Board of Education Meeting 4/27/21

001I'd like to call the meeting to order. And if we could uh please remember Steve Drew and his family. Uh Mr. Drew passed away last week and he was one of our past board of ed members. So if you could please remember him and his family. Please rise for the flag salute. >> I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] In accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meeting Act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the Herald News, the Suburban Trends, The Record, The Messenger, West Milford Town Hall, the County Superintendent Office, the Board Attorney, Cable Vision of Warwick, and West

002Milford TV77, and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, town library, and all district schools. Roll call. Mrs. Francisco. Mrs. Romeo >> here. >> Mrs. Stevenson >> here. >> Mr. Conklin >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> here. >> Mr. Gino >> here. >> Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Oshinski. Mr. Stillman >> here. >> Mrs. Van Dyke here. Okay. Uh, Dr. Hannimo, public hearing. >> Feel like we're always [Music] taking my spot. Sorry. >> It's not your fault. [Music] this stuff out, but we'll start. So, good evening everybody, evening board members, members of the West community. Tonight is our annual public hearing on the budget. This is for our school budget for next school year. This is the last step of our uh

003budget process which began in earnest probably uh around November this year. Thank you once again to our board of education uh not just the members of our operations and finance committee but the entire board. Our volunteer board puts in loads of minutes, loads of hours every every week, every month, all year round, uh helping out with the budget and decisions we make all year uh have led us to this moment. So, um it's been said that budgets are a statement of priorities, you know, so it's easy to say we support this, this, and this, but if you don't budget money for it, it's not that you're not really supporting it. You're just saying you're supporting it. So, I'm proud to work with this board because they have priorities and they fund those priorities. Small class

004sizes, neighborhood schools, uh fine arts, co-curricular activities, our buildings and grounds, these are all priorities that we have and these are things that we are funding. So, it seems to be a good process right now. Our budget right now has changed a little bit since our preliminary budget which would have been in March. Um the total budget is going to decrease by just under 1%. It's.99%. Our general front decreases by 1% on the button. Our admin costs are lower than a regional limit. So the northern part of New Jersey, the limit is 2419 per pupil. Our limit is 2072 per pupil. If you multiply that difference by about 3,000 students, you're going to find we have about a million dollars extra that's not spent on administrative overhead, but that's spent in the classroom, in our

005buildings and grounds, on our facilities, on our curriculum, on our technology. So, this budget as well as all the budgets that preceded it are putting money in areas where they're going to directly help children, which is what we're going to do. Um, M. Francisco, I alluded to the fact that this budget changed a little bit for March. Can you just amplify that a little bit? >> Yes. Um I've discussed with the board um that since March 9th when we approved the preliminary budget um we were um we approved uh the security vestibial project for the high school and Mcbin school. So in order to get that project done we have to incorporate that capital project into the 2122 budget. And what we will do is um the current budget will include a deposit into capital

006reserve so that we can um take the money that we know we were going to set aside in this year's budget and include it in next year's budget so that we can cover that cost. So we will be covering that with a deposit to capital reserve. Um, and um, it's important that I I verbalize that and let everybody know why we had to change the budget. Everything else is intact. And if you have any questions, we can discuss it a little bit further later on. >> Thank you. And we do have some we do want to allude to some of those changes later on in the presentation when we uh, get to the revenues, the expenditures, uh, we talk about the security vests, etc. So, it's all in here. um curriculum highlight. Mr. Novak, can

007you jump in here? >> Yep. This is a very similar to what I presented at our preliminary budget hearing uh last month. U I'm just going to go over a few of these points again. Um in our area of English and language arts, we um we've done a lot of work uh in the last uh we we call it our 5-year plan. We've completed a number of projects. So, we are at a um we are at a point where we are in review for those things that we haven't implemented. Um, you know, so often this work is really never finished. It's just a matter of what is our next goal, assessing how we've done for the things that we have in place and and how do we improve upon those things that we've we've been

008working on. So, a number of those items are on here. our balanced literacy program review. Um that was um that's referring to our uh K through 8 um process over the last 5 years where we brought in a uh literacy consult to uh work with our staff and and fine-tuned some of our um components of uh of our reading and reading and writing program. Uh this past year, which was was the um fifth year of that plan, has been a little bit different. And obviously um so we are in the process of reviewing the things that we um intended to accomplish you know before we transitioned to the type of environment we we were working in now. Uh before the pandemic, uh we had transitioned from a um very um instructional sort of model where

009our teachers were receiving, you know, uh meeting with our consultant and and talking about best practice and and planning units of study together to a program where it was an in-class coaching model where our um teachers were um communicating directly with our trainer and then having that um that person in the classroom with them and helping to work out those lessons on the fly. So, we're um we're in the process of reviewing that and planning for next year to try and get back to some of those some of the uh end pieces of that 5-year plan that we missed on um this year. Uh other piece we're talking about is our uh we implemented a new program in grades 3 through 5, the Sadler uh word study program which has been um you know well

010received in our uh in our elementary schools. Um we are taking a look at you know our implementation our and looking at you know one of the things that's also coming in this uh environment is some transition of different staff members in different positions in different grade levels. Uh we've had a number of retirements. So we have to take a look at people who are now going into these classrooms in grades three through five who haven't been trained in the process that we that we've had um to this point. Um we also with the addition of sixth grade uh to the um middle school taking a look at our 6 7 8 continuum and and making sure that we're we're on track with everything we need to do there. um math. We have some um

011uh in my opinion an exciting development with uh developing a relationship with Conquer Math where we're going to begin um some um a training process for our uh for our staff with a uh wellrespected um math consultant in in the northern New Jersey area. Uh so that is part of the budget that we're uh talking about tonight as well as the continuation of some of these things that we've had in the past. So, you know, we've highlighted Star Math and um the a newer program StMath that we've talked a lot about in here. Um but this is also referring to um you know things like link that we we've talked about. So although there's wicked has been a um it's not necessarily a new component of the school budget, it's something that this budget continues

012to support and I I believe I've I've spoken a number of times about um how fortunate we were to have had link this year and how it helped us through um everything from, you know, reporting data for the um spring assessment upload to having virtual um tools for our teachers to use that they had already been uh already been trained on. Next slide. Um another component which is um which is another exciting new development is the implementation of a K through5 science program that aligns us with the um which we were we've been working towards complete alignment with the New Jersey student learning standards for science over the last few years. And we believe that this program is sort of the um you know final piece of that puzzle that puts a very uh user-friendly

013resource uh into our teachers hands and provides our students across the district with a common experience where they really get to enjoy and and love science. Uh very different than a traditional science textbook. This isn't about you know science vocabulary. I like to quote um you know our science supervisor who likes to say science is a verb. Uh this is this is a program that enhances uh the hand on hand hands-on and discovery components of science and and really allows our uh educators to do the best that they can with our with our students in grades K through five um in social studies and I'm going to skip and put two together. Social studies, music, art, and foundation sciences. There are a number of um major changes to the uh standards in those uh in

014those content areas. So, we were going to uh our budget supports um the you know the summer work of getting our educators and our professionals together to to take a look at our curriculum, make some changes and potentially you know recommend for some new materials that you might see in um next year's uh next year's school budget. And also as always um you know West Milford uh boasts a robust industrial arts um program and and for any uh order for us to do that we have to keep those uh you know shops and equipment up to date. Um, also something that's not on the slide is, you know, I referred earlier to link it, uh, our current budget, um, is the continuation of some of the things that we've put in place in the past,

