001Public notice of this meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press on January 14th, 2025 and notice was provided to central jersey.com on January 9th, 2020. Notice has been posted in accordance with the Opal Public Meetings Act of 1975, chapter 231, effective January 16th, 1976 in the board office, 370 Broad Street. A copy of this notice is also on file in the office of the burough clerk. Members of the public wishing to address the board of education on both agenda and non-aggenda items must name, address, and request to limit their comments to five minutes when it appears the public comment portion of exceed 30 minutes in duration. The public participation portion of this meeting open to citizens for the purpose of addressing agenda and non-aggenda items. Issues raised by members of the public might require
002review and investigation and may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of individuals. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and staff have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by any member of the public. Tape recorded for purpose of board review and future reference and to assist in the preparation. Barcodes are available at each board meeting to access the agenda. Uh Mr. Roll a roll call, please. Mrs. Abrahamson
003here. Miss Cunningham here. Mr. Papopoulos here. Mrs. Grabowski here. Mr. Houseman here. Miss Caheen here. Mr. Stall here. Mr. Staley here. Mrs. Teas here. Ben Hton. We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh we have no student representative this evening or uh so president's remarks uh board members were able to attend the fifth grade science fair and see all of the student experiments were also able to attend the fourth grade wax museum. There was a vast variety of per Miss Gravowski and myself attended the equity expo last Friday and it was a great day of learning and really fantastic attended the school public relations forum at the beginning of this month. Community engagement has been something our board has been striving to obtain for quite some time. Although this wasn't our ideal vision of how the
004engagement would occur, we are happy that you are all here and that you are engaging, participating, and taking part in our school. Our hope is post the tax incentive levy that we will still have community involvement and in our uh schoolboard meeting. The board will be having additional detailed conversation regarding the tax incentive levy. information will be uh comma we received a letter of retirement for Suzanne McCauley, Eileen Gonzalez and two uh resignations from Nicholas Bolero and Kimberly Lake. Um public participation on agenda items. comments pertaining to any item that is listed on the agenda. Uh Dr. Seavoya, superintendent report. We're proud to announce that we received preliminary award for our second expanding computer science high school grant totaling $41,9498. This funding will support a summer computer science event, provide essential materials and resources, and
005other professional development for our teachers. Additionally, the grant will enable the district to sponsor one teacher's pursuit of a computer science certification um if they so choose. The plant and paint event on April 29th will be a family event from 6:00 to 7:00 at Central School. It's a part of our climate awareness initiative. Students and guardians will paint their own flower pot and paint something special to take home and watch grow. This month during professional learning communities, teachers collaborated to create lesson plans in order for us to meet our district sustainability goals. During April, Keeport public schools will participate in action of Earth Day in recognition of Earth Day 2025. The DOE, NJDOE, has invited New Jersey school districts to participate in month-long action for the Earth uh for Earth in April 2025 and celebration
006challenges New Jersey school districts to plan and share activities. In fact, tomorrow we have Miss Manganelli coordinating a wonderful day. So, I hope some board members can make it and visit. Um, in addition, there's a more newsletter that updates you on the year-long climate grant that's linked. Um, and in addition, the DO the New Jersey Department of Education has released mandatory literacy legislation for implementation in the fall of this year. The LER has been established to transform New Jerseys approach to literacy instruction in grades preK to 8 and pre uh keyboard public schools is in great shape for implementation. We're proud to of the work we've already done. Um, and I want to most certainly recognize Miss Bakoval and Miss White for working with the teachers at Central School during the grade level meetings this
