001well hello and welcome to the Hillsboro Township home of the njsiaa girls State basketball champions Board of Education meeting in accordance with the state sunshrine love New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsboro to Board of Education was provided on the on January 8th to the Hillsboro Beacon and the carer News uh can we please take role Mr Davis here Miss Jackson here M Craig here M Ling beer Mr Lee here miss nurse here M stats here Mr heo here and Mr Marie here we have a quorum uh can we please take a motion to move into executive session whereas the openland people open public meetings act chapter 231 of laws of 1975 provides that the public body May exclude the public from that portion of the meeting which a public body discussed
002at certain matters which confidentiality is required as permitted in section 7B of the ACT result of the Board of Education of the township Hill in the county of Somerset in the state of New Jersey as follows the matters to be discussed are a student disciplinary matter and negotiations update the matters discussed in executive session shall we disclose to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists can I take a motion a second Su second all in favor we'll be back around 7:30 thank you e e e hello and welcome back to the Monday March 17th Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting we have now returned from executive session uh Mr eard if we could please take role Mr Davis here Miss Jackson here miss Craig here M Ling beer here Mr Lee here
003miss nurse here miss stats here Mr he here and Mr Mar here have a quorum let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance unes stand all right I'd like to acknowledge the correspondence as listed and we will move on to committee reports um if we could start with education so we met on March 11th and um we discussed budget uh Administration provided a brief overview of the budget process and timeline we discussed the calendar um the math curriculum grades 5 through eight show choir overnight trip and New Jersey stem Pathways Network Grant is that it good okay thanks all right we will move on to HR Mr our committee met on Wednesday March 12th we uh had a primary focus of the budget and then we also discussed unaffiliated Staffing salaries um for next year and
004we had a couple questions about the calendar that we briefly discussed and hit just a bit on um pay to pay to play policy okay thank you um and we'll move on to operations Mr Davis operations met on March 7th uh and we touched upon a number of items one was a a con contingency we'll vote on it later tonight uh to allow for bills to be paid in things like that between board meetings uh we talked about increasing the tuition rate on the cap program which again has been relatively flat for a number of years and that will a minor increase which will kick in next year okay uh and uh previews of some policies and regulations again they're on the agenda for this evening uh having to do with cooperating with law enforcement
005and how that whole thing works and the roof at Woodford and other tantalizing things of course we we spent a lot of time talking about the budget implications and what that will mean on a practical level and that was that was it all right thank you uh and for governance that was on Wednesday March 12th um our primary topics were of course like all other committees the budget um we reviewed the pay to playay payto playay policy which had a first reading a couple of months ago and we will be having a second reading of uh tonight um that was some adjustments on consolidating certain fees uh and then uh last but not least we talked about the calendar and just reviewed um what the previous committee had discussed on adjusting the calendar for 2425
006all right uh with that we will move on to the board president's report and without stealing too much Thunder from Mike uh I went to the uh girls basketball state finals on Sunday and boy was that awesome um I think it's the first ever State title boys or girls basketball so it was a very amazing event I'm not sure how many if any Bo other board members went but it was a close game they were down in the third made a 120 run to take the lead and lost it again early in the fourth but came back and held off a a really tough West Orange team so congrats to the uh to the girls that's my that's my report thank you Mr President you did steal my thunder a little bit but I do
007want to say I believe right here in front of me I am the only person in Hillsboro who owns a basketball autograph draft by the entire group four state champion girls basketball team here in in Hillsboro um it I've got to see a few of their games this year including the sectional finals and also yesterday Mr Marini along with principal delola we were literally Courtside to see to see the coaches and the kids battle back and it was a I just want to say it was an aggressive and physical game and I went home and I I told my wife I said if I was in the middle of that game some of those girls would have run me over there were there were elbows being thrown and the refs were letting them play and
008it was so impressive to see what I see a lot here in Hillsboro from some of the students who are here today students I see in classrooms they faced adversity they were losing they were down they were getting elbowed in the face and they just did it when they had to do it so congratulations to you girls uh Team we are going to be having a lot of winter a well we're going to be having several winter athletes here at the April 7th board meeting for recognition and the girls basketball team will be one of them so congratulations to you and I will not be putting this on eBay this is one of a kind and I'm going to be keeping that for myself so from some good news into um we're going to be
009going right into our budget report uh it is not great for Hillsboro uh both Mr eard and I are going to be speaking uh about our budget there are several things that I need the residents of Hillsboro to pay very close attention as we go through here because there are still factors that are working against us uh from the state formula uh to the uh the the cap um to a lot of different things but we want to be clear open honest and transparent and keep in mind too that we have time between the tenative budget which is today and the final Budget on April 28th to continue to get feedback from residents to continue to look for options but we are where we are and we're going to just tell you like it is
010and um Mr eert I will have the slideshow going behind you and uh I think you get started first correct or do I okay I get started first so I do want to thank uh the Board of Education as well as all the budget managers for those of you who don't know we come and talk about the budget now in March and then again in April we start working on this in October uh and trying to figure out what we are what we can do and and how to move forward and this is the tenative budget final budget will be on April 28th so we have uh the tenative budget approval the health benefit tax levy waiver travel maximum withdrawals from capital and maintenance Reserve as per the executive County superintendence requirements we do have
011negotiations going on with the haa and actual salary increases for next year are unknown at this time but I want everybody to have all of those things in context as we look forward for this budget presentation Mr director so just wanted to start with sharing our budget calendar that we followed for for developing this budget in November we added public input on the 2526 budget to the board agendas and we also distributed allocations to our budget managers in December we reviewed individual budget manager requests and met with budget managers as needed in January and February budgets were reviewed by the superintendent or with the superintendent and shared with the operations committee and the state opened the budget software and also provided us with our state aid allocations in March the District Administrative team met to
012finalize the cuts that were needed to balance the budget operations committee met with met met and reviewed the tenative budget and tonight we are presenting the 25 26 tenative budget and the board will be voting on The tenative budget later tonight the next steps for the budget will be is that it will be submitted to the county office for approval uh by Wednesday of this week and then advertised in advance of the April 28th public hearing on the 2526 budget if there are any changes that happen that are needed between now and the April 28th public hearing it will be detailed at the public hearing the budget goals for the 2526 budget were to build a fiscally responsible budget to maintain current programs to minimize reductions in force of positions to stabilize Supply Appropriations for
013Budget managers to provide a budget that supports a thorough and efficient education to all students and a budget that maintains our facilities so here's a quick overview of the proposed tenative 2526 budget the general fund is increasing by just over 1. .4 million to 149 m765 656 the grants and entitlements portion of the budget is which is comprised of federal state and local grants and donations is increasing by $32,000 The Debt Service fund which is the principal and interest payments for the bonds that were issued for the 2019 referendum is increasing by $88,500 and the total 2526 budget is increasing by just over 1.4 million when compared to the 2425 budget the new Total is [Music] $3,930 and here are the revenue highlights for the 25 26 budget the state aid reduction of 1,763 757
