001I'd like to call the meeting to order. And if we could have a a moment of silence, please. >> Please rise for the flag, please. I 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. 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 trends, the record, the messenger, West Milford town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney, and cable vision of Warwick and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs.
002Romeo >> here. >> Mr. Sawitz here. >> Mr. Drew >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> here. >> Mr. Greeno. >> Mr. Gino has to be excused. >> Mrs. Fritz >> here. >> Mr. Ochinsky >> here. >> Ms. O'Brien. >> Mrs. O'Brien also has to be excused. >> Mrs. Van Dyk here. Dr. Anamone. >> All right. Before we do the public hearing presentation, uh I'm going to go to Kelsey first if she wants to do her report early. Thanks. >> Okay. So, I have quite a few. Is this on? >> Okay. I have I'll just be glad. I have quite a few things for today. So, first I'm going to start with some stuff that we've had in the past. On April 11th, there was the NA National Art Honor Society induction ceremony at the high
003school and students were also able to display their artwork. On April 24th, there's also the World Language Honor Society induction ceremony. And then the following day, yet another honor society induction. It was the National Honor Society induction. And then moving to today, we had uh freshman and sophomores start their standardized testing. And this will continue to uh tomorrow and then the following day, May 2nd. And during this time, AP teachers hold review sessions. So that's nice for the AP students to get some extra review time in before they have their big test. Uh tomorrow will be the National Decision Day. So all seniors are being asked to wear the shirt that would like represent what their field they're going into or college they're going to. Uh May 1st through 3rd, there will be a jazz
004band festival. Uh the high school will have their AP testing. May 6th through May 17th. May 17th will also be Highlander Day. And for those who don't know what Highlander Day is, it's yeah, it's a fun day for the high school kids to kind of like get a break outside of the classroom. All the clubs set up uh tables and it's just events outside, food and music. And last but not least, I wanted to give a shout out and congratulations to Zach Milco on being named scholar athlete award winner for the P County chapter of the football foundation and college of hall of fame. So that's what I have. >> Thank you. I hope you have a presentation for want to That's All right. Good evening everybody, Board of Education, members of the public. Uh
005we have our public hearing tonight. This is the end of our budget cycle here for 201920. Um, so the budget that we're presented to you to vote on tonight has been changed since the March preliminary budget vote. It's been it has been revised downward. Tax le has been reduced since we last discussed this in March. The total budget only increases by 1.51%. And the general fund by just a little bit over that. Our administrative cost, which is a state required filing that we do, is lower than the regional limit, which is North Jersey. What that means is we spend more money in our classroom than other districts. We spend less money on administrators than other districts in our area, which is northern. So, our timeline, obviously, we had a little hiccup here in January with
006the uh we had a board meeting snowed out. Other than that, you can see we're right on schedule here. April 30th, public hearing. The budget year that we're in right now, 18/19, ends in two months. And this new fiscal year will not begin for another two months, July 1. So, this budget has to be good for the next uh 14 months basically. >> So, curriculum highlights go back. >> Sure. I'm just going to go over a few. Uh these are all uh items that we've talked about in this room and in an ed committee uh various times throughout the school year. Uh first one I want to highlight is this wasn't on the preliminary uh budget for discussion, but we're going to add it in here tonight. It was the company called Linkit. link it
007is a uh uh data warehousing uh platform. We've recently completed a a number of different pilots throughout the district where we've been able to um either practice their or use their uh standardsbased assessment which is a uh tool that gives us some predictive data about how our students could perform on on park or what's now the uh NJSLA um and provides us some of that uh instant feedback to give us uh you know things that students can be working on to to improve. Uh also with linkit we have the ability to upload all of our district data. We can put our park scores, our star math scores, our font panel benchmark assessments for reading uh any any local data points that we've been um collecting over the years. We can put in one location and
008allow easy access to our uh administrators and more importantly our teachers. This brings the data discussion to the end user. The person who can use it the the the most is the is the classroom teacher. Gives them instant access to that data without having to wait for the report or that that type of thing. Um so we're really excited to begin working with Lincoln. We're in the process of finalizing the specifics uh of the pilot. We have a couple teachers who have um begun to build their uh their own assessments, their their final exams so to speak in the platform for Lincolnit. So, it's another avenue that we can uh work on with this pilot. Uh so, we're we're excited for that option. Uh we've been speaking about it for a few years. We're coming
009up on year four of our readers and writers workshop training program. Um this is um you know, in year three, we've been working with uh most of our grade levels, grades K through eight. We've been able to uh work with our um consultant to to teach our um our staff and and really train in this area. Uh we are coming up on the end of our phonics training for the implementation of our phonics first program which has been um widely successful from from what we hear in in staff and uh community feedback in in terms of the the tools that our students are using. And also as a parent I see the you know I can see the difference in in my kindergartner versus uh other kids that that that I've had with with previous
010programs. Um so we are in the process of completing that training and still being able to train any new staff uh who may work with that program going forward. Uh our um word work is is just uh getting going in a few moments when we shift over to director of ed report. I'm going to highlight some of our summer committees. One of those summer committees is the word work committee. Uh it's a group of teachers led by uh Sharon West, our language arts supervisor, who I see in the in the uh building tonight. uh they'll be working together to uh look at programs that are um spelling based vocabulary um all of the all of the topics that go along with word work. We are uh each year adding piece by piece toward what we
011would call a complete uh language arts program in uh in our elementary schools. And word work is one of the uh last pieces of that of that process. Um I'm just going to mention skip down to uh physics for all. We are going to implement next year a uh program process where every student um in their course throughout high school is going to be exposed to uh physics in their um in their science course of studies. Uh we are also in the process of um uh I'll say revamping we are I guess reimagining how our elementary students are entering the middle school in terms of of mathematics. We have I've mentioned a few times in here. We have uh three buildings that are piloting um level mathematics in in the uh elementary schools and we
012have three um three schools that are still teaching with a traditional approach of one teacher teaches all the math, one teacher teaches all the language arts. Um through that process, we've been able to identify uh a cohort of students who are uh able to qualify for algebra uh algebra 1 at the seventh grade level. So, uh, we're in the process of scheduling that that, um, um, through our, uh, through our guidance counselors and and through our, um, through our supervisory staff to make sure that that that class is up and running. Um, that's it. Any any questions about anything on there? >> All right. So, our local tax ley average. board has done a tremendous job over the last 8 years of keeping it very very very low. Only 1.36% annualized over eight years. So
013this is where it gets a little sticky. We went over about 800 $16,000 reduction in state aid last year. This year we absorbed a 950,000 loss in state aid. So these are actual numbers. These are the estimates for the next uh five years. So we looked at a seven-year implementation of having our state aid cut in half. actually more than half. So, uh, and this is as of now, this number could be, uh, reduced even lower next year, the year after. So, they're going to run the state funding formula every single year and which accounts for enrollment adjustments, um, a township's ability to pay. There's a few variables in there, but this is what we're looking at for next budget year, a million half dollars reduction in state aid. So 1920 budget again it's a
0141.99 increase in property taxes only a 1.53% increase in the general fund. The difference is due partially to the loss of state aid. So our revenues here you see some red on the board here. This is obviously state aid tuition numbers are down and our miscellaneous revenue. We're not we're anticipating not meeting that this number this year. So we did lower it by about 18 or 19%. employee employee health benefit contribution. This is something that was implemented a few years ago with chapter 78. There are four tiers. And the reason I'm giving you this slide and the next one is to show you that over time you can see the increase in tier 1 2 3 4. This a lot of the low tax increases that we've had in the past eight years were due
015to this. We're getting more money from our employee employee benefit contribution every year. and then it flattened out and now it's starting to decline. But you just go back, you see as a percentage of our budget, it was go was going up and now it's going back down again. So we have actual numbers here, estimated numbers moving forward. So this is just more pressure on the budget. Our expenses again very modest increases in the right hand column if at all. Our tax levy impact uh the tax levy this is very good for our taxpayers. This budget is very austere. It involves a lot of layoffs but is also fair to our taxpayers. So there's actual decrease in school taxes on the median assess home which you can see has changed in value yeartoear. Um doesn't
016mean that's what the house was house is worth. It just means that's what it's assessed at. So that has changed year over year. Increase in ratables, decrease in debt service. So the homeowner in West Milford in the median home is going to pay $2 less a year in taxes on the school portion of his or her property taxes. So it's a home run to the taxpayers and we're very proud of that. So these are the efficiencies we effectuated to get to this point. We have a reduction of significant amount of staff members all up in here. One administrator, elementary, middle, high school. We have one district-wide position which floats. And then we have some continued share services with the township. Um Dr. Mcquaz doing a great job of reducing the number of school students in
017private schools which are very cost very expensive. We're in the back district. So our tuition is declining yards. So we're squeezing every which way we can squeeze. Capital projects this year we have a couple ones. We have the transportation lot which is just inside the fencing area. This is the majority of the transportation lot. The perimeter where the bus drivers park their own cars will not be paved, but the where the buses park will be paved. The back floor will be replaced. And obviously, we're well in the middle of our east. So, what does the future look like? Um, we're anticipating a significant cut in state next year, about a year and a half, and our fund balance will decline dramatically, perhaps $500,000. So, if you add 1.5 million to half a million, a possible
018$2 million shortfall in the 2021 budget question. >> I do. Um, I see that there have been cuts throughout the entire district, teachers, administrators. How has the board office been affected? >> Board off in this budget is not there are no cuts. moving forward. There will be cuts moving forward. >> I didn't hear what you said. >> I I want to know why the entire district suffers and the board office stays in place. >> We're suffering though. Um but the regulation the requirement state reporting that doesn't change whether you go from 3200 students to 31. We're still filing the same reports statewide. That doesn't really change based on your population. um we could go up a thousand students. We still have the same amount of reports. We wouldn't even need to add people. Um there
019will be cuts eventually. I just don't think we're at that point now, but I would look there could be a cut in next year, but >> So, sorry. The 222 reduction in the household levy seems to me that it's going to be on the backs of our township businesses. Would that be a correct assumption? >> We have no way of knowing that. >> That that would be something that the town the town the tax assessor's office would know. I really don't know the businesses with their what kind of taxes they're paying. >> Do you think that the renovations done at Shopright have increased the ratables of the commercial properties in town? >> We have no way of knowing that information. That would be >> it's a good guess, I think. >> Excuse me. >> I
020think it would be a good guess. >> Well, you know, >> so it's got to come from somewhere. >> Well, I I mentioned that to you yesterday in our phone conversation, but I think as you drive through town, you also see homes that are being renovated and all of that. I mean, if you put a bathroom in your house, you're going to get a tax change because you have to file a building permit. And when you file a building permit, >> you're going to have a reassessment. So, we had a meeting yesterday morning where we were in discussion with the mayor and the mayor told us that there were an where that the um applying for building permits had gone up as far as for renovations and that this year by an a large amount.
