no no second question. Yeah. You know what I mean?
064So essentially it doesn't kick in the funding until the following January cycle, right? That's correct. Not the full school year, half year, you know, two months after November, right? Yes. But we might may have already lost teachers by then. Yes, possibly. So last year was the first year we voted in a while. Correct. We were basically 2% every year for the last five, six years, seven years. Forever. I mean, not forever, but when it was mandated, but you could do that. It's not really doable anymore. No. So, we just have to just go to a vote every year. It's as simple as that. Every year. I mean, not 2% tax. It's not going to it's not going to do it for us. Peter, I have a question. It's not doing it for us. Insurance goes
065up 17%. If the second question doesn't pass, there are temporary measures you can do. Just that in the longer run or next year, we'll completely be out of that, right? The the bankrupt. If we propose a second question in in the 2627 budget and we want it to be I'm even trying to think of a hypothetical that uh for seven 12th grade teachers if the seven 12th grade teachers need to be eliminated from the budget that's approved if the question passes in November those eighth grade, those 12th grade teachers can be hired and put back in place as of January. If the question passes, you do without those teachers and all those positions until you figure out if you can fund them for the 2728 budget or how are you going to fund them? You
066mean if they if it doesn't pass? If it does not pass. Correct. And and do would the teachers come back uh with their prior tenure? Uh that I can't answer. They're they're starting over. Yeah. Starting over. Oh, really? Good teachers don't care about tenure. Good teachers are good teachers and we have all good teachers. Um, so I that wouldn't be a concern. But I mean, the other point of consideration too is that we have the bank cap and we have the ability to raise because of the increase in insurance to a certain level. So depending on how the conversation goes on whether or not we do want to do a second question, that'll change the inputs on on those two things as well. If if we're as a committee decide to not do a second
067question, it's very hard to then pay down all your bank cap and have no money in reserve. Right. So we have to weigh that too. Yeah. We just have to go out then for a second question to do the roof that we've been next year. looking for the turf that we've been saving for that bank cap isn't like oh, you know, it's not it's to pay for things that we know are going to have a shelf life. It's not a rainy day fund. It's I know the boiler is going to break. Peter knows exactly when every single roof and section of roof and every building has reached its its its lifespan. And just to recap, because we've talked about this for certainly the seven years I've been sitting here, we've got the ability to raise
068taxes by 2%. Insurance is going up 17%. Salaries are going up 3.8%. The math doesn't work. Yeah, math is not math. I'm sorry. What? Math does the math very well. It's not Yeah, that's not We would fail our math class. That is just No, it's not sustainable. It It's It's just not sustainable. And if we do have to cut, it can't all come from one school. It's got to be, you know, I mean, obviously the educators will figure that out with the help of their staff, right? Um but Okay. So, more to follow. More to follow. And again, this is not specific to Chadam. This is No, no, this is I think every district we're in. We're in pretty good shape. We're in better shape than most. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Than most. Can I panic
069now, Ann? Or not yet. Still not yet. Okay. Not yet. Not yet. There'll be time for that. Uh that's the end of my report. Thank you for indulging me on that one. Okay. Thank you so much. Moving on to curriculum, Miss Ross. Yes. Uh curriculum met last Wednesday. Uh we went through quite a few topics. So bear with me. I'll give you some highlights. Um we've reviewed the schedule for parent teacher conferences for next fall. So all K to4 conferences are going to be planned for the week of October 26 through the 30th. Virtual conferences will be offered again for the middle school during those same dates. Uh we touched upon Atlas. I think this was mentioned at the last meeting. That's our new curriculum mapping platform. um we you know discussed that it's the
070best option to manage and amend over 300 curriculum documents uh that we do have and the transfer is already underway and um all Atlas will be fully in use for the beginning of the next school year. Uh and then there is a half day planned for May 13th um at the middle school and then there's a few things going on that day. Rising fifth graders will be busted to Lafayette for an orientation and that day will also be holding screening for incoming kindergarten students as we've done in the past. Um we also talked about um Spanish Spanish instruction at Lafayette. Um third graders there receive uh for world language uh for the first time this year. But we are have decided that instead of three times in a cycle, third grade will meet once for