015class link, which I know has been, um, wildly successful in terms of single single sign on for our families, especially when we switched to a quick, you know, overnight we suddenly were a onetoone district. uh if we and you know the the uh implementation of class link really allowed us to uh enhance that. Um Lincoln as I link it um a number of the uh programs that we uh implemented for our staff with um with the pandemic. Perk, Screencastify, Cammy. Uh those are all a number of things that this budget supports the continuation of for you know for the um you know classroom classroom tools for our teachers to use. So our budget timeline uh as you can tell here this is the final step here the public hearing on the budget the board tonight

016and our fiscal year will begin on July 1st. So our budget basics we have half of it is in revenues, half is in expenses and our problem is that our revenues are declining but our expenses expenses are right. Salaries, benefits, uh utilities, transportation costs, the cost of textbooks, every little thing we have goes up in in price every year, but our revenues do not. So our tax levy is capped by the state at 2%. Our state aid this year declined dramatically over $2.4 million cut that we absorbing year-over-year and our federal aid could still be declining although this does not factor in the one time only CARES funding uh pandemic SA2 funding. Um, so our state reductions, uh, this is what the bill S2 was promised to us a couple years ago. In 2018, it

017was announced and this was going to be our cumulative cuts and this has been the revised number. So the actual close to 6 million already over four years. There are still three budget years left. 22 23 23 24 25. at this slope. It'll probably take us off the chart here. We'll have to redo the y- axis here just to keep up with it. So, I can do the cumulative cuts year over year for four years, close to $6 million. State aid as a percentage of our budget. It used to be a little bit over 25% of our budget. Roughly one quarter of our school budget was funded by the state in 20089. This year it's going to be about 12%. So it's more than cut in half and we are projecting it to settle in

018at about 7 7 1/2 8% in 3 years. So this is actual and this is projected down here. So what does this do? It puts pressure on the local taxes because if the state gives you less every year and your expenses go up, you have pressure on local taxes. Um the cap is on the local tax levy, not the overall budget. So it's not 2% of the full budget, it's 2% of the tax levy. Um approximately 80% of our revenues are in local tax dollars. So on this budget, we increase the tax levy by 2%. But that's only an increase in revenues of about 1.6%. Because it's not 2% of 100%, it's 2% of 80%. local tax levy as this board and the boards that have received it have done a great job managing the

019local tax increase year-over-year. The 10-year increase is 1 and a.5% that's spread out over 10 years as an average, which is considerably lower than just about any other district I've ever seen. Our budget in the long term, this is an 8-year trend. Our budget is unchanged over the last 8 years. It's actually up 6100s of 1% in eight years. And you can think about what did everything cost back here. We know cost has gone up in that time period, but the budget has remained almost completely flat. So the 2122 budget this shows you here is a 2% increase in the tax levy but because of the dramatic reduction in state aid the overall budget goes down by just under 3/4 of a million dollars which is a 1% reduction year-over-year. These are our revenues. You

020can see the big drop here and then there's some smaller drops in some other areas as well. Uh the restricted miscellaneous revenues has to do with the one-time building of a turf field. Last year the township chair that's no longer in our budget. And because our revenues are down to the right place and show that last slide. Here we go. This is our revenues from 2021 to 2122. And our expenses are down in almost every category because the bottom number tax impact on the median assessed home. The home has not changed in value is $242,000300. The average tax increase on that home is $126. Uh just over $10 $10.51 per month. Capital projects. Uh we had these into the preliminary budget. We did add the security vestibule at Macken and West Milton High School as

021well as some other pro uh projects that we have going in a telephone system, some abatement, paving, power replacements at the high school and Marshall Hill. Proposed cuts to get our spending down to where it needs to be. We have a cut in all different categories across the district. Uh most of these are by retire retirement or by attrition. There are two riffs which are under budget now. Um which we'll make tonight. And what does the future look like? Is that we got three more years of sharply declining state aid. Um we don't know what it look like. Uh we believe federal aid will decline as well and we know our expenses will go up. Salaries, benefits, bill maintenance, etc. This makes the press run local taxes and it cripples our ability to fund our

022capital reserve accounts, our maintenance reserve accounts, some of those rainy day funds that we need when we have a leaky roof for a boiler break or or something happen in the district. Anybody have any questions? >> I do. Um, I know this is a a very very austere budget and I know you people have worked very I know the administration has worked very hard on it. But I just I just have a hard time justifying this budget to the community for the following reasons. one, the $25,000 merit pay is still in there, and it there's no reason since the cap has been lifted. The second is our SAT scores. I mean, I hear Mr. um Novak, you know, applauding everything that's been done, but we're 173 out of 307 schools. How I just I don't

023know. I don't know. I'm worried. I'm worried that we're not going in the right direction. >> So, uh, we can definitely get that in the next with the presentation. I, you know, I just want answers as to why our scores are low. It has nothing to do with a U math supervisor because the kids that took this in 2019, 2020 did have a math supervisor. Um, you know, I just I mean, how do you say to a taxpayer, I'm going to raise your taxes $1051 $10.51 a month, but our kids aren't um our kids aren't uh being challenged. Our kids aren't doing as well as they should, you know. >> Yeah. So, just a not going to give you an answer, but just an explanation. So, uh, there's an article online today where they ranked

024ODA high schools by SAT scores just came out today. I really haven't had a chance to >> I got last week >> work through it. Um, but we can add that to our ET committee agenda for May to discuss it. Um, where we are, you know, where we came from, where we are, and where we're going. And hopefully, I know it doesn't help us right now, but we can uh we can discuss that in committee um for sure between uh now and May. But I know I know the community is going to have questions. That's that's way hands up on >> I just trying to wrap off what Terry's saying. We offer PSATs to what grades? >> All PSATs. >> Yeah. All >> not sophomores. >> Sophomores and juniors take PSAT. >> Yes. >> During

025school time? >> Yes. >> And that's in this budget? >> Yes. >> Okay. So that should be practicing. I don't know. >> That that makes me happy. I was worried that you were going to say just juniors. I wanted to hear sophomore. There was quite a bit of debate in this room. >> Y >> um about us using the PSAT. So we we wanted to support the PSAT. We had supported the PSAT in grades 9 through 11. >> Yeah. >> And then we we were um you know there was discussion about over testing and then we we backed off on that. The purpose of PSAT was to help try to get students more ready and more accustomed for SAT. But you you can't have it both ways. >> You can't back off the you know

026preparation for SAT. >> There should be preparation. But I mean yes we do offer is in in the budget but I just I'm sorry about why it's not supporting this work. So Terry, you mentioned the $25,000. What were you What's that piece that you're talking about? >> That's the merit pay for the superintendent. Um originally when the state capped superintendent salaries at 2%, they allowed merit goals and our district has five goals and they're given $5,000 per goal. Um I So I'm just thinking $25,000 could be put in a classroom. >> Um I'm really glad to hear that the knowing science program aligns with the NJL. I think I did that right. But the social studies, what are we going to do for social studies? Is there curriculum revisions happening for the summer? >> That's

027that's part of the that's going to be part of our our review when we look at um when we update for the standards. >> That's going to be the summer that you're going to be working on. >> Yes. So, we don't know if we need a new program yet. Our new our current program isn't that um isn't that outdated. Um I say that outdated isn't outdated. Um but we have to see if it uh addresses some of the new standards and some of those things that we need to do. So, we don't know if we need to replace the entire um program or find some supplementary materials to address some of the new new standards that are in there. May I ask a request cuz this came up last time when you um put in