014is comprised of of the 1,227 1827 20242 onetime stabilization school aid grant and in addition state aid cut of $535,000 the revenue includes an increase to the tax life of 2% plus the use of a health benefit waiver of $2,336 70 for a total tax levy increase of 3.96% this budget also includes an increase in e-rate funding for a large Category 2 project which will upgrade the district's Wireless this project will receive a 40% reimbursement through e rate the budget also includes a $500,000 withdrawal from our maintenance Reserve to help support the maintenance of our facilities and a $1 million withdrawal from capital reserve to assist in doing Capital Renovations or Capital upgrades to some of our buildings or grounds and here are some expenditure highlights for the 25 26 budget the health benefit renewal
015is at a 12% increase which is approximately a $2.7 million increase over 2024 25 costs the dental benefit renewal is anticipated to be about a 10% increase as a result of the state a cuts the budget includes reductions to the following budget lines just to balance the budget salary lines where exact positions that are reduced will be identified over the next few weeks and reported out as part of our public hearing on the budget on April 28th um and building and curriculum budget manager allocation reductions technology and security upgrades through a five-year lease and an offset of additional eate funding the main budget drivers are similar to what they were last year um they are salary benefits which makes up Approximately 80% of our budget student transportation costs which makes up approximately 7% of the
016budget maintaining our buildings and grounds accounts for about 4% of the budget and specialing special education costs including out of District tuition accounts for about 3% of the budget so there will be several Capital Improvements included in this year's budget it is important to note that these will be all funded by the capital reserve withdrawal of $1 million these capital reserve funds can only be used on capital projects and cannot be used to help offset the general fund the projects in the budget are for the high school replacing the gym divider replacing the main gym bleachers replacing a water heater refinishing the gym floors replacing gym wall padding installing a gate in the loading dock area replacing the Stadium scoreboard replacing the turf on the high on High School Stadium Field and resurfacing the track
017projects out our other schools include a repair to the to the Middle School driveway Amsterdam hallway floor replacement HS installing two Ada ramps um on the building and refinishing gym floor and replacing the fire alarm system uh triangle the roofer is a roof repair and a boiler room door replacement and at woodern includes a boiler room door replacement we do not expect to be able to complete all these projects within the budget of 1 million but by listing them we will be able to maximize the use of those funds and Mr R I'll turn it back to you sure so some things that I want everybody to be aware of as we start to talk about this budget is that we are with some very slight exceptions still subject to the 2% cap I think
018as most people know in order to keep Hillsboro Hillsboro each and every year we go above 2% that's automatic just by existing just by being who we are our prices are more than than 2% you may have seen Mr eord said health care costs went up 12% our salaries for our staff I may be off on this are generally around going up 3% and it's well deserved the Consumer Price Index is not below 2% inflation is not below 2% there's virtually no costs that are below 2% so just being who we are just one year to next we go through all available funds that we have we go way above that and then I sit down with Jerry and Michelle Miss Le fever Mr eard and I say let's start looking for where we can
019cut and we look for stuff first big bucket I'm just going to call it stuff we go into closets and look under tables and for the first couple years that I've been here we have found stuff and we've been able to add staff for a variety of different ways and means and this year as I was we were cutting and cutting and cutting and looking around there were no more closet doors to open there were no more tables to look under when I looked at Jerry and Michelle and said what else we're getting down to to staff we have certain essential things that we need our staff being the most important and the fact that we're going to have to touch them in this budget um really really bothers me main reason why we have
020to do that isn't just the 2% cap it is what has happened to Hillsboro when it comes to state aid since 2019 1920 we have lost $7.5 million in our Baseline of state aid and in that time period that equates to 26 million I didn't want ever one penny more than we got back in 201920 and maybe it's even real a little um unrealistic to be thinking that but I was hoping we would be moving in the right direction so every state aid cut hurts us deeply so we're kind of out of options this year and unfortunately I'm going to have to deliver the community uh a budget that I'm not proud of I mean proud of that we worked hard on it I'm proud of that everybody's sacrificing to make it work but I
021had four kids who graduated from Hillsboro uh High School uh who are all doing very well and I want that for every child in Hillsboro and I'm not proud of what we we have to do here because of the position that we're in I mentioned about the state aid coming down I really want you to take a look at that what that looks like on a graph after time the column all the way to the right is this year and look how big the cuts have been over the past last couple of years this year we got cut in additional $500,000 and I was told from some people hey that wasn't as bad as last year and the analogy that I've used is the state slapped me in the face five times last year and
022they slapped me in the face twice this year and told me that's good you didn't get slapped as much as you did last year getting slapped in the face is getting slapped in the face it doesn't matter if it's five times or it's two times what I was really hoping from from the state formula this year which I'll explain why I was hoping if you look at that red arrow there that we were creeping back up I knew we'd still be down from where we need it to be but I was hoping we would be coming back up and that we could make better choices with what we needed to do for our budget maybe a little naive on my part but there's a reason why I assume that we might be going back in
023a right direction and getting more state aid last year you heard every politician from the governor to everybody in the state legislature tell you the state aid formula was implemented and fully funded I don't know about you but if I hear the words that something is fully funded I'm thinking it's been done to the maximum one-way shape or form so I was thinking that hey not only are we maybe not going to get it cut but maybe we're starting to move back in the right direction and it didn't we got cut five $35,000 um more than we were last year it's had insult to injury when Mr eard and Miss Le Fever opened up our state aid package for this year not only did it tell us that we were getting cut $535,000 but again
024we were lucky because they did make it just uh it can only be reduced 3% this year and and they put another number next to that saying you should have been cut $2.9 million since S2 has been implemented and since the state aid formula has been hurting Hillsboro $2.9 million would have been the biggest state aid cut we have ever received so we are not being helped out in this current situation we will continue to advocate for what we need we will continue to be loud but being cut $535,000 because I was supposed to be cut $2.9 million doesn't make me feel good and when I have conversations with board members around when I have conversations with community members when I have conversations with legislators people are asking you know why is this happening now
025I have an understanding of the state aid formula I think it's done wrong but there are variables that I'm going to talk about that I'm going to try and put into some layman's terms for people you understand the demographics obviously if we had a significant enrollment decline which we don't we would lose state aid if we had a significant in uh increase in students we might see state aid moving in the other direction we're about flat little little bit here and there but nothing significant one variable of the state aid formula that a lot of people don't understand is that and I'm trying to illustrate in these pictures Hillsboro is a great town to live in been living here since 1999 like I said four kids came through here Hillsboro's the property values are increasing