071Spanish and fourth grade will meet twice. And um the summer math course also discussed at the last meeting. Um as a refresher, freshman's who are taking algebra 1 have the opportunity to take an intensive geometry course over the summer. It would be six weeks and um upon successful passing of um a test you would get the pathway to allow these students to reach calculus by grade 12. Um then a math screener update. We do have a screener for ELA. We are um currently using in grades two to five for math and we plan to pilot that um Il diagnostic for first graders. So, a year earlier, so we we can access the access the data that we retrieve in the spring and see if it's a viable option to adopt um starting next year. Finally,
072parents at Lafayette received a survey um to gather feedback about the transition and their experience at Lafayette so far. We've had about 60 parents respond and we look forward to reviewing their answers. So, I'll stop there, take any questions and I don't recall our next meeting is early March. We'll come back to that. Anybody have any questions? March. Right. I think March 3rd. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Any questions for Susan? No. Okay. Moving on. Finance. You stated we have not met. We're meeting on Wednesday. Okay. Perfect. And a week from Wednesday, sorry. Wednesday the 11th. Right. Policy and planning. Anybody here from policy? Yes. Uh Mike Ryan's We have not met either. We're going to meet on uh next Wednesday as well. Okay. All right. Perfect. Thank you. Um any leazison reports?
073I do. I have one for um CEF. Uh just a quick announcement. They are um comedy night is returning. Um it is going to be on February 28th at the middle school. There will be a pre-show cocktail hour um and then followed by a great lineup of comedy. It's one of the biggest fundraisers for CF CF. So, um, you know, we encourage everybody to take a look and see if they can make it. Um, and CF is also recruiting new trustees and volunteers. So, if anybody's interested, it's a great way to get involved and support our students. There's openings on several committees and positions. So, if you're interested, uh, there's information on both comedy night and, um, interested uh, volunteer, excuse me, volunteers on the CF website. What's the date on the comedy night again?
074The 28th, I believe. It's the last Saturday this month. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Can I just do a shout out? Yes, you can. Thank you. I just not sorry a burrow committee re um burrow liazison. I just wanted to do a shout out to the DPW and the burrow. They cleared all of those sidewalks. I mean, and some of that some of the corners are like glaciers. I mean, just solid ice. And the kids were all able to walk. They were all able to walk safely. They also worked around the clock. So, I just wanted to shout out to the the DPW in both towns. The burrow just happens to have a lot more sidewalks and a lot more kids that walk because of Milton and Washington Avenue. So, just a shout out to the
075DPW. They allowed us to open schools. Yeah. And also a shout out to the police department and those police officers that did shoveling for some residents that were unable to shovel on their own, which was pretty amazing. I believe the officer that was shoveling Lafayette last week is um I'm pretty sure he might be in the building. Yes. Thank you so much. [applause] It does not go unnoticed. Um okay, moving on to the minutes from the last meeting. Mr. Dquilla, only you need to abstain. Only I need to abstain. Okay. A second. Second. The minutes from January 12th. Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Delandro, yep. Mr. M. Mr. Smith, yes. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, yes. And Miss Chigarelli, minutes pass 601. Perfect. Okie do. Um, okay. Moving on to our first um
076opportunity for public commentary. Hearing of the citizens during the public commentary section of the agenda is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are or are not topics scheduled for the current meeting. To help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard, speakers will be asked to limit their comments to a reasonable length of time. And if you could please just sign in with your name and where you are from and state where you are from when you go to speak, that would be great. Taco cats. Good evening. We are team Taco Cat, the CMS robotics team. My name is Ryan Boures. I'm a seventh grader and this is my second year on the team. My teammates and I want to share with you tonight