021Um the we don't the the number that you see there I believe correct me if I'm wrong Barb that come number comes from you from the tax assessors >> right that all comes from the tax assessor >> so we can only work off of the numbers that they >> I can I just calculate the impact of the tax levy based upon the information that I get on the ratables. >> Okay I have more questions if I could continue. >> All right thank you. So the the taxes will increase this year and obviously this is what's going to hit the household is a reduction 222 per year. Being that we are using capital reserve in this next budget and maintenance reserve in this next budget. That means that the total operating budget for next year is
022going to have $600,000 that's going to be filled by my assumption is going to be a tax increase. No, a reserve account means it's a bank account. That money is already set aside to be used for maintenance, which we have every year because we have a maintenance staff. We put that money aside. So, we're taking money out of our bank account >> and it's accounted as a it's counted as a revenue for next year. >> But then the following year when the budget doesn't go down, I imagine that it's only going to increase overall, where is the revenue going to fill that one time reserve? Revenue >> reserves could only be used for specific things. You have to have a capital project in order to use capital reserve. So, we're still doing part of the
023transportation yard. That's about a $930,000 expenditure and we're using $500,000 of capital reserve to offset that cost. One of the things that I've spoke about many times in the last few years is that when you do a capital project, you only have to do it once. So, the chances of us needing to do the inside lot of the bus depot again, I'm not going to have to see that. And I don't think very many people sitting at this table are going to see that either. So, when you use um a maintenance reserve, our maintenance reserve account can only be used to offset our required maintenance costs. So we just can't use it for any reason if we don't have expenses that are associated with that restriction. Those are restricted accounts. >> So do you anticipate
024that next year's or the following year's budget is going to reduce the overall budget by the amount of that one-time project? Well, the $938,000 that we're spending this year for the transportation lot in 1920 is not going to appear in 2021. That's not to say there won't be other projects that need to be addressed, but if you if you take out if you eliminate a capital project, it's not going to appear in the next budget. Um, if we buy equipment this year in our capital budget, it's not going to appear next year. Something different may appear, but that same thing, it's a, you know, we can only buy so many snowblowers or or trucks. So, you know, it's a moving target. Capital capital expenses are a moving target. Um, your fixed expenses are in your
025general fund because they're needed. As many people say, 80% of of your budget is is fixed costs. It's your salary, it's your benefits, it's your instructional materials. Um, you know, it's your tuitions, it's your transportation. Um, transportation is an expense that we have to incur here in West Milford that many other districts don't have. And you know, it's it's cavalier to say that let the kids walk. I wouldn't want my kids walking uh even up Highlander Drive because it could be potentially a dangerous situation because the roads are you don't have clear sight. You don't you have animals that come out. I mean, we had bears at the board office last week. So, I mean, you have to be cognizant of your environment when you make some decisions. So transportation is a a big cost
026in in West Milford, even though we're continually, you know, looking for ways to to trim that out. So, you know, capital expenses don't necessarily are not going to necessarily translate into next year's budget. >> So, the capital reserve is used as tax relief, right? The capital reserve account is used to offset the cost of the of of a particular item. Tax relief. It would mean in in a sense, yes, in that it means that we're not going to raise taxes in order to do that particular project. But if you don't have the project to do, you don't need to raise the taxes. So that's the whole point of putting money aside. So that when you have a big expense like that and it's a capital reserve or a capital project, you can pull from your
027capital reserve in order to mitigate your costs. >> So the 75,596 plus,000 that is being proposed tonight includes a revenue of5 $600,000 in reserve funds that are going to be used and anticipated as revenues for that year. which means that in 2020 and that $500 or $600,000 is going to have to come from somewhere because this budget I don't anticipate that 2020 2021 is going to have a total budget that's less than this unless significant cuts are made in the tune of at this point. >> But we still have cap we still have maintenance reserve. So yes, next year we'll have we'll we'll put money into m to offset our maintenance costs or require maintenance, but if you don't have a project that you're going to tap into, last year we didn't use capital reserve.
028This year we're using capital reserve. So we had capital projects that we funded through your your um your budgeted fund balance. We didn't use our capital reserve account to fund la the 1819 capital projects. So whether or not we're going to use our capital reserve next year, whether or not we're going to have any capital projects to use that capital reserve, that hasn't been determined. We're still trying to get through the 1920s uh school budget. >> Mrs. Dwyer has a question. >> Okay. Um I'm going to go in a little different direction. Um, I'm concerned about the money that we spend, thousands and thousands on professional development, and yet our math scores go down. Our language arts are starting to go down, and I don't feel that the professional development is addressing the needs of
029our district. When I look at the summer committee meetings, I'm wondering why. Thousands and thousands of dollars spent on this also. Why are they not done as professional learning communities during a school year in lie of a faculty meeting where many of the things discussed could be done in a memo or a department meeting where many of the things that are discussed could be done in a memo. Um I think teachers would be more engaged in a professional learning community. a true professional learning committee where you're doing the work that's done in the summer. Um, I think it's beneficial to teachers. I think it's beneficial to the students. I think um the supervisors have more control over what's going on in a professional learning committee than putting this one over here and putting this one
030over here and having a motivational speaker. with the amount of money that's being cut, I think that we need to look at professional development a different way. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Yeah, I maybe we could we'll proceed then >> if if I could just clarify one thing. Motivational speakers come out of my title two federal funds. Never out of local money. >> I've never spent a local dime on a motivational speaker. do anybody. Just so you know, >> I don't see it. I don't see those scores going up. I would like to sit on my own. >> I think you had a question, Dave. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Um not too much question, a couple of um observations, comments. Uh yeah, the state aid losses coming up are scary. You
031know, $7 million. I've been looking at uh some of the information on this. You know, for the current year, um there's 197 districts that lost about 90 million. That went to 368 districts. The state kicked in another 205 million to those. Those those 368 districts actually got 296 million. It kind of boggles my mind why we, you know, we get hit. We had the 18th largest loss of any of the districts in the state. >> Um, how they figured this all out as far as now I'm looking more into it. Um, this all really started in 2007. They started looking at this and they came up with formulas. They tried to tweak it and everything. I really think that needs to be challenged and we've talked about this because that was before the great recession.