028the into the agenda the science um program that was budgeted for thousands that if teachers can just have a look at some of the programs that you're you're going to be offering like if it's like a Nestrom geography if the teachers can have some hands-on um experience with it with their class that would be awesome. >> Like a pilot you saying? No, not necessarily like a pilot, just um seeing it and you know cuz I mean these programs these these companies want us to buy it, right? So they'll send you samples and I would love to know that a bunch of teachers are looking at different textbooks and different programs in our district to know what they would like best, not just the administration deciding what they think is best. That's my request. Yeah. >>

029When you're looking at it over the summer, is there I I think along on the back of what Courtney is saying is it's a team of teachers that are looking at these programs. >> Well, we're not looking at programs this summer. We're looking at we're looking at the standards this summer. >> Okay. So, we're still staying with the program we're in, >> right? >> Okay. Right. >> So, if we're going to do a new program, it would have to be something that's budgeted a year in advance. So like you know you were giving this presentation one year from today as well. >> And then I just had one more question. You said that our budget will support programs and cammy. Uh are we going to stick with class next year as well? >> We are

030going to Yeah. Continue the question. >> Okay. Deb question. Um can you clarify Mr. Novak the we in the sentence that we are going to be looking at the social studies program? Is that a kind of an administrative level or is that in a a committee level? >> No, we pay um you that's why I said is included in the budget is the um there is a amount of money budgeted for our committees which is um typically a mix of um department principal and teachers. >> Okay. Thank you. So then I I think what I'm hearing from from Courtney is is what she's saying is that she would like to see that when after the summer and you you get and you decide on what direction you're going that when you do look at the

031programs that it's brought to the teachers so that they have a they have a little more input. Not just say four teachers in a committee, maybe more teachers in the district have that type of input. >> And I think That is our typical pro. I mean, you name our last 20 implementations and maybe there's one description because I typically am seeing the same names on committees. So, I would I would like to just branch into like I'd like to know Westbrook has a sample for everyone to look at, everyone to feel, everyone to see. I'd like to know Ashawa has it. I'd like I would just like to know that everyone has the opportunity to see whatever it is that you're that you're implementing because I think that from what I've seen the committees have

032the same names and I and I understand that and I get that committees are made up of people who volunteer. >> Absolutely. I just would like to know the real life experienced teacher who has a moment on her lunch break to go into the teacher's room and check out. Oh, this is going to be the supplement to the social studies because we have new standards. Check it out. It's go to Apua next, you know, like and programs do that. I mean, you can get a set of something to experience and see. I just think that that would be a benefit to our teachers to know. I I just want to make sure that, you know, cuz a lot of people watching at home. I just want to make sure that the tone sounds as if

033we choose something and then tell them they have to do it. That's not the tone. That's not the tone that I've been a part of in West M. >> I'm glad to hear that. >> Right. So, just the the game plan is to get the budget approved tonight and then May or June have between May and June have teachers approved for summer hours for X not to exceed this many hours to review different things. So, some of our summer curriculum committees are paid curriculum committees. Obviously, it sounds like we want to have more this year, not fewer. Is that what I'm hearing? >> Instead of this many, have this many different >> even if it's the same number of hours, just a larger number of people. And that's something we could certainly work with over

034the summer. Um, and that's kind of the plan. But step one would be the budget tonight and then the the committees over the summer. I think that's a good idea. >> I think Debbie's next. >> Um, so when when teachers sign up for the committees, I just want to know the process. Is it and and let's say you're looking for four teachers and you get eight. Are you do you how do you choose a seniority um uh specialty? Um >> we don't typically get more than we need. Uh we typically look for um representation from all buildings. We try to look for representation of all grade levels. >> Okay. >> Um sometimes I mean if you take a look at the size of West Milford to get a representative from every building on every grade

035level, you're talking about a committee that that's not going to be you know very effective when you're when you're looking at a group that size. Um so we try to um you know we try to look at like I said a cross-section of grade levels cross-section of schools so that everyone is represented on both of those uh both of those criteria. >> Okay. Ray go is next and then you Okay. >> So um for curriculum highlights just so I I know the balance literacy program is that the Shelley Klein program. So, we're going to keep doing that next next year or that's we're done with the 5-year contract. >> This should be the end of this year. >> Well, we didn't um that's something we'll discuss at the next committee because um we didn't um

036with the current state of things, >> right? >> We didn't finish the program the way we intended year because last year happened the way it happened, >> right? So, year five turned into them supporting how to how to do at home units, >> digital readers and writers notebooks, that type of thing. So, uh, we didn't finish year five the way that we had intended. So, those are things that we're going to we're going to discuss. >> Okay. And then with math, I know we've got the three different programs. So, it was interesting. I was looking like kindergarten, first grade 5 through 8, they have one distinct program that they're working with, right? Which is STMath or STAR math. Grade two and four, it looked like there were two different programs that they're working with. And

037then in grade three you have three different programs we're working with. I I'm trying to get it wrap my head around. Is that going to working with multiple programs? Is that is that okay? Like will it confuse? >> Um so right now um in grades 2 through 8, everyone takes Star Math, right? And everyone in grades 2 through 11 take uh link. So um linkit is a linkit is the standardsbased assessment that is in uh language uh English language arts and math that's administered three times a year. Uh star is a shorter assessment and that's administered typically three to four times a year. Uh that's that's usually that's a little bit more um you know for you know like a teacher would take a group to do a guided reading group or or a writing

038record in in um reading to assess where students at. That's kind of how we equate with star math. It's a you know they don't necessarily have to use a particular time period. They could you know give a star math assessment when they think a student is you know jumping ahead or or lacking in some skills. they can just give that. It's ongoing. Lincoln assessments are, you know, a set um time period that we give three times a year. So, it's not really um you know, I don't think it's very um intrusive other than you know than the way it is now with the with the testing that they do. >> I think the confusion might be that you were thinking of them as programs. They're more just assessments. >> Correct. >> NSD math is just

039as we know a supplement. It's not an assessment. And that's really for K3. It's not >> right now it's K2. So I put K3 just in case we want to um take a look at that and and talk to our third grade teachers. And you know, we're still getting the feedback. Uh so far the feedback has been tremendous. Um so I'm I'm eager to get second grade teachers and third grade teachers talking together to see if it's something that we want to move forward with. >> Um >> what is Conquer Math? Is that replacing Bill Math? >> No. Conquermath is a uh training course. That's the organization that provides staff development. >> So next year's elementary students are going to have go math. >> Right now everyone is going to we we do not have

040a program replacement K5. >> Got it. >> We're maintaining the current program. This works on math best practices that you can use to enhance any program. >> And that's what we're going to be looking at. We're going to be looking at that over the summer. The math. >> Are you looking at the program? Yeah. >> Uh, >> is that >> No, not necessarily. We'll be looking We'll be looking at it over the next year. >> Oh, over the next year. Okay. >> So, if we're going to have a new program for September, we probably want to have that by January, >> right? Okay. >> 9 months earlier is what we're going to do. Training dates are set up for President's weekend, March, April. Yeah. All like that. So, we wouldn't be buying anything now that

