Board of Education Meeting 4/26/16

001to the uh regular public budget hearing meeting of April 26 for the West Milker Board of Education. Um, please either silence or turn off your cell phones, notice where emergency exits are. And I would like to have a um for those of you who aren't in attendance, um Mr. Drew had to stay in the hospital another couple of months, I mean couple of weeks. Um, so I just, you know, best wishes for him. Flag salute, please. 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. Oh, here he comes. There he comes. Oh, there he is. All right. Should have stole. Oh, good. Now we can start. Hope you're not late to school. In accordance with

002the provisions of the open public meetings act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent has been sent to board members, all district schools, the Herald news, the trends, the record, Amos Milford, the messenger, West Milford town hall, county superintendent's office, the board attorney, cable vision of Warwick, and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution will be provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Bi, Mr. Deber here, Mr. Drew, Mrs. Swer here, Mr. Foody, present. Mrs. Mr. Yuber here, Miss O'Brien here, Mr. Robbins here, Mrs. Schulz here. Do I have a volunteer to read? Uh, Jamie, would you read the executive session resolution, please? about 9:00. I think I'd like to make a motion um to approve

003the following resolution. Resolve that the board go into executive session at 9:00 p.m. for approximately 60 minutes for the purpose of discussing personnel negotiations and matters of client attorney client privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Mr. Rashika, superintendent report, please. Okay, I'm going to turn it over to Matthew, who is just arrived and I'm sure ready to go. Are you good? Okay. And then I'll follow up from you. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Mr. Rajika. With the warm weather here, the fresh air, and the arrival of standardized testing, it is clear that spring is here. A day in the park. [Music] It's a day in the park. Couldn't

004pass that one. Yeah. As the school year wraps up into its fourth and final lap, our students are eagerly pressing on, determined to finish their race. This is the single busiest time of the school year and I'm happy to report that student life at West Milford High School has never been more active. With with spring sports in full swing, I would like to wish all of our teams good luck as they begin to enter the tournament stage, especially track and field as they compete in the Big North Conference Championships tomorrow. Also, I'd like to wish our boys volleyball team good luck as they compete in their first ever varsity season in West Milford High School history. A big congratulations goes out to our Highlander band as they traveled all the way to England and Scotland

005to play abroad. This special experience takes place only once every four years and it truly made a memorable experience for our seniors. I'm also pleased to report that the senior classes council is busy at work finalizing the planning for senior prom. Packets are already available and bids go on sale in early May. In addition, they are still selling graduation signs and car magnets. Please support our seniors. Student Council and National Honor Society are planning a movie night fundraiser for Friday, May 13th. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be shown for a pre-sale price of only $3 or $5 at the door. All proceeds will benefit the Ronald McDonald Foundation. Furthermore, the student council is preparing for our sixth annual Highlander Day on Friday, May 20th, followed by our first annual Battle of the Bands in

006the Highlands competition later that evening. I would also like to applaud all students, staff, and parents who made the district arts festival a special evening. I had the opportunity to attend and can attest that the evening truly showcased the activism of West Milford students. Along similar lines, the district's open mic night was a very successful evening as our students displayed their talents. Congratulations to our history bowl team, of which I had the pleasure of being a part of. We made it all the way to nationals in our first year of schools of the school's competition. It was a very exciting experience in Washington DC. Um, speaking of nationals, I wanted to congratulate indoor percussion for winning their first or for winning the national tournament for their second year in a row. This was a perfect

007capstone to an undefeated season. Some news from the TV science class. Frankie Lagana placed first in the state for the Elks Club anti-drug public service announcement contest. Students Becca Cronia and Justin Gerity collaborated to win second place behind him in the same video competition. Uh the building trades class undertook an event of service working to construct a new historic um Purple Martins Bird House for the Friends of Wall Estates. It's great to see our community being so active. Um, as we look towards the month of May and beyond, there are many events upcoming such as AP exams, honor society inductions, and the Warren Remembrance Day. That concludes my report for the month of April. And I hope everybody has a nice week. Oh, also sorry that that's a good point. The cable thawn is coming

008up May 1st and Project Graduation needs all the support they can get. Okay, watch it. There you go. [Applause] Thank you, Matthew. Um, just the uh just want to welcome everybody here this evening, especially everybody wearing red. I guess Mrs. Francisco got the memo, but I didn't. So, uh, but we'll be okay. But moving on, I am glad that Matthew shared all the positive things that are going on in our schools and, uh, we want to continue moving in that direction. Uh, with that being said, um, I just gave to our board of education members an invitation to, uh, the DU DUI enactment uh, for the high school. Mr. Gorski and the administrators put together the program along with other teachers and staff members. Uh, and what's important to notice here is that this is

009not something done in isolation. I'll go through the people involved in this and the different groups. We have the West Milford Police. We have the fire department, paramedics, Hackinack Flight Medical is coming in. They will be landing a hel helicopter. Uh Atlantic Health uh Stickle and Stoolitz uh funeral home will all be working together for this uh good cause. And the good cause here is that we want to show children, our especially our seniors going to prom and, you know, moving out of high school and thinking about all the fun they're going to have in college, what the consequences could be when you make the wrong decision. So, uh, again, that will take place May 18th and the rain date will be June 2nd. And for those of you who don't know, the prom is

010on June uh June sec June 3rd, right? Or June 2nd. June 2nd. It's Thursday, June 2nd. Right. Okay. So, that's what's happening. And just to uh back up uh what Matthew was talking about, the project graduation, which also takes place on graduation night, uh that teleathon cable thon will take place this Sunday. I believe it starts at 1:00 1:00. Just tune in to your cable station. We've um last year made it possible for people to donate money via PayPal. There will be a link on our website uh for you to do that. So, when you're watching the show, you see something special and you want to donate some money to the cause, uh, please don't hesitate. Um, also moving on here, I want you to know that we talk about character education and things that

011we try to do within the schools to make things better. Uh, some cases we're very successful, in some cases we need more work, and that's not a secret. We're all aware of that, and we try to do the best we can. But with that being said, we know that Marshall uh sorry, Maple Road this year was selected as a school of character for the state of New Jersey. And just last week, April 18th, uh we had the uh character.org representatives come in to visit the school. Uh they met with administrators including Mr. Novak and uh Dr. Mcuade and Mr. Kaine along with students and staff members. and the their visit is basically uh to see what's going on in the school, see what programs we have to offer, and therefore possibly be recognized as a

012national school of character. So, we we want to wish them good luck with that. And certainly, we're looking forward to celebrating down at Ryder University on May 20th, a Friday. uh they will be honored for their uh receiving the award and also they've been selected to uh demonstrate what's going on in their school so that other schools can take a look and hopefully uh put those programs within their districts and within their school. So we're very proud of all of them, Mr. Mr. Kane and the crew over at Maple Road. Um the other thing I want you to know about, we know we talk about these bullying incidents and everything else and it's something that we do take seriously. Uh with that being said, the the school board we we did approve purchasing what's called

013a my K12 HIB manager system. Uh now it's not just a system because embedded within this program is professional development that will be available for staff members and for administrators and just keeping up with the laws and following to make sure that we do everything in accordance with the law. Uh the benefits of the actual software package I'm going to read it to you because it's it's extensive. Benefits of the system are that it will ensure that our HIV investigation procedures are consistent, compliant, and centralized. Using this system will ensure consistent procedure by which HI incidents are reported and determined. Additionally, my K12 has been created in partnership with the New Jersey Principles and Supervisors Association, the Foundation of Educational Administration and Legal One. Now, Legal One is based out of the Principles and Supervisors