032Uh the Highlands Act really hadn't even kicked in. That was passed in 2004 really to get going. Um it just it just the inequity of you know when you look at the numbers overall of all the districts and yeah we're not Jersey City. We didn't lose 27 million, but yeah, we don't have high-rise condos and everything going up all over the place either. Um, one thing I found a little disturbing and how they figured this out, they, you know, to come up with the adequacy budget and so forth, and they say, well, then they figure, well, this is how much the town could do looking at the personal wealth and the real estate wealth of the community. I'd really like to know, you know, find out where they're coming up with those numbers. So again,
033I think this something uh you know, I'd like to help drill down into uh because yeah, losing $7 million is over the next couple of years is going to be devastating. >> I am looking forward to to >> putting I I I would like to put you as the committee chair for that because I I know that you got a fire for it and I I really uh um >> think that you're hitting on the head is because the state is saying that we can afford to pay so we should. >> Yeah. I I'd like to know how they figure that out. >> Yeah, I think that they use state income tax to figure out. >> Yeah, they look at income tax and again I don't know how >> and then property wealth, but I'd
034really like to see how that's done. You know, um looking over the numbers even how like with transportation aid, I think we get like $800,000 or so. I'm looking like brother lives in Dumont, they bust nobody. They don't even own a school bus. Everybody walk. They get over $200,000, you know, in in transportation. I know some of that goes for, you know, special education, that sort of thing, but it, you know, just doesn't seem to click. So, >> doesn't match. Yeah. >> Yeah. In closing, I' I'd like to thank the administration for doing a pretty good job given the um bad hand you were dealt this year at the last minute. >> I can tell you with transportation, we only get aid on the students that fall within the administrative guidelines, which are two miles
035for elementary and two and a half miles for high school and for special ed. So, for all of those students that we're doing courtesy busing for because of the the rural roads um and the um the late buses that we run for students, we're not getting funded for that. >> Unfortunately, um we live in a community. We don't have any sidewalks. Uh you know, we do have bears. I believe there was a bear at the high school this today during during practice. So there there are a lot of, you know, extenduating issues that involve our district, but I don't think anyone sitting around this table would want to see any child walking to school. And probably each one of our elementary schools fall into that category of less than two miles where your your children
036are being busy. >> So you would almost be wiping out your >> your transportation for your elementary kids. So, and I don't think any anybody sitting here is looking. >> And another thing that you need to recognize with our transportation is um because of the number of miles our buses travel. >> Yeah. >> They wear out a lot faster. >> And um you know, we're just we're lucky that we have really good mechanics and they're on top of things. But if we were and and we take in um buses from other school districts and we do their repairs also. if we had to send our repairs out to other districts, it would be even more costly. So, I think in many ways we're we're being very efficient um given the circumstances that we have to
037deal with and every school district has different situations. So, >> I I I appreciate your insight. >> Yeah, some of the things I'm want to find out how did they figure out this number? I see some districts like >> many years ago they started they wanted to follow the student they want the money to follow the student and that's that was the um implementation of New Jersey Smart which is one major headache >> talk about compliance Mrs. Dwyer >> any other comments questions Mr. Drew, >> um, I'd like to reiterate a little bit of what Mer said in looking at the overall budget, obviously. And it seems to me that the cuts have been going by. I'm really disappointed that in the last 10 years, we increased administrative staff. It's great. we're below the maximum
038allowed uh we've increased administrative staff and to the extent we've made adjustments for enrollment seems to be born almost exclusively by the teachers I just don't think that's the right thing to do frankly they're the core of our education system so I want to say you know we got pain here I wish we didn't have pain but it needs to be shared pain so that bothers me um made another one that uh about the summer training in looking at the summer training one thing that really stood out to me is that we're doing character all kinds of things math and I have talked now for three four years about the need to improve math and I know we appear to be making some efforts but I don't see results and it's disappointing that we're not
039trying. Um I think if we make a cut, part of what we need to do is to really sit down and think about how we can if we need to spend money, how do we spend money to improve math performance in this district? Um and I'm I'm I'm just still not saying that. So that's my two. >> Anyone else? Can I just address Mr. um Drew's comment? Mr. Drew, I know that I've been here eight years and in the last eight years, I can name at least four supervisor supervisory positions that were cut from eight years ago when I first got here. Um um we've we've um we've compressed the supervisors that we do have. So, they're now responsible for multiple disciplines. Um, we used to have an industrial arts supervisor that's now been incorporated
040with other things. Um, the athletic director is now responsible not only for as an athletic director, he's also responsible for health and fizz. Um, when Dr. Mclofflin was here, he implemented a testing supervisor. That position's gone. Um, this year, um, the guidance position is going to be gone. Um, >> it we've piece. >> So there there's a lot of there has been a lot of compression over the years and um I think that um it's you know some of the things that you you want to accomplish from a lay person's point because I'm a lay person. I'm I'm not in the trenches. Um you need your your supervisors there to help guide it and um they do have expertise. I work with these people on a regular basis and um I try to help them
041as much as possible to to do the things that they need to do for kids. So >> percentage wise, it's been the biggest cut in any employment group in the district over the last 5 to seven years. >> Not in total numbers because it's a smaller group by percentage >> administration in general. There's been some assistant principles who have been uh retired, not not rehired. >> So by percentage is the largest cut in the district over the past probably five to seven years. >> I I have another question. Um because I'm not sure of this. Who drives the professional development? Is it the administration or is it the supervisors and the teachers? >> That wasn't my question. The question was who decides what professional development will take place? Is it the teachers and the supervisors
042or is it you and Dr. Anamone? >> I think it's a collaborative approach. We say everybody has we have a local professional development committee. Everybody has us say there's sometimes where it's more teacher driven, sometimes it's more principal or supervisor driven. Sometimes it comes from Mr. Novak or myself. >> Is there a committee? >> Yes. >> Are there teachers on that committee? >> Yeah. For the last um since the onset of Achieve NJ, we've had the um the DACK, the district evaluation advisory committee, which in West Milford has been more robust than it has been throughout the rest of the state of New Jersey from what I understand. Um the state no longer required the uh DACK and um this was the last year of it uh being implemented. Um so that's been the committee
043for for professional development for the last few years. I I do I do I do agree with Terry because in in the years past we had a professional development committee that met that had teachers on it had uh representatives union they had I I believe even a board member sat on it at that time and we would have a year like they the committee would meet I thought they met like twice a year they would meet and they would have an agenda and then they would talk about where we're going for the year ahead and we would have a list of what the professional development was going to be in alignment with the the board would know what what they were working on and the teachers would have that information. I don't know is that
044something that we get away with and we maybe it's something that we should be going back to because of the change in like just the change in our test scores the fact that we're looking at the issues of math and we're looking at the stuff with the with the language arts. Maybe there is some area that we should be addressing. >> Did you have something, Liz? >> I I did. I I guess just um sitting back um I don't I I don't know what word to use. I don't know if the word is a little bit disappointed. I'm not quite sure, but just kind of like thinking back on professional development and I've been in the district for six years. I started out as supervisor, moved up to director, I do feel like it is
045a collaborative process like what Dr. Anna was saying. I feel like even special ed is a part of that process with teachers with staff. I feel like it's really driven if if I'm reflecting and looking on it from the district goals that we set like a lot of our professional developments on differentiated instruction. There is math. There's pretty much you know this year we kind of increase in that area of mental health and well-being. So I feel like that kind of drives our our groups and our our feelings. I don't I don't want anyone or the public to feel that it's an isolated thing by just Dr. Anamone and Mr. know back because I know I'm a part of that process. Our administrative team, we have an admin council meeting tomorrow. That's where we we
046talk about what other needs we need. They're then the liaison from the teachers to us um side committees. I I just feel like a lot of the work that is being done over the past six years is bene is beneficial. I feel like we have been growing and even as far as like speakers that came in most recently on co-eing, we brought an expert in. That's that's what our teachers said. We need more training when we were holding them accountable for in-class resource and co-eing. So then we brought in a trainer for that and then the training happened and now we're going to have follow-th through in department meetings and next year. So I just I think I'm just kind of sitting back and a little bit surprised maybe is a better word than disappointed
047that it's kind of coming up because I feel like it's been vetted through these these different like avenues. I mean, and maybe if there's an area that we need to focus on more or I know math is a concern that you that the board brings up quite a bit, but I just feel like we are as a as a district I want to be speak on behalf of the teachers, the the admin team and us like in central office. I think I think we are working collaboratively to try to make growth in that area. >> I I think I think maybe part of the disconnect might be is that we're not getting the information getting done. So maybe that's where the questions are coming. May maybe we have to do a better job of of
048maybe asking us asking the questions or the information coming into the board so that the board members know that things are happening on a professional >> because we hear I hear we hear nothing about professional learning committees um communities and that is such an advantage in schools like Mountain Lakes Fair Ridgewood that's what they're doing and it doesn't seem that we're going in that direction and I'm concerned about that because we're spending so much money. >> We've devoted uh one faculty meeting a month for the last five or six years to professional learning communities. We're one of the few districts that I can say actually has given up a contractual faculty meeting for the process of professional learning communities. >> I think we need more. Okay. >> You have something? >> Yeah. Um so the
049first thing is a question. Mr. Novak, are you giving a presentation on the committees? >> I'm going to Yes. So I'm going to talk a little about committ kind of come up. So I do have questions about that but I'm going to wait until after the resolution. >> And then the other was professional development. Is that coming up because of the committees or just >> because of the cost? Because of the cost. Y absolutely >> Nicole >> I think I just want to make a comment in general because I I know this is tough conversation and I think obviously this isn't a one point in time with this budget. We know that I think it you know I envy you I don't envy any of you for the tough decisions. I think while we are