041we would just be implementing in September. We're way past that deadline, right? >> Hey, did you have >> Yeah, I have a few questions. The first um is I heard tonight for the first time that there were two riffs, I believe. I heard you say. Yeah, >> correct. Uh can you talk about that please? >> So, it is one part is 1.6 art teacher which I believe is elementary. And then we have one just required music which is also mostly elementary but multiple schools. Um so the art cut may be at the high school cuz we could transfer somebody to the elementary school but the person being ripped. These are both uh uh first year teachers. So we had replacements midyear hires or earlier in the year hires uh in art in music. cut would

042be by attrition, retirement, etc. >> So, my next question is a couple of things about um and thank you Ry for starting this question about the Shelly Klein program. So, was there a refund if we didn't get to finish what we were doing last year? >> Well, they they worked, like I said, they they did something different. They worked with our staff. They they were um with us every uh every Wednesday. They were meeting virtually with our uh with our teachers. They were also preparing units for the um pandemic instruction. >> Okay. Um preparing units and it it's very rare that I remember a number on an agenda from months ago. Okay. So, the fact that I remember 60,000 this year for the Shelley Pine program is huge to me. Whether that impresses you or

043not, I don't know. However, for five years, we've paid $60,000 a year for a program. Um, >> not a program. Best practices. Anything that we discussed tonight that we didn't want to do next year, we could talk about possibly keeping a districtwide music teacher and a point sticker teacher. >> It comes up every time that this number go up, but it's not funded through local tax levy. >> Okay. why it's not part of this presentation in terms of that part a portion of it is >> okay >> but it's very small >> 75% of that funding comes from our title 2 funding which is our federal grant which is designated for staff development >> the title money >> which is right here I just said in our budget proposal it was review of >> and

044of so what was in the budget so Local funds are dedicated towards conquer math which is a professional development which is on our professional development budget of local funds. >> Okay. So quick math then we pay 75,000 over 5 years out of our taxes and the rest comes out of my point is >> approve up to so we didn't spend that much money on them this year because they they get approved for for their per DM and then they get approved for not to exceed this number. >> Okay. >> So this year we did not use as much as we um approved. So that money comes back to me and to our students and to our staff and our title one title two grant for money that I'm able to carry over into the next

045year. Okay, >> which is the process we are involved with now is preparing for next year's grant application that includes the money that we encumbered but we didn't use to move forward. >> Great. um totally crazy request not I mean this is budget if when if we can in the future then on an agenda using the shel program for example when I'm approving it if it reads on the agenda uh 75% of that being this much paid out of and this much paid out of grant 2 that would be very helpful you know moving forward because that is something that I recall being an exorbitant amount of money for a supplemental you know one hair. Um, and it I often think about that. So, if it was rooted differently, then you know if it's going

046to get a little better, you know, so that would be good for the future. But I guess I'm just um >> Hey, I think I think the one thing you need to know is that that number should be in the budget, right, Barbara? The way it's broken down by the percentage, right? In the budget itself, our book. >> Yeah. >> Because sometimes you see in our budget book, there's salaries that are broken down 40% comes through this. >> So it should be in our budget book like that. I I mean I it is >> isn't it coded in our agenda as well that it's a certain percentage coming from a certain one code versus and then a certain percentage coming from a different code. >> Yeah. The resolution where you normally approve something like that

047will explain that which line which uh expenditure lines the money is coming from. There there are a lot of my there are a lot of things in the budget when you look at it. It'll it'll be in parentheses there that say title money, you know, underneath it. >> Yeah. Sometimes it it's in the budget book. Sometimes you'll see a salary of teachers at high school. There salary will be 60% here, 40% there. >> To find out what they make, you have to really just have to add them together. >> A lot of little things like that in the budget program. the the the title money doesn't show up in your budget. Just local money shows up in the budget books that you get, >> right? >> The title money because we really don't know what

048our entitlement is going to be until the spring sometime because it's a triple down from the federal government. So, we have to basically make do. We have a a rough idea, but we have to basically make do. So, if we appropriate, if we put like $25,000 in local funds, we plan on using the other the title money for the balance, whatever it might be. >> Okay. >> Um, you mentioned that there was going to possibly be a math consultant. Where's that money coming from? Is that title funds as well? >> That is um part it's partial um same as the not the same partially from our local budget and also title two to supplement. It's more it's more local than our um balance literacy has ever been >> because I think um you know what

049Kate and Ray and and I are are kind of all on the same page together is I think that teachers don't really want somebody telling them what to do. I think teachers want a program. They don't they know what best practice is. I think that a program would be what teachers want. So, I get that. You know, it's not >> Well, to put that in a different way, teachers know what their students need. >> Exactly. >> It's not just they don't want to be told what to do. They know what their kids in their classroom need and then it's given to them from someone else who doesn't know their kids. >> Exactly. Absolutely. And I think that like having a program like having a set there is no set program. There's no set program for

050writing right now in West Milford. There's your best practice practice Shelley Klein program, but that's not a program. That's a publishable program. That's what balance literacy is. It's just best practice. I think having a program is what our teachers would learn. That's just >> I'd be I'd be happy to share our writing program at the next ed committee and we've talked about this if you want to see. We do have a >> to see it. >> We do have a writing program. >> I would like to see it. We do have writing fundamentals. We've started with the writing fundamentals units that Rory purchased program, but we've been using our consultant to adapt them to the needs of our staff. And that's exactly what's been going on in these last 5 years. So I guess my

051question would be then when the when the Shelly when Shelley Klein comes and does her trainings they they they are targeting the individual buildings and the individual teachers for what their needs are. >> Yes. Yeah. The teachers um you know the teachers ask questions. They they have feedback. they you know have these elaborate discussions around the topics that they discussed at uh at that meeting. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. [Music] that [Music] I don't know. >> Yes. Can I just try to wrap my head around different models? It seems like we have a lot of consultants in a lot of different areas. Why are we hiring all of these consultants? That's I'm just trying to figure this out from a budget perspective. Why do we have all of these different consultants

052in all these different I mean a consultant basically tells somebody what to do and I just of believe people believe more their ideas than your ideas. >> Sorry I didn't turn that on. >> It's okay. >> That would be a question for Dr. Maybe maybe it's a discussion that has to come through education >> or or even >> on the next education. So So it's interesting talked about mass. Everyone wanted to know you know what are other districts doing. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So this is you know what other districts are doing. When you take a look at some of the best performing districts that are out there you know Terry referenced uh SAT scores. when you take a look at those top hundred, you take a look at what these people are doing. Uh

053I'm I'm very involved in my county group. I've mentioned that many times. Um so we talk, we communicate, we talk about the types of things that people are doing with their staff that has moved the needle. Um so you know, so I'm not I'm not saying that in in reference to one particular initiative that we have. Um but that's that's a lot of what we do. You know, the answers aren't always just here in West Milford. Sometimes you have to look beyond the walls of West Milford and see what successful districts are doing. So the use of a consultant like Conquer Math, if you take a look at Conquer Math and Nancy Schultz, uh very well renowned, uh has tremendous um you know, success with the districts that that they've worked with. Um so we've

054talked about math quite a bit u in this room with with numerous boards. Um so it's it's a different approach. You can give anyone a program if they don't know how to use the program. If they don't know how to best teach algebra 1 or if they don't know how to best teach students fractions with quez and air rods and all those types of things, they're not going to get that out of a program. The program doesn't teach them how to use manipulas. The te the program doesn't teach them how to um focus on Bloom's taxonomy. all of these things that are, you know, from the research field of of education, they're not going to get that by handing them a textbook and walking away. So that that's my something we'll talk about educational >>

055and just really I mean I just again that's something for me like thinking out loud. I don't I don't know there's an answer to that and and I know that other school districts they do the same thing like again just as I think about the dollars and and how we spend them you know and and we hire consultant after consultant is there a way to streamline that you know in a more efficient way with our dollars that that's right that's how I'm kind of looking at it right because we're talking about budget I'm not I'm not even necessarily thinking from the education I'm just thinking about the budget and what we're talking to the people in town about and and how their dollars are being spent, right? So, I just want to be good stewards

056of of the township taxpayer money. >> So, title title two that a majority of these professional development initiatives and consultants are funded through is specifically designated by the federal government for professional development activities. So that is what um that is what we are able to use for funding for a majority of it. Very little of the professional development that we've uh contracted with has come from uh come from local funds. We probably do some of that like there's grant money and all kinds. I I I understand if maybe that's something for another day and another meeting to just kind of delve into so folks know we are doing what we need to do to make sure that we're spending right the taxpayer money wisely and like we're not just kind of putting these things together.

