27 Apr 2023 BoE Meeting

001the meeting to order and we have a role called police Julie Ms Bradford Mr chanchuli Dr forger here Mr Hyman here Mrs Connor here Mrs Stanley here Mrs Young Mrs Penna present adequate notice of this meeting at the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on January 6 2023 notice of the Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger and the career news and was also provided to all schools PTO presidents the bhea president and posted at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal clerk the journal executive session whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive section and full compliance with open public meetings Act njsa 10 colon

0024-6 Etc and whereas open public meetings act provides that a public body May exclude the public from that portion of the meeting in which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law or courtroom individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest could be adversely affected investment of public funds public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific prospective of current employees it resolved at the Berkeley Health Board of Education adjourns to Executive session to discuss matters related to personal matters student matters phea negotiation and legal matters and be it further resolved that the minutes of the discussion of any of these items

003will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentiality is no longer applicable I would like a motion to return to Executive session second all in favor aye we should be returned approximately 7 30. foreign ERS to yeah I have a family who's all M's and then they started a CH with their children so we got Charlie and Chloe what are they gonna do next so we're now starlene you know yeah yeah yeah you you put yourself in a corner yeah that's okay yeah absolutely yeah um I don't know I think I think our oldest has it maybe it's because of age as it goes together and then sort of starts to go down and prepare but maybe yeah the one I don't need to tell is at least most of the

004time to turn in stuff good evening everyone um have you got it I would like a motion to return to public session please so don't move oh second second all in favor aye can we please stand for the flag salute all right so we have a full agenda so we'll get right to it so the report of the student Representatives please hello we've got quite the audience tonight hello everyone as the weather gets warmer and exams approach many are excited for the summer that awaits however the GL spring athletes don't want their season to end as they continue to impress and improve in their respective Sports let's dive in the baseball team is currently 9-3 and is on a seven-game winning streak beating tough rival opponents in dig in and out and Arthur L Johnson

005the young team features five at Varsity freshman athletes who have been stepping up in critical situations the boys baseball athlete of the month is Junior Matt Schaefer who leads the team with 15 hits and 14 runs two yearly fundraisers the baseball program does is selling banners to local businesses and having every player in the program tried to sell as many t-shirts as they can with their name and never on the back of the shirt to their friends and family the softball team is currently 10-3 taking down the Highlander Showdown trophy for a second time the team hopes to secure a high seed for the upcoming County tournament the softball athlete of the month is seen Elise Faxon who is currently leading not only demon hits with 29 but the entire County coach Aaron Aaron Lanigan

006said defensively faction is just as much of a threat that we rarely have Runners try and steal on her she is composed and her pitchers trust her Elise is a leader both on and off the field and one of the most humble players I've ever coached tune in to the upcoming softball games as faxing is only five hits away from the 100 career Milestone mark the boys lacrosse team is five and three with a recent senior night victory over Morris Catholic the boys lacrosse player of the month is senior Aiden Lindy who leads the team this season with 29 goals 17 assists and 46 points tune in to the boys lacrosse games as Lenny is only 16 goals away from his 100 career mark the girls lacrosse team is three the girls lacrosse they're the

007senior Captain Waverly Lauren coach Jacqueline Wells said wave Israel not listen hard working if we lose the ball she is the first one to recover it she is always willing to go the extra mile on the field for her teammates and coaches she's the first one to ground ball and does not shy away from a challenge on the field the boys and girls track and T track and field team have competed in multiple individual and relay mates this season as they prepare for the championship season during the month of May the track and field athlete is senior bazelcastrovinci who placed 15th overall in the long jump in New Jersey at the Blue Devil past Saturday boys tennis team has a record of five and five the boys tennis athlete of the month is senior Steven

008manfreda manfreda's teammate Joe laposky said he just best here and has a really good winning record this season as third singles he has been given the nickname the Beast for his offensive style he's the good teammate and always supports everyone the golf team is two and eight with wins against Dayton and New Providence the golf athlete of the month is Junior Christian Sabatino coach Sharon Leahy said Christian has been a consistent top scorer for the team all year his positive attitude and energy helped the team as I've improved season I I can take this one I'll take this one over here it's working not that much thank you okay all right hi everyone um I'm so sorry to say that I come bearing some dire news this evening as the month of April comes to

009an end the Juniors at GL seem to have found themselves in a stressful situation a very menacing creature known as college board has been threatening students with the idea of looming advanced placement exams but despite the test prep and studying students have found ways to have plenty of fun in their clubs and activities as they move forward with the belief that it will get easier after May um anyway here are some highlights from April the Eastern European cultures club and the cooking club collaborated on an orthodox easter event in the GL cooking room to learn about how Orthodox Easter is celebrated in Eastern Europe students had the opportunity to decorate real eggs in the traditional Orthodox Style the environmental club and the animal Conservation Club recently collaborated to celebrate Earth Day students gathered outside to

010plant a tree on school grounds together while discussing ways to protect the Earth students from the interact Club gl's main community service organization met at the Wagner Farm Arboretum on April 16th to add 15 plots to the community giving garden and plant vegetables the giving Gardens name is indicative of its purpose it is dedicated to providing fresh food to families individuals and the elderly who do not have access to nutritional fresh food the women in stem Club at GL is organizing a stem day for Columbia Middle School students in May this event is open to all middle school students and is geared toward providing girls and students who identify as a minority in stem with exposure to stem Fields through an in-schooled field trip filled with activities guest speakers and Engineering challenges in these past

011two weeks music students have performed at the annual spring concerts small ensembles like the flute choir string quartet Jazz Ensemble and acapella groups are able to perform in the small ensembles concert which was last Tuesday uh while large ensembles like the band choir and Orchestra performed this past Tuesday in the next few weeks the GL triam music Honor Society will be organizing a cabaret night on May 23rd to showcase the artists at GL in preparation for Asian American and Pacific Islander month the understanding Asian cultures Club met to make crafts like paper lanterns and origami to hang up in school during the month of May and lastly you may have seen this on the bhps website already but one of the biggest highlights of this month is the collaboration between the history Department the art

012department and the Jewish student action team so students and faculty met to organize a holocaust Remembrance Day on April 18th in the IMC which included a very special art unveiling there the victims and survivors of the Holocaust were honored through the GL daffodil project because daffodils are a common symbol for spreading awareness about the Holocaust so as students move into AP studying and transition to the final quarter of the school year I wish them the best of luck but deep down I know they won't need it thank you both uh do any of the board members have questions for the representatives student reps no all right we'll move on to the superintendent's report good evening everyone while um my actual part of the superintendent's part is super quick I do want to um the remainder

013of it will be very long but I want to recognize our educators of the year that were highlighted last month in Governor Livingston we had Lindsey Mirabella Columbia Middle School Christina frolick Mountain Park School Maria Graziano Thomas P Hughes school with Sean Waller William Woodruff was Mary dininger and Mary Kay McMillan was Frank Fabiano so congratulations to our teachers of the year and with that I'll turn it over to Ann Clifton and Mrs Pena to do the at to honor our athletes our athletic season has been amazing so far and I've already issued a challenge to coach roof that I expect the spring season to be just as fabulous so turn it over to miss Clifton we good all right I thought I had my coaching voice there for a second it's my honor to

014be here tonight this evening to introduce our 2022-23 winter season Champions before I introduce our coaches I'd like to extend a big thank you to a few special people and groups first I'd like to thank all of our coaching staff for their caring and striving for excellence every day second I'd like to thank our parents for their efforts all their efforts in supporting our students throughout the difficult process of chasing championships finally I'd like to thank the board of education for their outstanding support of our Highlander athletic programming your efforts are truly appreciated by our student athletes Dr Varley mentioned the winter of 2022-23 was truly an epic season of tremendous accomplishments we had a wrestling team win their first state sectional championship in over 40 years that's a long time we had our girls

015swim team compete ready for this in their seventh straight sexual Championship bringing home the trophy again we had our individual we had individual student athletes win County and state sectional championships or girls fencing saber Squad dominated District 5 competing competition to bring home the squad Championship again and finally our eyes hockey team again dominated the ngsi group C championships and brought home the State title can you say back to back congratulations to all and we are so proud of you we have a lot to go through this evening and we will try to allow the appropriate time to recognize these accomplishments but be organized in the process we will call each team and Coach up to the front of the room and the coach will have a few brief comments about the season and then

016the president of the board board of education Mrs Panda will present the proclamation to each team I'd like to first introduce our first team and student athletes that we recognized this evening please welcome our head boys and girls swim coach Mr Dave Kloss and assistant coach Grace patigler in addition if we could have Ethan Wong and the girls swim team come on up to the front come on up hey down all right uh thank you all for having us here I want to thank the board for inviting us tonight this is always a great honor on our part um we had a great season and uh we've had uh I always have a lot of support uh Grace patigler has had been in an outstanding uh assistant coach I have a lot of help from

017the athletic office uh Ann and Ashley have helped us out you know every year they're fantastic so I I just I have a lot of support here and it's really appreciated but really ultimately it's about these folks um out here um as Miss Clifton said that uh I'm I'm particularly proud of of all these folks um I'm going to start with Ethan uh first here we'll talk about him very briefly um Ethan is was one of our senior captains this year um he is a uh a county Champion uh in the uh 100th butterfly he set the school record at the Union County championships um he was a uni County Champion a year ago uh and the 100 breaststroke so he's really a two-time Union County Champion he also we have there's 11 events in

018swimming uh Ethan holds five school records uh three individual and two relays that tells you he is one outstanding kid and uh to top it all off he's going to be going to the Naval Academy uh this this summer about a week after school land so he's gonna have a short summer break but I know he's gonna have a heck of a time so he's fantastic so I would just like to read the resolution from the board whereas Ethan Wong is a resident of Summit New Jersey and is a senior at the governor Livingston high school in Berkeley Heights and where is Ethan Wong is a member of the governor Livingston high school boys swimming team and is coached by head coach David Kloss an assistant coach Grace patigler and whereas Ethan Wong won the

019Union County championships title in the hundred meter butterfly with the school record time of 52.68 seconds and whereas the Berkeley Heights and Mountainside communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this outstanding student athlete and whereas and now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education members applaud the outstanding accomplishments of Ethan Wong during the 22-23 boys swimming season and be it resolved that this signed and sealed resolution presented to Ethan Wong signed and sealed this the 27th day of April of the year 2023. um as Miss uh Clifton said before um the girls team we've we've been on a bit of a role in the last uh seven years we've made it to sectional finals uh seven years in a row uh we won uh this year it's our first title

020in a couple years uh but this is our fourth title overall in in seven years and and uh we're not quite state champions like the hockey team and and I'm really proud of wrestling and all these other folks who've been out there uh but I am especially proud of our team uh we've been a model of consistency over the last seven years uh we've had outstanding senior leadership we've had great kids on the team and they've all bought in uh to the the idea that our goal every year is to get back to sectional final and we've been able to do that and uh I just can't tell you how proud I am of these young ladies they're just a fantastic group so kudos to them all right whereas the varsity girls swimming team of

021Governor Livingston High School located in Berkeley Heights New Jersey consists of swimmers Kate Curran Ava beagle Claire Kim Grace Charbonneau Lillian Arts loji Abra Maya Hannah bethler Nora Bowen Caitlin casasedo Anna froloff Nina froloff Natalie geckel Sarah Gleason Caitlin Hughes Claire gion Nia Joseph Lindsey Kim Natalie Madeline Kinney Ariana Maori Jade McCarthy Michaela Pirates Pippa rymocker Catherine roysman Juliet estravio annistry and Sophie taskilla whereas the team is coached by head coach David Kloss an assistant coach Grace particular and whereas The Varsity girl swimming team of Governor Livingston high school and the title of njsia central C-section Champions by defeating Shaw Regional High School by the score of 92-78 on February 16 2023 in Neptune Aquatic Center and whereas the Highlanders completed the season with a record of eight wins five losses and the program has

022competed in the njsiaa state sectional Championship meet for the seventh consecutive year and whereas each of its members contributed individually to the team during its Championship run and whereas the Berkeley Heights and Mountainside communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this team and its coaches and now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education members applaud the 2022-2023 girls swim team and congratulate the student athletes and coaching staff on their outstanding Championship season and be it resolved that a signed and sealed copy of this resolution be framed and kept on display at Governor Livingston high school signed and sealed this the 27th day of April of the year 2023. okay you can have everyone just in the front with the coaches and uh has some copies of the Proclamation for you

023absolutely yeah I think yes thank you I would now like to introduce our assistant wrestling coach Mr DJ McHugh also GL Alum and he will be recognizing Brandon rayak as a uni County US champion and our state champion wrestling program good evening everyone my name is coach DJ McHugh as Miss Clifton said I am an alumni of uh 10 years ago time flies so it's a special honor for me to be here tonight but first I want to thank the Board of Education Dr Varley um and Clifton and our administrative team and almost most importantly the parents who support our student athletes day in and day out throughout the year uh first the wrestling team would like to congratulate Brandon rayach on being on the Union County Champion uh Brandon works very hard in the

