001Good evening. Welcome to the Hillsborough Township Board of Ed meeting, April 13th, 2026. Mr. Eckert, will you call the roll, please? Mrs. Erker. Mrs. Jackson. Here. Mr. Gray. Mrs. Laing-Peter. Here. Mr. Murray. Mrs. Nurse. Here. Mr. Staats. Here. Mr. Yale. And Mr. Diggs. Here. Yes, we are going to um move to executive session. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? Oh, next I need to read this. Pardon me. I need to be able to read. Whereas the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231 of the laws of 1975, provides that a public body may exclude the public from that portion of the meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required, as permitted in Section 7B of the Act. Resolved by the Board of Education of the
002Township of Hillsborough, County of Somerset, and State of New Jersey, as follows. The matter to be discussed is an HIB appeal. The matters discussed in executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. So, with that, we will retreat to executive session. Oh, now we motion and second. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. I. Thank you. So, the previous eyes have want >> Mhm. >> Gentlemen, that time >> Good evening. Welcome again to the Hillsborough Township Board of Education meeting. We have returned from executive session. Mr. Ecker, will you call the roll, please? Mr. Ehrenkranz? Here. Ms. Jackson? Here. Ms. Craig? Ms. Laney Beater? Here. Mr. Marine? Ms. Nurse? Here. Ms. Stats? Here. Mr. Hayo? Here. And Mr. Davis? Here. Pledge of
003Allegiance, please. Thank you. We've received the correspondence as noted on the agenda. And um for the board president's report, I want to report that we are engaged in ongoing discussions about the budget and the levy and all of those things. And we will a little later on in the meeting uh open the floor for the board to have an open discussion here about specific items being proposed for the budget. Last meeting, the proposed budget was approved at that time, but it's it's called a proposed budget because it's being proposed. The final vote is on April 30th, and that's when the budget for 2026-27 will be cast in stone. And we want the community to be aware that the conversation is ongoing. There are inquiries being made. There's research being done. Uh and we will discuss
004some of that here tonight. Uh more for your benefit than than ours, I would say. I would like the community to be aware of the fact that the board is engaged and does take very seriously uh the implications of what these tax levies mean uh for the entire community. So, that will take place a bit later on. And uh with that, I turn it over to Mr. Volpe for the superintendent's report. Thank you so much, Mr. President. And I first want to start by apologizing for many of the winter sports athletes who are here. One of the offices told you to be here at 7:00, and our board meeting started at 7:30, so apologies for that. But, I have a feeling that many of you are going to be back for many athletic seasons in
005the future. Um and we'll make sure we get the right time out, but it is at 7:30. We do certainly appreciate your patience. Um this is one of my favorite board meetings of the year cuz we get to recognize a lot of athletic excellence um across multiple sports for many different reasons. You will hear about athletes that overcame adversity. You will hear about athletes that accomplished something they've never done before. You will hear about champions. You will also hear about students who have done outstanding in the classroom as well as in their particular uh athletic field. And uh we have the board president over there, Mr. Davis, who we're going to call up some student athletes. He's going to present you with a certificate. I'll just say a word or two about your accomplishments. Then,
006if you are an athlete who is being singled out, I welcome you to after getting your certificate to come to the podium to say a word or two if you like. I see some people already shaking their heads no or pointing at someone else to do that. Um if you can't think of anything to say, there's a couple things you can do. Thank your coach. Thank your parents. Thank your teammates. And if we invite up a whole team, um I would ask for the coach to to say a word or two, you know, about the team, and we may be singling some people out from your team as well. So, congratulations to everything you did so far uh this year. Some of you will be involved in other sports, and we may be seeing you
007back. And the first sport that I would like to recognize is basketball. And we have one of our male athletes and one of our female athletes, both who made first team All-Skyland Conference Conference, Aaron Feath and Bella Rue. And Bella Rue, in addition to making first team All-Skyland Conference, was also third team All-Group 4. Congratulations to both of you. You can come up to see the board president to get a certificate, and then if you want to say a word or two, you can. And you can applaud for them, too, if they're here. And I guess they really didn't want to say anything at the podium cuz they happen to not be here right now. But, congratulations to both of them. We also have a very interesting uh recognition that we have right here. And
008some of you may know about this. Some of you may not. Uh we don't play soccer in the winter as an organized NJSIAA sport. However, Anya Lopez Acuna uh was recently made the Mexican U17 women's national team roster as their goalkeeper. And it goes without saying that earning a spot on a national roster is one of the highest honors in the sport. Congratulations to you, Anya. You can come up to see the board president now. Sure. Yeah. We're amazed by your accomplishment, so please be recognized. And would would you like to say a word or two about your experience? Would you like to say a word or two at the podium? Sure. If you want to. Uh I want to say thank you to my parents and all my coaches and also some of my
009teammates that are here. Thank you. Congratulations. I also have two students that I'd like to recognize as the Skyland Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year. We have Julia Brulette and Liam Rorty. Julia for soccer, winter track and field, and lacrosse. And Liam for football and lacrosse. If you're both here, please come up to see the board president. And again, if if either of you would like to take a moment to speak at the podium, we congratulate you for everything you've done. Would you like Would you like to say anything? You don't have to. I just want to give you the opportunity. Thank your parents. Thank your coaches. Yeah. Thank you to my parents, my teammates, and my coaches. I also like to thank my parents, my coaches, and teachers. Thank you. Thank you for all
010you've accomplished. Next, I'd like to invite up an entire team. If I can have the girls wrestling team, our Skyland Conference champions, please report up to the board president. I I don't think we have individual certificates for them, Joel. We're just recognizing them. I did want to take uh a moment to point out to everyone who does not know that although we've had girls wrestling with us for a couple of years now, this is the first year we had a full girls wrestling team. And to accomplish a conference championship in your first year is absolutely amazing, and we have some outstanding coaches along with us. You can give them a round of applause. Coach, would you like to Yeah, step up and either say a couple things about the season or about a a of
011your athletes, too. And I'll be pointing out a couple of them, as well. Sure. Yeah, and uh Mr. Volpe said most of it, too. Um it really is an outstanding accomplishment in our first season. Right, we've had a few girls the past few years who are still with us now who kind of helped build this team that what it's become now. Um but the accomplishments that these girls have gotten done this year has been short to, you know, or nothing short of amazing. Um can't thank the parents enough. Of course, parents in our community has always been amazing with our wrestling community. And of course, in its first year of inception, um thanks to the administration and teachers and Mr. Davis, who's not here, as well. Um all the support we've had on the back
012end. Thanks, everyone. If I could have your team stay there, too. Just have your team stay there because I want to recognize a few of your athletes in particular. And the first one I'd like to recognize is Maria Imhauser, who is a Skyland Conference champion, region champion, and third place at the wrestling championships. Also, I'd like to recognize Charli Tasamino, a district champion, seventh place at the wrestling champs, and 87 career wins. Coach, how many career wins did you have as a as a wrestler here for us? Uh 100 something? >> yeah. >> A few, okay. A few. But uh yeah, I mean, just to add to that, too, our first 75-win member of, you know, the female wrestling team. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. We also want to recognize Manali Brech, who was a district champion
013and took eighth place at the state championships. And finally, Kayla Cesariano, who was a Skyland Conference champion. Would any Would Would any of your girls like to say anything? Or no? Okay. Just wanted to give you the opportunity. Go ahead. Yeah, you can do it. You can do it. I just want to say thanks for um all the support from my coaches and my teammates, my friends, and my family. It really meant a lot to me, and it helped me It like it helped carry me through all the all the adversities throughout double sports. So, thank you. Absolutely. Congratulations. Okay. Thank you. >> One more thing to add real quick, too, just while Charli was up there. She's also going to be our first female wrestler wrestling in college next year from Muhlenberg University. All
014right, that's all I had. Congratulations on an amazing season, an amazing team, and we look forward to many more years of this. So, coaches, if you can stay there, and and ladies, if you can have a seat for right now. Congratulations again on a great season. And we do have some other wrestlers I'd like to bring to the podium, as well. So, if Nick Duwadi and Owen Miller can come up, please. Nick was our Somerset County champion, first team all Skyland Conference, district champion, region champion, fifth place at the NJSIAA championships. That was your seed, too, right? Wasn't five your seed? And 108 career wins. And Owen Miller was first team all Skyland Conference. Congratulations to both of you and what you've done for our wrestling program. And uh coach, again, I don't know if
015you'd like to speak about either of these young men, or if either of the young men would like to say a word or two. I just want to say I'm incredibly grateful to um my parents, my family, um my coaches, and everyone who allowed me to achieve this amazing opportunity. And that's all. So, uh thank you, everyone. I'm good. Thank you. Congratula- Oh, you want to say something, coach? Go ahead. No, okay. Congratulations on a great season. Next, I'd like to bring up our entire girls swim team. First, I'd like to point out, if you see on the the screen behind me, they have won the the NJSIAA Gold Scholar Team Award. That means the varsity girls average GPA was high, and it was an average of 3.866. So, thank you for what you're doing
016in the classroom, as well as the pool. They finished the year ranked number five by nj.com in the top 20. And I did I know this is going to be like sore. I did I was there at the Y when we uh were going against Bridgewater. I'm sorry to I'm sorry. But I just I wanted to bring that up for a particular reason. I couldn't stay the entire time cuz see, I'm old. And how loud your fans are, how they support you, how loud you are with each other, it kind of blew my eardrum. So, I know we were on the the short end of the the pool at that point, but it was amazing to see what you guys uh inspire, how your parents come out and support you, and what you what you
017do for each other. So, I would like the whole team to stay up there for a second cuz there are some of you that we do want to recognize, as well, for individuals. Um if you look at the the four there, we have Olivia K, Tammy Lang, uh Dylan Briones, and Emily Sudal. They were 200 free relay, third team all state, and first in the conference. 400 free relay, second team all state, and first in the conference. And Olivia was first team all conference in the 100 free. Uh Dylan was in uh first team all conference in the 200 individual medley. And Emily Sudal was first conference 200 free, and was also the Skyland Conference free female swimmer of the year. So, if you ladies could step forward and be recognized by the board president.
