Miilstone Twp. Board of Education Meeting - April 28, 2026

001In compliance with the open public meetings law of New Jersey, PL 1975 [clears throat] CH 231, adequate notice of this meeting was provided on January 11, 2026 by sending notification to the Asbury Park Press, Trenton Times, posting at each district school, township clerk. Please rise for the national anthem sung by our fifth grade students. >> [singing] [singing] >> Beautiful. Please remain standing for the singing of God Bless America, also by our middle school students. >> [singing] [singing] >> Beautiful. Please remain standing for Pledge of Allegiance. Ready? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mr. Pedulla, can we have roll call, please? Sure. In compliance with the Open Public Meetings

002Act of New Jersey, Public Law 1975 Chapter 231, adequate notice of this meeting was provided on January 11, 2026 by sending notification to the Asbury Park Press, Trenton Times, posting at each district school, and with the township clerk. Uh roll call, Mr. Winouski? Ms. Weinkopf? Here. Ms. Reese? Here. Ms. Kinsey? Here. Mr. Gigantino? Here. Mr. Signorello? Here. Mr. Carr? Here. Uh Vice President Ramos? Here. And President Ziccardi? Here. Uh we have a quorum. Before we move on, uh I'd like to make a statement. For those of you who may not know, Jose, our director of security, his [clears throat] mother, Luz Lopez, recently passed away. I attended the wake in North, New Jersey, and had the pleasure of meeting Jose's beautiful family. Although there was sadness with the passing of Luz Lopez, a mother, a

003grandmother, and a friend, I saw a celebration of her life. To me, that was beautiful. It was obvious that she was loved and respected. At this time, I would like to have a moment of silence for Luz Lopez. May her soul rest in peace. Thank you very much. Before we move on, I'd like to ask Mrs. Ramos if she can please move HR 1A action item and then a second after she reads it. Uh on behalf of the board, we approve Steve Robinson as board office interim business administrator board secretary. May I have a second? I have one. All in favor? We You should do a roll call. Roll call? Mr. Winouski? Ms. Weinkopf? Uh yes. Ms. Reese? Yes. >> [clears throat] >> Ms. Kinsey? Yes. Mr. Gigantino? Yes. Mr. Signorello? Yes. Mr. Carr? Yes.

004Vice President Ramos? Yes. And Dr. Ziccardi? Yes. Motion carried. Steve, please take your seat up front. This is our new BA, Steve Robinson. Welcome, Steve. >> [applause] >> Before we move on with the administrative report, uh I need to have a motion on two things. One, to move our May 19th board meeting to May 12th, and second, on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, to table H and Finance item number 13 on the shift health plan. Steve, would you do that with a motion or Uh yes. You have a motion? Anybody motion to move? I'll I'll second the motion, but I have a question. Why are we What reason are we moving the meeting? Uh by statute, we need to notify all non-tenured faculty by May 15th in writing, and we need to have

005a board approval before the May 15th, so our May 19th meeting would have been after we're allowed to. Okay, no problem. Okay, we had a second by Christina. I guess I I made the motion. Is the motion both of those at the same time? Yes. Okay. Steve? Okay. Mr. Carr? Yes. Mr. Signorello? Yes. Ms. Kinsey? Yes. Mr. Winouski? Ms. Ms. Reese? Yes. Ms. Weinkopf? Yes. Mr. Gigan- Gigan- Gigantino? Yes. Dr. Ziccardi? Yes. Ms. Ramos? Yes. I guess it passed, right? It passed. At this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. McCarty for his administrative report. All right, I have a few things to present tonight. I'm going to start out with Mrs. Kalish's career lab slideshow. So, if Kevin can put that up. Uh tonight we [clears throat] asked the career lab, uh our middle

006school students, to provide catering for our board meeting for our board We spreadsheet board. Uh for the board, and we also wanted them to the students to share the work they do in the career lab. So, they put together a slideshow for us that they narrated cuz they couldn't be here tonight to join us. Uh so, we're going to share the slides um when when we're ready to give you an overview of what the career lab does and how how it impacts our students and all the amazing things that happen in that classroom, uh and to thank them for their their efforts and and hard work putting together tonight's uh food for the board. So, if we can start with slide one. We use spreadsheets to organize and review customer orders, which helps us practice