057We're not hiring six consultants in six different areas just because we feel like there is a method to that. >> The only thing I just want to say to back up I know I work closely with him is that I don't want the public or the board to think that any consultants that also come in that it's just like one stop they come in right that the money is not well spent because I'm a taxpayer too. So is Mr. Novak. We what I can tell you is that even when a consultant comes in and maybe trains or provides information I have always seen you have an extensive or the supervisors have an extensive plan as to how that's going to still carry out and sometimes and I hear you is saying well it's always people

058from the outside but also and Mr. Novak and I are both you know experts in our field as you say both presidents of the county group but sometimes the people here don't want to hear from just us right they want and they ask for people from the outside to come in so I think it is a discussion that's more of an education type discussion with a balance as to what can we do within but also who should we utilize from without you know and I think that that's something that you're right um I think you said it was like that that's probably like a future discussion to continue with you know >> when when I sit here and I hear it too it's like you know some of this is just words. Okay, I will

059say and I'm only using this as an example. When we talked about the STM math and in committee we had the chance to hear about ST math from somebody who represents STM math. It gave I think it gave a little more insight to the the board members who are present so that we understand what we're buy what we're paying for. And I think that's really what you're saying like if we can see I think what they see how they're handling the train. I understand about the professional development and the title money because that money needs to be used exactly for what we're doing. >> But it's important that as stewards of the tax dollars everybody understands where that is going and why we're utilizing that. >> Lena, you're right. I do want to say um

060the guy that came to committee I I do not think he gets paid by STMath. So he wasn't representing SDM math, he uses SDMath in his district. He's a superintendent and a board member in another district. So I just wanted to say like it wasn't like he was paid to come to our committee meeting and talk to us, you know, and he gave us a good he was able to give us that that side of it so that we understood it. And I appreciated that Mr. Novak did that and that Dr. so that we could get a better understanding of the program. I I mean I think this is going to be an ongoing conversation that we will continue to have. >> I think it's a good discussion to have about there have to be

061some PD. How much is too much? How much is not enough? And who's leading it? >> Those are all discussions we have to have. >> I I have one last thing just about the budget for me. Um so I'm all for programs. I'm all for consultants. um definitely for our best practices and Dan I am definitely going to be quoting you in the future. We need to look beyond West Milford and look at what successful districts do. Thank you. Yes, that is part of why I'm on this board because that is exactly what we need to do. Data driven looking around and be better than what we are. Status quo is not okay. I get that. With that, I have to say I'm upset tonight cuz I came in feeling really good. I didn't know

062we had risks. I know I missed the last committee meeting. Was that discussed in committee last week? Last week >> they were they were discussed. >> Yeah. So, um I'm upset about the riffs and I want to be assured that that that is that our students education is no different next year than it was this year with losing to 1.6 staff members cuz my last sentence is this. Programs are great, but people are better. And the more people that we can put into the lives of our students, whether they be counselors, social workers, teachers, people in our buildings that work with our students every day. People are better than programs. So, I'm upset just about the risks. I know I asked what they were. I just want to hear a little more about them because

063I didn't know. And I'm sorry that I missed committee. >> That's okay. We've had uh obviously no declining enrollment. So the cuts won't be felt as much as they would be felt if our enrollment was the same or if it was increasing you'd feel it more. But with the declining enrollment, we've had our graduating 12th grade be larger than our entering K every year for a number of years. And it may not be a lot different, but those a reduction of 25 students 20, you know, 25 students every year over time adds up to a significant amount of students. So with the almost $2.5 million cut in state aid, it I want to say it's the best we can do. It's not perfect. It's not ideal cuz our teachers make the district, but it's just

064we're not getting any support from Trenton. And um you know I tell my colleagues you know how much we had cut and you know they're floored. They think we're losing you know 30 people and you know we kind of shaved it down in other areas and a retirement here or there helped out but >> um there's always going to be you're going to feel the cuts because you're losing good people. >> Yeah. >> Um but no an alternative to get our revenues to meet our expenses and have to balance. So, um, >> and all programs are staying as it? >> No, we're not losing any programs for music and art. >> Obviously, if we should have retirements from this point forward in certain areas, you could always bring somebody back um in in those areas.

065So, >> thank you. >> And I just want to say too is that although our enrollment is is lower in the high school, we're starting to see that little bit of bump in the ele, you know, with in the elementarymentaries where maybe more and more people are moving in. So, it's going it's kind of like a cycle that we're going to be going through too. So, we need to keep that in mind because there may come a time where we have to add something and having that cushion maybe is going to be a good thing, you know, because right now we're not slammed with enroll where we have big large classes. I mean, there are districts that are cutting schools because of these cuts from the the the state. So, you know, I I have

066to say thank you for to Barbara and Alex and and Liz and Dan for putting the work that they did into this budget. I mean, there's always stuff that we can tweak and, you know, everybody has something that they identify and say, I think we could get rid of that, you know. So, and I appreciate all the input from each board member because this is a long process the budget and you know I I think we're I think we're at a good spot with the number but of course it could always be better you know according to different people. So any other questions? If not I think we're going to move on to Dan. You're on again. [Music] >> Yeah. So, I just wanted to uh um provide a little update. I know we've spoken

067a lot about um changes we've had to encore uh in grades K through five this year and how um our support for a entirely virtual cohort uh forced us to shift some staff members and and um you know we have limited resources for for Encore programs to this point. So, it's um in our recent transition in our return to school plan that began on March 29th where we started to invite back um class uh grade after grade for 5-day inerson instruction. We had a significant number of students who chose to uh leave the virtual cohort and come to 5 days of inperson instruction. that gave us the uh ability to review staffing and to make some adjustments in our uh virtual cohort staff and we were able to put encore support services back in all

068six elementary schools. Um so it's uh it was exciting development. I'm hearing from principles and uh parents quite a bit that they're grateful to have the opportunity. It started um full swing about uh pretty much I think the day after we returned. So last Monday, the day after we got back from spring break um groups of students started to meet with their encore teachers and um you know begin that work that we we have to do for taking a look at what this year has meant and and how we uh correct some of those things. Um so that's one thing. What's not on the agenda? I just wanted to comment on um you know, I know our student representative isn't here. She probably would have mentioned the all district arts festival which is Thursday night.