050losing staff and we are losing kids I think it's a balance. It's about a balance and you have to balance the training of the staff that's here with the in curriculum enhancements. I mean, I think we've talked a lot about the enhancements with math and there is more work to do, but I think you can only do so much in one year. And so, I think we have to kind of be a little fair in that this stuff takes time and there's I mean, the data warehousing, I mean, there's a lot that that's going to tell us. So, I feel like maybe, you know, I'm on the positive side of of understanding the value of of the work that went into all of this. And it's it's a balance. And I think it's it's a
051huge district. There's a lot I think that goes into managing a district of this size and you can't get rid of, you know, all the staff and supervisors to run a district this large. I mean, but we're continuing to ask them to do more and more and more. >> But then, you know, you got to have people to run that stuff. I mean, you know, corporate world, it's the same thing. You know, keep throwing projects at people, you need people to run the project. So I think what you're doing and what we're trying to accomplish here is a good balance of capital projects, education, staffing, you know, special services. There's we still want to excel as a district. And so I think it's going to get tougher, but you know, I think where we got
052to was a pretty fair compromise. >> Can I make one more observation? Um, I know that it sounds um, horrific when we have to cut staff, but I think it's important and and I think that there's been so much said about, you know, um, it's it's a shame that younger teachers get cut because, you know, we have teachers that are tenure, but I think that West Milford has been fortunate because many of the um, retirements >> um, have not been replaced and and so we've not lost, it's almost like we got lucky because we have our younger teachers and they're still with us and we've been able to cut by attrition and and that's always helpful because um you know it's almost like on your terms you're not really making those hard decisions with your
053your younger staff that are vibrant and exciting and and and innovative and and more technology savvy. So I think that we've been fortunate the last few years um because we we've had um some rolling retirements. So that's just another observation that um I I I wanted to share. >> I I I I also I want to thank the administrative team for putting the budget together because they did an excellent job. First of all, I don't think I've ever seen a budget come in where we're in the negative of $2, even $2. Well, I I I I'm I'm I'm I'm sitting looking at this budget this year and I'm saddened by some of the some of the things, but what Barbara did say is a lot of what we are losing this year, we have absorbed
054through attrition. And we we have to be thankful for that. And I'm I I'm very thankful to the staff because I'm sure there are some staff members that may have made a decision to retire this year when maybe they were thinking about waiting another year, but they saw where the district was going and they were they they're part of the community, too, and they took that, you know, lead and and helped us. So, we have to be thankful about that. I I'm amazed at where we're sitting with this budget because I thought we were going to be it was I know that next year's not is going to be tougher, but I feel that each person sitting around the table, especially the administr administration has put the you know put the hard work in and
055they're going to put even more hard work in next year to get to where we need to do go. And I also feel that as a board, we have to make that political plunge and do what we need to do to fight for this district because we didn't create this situation, but we have to find a way to help our community. I want to thank thank both Dr. Animo, doc, uh uh Mr. Novak and uh Barbara and also uh Liz for all their hard work because I know that they've been working on and and sometimes they look at us and we're probably asking for some things that they don't they don't want to hear like we have three heads, >> you know, >> we we are appreciative and absolutely thank you so much process and
056we're at the end of it now. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. It was very very difficult. >> I am so looking forward to tomorrow. All right. Uh, any other qu Oh, yes, Mr. Joe. >> Thank you very much. Um, obviously both kind of touched on that. You look at something like this, it's much easier to be negative. Here's what I see wrong and and we frequently forget the positive. There are lots of things in here that I don't necessarily like, but I think we've done a lot of positive things. And there are things that we should be proud of as a district. I think the single best thing we do is our graduation rate. The kids who start from school unless Milton graduate meet the state requirements to get the diploma and
057there's just nothing more important than that for these kids. We have one of the best music programs in the entire nation. Um uh we have an outstanding special education program. I think we've got other than ECTI, best industrial arts program, there are a number of things that we do really well and that's the result of a lot of hard work over the last few years despite the fact that we raised uh some uh budget uh issues. We have redone the auditorium. We we redid the the green houses. We got microscopes of the biology classes. the traditional robotics program. >> Bleachers, >> we put in bleachers and we're putting in a new fieldhouse. >> We've really, I think, accomplished an awful lot. >> To touch on this fieldhouse, I was of course very critical spending that
058much more. I think you guys went back to the drawing board and kept figuring out ways that we could get the fieldhouse, I think, a better fieldhouse for less money. And I really appreciate that effort. I bring this up partly because one of the things I see in this budget that I don't necessarily like is spending $938,000 on a parking lot that is not used by the public. It's not used by the students. It's not used by the teachers. Um and I know in my own case, I've only been here six years. I repaved on my driveway twice because of just the nature of New Jersey. the water uh freezes and then it thaws and it gets in the crack and when it freezes again overnight it is stainless. So it's just the nature of
059what we're facing here with this freeze thaw cycle. Every winter cracks get bigger, the pavement uh gets destroyed. In my own case, one of the things that I do, I can't walk down my driveway because it turns into a sheet of ice. I in fact wind up walking in the dirt because it's rough ground that I don't slip on. I've fallen down my driveway three times now. So now I don't I would like you to think about I brought this up before. Instead of repaving this and having to come back and repave it again in 5 years or 6 years or whatever it is, pouring gravel on the whole thing. Okay, >> you can walk on the gravel and you won't slip. It'll cost way less than $938,000. We're probably going to approve this budget,
060but I really would like Mr. Kelly, Miss Francisco, take a look at doing something like that because I think we can get the to useful space that we need, have absolutely no impact on on the public, and spend way way way less money. I want that money for education and teachers, not >> a parking lot that and ask for a price. >> I brought it up. >> Let's have discussion but not between each other. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Can I address that? >> Sure. Go ahead. Barb's going to address that. >> As as I as I mentioned a number of times, u we've had um we we've had a number of um workman's comp accidents there. Um, we have runoff issues that freeze over night. Um, we have, um, we have to pave
061that lot in order to get the buses rolling and get them cleaned off. >> Plow it. Plow it. >> You plow it. Thank you. We have to plow it in the morning. And, and that in itself is an art form, just getting those buses out of that depot in order to get them on the road. Um, so I don't know how gravel it is. You know, we filled the potholes as much as we possibly could to, but then what happens is that just, you know, you lose the gravel again, you know. Um, [Music] and I don't anticipate having to repave it again cuz I don't think it's been repaved probably since it was put in in 197 something. It hasn't been paved since I was here on I was on the board back in the
06290s. >> So I think that that's the original pavement from when the Yeah. The the Arnold family gave us the property so that you could put the depot in. So, I I I understand how you feel, but I also think that we have to protect the bus drivers and the mechanics that work down there and um in our in our maintenance staff that go down there. And we don't need to make their jobs any more difficult because they have monumental tasks just getting school up and running. Um, so we're trying to give them the tools that they need too to be safe and and to keep everything going because if they can't get kids to school, they're not going to learn. We need those kids in their buildings. So, everybody has to work together in
063order to make it happen. So, we have to try to make their lives a little easier, too. That I'm going to get off my soap box now. Hey, >> has that like I mean I understand what Barbara just said about I guess my two questions are this. I never thought about a gravel parking lot. It's a really out of the box idea. Um how much would it cost and would there be safety issues would be my question because I do agree with what Steve said which is I would like to see the money follow the student. I would like to see money in our classrooms and more, >> you know, um, social workers in our elementary schools and more resources for our kids. However, I definitely want our bus drivers to be safe also. So,
064I those are just two >> Well, we have we have we have had incidents of them falling because of the parking lot. We also I I can speak only as a homeowner. I have a gravel driveway and when you go to pave when you go to plow your driveway I lose all my gravel every winter. >> So it it I it's not a good area that you you still leave snow and you still leave ice on top of the gravel which still causes the problem that we have which is the ice and somebody slipping and falling. We have but we have the maintenance driving buses through that thing that clears all the snow off the top and knocks the snow on the ground and then they got to plow it and move it and shovel
065it. I don't think putting gravel I think I understand your your school your thought because of ice and that but I think in that particular setting you really need a black top because it needs to be able to be paved and cleared so that this way we don't have the risk of the ice and people falling and and that. So and I don't want to spend that kind of money on blacktop either but I think it's something that really does need to be done. I mean, we finally got everything cleared down there where we can do the blackout. It's probably going to be a one-time issue and you know, >> yeah, I won't have to have this conversation again. >> Well, hopefully none of us will have to have we will because we're only doing
066the inside and where they parked their cars. There's a huge difference in that area, too. >> And we were when when you know, we're only doing the inside where the buses are. So there's a balance of, you know, we already kind of made a difference to that budget, right? And and >> because there looked at it. Yes. And where they park their cars is not ideal either. So, we will be talking about it within the next few years. Again, probably the whole outside mark, you know, >> and we've done a lot of patching on the exterior lot. And when they um repaved um I think they repaved Highlander at one point or something was going on and we actually um the town actually did patch some of the the lot uh the holes for us
067and they just it just pops. It just opens up again. >> It's like your home, you know? There's things that you have to do that are underneath >> that no one sees like when you put the roof on and you know or you have to have a new septic put in because you have to live. It's not a pretty thing that you have to do but it's something that has to be done because you have to maintain it. So any other questions for the budget? If not um let's move on to Mr. Novak summer committee. >> All right. a fun topic. >> Good slide in there. >> Outstanding. So, I just want to make a comment about um professional development here in West Milford. And I would just say I've been very proud of the
068uh product we've put together the last uh four years in terms of professional development. U West Milford has traditionally been a district that abandons professional development following a meeting and a discussion like this. Um and I would really hope that that's not uh what happens going forward. Uh we are in the process now and I I mentioned in our presentation about the fourth year of readers and writers workshop. It's actually the ninth year and that is because the district abandoned it the first time that we tried to implement readers and writers workshop training back in 2009. Uh if we hadn't abandoned it then we wouldn't have to be talking about it now. So I'm very proud of the the product that we put in place. I believe it is something that begins with this group