077why the work we do is so important for our school and our community. Also, we want to urge the board to consider supporting us going to the Canada Cup of Robotics. Team Tacoat is a part of the first Lego League, which is the same league as the high school, but a different division. LL is a series of robotics competitions for students where teams design, create, and code a Lego robot to complete missions on a mat, research a real world problem that is related to a yearly theme, and work together while showing kindness, respect, and originality. This year the theme is unearth. Art team had to find a solution to the problems archaeologists face. To share our solution, we work with Miss Martha and Pat Wells, president and vice president of the Chattam Historical Society and
078volunteer with them at the museum. The CMS robotics team worked to make a fun and informative exhibit in the museum to inform the public about archaeology and the preservation of artifacts. Last year, we raised $2,160 for the Pose River Correal to help clean up our waterways and demonstrate how pollution affects ultrasonic sensors in the ocean. As a result of our impact last year, our team was invited to the town council meeting to present our research project, solutions to the challenge, and information about our robot design process. Good evening. My name is Javon Wadera and I'm in seventh grade. This is my first full year on the team. I would like to share with you some achievements that our robotics team has earned to date. Recently, we've earned our way to an international advancement, a very
079prestigious and once in a-lifetime event for us. It's a representation of our hard work over the years. In 2017, the team won the robot design award and got second place in core values at qualifiers. In 2022, we went to the championships and earned the motivate award. In 2023, we received the project award at qualifiers and the motivate award at championships. In 2024, we earned the engineering excellence award and the robot performance second place at qualifiers, as well as the motivate award at championships. Finally, in 2025, we earned the judges award at championships. We've come to championships four years in a row, and this year's our fourth. The team has been around for nine years and we participated in eight full seasons. We've made a significant difference in our community through outreach and research projects. Going
080to this event will certainly highlight [snorts] our school district on an international level. Good evening. My name is Zule Dash. I'm an eighth grader and this is my second year on the team. I'm one of the team captains. We reviewed the policy regarding the overnight trips and here are some reasons why we believe team tacoat should be an exception as per the rules. Section A3 of policy 6153R states requests for overnight field trips must be received in the office of superintendent of schools no later than 30 days preceding the trip. We have re received news of our advancement over 5 months before the actual event giving sufficient time to figure out the logistics and planning of it. Additionally, the introduction to policy 6153R states the over the principal and superintendent must approve trips requiring overnight
081stays. Exception to this require requirement are state athletic competitions. Such competitions do not require superintendent approval. STEM competitions deserve the same priority. Not to mention the importance as we have advanced to an international competition. Combined, we have spent over a thousand hours working towards this. This is a dream for us that we hope you will support. In fact, the only thing holding us back is the lack of priority placed on middle school STEM. According to the SDOC website, the list of high school clubs that can attend overnight competitions are high school robotics and academics teams, which include the mathematics, science league, etc. As mentioned before, we are in the same league as the high school, but a different division. So why so then why is it that we are not given the same opportunity? This
082team is the foundation of high school STEM. In fact, it enables students to take robotics in high school. Furthermore, multiple former members who are now in high school were once on this team. Not allowing Taco Cat to be a part of this competition speaks to the fact that our achievements and hard work are undervalued and diminished. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Sebastian Perion. I'm an eighth grader and this is my third year on the team. I'm also one of the team captains this year. We have seen previous arguments against the overnight event policy and we appreciate your concerns. Logistically, this is a group of under 10 students who have willing chaperones and rather than booking an expensive flight that has the liability of being cancelled, we plan on taking a mini bus as