007month to prepare. Uh, AI update. The AI team is working on the newest initiatives in regards to AI education at KS. Mr. Waters and Miss um, White attended a conference at Brookdale this week which was phenomenal. Um, in addition, we're working on our handbook for teachers. Um, and they went to Trenton again. I'm sorry that they went to Brookdale. They went to Trenton this week. Um, this is autism awareness month and this week we're having spirit week during which students and staff were asked to wear blue on Wednesday and support keyboard gear on Fridays to show unity. Um, there is also a book collection, the teachers for fiction and non-fiction, a bulletin board, etc. uh the self- assessment validation system savves is our self-reporting mechanism for preschool and uh Miss Bully will be submitting that
008on behalf of the district. And in addition, uh Keyboard High School robotics and e- gaming clubs will host a district event on May 13th from 6:00 to 7:00. Families are invited to code, create, and game with our students. Flyer is uh published and it's going to be linked to this report as well. Um, congratulations to our perfect attendance winners for March, Miss Marisel Camper and Mr. Ken Marvulli. Uh, I will be covering PE and um, preK again. So, um, they very much so appreciated of that small token. Um, let's see. Mr. Bati Berna, I will speak to you about something in close session that the person has been rised for. In addition, HIV. There was a new incident of HIV reported at central and zero at KHS. Since we met on the 19th, both the
009previous incident at KCS and the newest incident were unfounded. Incident KHS was founded. Consequences and services are provided as per policy 5512 and 5560. Um on the 7th of this month, uh we had held a meeting, a remote meeting with Declan Oscalin. Miss Grabowski, Miss Cunningham, and myself were on there along with that Oscan, the Union Beach district mayor as deputy mayor, Keyport mayor and business administrator along with council member person Merilla and Beckio. Uh Mr. uh Ocalan will schedule a follow-up meeting for us, but this is just an ongoing pursuit of what the district has been trying to accomplish. uh the FAQ sheet. I did make some hard copies based on uh information from the last meeting that are here for people to access, but it is also updated online. Um in addition, uh
010policy 0164 is on the agenda for our first reading. What that does is that modifies our um order of the agenda items that was out of date. So we had to revise such and then um please note that on May 22nd and 23rd the district calendar will be revised for the lack of snow days and you the board will take action along on that on the 28th along with uh collective bargaining agreements for all three unions uh personnel for 25 26. Um so that will all be on the agenda on the 28th. Um, lastly, the KF is hosting a 5050 for $10 each. Um, oh, I'm sorry. I'm saying on the agenda for the 30th. I apologize. Um, the KF is hosting a 50/50 super raffle for $10 each. The It will be pulled on
011awards night, not at graduation. So, if you do purchase a ticket, know that we will pull it at the night the scholarships are offered. And a huge thank you also to the KF for hosting our first summer instrumental program. Mr. Sheets and Mr. Aragonus will be providing uh music lessons and the KF is hosting that. So very much so. Thank you for that. In addition, there's a variety of events coming up. Um and we do have close session this evening. Madam President, thank you. Mr. Aola, board secretary report, buildings and grounds and finance. Uh yes. Um just want to review this is a workshop meeting. So, uh, I want to review, uh, some of the motions that we will be approving at the next meeting, uh, which is April 30th. Um, we do have a
012number of requests under buildings and grounds, uh, by the Beayshore, uh, Bucks, that's both the program and football program. Um underneath uh finance um excuse me 10.3 is continuing our agreement with uh Phoenix advisors uh which is uh there are adviserss who who are disclosures for us uh regarding our our uh bonds we have u registering for the school board's workshop in uh October uh we do it now we get a discount uh we are also agreeing a contract with 2000 approving AI grant $75,000. We're accepting a $300 donation uh from Burough of Union Beach for the high school baseball team. We're going to be approving uh safety grant uh for $2,000 to add some extra uh cameras to the district. Uh we are approving the amendment of IDEIDA grant. It's for the same amount.