007math and technology skills. We fill different orders based on what customers need, such as organizing t-shirts for seventh and eighth grade trips. We work together to assemble, package, and deliver the orders while building teamwork, communication, and pre-vocational skills that prepare us for real jobs. We keep track of inventory stock, product, and expiration dates, which helps us practice organization and attention to detail. We We also work on register skills and handling money. Learning important customer service and math skills. We also create advertisements for holidays and events, which lets us practice marketing, creativity, and communication skills that are useful in a lot of different jobs, not just the floral. We create and send out order forms, order the flowers needed, and then design and make the arrangements based on a prototype, for example. While working with live

008flowers, we troubleshoot any problems that come up to make sure everything turns out right. We also study our sales trends and compare prices in the industry, which helps us practice cost analysis, planning, and problem-solving. Skills like that are useful in many different jobs. We create menus and themes, and then plan the budget based on what our customer wants to spend for the event. Everything is student-run. We develop the menu, prepare the food, and set up and clean up and decorate. We have helped with admin meetings and other events. We hope you enjoy what we've made for you today. South Brunswick Partners in Caring is a program designed to help fight hunger. We help people who are experiencing food insecurities. Every year we partner with Millstone Middle School National Junior Honor Society and the students change

009hunger campaigning campaigning yeah. We run a can can sale which is shopped by students, family and the community to donate canned items. All donations go to fulfill New Jersey. We donate more than 2,500 lbs of food to them every year. As a part of this project, students created and managed a website that reflects our ShopRite store. We set up secure payment options that allow canned canned donation purchases from all over and filled online orders by packaging items and sending dispatch emails. Students organized inventory categories, inventoried all stocks and regularly updated prices on website to reflect inflation. This helped ensure the website stay accurate and realistic just like a real business. Lasagna Love is a program where people make and share meals to help others in their community. We help people who need support whether they

010are sick, have a loss in the family, are struggling financially or just need a meal. For example, last year we helped a family whose house burned down. We learned what foods they liked, what allergies they had and made meals for them and gave them a crock-pot. Hello all. I was asked to share my son's and my experience with Career Lab ShopRite Club and I am glad to do that now. When I found out that my son would have the opportunity to be a part of this program, I was a bit skeptical at first. I liked the idea of him getting an early look at what being a part of the workforce would be like and I loved the financial literacy part of the program. I was very worried however that he was being limited or

011that he would feel limited to having a career working at ShopRite or in retail. I believe this now to be very far from the truth. There is nothing wrong with working in retail. It is an honest day's pay, but I want him to feel free to pursue whatever dreams and goals he may have and I want to have those aspirations supported by the school and teachers and I believe that they are. This is not a limit for my son. It is a stepping stone that he will use to better himself wherever life and career take him. Before he was in this program, I could not imagine him voluntarily staying after school for anything. And now he is eager to stay late two days a week to work with his peers. He enjoys interacting with customers

012and learning all the different jobs that go into running a successful business. I see a confidence in him this year that was not there previously. As for me, I have always wondered why we are not teaching our children how to manage their money, how to read and understand their future pay stubs and what will be expected from them once they are a part of the workforce. Well, Mrs. Kalish and the Career Lab are doing all that and more as well as giving the children the traditional textbook education we expect from middle school. Lastly, I'll just say that I have gone from a skeptic to a full supporter of the Career Lab's mission and if this program has been suggested for your child, I would strongly urge you to give it a chance. You won't regret

013it. We feel lucky to have been able to take advantage of the Career Lab here at Millstone Middle School. We can't say enough about the positive effect this class has had on our son. Mrs. Kalish truly cares about her students and it's evident from the way we have seen our son grow during the last three years. Through ShopRite, he's learned business functions like running a register, customer service, setting prices, ordering inventory, merchandising and so much more. This has given him the confidence to apply for his first job over summer break. It has also made him a very savvy consumer. Blooms, the Career Lab student run business, has given our son the opportunity to compose professional emails, take and fulfill online orders and create products. Mrs. Kalish also teaches the kids essential life skills which every

014kid should learn. Our son has learned about job applications, paychecks, resumes, financial terms and charitable giving to name a few. No matter what career he ends up choosing after college, we are confident that the skills he has learned in Career Lab has provided a practical, solid foundation. I highly recommend the program for kids of all abilities. Hi everyone. This is Mrs. Kalish. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Board of Education as well as our administration, staff and the entire community for recognizing the importance of functional academics and career readiness. Your continued support allows our program to grow and provide meaningful opportunities for our students. We are proud of the progress being made and look forward to expanding our career and technical education offerings. These opportunities help prepare our students to become