026people's salaries in Hillsboro are increasing and Hillsboro's Prosperity is increasing f faster than the rest of the State uh towns doesn't that sound like a great thing to live in Hillsboro your houses are worth more money your salaries are getting bigger Hillsboro is doing great things according to the state aid that's not good that means we are a town that has money and somehow we should be paying for more even though there's a 2% cap and we can't ask for more beyond that the good uh ratio for school funding is in my bottom picture if our property values were going down and if people weren't increasing their salaries and Hillsboro was shrinking economically then the state would step in and that doesn't seem to make much sense to me because we are a high performing
027District right now and I want to stay that way I don't want to continue down this road for years to come although I do think that there is there is not a lot of good news um on the horizon it's important that the township of Hillsboro understands this that the state formula goes in direct conflict with how our Township is doing and I have a big problem with that another issue is what the state calls the local fair share the local fair share is a term for what should the residents of Hillsboro be paying for the education here in Hillsboro we right now pay $1 123 million in taxpayer dollars I'm right about that number right Mr re right that correct people of Hillsboro pay $123 million the state formula tells us we should be
028paying $150 million that's a big Chasm between the two which is why that guy is so stretched right there on my picture so the state is saying Hillsboro if you want to start moving in the right direction you got to make up about $27 million you got to kick in more before we're going to kick in more which just seems antithetical and here's the strangest part about that how can you make up a 27 million gap in a year let's say we wanted to do that well let's just do it let's so we can get back on the right side of state aid Not only would that be a whack of taxpayers but o sorry you can't do that you can't you have a 2% cap you cannot make up that $27 million you are
029stuck in a maze that you can't get out of and that's why I'll continue to say that this state form State funding formula is ridiculous and unfair and I would say as loud as I can to as many people as I continue to the first thing we should do is Do no harm to students hold harmless districts that are continuing to lose state aid I'm going to go even more aggressively and say those those school districts who have been losing over time and are still high performing should be moving back in the other direction but there have been record amounts of state aid that are handed out through the state this year and that can still be done to districts who need it without harming other districts the one positive POS that came out of
030this year's budget is in the past couple years I've told you we're the only School District in Somerset County that gets hit with state aid for the first time ever there's seven other school districts with us and now some people are starting to mobilize and be like hey what's what's wrong with the state aid formula and it's driving me crazy because I've been saying that for a while so some of the things that I'm going to present to you aren't good but it's it's important that you understand why it's important that when you speak to your neighbors or you speak to legislators the the first and easiest thing that you could do without talking about all kinds of formulas or or all kinds of scenarios with taxes just tell people the first thing you should
031be doing is not taking away more money keep things the way they are it's a very simple message to get across because what do I think is happening next year looking at this year's budget which is not good State told us on a piece of paper we should have been cut $2.9 million this year they cut us 500,000 I think they're coming for that other 2.4 million next year and I have no reason to think otherwise I would love it if anybody from the state or any legislature wants to come out and tell me otherwise things are trending in the right direction but that's what I have to prepare for so if anybody thinks because you know you might not be paying attention to the budget till the year uh till about March we're already
032looking ahead to next year and I don't see good things ahead unless there's significant changes coming and what I'm hear I just want to let you know what I'm hearing from legislators when I do speak to them why I think it's not going to be fixed by next year everybody's telling me we're waiting till the next Governor gets on board Republican Democrats independent doesn't matter what party you are everybody is kicking the can down the road saying wait till the next Governor gets on board well Governor's getting elected in November right takes office in January state aid formula is done running by that point so if Governor does grab on to this and try to fix it it will be until 2627 potentially that we see relief so here's the hard work that I had
033to do and here are the cuts that are coming and nothing that I'm proud of well one thing that I think is positive um we were looking you may know that we have reing um some of our schools uh we did it here at Aton Road we're doing it at Sunny meat we were planning on doing it the high school it's too big of a spense right now expense we can't do that we're looking at our lease purchasing security and Tech upgrades those are things we can't do we have an online platform for assessments and also keeping track of data and I've heard from my teachers some of here who are sitting here right now that we maybe assess kids too much and there's a lot of redundancies there so we are looking at our
034use of linkit um and we are going to make sure that we aren't having overlapping assessments and um be using that less should be about a 50 to $60,000 savings we're removing placeholders for planning Services related to redistricting we are still redistricting for fall 2026 I'm not saying that but we'll be doing a lot more in-house administrative work and hopefully get some of that work done this year as Miss nurse and I think Mr Marini mentioned the payto playay um policy will be reinstituted where you're paying for participation in sports or clubs courtesy busing I was proud to bring back last year uh will be cut after this year we set funds aside for full day kindergarten we now know that that that plan has been pushed off by the state for a little bit
035of time we do not we are not a district that can have that kind of Reserve anymore we are cutting to the Bone we need to get from one year to the next Middle School sports are being eliminated again they were brought back uh after last year's tentative budget there's no such mechanism right now and 24 positions are going to be cut and this is what's bothering me the most since I've been here I've been proud to add back positions to provide extra supports for students and staff and right now I just have to make my budget work and make sure the people who are here can get paid and we have roofs over our roofs over our heads we're cutting 24 positions about 12 about half of those I have to double check these
036numbers are going to come from attrition and retirements so we're not having 24 people who aren't who are going to be losing their jobs but we have around a dozen and it's not being specified here right now because we still have to work out those details we still respectfully have to talk to those people we still have to run it by the board of education but this is going to be a combination of certified staff support staff haa staff unaffiliated staff and administration one of the things that I told my administrative team when we talked about this as well as this board is this is not going to be pain that's going to be felt by one particular group of people or one particular class of employees everybody's going to feel it and it's not
037something that I'm proud of but I'm proud of the fact that everybody understood the importance of that that everybody's going to feel that this is an old political cartoon that I that I stumbled across um without going into the politics of it I want to go into the message that it sends there's a fat cat sitting at the table um you know chopping up a big turkey and there's a couple of people fighting for the scraps a little dogs fighting for the scraps there if the person at the table throws a little piece of meat down on the floor what are those dogs going to do more than likely they're going to fight over that scrap and that's my message to Hillsboro is I don't want us fighting over the scraps even when I first
038started having these conversations with my administrative team my supervisors and my principles the first thing they wanted to do was not my people not my stuff find it elsewhere and that's going to be a big Temptation I know everybody's going to think don't cut this cut that this affects me that doesn't affect me it all affects Hillsboro and instead of those dogs fighting for the scraps from the table those dogs need to jump up on that table and carve up that turkey and get what they are rightfully owed and deserved now maybe owed is a strong word because the formula doesn't say that we're owed that but then I would say the formula is wrong we're not the only School suffering like this we were for a while now maybe we have some other people