024room and we're excited to see what he can do over the next couple years job Brandon foreign ER of Mountainside New Jersey and is a sophomore at Governor Livingston high school in Berkeley Heights and where's Brandon rayek is a member of the governor Livingston high school wrestling team and is coached by head coach Rick Ortega and assistant coach Dan Hilt and DJ McHugh and volunteer coaches Mike steppian Turner Haddad and Jared van oostendorf and whereas Brandon rake achieved being the 113 pound Union County champion and whereas the Berkeley house and Mountainside communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this outstanding student athlete and now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education members applaud the outstanding accomplishments of Brandon rejek during the 2022-2023 wrestling season and beard resolved at the signed

025and sealed resolution be presented to Brandon rayag signed and sealed this 27th day of April of the year 2000 and 23. uh so this speech I'm reading is on behalf of Coach Ortega and our entire wrestling staff uh what a special year it has been for the Highlander wrestling program um funny enough as I said when I left 10 years ago coach Ortega stepped in uh that program that coach Ortega inherited only had 19 kids on the roster and only about 11 kids total uh in the pal youth wrestling program today we were happy to report that we have almost a hundred youth wrestlers in the pal program and almost 40 on our Wrestling roster so that's a testament not only to the hard work that coach Ortega's put in the past decade but also

026to Bill Faxon and his pal staff the work that they've done over the past 10 years really promoting and supporting the sport through advocating through their their sons and daughters now in the youth program uh to our administrative team here at the high school constantly supporting us and then then to the wrestler's parents like I mentioned earlier for supporting us throughout the Run not only this year but throughout their wrestling careers um and then lastly we like to thank the wrestlers for coming in every day putting in a lot of hard work day in and day out uh wrestling is truly a mental and physical grind and I don't use that word lightly it is the toughest sport in the world for a reason and um that will not only make these men better on

027the mat but in the classroom and in life as well uh so with that being said uh the Highlander wrestling team was able to finish with a 17-4 record this season with a second place finish in the Union County tournament a second place finish at The District tournament and we're ranked sixth in the region overall the team was fortunate enough to go up to what up to Caldwell High School and upset a higher seed for the first ever sectional final win in uh or since 1981 as Miss Clifton said earlier so the first time in over 40 years so congratulations to them uh all in all most of our team is returning next season and we look forward to continuing to build the pal program and our current program to hopefully get a group Championship

028soon thank you to everyone that supports the wrestling program and thank you to the wrestlers and their families and have a great night thank you foreign hey whereas The Varsity resting team of Governor Livingston High School located in Berkeley Heights New Jersey consists of plants I'll read the names Dante Joya Jack Huss Joseph Bartolo Alan Batista Brian Batista aanchong Bai Braden kakamo Daniel Capone Vincent Capone Jackson Conklin Christian cottam James doulabani Michael dulabani Joseph dassey Thomas donorsio Nathan Faxon Christian Joya Christopher Haddad Patrick Huss Bennett jion Aditya Kana Jake cresberg Stephen manfreda Andre popescu Brandon rayak Enrique Verio James Rubino saigo rusinski tanayama Sierra Ryan or trip Christian Sabatino Theodore scalora Patrick Sheehan Lucas Villanueva Jace Wonka Jeffrey Wass Grant young and managers Ava Huss Elise Faxon Bridget Boreal Sarah fardella Riley house and Amanda

029Lindy thank you whereas the team is coached by head coach Rick ortiga an assistant coach Dan Hilt DJ McHugh and volunteer coaches Mike stepian Turner Haddad and Jared for an instantor and whereas the vastly resting team of Governor Livingston high school earned the title of North to group 2 sectional Champs by defeating Caldwell by the score of 42-30 on February 8 2023 at Caldwell High School and whereas the Highlanders completed the season with a record of 17 wins three losses and whereas the team saw each of its members contribute individually to the team during its Championship run and whereas the Berkeley Heights and Mountainside communities are very proud the accomplishments of this team and its coaches and now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education applauds The 2022-2023 Varsity wrestling team

030and congratulate the student athletes and coaching staff on their outstanding champion ship season and be it resolved that a signed and sealed copy of this resolution be framed and kept on display at Governor Livingston high school signed and sealed there's the 27th day of April of the year 2023. right now yeah do you need to be in here thank you now please welcome our head indoor track and field coach Mr Dan Guyton as he recognizes Abigail ha and Jared Lee as this njsi state sectional individual Czech champions good evening uh let's talk about thanking Dr Varley and the board of education for your you know all your amazing support and for this uh tremendous invitation um this honor this evening um next I want to thank uh our Administration Rob Nixon and Clifton um for

031you know everything they do for us and and for all the tremendous support um next I want to thanks my my assistant coaches for all their dedication and passion especially our Sprint coach Zach Rusty who's here with us tonight um unfortunately our first Champion Jared Lee our sectional Champion 55 meter dash uh winner sent me an email this morning he's under the weather is not feeling well so I'm I'm hoping he's able to catch the live stream um he um had a sensational season he ran 6.62 seconds which represents the third fastest time in the 55 meter dash in my 13 years as the head coach uh winter track here at Governor Langston High School um at the uni County championships he had a literally a tie to the hundredth of a second um and

032they went to the camera and they literally had to drop the line to a thousandth of a second to figure out who was first and second so he was not happy I know with that result finishing second and he went out there you know at the sectional championships and and did a fantastic job he qualified all the way to the groups and then on to the media Champions and was in the top 25 in the state of New Jersey in 55 meter dash so we couldn't be more proud of our senior Sprinter Jared Lee and his uh coach Zach Rushdie and the job that they did so congratulations to Jared Lee I'll read it whereas Jared Lee is a resident of Berkeley Heights New Jersey and is a senior at the governor Livingston's High School

033in Berkeley Heights and whereas Jared Lee is a member of the governor Livingston high school winter track team and is coached by head coach Daniel Guyton an assistant coach Lisa dybar Emma Drake Dominique astroyani Zakaria rashti and commerce kaderi and whereas Jared Lee achieved being the north 2 group two sectional state champion in the 55 meter dash with a time of 6.62 seconds and wears the Berkeley Hanson Mountainside communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this outstanding student athlete and now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley house Board of Education members applaud the outstanding accomplishments of Jared Lee during this 2022-2023 season and beard resolved that this signed and sealed resolution be presented to Jared Lee signed and sealed as the 27th day available of the year 2023. our next track Champion is

034Abby haasch who's the state sectional champion in the pole vault jumping a height of seven feet six inches she's also our top hurdler and our top high jumper early in the season she actually didn't have the you know the same results she had to sectional meet um and you know I wouldn't say that she was definitely a favorite but she showed up that day and had her by far best meet of the year and I was a clutch performer went and won the section and then she still had the hurdles in the high jump so then she goes to the hurdles and Takes a Tumble over the hurdles and fell pretty hard we went to the athletic trainer got cleared went over to the high jump and at the actually winning height on her first

035attempt she had the best jump that I've ever seen her have and she barely nicked it by like and uh she was this close to also being the high jump Championship so it was an incredible performance and seeing her boot on her foot here for the first time I know that uh you know from past experience she she bounces back pretty quick and she's gonna be ready to go soon so congratulations a great job Adam whereas Abigail Hall is a resident Berkeley Heights New Jersey and is a junior at the governor Livingston high school in Berkeley Heights and whereas Abigail ha is a member of the governor Livingston high school winter track team and is coached by head coach Daniel Guyton assistant coach Lisa dybar Emma Drake Dominique mastriani Zakaria rashti and Carmen scuderi and

036whereas abigailha achieved being the north to group 2 sectional state champion in the pole vault with a height of seven feet six inches and whereas the Berkeley Heights and Mountainside communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this outstanding student athlete and now therefore be it resolved that the Berkeley Arts Board of Education members applaud the outstanding accomplishments of Abigail har during this 22 2022-2023 season and beard resolved that this sign and sealed resolution be presented to Abigail Hall sign and sealed as the 27th of April of the Year 2020 sleep um thank you it's my honor to bring up our boys and girls head fencing coach Mr what Michael Wang and his staff to acknowledge the 2023 girls fencing saber Squad District 5 state champions sounds good okay all right cool so uh hello

037good evening everyone uh first I wouldn't want to give a huge thank you to the Board of Education uh they've seen this team through humble beginnings uh to now the program growing to its largest size of with 60 fencers signed up at the beginning of the scene um I could have done it without the help of all these uh parents and wonderful students and of course the coaching staff uh both informal are alumni from the team so uh tonight I would like to honor the girls saber Squad who successfully defended their District champion title uh for the first time uh becoming back-to-back champions in jail fencing history returning seniors Rihanna and Sophia had to face tough competition this year against competing schools Bernards and Voorhees and I held my breath for every 4-4 tiebreaker they

038suffered through uh but ultimately performed admirably rising to the occasion uh we were joined this year by astrip and uh first team Allstate panetal senior who only dropped uh zero bouts at the district championships and collectively we only lost three so at these tournaments uh it's basically head to head against other fencers one-on-one in really tense settings and uh throughout that we only lost three bouts winning 18 out of 21 with an 86 win rate um that was enough to secure the gold and also see this squad uh take third place in the state overall uh earlier that season lastly this wouldn't have been possible without the support of the whole team and the substitutes uh Skyler and Haley really helped out with pit crew efforts during the tournament um taking statistics and of course

039our manager kavya who's been instrumental through the growth and development of this program through all the organization Logistics and Equipment managing um ultimate to bring us to this point uh congratulations to the 2023 girl saber Squad whereas The Varsity fencing girls saber team of Governor Livingston High School located in Berkeley Heights New Jersey consists of players I'll read their names sure uh Sophia judica Rihanna fertke hanatao Skyler broshnikova Haley Reese and manager kavya casulla and whereas the team is coached by head coach Michael Wang assistant coach Kevin Joe and volunteer coach Elton Grossman and whereas The Varsity fencing girls saber team of Governor Livingston high school and the title of District five girls saber Champion by defeating all seven other schools in the district including Bernards and Voorhees High School by the score of 18

040wins out of a total of 21 belts on the February 12 2023 and Montgomery High School and whereas the team successfully defended their District 5 saber championship title from last season 2021-2022 and whereas the Highlanders completed the season with a record of eight wins seven losses and a Statewide ranking of top eight in the state and whereas the team saw each of its members contribute individually to the team during its Championship run and whereas the Berkeley Heights and Mountainside communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this team and its coaches and now they've will be preserved the Berkeley Heights Board of Education members applaud the 2022-2023 girls fencing saber Squad and congratulate their student athletes and coaching staff on their outstanding Championship season and be it resolved that a signed and sealed copy this

041resolution be framed and kept on display at Governor Livingston high school signed and sealed there's the 27th day of April of the year 2023. thank you okay your trophies yeah okay first of all do not be alarmed because we're going to bring up some student athletes with NP on their chest it's okay do not be alarmed they are actually part of our Co-op ice hockey program with New Providence which has been off the charts successful so finally I'd like to bring up our head ice hockey coach Mr Greg Jensen up to the podium to recognize our 2023 State Championship ice hockey team um foreign good evening everyone um I want to thank the board of education for this invitation uh the administration um and Miss Clifton for um all the support uh obviously throughout the

042year um we had obviously a back-to-back state champions here uh this is my first year coaching the team and um obviously there was a lot of expectation coming in um and after the first practice I knew I knew we had a special group here uh they battled hard night in and night out um won some big games we lost a few Heartbreakers uh but in the end we ended up overcoming um a a higher technically seated team but um one in four overtimes the longest game in state championship history uh five to four so um I want to thank my assistant coaches as well obviously they're not here uh Travis stiletlo Matt altamari and Carson wallers uh for their help throughout the year as well um and this group of uh athletes here did an

043amazing job this year so thank you anything yeah where's the varsity ice hockey team of Governor Livingston high school and New Providence High School located in Berkeley Heights and New Providence New Jersey consist of players Brian Kramer Brandon cacaro Matt Wallen Jordan Baum Teddy Baum Jackson Benward Scott Capen Owen Cook Matt Costa Colin de Croix princess Delano Daughtry ferigno Kyle Foster Brandon fowlis Quentin Gallagher Anthony labisi Alec Novotny Jeremy sixneus Ryan sixnius Jacob Wachtel Carter wallers and manager Meredith O'Rourke whereas the team is coached by hate coach Greg Jensen an assistant coach Matt Elton mayor and volunteer coaches Travis delelo and Carson Wallace and where is the varsity ice hockey team of Governor Livingston high school and New Providence High School earned the title of state champion by defeating Woodbridge Woodbridge Colonia by the score

044of 5-4 on March 6 2023 at the Prudential Center and whereas the Highlanders completed the season with a record of 16 wins five losses and four ties and a Statewide ranking of 16th and whereas the vastly ice hooker team of Governor Livingston high school and New Providence High School also won the New Jersey intercholastic ice hockey McGinnis division regular season championship and whereas the team saw each of its members contribute contribute individually to the team during its Championship run and whereas the Berkeley Heights Mountainside and New Providence communities are very proud of the accomplishments of this team and his coaches and now therefore be it resolved the Berkeley Heights Board of Education members applaud the 2022-2023 ice hockey team and congratulate the student athletes and coaching staff on their outstanding Championship season and be it