014organization where we get uh all of our training for school law. So, that's very important for us to know. And overall, this will ensure that our district's procedures are compliant with the latest state regulations. And lastly, the system provides a centralized location for HIB personnel to access important HIV investigation information. So therefore, we're looking at eight nine schools with our academy. Everybody will be able to follow the same plans. Everybody's information will be centrally located within the software package. Therefore, there should be no questions going back and forth to each other as to how are you doing this? we should all be on the same page, which has been one of my personal goals within the district is to try to get all of our schools doing the same thing and so we do not

015have discrepancies when we speak to parents about what's your policy on this. The policy is the policy that's written that we follow and hopefully this will help with that and we will move along from there. So um also um you know looking at all the positive things that have gone on we know that uh we have other things happening at the elementary school. We come to this wonderful time of the year when it's warm and the sun's out and besides being time for park, it's also time for field day. So, uh, keep your eyes open for that and, uh, please don't hesitate to visit the schools when your children are involved. That's all I have. Thank you. I'm sorry. I I have a question about the park testing. Do you have a number of the

016number of refusals What was that? That's Dan's gonna be getting into that in a minute. Oh, yeah. But I do have one more. I don't know. Yeah, we did mention Did I mention the thing about the film festival? I didn't see that. I don't I don't remember if I you questioned last week about the Pay County Film Festival. Yes. Okay. So, we did our students did uh participate. Okay. And actually, one of our students, I'm going to give him a plug here. Frank Leana came in first place in Pose County Film Festival for his documentary Risk of Life. and he came in second place for his public service announcement as well. So, we were there and did well. Good. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Mr. Novak, education report, please. And I am going to um

017share with you the current refusal rate, but I'm going to wait till the end just to keep you in suspense. So, I know you're dying. I know you're dying to hear it. Um so, I I did want to provide a I'm going to try and keep it brief because I we have our our budget hearing uh for the evening. Um, I want to just give a little update on Park. Uh, we we got off to a great start last week. Uh, we were here uh Tuesday night um for Mr. Rashika to talk about what a great start we had. Um, talk about the video that we we put together and I don't know if we ever got a counter on there to see how many people have actually looked at it. Hopefully not many. Um,

018me looking at it. Um, I joined Weight Watchers after watching that video a number of times. Apparently the the camera adds 65 lbs to to the person on the left. But uh that being said, you know, that video is available um you know, for us if you still have questions. Um after talking about what a great start we had on Wednesday, um the system across the state went went down. So um you know, very proud of our of our administrative staff, our our students, and our teachers for really adapting and and trying to make the best out of a of a bad situation. The system went down. Uh we received word from the state at around uh 10:30 that they were going to be shutting it down from the uh hours of 1 to 4

019p.m. on that Wednesday to do site maintenance and everything was up and running again for the following Thursday. And one of the concerns we had come in, we we spoke about this. We were concerned now that you know we had great success in increasing our part participation for this year and we were concerned that this glitch would erode some of the confidence that had been been built up and that we were going to receive a flood of refusals the next day and and that that didn't happen. So we we're very happy for that. Uh I did want to say thank you to the community for um responding to to sort of the plea that we put out this year and and really trying to get the participation up and whether you agree with Park or

020not. Um trying to make meaning out of the amount of time our kids are giving in the classroom I think is very important whe like I said whether you believe or stand behind the park or not the fact that we have such a good participation rate and we can try and get something meaningful out of it next year with the results I think is is very positive. And now to the information. Drum roll. No. Um so when we when we began uh the day before park testing began we were at a 3% um across the district and although that was prior to testing u more refusals can come in as it begins and we currently stand at 6% across the district which is um down from 35%. So uh I mean a tremendous uh tremendous

021gain from from last year to this year. Uh also more um not more importantly than the participation but almost equally uh we're also hearing um great feedback from from staff. Uh last year we heard some you know feedback about students sitting there and and tapping through and clicking through and you know although they their parents didn't refuse for them they still were not going to take it and they didn't fill in the the you know some of the answer boxes and that sort of thing. We're not hearing that same feedback. It seems that everyone's giving it the good um you know doing their best and and you know making making the most out of the time they have. So, uh, very very positive start and, uh, hopefully our our results will, you know, will will

022match that. Uh, I also just wanted to take a m I didn't get a chance to publicly thank Dr. Mcuade for presenting on on special services last week and I I did want to bring attention to um the fact that her presentation was very in-depth and it is available on our website uh under the special services tab. So, if you want to if you missed her presentation and you'd like to see it, the presentation is there in it in its entirety uh on our website um on the special services tab under district. So, I just want to bring uh bring attention to that. And that concludes my uh report for tonight. Quick question for you, Dan. Yes. Did we put any kind of guidance in for the refusals or No, we did. There's actually there's

023actually an explanation at the end of the video uh which pretty much outlines exactly what's supposed to happen and u so we have not had any negative um response from it other than the few that uh have opted out okay or refused and and those those individuals who we have received refusal letters from they're they're treated respectfully with a response and and everything you know similar to to the guidelines that we went through with last year. Perfect. Uh what are the children that are doing that instead of the testing that have used? Depends on the um grade level, depends on the building. Uh at the elementary level because our testing centers are not in their grade their classrooms. Those students go back to their classrooms and they're assigned some uh independent reading or or some

024tasks that are not um you know they're not moving them ahead of their peers. They're not doing, you know, content that is meant for the whole class, but they're working on um especially independent reading in some of our um readers and writers workshop activities. The middle school and high school, because our numbers are a little bit larger, they would be in some common areas, auditoriums, uh media centers, that sort of thing with um with also reading materials and, you know, maybe catchup work and that sort of thing. Thank you. Just I would like to add also that uh Dr. McUade um with her guidance over at the academy. Uh we've had some disciplinary issues that were very concerning. Uh that's why we have an academy. Uh but one of the things were you know the

025way the students were treating each other and uh to combat that uh she invited in D West who is a former uh New York Giants uh that sorry New York Jets football player uh who came in and did a program with the 20 students or so in a roundt type environment uh where he spoke to them about various topics and just about the overall theme I believe was a fresh start. Uh you're here uh to have a fresh start. you've made some mistakes along the way. So, we would like to see that grow within the school district. Uh he's already been in touch with me and I will share that information with Dr. Anamone. So, perhaps he can come into uh the school district again next year and of course come to the high school,

026talk to elementary students as well. So, thank you for that as well, Dr. McUade. Sorry to just keep going, but I just want to also comment on uh on Dwayne West. Not only not only did he We're doing Abbott and Costello tonight for right um central come right uh not only did he uh connect to a fresh start he also connected to the past the to the fact that he was a special needs student and he really um brought that across in his presentation to the students and that you know although although you you um you know are in a special needs program that you can succeed and become this you know he's now a motivational speaker and some of his beginnings he had trouble speaking So I think he was able to connect directly

027to his special needs past and show how that became a source of strength and and power in his uh in his future life. So it was real real powerful moment and the qual the the the qualitative feedback from the students was they you could hear a pin drop at that time which for our students we didn't see a cell phone out. It was focused attention and the feedback from the students afterwards. I would say probably half the room went up to talk to him after and wanted to, you know, share their story or tell them how how how like what they took away from the message. So I think it was definitely positive and they they gave us the feedback which which showed that it really was was beneficial and I must say as speaker