015well-rounded individuals equipped with the skills and experiences needed to navigate their futures and explore a variety of career pathways. Thank you again for your ongoing support of our students and our program. A special shout-out to Ms. Reese for consistently supporting our work by purchasing centerpieces from Blooms by Career Lab. Continued investment in career and technical education is essential to ensuring all students have access to meaningful, real-world learning experiences that support their success beyond the classroom. Thank you. >> [applause] >> So Mrs. Mrs. Kalish does plan on sharing this part of the meeting with her students in class to to highlight what was shared. I will say it wasn't just as simple as me just emailing them and asking what and telling them what we would like to order. I I contacted them. I said this

016is what we're thinking. They respond back with a bunch of questions. Do you have a theme in mind? Do you have any dietary restrictions? Any you know, any preferences in in certain items? And then we put together the menu and then they came today to my office and said listen, we we put the food in the refrigerator. This is where you'll find everything. This is what's on the cart. Just make sure you put everything out and like you know, the kids were like making sure I didn't mess up their catering >> [laughter] >> business. So it was it was really really well done. And one of the things that one of the parents said in the AI voice was just preparing these students for the next steps for whatever their lives take them. And I

017think that's one of the most important messages we can say and and how important the Career Lab program is for our students. So good job guys. Thank you for your catering and um we'll be seeing you soon, right? >> [applause] >> Okay. A few other items before we get to the public hearing component. I wanted to share for those who might not know that we had NJ4S Compass of Monmouth County which is a free resource for school districts in Monmouth County come and prevent present a parent evening on raising resilient youth. Again, this was an evening presentation for parents developed by the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide. The Raising Resilient Youth presentation helps caregivers learn how to safely address topics such as mental illness, suicide and substance abuse with their children. The program

018also dispels common myths about mental health and suicide, highlights the importance of helping youth identify trusted adults in their lives and provides information on warning signs and available local resources. So again, this was an opportunity for our parents just to expand their their understanding and knowledge and we're going to continue to look for opportunities to provide educational experiences for our parents. We also had our eighth grade math teachers visit Allentown High School to discuss curriculum goals and alignment as we prepare our students to transition to ninth grade. We have our Q Sac evaluation beginning well already began last week with finance and then it will continue with the site visit on May 13th. At some point between today and May 7th, I believe they will also be coming to visit to look at our facilities.

019They haven't told us yet the date, but I know it's for May May 7th. Our NJ SLA testing is scheduled to begin next week with science, math and English. I'm sorry, science, math and writing. English language arts is scheduled for the following week. Our strategic plan action plans are still being formed. The budget cycle and business office transitions have kind of got us a little behind schedule. I did confirm with Dr. Tien to reserve June 16th to present to the board since the shift of our May meeting which we just approved, not enough time for us to submit the action plans and have have them found together and and produced for the board meeting. I would also like to share that I was announced and I'm going to share this again in the slide that

020we were awarded $67,000 in a grant by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for playground enhancements which is going to be primarily focused on surface repairs, upgrades and mulch fence repairs. Things that aren't maybe our glamorous, but it was grant that we we were able to achieve $67,000. Bless you. Any questions on that before we get into the budget presentation? No? I'll make a motion. Sure. I have a word. I have a word. I have a word. Okay. That's to um Yeah, go ahead. Okay, I'm going to make a motion on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools. The board considered the following proposed motion. That the board approve the opening of the public hearing of the 2026-2027 budget. May I have a second or a question? Kathy? I'll satisfied. Okay. Steve? Mr. Cole?

021Yes. Mr. Mitchell? Mr. Seger now? Seger now. Seger now. Yes. Mrs. Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Reese? Yes. Mr. Weinkopf? Yes. Mr. Gigantino? Yes. Mrs. Ramos? Yes. Dr. Zicker? Yes. All right. So, I'm going to present from over here because I've learned that when I stand at the podium I can't see what the slides say and then I'll lose track of where I'm at. So, I'm here by the camera so my voice should be okay for audio and then you guys can hear me I think okay in the audience. So, for all of you in attendance you're in for a treat because it'll be the second time at least that you're going to hear the budget presentation. The slides I am thankful that before this presentation I went through the slides. You know how like Gemini will