018And then, coaches, I'm either going to ask you guys or your your uh athletes to say a couple words about what this season meant, and maybe some of the the outstanding accomplishments which we seem to do in the pool year after year after year. It's okay. It's okay. Um thank you so much for the Hello. There you go. Thank you so much for everyone supporting our team, and like everyone on the team push each other, and like all the coaches trust us and give us all the opportunity. Thank you. Um I would just like to say thank you for recognizing us and our season. Although it didn't end the way we hoped, it's um a good start for next season, and we're very excited. So, thank you. Coaches, would you like to say anything, too?
019Well, first of all, uh to the Board of Ed and to our school administration, thank you again for this night. I know you mentioned it already earlier. We we do look forward to it, and I think it's a great thing uh to bring up our our student athletes and these accomplishments. And congrats to all the athletes who have been up here so far, and that will be coming up in a in a few minutes to be recognized. Um again, as a as a coach, I can't do it without uh some of the assistants who are also here tonight, and that's uh Coach Adele Morgan and Coach Jordan McChesney. So, they they do a lot of this uh to make it happen for both the boys and the girls swim team. So, as a head coach,
020I I'm very lucky to surround myself with the talent that we have on the coaching staff. And then, to the girls that are that are here tonight representing the team, um they had a fantastic season, and uh so many of them were not just the first team all conference awards, but even county champions that are standing up here, uh conference champions, as well. So, we were we had a a great season. Um we were very lucky, once again. So, thank you for again for the recognition. Thank you. I'm going to ask that the coaches stay, and and lady and ladies, you can have a seat. Thank you. Congratulations on a great season. And now, I'd ask our boys swim team to please come up and join your coaches. Now, coaches, as they're coming up here,
021I do want to note again that your boys swim team's not as smart as the girls team cuz I'm looking at their NJSIAA Gold Scholar Team Award, and their average GPA is only 3.79. But honestly, no, we know I'm joking cuz that's an amazing talent. And and thank you for the work that you do in the classroom, as well as the pool. And I want to make sure you We're not only finished the year ranked number four in the state, but correct me if I'm wrong, coach, back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back state sectional champions, six in a row. Congratulations to you and the team. Some of you don't know what it's like to lose. That is And that's probably a good thing right now. Um I'd like to point out some of your outstanding swimmers, as well. I'd like
022to point out Kevin Ward. Please step forward to the board president to for being first team all conference in the 200 free. John Yadich, who is first team all conference in the 500 free, setting a new school record, and was second team all state. And Gavin Grauser, Somerset County Scholar Athlete of the Year. And then, coaches, the same thing. If you'd like to or any of your boys would like to say a word or two. Uh Gavin is on a college visit, I believe, at Purdue University tonight. >> Well, he's the Scholar Athlete of the Year, so there you go. So, I just wanted to mention, yes, so that's where he is. Um So, for the for the boys team, uh yes, it it's not uh something that's easy to do, get to the sectional
023finals and you know, to to be able to to do that 6 years in a row and I think 13 overall in the past 25 years is pretty impressive and this year again, they made it to the state finals for the second year in a row, which is an accomplishment on itself. So much like the girls team very very proud of what these boys were were able to do this this season. We have quite a few like the girls and boys going off to swim some Division 1 schools and Division 3 schools next year and amongst these boys standing here are county champions and conference champions as well. So like I said, very very lucky as a coach and very very proud to to be able to do this year in and year out. So
024and thank you once again for recognizing everyone. Congratulations everyone. Thank you for all your efforts. Please if you want to say a word or two, please feel free. I was one of our swimmers Absolutely, please. I wanted to thank everybody on the team and our coaches for their commitment to inclusion over the past 4 years that I've been on the team. Thank you. I want to thank my teammates, my coaches, all of them pushed me to my limits, helped me break my record. So yeah, thank you to them. I just want to thank the coaches and all the boys behind me and I'm excited to bring home a state title next year. Thank you everyone for what you do in the pool and in the classroom. You make Hillsborough proud. Thank you. Next I would
025like to bring up our girls track and field team and any of the coaches who are here as well. Congratulations to our girls track and field team who's another dominant program throughout the county and the state. This year they were Skyland conference champions and NJSIAA Group 4 sectional champions and we have a couple of people we want to make sure that we point out specifically. Emma Stivits was NJSIAA National Women and Girls Sports recipient and Alexa Kling was Somerset County Athlete of the Year and NJSIAA Scholar Athlete of the Year. Congratulations. There's some other people we want to recognize before and and start thinking about what you want to say too cuz I talked to Coach Reefy and he was like, I don't know if I want to say anything. So I'm like so I'm
026sure one of your girls is going to say something. So the pressure's on right there. But you got a minute. Cuz we also want to recognize the 4 by 400 first team all Group 4 and first team all Somerset County. That's Luciana Damiano, Stella Martinez, Emma Byrd and Emma Stivits who was also second team all Group 4. Congratulations. Actually, we also have for track and field, Daniel, we'll get you up here too. We have Peyton Wallace who is first team all Somerset County and third team all Group 4 and Daniel Tobiac who's first team all Somerset County, second team all Group 4 and second team all state. Daniel, are you here too? Cuz I'd like to bring you up right now with the track team. Not here? Okay. That's okay. Congratulations on all your work.
027Now now Coach Reefy, would you like to say a couple things about any of your athletes or would any of your athletes like to come up and perhaps thank anyone like your coaches, your parents and your fellow teammates? Sure, thank you for the recognition. It's important to the kids that they get recognized for their efforts. I don't know if anybody knows, there's not many winter track facilities around here, so it's very tough. We go on the road often, usually over an hour and a half on a lot of weeknights. So thank you for recognizing their efforts. I want to thank the team. I feel honored to coach them. They're great runners, but they're even better people. I want to say thank you to Coach Reefy because he dedicates a lot of time to us and
028I know like speaking for all of us that it means a lot to us. So thank you to Coach Reefy. Oh, yeah. I want to say thank you to my parents, my coaches, my teammates and my teachers for helping me get this amazing accomplishment. I think it's amazing when we have so much to recognize during the course of one winter athletic season, but I want to make it clear, we couldn't list every single thing that everybody accomplished because there was so much. So we wanted to point out some of the highlights, but I also wanted to point out how well our students do in the classroom and Coach Reefy, I really think I I really resonated me with the thing that you had said right there is in Hillsborough, we don't just make good athletes,
029we don't just make good students. We have good people here as as individuals and I think that speaks volumes about what my staff and what my coaches do, just the kind of athletes that we produce and their characters. So congratulations to all of you winter athletes. I know some of you are in spring sports right now, so I'll see you back here for the spring the spring recognition and then congratulations everyone, give everybody one more round of applause if you could. And then I think Mr. President, you did want to take a a 5-minute recess just in case yes, in case anybody wasn't staying for the full board meeting that's going to continue after this. You have 5 minutes to chat and then sneak out and he'll be banging the gavel and we'll be continuing
030business in 5 minutes. Thank you. She's a dying hero. Yes. She's physically I can't for hours at So the bad news She's a candidate for the She can't ask me She can't get rid of her beautiful She can't I think he needs Yeah, but Lions engine I have any lions. >> rules. We very much welcome input from the public during board meetings. There will be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they are attending in person. There is a clipboard for all participants to write their name. Before commenting, please state your name and address. There is a 3-minute limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and
031answer sessions, but rather are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. In instances where the board believes that there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy, the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or asks a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note that the Open Public Meetings Act and the privacy rights of public employees encompassed therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. So, this is the public comment uh time and we we can begin with you. We are going to use some of the public comment time for our own board interactive comments. So, if you would like to speak prior to that, you're more than welcome to. Uh good evening, Thomas Zebelli,
032uh Upper Neshanic Court, Hillsborough. So, I'm here tonight because I was unable to make it last meeting and I I was I'm just hopeful that uh since we've not approved the tentative budget yet, that um some on the board may reconsider how they voted for the tentative budget last uh meeting. Um I think at some point and I've I've said this ad nauseam previously that um uh enough is enough in terms of uh you know, if the answer is to raise taxes every time the state decides to um unfairly go after towns like Hillsborough, um then you really are going to push more and more people out of this town, out of this state. Um and I think we need to do a better job of cultivating relationships with our assemblyman and senator. Um it's
033convenient how we only see them at certain points in time here. They'll come, they'll present a check here and there, or they'll say how great we are, and but in times like this, we don't ever really see them. And that's quite disappointing, and being that one lives here right in town. So, I think we need to do a better job of cultivating relationships. We need to do a better job as a community of uh working with the staff of the governor as well as the staff of these assemblymen, uh assemblymen, women, and our senator. Uh we also need to do a better job of just being aware of what's going on, and just just being willing to say enough is enough. And again, quite frankly, I just I'm kind of astonished that every time I
034turn around, it's like the only solution we seem to have is, well, we'll raise taxes. Well, um I don't know. At some point, maybe we need to send this out to voter referendum, not just when we want to thing want to uh see things be passed like the security and other things like this actually you know, when we're affecting raising taxes on folks, and it's and there's nothing whether you agree with what you know, something might happen or not, uh it's not like you're giving us any there's not there's really not a give and take, and I feel like at some point, I think it's only fair that we send this out to voter referendum, um and see where the chips fall. And I just hope and encourage folks on the board that voted in
035favor to maybe reconsider or to maybe I don't know, see about making it uh making uh it known to more of the community members or or really going out and asking those in the community what it's like to live in this state, or what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, or or whatnot. And uh hopefully we can see change here, but I'm not too hopeful, but I hope that maybe some may reconsider. Thank you. >> Good evening, Henry Gidney, Hillsborough Education Association as well as a Hillsborough resident and parent. Um I just want to correct the record on a couple of things. Um as as I understand it, I believe um last week a number of dignitaries, including local politicians like the assemblyperson, was present in the high school to greet um the Commissioner
036of Education and talk about critical issues impacting Hillsborough. So, I just think it's important to put that on the record because you know, there's work to be done. The formula is flawed, we need to fix the formula, and we need to make sure that our town is taken care of. But I want to make sure that we don't lose allies in that work, or that we don't recognize when allies are present with us for doing that work. And as you prepare to discuss the budget moving forward, I just think it's important to keep in mind what we just did. We just celebrated countless student athletes and scholars who are doing amazing things. That's part of the budget. That work does not exist without the support of the budget. And if we enter into a funding