039on board so what I would ask the people of Hillsboro is to please avoid the temptation of fighting for the scraps for the table and keep your eyes on the bigger picture that there is money out there that other school districts are getting and we could be getting some of that as well at least not being cut anymore Mr record I'll turn it back over to you to talk the numbers and the the tax impact and then I'll make a comment at the end of this slide too sure as Mr vpy said at this point we'd like to share information on the tax impact for both Hillsboro and Millstone for Hillsboro the 2025 School tax rate will be 13334 which is a decrease of 0074 when compared to the 2024 tax rate tax rate for
040schools this represents a tax rate decrease of 3.61% for the year the assessment of the average home in Hillsboro is 594 th000 $89 and the house assessed that this value will pay $7,923 in school taxes for 2025 this is the seventh consecutive year where the school tax rate has for Hillsboro has decreased to determine the impact on your school taxes for 2025 you will need to multiply your recently received 2025 assessment by the tax rate of 13334 in Millstone the 2025 School tax rate will be 13141 which is an increase of0 4316 when compared to the 2024 School tax rate this represents a tax rate increase of 48.8539483 187 in 2025 school taxes again to determine the impact on your school taxes for a millstone home you would need to multiply your recently received 2025
041assessment by the tax rate of 13141 the large increase in the millstone tax rate is attributable to the discovery that many of the millstone students were incorrectly coded with hillsbor with the Hillsboro municipal code and correcting this results in Millstone now being charged the appropriate share of the tax levy discussions are currently underway with Millstone and Hillsboro officials to apply this increase over several years in an effort to make the impact on the individual Millstone taxpayer take place over time instead of all inone school year budget and Mr vpy I think you wanted to add a little to that sure yeah I want to give a little context to this so we as a board of education uh have reached out to both Millstone and Hillsboro and are trying to resolve this problem um we
042have no jurisdiction over this um but we're trying to work together with both Hillsboro and Millstone to to figure out um the best way to move forward about the changing tax rates in Millstone I do want to explain to the community how we stumbled across this and how this happened uh one of the good things that I think I have done as superintendent um was got the board to um help me uh hire a centralized registar um for those of you who don't know what a centralized registar is that means when you come into the school districts there's one location for registrations you register right there all of your paperwork is done and then you go to your schools last year was the first year we had actually this year is the first year we
043had implemented it and it's going forward you may know that we are also redistricting for fall of 2026 and my centralized registar is very involved in that as we started to clean up the data through my centralized registar and looking at redistricting we noticed that several students in Millstone who have Hillsboro addresses were incorrectly coded in our system going back many years as Hillsboro students instead of millstone students for those of you don't know Millstone students attend the Hillsboro Township Public Schools how could that happen and why this change Hillsboro and Millstone used to be in a send and SE receive relationship where Hills uh Millstone had their own board of education Millstone students used to register in Millstone and then the Board of Education of millstone and their business administrator would send that list
044over to us here's our students in about 2010 11 n when was that I think 2009 is when the merger happened about 2009 uh the legislator in state of New Jersey said there's no more non-operating District dist you can't have a board of ed and a business administrator if you don't have kids in schools so millstone's Board of Education was wiped out so we no longer got that list to come over to us about the millstone students there're also was no centralized registar until I brought one in this year so what happened was Millstone residents would go to schools you know the millstone kids eventually graduated and new ones came in they would go to any random school to uh register and they would present their ID and their bill and everything it showed and
045the millstone chose a Hillsboro address so secretaries over the years and as they changed uh registered people as Hillsboro they didn't know about this and things just added up over time so students as they moved through the Hillsboro Township Public Schools remained coded as Hillsboro and not Millstone and it was only when we started the redistricting process with the centralized registar that we caught this mistake this is going to impact the people of millstone but it's an issue to be resolved between the township of Hillsboro and the township of millstone we are very happy as at the Board of Education as superintendent to help facilitate meetings between these two entities we have plans for potential Solutions I shouldn't say plans we have po poal Solutions we don't want to hurt anyone uh when it comes
046to tax implications but we also need to be very transparent that's why it's so important too in school districts to have institutional knowledge and processes that work we have a process that works moving forward but I can't get into time machine and be superintendent starting in about 2010 up until I got here so that's what explains the uh the tax rate implications for Millstone we will keep the community posted did we will be in touch with both townships leadership and when we know more we will let you know more but that's why we had to fully explain that to everyone Mr reer so the next steps for the for this budget are for the Board of Education to approve a a 2526 tenative budget during tonight's action agenda after that the business office will submit
047the tenative budget to the executive County and superintendent which is due by Wednesday March 19th the executive County Superintendent will then review and approve the attentive budget after that the budget's advertised in The Courier News and the beacon in advance of the April 28th public hearing on the budget and the 2025 26 final budget is presented and approved at the April 28th public hearing 48 hours after that the user friendly budget will be posted on the district website and in the time between now and the um final budget if there's any legislation that is pass that would affect next year's budget that information will be shared at the public hearing if there's not the exact cuts to balance the budg will be shared at the public hearing and in conclusion we are being forced to
048make difficult decisions to build as responsible a budget as possible due to the DraStic state aid cuts and the increases in our healthcare costs we will continue to work with our legislators to advocate for additional state aid for the district and this concludes the presentation of the 2526 tenative budget thank you Mr eard and I know I want to let you know that behind the scenes too this the elected members of the Board of Education don't just show up here and do work there are hours of committee meetings and I hope I came across as professional when I was saying it because I'm see I'm seething inside about where we are when it comes to the budget and so are a lot of the members sitting here there's a variety of opinions I'm not going
049to go go into all of those right now but there there's a lot of hurt going on right here and we don't know when this is necessarily going to be fixed but I do appreciate the board's passion when it comes to this I appreciate the board working with me on this and we will continue to fight for Hillsboro and Mr President um I will turn it back to you but I do want to say that the highlight of my weekend was the girls winning that title because I knew I had to make this presentation so thank you for giving me the autograph ball to make me smile um but Mr President I kick it back to you all right thank you very much uh we'll now move on to the approval of minutes uh 9.1
050motion to approve executive session minutes 22425 motion to approve public meeting minutes to 2425 and motion to approve Community engagement meeting minutes 3125 can I get a motion a second second any discussion all in favor I thank you we'll now move on to the first uh public uh comment section public input on the 2025 2026 budget and action agenda we very much welcome input from the public during the board meetings there'll be 2 30 minute periods of time that the meetings will public comment where members of the public are invited the comment which they may do if they're attending in person the first public comment period members of the public make comment about items that are listed on tonight's agenda before the board votes during the second public comment period members of the public make