069with our retreat. We just had an amazing meeting where we talked about district goals and I can point to every summer committee on this list and every professional development activity that we have um implemented and show you that it relates directly to our uh to our district to our building to our individual staff uh PDP. So um I'm very proud of it. So, I'm going to jump in and talk about um our uh summer committees, which of course this is a a month earlier than than when I would usually be presenting our summer committees. Uh summer committees are usually uh approved in in May. Uh so, to your point, Mr. Drew, we are not uh complete with all the committees that that are on here. We still have our calendar math committee, our data data
070team, our our uh district data team. Should I said data twice in there? uh district data team, our um math committee to talk about our enrichment placement. We're talking about algebra 1 uh for seventh grade. So, there's a number of math committees along with our district data team that'll be on um the May education uh committee agenda. So, um they'll they'll be on there. Absolutely. The ones that are on now are the ones that we can um um talk about for for now. Uh and also want to point out that half of the summer committees that are up for approval are funded through title 2A which is not a locally uh that is not the West Milford taxpayers funds. That is through our uh federal grant that is specifically designated for staff development. So um
071that's what that's what um almost all uh almost half of our committees tonight are through title 2A. >> Mr. Novak. >> Yes. Could you point out could you tell us which of the committees are covered by this? >> Sure. Yeah, there it says here, but I'll point it I'll point it out as I go through it. So, um >> it's going to say right next. >> All right. >> And and also to an to an earlier point, uh each of these committees are um proposed and um recommended through a collaborative effort between myself, the supervisor, and the staff members who are also on these committees. And I do see a number of those staff members here. Mentoring committee person, you raise your hand. I'm going to call you out. Apologize. Um so uh first I'm
072I'm going to jump on number 40 uh 47 which is our educational technology committee. Um number 47 and 48 go together. This is a committee who comes together each year. This is the the group who guides our um our work in digital citizenship which has been um a significant component of uh some of the things that we do in our classroom. It's also about student engagement. A number of years ago we uh implemented a program a model of technology imple uh implementation called SAMR which um you've mentioned a few times I won't go through the whole thing um but it's basically a blooms taxonomy for how you would use technology tools in the classroom uh we've seen a rapid growth in the last four years in our use of Chromebooks and informationational technologies in the
073classroom. the amount of teachers who are um looking for and asking for Chromebooks and getting their hands on technology has grown exponentially and that uh begins with the work of the uh educational technology committee and and the things that we're doing and talking about and sharing in those PLC groups um uh monthly um those number 47 is funded by title 2A and number 48 is funded locally. Uh number 49 uh district mindfulness uh mindfulness committee. One of our board goals last year was about health and wellness and we have had a district mindfulness committee in place for the last uh this will be the third summer where this group has met. Uh last year we implemented we introduced uh Serena Laorray to the group who is a high school teacher. um in conversations with Serena
074recently, hopefully in the uh on the May committee um approval, summer committee approval, we are going to have a secondary mindfulness committee put together which is composed just of uh middle school and high school teachers um to take that conversation to the next level. What it means uh at a secondary level for primary to the to this point it's been a elementary focused uh focused group. Again, it's um you know, we see this and and I don't know if Mr. Trennicosta is here. We've been talking about some um work going forward with fizzed. We see our work with mindfulness and physical education and health as the first line of uh modern modern healthcare. And uh we see that in every uh every sense of the community, whether it's uh whether it's drug abuse, whether it's
075social media, whether it's uh students afraid to come to school. Um dealing with the whole child rather than just the test score uh is is very important. So, uh, that's why we find it important and that's why we, um, are hoping to have that as a as a summer committee. That is also, uh, number 49 is funded through title 2A, which is a federal grant money. Uh, number 50 is our mentoring committee and number 50 and 51 go together. Uh, mentoring committee comes together each summer and we discuss our mentoring program for for new staff. Um, we look at our handbook. We take a look at new uh new regulations that come down from the state. We update everything for the next year and then we plan for number 51 which is our mentor training
076where our mentoring committee and myself will meet with uh mentors of new staff and train them on how to be a mentor. One of the biggest shortfalls in school districts is that they um hire a new staff member and sort of you know release them to the wolves. And I think that's not just um um an issue in education. I think it's an issue in uh in businesses as well. And good companies and good schools who train the trainers um do a better job with that. So we've committed that to m committed to that over the last few years. And the um mentor committee and the mentor training are are very important for that. We have three days that we like to call new teacher torture. Um it's actually new teacher training where our new
077staff comes in for three days at the end of August. And one of those days, our um mentors will meet their uh meet the new staff member and then train them for uh things that need to go on um you know the things they need to get ready for throughout the school year and they meet periodically throughout the year. They I think they meet about 10 times um throughout the year. Uh that is also funded by title 2A. Uh number 52. Um this is um uh a goal that the district began in 2015 where we began working with character.org and the um the approach toward um seeking recognition with schools of character whether it's state school of character, national schools of character. This district uh character education committee um should be the crown jewel on
078on that process. uh 2015 we began and at this moment each of our schools has been named as a state or national school of character which we should all be very proud of. Uh this is the committee that's going to apply for the district of character and that um that should be the um you know like I said the the um the banner that that brings it all together. So, this committee is going to come together, bring the um the great um promising practices and all the um work that has gone on in our district since 2015 and and prior to that, before we even began with character.org, some of these things were going on, bring them together, determine which processes that worked out in one school should be applied to all, and then take
079a look at that uh application process. [Applause] >> So, you're saying that's the last year for that committee? This should be um for the last year for the application uh application process committee. Um number 53 is our reading specialist committee. This has been a traditional committee. Uh it's absolutely in my opinion absolutely essential for our six reading specialists to come together and talk about uh literacy across the across the district. We um we do analyze data within that group. And now that we have tools like um um link and and some other data sources, we're able to take a look at reading levels and identify patterns and and um really take a look at the good work that they do. uh in the uh history of the reading specialist group. Uh part of their day
080weekly was to come together and meet and and talk about these things. in um you know in the uh recent times with with budget cuts and and um you know taking closer look at school budgets their time has been um more maximized for for student impact which I think if you ask them they they find it to be more effective that they're going to they're able to have more hands-on time with the students and and working on early literacy but they also need time to talk and be together. So the summer committee is a good time for them to to come together, take a look at the year the year that was identify patterns and help each staff move forward going um for for each school year. They're also an integral part of our encore
081program, whether it's a school that has a halftime uh encore basic skills teacher or or full-time. And each of our reading specialists come comes for that uh over the summer. um numbers 54, 55 and 56 all go together. Um this is uh again this is um directly connects to um uh two of our major district goals this year. One being differentiation of instruction and number two with our um focusing on the writing writing across the curriculum. Um number 54 we mentioned in in the um uh budget slides earlier with the word work spelling committee. This is the uh group of passionate teachers who are coming together um to take a look at and work with the um the materials that we want to put in the hands of our students and our staff going forward.
082Um so it's a uh it's a committed group. The the idea for the group came um from our our passionate teachers who who want to move that program forward. Um number 55. This is a a group who's going to take a look at um what how we assess writing. This is going to take our current writing assessments across the board and make them more standards aligned. So hopefully, and that's, you know, talking about coming back to the the the phrase of test scores, um the closer our instruction and assessment relates to state standards, the hypothesis is that the better our students should do on those state assessments when our local assessments are aligned to standards. So that is um the one of the primary focuses of number uh writing assessment committee number 55 is to
083to make our um our assessments more standardsbased. Uh number 56 is the ELA handbook committee. This is a group that got together uh last summer. Um we have had significant change in English and language arts over the last uh probably over the last three or four years and we've um uh radically changed many of the things that we do. So, we've been looking at how uh how do we put that all together into a handbook for, you know, earlier we talked about new staff. So, how do we put that together if you're a new teacher coming to West Milford or a teacher who who wants to have a little bit more of a of a guide um for the the things that we do? How do we assess when should we administer our font to
084submill benchmark assessments? Um how do we look at readers and writers notebooks? Th those types of things. That is what this committee is coming to coming together to to uh to put in place. Um, I believe that's uh I believe that's it for now and as I said I'll have a handful of committees um to present further at the May uh education committee. >> Did you have a question? >> Um I've worked in four districts. I've never seen this many committees anywhere. >> Um >> that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, there's some things I'm really confused on. Um, I think at some point it it is a good thing and at another level when we're looking at cuts and districtwide budget difficulties, then it's not a good thing. I also don't know
085what how are they I I think it's probably like professional development, I'm assuming, how they're set up. um how are they signing in, where are they meeting, what requirements are for each committee, like I don't know any of that stuff. So I don't know what's positive and negative yet, you know. Um I will say some of my observations that I find strange. One, the mentoring committee, I believe tonight we're cutting five elementary school teachers. So I I couldn't imagine that we'd be hiring new teachers next year to be mentored. And then so so 50 and 51 are confusing. Why are we still doing that? And our mentoring program in Westwood has always been topnotch. I don't know why we're spending that much that many hours in recreating it every summer. >> Stop recreating it. Staying
086topnotch. >> Okay. Staying topnotch. Then the person who is fabulous on 57 and 58 running the first teacher orientation activities isn't even on those mentoring committees. So it's just confusing. I don't know. I'm uncomfortable with a lot of them at nothing to do with the people personally. No, >> but I guess I just have more questions on um what are the requirements for each committee. Um, I really would like to see what Terry said before is more PLC's, you know, datadriven. Where's the datadriven stuff? And I think that's going to come with link and like Nicole said before, like we're headed that way, but I don't see it yet. >> So, at ED at ED committee, I presented the district uh district data team, which was going to be a committee proposed for this agenda.