037formula where we're flat, we're starting to undermine that work because we remember last year where there was consideration of cutting full sports programs at the middle school. And we can look to towns like Montclair that just eliminated their entire freshman sports because of budget issues and because of improper funding. We have the opportunity to fund responsibly. We have the opportunity through the budget that was presented to return 5.6 million or not spend that. So, we're saving 5.6 million, which is something no board has ever done before. You should be proud of that. But we should make sure that we're we're budgeting appropriately and safely for the future, and we have to strike that balance between surviving and thriving. We have a responsibility, every single person in here, whether you're a parent, an educator, a board
038member, whosoever, we have a responsibility to help these students thrive. And if we flatten a budget, we are not meeting that responsibility. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Omkar Bharadwaj, and we are the Hindu Student Congress. Over the past few months, our team has carefully reviewed the world history curriculum and we've observed a consistent pattern. While many civilizations are taught through the contributions and progress, Indian history and Hinduism is often presented with a more limited lens, with a strong focus on social structures such as the caste system. We respectfully request that the district apply consistent academic standards across all cultures, ensuring that history is presented in a balanced and comprehensive way. This will help ensure that students feel respected and that no one feels uncomfortable or misrepresented when talking about their heritage. The first
039issue is a significant timeline gap. The curriculum currently skips much of India's classical period. While we learn about the Renaissance, we miss the global origins of many of those same concepts, such as the decimal system and early medicine, which developed in India. We ask the board to begin addressing this gap so our history classes better connect with what we're learning in our STEM courses. The second issue is the materials. Many current curriculum sources put a greater emphasis on social structures with less attention to intellectual and philosophical contributions. We recommend integrating primary sources such as ancient texts on ethics and governance to provide a more complete picture. We have already gathered high-quality academic resources and are ready to share them to support teachers in making these updates. Uh the third area is alignment with state standards.
040Uh New Jersey's AAPI mandate requires the teaching of Asian American history. We believe that understanding the broader civilization roots of these communities is essential to fulfilling that mandate effectively. By strengthening these courses, Hillsborough can lead the state with a more complete and globally relevant perspective for all students. We appreciate the 2027 revision timeline and we also believe there are opportunities for meaningful interim improvements. Many current students may not benefit from those future updates, so we encourage the board to consider implementing changes such as incorporating primary sources before the next school year. This would allow students entering these classrooms in this September to benefit from a more balanced curriculum. All right, we have recently met with Dr. and Mrs. Baxter and we're ready to serve as student stakeholders to create these changes that we that we
041talked about. We're understand that these changes won't be made overnight and that we can't just do this immediately, but we're ready to roll up our sleeves and put the work in, provide the information needed so that we can bring these changes because the benefit is not just for Hindu students, it's for everyone that understands their culture, their heritage, how it connects to the world. To close, a former Hillsborough High School valedictorian, now at Stanford University, shared with us that while Hillsborough gave him a strong academic foundation, there's an opportunity to move forward toward a more complete and nuanced understanding of history. We're excited to work with the district on this effort. We would now like to invite uh parents and community leaders uh who have seen the impact of these gaps firsthand to share their
042perspectives. Thank you so much. Thank you. I would like just to offer a brief compliment to this group of young men who, even though there were six of you, you only went over the time limit by 10 seconds. Well done. Good evening, everybody. My name is Sri Krishnamurthy. I've been a Hillsborough resident for almost 30 years and I'm a parent of children in this district. I'm here to support thoughtful proposal presented by the Hindu Student Congress and I'm speaking as a parent and as well as a taxpayer. Like many parents here, we teach our students our children about our heritage and values at home and through many community programs as part of the development into well-rounded citizens with a global perspective. But at times, when they come home from school, we notice a gap, a
043mismatch between what is taught in class and a more complete understanding of our culture. When complex topics are presented without a broad broader context, it can unintentionally create a narrow picture. At the same time, important contributions across areas like mathematics, science, and philosophy are not always equally represented. As a parent, what matters most is how this affects our children. No child should feel hesitant or uncomfortable when speaking about their own heritage. Education should build confidence, curiosity, and mutual respect. We chose Hillsborough for its academic excellence and we continue to invest in that standard. To us, excellence also means accuracy and balance in the curriculum. We are not asking for special treatment, just accuracy and academic rigor. We appreciate the district's openness to student input in the upcoming review cycle and we look forward to supporting
044this effort as partners. Thank you all. Hello board Hello Board of Ed and the supervisor and the superintendent, Dr. Walpe. Um my name is Anuradha Raghuraman. I am at 1 Courier Road, Hillsborough. Um my kids went through the school system and I'm still the taxpayer of this of of this district. So, um my piece here is um I've been involved in getting raising awareness of Hinduism around in the in the society and in the school and I did come here a few times for Diwali holiday and from the time my son was in Hillsborough Elementary School, I volunteered to talk about our holidays and bringing awareness into our culture. And come seventh grade, I couldn't do that anymore because parent volunteer ship was very limited. And I'm proud to say that my son went to
045the social studies teacher and said I would like to talk about it and he did uh do a presentation on Hinduism in the seventh grade and the teacher really appreciated that he brought that to the class. But uh this may not be the case in every classroom in the seventh grade that a student comes and does and it should be responsibility of the school teachers and professionals who should be departing this education on the rest of the class. Putting so much of pressure on these kids to come and create a council, which I'm very very proud of these kids who who are doing it now. But we as you know, the school board and and and the and the grown-ups should put more effort into this to represent Hinduism and Indian history. There are some
046teachers here who are from Bal Vihar, that's where the some of the kids here go learn about it. They are like proper classes which with curriculum every year about every text, every scripture and what is the real value of it. And I have one person sitting here standing in front of Hindu Bharadwaj who does who's doing a phenomenal job this year teaching about introducing India to Indians. So, and I have other teachers who who talk about discovering yourself, like self-unfoldment class from the Hindu religion perspective. So, there is so much philosophical and history in our religion and in our country and the topic is so narrow that I remember my daughter also was mad when she came after the class because one whole week one whole week, five classes, they just talk on one topic,
047caste system. It's like talking about feudalism or or or or um the knights who went you know, about in another religion for a whole week. We have never heard about that in other religions, but this is being partially being you know, uh uh focused on one particular thing when the religion is much larger, the country is much larger, the culture is much larger. So, I really request that we all take proactive effort to get this fixed at the earliest and by the next year as the kids have asked. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your time. Hi, my name is Brittany Hamilton. I'm a Hillsborough resident, a treasurer of the HEA, and a social studies teacher at the middle school speaking as an individual. I want to speak tonight in strong support
048of the students from the Hindu Student Congress. It is a sign of a healthy school district when students advocate for a more inclusive and culturally responsive education. In the middle school, the students are right to point out the omission of the Mauryan and Gupta empires specifically. These eras represent a golden age of global significance and omitting them or oversimplifying Hindu culture through the sole lens of the caste system limits the perspective of all our students. To be clear, these gaps are largely a result of the shift a few years ago from a 180-day world history course to a 90-day model. At that time, many teachers expressed concern that cutting our world history instruction time in half would force the removal of vital historical content. We are seeing just one real-world impact of those cuts tonight.
049Any major changes should always be revisited to ensure they are having the intended impact. These students' concerns raise an unintended consequence of this decision. I welcome the students' suggestions and look forward to the professional development and curriculum revisions that will hopefully allow us to represent Hindu culture with the depth and accuracy it deserves. Thank you. Good evening. Um, I I don't live in Hillsborough. I live in one of the neighboring towns in Bridgewater. And I'm a volunteer teacher. Yeah, some of some of the parents mentioned an Indian school in Branchburg. So, we have a Sunday school. Uh, we focus on values and service. And of course, it's in school. Most of the students are Indian and we cover topics in Hinduism. Uh, my name is N.K. Shankar. I have been, you know, a researcher or
050an educator most of my life. And I have had um, I want to bring the perspective that I have have observed many high school students over the past 10 years. And undergraduate and graduate students at Rutgers University. And I see the difference it makes when someone has a well-rounded perspective and appreciates different cultures. And the reason I'm here is I I know some of the kids here. And I said, "Well, we're going to talk to the Board of Ed, I'll be there." It takes courage to come and make a statement like that. Um, this topic about curriculum and representing Indian culture and Hinduism has been going on in many school districts in the US. I'm thrilled I'm thrilled those students are bringing it up and that the board is uh, giving them an audience and
051the teachers are supporting it. So, I encourage them the school district to work with the students. And it'll just make the community richer. And we we see nuanced perspective about different aspects of the culture and history. And if that spreads to the the greater population, everybody will benefit. Thank you. Thank you. SORRY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, SIR. NAMASTE, EVERYBODY. Respectable Mr. Volpe, Superintendent, respectable board members, Mr. President, and everybody here. You heard about students today. You heard about parents. I live in Hillsborough 1997. My wife been through school here to the 12th grade. My son born in here. He went to 12th grade, also. I'm Vivek Rao. I'm a part of lot of com- community events as well as committees. The interfaith committee in Hillsborough, I'm part of that members. Over the years, this is
052what you're listening today. Mr. Superintendent, this is a voice. When my son was in school, one day he come with crying. The teacher, I don't want to give a name, he said, "Papa, you're telling me the holy river name is Ganga." And teacher was drilling the word in his mind, "Ganges." Really? And my son says, "Papa, we have so much caste. We have so much God. What do you mean tell that five or six-year-old boy? This is curriculum doing over the years across the New Jersey, not Hillsborough. Hillsborough still respectable for our culture. I know wherever I go, Mr. Volpe, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Everybody who's willing to help us. But guess what? When they're drilling in a young mind, we only focus on casting system. India has a casting system. We have so much God.