045resolved that assigned and sealed copy of this resolution be framed and kept on display the governor Livingston high school signed and sealed this the 27th of April of the Year 2023 thank you just gonna get a nice picture out front yeah just very quickly um just a couple brief announcements I want to thank I know um I heard there's a nice hockey game tonight I think it's the Devils Rangers something like that so getting uh these boys here tonight was uh quite a Quite a feat so I appreciate it um and then out to all of our parents and student athletes and everyone in the audience in the Board of Education thanks so much for your time tonight we greatly appreciate it two last bit of announcements each team has a laminated copy of the

046resolution that you can uh that you'll be handed out and there are Championship uh t-shirts outside from the Highlander booster club so please stop by the table and pick yours up thank you very much and appreciate the time so obviously we have a lot to celebrate with our Athletics teams I don't want to overshadow what's coming next Miss Mendenhall do you want to introduce your team your environmental Club would you just if you want to push it you just have to push it down you don't have it clear okay all right thank you guys doing anything so today I met with some members of the environmental Club to discuss an energy action plan I'm going to turn it over to Carter Shea so he can start his presentation welcome check one all right so hi

047I'm Carter Shea I'm a junior here at GL and I'm president of the environmental Club and with me is hi I'm Charlotte King I'm a junior and I'm also and I'm the vice president of the environmental Club so we're here today to talk to you about energy and what we can do to make our energy more sustainable and cost effective so we respectfully on the behalf of the GL environmental club we asked Berkeley Heights Public Schools to investigate the possible Financial savings from two climate positive actions solar power generation and Energy Efficiency Capital upgrades so before we jump into how we can make our use of energy more sustainable and cost effective it's important to understand how our energy looks like now so at Woodruff they generate about 90 of their electricity by solar using

048a third of the roof space last year they actually generated over 100 of their electricity meaning they actually got paid by the power company as a net power producer so that's really good at GL over here um we use about 12 to 16 percent of our energy coming from the solar panels on our roof which takes up about an eighth of the space at Mary Kay Hughes mountain park and CMS null solar has been installed yet as a whole we use about 2 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year and it cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars with the current system we've saved about eighty thousand dollars since its installation in 2012. so now let's talk about some reasons why we should expand our solar energy yes using solar energy is better for the

049environment as it is 100 emissions free process but perhaps the biggest benefits are the cost savings it provides in recent years solar technology has greatly improved to become more practical and efficient to get the most electricity generation out of a set area this means that with an expansion of our solar we could possibly produce more than 60 percent of the electricity we use saving over fifty thousand dollars a year multiply that by 10 years and that's over five hundred thousand dollars with huge budget savings money can be shifted to other places in which it's needed and this is crucial concerning the state of our budget this could also be a great learning opportunity to to prepare all of our students for the future by teaching them about sustainability as outlined in the district sustainability policy

050by installing solar Berkeley Heights will be able to lead by example not only as a model for other districts but for our students who will see their school making a difference with the rapidly growing industry of renewable energy the US and the entire world will need a Workforce which is educated and qualified on these issues and what better way to prepare all of our students in a physical demonstration of renewable resources being actively used at our schools so why is now the right time to act so the first reason is that solar installation has become much cheaper as a result of the inflation reduction act which was passed this past August according to the acts the government will take about 30 percent of the price of new solar installations for public infrastructure via tax credits

051on top of this the cost of solar energy generation has plummeted nearly 90 percent over the past 10 years meaning it would take much less time to see savings on the energy bill plus quite a few schools in New Jersey and Across the Nation have recently gone solar in fact New Jersey is second behind California for solar on schools 12 districts in our Union County have solar including us so what does expanding our solar actually look like there are many local companies who offer solar installation on public buildings I met with a few of them over zoom in the past few months one of these companies Nautilus solar which is based down the road in Summit explained how easy it was and how simple the process was to switch our schools to solar most of

052these companies are vertically integrated and that means that they deal with everything from the power purchase agreements or ppas to surveying the roof strength to see if it can support the system of solar panels there's no upfront cost Associated and therefore there's no cost taxpayers or Capital Investments involved so now that we've gone over the reasons why we believe our solar energy should be expanded we should go over new we should go over how solar energy actually works so most solar energy systems are connected to the electricity grid rather than being self-contained so that means that if it's cloudy outside you're still going to have power these solar systems do not actually power the building like I said but instead they produce power and send it out directly to the grid so that means that

053we could produce power here and it could be end up it could end up being used by a house in Washington DC however much electricity is produced by these solar panels will be factored out of the energy usage bill by the power company which is where the cost savings come in the district's current power purchase agreement saves four cents per kilowatt hour and it expires in 2027. now four cents doesn't sound like a lot but considering the hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours it produces per year that's a lot of money to put this all into perspective we should look at other nearby schools who have gone through this process Montville Township and Asbury Park are each expected to save nearly 1 million dollars over 15 years and we can learn from them Montclair has

054detailed information regarding their planning process available online now to finish off my Spiel on solar let's look at specific data surrounding our Solar in our district so the 2013 New Jersey Board of Public Utilities energy audit stated that solar could generate 30 of the electricity the schools use but as solar panel efficiency has nearly doubled in the last decade this means that it could be closer to 60 percent so now we will be moving on to our second topic which is LED lighting new LED lighting can reduce our energy consumption and cost that the school must incur according to the generations Electrical Company in June of 2017 GL can save nearly ten thousand dollars a year on utility bills if LED lighting was installed in the hallways additionally new motion detecting light switches can further

055cement these cost savings I received an LED light Grant from bhef of 500 which is a good start however it is not enough to enact any real change we spoke to the electricians and they said that the smallest project would cost around a thousand dollars therefore we need more funding in 2016 the lighting in all district gyms were updated with LED lights this is expected to save GL 2016 216 thousand dollars over 10 years and a ten thousand dollar Grant helped pay for this project although this is good progress there are additional ways in which we can lower our costs such as installing more LED lights so what are the benefits of LED lights they provide us with brighter lighting there's no glass or Mercury so if the bulbs were to break it would not

056be a safety hazard they use less energy they last longer they mimic the stimulus provided by natural sunlight which keeps us more awake they increase productivity and performance and they are safer for our custodial staff since bulbs are replaced less often with no risk of mercury exposure our custodians are in favor of this project so to conclude through expanding our use of solar the district can save thousands and potentially a million dollars over the next decade with minival if any upfront Investments there's although some funding for LED lights may be required the long-term benefits for the school district will far outweigh any initial costs we can save thousands of dollars on YouTube utility bills we welcome your approval to move forward with our proposed endeavors and now if you have any questions you can ask

057us now do any of the board members have any questions for Carter I do um so can you go back to the there was a slide so you said currently our percentage of solar panel arrays on our building is about how uh yeah let me get that up so um there's two schools that have solar Woodruff produces most if not all of their electricity using solar and at GL we have some solar panels on our roof too but they only Power about 12 to 16 percent and those were installed about 10 years ago uh I have a question about the replacement would that interfere at all with the solar panels that are going to be going up um since Woodruff already has solar panels on them um I'm not sure if it's for the entire

058roof I'm not entirely up to date on that um but usually what they would do is they would take off the solar panels like temporarily and then replace the roof and then put them back on because they're not like permanently latched onto the roof do you guys have any analysis of what might um be able to be generated if we put them on Mary Kay Hughes and modern Park so um we were talking about the whole District we could generate about 60 uh maybe even more of the electricity that we use um and we could save over fifty thousand dollars a year with increased productivity of the solar panels and cheaper technology that number could possibly be even higher got it and then is it anything like we can quickly take out of the Montclair

059Playbook is it um they have a website on how um they're going about their process it's on it's available on their District website um what they use I'm not entirely sure what company they used but they went through a company that was vertically integrated like I had said so they cover everything you know like the board members don't have to go around um running around searching for engineers who can survey the roof and then people who can own the solar panels as a power purchase agreement like that company handles everything thank you just a quick question on the LED front did you guys look at like what percentage so I know we did the gyms but what percentage we are not LED Now versus what we you know what the opportunity is to upgrade um

060I'm not entirely sure what our percentage is now but I know that all the gyms have LED lights in some of the classrooms um but by far most of our classrooms and hallways and other rooms use for less for Less fluorescent lighting um which is a lot less efficient and it's also more dangerous foreign do any other board members have any questions thank you very much for your presentation thank you thank you very well done thank you I did talk to members of the environmental club today and um talk to them about meeting with the finance and Facilities committee because uh while we love to jump on projects there is a lot of work that goes into scope and sequence and scope of so I told them as soon as we get through with budget

061we will eventually extend an invitation for them to come and talk to the facilities committee about what's next and next steps and now we will start on the budget presentation the final budget hearing thank you all right good evening everyone this is our final budget review we had a budget review um on March 13th was it so um what we're going to do is kind of glide through the ones that we've already gone over the everyone's had access to the presentation for quite some time now so there's no need for us to dig in deep for the stuff we've already dug into so um I will get started uh thank you very much the Board of Education especially the finance committee you've spent a lot of time with myself Miss Cott Dr Greer and miss

062copas so thank you very much for your time we talked about this last time we've been working on this since October working with the administration as well as the county and the board and the finance committee and then you saw this last time as well our enrollment which is has decreased slightly but um it is continuing to decrease as well this is also not a new slide the physical clip do you want to talk about it you want me to okay all right so physical cliff is basically when you own your your um Revenue growth is smaller than the growth of your expenses which we know is a an issue when it comes to any type of budget and do you want to talk about this okay so um let me just say just see

063where I can put all right so this slide is uh just high level and the top of the slide are items that we went over in the tentative budget we discussed the increases in material revenues and the increases in material expenditures what is new is at the bottom of this slide and these are changes that have significant changes that have occurred in the six weeks since we had the tentative budget hearing on March 13th so first and very importantly the district's Insurance Brokers advised of a reduction in health premiums medical benefits I'm sorry let's start with dental dental benefits went from a projected eight percent increase to a two and a half percent increase medical benefits went from a 13 and a half percent projected increase to a 9.9 percent increase for oap ehp and

064HSA plans and went down to 11.7 percent increase for the traditional PPO and POS plants so that's good news for staff and taxpayers who are paying less but it did cause the district to lose the health care waiver of approximately 190 000 that was built into the tentative budget so to offset that the district is going to end up needing to use an additional roughly forty two thousand dollars worth of banked capital so Banks Capital Bank cap is unused taxing Authority from one of the prior three years the um also increases in revenues include the additional activities fees uh we will be raising the rates on activities and Athletics fees by fifty dollars and we have adjusted our um interest income expectation uh for forty thousand dollars on the other side uh coming down we

065have some equipment reductions to the tune of 269 thousand dollars that I will go through on a different slide as well as the use of our Esser funds for a hundred and twelve thousand dollars worth of items we were able to pull off of fund 11 and utilize these are besser funds so what we have here is we were looking originally at a 1.6 million dollar differential between expenses and revenues and we've now brought that down to just under a million dollars so I don't know if you want to do this slide or do you like me to do this but uh the uh Center column demonstrates what we had discussed as reductions in staff related deductions for the tentative budget the new reduction that is in the final budget is on the right hand

066side so whereas we originally were planning to restructure the administrative team and reduce uh the salaries by 350 000 salaries are now being reduced by a hundred and thirty three thousand dollars where the Athletics budget was reduced by 150 000 it is now only being reduced by forty one thousand dollars where secretarial staff salaries were planned to be reduced by 133 000 they are being reduced by 156 thousand dollars the reduction in elementary health staff was anticipated to be ninety eight thousand dollars now they are not being reduced at all the reduction in teaching staff cost was estimated at 656 thousand dollars and the final budget includes a reduction of five hundred and fifty four thousand dollars the related benefit savings um are a wash but there are additional savings that I will talk about

067in uh the detailed slides [Music] so I'm going to go through the itemized line changes from the tentative budget as well as what was at in the advertised budget so the advertised budget is on our website it was also published in The Courier uh news on the 21st so if you're following along in either one of these we're going to go by the line accounts and talk about what changed so regarding kindergarten salaries from the tentative budget we're increasing this line 138 438 dollars the final budget line is listed there the net the result is a net of reinstating help teachers the resignation resignation of a teacher for which a quarter of that person's salary is accounted on this line and the reinstatement of one kindergarten teacher for grades one through five the change from

068tentative is an increase of eighty two thousand six hundred and eighty six dollars this is a result a net result of reinstating all the help teachers the resignation of a teacher of which 0.75 of their salary is accounted for here and the res oh I'm sorry and reinstating two teachers on this line for grades six through eight salaries of teachers the net reduction from tentative is fifteen thousand three hundred nineteen dollars this includes reinstating full substitute and extra period stipends and the reduction of one teacher grades nine through twelve teacher salaries this line is increasing by seventy three thousand five hundred and sixty five dollars this includes reinstating full substitute costs reinstating full extra period stipends reinstating the full amount of curriculum writing and the retirement of two teachers and the re uh reinstatement of