087However, we don't have all the staff members names. So we we pulled that one until we have a complete committee um to present to all of you which is ex exactly what you were just uh referring to. >> And the only last comment I mean it's just it's a lot you know 54 and 55 I added the numbers I mean it's like almost $14,000 for >> um too much >> for you know just ELA stuff you know that that's a lot. Um, and it's and if it's amazing and it's worth it, I I just want to know that it's worth it. And I guess I don't know that yet. So, I'm just putting it out there that I I am uncomfortable with some of these. Um, and I'm going to trust that they are amazing
088and awesome and I hope that they come through first so that I get to see some more info on them. >> Nicole, I'm sorry. >> I guess maybe my word of the night is balance, right? And I think it it comes down to every one of us around the table has said or complained or mentioned that we want a top-notch district and we want to excel and have kids who are excelling and we're so proud of where our seniors are going and all of these great things. But to do that, you have to keep raising the bar. And to do that, you have to make sure that you have staff who are happy and trained and getting what they need to get their jobs done. And because they're spending their day in front of students
089working with our students, the only time for them to do these kind of additional asks is over these committees. And so it's not like, you know, I'm on 10 task forces in my day job, but I just fill my day with conference calls and meetings because I'm not in front of people all day long. So I think we if we if we we have this expectation that we want to take this district to another level it's a balance you know we want to take these programs you know to make our students better smarter better testers you know enriched compared to these highle districts that we're always throwing around you need this stuff and there are a lot of them but I think we've seen kind of the fruits of the labor happening you know over
090the last year or two with a lot of three years with a lot of these things so I don't I I think I think I commend the work that we're doing and I think professional development and training and all of these committees are really adding a lot of value. >> It's a lot all at once. I think it's some in in previous years we've approved these peace meal maybe some in April, some in May, some in June. I think to see them all at once may be a little startling, but >> maybe because it's linked with the budget sitting here before. >> That's possible, but I keep hearing PLC's and maybe that's something we'll revisit and take a look at and how do we use those better? How do we get our district data team
091involved with the PLC's to really help these teachers crunch down data, drill down, use that data, communicate with parents, get some sort of plan together so they can call a parent whose child just took the STAR math assessment and didn't do well and really get that going. So perhaps we can connect with this stuff. I think it's a good starting point. >> Um I'm not saying that that the work of these committees is not important because it's very important. But for me, what and I and I think for a lot of um educators, I think the important thing when you have a PLC, a professional learning um community, you involve more teachers in decisions and you involve your supervisor. your supervisors are able to drive those committees um those communities and um I think I
092think that's stronger to involve more people than just a select group and of course the budgetary concern is another thing but I just wanted to make it clear that I am not against these this work I just think it could be done differently and more effectively and I think that it would benefit everyone if it was done including more teachers because we don't I mean it's just a select few. Yeah, >> definitely on the back of the budget. It makes it really uncomfortable, you know. So, I'm going to vote to >> possibly approve cutting people and then I'm also going to vote to approve having staff members form the mentoring committee. So, it it just feels really uncomfortable, you know. Absolutely. I think we probably shouldn't have had it on this agenda because it there
093there is always a because those questions come up during committee and you would have seen the agenda like there's a lot of things on this agenda in this personnel. >> Yeah. And I want to honor you know the people that are losing their jobs. That's a difficult place to be in because of student enrollment and because of our budgetary stuff like I understand the balance and I respect that in full. I I like those comments, you know, and that's exactly what I'm feeling tonight is really torn, you know, because >> yes, the budget I I do you guys have done an amazing job, but there are still people losing their jobs tonight and it's a really difficult spot to be in as a board member to then approve, >> you know, this other stuff and
094and um I'm struggling with that tonight. So, I just wanted to share that. Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Novak, for your presentation. um for your report actually um under under special reports and correspondence. Uh Mrs. Francisco, I I need a motion for um to approve of the minutes. >> I move to approve the March 12th preliminary budget hearing special action meeting minutes, the March 12th executive session meeting minutes, March 26th workshop regular meeting minutes, and the March 26th executive session meeting minutes. Second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor? >> I I >> Any opposed? Okay. >> President's report. Oh my goodness. We've been talking for quite a while. I I I only h I only have really two things that I I wanted to let everyone know. We had a very successful
095goal setting session with New Jersey School Boards this past month. And um the goals that we set are in the agenda tonight that we're going to be accepting them as the board goals and also our district goals. And I'm hoping we're we're looking to put our goals on our agenda so that this way everyone will see them each time that they come to a meeting so that they know when we're talking about the district goals what goals we're we're meeting. And also I'm I'm just want to again give a big shout out to Barbara and maintenance and Chris that the bleachers are coming along so beautiful. The the the high school field is is going to become a gathering place for our community where when you go up there you will be proud of West
096Milford, our band, our our our sports. everyone will be able to utilize that that field and be able to be proud of what's going on up there. So I and I want to thank everyone who, you know, put the time in to to get this out there because it it's it it is something that is long. It has been needed for a very long time. Now I'll move on to public comment. members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first for five minutes for each speaker for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to 5 minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All members of the public speaking during public comment are asked to address topics
097listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during public comment. Anyone signed up? Anyone wishing to speak? >> Come on forward. [Music] Hi, my name is Christy Flory. Um, my address uh 60 upper Greenwood Lake Road. I'm actually speaking on behalf of my good friend Jennifer Awazuk who has spoken successfully on behalf of our class for the last few years. Um, what I want to speak about is class size of the current fourth grade class at Lake Elementary. Uh so on behalf of Jennifer, we are aware that the board is faced with tough decisions regarding the budget. In 2014, our then kindergarteners were split into three classes due to high enrollment. Presently, they are
098in fourth grade. They have always had three sections. This has been an amazing um opportunity for our children to thrive in this class setting. they have been able to get the extra help and attention that they have needed to success be successful academically. We are concerned with your class uh presently being considered to be divided into two sections which would make these classes 25 or more especially uh depending on if there's uh summer en uh higher summer enrollment. So, these children are presently able to get the extra help and more support they need due to the current class size. We are hoping that the board will do the best thing for our children and continue um to keep the class sizes as they are. Um, and we also would hope that they would look at
099the overall makeup of the current class as a whole um, and their current success um, before considering eliminating the third section. Although they are getting older, uh, the curriculum curriculum is only getting more difficult and workload increasing. So again, thank you for your time and we certainly hope the board will just continue to do the best thing for our children. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Come on forward, please. >> You're speaking on something on the agenda, correct? That's on the agenda. >> Yeah, we're on the agenda. >> No, no. I mean, as far as the item is on the the the other No, no, no. The other half of that comes at the end. >> I know it's long, but just the way it's set up. Anyone else wishing
100to speak? >> Move to close public comments. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Okay. I need a motion. >> I'm just going to make one quick amendment. A correction to the agenda. Uh page nine, resolution number 17. A name was added today to the rehired list, non-tenure certified teaching personnel. The name is Melissa Berg. B E R G H [Music] >> I move to adopt the jail. You have more. >> Yeah. And on page 13, sorry. >> Go fast. I know. I just >> I was letting him clap. >> Page 13, personnel student affairs resolution number 49. We're going to add a name to the district mindfulness committee. Melissa Berg and resolution number on page 18 personnel student affairs resolution number 69 is going to be pulled because that
101is no longer warranted >> 69 >> now wait number pulled because what >> number trail okay the it's no longer necessary um >> oh got pain Yes. >> Which one are we pulling? >> 69. This way. Okay. >> Move to adopt the agenda as amended and presented. I >> need a second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? We're going to go into the budget and finance. I'm going to let uh I'm going to let Mr. Drew do this one. Um like to move item number one. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Will. >> I move to reduce the total budget by $310,114 which would reflect a zero total budget increase from this current year to the one being presented tonight. >> That's a motion. So are we then you would just
102>> we have to vote on the motion >> on if somebody seconds it >> if there's a second. Okay. >> Um >> is there discussion? >> Any discussion? >> Can you repeat that? >> I'm moving to reduce the total budget by $310,114. >> Any discussion? >> Nicole, what is that? Where did that amount come from? And why why now versus through the other discussion that we've been having at this point? It's just so late in the game. We've talked about it so much. >> Well, I sent an email on Friday to the board and I didn't get any responses. And >> my thought you could not get responses. >> That was a violation of the Oprah Act if we responded. >> So any one person could have called me on the telephone because that's not
103a violation of Oprah. >> Is that correct? You need to be very careful. Is that correct, Miss Butler? >> Your communication was sent to the group as a whole. >> Should not have been um responses. >> Um >> but if anybody called me, would that be a violation of Oprah? >> You violated it by sending it to everybody, I believe. >> Right. >> I didn't violate anything. >> You did >> by You communicated with the group. Um >> we're not allowed to have a discussion. you can >> that's not a violation of Oprah and that's a that's a pretty heavy accusation and I could retort that in legal >> if there's a discussion based upon that comes from the open invitation which was your communication was to everyone there cannot be um communication that would
104then be violative of the open public meetings act because it would be discussions with individuals which would have which could have the same effect as being a discussion of the group. Now the way you're wording it is not my interpretation and I would like to further discuss that possibly in executive session. Uh so to to answer my colleague, I see that this budget being presented is going to greatly affect the 2020 2021 budget because not only will we have the additional aid cuts, but we will have, which I'm sure because history says so, a total budget increase that we'll have to absorb. And also, God bless you. And also we'll have the reserve funds that are being used as revenue from that's being proposed for the 2019 2020 budget. It will need to be absorbed
105somehow some way because I once again don't see that the following year's budget is going to go down any. So that's why I'm proposing it tonight. I think that more cuts need to be made, especially with the additional cuts that were uh in the in the slideshow this evening. So, I think that more has to be done and I have proposals. >> Okay. Um, anyone else discussion on the motion? Because we need to make it before we get any further into that, we need to decide whether or not we're going to move this forward and have the discussion. Anyone else? All right. I call a roll call for the motion to uh change the budget to cut. >> Mr. Sidawis, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Come back, please. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> no. >>
106Mrs. Fritz, >> no. >> Mr. Oshinsky, >> no. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> no. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> no. >> Mr. Drew, >> no. Motion fails. >> Okay. So now we can move forward with the motion that was originally moved. >> Any discussion on the budget as it was as it's spread before you? >> Mr. Drew. >> Uh we're undoubtedly going to approve this budget. I would like you to please ask Mr. telling to look at the options very there may be something that may not it could save a lot of money before we actually spend the money let's look at we looked a little deeper at the fieldhouse and I think came up with a fantastic solution >> any other discussion >> if not Mrs. Francisco roll please Mrs. Fritz >> yes >> Mr.