069Um with with the um restrictions and the type of environment we're in, uh we are inviting two um two guests per participant. So, it's not an open event to the community as it has been in the past just because of our uh because of our restrictions. Uh the governor lifted um the numbers of people who can attend an outdoor event, but that doesn't take place until May 10th. Um so, we are keeping it to two guests per participant. Um but we got a Dr. grandmother and I walked and we saw the um for the first time in a long time. We got to see all six fifth grades come to the high school safely distanced, practiced their instruments outdoor and they they played we were like blown away by what they were able to produce

070in such a short amount of time. They haven't they haven't had their instruments for quite for for a long time and what we had heard them put together um to rehearse for Thursday night was was pretty tremendous. So, I I just want to give a um you know, one reminder about the event for the participants. Two, I'm going to be sending a Honeywell tomorrow night that has a link. There's a QR code link for the K12 virtual um art festival. So, in the past, we've done our art and industrial arts festival um in person. It's all going to be um virtual. There's going to be a slideshow. votes broken out by um by grades and a and a good representation of of our K12 students across the district. So, I'm going to send that link

071out. Um it'll go live um on Thursday night when our presentation for all district arts begins. Uh so, I just want to u you know make those make those announcements. >> Thank you very much. Um Mrs. Francisco, special reports and correspondence. I believe that you have some minutes to approve from the March 9th uh meeting, the preliminary budget and executive session and the March 23rd meeting uh which was our workshop regular and exec session. So those are there for your >> I need a motion move to approve the uh following board minutes. March 9th preliminary budget, March 9th executive session, March 23rd workshop regular meeting, and March 23rd executive session. >> I need a second. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> I have to abstain from March 23rd. >>

072Okay. President's report. Um, I was just going to say I I'm so happy to be able to say that everyone is back in the schools and I've run into a number of teachers and they are so excited to have their students back in the classroom. Um, I I have to say I didn't know if we were ever going to get here, but I I'm very happy to see that like you see these kids out and they're they're happy to be out and being being in school again. And I have to say thank you to Dr. Anamone and and Mr. Novak and Liz and Barbara for all the hard work, our transportation department, all of our staff because we really are doing a good job here as far as getting everyone back. And I think hopefully

073it will help with the mental health and make kids feel good and be able to to leave their school at the end of the summer in summer and be able to enter their building and be happy again. And uh I really appreciate everything everyone's done and it's nice to see I rode past and I saw some kids out on the playground and I thought, "Wow, this is really neat to see kids playing outside on the playground." So, and I was just going to touch upon the art festival, too, for April 29th. I'm looking forward to seeing that. So, I'm glad to hear about that. Okay, I'm going to take this down because this takes so long. Public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to members of the public for the purpose of addressing

074the resolutions on the agenda only. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to five minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All members of the public speaking during the public comment period are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and to give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered, and a response will be forthcoming if and when

075appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged, and the board and the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in the light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Would anyone like to speak under public comment? [Music] >> Okay. I guess I have a couple questions. >> Just if you think you

076let us tell tell us your name, your address, and your name and address. >> My name is Christopher Econom. I'm a West Milford resident. I'm on 842 Maxin Road. I have a son in the uh kindergarten cohort at Ashawa school >> and uh like like you said uh having the kids back in school full-time has definitely been uh I know it took a lot of hard work from everyone on the board. Thank you for that and uh you know I think it is really good for especially the younger kids. Uh one of the things I think a lot of parents me I'm very very disappointed with is the mask um the mask mandate with schools. I mean we could go to a restaurant sit down and eat take your mask off. You know, I kind

077of think why can't a kids come into school, sit down at their desk, and take their mask off. Um, you talk about mental health and things like that with kids. I think that's hurting them more than anything right now. You know, and I understand the state has mandates that are in place and I think there's there's certain things that we should be pushing back on right now. And uh, when it comes to our kids mental health, I think that's very important. Sorry, I didn't have time to parent sound practice, but uh but yeah, I just I wanted to stop by and just throw my two cents in on there. It's uh definitely been difficult as a parent to watch my kid walk into school every day with a mask on and and the frustration that

078he feeling. He's only five and I know he's feeling frustrated from it, but um I'd like to see that come to an end soon. >> Well, I'm hopefully >> that will happen. >> So, yeah. I mean, >> we have no control over that. >> Yeah. Is there anyone? I mean, I've reached out to people on the board, you know, in the past and kind of stopped getting responses from some people, but um >> Well, we will we will not respond to you. Uh we're not allowed to really respond to individuals. If you send us an email or something, each board member usually forwards um to Dr. Anamone and then Dr. Anamone would take care of it. >> Yep. Understand. >> If you need to, he can always You could always contact him. >> Yep. Yeah.

079I've reached out to Dr. before. I don't But uh is there anyone else that I could reach out to? maybe above above that to to get some kind of move in on this. >> The governor >> any direction the governor >> Yeah, the governor is >> just it's still a state mandate for masks indoors. >> Yeah, >> there's talk of CDC released something today about masks outdoors. They're recommending don't be done. >> My guess is the New Jersey Department of Health will follow suit shortly. Um but those are outdoor situations, not necessarily indoors. So, we're in a wait and see with the state, but um soon as we know, we'll share that with the community. >> I mean, indoors, I mean, like like I said, it's the same thing like a restaurant. You have a

080capacity that you could reach where people are indoors without masks on. As long as they're, you know, you're with your group at your table. You're socially distanced from other people. And I mean, as far as I know, I mean, I haven't been in the school yet, but as far as I know, the kids are all socially distanced at all times in the school. Their desks are all 6 ft apart, right? Or at least three. Um, you know, like I said, I can't understand why when they're stationary at their desk, why they can't take their mask off. >> Well, I I think probably if you wanted to, you could write a letter to the governor or email and y >> that might be where to start or the department of health. >> Health would be another

081>> avenue cuz our our guidance document which was updated a short while ago was is from directly from the department of health. So my my guess and I guess from Dr. our estimate is that they will update that again. Okay. especially now that CDC so they update it as there are changes but we take the guidance directly from department of health department if you reach out to that department or express your concerns or questions I think that that would be good to do it >> perfect thank you very much thank you for your time too I know you're all working very hard thank you >> hey Liz is that um state county like you go to the state county um website >> so we we go we um communicate as far as our contact tracing

082with the state county department of health but really the the the New Jersey Department of Health is who puts out the guidance for the schools. Got >> and to be honest with you, I don't know who the contact would be at New Jersey Department of Health. >> Kate, uh, anyone else? >> If you don't mind if I ask another question. Um, has have the school nurses noticed any has there been any um like cases of students coming to the to the school's nurse not feeling well from wearing a mask or anything like that? Is any of that happening or, >> you know, that to be honest with you, I I I'd have to go back and kind of check on that particular question with our nurses. I know that they haven't brought that up in

083our weekly meetings as something that has come up. Okay. >> But what we can do and that's something that we can now that you expressed that your child, >> you know, just feels that the m that the mask is like frustrating in some way, then what we do is we usually then would increase the mask breaks for that child or increase the mask breaks in the class. So we can so I can follow up on that. >> Okay. Um, and is is there any reports on like transmission rates within the school district or >> So, we constantly monitor that with the epidemiologist that works with us and the nurses at Payday County Department of Health. >> Okay. >> Uh, what I what I can tell you is that we have not had any identified outbreak

084with the Department of Health in our in our schools. >> Yeah. So, that's kind of kind of what I'm getting at too is I kind of want was hoping for support from from people who are more than just, you know, one resident um to reach out and say like, you know, enough's enough already. Um, you know, I I think a lot of us in here know that this isn't protecting pretty much anyone from anyone, but especially young kids from, you know, I mean, any teacher who wants to be vaccinated could be vaccinated by now. Um, I don't think even before the vaccine came out, kids weren't putting anyone else at risk, especially young kids. And, uh, I was just kind of looking for some support from from other people who were um, you know, maybe