051comment on any school or School District issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district as per P 0167 before you state your comment as provide your name and address there's a theate limit on public comment please understand that our public forms do not structured as question answer sessions but rather offered as opportunities to share Thoughts with the board instance with the board please there's a misunderstanding and accuracy the board of president or superintendent will address the comment any times a member of the public makes a comment as a question about personal hiring decisions col know the open open public meetings act the private right privacy rights of public employees Encompass therein do not put the board to discuss Personnel issues in public session um
052so I was told there's some students here and considering it's a school night I will allow the students to speak first thank you good evening we're honored to be here representing the thes sorry representing the thespian Honor Society at Hillsboro High School under the advisement of tamato we are the board that governs our troop my name is Mayan Lee I'm president Eva Clark who could not attend tonight is our vice president my name is Lana joju I'm the secretary my name's Ashley Ringle I'm the treasurer I'm cor derso I'm the historian what brings us here tonight specifically is the fact that March is theater and our schools month a month dedicated to advocating for the importance of theater education and nurturing empathetic and creative students leaders and create um and community members HS theater does
053this and more through its three shows each year these shows provide students of all interests with the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves our program is not only enriching but award-winning last year HHS theater received accolades for best student Orchestra best choreography best supporting actress and best Direction we've also earned High rankings at the Somerset County and New Jersey state um teen Arts festivals whether students perform on stage play in the pit or walk behind the scenes there's a place for everyone in our theater family thesbian Honor Society inducts students who dedicate at least 100 hours of quality theater work members participate in Productions serve on committees and support events like performance nights and fundra fundraisers through desion students develop communication teamwork and Leadership skills that serve them Beyond High School
054our troop also gives back this year we collected 1,682 pounds of food to donate to the Hillsboro can associ Association through our program trick- or- treat so kids can eat our troop also raised over $300 for our philanthropic organization Broadway cares a nonprofit organization that supports those affected by HIV and AIDS and other critical illnesses through fundraising grants and advocacy within the theater Community finally in the era of Outreach we volunteered and spoke at the fall show at Hillsboro M school and will be continuing to do so this week for their spring musical students from the Middle School often go on to find a community within HHS theater every year in January we attended the NJ thesbian Festival where our students earned top Superior rankings in multiple performance and Technical categories is about dis audio
055and ban CS Charlie mcclin in musical theater solo and know and cable rolling Charlie mclin and Elise Harvey en acting improv pairs Miami and monologues is about disagio received the award of New Jersey state thesbian an award given to the hardest working febians the New Jersey thesbian Festival also provide students with leadership opportunities the job of a state thesbian officer or an SEO is given to a handful of students throughout the state who are chosen after a rigorous application and interview process this year we were lucky enough to have two troop members representing Hillsboro STM Ava Clark and Isabelle DAV doio who also served as a co-chair on the student board HHS was also named a gold honor troop the highest distinction for the second year in a row being a gold honors troop signifies
056a troops exceptional work in their school and community in addition to this status cor derso received the title of best honors troop presentation we understand that this is an overwhelming amount of information we've thrown at you but it only provides a glimpse into the passion dedication and talent of the students who comprise HHS theater and thespians the students in our program care deeply about each other our school and Hillsboro as a whole going into the next school year we hope to continue to provide students with a safe space to work on their leadership teamwork and creative skills produce quality Productions and Champion how positive theater can be for the dev development of young minds and we hope to do it with your support thank you for your time thank you hello we are derga and
057Raina from the Communications Department of Hillsboro High School's robotics team team 75 the robo Raiders we would like to start by thanking you for your generous contributions to our team that allow us to continuously pursue our goals with your help our team has been able to make lots of progress and today we're here to tell you all about that we would first like to share our most recent successes at the Sena District competition last weekend team 75's robot finished second out of 33 teams at the end of a qualif qualification matches and made it to semi-finals as the captain of our second Alliance before being eliminated overall we got third place at the competition our freshman and sophomore team robot team 428 made it to playoffs being the second pick of the eighth Alliance which
058is incredible for only its second year team 75 now Rings 18th in the entire First midatlantic District of almost 140 teams but our robot performance isn't all we have to talk about we also want the first impact award this award which is the first place award for a competition is the most prestigious award that can be given to a team and recognizes a team that has had the most significant impact on its community and its role model for other robotics teams we won this award due to our hard work of the entire team and its impact on our community overall this was a very successful competition our most our most significant impact has been through our established partnership with the ml Youth Center in Bridgewater this year we took the food and clothing drives we've
059been doing for years and focus it on the same students we've been teaching through our stem curriculums at the center our food and clothing drives have braced over 1,650 items so far we took these experiences to create an 80 page manual to share with the First Community acting as a blueprint for other teams to replicate our impact on their Community we've already collaborated with 23 teams globally and we can't wait for the future we've also been focusing on Mental Health the director of School counseling Miss poo recently visited our warehouse and gave a presentation on ways to deal with stress and maintain a stressfree environment and it is extremely valuable for our team our team Works tirelessly to achieve results and sometimes we forget that it's important to take a break too Miss poal reminded
060us of the importance of relaxing our Wellness department has also consistently been running climate surveys which are monthly team environment check-ins to monitor how our team is doing we exper we express our sincerest gratitude to our SP our supporters volunteers mentors and leadership it's great that we were able to start this season off with a win with our success in both the robot and our first impact award and we can't wait for our upcoming competition in Montgomery on March 29th and 30th and Lehigh from April 3rd to April 5th you're all invited to come and see us in action during the competition thank you for your time thank you and just so board members know behind you on the board is a picture from the first robotics competition where they won that impact award I
061happen to have that on social media so I wanted to bring it up didn't mean to interrupt Mr President hi Amy Salinger teacher at Aon Road Intermediate School and a Treasurer um I'm here to speak about the agenda item concerning the updated calendar for this school year originally June 3D was scheduled to be the primary election day in New Jersey to accommodate this it was agreed to have schools run on 4 hour session followed by inservice time for staff it is also my understanding that the director of school security along with building principles had a solid plan in place to ensure safety since that time the New Jersey primary day was changed to June 10th most people I know made The Logical connection that the plan for June 3rd would shift to June 10th but