107Drew >> no >> Mr. Mr. Oshinsky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidawitz, >> no. >> Mrs. Dwer, >> yes. Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. And uh thank you again for all your hard work. And well, I I I think that probably if we had discussed it in going back two meetings ago, maybe there would have been more discussion on your motion. Okay. Um move on to >> Thank you for number two. >> Second. Uh any discussion? If not, Mrs. Francisco. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see your hand. >> Item seven. >> Um we get funds from the federal government. This is the consulting firm that puts that together. Um, if you recall a couple years ago when we did the uh new um wireless system, we were able to um get
10840 or 50% of the funding returned to us through category 2. So, this is the company that we hire in order to wade through all the federal regulations so that we get our fair share of this money from schools and library. [Applause] Any others in second? If not, Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidwood, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> I'd like to move item number 11. >> Second. Oh, that's all you could have. >> Any discussion, Mr. Francisco? Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mr. Oshinski, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mrs.
109Van Dyke, >> yes. >> I'd like to move item number 12, transfer funds. >> Second discussion, Mrs. Francisco. Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mr. Ofinsky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwer, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> I'd like to move item number 13. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Mrs. Francisco. Roll call, please. Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. Yes, >> Mr. Oshinsky. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> I like to move item number 14. >> Second >> discussion. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mr. Ofinsky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sawitz, >>
110yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Like to move item number 15. >> Second. I need >> second. Discussion. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ofinsky. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwer. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Drew. Nicole. >> Yes. >> I would like to move items 1 through 70 under personnel student affairs. Second. discussion. Uh I just want to wish um the people that are retiring a happy retirement and thank them for their years of service. Um I am personal friends with a few of these people and I wish them well. I hope that their retirement is is a happy and long one. Any
111other discussion? If not, Mrs. Francis, you want to give them another minute to go through it? >> Oh, yeah. >> Got it. >> That 69 was withdrawn. >> Oh, yeah. 69 is withdrawn. >> Can you come back to me? >> Sure. >> Mr. Oshinski. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. Yes, >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwire. No to 46, 48, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, and yes to everything else. >> You have to write that down. >> Should I say it again? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Say no to 46, 48, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, and 57. [Music] >> Keep your pen. >> They're not done. >> Mr. Sideways. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyk. I abstain on 13, 15, 16, 24, 31, and 55. >> And yes to the rest.
112>> Okay. Mrs. Romeo. Mrs. Romeo. All right. Mrs. Romeo abstains from 15, 16, 28, 29. Yeah, and 31. I also came from 52 [Music] and 61. [Music] Was it? >> No, you're not done. I'm sorry. >> Okay. >> No to and 64. >> 64. >> Yes. >> And yes to the rest. >> And yes to everything else. >> It was a big Sorry. >> Okay. >> Why does it pass? >> Do some of these pass? >> It pass. >> Yeah. I don't know. All of them pass. >> I think they did. >> They did. They passed. >> Yeah. >> 55 is in question because there's seven people present. So, you only need four votes for these motions to pass. >> 55. You only had You had 55. You had one. No. One abstension. >> We
113had >> That's still five votes. >> Mhm. >> We had five, right? >> Yep. >> Yeah. That's the only one that you had. >> That was the only one that was close. 35. >> Was a minute to make sure we actually >> We're calculating. >> Thank you for your report, Mrs. Fred. >> 57. You had two nose. >> 57 had two nose. >> And 52 nos. Now education. Mrs. Dwer, >> I'd like to move items 1 through 11 through for approval. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> If not. >> Oh, good. Okay. Uh, if not, Mrs. Francis, roll call for education, please. Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >>
114yes. >> Mr. Sid, would you move um >> like to move items one through three under policy? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Ojinski, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> Congratulations. You could stop recording that tape. >> She's going to sell that on eBay. It's going to make us a lot of money. put in a West Milford Museum. >> Okay. Committees, uh, parks and recreation. Uh, Mr. Guino is not present. Uh, safety committee. I have a a meeting tomorrow. I a meeting tomorrow. No, >> Thursday. >> It's not It's not tomorrow. >> It's Thursday. It's Thursday the 2nd. I'm sorry. Thank you. At the
115library. Uh, superintendent round table. Mrs. Drier. >> Okay. Um, we talked about the school calendar and um, we have another meeting set for the 9th of May. Yeah. The state county school boards um, Monday night is our meeting. So, I don't know if anybody's interested in going. I'm going. I believe Mrs. Dryer's going. If anybody else except the barn, >> are you going? >> I will not be going today. >> What time is the meeting? Uh, I think it's >> security. School security. School security. >> No, I don't think it was school security. I think it was. >> I thought it was before. >> No, I think it's this one. >> Okay. I'm not sure. They have to check your email. >> They had to cancel their meeting because they couldn't that officer. Um, New
116Jersey school boards. We had our train our goal sending training. I don't know if anybody signed up for any training coming up with New Jersey school boards. If headed you are >> this upcoming weekend. >> You're going to the >> the regional leadership training. >> Oh, we did that. >> Yeah, we did that last. >> Um if if you haven't done your required training, your board training, please remember that you have to take care of that. So, um, legislative, >> I'm sorry, >> on the New Jersey school board, they are planning a trip to Trenton on May 16th to discuss various issues with our legislators, which seems like that may be a good opportunity for us to express our displeasure with the funding. >> Uh, so I'm just pointing that out that maybe Do you
117want to have some kind of discussion about potential descending? >> Is that something you were going to have? >> I don't know if I can. I have a couple Eagle Scats that have to kind of accommodate. >> I mean, did was that something in your legisl I didn't mention? >> Oh, no. I actually I'm going to save my report till May. I was too focused on the budget. >> Dave, maybe that might be something that you >> Yeah, I can check my calendar. >> Okay. >> That just seems like that may be >> We'll be meet We'll We'll have committee meeting before then anyway. Okay. Okay. >> Raise our hands and say >> Mhm. >> Did you want to go? [Laughter] >> I'm sorry. I didn't mean I didn't mean to put it that way,
118but >> I didn't mean to put it that way. >> We'll talk about it another time. >> Uh technology. Mr. Garino is not here tonight. again >> uh township the the the joint or committee. >> We um yesterday we met with the mayor and two council people um to discuss um some proposals for Hillrest and right now nothing is definite. So there's really nothing to say at this time. >> We're we're we we have opened up a communication yeah the mayor and council and we're hoping to keep our keep communicating Uh, CASA, that's tonight. Um, I have a few updates um from CASA. The last meeting was on April 8th and myself, Miss Romeo and Dr. Anamone attended. Um, they had several events that took place in late March and early April, the teen vaping
119awareness, uh, teen summit and hidden in plain sight. The group talked about how unfortunately these um events were pretty lightly attended and how we can increase that in the in the future. Maybe working with the district and partnering with some of our events like safe night and things like that to bring more awareness to these events. Um last night was the first stigmafree task force meeting at the Highlands Family Success Center. Um attendance and enthusiasm was great. Um Ms. McUade and I believe Mr. Ochinsky were both in attendance. Um they are hoping to hold a teen oriented party at the end of the summer possibly at the teen center similar to the Kasa Beach party that they've done in the past. Uh this would be a great opportunity to spread information about what stigmafree means
120to the kids as well as how they can help make a difference. Uh they're looking at uh more details on that event as they work through timing for those. That's seems to be the challenge. They're also looking at where to target um around town where they can put up signage around stigmafree, the library, rec center, shop, etc. Um they would propose holding a lunch and learn for employees at these locations um to provide the signs and have someone from costa present information on what stigmafree means and how to answer questions that may arise from the public. Um so sounds like anything else that either of you want to add on that? Sounds like it was a good summer. It >> was a good event. Okay. >> Um a couple other upcoming things. Uh June 1st,
121there is a senior citizen health fair that will be held at the high school. There'll be a number of vendors on site as well as a medical dropbox, fraud alert information, several adult health screenings. I have a list if anyone wants to look of all the different vendors that'll be there. Um seems like a great resource for our seniors. June 4th, I that is the correct date for the D1i DUI reenactment. Was questioning myself on that. Um and also they mentioned that information on the parents who host lose the most that will be attached to prom bids. And on June 10th uh they're looking to hold um a community awareness dinner which they've I believe done in the past again not as well attended. Um looking to enhance the program to include some of the
122young people and community work that they do. The teen summit team, the DUI team, the real kids whose posters were chosen up to be displayed at the teen center. Um, so looking to kind of make that a bigger event and hopefully draw more attendance at that. Um, that's about it. The CASA grant year wraps up in June. So after that point, things will be on hold until the fall. >> They had their semiformal, right? >> Well, it's not CAS. >> Oh, it's not that does that like we were saying. >> Oh, I guess I thought it was changed hands a little bit, but they did have the semiformal and thank you. >> Everybody looks so for hosting cuz it was pretty wonderful. I have one there. >> And and uh board members do know that