053We have so much language. We have so much food. So what? Which country don't have a casting system? You name it, I'll give you caste. Everybody has caste systems. But why the Hillsborough or across the New Jersey and other states is only feeding our new brain, new mind, only casting system? They talk about traffic. They talk about our dirtiness. They talk about dirty people. They talk about un-educational. Sir, to be honest with you, India is not real name. Indian name is Bharat. We master in tolerance. They tre- They change our country name. We adapted. The India has the most fertilized religious base there more than any other country. Yet, we respect everybody. None of this kid un-respect everybody. We teach Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Atithi Devo Bhava. Everybody is one family. Whoever come to our house, they
054are our guest. But this is the voice. This is beginning. Five more seconds. From here, I want to tell our new governor, also, please focus on curriculum in school. They're teaching wrong way, which is every country has. India provide more doctor, more lawyers, more business people, more scientists. Everybody in US, more IT people, mathematics master, spelling bee. We are the number one. Yet, you're talking about our kids only casting system? Thank you for hearing. Thank you. Namaste, all. Thank you very much. If there are no more comments uh, from the audience, I would like to open this time for discussion among the board about uh, budget items and where we're going in the future. Uh, I will allow myself the privilege of reading a statement. This is from uh, an email that I sent to
055the board members earlier today. This is my own statement. This is not a board statement per se. Um, but it is my own personal statement. And it says uh, in the statement that we'll have this discussion tonight. And as follows. There is a reason why the process allows for a vote on a proposed budget with a final budget to be voted on at some point later. The reason is to allow for evaluation, review, and reconsideration before there is a final vote. Let's take advantage of that. Speaking personally, I regret my vote to approve the 2% levy suggested in the proposed budget. I voted yes. And the more I think about it, the more I regret my vote because it deprived the board of the opportunity to review the proposed budget more deeply at that time.
056I believe had I voted no on the proposed 2% levy, we could have discussed alternatives more thoroughly, including a 0% option or even a 1% compromise or or something. Mr. Volpe sent out a questionnaire by email to the board members regarding specific budget proposals, specific budget line items, to which all of the board members have responded. And I will touch upon that in a moment or two. Interestingly, most of the items on that list and and this voting, if you will, is really just an opinion survey, was anonymous from the point of view of the individual board members. They did not know how anyone else was commenting. Uh, and yet most of the items on that list were approved. But many of the items on that list were approved by a similar 5 to 4,
0576 to 3. There were There were only a small handful of items on the list that really were approved unanimously, but they were really obligatory items, like position changes and so on. Uh nevertheless, as Mr. Volpe has previously indicated, approving or disapproving certain budget proposals does not in and suggest agreeing on what the suggested tax levy is. We can still discuss that. The enormous increase in the tax levy approved last year by the board at that time was made in good conscience and in good faith. Each member who voted yes on that tax increase did so for the good of the schools and the kids. Yet the town is reeling. Many people are affected emotionally by the state of affairs. Last year I was a no vote. I didn't vote for that large increase. And
058even though I voted no last year, I held out hope that by imposing that huge tax increase would result in Hillsborough's state funding seeing some improvement. You know, there were some things banded about about paying our fair share and filling out the formula. So perhaps that huge increase last year would get us on an even keel with the state, I thought. This year I see, in my opinion, my words, I see that we have been betrayed again with a $500,000 cut in state funding. So I've laid down my hope. There's There's no hope with the state. But it is my hope that by opening the discussion prior to the final vote on April 30th, by considering adjustments or even defending the levy that has been approved, whatever the individual opinions are, I want to and
059I believe we are displaying to the community that the board recognizes the gravity of these decisions. Nothing can be voted on this evening that is actually binding. The The binding vote on the budget will take place on April 30th. But in the meantime, if there are serious questions, and if there begins to develop a consensus to suggest a change, we will be informing Mr. Volpe and Mr. Eckert ahead of time so that appropriate provisions can be made. Because the proposed budget was approved in order to amend that, if that were to end up being the desire of the board, notwithstanding any individual feelings. Uh There's a legal process that the township would need to go through, primarily getting the permission from the county superintendent, and even determining what the appropriate legal procedure would be. But
060that's really just If you will, that's just a detail. That's not an impediment. If some change were to be recommended by the board prior to April 30th, uh appropriate actions can be taken to make that an actual change. This survey that had been issued to the board, and now again, this was issued, if you will, anonymously. No board member knew who how anyone else was voting. And there are a few items that were on this list that uh were only three items that were, if you will, disapproved. Many of the items on this list, in this blind survey, were approved, but by very narrow margins. I'm going to read the list uh without going into a lot of detail, but just to give you an idea of the kinds of conversations that go on. These
061are some of the things Mr. Volpe and the administration are proposing for the new budget. That would include uh a K to 6 literacy supervisor. So why do we need supervisors? The teachers in essence need oversight. They need supervision, direction, and uh counsel. Some of our supervisors now, I think one of them is overseeing 150 teachers, plus or minus. Hence the the need for bringing on an additional supervisor. We also there's a proposal for a K to 6 math supervisor. Uh a proposal for uh Hillsborough Middle School an additional Hillsborough Middle School building monitor. A proposal for Aris building monitor. A proposal for Aris autism teacher and two aides. Seven kindergarten teachers. In the original proposal, Mr. Volpe was proposing 12 kindergarten teachers in anticipation of the burden imposed by all-day kindergarten. Mr. Volpe has
062whittled that down to seven in terms of immediate need. 10 lunch aides. But there are independent proposals for each of the additional five kindergarten teachers. And the board, in various combinations, voted to bring some on and and to not bring them all on. A special services administration assistant changing from 10 months to 12 months. That's just an administrative change. A nursing clerk becoming a secretary. An automated license plate reading system, which is a security measure at the high school. A weapons detection system for, I guess, the high school. Right? No, for the whole district? Was the automated license plate reading for the whole district? High school, middle school, and Auten Road School. Okay. Thank you. Upgrades to the security cameras. Uh AMS exterior door swipe access locking system. Hillsborough Elementary School exterior speaker in the
063back of the building. Hillsborough High School football field pole barn lock access. Better security. Hillsborough High School football field house swipe access. Hillsborough High School football field concession stand. Swipe access lock upgrade. The transportation and maintenance facility, which has been discussed here. And then upgrade to the Hillsborough Middle School uh family and Right, family and consumer science. We used to call that home ec. When When I was a boy. Right? Uh That's a significant list. And uh the the big item on that list is the transportation and maintenance facility, which is estimated at $7 million. That's That's just the a parameter. It's There's no final quotes or anything like that. If we were to discuss changing the levy that was approved as part of the uh proposed budget. Some of the items on this list
064Mr. Eckert advises me some of the items on this list would have to be whittled down in order to accommodate the change in proposed income. Which just makes sense. There's lots of different emotions. There's lots of different feelings. There is no argument that the more we can spend and not just haphazardly and not just indulgently the athletes we had up here tonight are a remarkable testimony to our program the good job of the coaches. So, no one is suggesting that there's indulgence or overindulgence or any of those kinds of things. But as some people have said, there is a point at which any household, any economy any given family has to make tough decisions and find out how to balance what would be the best with what we can afford. I've read somewhere and this
065is I have no idea if this is still true but years and years ago, after much analysis, it was pointed out that the least expensive automobile to operate over a lifetime is a Rolls-Royce. That's because they last so long and they're built so well that the cost per mile is lower than anything else. That might be antiquated, but but you get the point. At some point, you say, "Well, I'm sorry, but I can't spend $500,000 on a Rolls-Royce so that over the next 80 years I can save 2 cents a mile." And we've all been Not I can't say we all. I've I've been hearing from neighbors and you know, I'm one of those neighbors actually. Personally, I'm I'm willing to lay aside my personal situation for the good of the community. But I'm one
066of those folks that's on a fixed income. I'm technically retired, although I still do things. And my income isn't going up. And the increase I'm experiencing from last year's tax increase is substantial. Uh I do not live in a large house in a fancy community. And even though a 2% increase might only come to 40 bucks a month or you know, what whatever it comes down to for me I'm already at the point where it it has had an impact and a substantial impact. And there's a lot of people who are in that position. So, I would like this board to take the opportunity to do that balancing that was mentioned at the podium. We can see good results. Nobody is suggesting that that the programs at work here in Hillsborough and the people who
067are on staff, the coaches, the teachers aren't doing their best or giving their best and going beyond their best. If we were to determine that we could cut back on the levy even though it might seem like only nickels and dimes in general, I think there would be a tremendous emotional uh benefit in terms of the community and in terms of our relationship with the community. Through what lens we are viewed. So, that's my opening statement. There you go. That and two bucks will get me a cup of coffee. Not anymore. Not anymore. That's right. That expression used to be that and a dime will get you a cup of coffee. Are there any comments or ideas, suggestions? Mr. Arenkrantz, thank you. Yes. Um I would like to address the the Home Ec room renovation.