028he spent the extra time with us to do that. So that which which was nice too. Yeah. So thanks for supporting it to everybody. Barbara, special reports and correspondence. No, he's sitting there. [Music] I'm sorry. Wow. Oh, I don't need my glasses. Can it shrink it a little bit? I still need my glasses. No. Okay. Okay. Come your right eye. All right. This is basically the same presentation um that we did on March 15th when we introduced the preliminary preliminary budget. Um Mr. Rashika and Mr. Novak reviewed some of the goals that um we're currently working toward and how this budget is going to continue to support those um those endeavors. Um we we spoke about the budget parameters that we developed when we doesn't work. We spoke about the budget parameters that we put

029into place when we were developing the original budget and some of the things that we wanted to maintain. Um with um you know the um new wireless that's been implemented uh in all the buildings and uh we have more coverage now. Um we're finding that more and more um supervisors and and teachers um want Chromebooks to utilize in their classrooms. So we're continuing to purchase Chromebooks. Um we've um have quite a few iPads, but um we're also looking to purchase some additional iPads if um we're able to start working with Apple again. Uh Mr. Novak and Mr. Dr. Rashika talked about some of the new course offerings that uh the supervisors are recommending and the new curriculums that are going to be written in order to support those courses. We talked about the advanced placement

030courses that um that we currently have and how uh you know each year we're trying to add more advanced placement courses so that the students have more opportunities to um get college credit if they do well in the advanced placement classes. Um, and we talked about trying to um direct ourselves toward the STEM steam initiatives that are so very popular right now. And Mr. Rashika loves to talk about STEM and STEAM. So, okay. So, I can speak here. Um, I'm happy to say that we are making progress at the middle school at Makipin. Uh we have a dedicated lab now that uh is just in the final stages of being um set up for STEM and steam and uh it's freshly painted. There's a new floor that went down. Uh we are putting computers into

031that area as well. And I think I might have mentioned last time that we did uh were able to receive uh three 3D printers. Uh the 3D printers used with AutoCAD and design which is very important to this program. uh one of them at least will be put into that lab for use and uh that's very very important. I also want to go back to the the Chromebooks as well because a lot of times people think we're buying Chromebooks and initially maybe it was the case uh being concerned about testing and that everything is online but certainly now that we have them within the buildings more and more people are wanting to use them and the students are very comfortable in using them. So we're building upon that format. Uh, one of the one of

032the issues is uh, Miss Francisco mentioned before is we're having some difficulties uh, doing school purchases with Apple which we will work on but that's not to say that the iPads are still not in place. It's just fewer of those and more of the Chromebooks direction in which we're headed. So, uh, and moving with STEM again uh, looking out to build those partnerships with some of our local universities to have them come into the high school uh, come into the middle school and certainly if possible work with our young students in the elementary schools as well. So uh I think that's very very important and will bring us up to the 21st century where we need to be. So uh one of the uh one of the important things um that we wanted to focus

033on with this budget was to maintain the programs that we currently have. Um, and that's been a big concern uh of the board of education because we have been losing student enrollment, but and and but they're also very concerned about um property taxes. So, it's um it's it's a balancing act to try to maintain um the um educational programs, some of the support programs that we put into effect, some of the additional personnel that we've added in order to support students. So um we we try very hard and to maintain those levels of service for the students without uh being affected by by budget um by budget reductions. Um Dr. Mcuade talked about the um new initiative for the autism program that we're bringing in house and expanding. um and also about the uh the

034the program that we have at Highlander Academy and how beneficial that's been for the students that are involved in that program. Um Mr. Mr. Rashika just talked about Maple Road School and how they've joined the ranks of um a school of character and that's very exciting for the students because I know that they're working very hard in order to uh attain the goals that um where they're being recognized for for doing something worthwhile and very rewarding and that's going to carry them through their lifetime. So, um, we talked about some of the, um, budget items that we included in the 2016 budget, but let me direct ourselves to the high school auditorium renovation. Um, we talked about phase one of the high school auditorium renovation. And and if I take I can take it back

035to um when we had the um public hearing on the referendum, we we talked about if we were successful with getting the roof replaced at the high school that the auditorium renovation should be something we consider and make it a focal point. And um right now um it looks like it's going to stay in the budget. One thing we did remove from the um the renovation project though is the HVAC replacement. I've been assured by um our supervisor buildings and grounds that the current system can be repaired and so um that $400,000 item has been re removed and you'll see how that plays into the reduction in the overall uh tax levy that we originally proposed. So the phase one auditorium renovations um is is still there and hopefully we can make it happen. Um

036this is uh the first two columns are basically um what you saw on March 15. Uh it was a comparison from the 2015 budget and what we were pro proposing with the preliminary budget and you can see the bottom line um it was an increase of about a million70,000. Well, the board directed the min the administration to not increase taxes and so we took that very seriously and we did what we could in order to maintain the same tax levy. So if you look at column 1 201516 tax levy, it was 53,542 uh 53,543,0042,837. And if you look at the last column, the revised budget, which is being presented tonight, has the exact same number, which brings an increase in the total budget to just about $300,000 or $200,000. So, we're basically um keeping the

037same um budget that we had in the current school year. the expenditures. I I created the same columns. Um I can talk to you a little about the about the um reductions that we made other than uh the $400,000 that we took out for the um the HVAC at the high school. We reduced uh some of our costs in transportation. We've cut back on some of the supplies that um we were budgeting. We cut back in operations and maintenance. uh some of the um fuel that we were anticipating purchasing. And in the a future agenda, you'll have a resolution to do a a reverse auction for natural gas, which we hope is going to save us some additional monies that, you know, uh we're anticipating based upon the the things that we reduced. We also

038are looking to reduce some of our administrative expenses and our our support services. So, um, we're looking to do some consolidations and what that translated to was, um, an $800,000 reduction. And the balance of the tax levy, the originally proposed tax levy increase, which was um a,70,000, came from an additional fund balance. Um, if you go back to the prior, yeah, prior, um, you can see that originally I proposed using fund balance of $2.9 million. Now, uh, the difference between the 800,000 that we identified in the appropriations and, um, the balance of the tax levy increase is being added by um, increasing our fund balance revenue. So that's basically um how we've been able to achieve a zero tax levy increase. Now just quickly I want to give you a a bird's eye view of

039the last 10 years. Um this is a breakdown of county municipal and school taxes over the last 10 years. In 20 uh 2005 2006, there was a total levy of $73 million through um all three um three entities. And you can see what percentage each one of those entities um costs the total tax levy. And in 201516, which is the current year, you can see what it's grown to. And you could also see that the schools where it used to be 56.4% of the entire um county um tax ratable, it's now only 53.3% of the county redible. And if you can look and you know at the bottom there's a 10-year tax levy increase and you can see that over the 10-year period what what the difference is between in each entity and that the

040county has raised taxes 46.66%. The municipality has raised them 50.41% and the school district has raised them 31.22%. So, um I think that that's a snapshot of where your money is going and how it's being distributed and um we're we will continue to work hard to try to make uh the budgets as cost effective as we possibly can. And so the bottom line through all of these changes that we've done and what the zero tax levy increase actually means is that um there's going to be a $718 increase on the average assessed home. Now, if I know you're asking, well, if the tax levies are the same and actually debt service went down from the prior year, why is there a $78 increase? It's because the um the valuations have have been reduced. So, there's