013Uh just there were some supplies that needed to be purchased and we needed to make some adjustments uh to the grant. Uh approving uh renewing contract with Machios and then we have uh some transfers next week. Uh that's excuse me not next week or close next week the week after next. Those are the motions will be approved. Thank you. Dr. Seavoya, curriculum, personnel, and policy. Okay. The uh security drills HIV from the previous month. Uh one hour bilingual uh council advisory. We're also approving uh an 115 dibbles, which is our dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills. We're going to be providing professional development on that. that goes in line with um implementing the standards for September and literacy. Um in addition, there is professional development for both Mr. Rapola and I. Um there are
014some class trips for the board to approve. There's the SAVs that I spoke about in my report and the pyramid model consortium professional development on May 22nd for our prek teachers. There's professional development from Kiker Learning as well for that day. And there's a title one uh event on 11.11, but I need to add the teachers names to that. I see that they're missing. This is a workshop meeting, so add a put up, but that's on there. Um the next one motion to approve and personnel. We have uh the retirements and the resignations I spoke to in communication. In addition, we have volunteer couple of volunteer actually several volunteers in there. also the approval um for some teachers to teach an extra period and two additional substitutes uh for approval. In addition, lastly, we have
01513.1, which is the policy that I spoke to in my superintendent report. Thank you. Uh old business, new business, public participation on non-aggenda items. Hey everybody, Alyssa Pakora, 106 Chingurora Avenue. Um, so you know, I was at the last meeting, uh, and, uh, I can see that all of you guys really care about the kids. Um, and uh, I understood the problems that you guys were outlining with the chronic underfunding of our public schools, and I understand it firsthand because uh, for 32 years I was a public schooler. So, uh, I know what you're going through and I do not envy uh, the decisions that you've had to make. Uh and I do want to actually come out and say that uh I have been online and I have been appalled by the suggestions of
016violence that I've seen from uh certain members of the community and uh you know I would call on uh my neighbors to stand up against any such suggestions. It has no place in this kind of public discourse and I'm sure I don't need to tell you but I would encourage you know anybody who gets even a hint of that to to contact the police. um you know and you know the other reality that is is obvious is that most people can't afford to pay much more in taxes right and so I I know if I I know that this is just for talking and not for questioning and I tend to question so just ignore me I'll pretend they're statements okay um but um so I had read that the public can uh ex expect
017a $500 average increase in taxes I'm not sure if that's correct or that's not. Um I I think that that might be too high for most of us. And so I would encourage you guys to to think of creative solutions and I'm sure that you have and I've approached a couple board members already. Um in the last presentation that Dr. Seavoya gave uh I did notice that there was a charge for transportation that was over a million dollars even though we are a walking district. And so the suggestion that I had given to a couple of people was um in uh 2021 the city of Camden uh was facing a bus driver shortage and um so what they did to tackle that was they incentivized parents to drive their own kids to school. They offered
018them $1,000 which sounds to me like it would be way cheaper. Uh, so I don't know what impediments are in the way of doing something like that, but to me that sounds like a good solution that could actually save a lot of money. Um, and I also agree with the payto-play suggestion for sports that somebody had made last meeting. Um, and uh I would also ask uh and maybe before you make whatever your final decision is going to be for you guys to clearly illustrate to the public exactly what is going to be lost or to be gained. You know, what is it that that uh is what's going to happen with our kids? What will they have? What will they not have depending on which budget gets gets approved? I think people need to
019see that kind of thing clearly. Um and um one other thing from the last meeting a lot of people were complaining about low scores and uh this is another thing that's a question but again just you know I don't expect you to answer but um I had heard that the Kier school is a special education school that we we send our our kids to and I also I don't know if this is true or not but I had heard that they are the only school who actually sends their scores back to be averaged with ours. Now, if that's true, what effect does that averaging have in have uh when it's mixed in with the scores from keyboard high school? And that might be something that should be probably changed. So, there's that. Um, and uh,
020finally, the the last uh, suggestion that I thought was a good one last meeting was uh, somebody had come up and and asked uh, if it would be helpful for community volunteers to take over some of maybe the previously paid positions and I understand too. I worked in the public school system. I know how you can't just drag people in off the street and I know I know how that works. Um however uh if there is any way uh you know I would encourage you guys to look at that and I did one of the things that I did do for over three decades is help improve kids test scores. So if there is anything at all that I can any way that I can be of use to this school district I'm happy to
021volunteer and uh you know thank you all for your service and hang in there. Thank you. Sir White, 90 Fton Street here in Keyport. I am a taxpayer. If you guys don't mind, I'll So I'm an employee here. I'm a social worker on the child study team here. I had I came today to say something because the community constant badgers this board and this supervis superintendent of the school district. None of you know how much that won't everyday basis our children not only for our children supporting our staff and supporting our parents. Do I like the tax increase? No, I don't. But I understand why we need I understand our kids not have everything that they should. Other thing at one point when we controvers mascot, this room is never filled with there's plenty of