068Um the Home Ec room renovation. Yeah. No, that's 750,000. Yeah, it's it's earmarked for 750,000. Uh I I went and uh visited the site. It's a big room, 50 by 100. And essentially, they want to get rid of the the sewing department and double the size of the of the kitchen facility. At least that's what the uh the principal told me. Um what I have not seen is any plans. I see no plans. I see no architecturals. I see no estimates. It may be a good idea. But I I can't green-light 3/4 of a million dollars for something that I is not in front of me. And if, you know, the the board wants to present these details, I'm certainly willing to to consider that at a future time. But right now, it's 3/4 of
069a million dollars is a lot of money based on no evidence. So, I would vote against the Home Ec at this time. Mhm. There are three items on the list that in this anonymous survey nobody knew how anyone else voted. There were three items on the list that were not approved for lack of a better word. Um and those three items uh came to about $300,000, if you will. If, for example the family upgrade for the Home Ec class were to be postponed for a year, say. That would be 750,000. And as you say, Mr. Arenkrantz, we have no idea how much it actually would cost. It may be substantially less than that. This is just a budget number. But if we were to say, "Let's hold off on that." That would be a At
070that point would be a savings of about a million 50. Can I Mr. Eckert? Yep. The the thing that I wanted to to bring to your attention and you know, we collaboratively came up with that list that we wanted to put out. >> Yeah. The family consumer science room, I understand that we don't have any plans yet, but that's going to be relevant to what I'm about to say. Last year, when the board decided to go through with the tax levy incentive uh in about 10 days' time, I had to come up with what were we going to do with those funds if we had them. So, we decided to put a lot of money into non-recurring expenses into this year's budget. And anything that we didn't have uh that was able to be spent
071out of cap reserve um will be going into cap reserve next year. So, I just want to be very clear that if the board decides not to go with the budgeted amount, you're right, we don't know how much it is. That is currently in cap reserve. So, we are not going to be reducing the tax levy by not funding that project. We would not fund that project and have that additional 750,000 dollars in cap reserve for something else that the board is willing to spend that on. Um that and and partially with the transportation facility, too, Mr. Eckert. Is that correct? Thinking about 5 million that's in cap reserve? >> That's correct. Mhm. So, that you could reduce 2 million. So, the board can fund what it wants. The board can spend what it wants.
072I just want to make it clear that that one particular item is not going to reduce the tax levy. >> Sure. You would just be putting that somewhere else. So, we would ultimately we would need more information to identify what would have an impact on uh the levy and what would not. The thing is as far as as far as the levy at the list that you're looking at that we put together, the only two capital uh projects on there are the FACS room and uh 5 million from that 7 million dollars for transportation facility. Right. So, there's another two million dollars that is being budgeted, correct Mr. Record, in the transportation facility. And everything else you mentioned on that list could be something that is reducing the tax levy. I didn't want to interfere
073with the board's discussion. I just wanted to make that clear. >> do. Mr. Record, did I say anything incorrectly there? No, you covered everything I was going to say. May May I clarify something? So Ms. Jackson. So the two million over the five million for transportation, this is what I was going to try to clarify in going through this. Is that part of the levy? The two million would be part of the levy. >> It's part of all the all of our funding. So you know, you could say it's part of levy, part state aid. That really doesn't matter what you classify, but it's money that if you chose to reduce that, yes, that could be reduced from the levy. Question of So at 2% I believe the projected revenue would be 2.9 million at
0742%. So for example, if therefore if we wanted to reduce the levy to 1% in a sense having the tail wag the dog why reduce the levy? Well, because of the pain that we're hearing from the town. Even though it wouldn't be hundreds of dollars for each person. But if we wanted to reduce the levy to 1% we would need to find a million five or a million 450 from this list. Is that correct? You could really you can find it from anywhere. Um this wasn't the you know, we have many many line items when we had uh come up with that. That was a list of items that seemed to have been tangible things that the board could could grab onto. But you can honestly, if you're talking about reducing, you can reduce from
075anywhere. Uh we'll we'll make it we'll have to make it work. That's what we do. You guys vote on the budget, tell us what the budget is, and we execute based on that. So this is I don't think we could have put together like 10,000 lines for everybody to go through. >> Absolutely. So we put some bigger ticket things on there. We put some tangible things that people understand as far as staffing, some security things. Some And all of these things I think um are are being added. So that was one thing that we wanted to focus on, too. And what are some of the things that are being added from here? Right. Example, you could, I'm not suggesting this, you could decide, "Hey, we're not teaching first grade next year." We're I know you
076can't really do that, but you could eliminate all of first grade, and there's savings found there. But we didn't want I didn't want to give too many options of things that are currently existing, but you certainly could look at things that are currently existing, too. >> me, I think I mean part of the struggle is could we reduce the levy uh without doing something like that? Are there things that are being proposed to be added that well, maybe they could be postponed, you know, like the the new car. Well, we'll have to wait on next year for that new car. Ms. Jackson. I I guess I'm I'm I'm having a a little issue little issue following this. So the total levy was 2.9 million at the at 2%. And then this is a list of
077options. This This is list I'm sorry to cut you off. I'm just trying to understand. Does this list constitute 2.9 million dollars? I honestly don't I didn't add them all up there. I don't believe so. I don't think so. >> Cuz I think, you know, we have seven million dollars for the transportation facility. Two million of that's out of this budget. So you're already over 2. whatever million pretty easily. There's much more than 2.8 million here. Some of the items on this list are arguably non-negotiable. You know, the seven kindergarten teachers. Right. Understood and Okay. So this entire list is over the 2.9 million. So I'm try I'm trying to figure out how to ask a question here or make a comment, but um I found it terribly confusing. Okay, because it was a yes
078or no. It was an all or nothing Um and I I think it it doesn't for me necessarily say for that 2.9 million what were considered the priorities for the budget. And I think that probably would have been an easier way to comprehend at least for me what was being asked of within that levy. Um And I find some things on this list um you know I I am not comfortable hiring more than the number of kindergarten teachers we need. I understand what you're trying to do. But by the same token, I don't find it a balance in the best interest of people's tax money. It's just it's um to me excessive. Because we really shouldn't be going beyond what we need. Especially considering we we get defined it by the state. And there's no
079money that seems to be coming anytime soon. So um I guess I I I struggled with it because it was just a yes or no, but it did not necessarily reflect what the priorities were for the district, and it didn't reflect coming up to that 2.9 uh million dollar levy. So I'm not sure what our next steps are, but um Okay. >> I I personally would like to see some more clarity. Okay. Ms. Stats. I have I have a lot to say here. First of all, I I took this as um being an opportunity for us even to go beyond uh what would equal up to a 2.9 million dollars. And I think there um previously uh we were there was a distinction between what would was be what was beyond a 0%. Uh there
080was a set of items that constituted Am I correct, Mr. Wolpe, that that you would submit to us previously? They're in in my opinion, yes. However, I just wanted like one thing that I've always said, once once it's here, it's it becomes the board members' budget. So while you're saying that, yes, but you guys may have different opinions as to what's a priority and what's not. Right. That And that's I guess that's sort of my point. I do appreciate that there's this longer list that's certainly more than adding up to 2.9 million to give us the the latitude. >> was the president that was Mr. Davis's intent in in crafting this list, yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Um but even that um See on the one hand, yes, I did vote uh against
081the 2%. But where I want to come from is where are our needs? And um I still think uh our highest priority is to reduce class sizes with uh quite a few that are too high. Um in 2019 we raised the maximum for the elementary school class sizes. So yes, maybe with the new maximum they're below that. But they're they're still too high and as far as what's best for the students. I'm not sure though if there will be any room for them when when we're adding these kindergarten classes. But there's definitely uh class sizes that are much too high in the other buildings um that I'd like us to consider reducing those um beyond whatever the um focused on for the kindergarten classes. Um I am still against uh the seven million dollar transportation
082complex. I think we can upgrade the current uh facility at Bloomingdale, and there's even room to expand it. Uh that I've heard different amounts for that. I don't I don't I don't think there's been any specific architectural plan, but I I ranging from four to five million. Um but no matter what, whether we um upgrade Bloomingdale, don't upgrade it, or uh have a new transportation complex at Aris, which would take a couple years. There's a mechanic there that works and has to work outside. Because I think the uh the bays are were meant for uh the smaller buses. So that's And so they're they're working in really not so great conditions when the weather is bad. So I think for their health and safety, that should be a priority as as quickly as possible. As
083much as that could be annoying um too bad. I mean uh this is someone who's uh a staff member that I think we should watch out for. Um And going off the map, um there are things that I would like to add that could be accommodated. Um especially uh if we did not have that seven Oh, I another um value was 7.7 million. But whatever that amount is, um we could uh save there. But, I also worry about, um, that we're funding whether or not we're funding things equitably. Um, the Robo Raiders have a lot of expenses, um, like they have to lease a place, um, offsite. Um, they have to pay a lot of registration fees. I think, um, the students pay a dues of some sort. So, if we can, uh, provide some
084more funding. Yes, they do get some grants, but it doesn't, uh, satisfy all their their, uh, expenses. Um, and also we have to pay for supplies. And also, um, as was discussed at the Municipal Alliance, um, how the vape detectors can be very valuable. Um, I I I saw that they're, um, investigating that at the middle school. Um, but other districts, uh, say that they have seen a change and, uh, it has been a deterrent. And, uh, vaping is a serious issue, um, that has been observed by our district as well as, uh, other people. And for the sake uh, for the health of our students, I think it's very important. Um, now, having said all that, um, Mr. Bobe, could you please remind us we're not we are not using the healthcare waiver, right?