041about $5 million less in in value in valuation to spread the tax levy out over. And what that does is um you have about a three hundredths of a point that um has to be made up and that's what it it comes out to $7.18. So um that's pretty much the um the public um presentation um the most current budget and the one that's on the um the agenda for consideration. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to ask answer them at this time. Mrs. Francisco, I just have a comment. Um, this is an arduous task and I I think you should be commended for what you did for our community. The county is raising us 1.6%. The municipal tax is going up 2.6. That's going to burden our taxpayers with 4.2%

042increase on our homes. And I think the community will be so relieved to know that we're not going to add to this frivolous spending. So, thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. [Applause] I'm glad I was able to sharpen my pencil the way I was directed. Any other questions? Any comments? Any other Nothing. I think I think you left out the most important piece though with all of this. cuts. Um, looking at that being taken out of the the original draft of the budget, I am happy to report that instructional programs will remain the same. Uh, so that's good news. Uh, and uh, I can't predict for the future, but I know that next year we should be in a good enough place to maintain what we have plus implement some of the programs

043that we saw during the uh, presentation. I spoke a bit. I had the pleasure of being with Dr. today for about 2 hours almost and uh we went through you know what some of the concerns are but certainly looking forward I think we're for next school year at least in a good place so let's stay there and thank you Miss Francis Thank you guys. [Applause] And then we have everybody. Need a motion for the minutes. need. I'd like to make a motion to approve the following board of education meeting minutes for March 1st, March 8th, March 15th, March 22nd, and March 29th. Second. Thank you, Terry. All in favor? I I need to excuse myself from March 1st. I was not um the regular meeting in executive session. So, you're abstaining on that? Okay. Thank

044you. That's why I have the next one. Any opposed? Thank you. Legal report, Mr. Roselli. Since we just met last week and discussed the legal report, then I don't have anything for this time. Okay. Um, president's report. I want to take the time to thank all the board members who spoke with Barbara um to get this budget down to a 0% tax increase. Um what's important to realize is that we've expanded class offerings. We haven't affected any of the educational programs. And and that's That's key. I don't think I would have supported um any cuts to the educational programs. And then I'm I'm glad that Mrs. Francisco sharpened her pencil many many times, I'm sure. And um and I want to thank uh Mr. Drew. I know he wasounding you like he always does. So,

045um I but I personally want to thank you Barbara for uh job well done. Um two things. Um Mr. Drew wasn't here, but it's appropriate Dr. Anamone that you're here. Um he sent me an email that he he would like me to to read out. Um so here it goes. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Dr. Anamone as the new superintendent of the West Milford Public Schools. The public only sees the relatively brief vote for a momentous occasion like this, and I'm sure that they are not aware of the hours and hours and hours and hours spent by mostly all board members to identify a superintendent of Dr. Adamone's caliber. Dr. Anamone has the education, experience, skills, and vision to help our children, administration, and teachers to reach their full potential. I

046was particularly impressed by Dr. Anamone's ideas and experience to help us improve the culture in the West Milford Township public schools to stamp out the negativity such as bullying and drugs that are crushing the spirit of some of our students. We must put an end to these things. I would much rather be there personally to welcome Dr. Anamone, but I need to finish the course of treatment for my cancer in NYC over the next couple of weeks. The prognosis is good, and I will be back in a saddle in West Milford soon. But this has also given me an opportunity to reflect on what really matters. When I have asked these brighteyed 20some new doctors what motivated them to become doctors and cancer researchers and almost every case it was some AP biology teacher or

047or an outstanding professor. Good teachers and good education matters whether these kids want to become doctors, better parents or better community members. With Dr. Anamone, I believe we're on the right track for the future of West Milford. The train has left the station. I'm on board and I hope that everyone will get on board with me to help our district succeed. Steve Drew, um you've you've got that. Wait till he gets back. Um the only other thing that I would like to discuss right now I received back um from New Jersey School Boards Association um the review of our policy manual and I forwarded a copy of that to all the board members before I left probably around six o'clock this evening. Um I hope everybody would get a chance uh to read it over

048the next couple of days, but um there were some concerns. Um we have some uh 15 missing critical policies, three of which are mandated and are monitored. Um I'm not going to read through the whole report. There could be better proving manual jumps around. um policies are organized in series but not include cross reference to related policies and other sections of the manual um and it's not organized in align with New Jersey school board's file code system. There's good news. Um, but I wish that everybody would, you know, over the next week, um, take a moment. Um, we'll discuss this further with the policy committee and probably make some recommendations to the board um, within the next couple of meetings. So, um, I thank the board for having the wisdom to to move that to

049New Jersey school boards to to be reviewed. Um, that incl concludes my president's report and we'll move on to petitions and request. Petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes. Then time permitting other petitions and request limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and request are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. They don't need to give a street, but town residency is fine. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Do we have anybody who would like to speak? Um, we have Mary Moore

050from Abua School who would like to speak. Mary Moore. Oh, okay. She wants to talk about Georgia. Okay. All right. Thank you. Mary brought more. I brought a whole lot more. I like the school spirit. I went to Aptua. Represent. All righty. Well, ladies and gentlemen of the board, Dr. Bashika, Mr. Novak, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight to you. And after hearing the public presentation of the budget, certainly there's a lot of relief amongst the moms and fathers who are here tonight to represent our school, our incoming third grade class, and these actual Hawkeye moms who have come out every single year since they've been in kindergarten to ensure a positive academic environment for their children. We are here to ensure that they are maintained their threeclassroom format that they've

051had since kindergarten. And after hearing what the budget proposal was during the public speaking, it was very relieving to hear that a lot of what our concerns are regarding keeping this third class uh three classroom format is going to be maintained and our concerns are kind of addressed. But I do want to kind of go through what we have prepared and just know our point of view. Um, for those who are not familiar with our class's history, uh, due to our large class size, our children have been afforded the wonderful opportunity to learn in a threeclassroom format since kindergarten. Year after year, we have pled before this board of education to maintain this learning structure so that our children could have the best possible environment uh, in which to learn. And fortunately, every year, our

052pleas were heard as they move forward towards their third grade year. Our class size continues to be large. We are currently at 51 students. We know there are many challenges that await them as they move forward into this third grade year. First off, it's their first year taking the park. Second, they will be expected to work much more independently than ever before. And thirdly, critical thinking comes to the forefront in their studies during this third grade year. To move them from any smaller class size format that they have known since kindergarten to a larger, more congested class size would be detrimental to their academic success. In preparation for this challenging year, they need the attention of their teacher. They need an environment where they will not be forgotten. They need the threeclass format that provides

053them with the best possible chance to succeed in their studies. Eyes will also be upon this class because they are among the first all Common Core taught students. Their performance will be an example of the curriculum and testing that has been pushed and implemented over the past few years. Let's give them the opportunity to shine. I had all these wonderful facts that the Center of Public Education uh basically states regarding supporting smaller class sizes, meaning 13 to 17 children per class. I won't bother you with that because it sounds like we're headed in a very similar direction in terms of what we want. But many studies in Tennessee, Wisconsin, California have all supported that having a smaller class size boost academic achievement on standardized tests. It helps create a more uh rich learning environment. And

054on top of that, it's a cumulative benefit because those children that have learned in a smaller class size continue to do better than those who are in larger class sizes or the regular class sizes 20 or more all the way to grade nine. It's an ongoing benefit that keeps paying forward. While I understand that taxes are of concern, everybody in this room knows that taxes are of concern for the community, we have to remember that the primary goal of this board is to give this the children in our community the best possible education that can be afforded to them. It can be debated for hours on end what can be trimmed from our budgets to bring taxes down. However, our children and their education are never ever wasteful spending. They are not a waste product