069one teacher for regular programs purchase Technical Services this is an ARP item so 74 000 59 is being reduced from this line and instead our Esser funds will be used to purchase the i-Ready program the regular program instructions other purchase services is being reduced by 6 1599 this includes the reduced uh reduced costs for book binding and printing as well as microscope repairs regular program instruction General supplies is being reduced by six thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars this includes the removal of a camera SAT and ACT workbooks for a course that will not run an English 2 novel removal of graphing calculators and a general reduction in Supply requests the instructional textbooks line is being reduced by thirty seven thousand seven hundred and seventy nine dollars um the primarily that we are using our

070presser funds to purchase a word study program as well as leveled literacy intervention there's also a reduction in textbook replacements other salaries auditory impairment is a secretarial resignation of which um roughly a third of this individual salary is allocated to this cost center the salaries of teachers for autism is going up by 75 773 this is the reinstatement of one Elementary special ed teacher General supplies autism is reduced by two thousand dollars we were advised that current Year Ida funds could be used to purchase an item of equipment that was in the proposed budget sorry about that four School sponsored co-curricular and extracurricular activities supplies and materials Julie can you put it in that presentation mode yeah oh sorry yes thank you you're welcome I think can I make that a little bigger the uh

071school-sponsored co-curricular extracurricular activity supplies and materials being reduced by ten thousand dollars to uh and there is a postponement of the purchase of band uniforms in a school-sponsored Athletics there is the reinstatement of coaching stipends uh in the amount of 137 932 for school sponsored athletic supplies and materials there is a reduction of twenty nine thousand dollars um a reduction of uniforms and equipment costs for purchased professional Educational Services for speech otpt and related services a reduction of fifteen hundred dollars for support services for guidance salaries of Secretarial assistants and assistants an increase of thirty nine thousand twenty two dollars for the reinstatement of one 10-month secretary uh other guidance purchase Services a reduction of one thousand dollars in the printing costs for the eighth grade course selections those will now be done electronically the

072child study team other professional staff is an increase of ninety one thousand one twenty five it's a reinstatement of one special ed professional the child study team purchase Services is being reduced by three thousand dollars for professional development Improvement of instructional Services salaries of Supervisors is being increased by 185 752 dollars for the reinstatement of one supervisor the Improvement of insurance oh yeah so sorry thank you the Improvement of instruction salaries for clerical and administrative assistant staff is a reduction of forty three thousand dollars and here is the other portion of the uh individual salary that we I spoke about earlier this person resigned uh Media Services Library salaries there is a retirement of one media specialist in the amount of a hundred and fourteen thousand nine twenty seven purchase professional and Technical Services are

073a reduction of a thousand dollars in online subscriptions instructional staff training purchase professional Educational Services is a reduction of thirty eight thousand dollars and the removal of the learning living literacy Network administrative infotech salaries is increasing by Thirty one thousand three hundred forty seven dollars which is the reinstatement of the full supervisor salary the unallocated benefits for health benefits is being reduced by a total of 250 944 that includes a dental decrease of Twenty One Thousand Seven twelve a medical premium decrease of 174 305 and Associated benefit savings from staff uh that for positions that will not be filled in the amount of 500 uh five fifty four thousand nine hundred twenty seven dollars uh equipment for elementaries there is the removal of one riding lawn mower in the amount of twenty thousand dollars equipment

074for the Middle School the removal of bleachers for the CMS blue gym in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars equipment at the high school reduction of forty five hundred dollars for a laser cutter engraver the equipment for administrative information technology is being reduced by 144 345 dollars now we are since there was a spending freeze put in place February 15th uh we were able to calculate by roughly April 15th that we had sufficient funds to now purchase these Chromebooks in the current school year so by shifting that payment to the current year we're able to pull 144 000 off of the the forward-year budget Construction Services are a net increase of twenty thousand two hundred fifty dollars and that involves two capital projects uh one is the CMS roof when the architect and engineer

075went back up on the roof they realized that the band area that they had originally uh thought needed to be repaired or section replaced had been repaired about three or four years ago and that what really needed care was two adjacent sections to the band area and that was an increase of 119 750 and on the other side of this the Mary Kay retaining wall that price estimate came down 99 500. for the local tax levy the change from tentative is a reduction of 147 952 dollars that net change again is based on the health care uh adjustment losing the healthcare adjustment and adding in additional amounts of banked cap this budget utilizes a total of fifty two thousand forty eight dollars in banked cap the next line is also a revenue line the unrestricted

076miscellaneous revenues the the increase of 86 750 includes the increased athletic participation fees and increased projection on interest Revenue and the last item is a an additional withdrawal from capital reserve to offset that net change in the CMS roof and retaining wall for an increase of 20 250 dollars um good evening everyone I just briefly wanted to talk about the programs that will continue to thrive if this budget has passed this evening and that is in the elementary World we'll continue to have our Heights height stands for having each individual gain higher level thinking skills our Heights team and gifted and talented programs and the staff member who runs those programs um Miss Scott already discussed I ready which is our individualized adaptive learning platform students can use it not only in school but are

077also can use it at home and even during summer months to accelerate learning um additional digital digital learning platforms that are used in the classroom such as Raz-Kids and brain BrainPOP professional development will continue to support our staff and best practice instruction across all content areas with the reintroduction of all our help teachers we can run our full what I need programs that's for both strategic and intensive instruction for our students in Reading Writing and Mathematics we'll continue to have instructional support from our reading Specialists and our math interventionists our preschool and our full day Pro kindergarten programs will continue to thrive and we will have updated curriculum development and learning resources to support our New Jersey student learning standards in all of our content areas Dr Greer thank you Mrs kopez good evening everybody

078uh and just to continue sharing for our secondary programs that will continue to thrive as well uh we will continue to update our curriculum development looking at our new cyber security course that I know everyone is very excited about that has been approved to be written for the summer um a new retail and Hospitality experience course that you may hear a little bit more about this evening if you remember Mr Mora and Mrs uh Gardner uh presented at the end of last summer uh beginning of this year of baking and culinary experiences course for our students with special needs there is a new course that we are looking to write as well retail and Hospitality experience as part of a cohort and we are excited about that program as well um and just uh aligning

079our curriculum with our updates in line with our five-year cycle we're also looking to continue to incorporate interdisciplinary learning activities through New Jersey student learning standards eight and nine uh a standard eight computer science design thinking and standard nine career Readiness life literacies and key skills what's exciting about out standard nine is what our students need to know and do to be successful in all areas of life as well you can see that we're going to continue our upgrades to Wi-Fi the network and switches at the middle school our switches handle all of the traffic among the devices in our schools and as you know more people have more devices puts a lot of stress on that so we're excited to be able to continue those upgrades and as you see here as well our

080Chromebooks in grades 9 through 12 continuing to update all of our new devices contain Google licenses that allow us to push the security updates which is a very important part of what we do customizations and ensure that they can be used for State assessments and as you know our New Jersey student learning assessments are beginning on Monday in our elementary schools and will continue through the month of May mm-hmm so this um total first the total proposed school budget for 2022 2023 2024 is 62 million eight hundred and six thousand one hundred and one dollars which includes proposed capital projects I did go through these expense categories in detail at the March meeting March 13th meeting so I will not do so again just note that the value is in purple indicate expense categories that

081have changed from the advertised budget this is a representation that you have seen uh it previously about salaries and benefits remaining at just over eight percent of your total current expenses similarly the sources of revenue in purple font are those that change from the advertised budget and that is the visual representation so the district is including several capital projects in the new budget year funds will be taken out of capital reserve account and will have no impact on the tax levy the capital reserve account is where money is specifically set aside to support the district's long-range facilities plan the two items in purple are which what I discussed previously two sections of Columbia roof being done in a smaller value placed on removing and replacing the retaining wall for a total of one million five

082hundred seventy eight thousand seven hundred fifty dollars coming out of capital reserve so we have the district is not eligible for an enrollment adjustment and is no longer eligible for health care cost adjustment the two percent tax levy increase over the 2022-2023 budget is 897 929 dollars the district currently has access to over three hundred and forty four thousand dollars of banked cap which represents unused taxing Authority to support all the items included in this budget a total of fifty two thousand forty eight dollars of banked cap is being utilized therefore the total change to the tax levy is nine hundred and forty nine thousand nine hundred seventy seven dollars which equates to a 2.12 tax increase for the average homeowner having an assessed value of three hundred sixteen thousand seven hundred forty two dollars

083this will equate to an additional 207 207.62 cents per year or Seventeen dollars and thirty cents per month or for each one hundred thousand dollars of assessed value the tax impact is about five dollars and forty cents per month this graph provides a historical look at the tax levy over the past 11 years over the course of that time the district's average annual increase has been 2.37 percent thank you so I'm gonna we'll take questions from the board please please um raise your hand when you would like to ask a question so if you so question for Dr Wiley um and also um scopas and Dr Greer we heard a lot of numbers we heard the puts and takes we get that what is the headline of this budget in terms of the students what

084are they not going to get that is in place today we heard good stuff about programs that are going to thrive what is being taken away the students will not feel an impact by this budget as it stands they still have programs they still have people they will not feel an impact so I guess what is we heard a lot of teachers coming in teachers going out my question is what is being taken away I think we've gone through what's being taken away I'm not sure what you're asking that that was a lot of detail but if you were to take the real world example of here's a program that will not be offered because of XYZ Reasons I'm trying to get a better feel for it I think when we reviewed this the last

085time there were two supervisors uh being taken out or yes now there's just one being taken out I'm trying to get a better understanding of what is that one person or one role being taken out what is being taken out what is being impacted I think in the grand scheme of things if you notice on the next agenda item is the re the reorg has a director of steam um science technology engineering art and math which will what I did is I did a research based on like districts who are hopefully we will get to this point going out to a referendum to modernize our libraries making them actual media stem steam Labs so I looked at New Providence Melbourne multiple other districts and they have this role in there so this will Encompass the

086science technology engineering art and Mathematics if that's what you're asking yes I see that on the on the agenda I'm just trying to understand what are we I guess what's the what's the impact of the rule because I I can't tell with the detail that was presented I don't understand what you're asking like I I mean we're not impacting as far as this actual students what they're receiving they will not feel an impact if that is what you're asking that is definitely one of my questions oh I'm sorry Robert a couple of quick things you did mention uh Mrs cotton uh I think it's 2.12 in the final budget based on the increase uh in the tax levy based on the average home is that correct that's accurate yes my recollection is for the tentative

087budget it was 2.445 increase 2.45 yes and so it's now gone down to 2.12 correct it's a decrease it is I just want to make sure the other thing my my other question might be for either Dr Varley or Miss copas I keep hearing it almost the first time it sounded like reinstituting Health teachers you're saying Help teachers can can someone just it's great they're being reinstituted particularly at Early Education I'm a big fan of Early Education support can you tell us what a help teacher does I know what a health teacher does thank you we are very fortunate in the district to have certified staff members which we call help teachers that help to run our programs in the elementary schools so when you hear us talking about a program such as the win

088what I need program there are Cycles where students go through and get exactly what they need so if there are children that need may possibly need extra support in certain standards or certain content areas or students who need enrichment in certain areas or if there are children who might have particular gifts in areas we want to offer them many offerings so we have these cycle courses and they're taught by certified teachers and they help to run our really our entire program not just our win program but they also step in in many other avenues whether it's to cover a class or sometimes even when we need support in possibly at recess or during lunch but they are extremely important support staff that help our classroom both gen Ed and special education teachers but it's important

089to note that they are certified teachers they're not just instructional aides but certified teachers to support all of our program in the elementary schools so it was a real advantage to be able to get them back in thank you for the question foreign I was just wondering about these uh coaching stipends 137 932 how many coaches are involved in that I I don't have the number so to be clear what happened in the process of doing the tentative budget certain amount of dollar values had to be cut out of the budget while we awaited um department heads and principals to provide us with actual names or actual items that they wanted to remove some of that could not be done in time for the tentative budget therefore I had to take items out that we

090did maybe did not necessarily mean we're going to go away permanently but we had to take them out in order to make that allocation so we gave uh Ann Clifton the directive to uh shrink her budget by 150 000 dollars uh when we were unable to get a level of detail by the tentative date I had to pull 150 000 out of the coaching line so now we were reinstating it because those people are going to be employed and do need to be paid so that actually sounds like uh let's see 137 to 150 it sounds like uh there's two coaching stipends I don't I don't know offhand basically I think two went away is that right she went away I think they're currently not filled um and that was a decision that um Miss

091Clifton made and has the finance committee reviewed all of this and approved of it finance committee was okay the line item changes yeah yes each line item was reviewed in detail at the last finance committee meeting on the 20th okay [Music] so there's ads and there's absolutions um the finance committee did meet okay yeah yeah all right so if you take all of the additions and all of the deletions I think it comes out to about I did this and it's a 21 000 reduction 42 I believe 42. okay I'll have to talk to Mr Excel so that would be the difference in the total uh we originally had 62 million 901 and something okay uh maybe it was 553 don't hold me to that and so now you're at 62 million um all right

092so you say 42 000. okay and do we have a cost for the courtesy busing how much is that a pardon the college do we spend on the courtesy bussing as I've mentioned before we do not have a breakdown of just courtesy busers because they are mixed in with all other students mandated Transporters uh subscription buses and the courtesy Riders okay thank you you're welcome um so I think the only one that I haven't uh gotten clarified in maybe it's just a silly question but the CMS the blue gym bleachers we were going to replace bleachers in the blue gym and we're not going to do that this year do you know yes yes so the new principal had asked to replace those bleachers my understanding is and don't hold me to the exact language