022prompt you, "You want to redesign the slides?" And I did say yes on a bunch of them. So, the information will be the same but it'll look different than the ones you saw in school. So, that's a a nice treat. As a review, our budget calendar had a I feel like we've been talking about budget for half the year. It has been since December, January. We've been kind of looking at what we need to the information we need to gather, freezing the budget in current situation in the current school year, getting our health care costs, getting the audit presentation. These are all on those lines. One of the big benchmarks was March 10th which was the governor's address when the state budget and was going to be was announced and then 2 days later was

023when the state aid numbers were released. >> [clears throat] >> We continued with board presentations through February and March. March 12th the state aid numbers were released. March 24th we presented our budget for preliminary approval to the board. That was then submitted several days later to the county by March 27th. We are now at the public hearing and this was after several presentations, one at each school and a public presentation of the budget in April. I feel like it's important to give context as we look at ourselves not just you know maybe not state wide but county wide what our budget what school districts are faced with as far as tax levy increases and budget decisions. Um we surveyed all Monmouth County school districts. We got 34 responses out of uh 55 districts to 60

024districts. And so, that's pretty good turnaround 50% considering uh of those results about 50 about 50% of them are looking at a budget uh tax levy of over 5.5 and 9.9% increase. Then we go back from to um 11% to 4 to 5% and scale ourselves back. So, you can see about 3/4 of of this of the counties that responded to uh survey are looking at a tax levy of over 2%. And that's you know unique because typically tax levies are capped at 2%. What are the primary drivers? As we all are well aware, uh the cost rising cost of health care are impacting all school districts in the state and so that's one of the biggest factors of what's causing uh budgets to be uh one of the biggest budget drivers. Additionally, contracted salaries,

025special education costs round out the top three impacts. As I mentioned before, you're generally limited to 2% tax uh increase. However, the state there are statutes that allow for you to have a greater increase than 2%. And majority of districts who are going above the 2% cap are using a health care cost adjustment that is allowed uh in comparison of what your health care uh proposed increases are in comparison to what the state health care plan uh increases are. As we look at our budget, we have to consider these important details related to our strategic plan and its development. Uh these were our five goals that were identified through the community um sessions. Our focus on student achievement, social emotional uh wellness of our of our community, financial planning, safety and security, and the community

026communication and connection. So, those are the kind of goals that we have to keep in mind as we make budgetary decisions as we move forward. We are also in the process of uh updating and and making a more robust uh long-range facilities plan. Again, to help us map out costs as we look at infrastructures, the buildings, all the things that we are are surrounded by on a day-to-day basis. That included walk-throughs uh with all all the buildings with the the district architect, uh building principals, um our director of buildings and grounds just to make sure that we're not missing any of the things we need to make sure we include in the plan. We're also working closely with DCO Energy who is basically auditing all of our energy uses and in our facilities to identify

027places and opportunities where we can save money on energy costs that then can be reinvested into the equipment that we need to upgrade like HVAC units for example. Uh so, we've already had that launch meeting in in March. They've been visiting uh periodically you know on a regular basis, you know, checking every electrical room, going on the roof, looking at every unit. Um they'll be continuing their visits. Most of their visits are done outside of school hours so we don't impact the school day but those visits are are ongoing. And the goal is uh to identify solutions to help us reinvest into our buildings. And of course, we have our mission statement, our mission and everything we do obviously should be aligned to our mission so we can ask yourself uh when when it's time

028to make a decision, is [clears throat] this decision mission aligned? And if it is, then that's a good decision. If it's not, then that's not a decision you want to make. So, those are the factors that we were were faced with. One of the biggest details is that 80% of our budget over over 80% of our budget are really fixed costs. Things that we really don't have control over whether that's um the cost of salaries, benefits, uh tuition to Upper Freehold, things that are just part of the budget that we have to absorb and then we adjust the rest from there. Uh additional uh constraints or drivers as I mentioned before that 2% tax levy is something that could potentially impact districts. Uh our health our health care waiver does allow us to go above

029that 2% and I'll get into that shortly. Some districts will have bank cap which is like when they didn't go up to the 2% in the past within the past last 2 years they have a little bit left over they can play with to apply. We don't have bank cap. We used our last little bit for this current school year. Uh we have our salary increases of 3.5% which is pretty universal and very common across the state. We are looking at a 20% energy cost increases uh as you said I mean gas I think went up 30 cents 20 cents yesterday something like that. At least here at the Lava. Quick check was still $3.99. Um we looked at a 20% we proposed we're preparing for a 20% health care increase. Uh one of the