123they are invited for that demonstration on June 4th. The um our rep >> uh Kelsey put it out for that DUI. If you haven't seen it, it's it's very interesting. It is it's very moving and it definitely does move the cry. >> So if you're available during the day that day and would like to come, maybe just give a heads up and let people know. Okay. Um, let's move on to old business. Anyone have anything for old business? >> No, I just I just wanted to say that um this DUI presentation I believe is done every other year >> and it was started by Mr. Anamone our um not Mr. Anne >> Mr. Analone Mr. Anselone our former uh PE head. So he to him Yeah. And and you're right. I the first one was
124the first one was really >> ve very very very emotional and but they they're doing they do a great job and it and it definitely is a topic that needs to be addressed. >> Will I just want to make a comment about how we are doing math differently as a result of the pressure that the board had put in prior years leading up to this year. I think personally that there is a systemic change that is occurring and I do feel that the results will start being visualized once uh once next year and the year after and so on and so forth hit. I think that understandably it it's a little bit of an impatience in regards to results, but I do think that they are coming >> and I think I'm sorry and I
125think we have to thank um Dr. Anamone and Mr. Novak for leading that charge. >> Yes, I agree. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? >> See none I'd like to close all business. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> oppose. New business. Anyone have anything? Will >> um I'd like to suggest to the operations and finance committee that they place on the agenda the discussion of updating the long range facilities plan which hasn't been updated since 2005. And I know that some of the most of the projects are done. And I know that's how we're supposed to base our capital reserve expenditures out of. And the second thing I'd like to suggest discussion about is boards of education have the ability to create what's called a current expense emergency reserve account. And
126I'm just going to read to you the language inside the law. The funds in the reserve shall be used to finance unanticipated general fund current expense cost required for a thorough and efficient education. The account shall not exceed $250,000 or 1% of the district's general fund budget up to a maximum of $1 million, whichever is greater. A board of education may appropriate funds to establish or supplement the reserve in the district's annual budget or through a transfer by board resolution at year end of any unanticipated revenue and unexpended line item appropriation amounts. Withdrawals from the reserve shall require the approval of the commissioner unless the withdrawal is necessary to meet an increase in total healthcare costs in excess of 4%. So again, the name of that reserve account is current expense emergency reserve account. one
127that you have. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Oh, and the update from the long range facility plan that's generated from the state of New Jersey. That's not something that we >> uh anything else under new business. >> Move to close new business. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. We'll move on to our second part of public comment. Uh the members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each speaker 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 are asked to give their name, give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may
128not use the names of students during public comment. I believe that Kay and William Fuller are signed up for this part. We're not really the rookies. We're K and William Fuller. It's f u l e r. We live at 16 Spruce Point Trail in UA. I hope this is the last time I ever have to talk about this. We are here this evening for four reasons. The first and most important reason is for the mental health of our child. The second reason is because there appears to be a breakdown in the district's policies and procedures. also because of the fact that there's a lack in offering resources to the families who have children in the high school. The third reason is because of the bullying and harassment that we have endured since December 3rd, which
129are the results of the flaws in the system. And last, because we hope by speaking this evening and telling our story that no other child or family will have to endure what we have. On December 3rd, our child failed a random drug test. When the sub substance abuse counselor called to inform us of the result, instead of offering us any counseling or even some professional advice, she only spoke to us about the punitive, both present and future damages that would occur. PS, she'll claim otherwise. the only advice that she did land on the phone was that if we weren't satisfied speaking with her that we could we would have to speak with the superintendent. She transferred our phone call and we did get the opportunity to speak with him which we're grateful for. >> I
130know I'm going to have more. >> Yes, I know. We believe that because she transferred our call to the superintendent and by the principal's own admission, she was spoken to about transferring our call and she elected to take her personal and um sorry, her professional embarrassment out on us by calling. >> I have to stop. I have to stop you here. The lawyer's telling me that I we have to stop. Just you should be aware that if you make comments about individuals, those individuals have their own rights as far as >> slander and any other issues that they have against and only >> and realize that it is not appropriate to be discussing personnel matters in a public. >> That's why we're here. >> I don't know what else to do. >> That's why we're
131here. want to table this as a as a private session, that's fine. But we're going through the entire process as >> we have had a sit down. We have had more than one sitdown with the principal, the vice principal. We've had a sit down with the guidance. We've had a sit down with the doctor. >> We've we've gone through the proper channels and everything that you are hearing this evening is the truth and nothing but the truth. And you'll find that we are not going to slander anybody. We are not going to insult. We are just telling the cold hard facts. >> We pay an appeal. >> We're We're just We just want to protect everybody's rights here. So our rights >> I've been called out by name at this table by employees. I don't
132think >> Excuse me. Well Well, listen to me. Well, listen. this we are not there's a difference between a public figure >> and we're getting advice from the attorney so let's leave it there okay >> there's a diff and there is a difference between a public figure and when you're dealing with a personnel matter >> so what is your advice on this >> can we set up a meeting with them >> yeah I would >> would would I I think I think what we're hearing here is that from the attorney is that we should have a meeting in private with you not in public the board. >> That would be wonderful, >> you know, but you you need to know that we probably will not give you input. We we will just hear you out
133to God. You have the right here this evening >> just to say that to our child that we have done everything humanly possible to show her that we are supporting her and that she is right that education should be the number one goal here at West Milford Education and it has failed us. That is why we're here. >> Okay. But we will if we have a private meeting then the members the the the staff who is being talked about >> the staff that's that we're that you maybe you should listen further because it's not this is just a story of what happened >> but but even by not saying the staff member's name we only have one person in that position >> making us give our first last name and an so I don't understand
134>> because you're here presenting yourself you are here presenting some serious I will say this >> as far as as a parent, she attended one of our meetings and professionally it was not presented well from her. >> So why don't we I think we need to set to have a a meeting that way. You would have the opportunity to present your concerns to the board of education. >> We could say more >> and we and we would have the attorney present and you would the attorney be able to tell them what guidelines they have to follow. Make a date now then please. >> Sure. >> Next meeting. >> What's happening to our family and now it's continuing again. >> Yeah. We're here to put it to a close eventually. >> I mean that's really what
135we're here to do. >> All right. We'll we'll do it next meeting. We have a meeting on May 21st is our next board meeting and we will have you come in for executive >> session. Work again. >> It's at night. >> Exactly. I work evenings. I work at Valley Hospital in the operating rooms and here I stand again. And that was also part of one of the things that we were going to mention this evening that we're losing not only time out of our education, but we're as parents losing time from our jobs. >> I have to go by advice of the council. >> I understand. I do. I understand. >> My goal here is I want my daughter to want to start going to school and want to go to school. That's not happening
136at all. And it's related to the policies, the procedures, the four different drug tests, the whatever's going on. It is not working. >> Okay. >> Her AB student all the way to December, one failed test. She hates school and now she's I don't even know. >> Okay. So, would you mind coming before us on the 21st and we'll do it in private an executive session and then >> Huh? >> Then we can Yes. >> We don't know all the details, right? We're about to hear present the story. >> All right. So, why don't we why don't we schedule that for the 21st? We >> we have to sit through this again or >> No, no, we're going to do it we're going to do it in executive session. We can set it so that for
137we could do a 7:00 >> before our meeting before the meeting opens here. We could we could meet in executive session. >> Okay. So, May 21st at 7 p.m. And where will that be? >> That'll be here in this building. >> All right. We will be here. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Well, we're still under we're still in public comment. Okay. Um >> we've been emailed stories before. >> Can Can uh is there anyone else wishing to speak? >> Seeing none, I move to close. >> Second. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Uh we need a motion for executive session. We do not have to come back to take action. So, we will be adjourning for an executive session. >> I need a motion. >> All right. At 9:29 p.m., I
138make a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel appointments, resignations, current litigation matters, special education matters, and matters of attorney client privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? We will be adjourning from executive session so we won't be coming back. So everyone have a good night. Oh boy. [Music]