022times I've come to this meeting and it's only me sitting in this audience. Where are you when they're talking about those test scores? Where are you when I'm doing a meeting? I can tell you this right now. All the kids that I case manage, I can count on two fingers, two hands. How many parents come to a meeting? How many parents are involved? Very few. Very few. I call, I beg, come. These issues are going on and no one steps up and comes. I just wanted to get up here because I wanted to support this board for you and my administration administrative team because they do a lot behind the scenes that you do not know. All the badgering on all that is appalling as you said it is very appalling. I hope moving forward
023people will attend these meetings, understand what's going on, and be a part of it. Not come out when there's a little thing going on that you don't like. Be a part of it at all times. And that's all. Thank you. Jennifer Williams, 67 Church Street. Um, I like you have been one of the only people in attendance from the public for I would say maybe six months to a year. Um when I brought up anything, it was always addressed. Um I do want to say that I piggyback what you're saying. What's going on with social media is atrocious. Um just looking at how many people are here tonight versus last time and the fact that people are saying we're going to look at the budget for you which is ridiculous that they're going to micromanage
024how you've been running a school for years is deplorable honestly. Um the increase is not easy for anybody but we know that things have to happen but we als not everyone last week was about approving applying for that extension. I don't think many people realize that that does not mean that you're going to go up. I know Mr. Houseman questioned that last week before you closed and said that does not mean we're going up 12%. there are cuts that are going to be made and they're going to be hard and I understand that from all of you and I don't envy the position you're in that you're going to have to cut things and nobody's going to be happy no matter what you do. So please know there are people that support the work that
025you do all the time. Um, I also think that some of this needs to come down on the burrow that we're not the only ones with a tax increase here and I think shifting the blame to the board of ed is not necessarily fair. Um, and the fact that there are people meeting and trying to get people to meet to talk about how you all can do your job. I am one person that has been coming for years and I have every time I've reached out to the school I've gotten responses whether it's from Mr. Waters, Mr. Rapola, Dr. Seavoya, everything has been mutually respectful even if we disagree. It's always been an open communication and I think people need to communicate always and not just when it's going to hit their piggy bank or
026sports or a mascot. So, thank you for what you do. I hope everything can go seamlessly, but heads on pitchforks is not appropriate. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public participation? I know you all do a very good job. Uh, can you just state your name and your My name is Frank Martin. I live on uh Second Street, 205 Second Street. Um, I'm a veteran, but I'm also a retiree, and I'm concerned about what's going to happen to me with my taxes because we live on a fixed income. Uh, I don't have any children in the school here or grandchildren, but I do appreciate what you do and I appreciate what the school does, but it's going to hurt me and it's going to hurt a lot of people that don't come to meetings. I
027It's first time I've ever been to one of your meetings. Um, but the reason I came is because I have concern about that because every time they increase the taxes in our in our city, as a matter of fact, we are only one of the few towns in the state and especially in the county that increases our taxes and has an assessment every year which has to be stopped. Has nothing to do with you, but it hurts someone like me and my wife. who live on a fixed income. And I know there's a lot of other people in town who live on fixed income and it's going to hurt us because they don't come to these meetings because they don't have any children involved. But I don't know what's going on in on social media
028and I don't want anybody to disrespect any of you, but uh you can hear my plate um it's going to hurt us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Patrick 313 Main Street. Good evening. Uh, I really like the respectful tone that, you know, that I'm hearing tonight from people. Um, I do think that the board overall is is financially, you know, responsible. Um, you know, I personally think this this particular um potential tax hike is is is too much. um as you know, but uh I think I I think it's I think it's too rushed. Um I think we also don't know what's going to happen with a new governor um in the administration funding formula. You know, we we could be, you know, hypothetically uh funded uh to the to the
029level we're supposed to, you know, but we're sort of, you know, if we push it off to our taxpayers right now, oh, they're not they're not underfunded anymore. they're, you know, they're fine. Okay. Well, million dollars a a year later. But um you know I think another another thing that that came to mind to me when I've first you know heard about the potential taxation is that you know seven years ago um you know we had a referendum and we or you I wasn't on the board at the time but you know you made the case for what needed to be done and people considered it and they voted yes for it in a um you know in a landslide basically. So, um, you know, I I think people probably remember that and the fact
030is we're, you know, we're paying half a million dollars a year on on that debt. Uh, and, you know, it's uh that's that's what I would consider a a fair way to, you know, I I get in a way it's it's like the bureau doesn't have to do that. I get that. But, you know, for as long as I can remember, that's, you know, we get the 2% for the school, we get to, you know, raise it a little bit for the health care cost. Um, but, you know, I think that's where, you know, I I was a little shocked. Um, I I've never seen a turnout like that at a meeting like last time. It's it's clear where the community stands on this. I understand you're going to have to make hard cuts, you