085And how much is that? Yeah, the the healthcare waiver was 5.6 million, Andrew. Is that about right? 5. About 5.7 million. About 5.7 million. Yes, so you have the taxing authority to to raise an additional 5.7 million you have. >> Which in the past, when we've had that opportunity, we have done that, right? I I believe for for a long time, yes. >> Right. So, I I I mean, I think it's I think we need to emphasize that at least we didn't use that. Cuz that's a significant amount of money Mhm. that we did not, uh, have as an additional burden on the on our taxpayers. Now, having said that, um, yes, the increase this year, especially compared to last year, is is smaller, but um, there's a saying, um, uh, you know, that's the
086straw that broke the camel's back. Back. But, sometimes that last straw isn't necessarily a heavy one. It's just the one that really is the one that really, uh, puts people over the edge. So, I I I want us to look at this with several lenses, you know, for the sake of, um, uh, people who are really, uh, stretched thin, our our residents, um, but also without hurting our students. Um, and I think that can both be done. Uh, that we can accommodate and do what's best for our students. And also to the future by if we do have a less than 2% uh, increase to the tax levy, um, we can, uh, have residents that may be more amenable to approving a referendum in the future for perhaps a new high school. Thank you. Thank
087you very much. Mr. Aaron Krantz. This isn't a big budget item, but I find it exceptionally creepy, and that's the weapons detection system. Weapons detection. I would if, um, we're going to speak about anything security, I'm okay with everybody expressing their opinion. I prefer not to go into details about anything security related in public and and discuss that further in committee. I wouldn't want to wouldn't want to expose practices and procedures and that kind of thing. >> I think it's fair to talk about the price. It's fair to talk about what you like. I just don't You're going to ask me for specific details, what does it do, what does it not do. I don't want to put that information out there. >> Well, it just strikes me as very 1984. And that's what that's
088my objection. Mhm. Well, and that system, as I understand it, it's not a one-time cost. Yeah, it's a recurring expense. It's a recurring expense, because there's >> still have to pay for it this year, next year, and every year thereafter. That's correct. If it was one and done, okay, but it's not. Mhm. Ms. Nurse. I keep coming back to what am I representing up here? Um, I am a taxpayer. Um, I understand the needs of the taxpayers. I'm a taxpayer who has had to adjust my budget because, uh, the increase in taxes and everything else, because everything is going up exponentially, um, unfortunately. But, when I I just come back and I know that many people have heard me say it over and over again. I am a board of education representative. My I feel
089that my duty is to make the schools as best as they can be. And that is my duty to the community as well. That is the promise that I made. I look at this list and, you know, in reality, unless we had our whole binder here, right, of every single thing that was in the budget, it's really hard to say what we can and can't cut right now. My understanding or my I'm thinking that these things are on the list, if you and please let me know, is because they are the new things that we are Mhm. hoping for for the district. Is that correct? Okay. So, and when I look at this, all I see is safety, staff development, teachers, and a functional transportation and maintenance facility. And and I have to say, like
090some other people, might we really need to invest $7 million there, but when I heard the reality of the conditions there, um, and what we can't do because of that, and the other problems that it has in trying to make that building better as opposed to just having a facility that can handle what we need at this point. Um, I I don't see We can debate whether only seven kindergarten teachers versus if we had the ability, you know, I don't want us to go backwards into, uh, what can we get to make do? And I I feel that that's where we might be going and it scares me. Um, we made hard decisions in the past. They were hard decisions. Like I said, you know, the people who voted yes last year are also dealing
091with those hard decisions and those the financial ramifications because of that. But, as mentioned before, we didn't take the healthcare waiver. And in any other year, if we didn't have to do what we did last year, right, 2% is is the norm. 2% allows us to function in next year's prices, really. And offers, I think, very little else. I I mean, I could be wrong with that statement. No, 2 2% it it helps you function. It doesn't It doesn't 2% does not cover all the salary increases, healthcare increases, and any other increases, if that's what you're asking. >> Yes, that's what I'm saying. It does not cover that. So, if this wasn't on the and I I might be assuming wrong, but my assumption would be this would not This would be a non-issue if
092last year didn't happen. And like I said, you know, there's differences. For me, I guess I'm for me, I'm also in a different situation because I live it. I live this every day. And we have what I feel is very good leadership. Okay, that has brought us some stabil- stability here. And what I'm looking for is, are they asking for anything crazy? No. Do we have the ability to be at the forefront of a couple things that were mostly safety? Yes, and that's exciting, because years ago, we talked about the need for safety. I continue to think it's you know, a priority that we send our kids to safe schools. Um, if we can be a leader, that's to me even even better. Um, would I be willing to swipe out something so the robotics
093can have a storage space? I'd be willing to to talk about that. You know, I have questions about, you know, some of the more, uh, new new word security systems here. But, in terms, you know, very few people, I think, really understand unless you're in those buildings every day. I rely on professional development to make me better each year. And and I'm saying that as a person with 29 years of experience, knowing that I can still do better if I have the support that I need. And I look towards my supervisors for that support. Um, we don't have enough people in the supervisor role, and I joke about this, but it is true. If you saw my reactions in other districts about what they're asking for or how many supervisors they have, you know, it's
094a big joke. But, here, it is so sparse. And I've asked that question for years. So, to me, it is exciting that we can finally give the teachers at these levels, these K to 6 teachers, the support that they need. Now we talk about the building monitors, this new advanced technology for safety. Those are wins as far as I'm concerned. Miss Stott, if I'm allowed to say, brought up about needing more teachers so we can really reduce class sizes. So if we have the ability to bring three or four extra teachers on because we don't need them all for kindergarten, we still need them. We have done without for a very long time. Um so if we are in a situation where we don't have to just get by that is really where I hope
095that we go. Um you know, there's things that we have to we can't say no to special education needs. That's that's a have to. And then we're back to more safety things. So when I look at this I put my trust in Mr. Volpe and Mr. Eckert who I think do a phenomenal job along with the other leadership here. And living this life for 29 years, I do not think anything is in excess. Um and to continue on that trajectory of stability I think would be a very big mistake if we did anything less than 2% because I do worry, right? Yes, we could save I don't even remember. I think at one point somebody's example was $97 for the year. I think if I'm remembering correctly. Yes, okay. Something. About that. And I know
096that $97 means a lot of different things, but if I have to say, you know, if I have to sit up here and say I'm sorry I can't give you $97 back but I can really really hope that this will not make me come knock on your door and ask for $2,000 in a year or two because now we're going to go back and if we go from 2% to 1%, well now I have a a bank. Now I have that 1% from somewhere else and if we continue to, you know, I want to stop the the spikes. I think we we need to stop the the peaks here and I think the most that we can do as a board to help stabilize is to continue to build what we need to so we
097don't have to go dive deeper into to pockets. Can I can I have one point of clarification because I even know that that I'd heard something to people saying, oh this is misleading, that's misleading and we're just talking facts. What was being referenced here about the 94 or the $97, I want to make just very clear that that's the difference between zero and 2%. Yeah, not that there's any ill intent. That Mr. Eckert's analysis last time showed I believe the average house the taxes are going up about $800 and then if the board decides between that zero and 2%, there's that differential of that $90. So I don't want anybody walking away from here saying taxes next year are only going up $90. No. The $90 number is the difference between 0% and and 2%.
098Thank you, Mr. Volpe. And this is really just open conversation at this point. I would like to just share something briefly um along the lines of wanting to have stability and not having to come back in two years and do another 2% or another 8% or whatever it is. And another common lament that I hear not just in my neighborhood but all about is on the on the other side of the township is the issue of home assessments and and the homes are assessed every year and it's up up up up up, you know. Uh I live in a home now that I could not afford to buy. Uh but in speaking with someone and this again is off the record, not quoting anyone but uh why don't we forego assessing the houses every year?