093of this but they have been refurbished there has been new Stoppers put on them to enhance safety and so forth so in the grand scheme of what we were looking at in this budget that could be pushed a year or two okay um and then I just wanted to thank you Julie I I know this budget process has been a really long one for uh all of us but for you it's been impossible so I really want to thank you and when you see the breakdown of little little numbers and looking at every item I know you guys too you look at every single item we could to move it to an Sr fund or whatever we could do so I really do want to thank you I know it's a lot of work and

094so I want to thank you for that you're welcome one quick one for me sure um Dr earlier you were touching on on Steam stem I don't know if this is for Dr Greer or Mary Beth just in terms of uh maybe the vision for for where we hope to go with with stem steam um obviously the the concept isn't new but um as it relates to practical skills and job skills and opportunities for for students at all levels I'd love to sort of hear you know where we hope to go at a high level well um I can't answer that right now but we are planning on having a brief presentation June 5th about for our kind of action plan guidance for Steam and stem especially if we get this referendum going that we

095were going to do in 2020 and if you've been to the media centers you know they look like the ones that well I can date myself that I went to school in so um we would like to have that referendum go through so we can remodel our media centers you know um Julia I would just like to just uh go back to the courtesy busing we are going to look into that and the breakdown for next year and and try to sort out those numbers absolutely so the uh when the committee met on the 20th uh we discussed uh various uh items uh and courses of attack uh one primary one and the most important really is to do a survey of the parents because until we know who is willing to uh either Drive

096their child or pay for subscription busing or a little bit locked up on trying to make changes to contracts and things of that nature which take some advanced timing so we're all absolutely have that uh start looking at it and I know we're going to probably discuss it again at our May meeting thank you you're welcome I would also like to just talk to my fellow board members um as you are I am all very invested in our community this is you know our home uh the third generation of my family is now currently attending Berkeley Heights schools changes very difficult especially when you're intimately involved in a change that is in progress and I look around our town and I see changes happening all over and I know that there's going to be greater

097changes coming and occurring soon in our town and within our schools possibly with an increase because of the building in recent months I've been hearing about technological advances in artificial intelligence the chat GPT Microsoft Edge Adam and Google bard and I've even tried it myself with surprising results and I I've wondered what is going to be this educational impact and how are our students going to be using it and I would like to have the conversation of preparing our students from pre-k all the way through graduation for these challenges of navigating these new advances um next I'd like to see our district not only discuss these new technologies but I'd like to see them applied going forward in our curricula and teaching our students starting at the Early Learning Centers to evaluate information is this

098a photograph or is it a digital image is this a piece of art or music created by a human artist or is this a in the style of is this news article information valid or is it inspired to create a bias um and how do we appropriately use these new tools and Technologies in our schools and how do we prepare our district students for the jobs that haven't even yet be considered and I believe that we are at a Crossroads here in our district in Berkeley Heights and I'd like to see our district commit to the science technology engineering practical arts and math as an interdisciplinary Endeavor from pre-k to graduation and I know our elementary science programs already have an engineering component and the phenomena initiation and I'd like to see this expanded to

099have you uh Community Resources and relying on our parents you know jobs that they may have in different areas that we can um tap as a resource um finally I understand that the work required for the positions in science and math coordination 9 through 12 is sizable and I understand that future revisions to positions may need to be made as the work involved as we go forward becomes more apparent we can show a district commitment and an emphasis in interdisciplinary curricula relating to our existing and our emerging Technologies and pre-k through graduation for all our students and we can advance student achievement through this and to conclude I know that negotiations and budgets are difficult I have had 12 years of negotiation experience within this District between staff and administration and as a new board

100member I I have to look at a bigger picture I'm not on the negotiations I'm not in the Personnel decisions or I'm not involved on the finances or facilities and creating a budget but I'm looking at this now what you presented Miss Scott and you know teaching staff and Administration staff have had losses and they've had reinstatements through this process and I feel I am charged with guiding and improving or disapproving directions of the district for the benefit of our students achievement and it's a difficult assignment but I I believe that it is worth doing and I I thank you for for listening and I want to encourage conversations in this and I'm looking ahead to advancing our students here in Berkeley Heights in a in a kind of a different direction thank you thank

101you very much anybody else have any questions no okay thank you very much and Julie thank you very much for all the hard work you've put into the budget you're welcome when I say she's been working almost 24 7. I really um have to give her kudos for all the hard work she's been doing on this budget thank you foreign okay I would like to move to the public comment on the final budget this is just for the budget um so let me read during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board the education on the final budget only the board requested individuals State their name and town of residence or School of attendance for the record the specific action items you're commenting on and ask with all

102remarks be directed to the board president or designee not individual members or staff the board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the law of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to responsible building principal superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered

103please note if any member of the public becomes disrupted during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or a German of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to three minutes duration please come to the podium if you would like to address the board is there a microphone there yeah please yes can you hear me okay hi I'm Laura Mendenhall and I teach environmental science here at jail thank you for listening to the students earlier if you have questions about the numbers that I handed out I can absolutely answer them at another time but I'm here to actually ask you to keep both uh Math and Science supervisors um as a science teacher I have felt wonderfully supported by the sign and

104supervisor he has made and I've now had two since I've been here this is my ninth year James Finley and I started here together and when I got here there was one environmental science class and now we have seven every year we have an AP program and my first year I said well where's the AP program and he said well I don't know let's find out and so we built it and I could not have done that without James Finley and now we have this class that um students who would not have taken a fourth year of science are taking and students would maybe not feel comfortable taking an AP science course like AP Chemistry are taking environmental science with me and I feel that that's a really important subject so um they have he

105has made me a better teacher it also allows us to do Innovative programs so Mr digunas has only been here for I'm not even sure four months and he and I are doing something very exciting after the AP exam we are 160 students all we have eight uh AP courses and we're working together to do a client Symposium something that is run at the UN and the World Bank and corporations and Congress and we are going to run four different symposiums where students come in and they look at the problems and they try to solve them themselves and they have to negotiate and do backroom deals and this is not something that I could do by myself this is something that I need support to do and that is what the science supervisor offers and

106I think that I agree very much that science and math are the way forward and we need two people to support those problems so thank you for your time thank you thanks thank you for your comments thank you Jack Jack hi Steve hello Mike thank you hi I'm Steve Hess I'm uh teacher here at the high school um it's my 20th year and I wanted to Echo a lot of what Laura said that I think we all agree that Math and Science are very important to the future of all the kids in Berkeley Heights and entire country and it's hard for me to see how limiting or shrinking from two supervisors in that area to one director is somehow going to give us more focus in that area and both the people that we have

107now have really been tremendous assets I think to the district you know she mentioned that the environmental science program went from zero to seven during the last nine years when I started teaching AP Statistics we had two sections sometimes one the first couple years you know now we have five Drew's yobro has been very fundamental to that we looked at you know and that's a course I think is very much a 21st century growing need as data analytics but one of the things that really made that happen is we looked at the requirements we said you know look at the prerequisites we have now we could have a lot more kids taking this if we change the approach and pushed it throughout the district and made it done some marketing so he's been really helpful

108to me and the whole District to make that program grow he also started the Robotics and has been a major technology leader for us we've got great I.T people for the district but he's also been really a math I.T person for us for years pushing us to use more technology in the classroom um I can't see how one person is going to provide us the leadership we need and a last point you know we just lost Steve troker we're losing he's retiring at the end of the year he's teaching our top level computer science and AP Calculus courses that's a huge need to train someone or to hire someone to fill that position having a senior Math supervisor who's taught math and knows the staff and all of our abilities well to help figure out

109how to Mentor a new person in that it's gonna be really vital that's a huge need for someone that's also new the district and trying to supervise science and engineering and arts and everything else at the same time so I hope we'll strongly consider that part of the proposal and look at the assets we have and use them and actually the last point the day after a month ago was announced that these people were losing their jobs I sat in a meeting with Laura and Dennis for an hour and we talked about this program that we're doing in the with the AP students right after the AP tests and Dennis was all in and so enthusiastic you would never have thought that he just found out he's probably losing his job so he's he's still

110so committed and I really applaud that and thank them for their support thank you thank you thank you for your comments thank you my name is Margie Loya and I have a statement to make um I've been recommended by Dr uh Varley to uh be removed from the uh substitute teacher uh roster for not only GL but the Berkeley Heights uh district and I want to address that um again my name is Margie Loya and thank you for letting me speak I have been teaching for over 15 years including many as a special ed teacher I hold a master's degree in education and I am dual certified in order Gillingham reading and math for the past four years I have worked three to four days a week as a substitute teacher at Governor Livingston high

111school on March 24th 2023 I received a letter from Dr Varley indicating a recommendation to be made at this board that I be removed as a substitute teacher on the roster the letter referenced removing an item from students hands escalating uh incidents with students and teaching inappropriate words in Italian on April 14th to prepare for this meeting I requested all details concerning the supposed issue and the supposed escalation issue from Miss Diane azalone Dr varley's assistant to date I have not received any response I was not present when any students complained about me were made to GL I was never asked by administration at GL to meet with them and the students making complaints to discuss what had or had not happened I do recall taking a cell phone from a male student as I

112observe what appeared to be a gambling act that he was using in my classroom when assigned to whole monitoring I recalled several girls sitting on the floor of the restroom eating and socializing I requested that they leave and ushered them out of the bathroom when teaching a cast Class A student shouted at me and I immediately called an administrator to have this student removed I was not afforded the opportunity to discuss any of the above incidents with the complaint students in the presence of a GL administrator no facts were established and no teaching uh moments were explored while they may only be a substitute teacher at GL I have always tried to be a professional student with teacher learning and basic discipline among my foremost concerns I have never been a school day babysitter just

113taking attendance and trying to make sure nothing goes wrong during my four years at GL my work to build trust and rapport with students has taken place while supporting them in after school hours on my own time in extracurricular activities some parents and students are here tonight to support me can can you please finish up I'm trying um three minutes and I've also made copies for the board um which I only thought there were 10 of you and I had a student petition with over a hundred student signatures um I'll hand that output again I didn't know there were 15 of you so obviously happy to email them to you so um there's 10 comments okay so again thank you for your comments are here thank you thank you um just to remind everybody that

114this public session is for the budget only this public session you're talking about the budget I would like to speak on her back you will get a chance but this this actual section is just for the for the budget for people to talk you will get a chance I promise anybody else have any comments on the budget I'd just like to ask for a clarification budget alone or agenda items comment section is for the budget only we will yes yes this particular one is just football budget anybody else want to talk about the budget yeah okay it's on the budget okay sure good evening my name is Jersey obero and I'm the supervisor of mathematics and practical Arts I support mathematics teachers family consumer science teachers business teachers tech ed teachers industrial art teachers and

115computer science teachers I'm here speaking to you tonight to thank you for the opportunity to work in this District over my tenure in the district I've helped to move forward a steam Academy program in collaboration with the science supervisor building principles and the prior superintendent this has helped to increase opportunities for our students to gain recognition for their advancement in our steam program at Governor Livingston high school this year there will be 10 students graduating with a steam Academy endorsement they are currently working on their culminating projects and I look forward to seeing the great ideas they have created when I first arrived at Berkeley Heights I worked with students and teachers to create the GL Highlanders robotics team I've had the opportunity to mentor and collaborate with the team over the years this year

116it was really great to see the students leading the program by creating additional Outreach events at the elementary schools and Middle School these students have become true steam leaders in our district and I'd like to thank them tonight there is a resolution to eliminate two supervisor positions and create one director position I was informed of this decision 2 30 Monday afternoon when I asked about the development process to create this position and who was involved I was told by Dr Varley that disregard organization was the product of her and the Personnel committee she also informed me that Dr Greer Mary Beth kopez were both present at the meeting but she commented that they did not contribute to this reorganization plan when I asked for a job description for this position Dr Varley printed out and

117handed it to me I have since had the opportunity to review that job description and compare it to my current job when I look over the new job description I can see the addition of science being added as a new responsibility to the position as well as the overseeing of Fine Arts curriculums which we led by the assistant principals in each building I was unable to identify anything in the job description that I believe would require a certification above a supervisor when I asked Dr Varley to explain why she believed this director position would benefit the district she had stated that she was looking to advance stem in our district and believe that because other districts had directors of steam we needed to have a director of steam since that meeting I have gone back

118and looked over the 20 schools on our dashboard and of the 20 districts in our dashboard only three of those districts have director level positions that are responsible for steam 15 have supervisors two have coaches or Department chairs I ask you to vote no on this agenda item tonight I believe that we can do much better as a district when we employ a collaborative process that involves all stakeholders between our administrators teachers and students and Community I believe together we can create a world-class District when I worked at industry and Crayola I learned the secret to innovative solutions is collaboration when I asked Dr Varley in the meeting if this cost savings could be done by eliminating one supervisor and redistributing the responsibilities she said I don't know I ask you to look at this