062that is not the case and many are left to wonder why in questioning the reasoning several staff have come to me sharing their concerns for the plan on the agenda tonight one such concern is disruption to the continuity of instruction during the already stressful month of June rather than one half day slightly interrupting one week of school students will now have two weeks in June with an altered schedule June is already crunch time for students and teachers with planning for end of your events and preparing for finals this adds to that stress and seems like an unnecessary disruption another concern has to do with the new language and the calendar on tonight's agenda at the October 28th meeting the board rise the calendar to include the June 3rd plan the language regarding emergency days read
063as such try to do it uh walking your style if three built-in emergency days are used by 23 and additional days are needed we will be open on 217 if additional days are needed after 217 the first day we will be open is 4:14 followed by 4:15 if needed if three emergency days are not used by 3:31 school will be closed on 523 527 if two emergency days are not used school will be closed on 421 and 523 if one emergency day is not used school will be closed on 4:21 the language on tonight's version now reads if three built-in emergency days are used by 23 and additional days are needed we will be open on 217 if additional days are needed after 217 the first day we will be open is 4:14 followed by
0644:15 if needed if one emergency day is not used school will be closed on 4:21 the last line of the new language seems to imply we only have one emergency day left we used one in February which means we have two emergency days left this is not acknowledged in the new language are we to assume it's been determined that June 10th is now considered a give back day if so it is not being presented with consistency and language it is further concerning to see that if we were to go beyond the allotted eer Mercy days that we would cut into spring break rather than adjust the June calendar I believe most people would rather keep the calendar the way it was with the two possible leftover emergency days being used towards Easter Monday and the
065Friday before Memorial Day these are much better placements than a random Tuesday a little bit left I respectfully ask you to reconsider this new plan and to adhere to the original proposal of having a half day on primary Day by moving the plan for June 3rd to June 10th this not only allows for better continuity of instruction for students and teachers but also allows for families to have better planning opportunities thank you thank you thought good evening Henry good Hugh Hillsboro Education Association as well as Hillsboro resident parent um just to address a couple of things tonight um listening to the budget presentation I know much of this is beyond on your control and it's become a situation where daffodils start to come up and our hopes start to come down um because every spring
066we're faced with decisions like this and we've done much to push back against this to try to find ways to protect the students protect the staff I applaud all of that but where there's things that are in our control that we can do to help staff to provide consistency I urge you to do that and you just heard my colleague speak to some of that and I realize that you might not see how those two things are connected but from our perspective they truly are because the board has put forth a calendar which yes legally you have the right to change I recognize that but it put forth a calendar and we prepare our classrooms and our lessons and our lives around that and now we're talking about changing it again but not only are
067we talking about changing it we're talking about changing it in the midst of so much uncertainty there's so much that you acknowledge tonight that is beyond your control this is one thing that is this is one thing that you can provide to staff to give them some consistency in the midst of an absolute storm of unknown you have the ability to provide that to them tonight and you heard all the reasons for it I'm not going to rehash all of those you know as a parent as a taxpayer as an educator as a labor leader I'm heartbroken every time we have to have one of these discussions about the budget and somehow we find ways to push through and I don't know how many more ways we can find to push push through on some
068of these things because there's limits to that but there's not limits to what you can do to show staff that they are valued that they can plan their lives and their lessons appropriately and that we're not going to cause Mass disruption to the end of the year and certainly not take away time from a break that they've been looking forward to and that they need at this point in the year um because I know that you know there's these conversations about safety for the day for the 10th and certainly having children in these schools I'm not going to sit there and make light of safety by any stretch but this district has made Monumental investments in safety we have great Partnerships with the local police department we've kept our kids safe and certainly I you
069know I'm not trying to jinx any of that but I would argue that on some of those days that we're talking about June 10th now in particular we're probably safer in these buildings than we are on other days there's more of a police presence here we have more security staff we're doing more to keep our kids and staff safe but right now what we're doing is taking a risk with the with not necessarily the safety because as my colleague pointed out you've already earmarked that day to be a closure no matter what but we're taking a risk with the faith of the staff the security that they feel and the trust that they feel in this as there's so much upheaval in what's going on I urge you not to add one more thing to
070that please thank you thank you right on time hello Lea gab bis live in Hillsboro had three things um I realized this is not a question and answer uh session but I still have some questions um so for one on 11.4 the math curriculum it says for grades five through eight but I didn't see any attachments I wonder if that's just that you know I know that things have been changing and then maybe this is the final approving of that of that I don't I'm not quite sure what that is if you could explain it that'd be wonderful um or offline I guess um also uh on slide six of of your presentation for the budget you had mentioned like 1.7 million 1 Point 76 on the first uh bit of that I just wasn't
071quite sure where those numbers are from so it says reduction of state aid of 1.6 or 1.76 compared to the original projected reduction of 1727 um million uh just I wasn't quite sure where those numbers were from um and then third uh a little different uh I've heard recently I think at one of the Trenton meetings um that they said there's Bill like usually when you want to go on get a bond and get money back from the state when you do capital projects and things like that you have to go to referendum have a bond and then the state would ship in money if it's been approved and things of that nature I was just wondering if any of that has um will be used or available to us for some of the projects
072that we're doing um and if not is it because of timing or are we just not able to do that um I don't know if there's something dealing with howal Reserve like us using the money from that versus something else um that's about it all right thanks to thank you okay seeing no others I will close the first public comment session um we'll now open it up to the board sor thought you're closing it all together um I just want to speak about the calendar from my perspective not only as a board member but as a teacher in a neighboring District um I understand the importance of a schedule that benefits students um and being here on consecutive days however I see nothing more important than the safety uh the safety of children the safety
073of Staff um there is little that can be done to change my opinion on that um in a world in which we have to practice lockdown drills and hide children in corners of the classroom to me there's no reason to have a school building open when we invite the whole public in um two out of the three buildings that are poll sites have the ability to lock outside out most of the doors but one does not and the report did say that that there is a higher um threat when we have people in the schools when there's voting um so I just want to say that my decision is based on your the safety of the staff and the safety of children um and that's all thank you thank you [Music] m is St uh
074like Miss nurse um I I I when I proposed this I it was this I was it was a concern for students and staff you know students are would be in the building for half the day the staff would be there for full day where people from the public coming in um and as a former teacher I was really a stickler for how important instruction was right to the very last day etc etc I really had that as a high priority but security and safety of student and staff is more important um I understand yes there is some disruption but um security is more important than U anything else practically thank you when the uh primary day uh there was a plan in place for June 3 to accommodate primary day and uh when the