099Why don't we just take do every five years or whatever like that just so it isn't this constant thing. And the comment was along the lines of, well then that way we avoid big swings. We just raise everybody's taxes a little bit every year. We stay stable and if we were to not do the assessments every year, well then we'd have to catch up every five years and so it's the same argument of well we have to do it all the time. We're really doing it to save you from big swings and big hits and uh and it looks good on paper and I you know, but at some point, I don't know. Mr. Aaron Krantz. Yeah, I wanted to address the the issue of safety. Um I reviewed a presentation from Mr. Volpe on
100a very robust enhancements to our security. It was very impressive and if I'm not mistaken, you actually got national recognition for it. Correct? Yes. Okay. So when it comes to safety, that's one of those issues where when is it enough? We could have drones overhead 20 24/7. We could have a 10-ft wall around all the all the properties. We could have a cop in every classroom. When is it sufficient? Mhm. Can I I was happy, I'm sorry. I was happy to discuss >> to that if I'm correct weren't the suggestions from at the recommendation of the uh security supervisor, the head that there were these were needed? The the the items that made it into the security budget which you do see from me were the recommendations of Dave Stoko, our security director who's been,
101you know, constantly assessing since we've been here. Um so that's how they got in there, yes. By the way, as a complete side note, I was happy to be part of the meeting on Friday with the new Commissioner of Education and we toured the high school and there were several students that were part of the party that were escorting folks around. And I actually I asked them just from myself how do you feel about the security? About the security monitors being in the building. Uh and there was three young ladies so I this is not an exhaustive survey. But they were all very positive. Uh they felt safer. They felt that the hall monitors or the security monitors that are at the high school were positive influence, were friendly uh and really helped to improve
102the situation. That doesn't mean more is better. You know, but it does mean that those that are there now are being very helpful. If we were to decide to reduce the levy um basically we would want to find 1.5 million if we were going to reduce it to 1% instead of 2% and someone might say, well you're talking 50 cents instead of 75 cents. Uh but I believe that there's an emotional component. Sometimes symbolism matters. Um and if we wanted to do that we'd have to find a way to come to that agreement among ourselves. Majority rules. Right? And so five people want to do that or four five people don't want to do that. Uh that matters. But I really do appreciate uh your responses to the survey that Mr. Volpe sent out. I
103found it very enlightening. And I appreciate the range of views on these things because what is apparent to me and I hope to the community is that there is a love for the schools and a love for the kids and a desire to make sure that what we deliver for them is uh beyond adequate. So Miss Nurse. >> I just have a question because we you know, our next meeting, I know we have committee meetings, right? Most committees are all are all committees meeting now? Okay. So everybody has at least one committee meeting and then we're back here. Right? We voted yes to 2%. Correct. >> People have all different feelings, you know, as you stated in your reflection. So I'm just wondering what the process is going to look like at our next board
104meeting because we already voted yes. So does that mean what is what does that mean for us? >> I comment? >> Mr. Eckert, like On April 30th, when we are presented with the budget, the final form of the budget, we will vote on the budget. And if the vote is five to four or some majority number, the budget passes and we all go home. If the budget is voted down, if it's five against, we could then embark upon conversations and negotiations and those types of things to figure out where we wanted to land. If we were to determine uh that we would want to land, let's say 1%. I'm just pulling that out of the air. If we wanted to be there, Mr. Eckert, according to what I asked him previously, Mr. Eckert would need
105to contact the county superintendent to find out what the actual procedure would be to execute that change. Um Does that answer it? >> Uh mostly yes. The generally I would add is is if it gets to the point that the budget is changed from the tentative, anything that is changed must be stated at like during the public hearing on the budget, which is the 30th. Um so that way it's clearly clearly reflected in the minutes. It would need to be as Mr. Davis had stated earlier, um not just here's a revenue number, we would also need to give corresponding cuts, things items that would be cut because Andrew and I would then need to submit by by the line item what's being reduced and send that to the county office as part of our final
106budget submission. So does that mean just because I've I've I've I've I've never I mean I think I can look around and say I'm actually one of the the older people on this board now, um which isn't too old. I think this is only my second term, right? So I don't know how many of you have >> Experienced. Experienced, yes. How about how many people have been through where we are right now? Does that mean these are things on the list that we, you know, wanted to see added, but there's a whole binder full of stuff that's already in there. Like how are people wading through this? Like I I just want to be prepared for discussions and what I should be bringing. I mean, because that's a lot of pages. I don't know how
107many pages that that May I ask a question of you? So what if um a company of Gremlins could be enlisted between now and the next meeting to aggregate uh information that might delineate choice A and choice B and here are the implications that could be provided to you prior to April 30th? I guess my question would be who are those Gremlins, right? >> Yes. And and I Listen, the binder's big, so somebody I mean I'm going to be very transparent. It's going to I I mean I am a hard to present to, right? Um so I don't like the situation we're in, but people who are not are hard the other way. I probably also don't like the situation we're in. So even if we had choice one, choice two, choice three, there's about
10810 million things there that people have all different, you know, if I I hope I'm not misspeaking, but I believe Miss Stats last time said that if there were different things, it might mean have a different meaning for her. I'm so sorry if I'm misspeaking. Did I understand that correctly? I'm not sure what you mean. >> Sure, like if there were, you know, you I believe I'm not supposed to do this. Okay. If um there were if teachers' positions were a priority and there were more or more student impact on this, you might feel different about 1% versus 2% versus 0%. Did I hear that correctly or misunderstand what you were saying? Yeah, I I am coming from what uh best affects the students. Um and let's say we're definitely doing 2%. That doesn't mean
109I like what's in it. Like I propose some some things that I I would want to be in there. Now even with 2%, that would mean something would have to be taken out. >> Yes. Yes. So I I think what you're trying to say, Miss Nurse, is not only in Jerry, please correct me if I'm wrong. Not only would you need to come with the corresponding number you want to reduce the levy by, you have to agree on what's being reduced and or added. So you could all agree on reducing by X amount, but you want that out and you want that out and you want this and you So there when you said there are infinite possibilities, there there really are. You will need to find five people to coalesce on a budget number
110and what's in the budget. I think that's what you were trying to >> so. And I think to become fully prepared, I need to bring this list. I need to bring my binder. I'm I'm all serious cuz I want to show up here next meeting and I want to make sure I have everything and I'll probably bring the same thing to the committee meeting, right? Because we have it April 30th. That's it. We have to have an answer. So, you know, besides my binder and this and probably a tent and sleeping bag, um is there anything else that we can do to to prepare ourselves for April 30th and the discussions that are going to come with it? $5 coffee. There we go. There we go. A box of Joe. There's a lot here, obviously.
111And again, this is why boards of education have nine members so that the mix and the amalgam of these different concerns, hopefully, can arrive at a a democratically determined answer. Uh Mr. Marini once said to me that his definition of a good negotiation is everybody's unhappy. I don't agree with that necessarily, but, you know, as a tongue-in-cheek point of view, I get what he's after. Thank you. Um for what it's worth, I feel better having been able to express my regret and my concern. So we will now close public comments and actually maybe get some work done. Thank you, Mr. Fulton. We have the approval of uh last executive session minutes and the approval of public meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All in favor? Or do we take a roll?
112And it's all in favor. You can actually do both sets of minutes together. All in favor? I. >> I. I. Mr. Volkey. Thank you. I ask the board's consideration to approve the following motions in the area of education, professional travel related expenses, the superintendent's HIV determinations, overnight trip, staff for title three wrap-around program, and the long-term suspension of the student whose name is on file in the office of the superintendent. Do I have a motion? So moved. Discussion? I'll do a second. Second. I didn't hear Did somebody second? I did not hear a second. Second. Mr. Hugh. Wanted to make a comment about the summer trip FBLA. Um so I was happy to see that it's during the summer. Um that's promising to after school is closed. Um I am still concerned though at $1,500
113per student it looked like um for the students to participate, which still seems like a lot of money um if the students and the families so choose, um but I still am concerned about allowing trips. It's like it's like um on the one hand I'm glad that it's in the summer, so like it's not as they're not missing out of school, but on the other hand it is, I believe, a burden on students and their families to participate in such an honor. So. Thank you. Mr. Eckert. Mr. Erckrentz. Yes. Miss Jackson. Yes. Miss Lanning-Bieder. Yes. Miss Nurse. Yes. Miss Stats. Yes. Mr. Hugh. Yes. And Mr. Davis. Yes. Thank you. In the area of human resources, I ask the board's consideration to approve the following motions: retirements and resignations, leaves of absence, change in employment,
114appointments for the current school year, appointments for the '26-'27 school year, approving a buddy, student teacher, new and revised seventh period coverage, extra coverage, and summer athletic camps for 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any comments? Mr. Eckert. Mr. Erckrentz. Yes. Miss Jackson? Yes. Ms. Lenny Beater? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Yes. Ms. Stats? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes. And Mr. Davis? Yes. Thank you. In the area of operations, I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions: monthly bills, monthly financials, financial status, line item transfers, proposal for applied behavioral analysis services, approving the service order with effective school solutions for the 2026-2027 school year, approving out-of-district placements for 2025-2026, and accepting donations. Do we have a motion? I'll move. Second. Mr. Ecker? Wait, I have a Oh, I'm sorry. Comments? Um I
115just wanted to comment on and appreciate um the donations from the various organizations, the HMS Home School Association, HHA Children's School and Therapeutic Fund, Hillsborough Rotary Club, and all of our chores for their generous donations to support the Getty Gettysburg Hershey trip for the eighth graders. I think that's I mean, just from all the things that we've talked about in the past, this is really for me um moving and touching. So, I wanted to acknowledge them. Yeah, thank you for acknowledging that. Thanks, Julie. I wanted to just make sure to Dr. Shabolsky after having heard from uh everyone about the trip really did a lot of work in in trying to do that. So, thank you both, Dr. Shabolsky as well as all the sponsors that Mr. Hill pointed out. But I I appreciate his
116responsiveness. Like, that and his concern for those students who uh might not have been able to go cuz these are significant contributions that are really helping more students go. Mr. Ecker? Mr. Erdkrants? Uh no on 13.5. And then, yes on everything else? That's all I'm aware of right now. Do you mean yes? >> Yes on everything else, yeah. Uh Ms. Jackson? Yes. Ms. Lenny Beater? Yes. Ms. Nurse? Yes. Ms. Stats? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes. And Mr. Davis? Yes. This is now our second period for public comments. There is a clipboard for all participants to write their name. Before commenting, please state your name and address. There is a 3-minute limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question-and-answer sessions, but rather are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts
117with the board. In instances where the board believes that there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy, the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or asks a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note that the Open Public Meetings Act and the privacy rights of public employees encompassed therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. Thank you. Hi. Uh my name is Rahul Sharma. I'm a resident of Hillsborough since 1999. So, thank you very much for allowing me to listen all the the boards uh Board of Education was discussing some of the challenges. But, you know, challenges always going to come. The only thing is what we are doing to do the invention point of view, what
118we are doing to make sure our expenses are going to stay same or it's going more and more, what we are doing and how we're going to cut down those expenses. Are we doing some innovation? All the RFP which is being awarded for doing XYZ work, is it a going uh pattern going on? Like, in 3 years down the road, we are expending X amount of money in the buses, Y amount of money in the stationery, X amount of money we are spending there. What extra efforts we have done to reduce or to revisit those expenses which is coming on a yearly by yearly basis? If I have a money, I take a paycheck of $1,500, and my money is not growing, I'm not getting increment, but in my pocket is limited, I will go
119out and do the some shopping. So, what I do? I cut down something or I do a better shopping. So, my question is I work for also the similar kind of department where we have a limited funding. We have a funding coming from the different capital funding coming, uh health care funding coming. But, what else we are doing to acquire or accommodate that fund? Do we have a people who are applying for those fundings? Is any way we are cutting down and seeing okay, now the RFP is being awarded, can we make it more competitive? Or we have some pattern going on, okay, this costing us X amount, let's continue doing spending that money. Are we making those bids more competitive? Are we making sure our expenses being cut down from those resources? So, this
120is what I would like to see. Like, no, everybody saying yes, yes, yes, there's no point, but only I feel I heard like few people were saying yes, how can make sure we can cut down the expenses. It's very easy to spend more, but when you have money in the pocket, but it's not what we are allowed to spend the money taking from somebody else's pocket. So, this is my closing comment. Please take a look. We have many ways because other Montgomery, Bridgewater, other township Board of Education, they also have the right sources to apply the all the fundings, whether it could be a federal grant, it could be a state grant, it could be capital funding, but they have the right people to apply on the right time. We are missing the board every
121time because we don't have the right people. We don't have good time people who who know the timeline and will apply the things on time. Thank you. Good evening. I'm sorry, one. Good evening. Amy Salazar, teacher at Auten Road Intermediate School and HTA First Vice President. Um I think I stood here about a year ago and gave you some similar stats, and based on some of the discussion that I heard tonight, I did some quick research again. So, um don't quote me on it 100%. They're all quick Google searches, but um I actually am a resident of Bridgewater-Raritan. So, I just want and I just did a couple of surrounding districts to give a little bit of a comparison in regards to some of the items you were talking about earlier. So, for example, in
122Bridgewater-Raritan, which is similar to us or a little bit bigger, but similar, they have um three ELA supervisors, they have two math supervisors, they have three social studies/science supervisors. So, between those two subjects, they have three supervisors. They have three special ed supervisors, two guidance supervisors, and I think that's where that list cuts off. They also um increased their budget this year by about 3.23% and they did take the health care waiver. Going down the road to Montgomery, they're a little bit smaller than us. They have um Oh, shoot, now I can't see what I wrote. Uh I think two or three ELA supervisors. Um oh, I know. It's they have it's either two or three English and math and also like a shared math/science. But, either way, they have more supervisors than we do
123for those subjects and a much smaller student population. Um and they have a different structure throughout. So, they have a couple of shared supervisors, but overall, they have more supervisors than we do. They're a smaller district than us. They increased their budget um by about 5% and now I'm sorry, 2% and they also did take the health care waiver. In Franklin Township, which I think is the largest one in our county, theirs is always hard to read. I remember this from last year. So, their budget either went up by 5-ish percent or 8% depending on which number you look at. They have two ELA supervisors and two math supervisors. And then, um I I was trying to get some information on Bernards and I ran out of a little bit of time, but they did
124increase their budget by about 4% and also took the health care waiver. So, if you just look in our Somerset County surrounding area, some similar districts, some bigger, some smaller, it does seem like many of our um close districts are, you know, making increased budgets because that's what the times sort of call for. They're using some foresight. I mean, some are a little more than actually all of them are more than what what Mr. Volpe has proposed um because even though Montgomery did only the 2%, they also took the waiver. We are not That's not what's proposed here. So, just something to think about as you move forward with this process. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing that there are no more comments, we will close the public comments section. And are there any comments from
125the board? Ms. Stats? Just quickly, um uh Mr. Erdkrants and I went to the the robotics competition at at Montgomery High School, and as usual, it's very very exciting. Um saw a couple matches, and they gave us a tour of the pit, and uh Jay and Vakia were very informative and uh uh enthusiastic about about the program. And they they have quite an outreach um even internationally and uh they do a lot of good work and the and um they're so supportive of one another and I can't I I mentioned this before but I love how they have this gracious professionalism where they even help their competitions the other teams if someone you know you know if their their robot some is broken in some way the other teams will help that that team and
126uh also yesterday I went to see um The Lion King Jr. at the middle school and it was very entertaining so much talent and uh it was nice to see um there are high school um theater students that also helped out with the tech and also uh I think choreography so it was nice to have them sort of mentor the the middle school students. Thank you. Ms. Jackson I'm um I'm just wondering if at some future point we could show a comparison between Hillsborough um Montgomery and Bridgewater just to see you know some of the statistics what I but um Yeah what would you like to see I I know I've shared some of that before. >> Yeah I just We can talk about that at committee if you want but we can certainly make
127some comparisons. >> that then because I just want to make sure it's apples and apples Yeah I think at any of the committee meetings if anybody has certain things they want me to look at it might be difficult to think of it on the spur of the moment right now you can certainly tell me what you'd like to compare and I can come up with those comparisons for you. Mr. Hue So I've been thinking a lot about just this you know the whole tax and I and I think I understand that when we talk about the budget we all have different points of view and I think that that's it's it's a very personal situation. Where I feel troubled about this I was listening to a finance webinar the other day and the speaker said
128you know we're talking about what was it net worth calculation and it was assets minus liabilities and they were talking about like um you know the expenses that we have to pay. So I could have this exact like little bit wrong but but the point of the speaker what they said is that well property taxes are fixed expense. You know other things like shopping like food expenses eating out those are going to be more variable depending on I was actually surprised to hear that that they they this is and this is like nationwide this webinar was like nationwide personal finance and they said that property taxes were fixed meaning that from year to year they're not going to increase that much. So then I looked at my and you know because we had a letter
129from the public I looked at my personal taxes so not and I'm not talking just the um the portion of school taxes but as a result and I think I understand like for um February's tax and May's tax that those are estimates I don't know Mr. Eckert if that is a true statement or Andrew that's a true statement because it looks like it's to be half of the previous years so maybe an estimate. I mean they're definitely estimates I you know I don't without seeing them I wouldn't know exactly what it was based on but okay but let's but but the point here that I'm trying to make is that when I'm looking at my taxes my personal overall taxes for the tax increase of last year which is a combination of school township county
130fire all that stuff I've come up with 2700 extra dollars between July 1st and June 30th 2026 for me personally 27 so let's round up $3000 that's a lot of money like for someone to just you know if my money is is allocated for me to come up with an extra $3000 unexpectedly and that's going forward so and and I'm not saying that that's like a reason not to increase taxes but what I'm trying to say is that that's what I think the community is in shock over is that something that was supposed to be fixed when when we're budgeting property taxes aren't really supposed to go up that much that was the whole point of 2% so when $3000 in one year where am I finding the money for it? You know so it's
131so it's so that and that's just my personal situation I don't know what the other other people's situations are but I think part of it too is that people may say like well you know well your house is worth X amount of money and Mr. Davis you said like you you probably couldn't afford to purchase your house that's part of the issue is like my house might be worth X hundreds of thousands of dollars but I can't access that money so when I'm looking at my cash flow is to how am I going to to pay for this and that's stressful and I think that that's what we heard from some of the community members it's like yes I understand like you know we want we want the students to have um we want them
132to have a great education and I forget who said what's enough and maybe Mr. Aaron Krouse it's like I don't I don't I don't necessarily believe that spending more money means a better education and I'll say that within our in the great state of New Jersey we have lots of different higher institutions of higher education that you could spend you know and even across the across the nation I forget what the I think I saw a statistic like what is it 97,000 highest it's Cornell or some from some university is that is that university's tuition or cost of cost of enrollment that much better than say Rutgers University which I think is a fantastic institution state of New Jersey you know in-state tuition don't remember how much I'm paying but it's but it's but it's
133but it's in-state tuition and it's each school is different as I discovered school of arts and sciences is less than school of engineering school of pharmacy so at different prices but the point is Rutgers University is a great education it's definitely not 97,000 so probably on the order of less than it's like around 15,000 maybe 17 but then there's fees and they add all that stuff but the point is I think from and we don't have many people in the audience in fact pretty much nobody sorry I mean there are some people in the audience but like when people look at our Board of Education and they think wow you know just like the taxes just got raised and and that's the average home $2700 cuz my house is actually close to the average $2700
134I have to just come up with like with almost like no warning so that's my comment I don't have a solution to this matter but that is why I'm really um I think Ms. Datsis said that the straw that broke the camel's back it's not the $97 that this 2% tax increase would mean it's the and it's not apples to apples cuz I know 97 was only school tax portion but I'm just talking about what I actually have to pay $2700 it's it's a burden. Yes Mr. Aaron Krouse Yeah I believe it was Elaine that last time said that uh the family economic condition is also a factor in education and that's that is a big increase my taxes as well went up $3000 last year. Right. >> And for my neighbor who gets social
135security where she going to come up with that? That's about what she gets paid social security. So she's got to we take it first and she's got to figure out how to make ends meet. She's she's in her 80s where is she going to get the money? I think part of what we see demonstrated here you know the the definition of a dilemma or the definition of a conflict at times is that both sides are right. You know if there was a clear right and wrong it would be easy just come down on one side or the other and what you see is people struggling with these nine people called a board with weighing these priorities. You know what we'd love to do for the students and for the schools and and for all that
136uh versus what people can bear. And we don't want to penalize but we have to be able to bear. So all that having been said are there any further comments? Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you all.