119resolution and ask what about this position requires it to be a director versus supervisor can we do better I feel like I have contributed to the advancement of the steam program in the district and I can't help but wonder why the decision is being made to create the position that Dr Varley said I could not be considered for as a result of the certification requirement I ask you to vote no on this resolution and open up a more collaborative process challenge the administration to go back look at the reorganization with all stakeholders we can do better I want to thank you for the opportunity to work here at Berkeley Heights I truly enjoyed working with the amazing administrators to create new programs and opportunities for students and I believe working together as a team we

120can accomplish so much more thank you for your comments good evening everybody I'm Rob Nixon I am the principal of Governor Livingston high school and the president of the Berkeley Heights administrators Association I'd like to start off and thank Dr barley mscott and the board for inviting myself and Mrs Nardi to attend a recent Personnel committee meeting we're able to share alternative ideas for district cost savings that we believed would have less impact on student achievement that meeting we shared over 500 thousand dollars worth of alternative cost savings while we are disappointed that the board has decided to move in the direction that is posted on the agenda tonight we appreciate the opportunity for collaboration before you make your decision regarding the administrative reorganization this evening I'd like to call your attention to what is

121at the very center of the district's strategic plan student achievement the purpose of having a strategic plan is to provide Direction and guide decisions that you make for the growth of our district we have many questions that we would like to hear your thoughts or answers to if student achievement is really at the heart of the plan how could you approve a recommendation eliminating two supervisors positions when both of these supervisors oversee critical tested areas it would appear through this this through this agenda tonight that the board is choosing to support positions through this budget that are the furthest removed from student achievement positions that have only been added over the past two years we would like to know why you would choose to do that why are those positions more valued than a supervisors

122when that role has a direct impact on student achievement are your priorities are your priorities centered and focused on student achievement approving this plan would unfortunately demonstrate otherwise before voting this evening we would like to ask do you have acceptable answers as to who will be handling all the responsibilities of the eliminated supervisor such as who will be handling the 31 observations and 26 evaluations in addition to their own are you confident knowing who will review student growth objectives help create professional development plans or assist and critical curriculum matters how successful can this new director be having to do the work of two administrators do you feel comfortable moving forward supporting a plan that'll not only eliminates the math supervisor position but also makes the tenured administrator currently in this role unable to be considered

123for the director position due to certification are you doing the right thing for the development of our math program at our last data dashboard presentation GL ranks 16th out of the 20 comparable high schools in the math passing rate considered for graduation based upon last year's NJ GPA testing which is the new graduation proficiency assessment taken by all 11th grade students we ranked the we rank 10th on that dashboard are you willing to make a decision that will undoubtedly hurt that progress given that there are alternative budget items that can be cut and in consideration of the negative impact to student achievement that this resolution could have the Berkeley Heights administrators Association once again would like to urge you to vote against the plan that's on tonight's agenda for administrative reorganization thank you thank you

124thank you for your comments anymore comments on budget it looks like what I want to say is right in line with what is being sent so I'm going to go ahead and talk now Shauna Williams Berkeley Heights my first question is rhetorical okay what do you think parents want from this District if you came up with any answer other than for their children to receive the best education possible then that's a problem and what does best education look like studies papers experts say that the number one most important thing as effective teachers and at the last meeting you had teachers show up in a way I've never seen before they came to tell you that they need their supervisors okay you at least the majority of you voted to remove the resolution to abolish the

125supervisory provisions and you listened to those who are the number one most important component in our schools they are the ones who are in the best position to determine what should be done in this instance they spoke with emotion they gave you examples and with near Universal support for their specific supervisors and what is the result now item D on the agenda reorganization of the administrative team and nice touch by the way calling them administrative team this is the exact same thing that the teachers came out in droves to speak out against but on a smaller scale this question is not rhetorical who exactly put this forth I think we see now that it was Dr Varley uh for those at home who have not looked at the agenda item D creates a director position

126and abolishes the supervisor of math and Technology education and the supervisor of science and art maybe it's weirdly reassuring that the board doesn't seem to give any more consideration to teachers than they do to parents but quite honestly I think it's pathetic so different note on behalf of the marching band quarter madams you are welcome uh it appears that the repair that we have been doing on the band uniforms will allow the district to delay the purchase of ten thousand dollars worth of uniforms and I'm not saying this is a brag I'm saying it as a challenge you should each challenge yourselves to come up with Solutions the teachers told you what they need and it's horrifying to me that you're throwing it back in their faces okay stop turning a blind eye to the

127needs of those who've elected you guys to represent them stop giving the blank check of approval to every recommendation made by this superintendent and the business administrator I think right now the best thing you could actually do is a vote of no confidence for this supervisor and non-renewal of the contract for the business administrator that's what's going to help our schools at this point thank you thank you for your comments hi everyone um I know I don't really speak during the public citizens hearing but I thought it was really important for me to come up today and sort of share a student perspective about the removal of the supervisor positions so um I understand that budget decisions are difficult I've been sitting through the meetings for two years now I'm about to graduate I have

128a lot of experience here I think um but I just wanted to talk about how much of an influence these supervisors have had on my education in my past few years at GL and at CMS too um I can't even begin to describe how how many interactions whether it's a brief interaction with Mr giobo in the hallway about how robotics is doing or a meeting with Mr digunes about how the women in stem Club is work sorry is working on their um CMS Outreach proposal and it's very difficult as a student to describe the impact but the supervisors have such a direct influence on how the students learn in the classroom whether that means they're coming into the classroom chatting like I've never felt more comfortable in this school than I have having the support

129of Mrs Euro and Mr jugunis with me um and I think that in an effort to promote stem and just science and technology today I think both supervisor positions are very necessary um as a senior that's going off to college in a couple months I'm actually majoring in electrical engineering with a minor in either economics or maybe entrepreneurship so I know quite a bit about how stem is advancing and the importance of technological growth and like Miss Bradford was mentioning earlier the school system needs to also develop to accommodate students living in the age of chat gbt artificial intelligence machine learning and we really can't do that without the help of two supervisors thank you so much thank you thank you okay no more comments on budget okay so we will move on I would

130like to make a motion to approve for all board members the adoption of the final budget with changes to the tentative budget approved by the executive County Superintendent do I have an emotion so moved second one second and since we've already had discussion I think we could move on to roll call hello yeah I have a question uh I was um this budget only has money as I understand it's very sort of putting back one supervisor correct that's all right that's what the sort of amend amendments that were presented tonight um so if I vote for this does that mean is that equivalent to saying I'm voting for only one supervisor and not two am I essentially eliminating a supervisor by voting for this budget that's the question so in the end I incorrect me

131if I'm wrong you're voting on the actual budget right so what would happen if the resolution D fails that means two teachers that were added back will then be pulled back the other choice is for me to just offer an amendment [Music] okay so all right so okay all right so now but I've also noticed that there's huge amounts of money in medical benefits that get transferred to other accounts so actually isn't the money sort of there already if we wanted to do two more supervisors no no all right so basically you're saying a yes vote automatically eliminates one supervisor so you're approving a total budget value and a tax increase I realize that right so that's really what you're voting on because Anything could happen between the day today if we strike this budget

132and through throughout the year um and it happens every year so some teacher will leave the district um and maybe they will be replaced by someone who is more expensive um perhaps [Music] um some arrangement will not work and we need to fill positions so you know this is built into the budget that only one supervisor from tentative has been put back in but these are there is the ability to make changes overall you are approving a budget uh value and a tax levy increase but but somehow the money magically appears if we need to hire another teacher even if it wasn't in the budget that seems to be what happens is that right not correct okay and since we had discussion we're going to move on to roll call Miss Bradford yes Mr chanchuli

133yes Dr forger no Mr Hyman yes Mrs Connor no Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mrs perner yes budget passes right so we will now move on to Amity and liaison report yes no we did probably come yeah yeah um so we're now a committee in liaison reports so anybody tell you all right yes I uh recently attended the New Jersey School Board Association spring education Symposium on April 25th uh it was all day on mine it was paid for by our tax dollars so I wanted to give you a report on this I took these workshops one was titled creating a strategic plan for your District which is coming up on us which was beneficial a bond referendum planning to communicate Workshop again coming up in our community the value of transparency in school

134public relations uh there was also a workshop on the update of the New Jersey Trenton legislation and education Advocates panel there was also I took a class a workshop on legal mandates and special education and the final Workshop I had was in a school board's role in as a policy maker policy review development and oversight these came most of those came with PowerPoint presentations which I have links and I will pass these on to Julie to share with the board members there also will be a video of each of these workshops posted within the next 24 hours on the njsba so that we can view them again and take a look at them especially with some things that are definitely coming up to our board um in the role as my liaison Town Council still

135struggles or is working sorry continues with their budget process there's going to be a change in parking regulations on Hamilton Avenue next to the Columbia School lower parking lot that may affect parents going in and out they created a safe video monitored exchange area next to the police department for exchanging of goods over the internet the recreation committee continues their spring and summer Recreation programs they continue to register and operate summer concerts will take place I have no updates on the Union County Educational Services committee no updates on the truth community building and inclusion committee and no updates on the district evaluation advisory committee the PTO liaison committee was very interesting that I attended it was a rotating curriculum sorry yeah curriculum um the district PTO parents leaders heard presentations from his co-pass Dr Greer

136Mrs Gardner Mr Mora on curriculum items the parents also heard a presentation about an engineering project at GL for AP students following AP exams the parents voiced their support for a systematic phonetic approach and they also supported the time it would require to initiate the program the parents also voiced support for the programs that were presented by Mrs Gardner and Mr Mora and parents requested a permanent liaison to the committee um and I'm not sure if this is the right time but as a rotating member of the Board of Ed it was my month to review the bills and uh my compliments to the business office and especially to Alicia Bon Giovanni or an exemplary job well done it took me an hour and 45 minutes and that was speeding along so the March accounts

137payables are in order that concludes my liaison reports thank you anybody else report so I'm gonna be as brief as I can but we had a two hour curriculum meeting um so it we went over a lot and it's really important stuff thank you Gail for going to the PTO curriculum meeting I know those can be long but they're important um so we talked about effective School Solutions with Mrs Gardner and Mr Mora um this is really to help us in getting back some of our students who we have put out of District because we do not currently have enough um stuff in in place to help these students with their needs this is talking specifically about mental health um so we need to bring these students back because there are our students right there

138Berkeley Heights and Mountainside residents who we want to be going to GL so this would be a program at GL it's ESS and we are going to bring them in um I have to give Mrs Gardner and Mr Mora so much credit they worked so closely with this company ESS but also with the parents because we couldn't do the program if we didn't have the students so we needed to have them on board to come back and I have to say they did an amazing job and I think the big takeaway from me was that we will be able to help the students that are have less needs but are still important right that needs on mental health and in the classroom and just getting through the day and we all know mental health is

139extremely important right now especially after covid for our students um the next thing we talked about is our special education course that Mr um career Dr Greer talked about um we are going to be able to do that again this year for our students that culinary program it's going really really well um I was just so impressed with the heart of our our staff who just love these kids and want to do this program next year and we're going to have even more kids next year which is amazing so I'm so glad that everyone pulled together last year and really made this happen and that we're building on it um and then we talked about our math update um we did um Big Ideas last year and it's going really really well there will be

140some curriculum writing I believe this summer to just tweak little things that our staff has found over the year so we're still working on it but it really hasn't been a big success and then other schools are now taking our lead and using big ideas in their classrooms um so that's really exciting for us um again Mrs kopez is doing so much for our K through five or pre-k through five um we also had a homework committee update um they got together with a bunch of teams to come up with guidelines um this is extremely important because we've seen where it hasn't been right we don't have guidelines for our teachers to help them right come up with ways to get our students um on the same page right like some teachers had this or

141that right when we're trying to give them guidelines so everybody knows what is expected and also for parents I think that was a big part of this is that what parents should expect if your child is struggling with homework how much homework should they expect and if it's over this amount you should be contacting the teacher to find out maybe there's something that the teacher is not realizing that they're going home and struggling with right so it was it's to help both the parents and the teachers with these guidelines next is word study update um I again this is an amazing committee that Mrs Copa has put together of teachers there's eight reading Specialists on this team which is really really important and we're talking about um so words say is spelling but phonetics and

142I don't even know I can't get it all right but it's it's it's so important and I I know that that team has been working really really hard and they know how important it is to do this for our youngest students who really need help in this area and the science backs this that we need to look at this and it's been a really long time so I'm so glad that we were able to get it in the budget um and we're going to use lesser funds to get it so this is amazing and I really want to thank her team for working so hard because they really put in so much they've already piloted one program and they are looking at one more program and then they're going to decide which the second program

143to Pilot um I believe that this is going to be on the May or June agenda well we if you recall we looked at the second the the second one that we wanted to Pilot this uh this week and we've decided that that is not the one we want to buy so we still have to bring in one more um which means it will probably be the recommendation will probably be on the June agenda so if you guys have questions please reach out for us because we are our committee did really like where we're going and we've asked as many questions as we can of Mrs kopez um so we're we're hoping that we can move forward with this as a board um and then next we talked about Middle School World languages we are