055to be trimmed. Benjamin Franklin once said, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. Providing the best scenario for academic achievement is in our children's best interest, and that should never ever be forgotten. We thank you for going through this budget and trimming things that don't affect necessarily our children's direct education. We thank you for taking the time to make sure that that is not impacted. Our children are headed towards a very challenging year of academics and to know that this threeclassroom format will continue is very relieving to hear. We want them to maintain this three class format as long as their class size remains large so they can receive the attention and the teaching that they deserve. Thank you so much for your time. Well, thank parents, moms, dads for coming and sharing

056that information and taking the time to be with us this evening. Um, and we we're happy about that, too. So, thank you. Anybody else like to speak? Seeing none, like to close petitions and requests. All in favor? I. Any opposed? We're we're we're missing a line here. Oh, no, we're not. I passed over. Never mind. Um, I need a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. No, gotcha. Okay. I didn't know we were competing tonight. Nobody told me that. I second it. The two hand carries. Now we have um some hand carries. Yes. Uh I can tell you for uh a couple of changes too. So on the hand carry for personnel, it's hand carry number two with numbers 22 through 26. And I also want to point out a couple of changes uh and

057personnel going to starting with number eight uh third sentence up from the bottom of that number. Uh it says with health benefits it says retroactive should read effective. So just replace retroactive as effective number eight on the personnel. Uh page numbers page 11. Page 11. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And so again, it's going to be retroactive becomes effective. Not retroactive. Uh going over to page 13 on number 15, we are adding a name into that line. Lisa Cisco, school bus, van, and SUV driver. Uh pending transfer of fingerprints. That's number 15 on page 13. And also on that page, uh, number 18, we had a request today to add to our home instructors, Miss Ellen Darity. So that's an additional of a fourth name on number 18. Ellen Darity, D O U G H E

058R T Y. with those. All right. All in favor? No. Well, go ahead. Pick it up later. There's a matter at number 16. Number one. Page. Sage. I don't know. Are we under personnel still or somewhere else? Under policy. Oh, okay. A 14. Was that one that you That's the student grievance policy which is still under discussion in in uh under policy committee. So, we're not really ready to go for go for a reading. Correct. Okay. So, we're going to pull Um, number one item item one under policy on page 14. Tony, you're going to remove that administratively, right? Administratively, yes. We're just tweaking it a little bit. All right. So, that's removed. That one. Yeah, that's it. So, with those changes, the motion. All right. Now, [Music] Debbie, you made the motion. Terry or

059Terry did, excuse me, Terry and Debbie. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Um, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Drew isn't here. Would you mind uh taking over for him for budget and finance, please? No, thank you. No. Okay. Marilyn. Sure. like to move item one under budget and finance. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Bailey. Barb, I'd like to thank you personally for your hard work crafting this budget, echoing the sentiments of the people in attendance and my colleagues on the board. However, I get a little nervous because in all my years here, I've never seen such a thing. But I'm confident that you as a professional administrator, CFO, if you will. In other words, it's an immense operation. And I'm very confident that you're covering all of our concerns educationally and also with an eye towards, you know,

060the massive facilities that we have here. I see there's ongoing discussions about one of my new favorite topics, which is upgrading the uh high school football field. Not so much that we want to have a tremendous high school football team. Who doesn't? But that is a real showcase event for us, our graduation every year in that setting on that wonderful field, June evening, etc. The one thing that's lacking are 2016 bleachers. And I think that's something that really needs to be addressed as we go down the road. I've shared these sentiments with you in the past. I know you're working hard on it. And I just want to make sure that we're doing the best we can to provide the best educationally, programwise, and also make sure our facilities are second to none because West

061Milford's really moving into a position now as one of the top districts in all of Pay County. And I have a keen eye towards physical plant, etc. And I want to make sure that you understand what my charge is because um that's what turns Mr. Bailey on. He likes that stuff, that repaving of the parking lots, etc. So, job well done. Look forward to working with you down the future. I'm voting yes. I've always voted yes, but I am nervous about such a minimal increase. Thanks, Jim. Um, I just want to say thanks to Barbara. There were a lot of discussions. Um, she helped educate me on a a number of different things when it comes to um, finance. Um, I am a fiscal conservative along with a lot of other the guy people on

062the board and our taxpayers. I know it's tough for people out there. Um, at the same time, we've we've maintained the the educational direction that we would like to go in and benefit the uh, students of West Milford. So, I'm very happy that we've gotten to this point. Uh, about a month ago, I said I wouldn't support a rise in um an increase in the budget and that through negotiations, we can keep the budget down, which we have. And it was hard work. Um, and hopefully we can um we can fulfill all the things that we're looking to do and maybe even come out the other side with a little extra money for a capital reserve, but we'll see where that goes. Thanks very much. Capital reserve. Yeah, capital reserve in the end, right? I'm

063gonna hold you to that one. Maybe maybe um Barbara, I I tried to leave you alone on this because I knew it was in good hands with the budget committee and you I was confident you could you and the budget committee could do this. I have one question though. I really am uh concerned with making sure we set up Dr. enimone for complete success and I'd like to just ask and confirm that there is money in our budget for him to be able to get an HR person this year. No, that was never part of any discussion. That was never part of any discussion. That's I've never heard that com question comment and it's never come up. We've brought we we've spoken about it but we never we never pushed for it. No, I've never

064heard that. Yeah, we've spoken about it a few times. It's come up. Okay. So, what's your vote? No, I'm just asking him what he's voting. We're not voting. Oh, any other comments? Okay. Mr. Bailey has his hand raised. No, he doesn't. President can tell when the hands raised or something. I'm sorry. Your own business down here. My own glasses on. I couldn't Someday you'll be a president. You can recognize. No, thank you. All right. Seeing no further discussion. Roll call, please. Barbara, Mrs. Schultz. Yes, Mr. Robbins. Yes, Mrs. Dwire. Yes, Miss O'Brien. Yes, Mr. Yuber. With the note that I'll be looking to find that money. Yes, Mr. Deber. Yes, Mr. Bailey. Yes, Mr. Foody. Yes, [Music] fin items 2 through 11. Second. Excuse me for a minute. Any discussion? I have a question. I

065got it. Sorry. Number three. Is this the total transportation cost for a 3-month period? Number three. Oh, looking at number four. March, right? It's for March, right? It's for March through June. Yes. Mhm. That seems like a lot for three months for one one child. This this is a student that um as you can see at the location of where the student is at the children's therapy center has intensive needs. Um so it's not the typical type of transportation. We in the IEP process sometimes there's specialized transportation. this is a child that has significant needs. That that that's all I can say at this point. Sort of I can't really get into that. Okay. But I'll just say that the profile of students that go attend the children's therapy center typically have disabilities that are

066are are quite involved. And and just for clarification, um we have opportunities to uh track these costs and try to recoup some of them through extraordinary aid application. Great. Dr. McQuade, I have one question. Um, on item eight, we're doing the plus uh bus evacuation drills. Mhm. And I see I didn't realize we had a new beginnings program at Abshaw. Um, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I knew we had one backup, but could you I don't need to know how many kids are in these programs at the different schools roughly. I don't have the numbers to be honest with you. I I could actually look them up right now in the in the budget book and then I'd be able to answer you better, but I know you guys have I'm not going to hold you