075legislature shifted primary day to the 10th was there a problem with just moving the plan for June 3D to June 10th so I think the the option was there to do that but it still would have left people in the buildings during primary day and there's a bunch of board members I think almost didn't realize originally that it was for the last couple years we haven't had any school on primary or or regular election days so when the when this point was raised it was then kind of noticed by more folks and decision was made let's not move it let's just give that day off if in fact we don't use those so that would be the third give back day so if we did have two emergency days we would be forced to be
076open on Election Day but that will be the last option there so we've already used one of the three this I remember also being that switch was made because originally we were supposed to have off June 3 but we decided to work something out so we can close on December 23rd correct correct um because that is what the staff had asked in became a sidebar so I'm not even sure if we voted on it did we vote on it since it went to negotiations yeah it was a sidebar yes it was it was acted on by the board we voted yes so I don't even remember what I voted on if I voted yes or no I that would have been difficult but now this this because we were also told that it would be
077as safe as possible and I am glad that we have the security that we do have now but they are also unarmed there are ALS so police that cannot be within a th000 feet or however many feet of the buildings so in seeing the report in black and white and maybe that's something if you're interested I don't know if it could be shared or not but no it did not say that it was 100% safe so okay seeing no other board comments we will move to the action agenda can I can I just make one comment I know it's not a back and forth but uh there was a question about the curriculum because this applies to everyone um by the end of this meeting I'll have that curriculum on there right now the board
078members can see it it's under administrative content it was just clicked on the wrong button essentially and we'll fix that before this meeting is over tonight okay thank you we move on to 11 the action agenda thank you I ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions um in the area of Education professional travel related expenses uh travel and related expenses for a board member affirming the superintendent's HIV determinations approving the revised Mathematics Curriculum which I will make sure is public facing and viewing approving overnight trips the submission of the Grant application to New Jersey stems pathway Network approving curriculum writing approving the 2425 District calendar and continuing the long-term suspension of students as well as one you have to read in Mr President there's a walk-on 1110 be resolved at the Hillsboro
079Township Board of Education here and referred to as the board hereby adopts the recommendation of the superintendent to continue the suspension of a student whose name is on file in the superintendent's office until the next regular meeting of the board as more specifically set forth in the resolution that is attached here to and made a part here of be it further resolved that the superintendent is requested to provide the student family with a written statement of the board's decision together with a copy of this resolution I'll take a motion a second so Mo second any discussion on the action agenda before we vote than see now we'll move to rooll oh sorry Miss that's I apologize regarding the overnight trips I I will vote Yes for it but I still am concerned about um you
080know when when it does take up days of instruction and also the cost to students and when when some of these uh are occur over multiple times um but that's something I think we need to pursue via policy understood thank you no others okay we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson Africa trip and then I am a no on 11.2 Miss Craig yes Miss Ling yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats uh abstain for 11.2 and yes for everything else Mr Hill yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes thank you in the area of hum Human Resources I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions resignations and retirements appointments change in employment status leaves of absence approve and resend AP Proctors revised Mentor TurnKey trainer co-curricular advisors and
081coaches approving six and seven period coverage extra coverage spring athletic camp summer athletic Camps summer enrichment program staff the extended school year program staff and the approve to approve the development of the comprehensive Equity plan for 2025 through 2028 can I get a motion in second so move second any discussion by the board before we vote all right seeing none we'll move the all Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss lenning beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats yes Mr Hill yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes thank you in the area of operations I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions the 2526 tenative budget health benefits waiver the resolution for travel reimbursement expenses and maximum travel for 2526 the Professional Services maximum expenditures for
082the 2526 school year capital reserve withdrawal for the 2526 budget maintenance Reserve withdrawal for the 2526 budget the corrective action plan for semi monthly bills monthly financials financial status line item transfers the Somerset County Educational Services Commission 20 2526 agreement for participation in coordinated transportation services the resolution agreement with Somerset County Educational Services Commission for non-public instructional services for 2526 out of District placements for 2425 designation of signatur signatories motion to accept donation motion to approve the disposal sale of obsolete equipment approving the change order of weather proofing Technologies for roof restoration at w woodfern Elementary School approve change orders with Amco for contract C approve the cap tuition rate of 675 for the 2526 school year and approve the non-public security aid technology expenditures I would just like to point out that in the
083uh donations to thank the uh Hillsboro baseball booster club for their generous donation uh for potentially working on that field after board approval all right can I get a motion in a second so move second any discussion by the board seeing none move to rooll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes M Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes M STS yes Mr H yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes any area policies and regulations I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following uh policies and regulations reviewed by the education committee for second reading policies and regulations reviewed by the operations committee for first reading and improve policy for second reading as reviewed by the ad hoc and HR committee can I get a motion in second so move
084second any discussion by the board seeing none we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss Lanning beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes M stats yes Mr H yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes we'll now move on to the second public comment period you very much welcome in from the public during board meetings there'll be 2:30 periods of time that the meeting will be open public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they're attending in person during the second public comment period members of the public May comment any school or School District issue the member of the public Fields may be of concerning the residence of the school district as per bylaw 0167 before you state your comment you'll
085be asked to provide your name and address there's a three minute limit on public comment please understand that our public forms are not structured as question answer sessions but rather offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board inance where the board believes there's a misunderstanding or accuracy the board president superintendent will address the comment dur any time when the member of the public makes a comment ask a question about personal hiring decisions kind not the open public meetings Act and the Privacy rights of public employ that comes their ended up at the board to discuss personal issues of public session Josh camsey Hillsboro resident uh so last week thanks to the NJ GPA testing at the high school The Freshman sophomores seniors could all start their day with a 2-hour delay uh this
086meant that our freshmen and many other students uh could sleep until 8: am instead of our student usually waking up at 6 uh this served as a great natural experiment for healthy school hours we saw a notable improvement in our own freshman's concentration mood and energy uh because they could sleep to an hour that's much more compatible with their circadian rhythm I suspect uh many other parents of many other high schoolers uh had a similar experience I hope that uh this will encourage this will this experiment will serve the national experiment will serve as a uh encouragement for htps to continue to work towards healthy school hours um as last week gave us a lovely sneak preview of its many benefits thank you thank you for your comment hi Amy C UT Intermediate School ha