144going to be getting rid of the honors meaning that we will no longer offer the honors in middle school for World languages but we will continue to offer information in how we teach right if there's a student who is doing very well in French right they can still have the curriculum go with them just like we would do in any other class um but we will continue to offer it in the high school and then we're going to look at the AP classes we hope that everyone approves it there were three classes two AP classes and one other class that would need our approval um the committee talked about this we talked about what we could do for our students and so we hope that all of you will approve this when it comes onto

145the agenda and my very last thing is I attended the njsba uh Union County meeting um I just wanted to bring up that they are raising our fees I'm assuming we have this on our budget and they are also um they had the Union County teacher of the year come up and speak and she was a first grade teacher and she was great and how much you could tell how much she loved our kids and then they also um we're talking about looking into a gun safety report so I still have to look into this but I guess this report came out on how to help schools with gun safety so I'm gonna do more research on that that is it thank you anybody else with a committee or liaison report before we move on

146nope okay uh board Communications okay there are quite a few because these are built up from uh the 313 meeting to current so um received a variety of emails one about the Oprah a response page that we have on our website two emails uh pertaining to a possible Oprah violation one email about a staff member one email I'm sorry one individual sent multiple correspondents asking about courtesy bussing District um the bhaa sent correspondence regarding the meeting that they held with uh personnel um there was an email asking the board to consider adding certain uh holidays to the school calendar uh two emails regarding questions uh about their tentative budget and correspondence giving their opinion on i-Ready math um another question about the posting of the budget an email asking if High School um asking about

147high schools students being offered and opt out for physical education class a email about Aiden Lu in of bussing a Community member asked if AP classes were going to be cut in the budget another correspondence commenting on on several aspects of the 2324 budget presentation for community members requesting to see the full tentative budget a Community member wanted Mr Hyman to abstain from voting on the budget another Community member sent correspondence asking for clarification on the diversity committee at GL and seven community members um sent correspondents sitting that they were not in favor of the administrative reorg thank you Julie um Okay so comments from the public on agenda items so please as before a map state your name and you have three minutes thank you um can you yeah good evening evening everyone I'm

148Christian Joya a student at GL and backed by fellow students sharing the same ideals as me I would like to address the agenda item of their proof substitution list of the removal of missile lawyer I would like to speak on behalf of all students that signed the petition and from what I believe a good majority of GL students most substitutes come to school with the purpose just to complete their jobs which is no problem as I appreciate what they do for us but on the other hand misaloya is different Miss Loya comes to school with the most uplifting energy and shows that she cares for the students not only does she show up to substitute she builds Everlasting bonds with almost every student which can be seen by the amount of student support she has

149received during this time us students truly believe that having Miss eloya and our school makes it a happier and more more enjoyable place I think that everyone in this world deserves a second chance and really hope that the members of the board and administrators of the school believe that too thank you for your time thank you for your comments thank you good evening my name is Karen ciccoli and I have two students in our district but my two concerns tonight are for every student in our district not just my own number one Oprah violations and number two my strong opposition to this planned survey of our high school and middle school students what on an agenda item it's just my item right now as a community member right if you want to talk about it

150the ending at the very end right now the comment section is on agenda items okay thank you anybody else like to address the board on agenda items please yeah okay thank you thank you uh minutes so I would like motion to approve minutes resolution a for all board members or executive session minutes from March 13 2023 and regular session minutes from March 13 2023 do I have a motion some move second yes second any discussion okay roll call please Judy Ms Bradford yes Mr Chan truly yes Dr forger yes Mr Hyman yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mrs Penna yes Administration okay I would like to make a motion to the resolutions a through P or board members do I have a motion so moved second discussion I have a question

151on the policies so policy one five three the annual appointments uh I think the new language there is no timing of these appointments it was initially at the New York meeting so any reason why we are moving away from that or when do we think the timing is Strauss Esme is sent out the revised policy according to code so usually we do it at the reorg meeting we sometimes have a follow-up in May where May or June June where we do um for the school year yeah yeah so it's we even though it's annually we sometimes do it semi-annually so this is not annual appointments anymore I'm I'm not totally understanding response so um generally January is for the reorg for the new board for January 23 to 24 and then June is for the

152school year so their annual appointment the calendar year gives the newly seated board the opportunity to vote on the year that they will be utilizing the services or having these appointments but most of our vendors operate on a fiscal year because the school operates on a fiscal calendar so sometimes we will do both if necessary I like to do them uh at the beginning of the year so that everybody who is participating on the board has had an opportunity to have a voice in it and they're not just doing a carryover but sometimes the contract changes and the vendors will change their contract as of July 1st so maybe the rates increase on July 1st so we may then end up doing like a reappointment and an approval of the contract in June for July

153through the year but you then have the opportunity again in January to a point or not appoint them so everything yes I know I know so if we I don't know I'm sorry I didn't see this policy but I don't know so I don't know what the policy is saying there's no timing anymore in the policy okay um and I'm I guess I'm confused on how would this work to your point if you approve somebody in in June for the next fiscal starting July to June we don't have the opportunity to change that in January you can rescind you can rescind an appointment if there's a desire to do so on a basis we can put a rescission on an agenda it's not common but it could be done there's you know if the entire

154board turns over and they just don't want those people anymore and you know they can do a precision okay so I think um because the elections also moved the elections used to be in April right and people would be seated for the fiscal year so that always it made sense to do it in July because then the board members were also part of the fiscal year but now that the Board elections for most schools are in November and people get seated in January districts are split on the way they do it so my feedback to the policy committee is just kind of give this a little bit of thought to make it less confusing and um if I can continue policy 5841 secret societies I don't think there's a definition of the word secret in

155the way the policy is written so if there are students that just create a little group of their own and choose to call it a society that nobody in the school is aware of does that qualify as a secret society and would they be in trouble the policy has no clear definition so that's why I'm trying to get the Clutter this is an old policy that's been on our books for years um Strauss us may at our request did an update of it it is not a mandated policy so I I assume it is I don't think it's a pro an issue we have where we have kids making secret societies but I couldn't I mean if it was a society a secret group that targeted other people yes they could get in trouble I

156think it depends on what the group represented got it so again my feedback for the policy committee if we can get clarity so that again the interest is to not get people in trouble because we didn't know um that would be my my feedback okay and then policy 9324 it seems like it's applicable to students but I didn't catch a reference to it being applicable to employees of the district do we have a different policy with the same um interest or application um we couldn't employ someone who was a sex offender as a in the district so they would automatically would be fired they would not pass yes every every employee in the district has to be fingerprinted um to make sure they are not they have no criminal offenses yes yeah yeah we're doing

157Administration yeah so then uh item d I mean we've seen a lot of feedback even just now we've had a bunch of feedback come through the last meeting where we tried to propose the reorgan um I I can't tell why we're doing it again um this is It's hard to understand why anybody any more discussion before we meet on to Roku and hrp no actually can we have Roku please miss Bradford yes Mr chanchuli yes to all Dr Forger okay um on uh policy 0153 I agree with Deputy that should really go back to the policy committee um so I'm going to say no on that one and uh 5841 on secret societies I think she has a good point we really should have I missed that when we reviewed it I think we really

158should have had a definition um and on D so I'm going to say no on 5841 I'm going to say yes on the other policies uh yes on B and C but then when you get to D eliminating two supervisors and creating one director I'm going to say uh no on that I came in here thinking that's okay but I listen to the public and I really don't think that this is a good idea and I think that's going to be a little difficult for one person to handle both sides of math and we do have somebody we already have people that can do that and I was very impressed I wish Catherine were here but I was very impressed with her remarks when a student raises a supervisor that means a lot to me

159um so I know it's going to cost a little money but it's not going to be that much and I think educationally it'd be better to keep the two supervisors so I'm going to say no on D then I'm going to say yes on the rest of them thank you so no to policy zero one five three policy 5841 no to D yes to BC and E through p Mr Hyman yes Mr Hyman yes tall Mrs Connor no for policy 153 no for policy 5841 yes to the other two yes to b c uh and everything except d okay Mrs Stanley yes and congratulations again to our I achieving students and teams Mrs Young yes Mrs Penner yes motions pass okay education I'd like a motion to approve resolutions a to e or board members

160do I have a motion so moved second do we have any discussion can we get a better sense of um the agency for instructional Services uh with kids to drink what subjects are we talking about what grades this is for a student who has owned home instruction so it's required by law also it's not for addition I got it okay any more discussion oh cool please Julie Miss Bradford yes Mr chancelli Yes except of Saint on D is indeed Dr forer yes go on Mr Hyman yes Mrs Connor yes a through e Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mrs perner yes okay personnel I would like a motion to approve resolution a through b or board members and resolutions W through CC Berkeley Heights only so I have a motion so moved second do we

161have any discussion no I just want to say congratulations to our teachers who will receive tenure this year I know Dr Riley has been working very hard not to give teachers tenure unless they really are going to make Berkeley Heights a better district and I I want to really thank all of our teachers that are going to get tenure this year this means that you are really part of Berkeley Heights and you really want to make Berkeley Heights a better place thank you any more discussions I'm sorry I was going to piggyback to congratulate also those who are retiring um I can't speak personally to all but I can to uh one of the Math teachers who was referenced tonight it's a big loss for the district and wish him and everyone else well thank

162you yes um I was going to basically vote Yes on everything but then the public came forward and spoke in favor of the substitute teacher and she spoke for herself and I think she made a good case so I'm gonna vote no on you did you I know we haven't done a call yet right I was going to say but you just went to okay we're still on discussion anybody else with discussion all right if not we'll move on to Roku please Julie Miss Bradford yes Mr chain truly yes to all Dr Forger uh yes to all except e e is a no Mr Hyman yes on items a through b as in Victor Mrs Connor yes for a to V except e abstain on W and yes on X through CC I'm sorry no

163to e that's staying on w w and yes to the rest that's correct thank you thank you Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mrs panum yes I yes emotions pass business uh motion to approve resolutions a through M or board members do I have a motion so moved second please second any discussion yes um Point f the coordinated transportation services um can you help us understand if do we get some sort of a benefit kind of coordinating with these other commissions from a transportation perspective so some of that goodness is baked into your number yes they do um so we may not use all of them okay but this gives you the opportunity to do so um we do a lot of special education Transportation with them it prevents us from having to do the

164bidding process which includes advertising costs and holding the bids and they are much more efficient at it and they get a bigger pool of candidates than we ever would so and they can also do some magnificent things in the short term um even if they can't find something long-term they can fill something at a day rate short term which really helps us get through until we find a permanent placement got it can I ask about uh H the climate change pilot Grant was does any of that potentially apply to what we heard tonight from the environmental club or not Apples to Apples and if not what what we'll where will that go yeah thank you for the question there are a lot of different awareness by the New Jersey Department of Education you can see

165six thousand six hundred and sixty dollars is to support education within our course within our classes K-12 with all different types of materials there are hydrometers and different things that we're purchasing for students to be able to dig in a little bit more uh there's another opportunity that we're also looking at as well in terms of Elementary education but this one here specifically a grant from the Department of Ed to help support climate awareness education thank you the question about that uh do we are we do we have to do we have to put any of our own money into it or is this just not for this one typically with grants there's things that you have to put in you've receive this grant no any more discussion I actually have two more sorry Tom

166are you done are you done uh the question of the Chromebooks uh what students should be getting those and what do they have now so I believe they are the same and Mr skara is here he can correct me if I'm wrong right there the same model uh Chromebooks that we have it's part of a plan that we have a replacement plan for the materials themselves as we know that they get older we need to replace them so that's what they are and it looks like we have uh in our budget 500 here so it goes within uh the process the high school students will receive then and the devices from the high school that are so usable can be cleaned and fixed up and go to the middle school and and vice versa all

167the way down okay that's all so this is hold out of next year's budget and we are using funds is that this line item well 144 000 was originally in the budget that number got pulled out by buying these now uh at the volume discount we can get more for Less so yes that is this side and we have this in our this year's budget already no we were able to save funds by putting the spending freeze on okay and so we have stopped spending since February 15. we've been able to accumulate enough funds to make this purchase to make this happen and alleviate some burden on next year got a good idea um Point M the legal services uh maximum spend um helped me understand what was the budgeted amount for this year 2020

168to 2023 yeah this 175 000 number what would be our per pupil legal cost for the year if you have it no I can't give you that number but I can tell you what what is transpiring here so um when I first came in um and Was preparing the budget I utilized the figure that was used by my predecessor which was 125 000 um I don't know if that was being monitored or not but during the end of last school year in June I became apparent that that was an insufficient amount and we did a revised amount for the 2122 school year pushing it up to 160 I think the audit said we came in just about over 156 uh this year um in April of 20 two I had put 125 in for Legal

169Services it is insufficient again uh we are currently with we have not even received all of marches but bills yet we've paid a portion of them but we are already into past 110. so this would just increase um the maximum professional expenditure for legal services for the remainder of the year and is an estimate um based on trends and I don't know is there any kind of a cap at all on this there's a one a cap on this legal services for the year is there a cat yeah like a Max no okay so is there any more discussion no okay can we have Roku please Julie yes uh Miss Bradford yes Mr Chan truly yes Dr Forger a through D no and uh e through I yes and what about JK l m and