083it is a drivable distance away. If it is not possible to travel as a team, we are willing to obtain private transportation. [snorts] Section A18 of policy 6153R states private transportation should only be used in extreme cases. When private vehicles are used, the owners of the vehicles must have adequate liability insurance for the protection of the students. In addition, the teacher and SP or sponsor must be certain that the driver is licensed and competent and that the parents or legal guardians are properly informed by the permission slip of the those unique circum circumstances. Teachers or sponsors must comply with the district district policy regarding use of privately owned vehicles. Therefore, there is always the option of private transportation eliminating the issue regarding how the team will get to and from the competition. Hello, my name
084is Vir Agraal. I'm an eighth grader and this is my third year on the team. One of the issues that was brought up with the other overnight trips was accommodations, food, etc. Brock University, where we will be housed, will provide food and take into account dietary restrictions and allergies. This is included in the cost of our competition. Another liability that was a concern with the DC trip was having a nurse president, but that won't be an issue as according to the Canada Cup of Robotics website, licensed emergency medical technicians will be on site throughout the event. Also worth noting is the first Lego League will no longer exist in two years as they are phasing it out into a new AI powered league. We may never receive this opportunity again to compete to compete with
085the other worldclass teams in this exact way again. Not being able to attend this event after putting in so much work and time is really disappointing. We respectfully ask that after hearing our reasoning, the board reconsider their decision and allow team Tacoat to attend the Canada Cup of Robotics. This is a once in a-lifetime opportunity and reflects our hard work. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. I just want to compliment the teachers. They're all eloquently speaking because of you guys. So, don't don't think that goes unnoticed. Hey, so uh you all heard from our kids. U good evening. This is Gorov and I have Christina here. Our sons Weir and Sebastian are eighth graders. Um who've been on the Cadam Middle School robotics team for the past three years. and we are here to speak briefly
086on behalf of the parents whose children are currently on the team. We'll keep it brief. Um we just want to begin by thanking you for your time this evening and for your support of the larger robotics program in our school system. The program exists and continues to grow because the district prioritizes both STEM education and its application. We also want to acknowledge the role played by the team's coaches, Miss Lightus and Mr. Hitchings. Having seen these past three years the way the Chadam coaches and students prepare and conduct themselves, we believe it's fair to say that this is a group of individuals who represent their school, their school district, and their larger community with professionalism, enthusiasm, creativity, sincerity, and unwavering commitment. um spending five plus hours a week every week for the entire academic year
087together in a kind of formal training plus time on weekends and even over the summer and in the off season competing in intramurals. Um, this creates a pretty a pretty cohesive group and that has fueled their success at competition similar to the success of a lacrosse team or a debate team or any other competitive group at the high school or middle school level. Unsurprisingly, um, at the end of every competition, there is an award ceremony and everyone sits in a really big auditorium and a series of awards are announced. Again, this is our third year attending such competitions and awards ceremonies. Our impression is that with very few exceptions, this is a very collegial comp competitive academic sport. Um, everyone there seems to get the memo um have gotten the memo about um the process,
088the results and the entire experience. With that said, something a bit uh peculiar and frankly heartwarming happens when the Cadam Taco Keat Tacoat team is announced for an award. The entire auditorium cheers them on with a noticeable extra dose of gusto and chanting. Um it's it really is unbridled joy and enthusiasm for this group of kids from Chadam. And there is in our in our minds there is a reason for that and it extends beyond which they're not wearing now but it extends beyond their very cool competition hats and the unusual team mascot and even the swag that they make every season. It's because in our minds again when you see when you have a worthy adversary and a rival that you truly respect, you are also happy for them when they win. And even
089if it means that you didn't. And these students from Chadam, your school district, constitute that worthy adversary. The same applies for how our Cadam coaches are perceived by the other coaches at these competitions. Um, this is not just true about this year's competitive season. We've seen it, both of us, actually, many of us have seen it all three years or multiple years, which really is a testament to what these coaches have created and managed to sustain even as the composition of the team changes from year to year as students graduate, change grades. Um, and this is an unwavering element of the excellence and sportsmanship that exists in that robotics lab at Chadam Middle School. Thanks in large part to their two coaches, Miss Lightus and Mr. Hitchings. We feel confident that in representing Cadam in