087treasur um just regarding the calendar I respect the decision that was made by the board but I just want to to be cautious about using language about 100% safe because I don't think that that's ever true on any given day um we have students outside for recess for two hours a day here gym class we invite parents in for assemblies for concerts for you know anything like a board meeting like this we have students at that so while I respect the decision even though I disagree with it I just think we should be cautious about saying things like 100% safety because unfortunately in the world we live in that's just not true thank you thanks for your comment Henry good Hugh Hillsboro Education Association um just as a matter of clarification there was a comment
088made about oh that that we've never been open on primary day which is factually incorrect because most of the times that we were open our staff were told that it wasn't safe and I'll put that in quotations to have the students there so we were having staff days so staff were put into buildings and this was prior to us making investments in insecurity prior to us investing in man traps and all kinds of other things or person traps out in front of buildings and we were told it was okay for our members to be here so when we talk about safety and we talk about the things that we need to do I just think that as a matter of record that needs to be on there and I would also note that yes we
089could have easily switched that we would have not been opposed to any of that at all um but I think when we have these conversations it's important that the public have all of those facts you know there is nothing as as Amy said there is no 100% anything but if we're talking about statements of we've never been in here on primary day that is factually incorrect because hundreds of my members have been in these buildings on primary day prior to any of these conversations taking place and I'm not saying you disregarded their safety please understand that I'm just saying that did not factor into any of those decisions at that time thank you thank you for your comment I'll just add uh there was no 100% I know I think that comment was made we
090understand there's no such thing as 100% security ever uh the comment that we made was that since I know at least since Cindy and I've been the board we've been Advocates of closing school on election days we moved in that direction and somebody did point out to us I think about a year or so ago well you're leaving it open for the staff like what what what gives so we had this discussion this year the original discussion was do we switch it and then give the day off to the students the answer was no we don't want anyone of the buildings when there's an election day so that thought is is in our mind and the reason we didn't even attempt to switch the third and the 10th and then give the students off and
091leave the teachers in were for that specific point because we didn't want anyone in the buildings that didn't need to be there on those days I just want to chime in also that my assumption was when students had off and staff were here that they were not at the buildings that um were polling sites that would that was the logic for me of that they were dispersed into other buildings so I'm sorry for that assumption we learned a lot as we were talking but we will you know as Mr Marini said we have both been very um vocal about safety and everything so um and I've been also fighting for it in Bridgewater with the same assumptions um and find out until later that that didn't happen at all of the buildings either so as
092long as I'm here and I'm on the board it would be for staff and student safety is are both equally important um and if we were in that situation again where we were bringing in staff but keeping students at home for a given reason like school safety that it would be something that I would be advocating for that the staff is at buildings that have the safest that are safe and are closed off from the public Jean Bates teacher at Amsterdam school and haa secretary um I understand that thought process but if you look at next year's calendar which has already been approved we are in school during the election um there is an in service so just to keep that in mind that if you want to make statements like that it would be
093nice to have it consistent across calendars from year to year thanks so much all right seeing no others I'm going to close public comment and I'll say that those comments are taken on advisement as we look at calendar updates from year to year uh we've closed public comment any board members you'd like to make any additional comments before we close the um I just wanted to Echo Mr vuli and Mr Marini's statements about the girls basketball championship at the beginning of the meeting um one of my best friends plays on the team so I can assure you that the student pop population is also very excited about this I would also like to highlight some other student accomplishments um the HHS HHS choir went to the Titan Tournament of choirs last weekend I think and
094they won best vocal repertoire and the grand prize as well as one of our students one best soloist the future Business Leaders of America also went to Atlantic City for the um I think it was the sa this last week a lot of students won first place and are moving on to Nationals in June or July um and there was also an inspiration performance this past Saturday or yeah Saturday um it was basically an Indian dance performance and singing performance which a lot of members of the community as well as I think one of the township committee members attended um and it was just a Showcase of the diversity of cultures within our community um in addition I just wanted to bring up one problem that students had addressed with me um within Hillsboro High
095School a lot of our seniors who have late arrivals are forced to park on the grass behind the H uh the football parking lot because there's overp parking or students are unnecessarily taking up spots um I got to meet with Mr doolo and another student Victoria byra this past week to discuss this problem and um we learned that there's a new staff member that's being hired to oversee parking permits and make sure that there's no old or unnecessary use of parking lots and we're going to meet again in a couple months to check up on that thank you thanks for the update Miss St I just want to say I attended um a performance of Pippen at the high school and of course as always lots of great talent that acting singing dancing was amazing
096um also Mr H and I attended the uh unsung heroes event at uh put on by somerson County School Board Association and that was to honor Connor Oran um who's also uh uh been in a lot of the uh shows put on at Hillsboro High School and on March 6 um I was Staffing a burough safe table at the ours talent show here and uh so I was able to see some of the talent and it is amazing at that age how much talent we have in so many different ways like piano playing dancing singing it's great miss nurse yep I'm sorry to beat a dead horse if some people are thinking that but I just want to go back I'm going to talk about calendars because sometimes I'm in the minority sometimes I'm not
097but in looking at next year's calendar I've been an advocate for not having election day in school um it'll most likely be looked at again as we draw closer um because we're in a year next year where there were I was told that there were certain things that we could probably not do because there were so many um holidays that we put on the calendar but there will be something that needs to be I feel needs to be looked at and if that's looked at that'll be the uh Ed committee we can look ated committee yeah y then if I could just make a comment unless any board members had anything else I just wanted to say one last thing I know my budget presentation was a downer and I kind of want to leave
098on a higho we have so much good stuff going on in the school district despite of State funding I'll be mad at the state and I'll be mad at the funding but my staff members do some of of whom are here uh on a daily basis continues to inspire me we've got a great student leader sitting right here and also on April 7th uh and I'm going to be working on this more with Mr Davis moving forward we're going to be honoring some really great student athletes who who really accomplished tremendous things so I'm looking forward to that April 7eventh board meeting and then in May or late April or May we're going to be recognizing some of our teachers and staff members who won awards as the HR committee has wanted to do for
099several years so we are still doing great things here in Hillsboro and it amazes me that we can do that in spite of our lack of resources so yeah yeah I'm down about the budget yeah there's work that needs to be done with that but we we do a a fantastic job here and I can't wait to recognize those students next month and I can't wait to recognize those staff members uh after that so it's not all gloom and doom because we do a hell of a job here that's all Mr President all right see no others I'll take a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor thank you