170you come back to be on that one okay Mr Hyman yes Tom Mrs Connor yes for everything except m m i don't hate him but in Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mrs Penna yes are we coming back to Tom we are okay uh what did we we left off at I right you said a through D no e through I yes yes K is yes what about J what about it oh yes JK yes it always see us uh maximum expenditures here you raised it to 175 now for legal so that so definitely a no okay motions pass okay Finance I would like a motion to approve resolution a through d e or board members do I have a motion so moved second second you're having is there any discussion no yeah I'm gonna

171on this uh Finance on the checks there's a check for uh Mike Scara I'm not discussing Mike I'm discussing a check payment to Mike for a conference so there's a regulation that he has to submit it a report about what is he talking about and which this is on the checks identifying individual checks from the bills list yeah from the bills list that's what we're supposed to do look at the bills list and decide if we want to pay a check or doc right please provide a check number okay so okay I'll give you some check numbers 207 I'm sorry 207 922 is a no but then we get to 28030 2803-28030 now that's a trick is that enough digits two eight oh three oh yeah it's I got five six digits one more two

172eight zero three zero two eight zero three zero okay so I wanna when an employee goes on a trip to a conference they have to provide a report and we're not supposed to uh pay for the trip until we get that report do we have that report you're not answering anything why not no I'm not I have I have to approve this right we should probably abstain or say no I'm saying I'll say no please don't so you're saying there's no report I'm saying I'm not answering that question okay who do I ask that could answer them you should have this isn't your role you can you can talk by not publicly so can you have standing or virgin God on that I don't know I don't know if there's a trip report or not

173discussion all right okay I don't know so I guess I'm gonna say when you get to know you can determine whether it's nowhere I'm sorry but okay so if there's a report I'll say yes if it's a if there's a if there's no report it's a no can we get to the vote then we get to C B is yes C is no way we're not we're still having discussion oh okay you're not on the vote yet all right I'm saying when we get to that vote we get to that part is there is there any more discussion from board members I just have it's about what Tom was asking just as uh I think we have um teachers you know people take trips go conferences which is great kind of idea sharing um I

174think more Dr barley went to a conference and a kind of awardless but is there a methodology where we capture the ideas is it a readout even doesn't have to be necessarily to the world all the time but even within the district to say here's you know five things that we heard at a conference you know three things maybe would be great for our district is there a formal process of taking that kind of a readout and you know activating it not that I know of no can you recommend you know um just so that we can learn what we can do it I mean do you want to talk I can speak to in the elementary schools if teachers go out on conferences the expectation is that they turn key what they've learned to

175the rest of their teams so that is an expectation that is a formal process in in elementary again I can't speak to six through twelve I can't and it's the same type of thing where we come back we turn key we talk to each other even administrators we share pieces personally I take my own notes that I share out with people obviously shoot emails hey here's a link did you think about that have you seen this as those pieces go on as we share professionally as professionals as well so my my takeaway from that discussion just now is I think if there's anything worthwhile that's coming out of these discussions these conferences I think the board members would love to see what you're hearing and listening and you know learning this is really new business

176and not agenda new business can we move on then if we've had no discussion Julie can we have a Roku please miss Bradford yes Mr chanchuli yes Dr Forger okay um on a check 207 922 is a no 208.030 no uh B is a yes C is a no and D is a yes no to 207-922-208030 no to be noted d yes yes got it thank you and uh B is a yes uh Mr Hyman yes Mrs Connor yes a through d Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mrs Penner yes motions pass okay so now we're at the comments from the public on any topic as before if you can please come up and Stage your name and you have three minutes thank you thank you for being patient too I feel like it's past

177my bedtime okay let's start again good evening my name is Karen ciccoli and I have two students in our district but my two concerns tonight are for every student in our district not just my own number one the Oprah violations which we heard about um being emailed to you all and number two to express my strong opposition to the planned survey of our high school and middle school students what gives this board of education confidence that Mr Stephen Hopkins diversity equity and inclusion director can remain as Oprah custodian when he fails at simple redactions resulting in private student information being released there is a pattern of disregard for data assembly please no names I'm sorry my names were released other parents names were released just be mindful the board can't comment on personal matters because

178it's confidential and so we just ask with the courtesy when referencing Personnel if you can speak to the board about the concerns our diversity equity and inclusion director how can he can remain Oprah custodian when he fails at simple redactions resulting in private student information being released there's a pattern of disregard for data and for following State rules each of you know this is a Oprah violation I wrote to each of you on the 17th and I asked you for help on how you would act if your child's information was released like mine was and as of today nearly two weeks later not one of you have answered me or offered help our diversity equity and inclusion um guy said this was human error and so far it's been overlooked but no one has given

179me an answer on how this will be fixed how will the members on this board allow this person to work with sensitive private student data as he prepares to survey our middle and high school students on their sexuality their parents income their own mental health and religious preferences when he fails at his other responsibilities that involve data management God has been completely removed from our classrooms we cannot celebrate Christmas as Christ's birthday and now this survey you're interested in exploring our 12 year olds religious activities not only has this person failed as Oprah's custodian but under his watch as supervisor of world languages parents students and teachers we all had to come together and we had to fight to keep the French language study available regarding the student survey in May I want to educate

180myself and the rest of the parents listening and ask you who created and designed this survey who will be administering the results who has access to this data what's the goal what's a viable response rate 20 percent will action be taken on 20 percent and since this is an optional survey those who answer are a self-selected group and that would influence the outcome or skew it how much did this cost the district since I got some like questioning I'm just gonna finish this how do we know that our children's names and answers won't be made public and just be Shrugged off as human error 18 or 11 through 18 year olds have very different abilities and experiences we do not teach them using the same standards yet this survey is a one-size-fits-all approach why is

181this why is Dr Varley and our Dei supervisor allowed to fly on taxpayer dime to San Antonio Texas in February to share our District's Dei strategic plan to a national audience yet our district website Dei tab is blank and parents stakeholders have not even been given a report here on Dei parents and students have not even been given a simple definition of the words diversity equity and inclusion you do not have permission to survey my children and you do not have permission to share my children's information and call it human error we do not trust you Mr Dakota you need to finish up last sentence you are not um you are not on the sport of Education to push a personal political agenda you're not here to hire your friends or family or to oversee

182a collection of private and personal data from our children to be exploited fundamentally you are here to make sure our children get an education thank you for your comments thank you anybody else like to address the board on any topic please please come up maybe I'm just going to set the screen can you hear me great uh talking to Jerry Berkeley ice um so I I just wanted to understand and I'm hoping you can answer this question tonight for everyone to know so um I'd like to understand how and and I'm again if I'm wrong tell me please but uh how did the uh admin and superintendent not follow District policy to 6220 the policy states that public input must be sought before the budget is finalized um what are the repercussions for not following

183your own policy uh Robert maybe you can help clarify as you had the policy committee and currently on the finance committee why didn't you please raise your questions to me okay Angela then maybe you can clarify that thank you um I was going to I tried to get here earlier I couldn't get here in time but uh tonight's budget presentation um you know I I it seemed very uh interesting that there were Cuts there were not Cuts there was a question from one of the board members about the impact on students um and if we're cutting teachers that's an impact and it was kind of sad that that didn't get acknowledged because there is an impact and what we heard tonight was the public as well as teachers administrators all speaking about that impact but

184no one here on this table was able to acknowledge it and I mean guys your work for the town you work for us and how is it that you can sit here and there's two members asking questions and there's eye rolls and headshakes still while they're asking questions but yet one acknowledges we listen to the community the rest of you are just yes yes yes yes yes yes yes I mean it's impossible to understand how everything can be a yes how you can all agree to yes and and when you work for us as a community the community is right here talking to you we're talking to you we're saying we don't agree and you just Bowl right through so I really think you need to check yourselves because this is just it's wrong um

185secondly I'm gonna go very quick because I see the timer but I do want to get through this um recently Elementary parents received the word study program uh survey I have no clue who did this survey who created it or for that matter who reviewed it and approved it to be sent out but um it's got to be a joke right because there are a few questions that I want to highlight these because I don't think any of you paid attention but as a parent I know several parents who did pay attention first question uh explicit phonics instruction is valuable uh spelling instruction is important and should be taught each day vocabulary should be taught in reading and writing homework should include Word work recognizing sounds connected to letters reading basic words having the ability

186to read harder multi-syllable words understanding what words mean in isolation definition I'm wrapping up absolutely uh understanding what words mean in contacts spelling accurately in isolation spelling words accurately in writing you asked the parents of this District if these things were important why did you not send a survey and just ask do you think education is important and Lastly lastly um I would like to know when Dr barley and Mrs Cox contracts are up for Renewal I would like to recommend that they are not renewed exactly Mr John your thumbs up thank you very much Mr najari in your Amazon thank you for ruining them thank you thank you your time is up thank you anybody else like to address the board on any topics [Music] good evening in September of last year I asked

187the police chief to take a demo of an app with me that was recommended to both of us by Lori alladeth the chief jumped at the opportunity after the demo he was very impressed then the following month when the school district said they couldn't afford the app my wife and I offered a donation to the school district for a security app that is used in over 3 500 schools the finance and Facilities committee turned down my donation because it wasn't equitable since it was only available to one school as a pilot program and not all six they did offer to accept my money though and spend it on school security as they saw fit I declined there was an incident of a student bringing an ash airsoft gun to school and having it on him

188for hours before somebody told an adult once the officer in the school was told he handled it immediately the principal sent out an email to parents about see something say something that's what the app would have done I wasn't done fighting for that app and I assure you the chief wasn't either we spoke to the app company a few weeks ago and they agreed to donate a pilot program for all six schools for one year absolutely free we fought for every single student teacher parent by getting this app for all of the schools I'm here tonight because I thought this was going to be on tonight's agenda clearly it isn't I know why the finance and Facilities committee has finally requested a demo of the app that they have known about since November you would

189think before they turned down a donation they'd at least see what the app did last year and let me just finish up with this because I have oh no I'm good each and every one of you are elected officials this demo is 15 minutes you can ask all the questions you want you can do this tomorrow at a previous board meeting a board member asked our business administrator why we needed two additional 303 officers he asked her if children in the elementary schools were safe to that member kids in elementary schools haven't been safe since Sandy Hook a few weeks ago a psychopath went into a Christian Elementary school and killed three nine-year-olds and three administrators one nine-year-old was killed trying to pull the fire alarm to save her classmates and teachers did you know

190that the shooter's initial Target was a different school but that school had too much security so they chose the school with no security I asked that the board put the app on the May agenda that gives you two weeks to demo this app and voted out of the committee show parents and teachers you care about their safety if you vote no then you vote no just take a vote the app was turned down because of equity yet we have six schools and now have four c03 officers how do you decide which students and teachers lives are less valuable lastly our chief of police and that whole department is phenomenal and would do anything to protect these students and teachers board members raise your hands please if you have ever asked the chief what he needed

191to keep our children and teachers safe thank you for your comments sure um so Mr weisfeld chief masamino called me I think about a week and a half ago and talk to me about the donation for the six buildings I did bring it up to the financial facilities committee they had a great deal of questions which is understandable and there is a huge scope of work that we would have to discuss with the app company so um I reached out to the finance and Facilities committee to see if we can get a meeting on the books so that we can do the demo and they can ask the company directly these questions so um we're in the process it's just it's not something that can just immediately happen it's there's a process behind adopting anything

192within a school district and I will the public com the public input on the budget we have had three public meetings on the pub for public input so I did want to address that um none of this has been done in secret it has been all very transparent thank you Okay so I'd like to move on to new business oh sorry Mr capex did you have something oh okay all right so I'd like to move on to new business um I would just like to remind all the board members that the deadline for the online board self-evaluation is May 1st please if you can all make sure you have that done so that we can have all the information ready for the May 11th meeting when the New Jersey school boards Association representative Patricia Reese

193comes to discuss our board goals and you know talk us through the process so please just a reminder all right if there is no more new on on that point so the expectation is we have the meeting on the 11th and then maybe adopted like for the next year I guess I suppose she will talk us through the process because the board has never done this before this is brand new not really sure what the process is moving forward she said she'll come with the information and help us adopt board goals and they talk us through the process okay all right Mrs Penner can you show us where the link is or send us the link sure I thought I did on my last email no okay okay but I'll send it again yeah yeah

194it's you have to kind of go through it there's a little I can send a little screen I can send it to you again yeah no worries sure not a problem okay any any other new business if they're going back to the report idea um I I think it'll be valuable to kind of hear um what is our district learning through these interactions with other districts other uh administrators and and see you know how we can actually get these ideas and Implement some of them so sorry Tom did you have anything at a new business before we adjourn hello okay on this uh survey I don't know if it's gone out but I have grieved concerns about it this is not new business Tom yeah it'll get to be new business in a second Tom

195this is not new business well this is for new business please right do you have anything for new business yes I do okay can you just be patient I'm being patient I'm just making sure that you are the guys know very well okay so the concern is we're going to send out a survey and I'd like to get a legal opinion on whether that survey can be done under state law because I looked at the state law and voluntary surveys there's very strict rules and the results have to go to the State Department of Ed and the State Board of Health so that's all I just need a legal opinion that we can actually send out this survey the way it is that's all thank you and okay if there's no one in your business

196I would like to have a motion to adjourn so moved second please all in favor bye so