067to um probably say probably at least 40. 40 is going to be like my rough estimate across all of our annex programs, preschool to to grade six. Um Ashwood does have one classroom and and Maple Road currently has the four and currently has one. Has one, right? All right. I thought that was Yeah. AB was started about four years ago. I think I think like three years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Started a few years back and it was a a transition type program for students that student needed a little bit. There wasn't enough room at at um school because by code those classrooms if they're coded as an autism class can only have six students. So it limits them where if the numbers go up higher than that, they have to either change the program type

068to a multiple disabilities class or or expand their program. Okay. So, and we we anticipate that in the future we would still keep the actual location and the Maple Road. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Where are we at? Roll call, please. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mrs. O'Brien. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Let's move item number 12 under budget and finance. Second. Discussion. I have some I have some questions, but not a lot because I asked Barber before, so I don't have a lot, but I have I have some. Um there is now let me just make sure I have my notes. Um on page 11 administrative activity books I What? What is that Dan? $26340. It's on the bill. It's something

069that was bought at the high school. I'm not quite sure what it is. What page was that? 11. Page 11. Not in the agenda. The Frank Cubby. That's um that's the book that's going to be used for one of the um backdrops of freshman seminar. That's the uh habits of highly successful teens. Okay. And thank you. And then I have um another question on page 28. Um $108.95, $287.73, and $750 for Insera Supermarkets. and a speaker for Highlander Academy. Dr. McUade, what is that? I believe the speaker was the talker was the speaker that we just talked about, but I could reference. It's not like I'm thinking a physical speaker, so that's you know, Mr. Bailey is right. I might give up my rocker. And then um the the food this one, why are why

070are there food expenses there? Well, two things. First, to answer you about the speaker. Um, yes, it is for that professional development speaker that we talked about. The other thing as far as the food, as we talked about once of of Highlander Academy being a real individualized program and the students there on behavior modification systems and programs and their IEPs, BIPS, we call them behavior intervention plans. They have incentive based programs that they earn points. If you go into any kind of private therapeutic day school type programs, they have incentives and points. They earn it. And then it's not necessarily just food forless food. It's more of they either earn a breakfast time with a peer, things like that that are that are then during during a certain social time in the first 15 minutes

071when they first arrive. That's a non-academic time. So, it it keeps them motivated and it keeps them to do their academic work and they earn the points throughout the entire day. Each student has an individualized plan, but at times for some students, there are some reward systems that are built into their IEP, food related. For other students, it might be, you know, just being able to have like a period in in a in a different room to be able to work on work independently. Just depends on the student. And then finally, on pages um 38 and 39, Ponttonian $176,428. How much profit did we see from that food service company? We see um I I don't have the audit in front of me, but we do get a profit from the company and that offsets

072our costs for the personnel that we still have. Okay. Um and then on page 40, there's another Ponttonian fee for $2,700.70. Well, they have a significant amount. You know, they send us their bills. We we have to reimburse Plontonian for all the expenses that go along with the food service because it's our food service. It's not the So any expenses that we have, it's the same as if we were running it on our own, every expense that we have would have to be paid out by our budget. Comptonian is running it for us and they get a management fee for doing that. But their management fee is somewhere around $60,000, which would be less than us hiring our own manager. Okay. Thank you. And Mr. Foody, just to follow up on the other question, it's

073approximately 30 students that are in our annex programs and then there's about 10 that are down in our the Fairfield campus. Okay, that's probably 45. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other discussion on item 12? Mrs. Schultz? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mrs. Dwire? No. Mrs. O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Yuber? No. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Foody. Um, I'm going to say yes on payroll. I didn't get to fully review the the bill list. So, no one no on bills passes 13. Like to move item number 13. Second discussion. I have some questions on the transfers. Um, the cost of writing curriculum $4,080. Um, why? Oh, no. Forget that. We asked I She She answered that. I'm sorry. All right. Wrong area. $6,210 from guidance to students regular account for 60 TI calculators for the

074park testing. When I went on to park.org, or the site answered questions about the needs for calculators and it also is written that one is provided online and that if students wanted to use their own calculators it would be the administration's responsibility to see that they were cleared. Why do we need so many more calculators if it's available to us online? We found that the um tool used through the park system through the testnav was very difficult to see. So that was a decision made by our testing coordinator that I supported to make sure that our kids all had uh adequate tool for the for the process. Okay. And I it was very it was very small was it? Yeah. It couldn't be enlarged. They couldn't not with the not with the typical tools that

075most of our students have unless they were unless they um had it in their their P&P that they were able to to do that. They they couldn't. So, we decided to go ahead and do that for for the classes that needed. That wasn't that was just for the algebra 2, I believe. Okay. And finally, Mr. Novak, this is one for you. We saw the testing coordinator come in or or you showed us the park ranger shirt and now I see a transfer uh for student t-shirts. I'd like to know how those students were selected to receive those shirts. [Music] You've stumped me. The park ranger shirts. It's I don't I don't know exactly how the how the particular students were selected, so I can follow up on that and find out. Okay. I'm just curious.

076That's it. I'm done. Yeah, I might be out of all salaries basically. Yeah. So, you're going to see more of them. Basically, do the contracts. Um well sometimes what happens is what happens is people move from one program to another and so the salaries are budget in one line and they have to be transferred. Also, it could be because um we have some additional costs in a budget line and less costs, you know, so we have to we have to just balance out the accounts. Okay. And and there'll be more as we get closer to the end of the year. Okay. Mr. Bever, um I'm going to vote yes for this, but I just want to say we can see how costly park becomes with all the additive stuff that you need just to get

077a better score. It sounds like if we had the calculators, of course, we're going to be able to do it quicker and more efficient, therefore a better score. Uh, everybody out there knows how I feel about park. And I just want to point out how costly park is here for for New Jersey. Mr. Any other discussion? Roll, please. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mrs. Dwire, no. Mr. Foody, I'm going to abstain on this. It passes. Let's move item 14 under budget and finance. Second 15. 15. What about 15? Yeah. 14 and 15. And I'll second that, too. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Mr. Francisco. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Ebstein. Mr.

078Deber. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Miss O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Like to move item 16. Second discussion. Um Barbara, would you mind giving a quick explanation to the to the board about this or would you like me to? No, I can do it. Okay. um the auditorium renovation, all of the um we have to send all the plans and specifications down to the state of New Jersey in order for them to be approved whenever we do a major construction project at at the schools. Um it has to be it it amends our long range facility plan. Um the architect uh this is the same architect that did the renovations of our science classrooms last year and um there's many different components. There was uh quite a list and as you saw from the budget presentation

079we're only addressing phase one but what they are recommending that we do we do the entire um whatever could possibly be repaired. So although we don't believe that the HVAC needs to be replaced, that's also going to be included in the plans that have to be approved by the state of New Jersey. This way if we have to do anything in the future, everything has already been approved and we don't have to be held up by um that red tape. It's a process that takes probably 60 to 90 days from completion. So if I give them the okay then they have to to to provide the application they have to provide all the details. The state has 60 days in order to approve everything and then at that point they have to do prepare the

080specifications and the bid documents so that we can go out to bid to have the uh renovation done. We're hoping to have it done so that um by spring everything is is on board. So it's going to take some time. Um, how long will the plans and do approvals be good there? Once they're approved, it's okay. I mean, there's no expiration. As long as we don't change them in as long as we don't change. No expiration date because um if if it was tied to a ROD grant, then you had an expiration date, but this is not tied to a rod grant. So, there's no expiration date. Okay, great. As soon as it's on our long range facilities plan as a project, it's been approved, we're good to go. Yes. Okay. Any other discussion or