090Canada this June, that same excellence, teamwork, and sportsmanship will be on full display. So, we're just going to summarize. Yeah. So um as you've already heard from the students, the CMS team worked very hard this season and earned a coveted spot in the top fivell teams out of more than 250 in the region and qualified to advance and be selected to participate in the Canada Cup of Robotics, an international tournament taking place from June 17 to 20th. This competition includes 96 teams from around the world and represents an invaluable learning opportunity for these students and frankly for the Chattam Robotics program as they continue their STEM journey through middle school, high school and beyond. We understand that the board has denied the request to participate based on a standard adopted last school year to discontinue
091overnight trips, albeit with some exceptions. We respectfully ask the board to reconsider this decision. Our intention is to work collaboratively with the board over the coming days to address all concerns and explore a fruitful path forward. Seeing as the team's participation must be confirmed by Tuesday, February 10th, one week from tomorrow, we request the opportunity to work together this week to make the team's attendance possible and to confirm our participation before the deadline. We assure you that you will find a group of parents, students, and coaches who are very committed to coming up with a solution. This particular opportunely an accolad at the middle school level may be unprecedented for both the team and our school district but hopefully that doesn't mean it's not possible. Thank you very much for your time. We look forward
092to working together this week and happy to answer any questions or in case there are any concerns that you have we can try and address those now or later in the week. I believe we have another meeting. Thank you. Are you on? I know we have a meeting later this week, so I look forward to talking to all of you then. And the Taco Cats, you did amazing tonight. Very well said. Great presentation. Great job. taxes probably. Uh, good evening, Bill Heap. Uh, Hillside Avenue. Uh, a couple of comments. Uh first is a very good presentation from the demographer. I am not surprised that there uh are going to be more students in the lower grades. Uh just from my own observation at our annual Hillside Avenue block party, I can tell you that there
093are lots of toddlers running around. Um the uh next thing is you'll be happy to know that there won't be any children coming from 108 Hillside Avenue anytime soon because uh I'm going to stay. Uh partly because uh I don't want to clean out the junk in my house. When they carry me out in a box, it's going to be somebody else's problem. And I know there are lots of reasons why people want to stay in Chadam. So that's mine. Uh, [clears throat] and uh, I would like to read you something that I saw in the Wall Street Journal. Uh, and I have to unfortunately now put on glasses. I don't like it one bit, but it is what it is. This was from the uh, Wall Street Journal dated Tuesday, June 27th on a
094very important topic. The headline reads, "Social media faces trial on harm to teens." I'm just going to read a paragraph or two. You will get the gist of it. A Los Angeles jury is poised to consider a central question in the debate over social media and teenage welfare. Our platforms such as Instagram, T, and Tik Tok causing mental health disorders. A personal injury trial begins this week over a young woman's claim that social media platforms built products that forc fostered addiction in adolescence and caused her a loss of mental a host of mental health problems. It is the first such case to go to trial as thousands of other similar lawsuits bought by individual school districts and state attorneys general are waiting in the wings. The plaintiffs face challenges in establishing a strong correlation between
095social media use and teen mental health problems, said Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor from Stson University. The instinct is to just get rid of social media. Before that, it was television, rock and roll, and the original phone. Key to the plaintiff's co case are documents that they say show companies knew the addictive nature of the products and the harm they could cause. Many of these documents will be entered into evidence for the first time at trial uh this week. So uh I had to read about this in the journal. We have a uh we are being represented by a law firm uh on a similar case. I don't know where that stands. If you remember uh a year ago I think in the spring they were invited to come in and give us a presentation.