031know, difficult cuts. um get, you know, get creative in certain ways. Um but again, I just I think that um there can be it doesn't have to be as high at least. Um that that would that would go a long way in I guess you know the respect of the you know the community not feeling like they haven't been listened to. Let's thank you for your time. Thank you. Elmer J, excuse me, Elmer J. Graham Jr., 22 St. Peters Place. Good evening, Dr. Seavoya, members of the board, and uh I give you all a lot of credit. you you do do a good job and everything like that and you very much care about the kids in this beautiful burrow of keyboard. However, the I think the 12.5% proposed tax hike is is not a
032good thing especially for our working families in the bureau of Kport. There are people of course who work in our beautiful burrow of kport and who can't afford this and everything like that. Some of them unfortunately work more than one job and stuff like that and they have families and everything like that. Now what I would suggest is that you take a look at this budget that you have and the past budgets that you have and see what see what you can do without in those budgets and everything like that. you know, I'm sure there's some items that just can do without and um let's try to try to avoid see if we can avoid this tax increase, proposed tax increase and stuff like that. And that's what I have to say. Thank you. Thank
033you. Any other public comments? So, uh, Joe Connley, 169 Theres Avenue. Um, do you guys I'm sure you've been crunching numbers last week, obviously. You have any idea exactly what the in the percentage increase is going to be because I have to like, you know, adjust my budget, too. Just a reminder that we're only accepting comments as part of this. It's not a question and answer session. So, feel free to ask your question if you do, but at some point a response will be provided to you. Not necessarily tonight. So you can continue commenting for five minutes. So you don't have an you don't have an answer right now. We do not have an answer right now. Okay. Well, that's an answer. Okay. Um I hoping that you can tell the community when you do
034have like some kind of an idea because like I don't know if I'm going to like I got to cut my internet. I already don't have I don't I have a lot that I don't do. My budget is really low. I can barely afford groceries. So, if you let me know what, you know, what are we going to do? I guess it's not going to be 20%. I don't know if it's going to be 12%. You know, I don't know if it's going to be 10%, 6%, that's still high. If it's like three, four, that's like, you know, I can work with that, you know, and then if you let us know what um what exactly is going to be cut and what what that money is going to be used for, it's going to
035make me feel good, you know, about paying that whatever it is going to be with in the taxes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Mr. Connelly, can you please give me your address again? I'm sorry I missed it. Sure. It's 169 Theres Avenue. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public participation? Uh so we by the key board of education as per chapter 231 PL1975 um 17-11 that hereby determine that it is necessary to meet in executive session on April 16th 2025 to discuss personnel finance contract negotiations. Can I have a motion to executive session? Second. Second. All in favor? Okay, we are back in open session. We are going to go back to old business from our session um discussion. So start the convers Mics are on there. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I want to
036start out by saying that none of us are happy we're I I think I can speak for all of us when I say none of us are happy that we're we have to make this decision. Um but uh you know given given the history given the 10 given the 2% cap that we've had to deal with since 2010 uh we do find ourselves into in the position that we're in. I'm proud of the board for the discussions uh that we have had. Um and um I'm also encouraged by some of the feedback that we received tonight from the public and it does reflect some of the feedback that I've gotten privately uh from other citizens in the burrow as well. Um, we are looking, as we always do, with a fine tooth comb as to
037what we can and can't or shouldn't do in order to make this a much more palatable uh increase, if you will, for the public. Not saying I'm not saying that, Madam President, I'm not saying at all that it's going to be easy for anybody. Uh, but I am saying that if we take as a as a community, I would I would ask that we take a step back and we really take a look at why we're having to do and look at how it's going to benefit students. We have dealt with shoestring budget for years while in fact the burrow has raised taxes inordinately. in my humble opinion uh do you need to increase do you need to take this opportunity and I'm looking forward to further discussions public and the burrow the burrow and
038my and other citizens One of the things that's on my mind is I'm thinking about academ the achievement and growth project project progress that we've seen been reported been reported to us from the administration on well strives making specifically uh our younger students. data is there and so I I want us to fund operation so that we can continue the progress we are making and also in recognition to the efforts of our students and our administrator staff who are so committed to the success of I want we have a school that our community can be proud of. Hope that I would I I support just making sure that we're funded so that we can continue to progress. So I think that we all decided really put in a lot of work to see, thinking things,
039listening to other people, going through what we know is challenging. Um, and that we are trying to make best everyone involved, not sacrificing our student education. Um our next steps everyone send me their comments by Monday the will have a presentation at the board meeting for what we are going to add and or cut with taxive levy that we uh Motion second. All in favor?