081questions? Roll call, please. Or Mr. Yubert. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. O'Brien. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Thank you. I'm very excited. I'm very excited. I'm very excited. Ladies, Mrs. O'Brien, it's my turn. I'd like to make a motion to items 1 through 21. I know I have handcar seat under Christmas. [Applause] Also, everyone be aware that we have a change on eight with the addition of uh Lisa on 15 and Allen on 18. And then we've got the hand carries which we'll do separately. Um, any discussion? None. Roll call, please. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mrs. O'Brien, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. like to move items 22 through 26 under personnel

082student affairs second 25 and 26 um see where she's retiring in July 1st. Yes. Okay. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. That concludes personal students. Um, Mr. De policy. I'd like to make a motion to approve the following agenda items. Items two and three because we are tableabling item one. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Forward. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Miss O'Brien. Yes. Mrs. Schultz? Yes. Mr. Yuber? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. All right, Mrs. Wire. Okay. I'd like to move items 1 through 17 for approval. Second one through seven. 1 through seven. Oh, I'm sorry. 1 through seven. Okay. It's my handwriting. I

083somehow missed the attached list of of field trip locations. That's a long list. That's a very big list. Yeah. Um it might not be up on the website anymore. Um we can get a hard copy. That's fine. We'll get you a copy. That's done. I can have one. He has one just to know if I have one in the binder that you would a little present for you for a small fee. Here you go. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Any discussion on items 1 through 7 in education? Seeing none. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Yubert. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Dever. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Miss O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Negotiations. I'd like to make a motion for the following resolution that the West Milford Board of Education approves the memorandum of

084agreement with the West Milford affiliated board. Second period. I'm sorry. That's okay. From July 1st, 2015 to 2018. Now I'll take your second. Thank you. Uh any any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mrs. Schultz? Yes. Mrs. O'Brien? Yes. Mr. Foody? Okay. Um, special committees reports. Um, parks and recreation. Yes. Uh, last Thursday evening, uh, both Jim and I went to the the park and recreation meeting. Uh, however, they didn't have a quorum to actually have the official meeting and we got into a discussion about uh, fields. Um now Jim maybe you can step in here. You had visited you know all our fields and are very familiar with them. So we pretty much talked about what the school can

085help improve the you know the fields. So, there was a list of things that we're going to be talking about, I think, in budget finance about fencing and some infield uh uh conditions that need to be approved, you know, and that makes it safer for the kids that are playing on these fields. So, uh you may want to add to that. I'll I'll chime in. Um the parks and recck director um said that he could not all fields, but he he'd do what he can to supply the labor if we supply the new clay sand mix for the infields at the elementary schools. Um there's quite a few fields that have more of a a gravel, I guess, you know, um material like a heavy sand versus, you know, with pebbles in it versus clay

086soil. And he he said that um he would be able to get into some I think Aptua was a field. It was either Abua or Maple Grove. I'm pretty sure it was Abu. He said there was a section of the field up there that didn't have any grass growing on it. He'd like to test it, see what that needs, fertilize it, maybe bring up some top soil, do whatever he can. um start getting the fields in tip-top shape. Um so we had a brief discussion with Barbara and you know she's going to reach out to Tim. They're going to do a presentation to the board on the 11th since we changed the 17th. Right. I have to reach out to them. So yeah, I think he was I told him to reach out to you,

087but um they would do the the recy committee would is going to do a little PowerPoint presentation and tell us about the conditions of the fields and there I also had asked them to bring Barbara a list of things that those fields need whether it's sand and dirt, trimming trees, you know, all that kind of jazz. Um, and Mr. Ropeman also said that since we don't have irrigation when I pointed that out to him that they have a uh 500galon tank that they were using for a brine solution for the DPW and he could use utilize that to water those areas of the field during the summer months so that we could get some good grass growing and those fields really be brought up to top shape. Um, they pretty much looked like the way

088they did when my son was playing little league, you know, 15 years ago. So, uh, it it'd be nice to see, you know, the the the fields brought up in better condition. Uh, I'm sure the kids will like it and, uh, from the from the gym teachers to the kids who were playing baseball and soccer and all that, they'll they'll they'll enjoy that. So, I'm I'm glad that we can with the parks and wreck department's help since we're short-handed um be able to to get some of these fields in a little bit better shape. So, um that's about it. And they'll be doing a presentation on the 11th. So, that'll be that'll be a good thing. Mr. Bailey, tremendous. However, of course, West Milford is one of the few places around where the majority of

089the town run programs, little league, etc. utilize board of education facilities, which is great, and I'm all in and have been in for many, many years. My point is they would be better advised and it would be money and energy better spent if they began to look at options, park, land, fields, etc. owned and operated by the township like they have in every other town we drive through going back and forth to work every day. And although this all sounds good about grass, I don't know about watering fields with salt water in a tank. I know it's got to be flushed out, but this talk about field maintenance and grass growing could all be put on rear view mirror. If the town were to step up to the plate, develop a facility in its 2016.

090Not too many places plant grass anymore. They use my favorite material. And if you think I'm wrong, go drive through Hudson County or down into Lower Bergen County where they're putting these fields in just about every mile you go. So, it's great. I'm all for it. I'll be right there working with these people as I have in the past. But, I think it's energy misdirected. And I would love to see the day where we all pull up to uh Veterans Memorial Field owned, operated, maintained, and run by a township of West Milford. And I hold out hope because I see the library going up after many, many years. Finally, West Milford's getting a library. Why can't we get an athletic slash community complex that the town runs and then we can have our facilities for

091our own use. That's the end of uh my 2016 address on fields in West Milford. All right, we're past 9:00. We're about after 9. So, I'd like to uh uh make a motion to extend our meeting until 9:20. Second. All in favor? I You're welcome. Um, okay. We're on to It'll only take me a second. I I have to agree with Mr. Bailey. We've discussed this before. I'd love to see West Milford have a community center, sports community center like a lot of other towns have that will draw people in and also uh have all our teams flourish and a place where kids can go and be proud of West Milford, a place that'll showcase the town. So, thanks Mr. Bailey. Mr. Bailey, nothing to report. Thank you. Um, Maryland superintendent round table. Maryland State

092County School Boards Association. Last night there was a county school boards um meeting at the Brown Zone. In attendance was Mrs. Mrs. O'Brien, Mr. and myself. Uh, school board members were honored for their years of service. Uh, Mr. Greg Bailey was honored 20 years of service volunteer school board member. So congratulations to him. In addition uh the focus of the program was uh the effectively communicating with our legislators. The program was designed to emphasize the unique position of board members and effectively advocating for policies that will improve public education. Several legislators from Pay County were in attendance. although our legislator was not. But um it was a good meeting. Uh they handed out other papers on upcoming um conferences and workshops and I believe um we also have an email with those dates from New

093Jersey school boards. I have I would just like to chime in with what Marilyn said. you should all try to contact. I mean, Mr. Bailey, when we talk about having a sports complex, we're highlands restricted, we're need a big section of land that we could do something like that on and and the highlands really really kills us. So, it would behoo of us to write our legislators and senators and let them know our um our field. So, um I have nothing to report on New Jersey school boards. This is O'Brien. Yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Can I chime in about last night as well? Absolutely. Thank you. Um that's okay. Um West Milford is in a very unique position. We're in the 26th district. Um, our representatives are represent West Milford. We're the only Pay