085higher in the board that could also kind of push that. >> Yeah, we we just follow the guidance that we that we're like mandated to follow. Okay. >> Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? If not, I need a motion to close um public comment. >> Like to close public comments. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I There's a someone listed. Are they they did they sign up to anything? >> She did email and ask to be taken off. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Uh, I just have one. It's Did you vote already? >> Yes. >> Okay. Just have one amendment to the >> I have to make correction. >> Okay. I have no corrections to the agenda. Page 11. >> Personnel student affairs resolution number 18. At the top of page

08611, there's a handful of names that are approved for subteer, sub nurse. >> On the top of page 11, there's Kyle Clinic. That should be Kylie. K Y L I E. >> Okay. And on that same second name, there's a Nicholas Patron listed twice. So you could strike your woman name. >> Okay. And um I realized that I neglected to include something on the budget resolution. So um in the um where it says the the total amount 58 million960,514 >> the next paragraph is going to say be it further resolved that budget line 76360 include a $300,000 deposit into capital reserve. for the security vessage page. >> You're on page four on the budget resolution 500 after after it says the total 58,960,1514 >> further resolved. There's going to be another paragraph that's going to

087say be a further resolve that budget line 76360 include a $300,000 deposit into capital reserve for the security vestibial renovation. So that's going to tie into the increase in the capital reserve withdrawal that is in the next paragraph. Okay. Does anyone have any questions about that? It's basically a flow through from this year's budget into next year's budget. >> That was what you explained to us before. You >> said that earlier. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, we need >> we need to also hand carry. We have a hand carry for personnel with four items on it that'll be going in there also for the uh motion. So now we need a motion >> like to make a motion to adopt the agenda present with the changes and hand. >> I need a

088second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay, we're going to move on now to operations and finance. Um, Mike, would you want to take that? >> Sure. Do we have sound yet? >> I think so. >> We get sound. >> Yeah. I think it's back on. >> Okay. >> All right. Make a motion to approve item number one on the agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? This is the budget item. Okay, no discussion. All right, Barbara, roll call, please. Mr. Garino, >> uh, yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> stay. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Conklin, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. [Music] Now you can move probably everything. >> Move uh

089to approve items two through 10. >> I need a second. >> Jason. Okay. Uh just as a come, resolution number seven, Dr. Ammo, did you want to comment on that? That's the one from >> Yeah. So, resolution number seven is [Music] resolution number seven. As you know, we joined uh a consortium called SOS, support our schools. Uh this is the group of districts like us that are being affected by the state aid cuts under S2 and we are all in unison uh approving this resolution to essentially oppose the the state agencies in light of the pandemic and just in general. We're going to be losing approximately $10,000. That's just an estimate. It could be more, it could be less. Um, so we're going to be approving, hopefully approve this tonight and setting it down to

090uh politicians in Trenton because there's no good reason to be cutting so many good efficient school districts at all, let alone in the middle of a pandemic when the state government borrowed I don't even know how many billions of dollars. >> four billion to get through the year and now they have more money than they know what to do with. So they have and we thought at the very least they would hold this year's cut one year in obeyance um but they didn't. >> So um we'd like your support on that and we will be sharing this with the community as well. >> Thank you. Any other discussion on the motions? >> I have a question. >> Go ahead. >> On motion number four I see that we're going to pay a management fee of

091$63,000. What did we pay last year? probably somewhere close to that. Their management fee really doesn't increase. Um, we originally approved next year's contract last month and then the Department of Agriculture came back and said that the administrative costs for fingerprinting and some of the other things that have to be accomplished before somebody could start because don't forget now the workers are mostly Ponttonian workers and not district employees any longer. So all of that um couldn't be part of our operating expenses that we respond repay them re reimburse them. It had to be part of their operating expenses which gets included in the management fee. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? Okay. If not a roll call. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Miss O'Brien. Yes, >> Mr.

092Stillman. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwer. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes, >> Mr. Conflin. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> Next one. >> All right. Uh motion to approve item 11. >> Second. >> Okay. Discussion. If not, roll call. Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. Dean. >> Mrs. Mr. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Miss O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Conlin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> abstain. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> abstain. [Music] >> Next one. >> Motion to approve items 12 through 15. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Okay. If not, roll call. >> Mr. Dino. Yes, >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes, >> Ms. O'Brien. >> Yes, >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes, >> Mr.

093Conklin. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, Mrs. Stevenson, personnel, student affairs. Remember, you have a hearing. Make a motion to move items 1 through 54 and party number one item 55 through 58. >> I had to write it down. >> Any discussion? There's numerous Mr. Gorina. I I would just like to say uh congratulations to Phyllis on her uh retirement and uh maybe moving on to her next career as a meteorologist. So Phyllis as my friend um >> you know we always like to talk weather. So congratulations and good luck in the future. >> Any other discussion? If not, I I also want to say, you know, congratulations retirement. We have uh Mary uh Posnak and Laura Diamond. Uh Laura Day. We also have uh Pam Sastray and Bruce Casparrow.

094Um I wish them well in their retirements. Any other discussion? Barbara Roll call. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. Hi. abstain from uh 30 31 and 35. Yes to the rest. >> Mrs. Romeo >> abstain from 34 35 47 48 and 50 >> 34 35 37 >> Nope. 34 35 47 48 and 50 >> 48 and 50. 40 48 and 50. >> You got it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes to everything else. >> Okay, Mr. Coughlin. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Abstain from number 30 and 31. And yes, papers, >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyke. Okay. I abstain to 30, 31, 34, and 35. And yes to everything else. Mrs. Dwer, we were okay with that, right? >> Mhm. >> All right. Move

095to approve items one through eight on education. Second >> discussion >> not roll. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Greeno, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Conklin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo policy. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to move 1 through 17 under policy. Any discussion? Okay. If not, roll call. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Miss O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mr. Conklin, >> yes. >> Mr. Go. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Committee reports, parks and wreck. Mr. Stillman, >> no. >> Okay. Safe safety. Um, there is no report

096for this month. I believe we have a meeting next month, May 12th. Superintendants roundt. >> We have a meeting on Thursday morning. >> Okay. P County school boards. >> No meeting in April. Next meeting May 24th. >> Oh, okay. New Jersey school boards. I don't have anything. Do you? >> I have nothing. Okay. Legislative. Mr. Ofinski is not here. Technology. Mr. Gino. >> Well, you saw that they're working on uh you know upgrading the phone system finally. Uh, another thing that uh is is coming because we all know that Honey Well is uh going away. Uh, school messenger um seems to be the the choice as we move forward. There hasn't been very good success with that and uh we're going to move forward with that as we get through this year. I think there

097might be some test runs with that. um the audio system for the board meetings. I think that the folks at home will probably be um uh excited to hear that. Uh we have we think we've found a vendor thanks to um Robert, but especially Joey Jordan who's helped us with uh finding uh the right uh type of equipment that we need to more effectively be able to communicate so people can hear what we say. um we we'll have mics that uh that will work properly. I think everybody will will have mics. So that's an exciting thing that uh hopefully will be coming uh sooner rather than later. Uh and uh the Chromebook, right? So the Chromebooks, there will be a process at the end of the year that we think will'll make it as simple