096If you remember two distinguished gentlemen came in. They came up to the podium introduced their themselves uh said good evening. We are uh representing the law firm of Dewey Cheetum and How. We would like to say uh hello to our uh constituents, our our um clients in uh the Chattam School District. And as far as the case goes, uh we have no comment. Thank you very much and good night. I couldn't believe the arrogance of that whole uh presentation or nonpresentation as it were. Uh, I understand that they gave us a lottery ticket in exchange for our good name, but maybe uh we can find somebody else who will give us a lottery ticket and at least engage in some uh client services and be willing to give a presentation and some answer some questions
097uh as to uh how this is going. It appears that it's going to go to the Supreme Court at some time, but that's going to be far down the road. And it seems to me that parents have to get get on the ball uh and start addressing this. You can't wait for a court case to go through. So, it's not going to be easy, but I think in the long run, it's going to be up to them. And I would urge you as part of that to uh institute a bell-to-bell uh cell phone ban. I think that would be in everybody's best interest. I know the reasons uh you have not to do it but uh I think at the end of the day it would be good for everybody and that's that. Thanks. Good
098night. [applause] That any comments? Yeah. Uh you're closing public commentary, right? I'm closing public commentary. Yes, public commentary is closed. Um Mr. Heap, you know, we have a cell phone ban already in place, right? Okay, good. Just just checking. Um, I want to go back to the robotics teams, and I'm going to have to rely on some of my administrators here. Um, the the competition is out of the country, which makes it even more complicated. But, um, did do you happen to know what the cost was? Is is the only ask I wasn't at that particular meeting. is the only ask of financial backing or the policy really states that field trips that are integral to the curriculum are the ones that the board will approve and support. So there are many clubs and activities
099that go on field trips that the actual members of the club pay for including the transportation fee for the competition etc. Um so I think the general intent was that it's across the border. It's in Canada. um it's not integral to the curriculum. It's after the school year has ended and those were really parts of the rationale as to why the board wasn't necessarily approving that specific trip. Um there are two overnight trips that are on the agenda tonight. To my knowledge, I think those are the only two overnight trips in the district that occur at all. Um both of those field trips are uh one is they're both within the tri-state area just because we're not supposed to disclose where everything is, you know, per our policy. Um but they're both in the tri-state
100area, both very small groups and both have um direct ties to the actual club and activity rather than it's a wonderful achievement that all of you have been invited to attend this. Um but it's not necessarily integral to the curriculum. It is something that you could pursue outside of the school's approval. Hey Emily, I have a question. No, no, sorry. Public commentary is closed. I apologize. You I I want the reason I'm doing this is I want to give you an answer now one way or the other so that you can plan accordingly. Oh, sorry doctor. It was Yinglu asking the question. I thought it was you guys. I apologize and I apologize to you. Yeah. [laughter] Sorry. Um so what does it mean approval here? like um like you said, they can go on
101their own, but can the teacher or the coach go along with them? I think that would be a conversation we can absolutely have and that was the intent. Um one of the parents before the meeting had reached out to schedule a meeting later this week. So the plan was to talk it over further, gather additional details, meet with the families prior to the deadline to better understand exactly what the logistics were. Okay. Yeah, I was just going to mention, Yinglo, that when we do send, um, for the two overnight field trips, um, the students pay for it, but the district pays for the chaprons, our teacher chaprons to go for their lodging and transportation. Got it. But otherwise, it's covered, the cost is covered by the students participating in that club. I assume that you
102guys are going to talk about details like will like what if the students are willing to cover for the chaperons? So would that be a like a easier sort of quote unquote approval for school? My intention was to meet with the families. We had uh corresponded via email today. Um was to meet with the families, gather all the information and then whatever needed to be discussed further with the board, I would do so. I mean the parents can pay for the trip and go on the trip. Like we can't stop you guys from going up to Canada. Agreed. Um there are definitely okay clubs and activities that go without the knowledge. Oh, gotcha. But there's a possibility that we could pay for the chaperon. Yes. Um and then shoot. And in the middle school, we
103don't we don't really pay for any activities, do we? Like no sports, no performing arts, no visual arts. Um much less than the high school, for sure. And I think one of the points that the Taco Cats had raised, which was a great point, was they had said that there would there would be emergency medical personnel at the site, which is great. Um, but typically those type of personnel are not administering medication. So if anyone going on an overnight field trip needs medication of any kind, that also involves sending a nurse sponsored by the district to provide that medication andor if a parent is willing to shop themselves and they can go and administer the meds. There are many logistics involved. Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. And this was the big issue with the