094Town. The, uh, two counties that our representatives represent for Morris County and Essex County. Um, we were told last night that if our representatives were going to be at the Morris County dinner, they would have invited us. Um, they did not come. Just wanted to bring that out. And then Morris County dinner I think it was on Ray had said that it was like May already taken place already. Yeah. So they would have let us know. I thought I thought it was No, there was another one but we thought it was May 19th. Yeah, I spoke to Ray last night. So All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Um I had nothing to report in New Jersey school boards. Mr. Drew is out and he didn't email me his report. Then we go to West Milford

095Education Foundation with yours truly. Okay. Right. I announced last month that our color run is going to take place Sunday, September 18th. Place will be in West Milford. We'll give you more information as the time comes. We posted on our Facebook page. We already have a website to register. Um, yours truly registered. Don't know where I'll be, but I registered. Um, I also wanted to bring to the community's attention and the board's attention why we're doing this. Um, we have new board members now. We and we decided to do something that is fresh. We wanted to make it family oriented. We want families to come out and we wanted to bring the community and bring the community have a community involvement. Um, and this is why we're doing the color run. So, um, we will

096give more information as time comes. If you're willing to and interested in volunteering, supporting um our teachers and our organization, please let us know. We don't know when our next meeting is, correct? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, ladies. That's okay. K and I are going to put some dates together and we will email the whole Okay. Then it will be on our Facebook page and stuff like that. So, I will keep you posted. Volunteer right through the website. Excuse me. You can also volunteer right through the website. um can volunteer right through the website as well. What's the date of that, Mrs. O? Uh Sunday, September 18th. I hope to see all of you there. I know where you sit at the table. What is the color run? Oh,

097I'm so glad you asked. I have no idea. Oh my gosh. I apologize. Walk right. It's This is what happens. And for forgive me, cameraman over there. I apologize. Um the best way is that you run and you get you got you got colorized. You get powdered for color. Oh w you can walk. The company provides you with white t-shirts. Um it will color the t-shirts. You can wash them. Um the color will stay. There's going to be a DJ. Uh we already have over 370ish people interested and over 70 registered already. It is going to be a huge event for the community to come together as a whole to raise money for the education foundation which will filter right back into our school systems. On the website we have um it's that the cost

098is based on who's how many people are coming and and and of the ages that are going to be attending. So of course the little we ones I would love to see a board of education team run out. That would be awesome. Well, I already signed up of the run. Only if I could run. You could walk, run, you can crawl. You can sache. I mean, that's okay. We can do tutu. We can tutas. Okay. So, um, so that's what's going on with the West Milford Education Foundation. again to our educational community, start preparing and thinking about what kind of grants you would you're interested in because we're going to ask you to start submitting your applications in June. That's it. Board of Joint Committee, Mr. Bever, uh we're currently looking for dates to set

099aside for uh meeting. Okay. Other than that, all righty. None. Move on to old business. Anything under old business? Seeing none, like to close old business. Okay. Second. Thank you. Maryland. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. New business. Uh, I would just like to bring to the attention of the board that on Friday, June 3rd at 8:00 a.m. um the validictorian saludiatoran breakfast will be sponsored by the Paya County Education Association uh at the Brownstone at 8:00 a.m. And I would like to have at least two to three board members uh join us as we honor our two top students from the high school prior to graduation. So, just let me know if you're available. Can you give me the dates? Uh, it's Friday, June 3rd at 8:00 a.m. Thank you, Mr. Foody. I was

100just going to say that. Yeah. So, so um they'll be there. That's what their validictorian saludiatoran will be there. I can um and also wanted to uh to to recognize one more time we mentioned about u Mr. Bailey before. I did give him a certificate, but last night was his night. Unfortunately, he couldn't attend. But congratulations. 20 years is a long time. Happy about that. And um and also I am very happy to hear about the education foundation and the big steps that are going forward. I remember we finally got together last year after uh the program sat dormant for about a year and some wonderful things have happened and the teachers and and many other people have reaped the uh rewards of the foundation and it sounds like you're working in a in a

101wonderful uh collaborative fashion and lots of things are getting done. So, congratulations to everybody involved with that and pardon the pun, big big steps. Question, did um any of the board members fill out that survey with regard to um education foundations? I did. When did we get it? It came in our email from New Jersey school boards. It was part of their little updates on what's going on. Oh, okay. Volume, whatever, weekly or whatever. And there was a survey on education foundation. So, I submitted information and um they do have grant writers and um workshops on things like that. So, um I had asked for maybe some information of school boards on that. Okay. I'll have to check that at home. Thank you. Thank you. Also, um I forgot to mention the president's report. The

102softball game was to be held June 11th for the um Relay for Life. They've asked us to move it to June 4th town. They're going to do like a fundraiser thing just for the game. Um is does that work for everybody? I hope I have to look at my calendar. I don't know. Okay, I'll take a look. Okay. So, it's not going to be during Relay for Life. It's not. They've changed it. I I gotten the message from Maryland that they want to make it a separate kind of fundraiser for Relay for Life. So, yeah. If anybody can check, just get back to me within the next day or two. I'll send an email out remind you. Okay. You going to say something? Yeah. I I had a memory delay under old business. Last week

103we talked about um finding storage for the um the theater and the band and you were going to think about it and talk to us about it this week. Yeah. Uh unfortunately I didn't have time to get the information from uh Mr. You have any other Yeah. Um yeah, we they have found um storage information and and uh there's two two storage units which we are going to rent until we can find a better location. So um actually it's going to be effective May 1st that they're going to rent these storage units. So they'll put them in storage until we can come up with a better another solution. I'm just curious to know too, we spoke about phase one uh with the auditorium and I don't know if that still includes opening those sides up

104because that would certainly be uh another area that we can use free of cost. So um well that that's a discussion that we could have with the architect. All right. So because he's going to have to include everything in the plants. Yeah. So we were looking at that to be right in the school itself. So hopefully we can get enough equipment in that spot to to help out. Okay. Any other new business? Seeing none like to close new business. [Music] Petitioners and what? Yeah. All in favor? I'm sorry. I petitions and requests. Petitioners who request to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitioners request limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute

105period transpires. All speakers are asked to give their full names, their last name, not their street address, but their town. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. We had Mary Moore here but she spoke already. What's that? Well, [Music] well, side with 694 Lakes Drive. First, uh, congratulations on the 0% increase. I I can't imagine how much hard work was put into that. And I think that a lot of work came from I'm sure everybody's opinions and I hope that it does show the township that we can move in the right direction and also at the same time take whatever somebody thought was waste and prove that you can move forward from that. Congratulations to the chosen superintendent, Mr. Dr. Anemone. How would you say that? I have a last

106name problem, too. They can't pronounce mine. So, congratulations, Dean. Um, I want to get to a topic that was discussed uh several months ago about a top 10 priority list that Mr. Robbins brought up. I think that it it's a something that would be such a useful tool to any board member, any upcoming superintendent, or any other person that's interested in helping the township. And I also agree with the point that uh Mr. Bailey had with not stepping on the toes of professionals. I think that a balance could be met and I'd like to see something like that in the future and hopefully that gets brought up in future discussions. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak? Seeing none like to close petitions or requests. Thank you, Marilyn. All in favor? I any

107opposed. All right. Executive session. Jamie, you read the uh at 9:21 p.m. I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel negotiations and matters of attorney client privilege. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Second session. 958 we return from executive session and I need a motion to adjourn the meeting. So move second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Mission the meeting is officially mission. Mission accomplished. Mission accomplished. At one minute to 10. Good night everybody. Oh my god. Yeah.