098as possible for people to turn their Chromebooks and know that people that may be doing some of the uh summer programs, I think it is, right, Dan? like some of those students may uh they'll end up keeping uh Chromebooks so they can use them over the summer. Is that right? >> Yeah. ESY and summer reading program. [Music] >> Sounds good. >> Y >> uh township um we haven't heard anything >> from anybody about any meetings. Okay. Uh West Milford Municipal Alliance. >> Oh, I'm sorry. got >> I think the um that that joint committee I I think that uh hopefully we will have a meeting scheduled again uh sometime in May. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think there has been some conversation that you had spoken with the mayor, right? >> So, so the goal is

099hopefully to restart some of those meetings in May. We really didn't have things to discuss, but now that we've got our budget approved, I know that the town's going to work through some of that. I think we can get back to having some of those meetings over coming up. >> Okay. Hopefully. Municipal Alliance West Milford. >> There was a meeting on Monday, April 12th. Um up for discussion that evening is National Night Out on Tuesday, August 3rd. Um they created a subcommittee to organize and their first meeting was asking Success Center. Uh there's a discussion on offering scholarships to graduating high school students who participated in the heroes and kids program that's under a subcommittee as well. Um Kathy, the the head of the WMA, is very busy working on the federal grant um to

100get more programs and more events into get more funding for WMA. And [Music] Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, May 23rd, if you have nothing going on in the morning, come on down to the West Milford Rec Center for the third annual Scots Fun Run. I even registered by using these little pickies over here. So if I can do it, you can do it, too. So Sunday, Sunday, funday, be there. I'll be there. I hope to see you there. >> Just to be clear, the doohickey is our QR codes. >> Is that code? I don't know. They're whatever. >> Thank you. >> That's what they do now. They do. They said, "Do you click the >> No, you got to be kidding. But I did it." >> Yeah. >> And I didn't destroy my phone. >> Thank you.

101>> Old business. Anyone have anything old business they'd like to discuss? >> I did. >> Okay. Um the high school senior prom. How >> is that going? >> Senior prom is going to be the first week in June. >> Okay. >> Um dates on my office. I don't have it here. It's the first Thursday, >> June 3rd. >> The third. >> It's at the Valley Regency in Clifton >> and uh we're excited about it. >> So, I know Governor Murphy effective May 10th yesterday just lifted the ban on dancing at banquet halls. >> So, you can if you're at a wedding or any kind of prom, you can dance. The ban on dancing in regular bars will remain move forward. It's going to be like foot moose where you can dance. You can't dance in

102certain places for certain reasons. But we're excited about the senior prom. I think the bids going out this week or maybe >> I think they they already came in. I think I think it ended this f last Friday I think was the last day for the bid. >> We're excited for our class of 21 to have some sense of normaly. And uh this is on our agenda for SRT this week to speak to the uh different PDA presidents because we have end of the year activities at all the three different all three levels of school >> and and we're still going for the drivein for graduation. >> Correct. So we're going to be at the Warwick drive-in for high school graduation on June 15th. It'll be uh similar to last year perhaps with a couple

103new wrinkles. Uh we'll have to wait >> some surprises. Let's say they need a surprise. Everybody needs something like a surprise. Uh the other thing with gradu with uh graduation, I'm hoping that we have the parade route so that maybe we can get it out to the paper so that they can publish it cuz I have people saying where can we go because they loved it so much last year. Like they they want to be out there. >> We'll have to get that out there. It was we'll have a little bit more time to plant this year than last year. But >> um it does cover all or almost all the different neighborhoods in town on its way. It's a pretty secuitous route up to Warwick. So we go out of the way a little

104bit just so every neighborhood can come out to the street and and give us a wave or a honker or whatever. So uh it's fun night. We're looking forward to it. Fingers crossed for good weather. >> Any other old business? >> I need I need a motion. >> I'd like to make a motion to close all business. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? New business. Courtney. >> I just want to give a shout out to Westbrook. Um, not only because my kids school, but because they did something that I think really brought the community together. They had a hybrid tricky tray over the weekend and it was amazing. We had people coming from all um schools. It really was so well done. Um, and I think it was just the

105highlight of the weekend for people to get out. Um, so kudos to them. Um, and also I wanted to give a shout out to the musical that's happening at Matin on May 7th and 8th. Um, Matin is doing some really awesome things that I don't think other, you know, schools or districts are doing. He talked about the district arts festival, which our district is doing prom. Um but you know these are awesome things that I think we should just highlight um the musical you know graduation all that stuff and May 24th is the high school year. >> It's the 20 it's May 21st 22nd and 23rd I think >> 21st 2 into the woods. >> They're doing into the woods. Yes. And it was good to hear today that the governor opened up the inside

106seating. So maybe it'll be a little bit better, >> but it's probably going to be open to the parents, >> right? Which is doing too. They're allowing two guests per per person, which I think is I mean other school districts aren't doing anything. So we're so lucky to have such people that are such wonderful people that are um leaders and and taking the reigns and making these great festivals and performances for our community and our kids. Well, I have to say they were working on the sets this weekend and what I was told was this is normal. So, you know, we're all there's little things that are bringing everybody back to normal and everybody's getting excited. >> Uh Kate, um so I have a strange request, Linda. I think this is the request to you.

107Um, I'm wondering if maybe in a future meeting in your president's report, I don't know, maybe it's not me, but I'm looking for an explanation, a purpose, a mission statement, something for each committee and liaison that we have. So, I think I've had a lot of questions that I just couldn't answer. Like, so what is the safety committee? Who do they meet with? What do they do? I really don't know cuz I'm not on that, you know. Um, so I think it would be cool to just hear these committee reports are amazing. You know, even though this year we have had a lot of not reports, but still, um, what is the purpose to the board and to our schools for each one? Kind of just an update in >> I think they're in our

108bylaws. It's states why someone that they could look at the bylaw. >> Well, I'm I'm just saying I I think that they're they're in there. I'm pretty sure that it's broken down, but I'm I'm sure we could we could do something to explain what each committee is. Maybe each person that's serving on the committee could explain what they do. >> Okay. >> Any other new business? If not, need a motion to close new business. >> Motion to close new business. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to the members of the public having a legitimate interest in the actions of the board for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operations of the West

109Molver School District. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to five minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All speakers will all speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that the members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of others individuals when

110speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged. The board and the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in the light in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Would anyone like to speak under uh public comment on anything? Okay. If not, we need a motion to close. I'd like to close public comments. Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Do we need an executive session tonight? >>

1115 minutes. >> We have We need executive session, but not take action. No. >> No action. Okay. So, we'll Okay. All right. So, I need I need a motion for executive session. >> Okay. at 8:34. >> Um, I move to go into executive session for the purpose of litigation. [Music] >> I need a second. >> Second. >> Are we adjourning from there? >> No, we're going to come back and turn from here. I believe >> we don't want to go back to the public before we >> Okay. >> No action will be. >> All those in favor? >> Any oppose? >> Okay. So, we'll we won't be taking action, but we will be back. >> I'd like to call the meeting back to order. Roll call. Barber. >> Mrs. Romeo >> here. >> Mrs. Stevenson

112here. >> Mr. Stillman, >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> here. >> Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Gino >> here. >> Mr. Oshinsky is absent. Mr. Conklin >> here. >> Mrs. Van Dyke >> here. I need a motion to adjurnn. >> Move to adjourn. >> Right. All those in favor. >> Any oppose? Good night everyone. Have a good night.