104overnight trips in general was the providing limitations. Yeah, that's right. I I I I'm a computer programmer, so this is near and dear to my heart, and I think you guys, what a great accomplishment. Um, every once in a while, I'll poke at some of the trade magazines that are sitting around my work, but it seems, are there closer competitions um that the kids can jump into that maybe would negate like where they could just drive for the day like like a wrestling tournament for example that Ann and I spent hours of our lives we'll never get back. I I did research that and there is a competition um again they're mostly after the end of the school year. Um there's an open invitation um in Western Massachusetts. So we would love to explore some
105options if this particular one is not an um um viable option for everyone but we will be willing to look at that um and see what might be a compromise if it comes to that. Great. So more to follow, right? Yeah. Excellent. Okay. Um, okay. Now we will move on to our regular agenda for personnel. Miss Weber. Yes. Uh, thank you. I would like to move action items A1 through A20. I'll second that. Yes. Yes. Thank you guys. Excellent job. Yes. Excellent. Yes. Mr. Kelly, yes. A1 to A20 passes 70. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um for finance and facilities. Yes, I'd like to move B1 to B12 to a vote. Um, highlight also we have a football team parents donation from the CHS football team be used for the purchase of of a tower to
106hold the drone. Thank you very much. Did somebody second it? Um, nobody seconded it. Second. Second it. Um, but uh Bradley, is there an opportunity I'm kind of going back I'm sticking with the finance theme, but going back to the pre previous conversation. Yeah. Is there an opportunity to do a vote um to the residents in June so that we would have the money by November. [snorts] This is uh Mr. Ryan is we've had this conver Yeah. before. Peter, remind us the way the bud the way the district is set up with the November vote with the for November for no vote on the election other than the second question in November. No, the district would have to convert to the option of going back to having an April election on the budget like we
107did years ago before there was a was a cap. And then the then the vote would be uh the budget would and I'd have to check the the calendar and the rules. I'm not sure of whether it would be April or June. Great. But I believe it would all be in April um when they have the district would have a standalone election on the budget like it used to do years ago. Wouldn't June give us more information? There's no date in June. I believe the June is only if you were doing a refer a referendum, not a budget vote. I'm sorry. You can only do a June an August. The June would be if you were having a vote for um a referendum, not the budget. The budget. No, no, no. Yeah. No, I'm talking
108about a referendum. If we need to go out for a second question to to plug some of the the gaps in our staffing or our finances, we do. Can we do it in June? No. The the budget guidelines say you have the second questions get voted on November along with the general election. Referendums are different than second. Well, referendums are four or five times throughout the school year. The second question is by um by law mandated for November. Only November. We've only done a second question in November. Yep. I will go back and double check the calendar, but to the best of my knowledge, it's been only November. I will check that tomorrow. Check that. It doesn't seem to be my recollection, but I'm old and I may have forgotten. And just to clarify, it's
109if it's for operating budget, not capital improvement, I I just have to ask the question again. You're saying we can only do that in November. The second question doesn't is regardless if you're including that in the budget, it doesn't matter whether it's an operating item or a capital item, it's November. If you're doing a referendum saying that I want to float the bonds for $12 million for X number of construction only projects, that is multiple there's multiple times during the year for a referendum vote. Okay? And I can't just call this a referendum. No. Okay. Budgetary. Be creative with me, Peter. Work with me. A refere a referendum is a typical set amount normally for construction that you go out and float bonds and then it goes into the uh long-term debt and paid directly
110by the township and burrow outside of the 2% tax that's raised for the general levy. Thank you. Can't go out and vote to say we need money. What? Can't just go out there and say we need money and you can vote today, please. Has to be for capital improvements. We're just going to have to move to that to the future. Vote every year on the budget from now on or next November. All right. Agenda items B1 through B12. Miss Ross. Yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. Mr. Smith, yes. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, yes. And Miss Sharelli, yes. B1 to B12 passes 70. Okay, moving on to curriculum. Miss Ross. Yes. I'd like to move action items C1 to C4 on the regular agenda. Second. Seconded. Agenda item C1 to C4. Miss Ross. Yes.
111Miss Allen. Yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. Mr. Smith, yes. Ms. Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, yes. And Miss Cherelli, yes. Agenda items pass 70. Okay, perfect. Um, no policy. Nothing for policy. Oh, yeah. No, no, sorry. Any other board business before we go into executive session? No. Second public commentary. Doesn't look like anybody wants to say anything. All right, everybody. Good. We have an We have an executive session. Yes, we have an executive session. I think we're going to meet in a classroom over here rather than the band room. Okay. No action taken. Thank you. No action will be taken. Okay. No action.