030good news is our debt service continues to go down which is money that we're we're paying back on the loan. Uh so, that's decreasing. Uh and we're looking at a new 5 through 8 math program as part of just a curriculum item that's typically when you're launching new curriculum programs it's a little more expensive than just the annual cost. Um the additional financial pressures include some funding gaps where you know revenue from the impact wasn't available for us to supplement the budget this year because we used that income to to fund this year's budget so we didn't have to build into the next budget next year's budget because we don't have to meet yet. Uh and we had to use this year some tuition reserves. Reserves are money left over at the end of the

031year that you put into reserves. We used our our last $500,000 tuition reserves to fund this budget currently. So, not this budget the 20 this is the 2025-2026 budget. Uh then we also had our Upper Freehold um tuition presentation and that went up almost half a million dollars. So, when we looked at all of the factors related to our budget, we were facing said more or less a $3 million budget gap from what our respective revenue was going to be versus our costs. So, we had to make up that $3 million. Annually we we review uh transportation efficiencies, what our insurance costs are, what our enrollment trends look like, operating expenses, curriculum and professional development needs whether these are new or areas of focus. Uh and then our safety and security updates that we might

032need to do. Uh things that maybe are on on surface things we need to also look at are how we make sure that we're working as efficiently as possible in our day-to-day operations whether that's scheduling, staffing, uh or enrollment placement. So, our revenue sources uh to support the budget obviously tax taxes is our number one revenue source. We have state aid, fund balance which is leftover money that was assigned uh within our audit so that's kind of money that was from a few years ago. Uh few revenue areas whether it's fees and interest, our tuition preschool tuition, transportation fees which is money we bring in from other districts who our transportation department supports, and then we have a very tiny Medicaid reimbursement. So, you can see I mean this is just a visual to show

033how big and how important our tax revenue is. And that's the same for every school district. We are looking for alternative solutions for funding of course. These are all the grants we applied for since 2025 January 2025. The ones in green are ones we've won we've we've been awarded. Uh Inventionland is not as traditional where it's just a flat number. It's more about I'll give you a discount on design and on uh building things. So, we have to decide if can alleviate the pros and cons if we can even accept that grant cuz it takes money from our budget to do part of the other parts. Uh as I announced in the beginning, we did get $67,000 in change, you know, that's just a round number, uh from the New Jersey Department of Community [clears

034throat] Affairs. That's another grant we applied for in the winter. And we were awarded $9,100 for a curriculum-based grant for two electives um to join them to add to the middle school, one building for the future, which is very aligned with where the career world and and trades, and another one uh flight and space, which is about aeronautics and and science. Uh and instead of that that money uh will fund the professional development and the curriculum programs. What did we maintain in our budget? We continued uh year two of our our language arts program for the K-5 uh departments. We are launching We are launching that new 5-3-8 math program. Uh we met with the pilot team today. We maintain our STEM programs, our science labs. Uh we have the two new electives I just

035mentioned. Uh gifted and talented programs stay the same. Uh we continue with our professional development plan. We still have our tiered interventions for math and language arts. Uh we still have our [clears throat] advanced math track as our students move through the upper elementary into the middle school. Uh our class sizes are developmentally appropriate. We obviously continue with courtesy bussing. For those who don't know what that means, that means you can districts aren't required to provide bussing if you live within a mile and a half uh of the schools. You know, in this community, there's not many houses even within a mile and a half of each other. Uh so, that wouldn't have much of an impact. Plus, we don't really have a sixth grade kids in the school uh without buses. We still have

036our digital assessment platforms, namely NWEA MAP, uh and LinkIt, and we're going to be able to rope in uh an RTI digital management platform, which is a minimal cost, but it's just a new tool that we'll be able to use uh just for our work. So, you know, as I mentioned, we had that $3 million uh gap gap that we had to kind of cover. So, we were able to go through line by line through the budget. We were able to find $895,000, uh whether it was increased revenue or operational efficiencies. I'll share more details about that in a second. Uh we did have staffing reductions of $765,000. That includes three retirements, one from each building, uh one resignation that's still pending, uh but in the works. Uh and then five non-tenured teachers, two from

037the primary, one from the elementary, and two from the middle school. And then we have two paraprofessional reductions, one at the primary and one at the middle school. We had to reduce $325,000 in non-instructional staff. That'll be areas like custodial, maintenance, uh and some administrative positions. Um we had a pay-to-play revenue increase. So, that kind of transitions the the obligation to parents, which helps us fund the middle school sports and clubs. We had that health care waiver adjustment that I mentioned before because of the the structure the statute that allows us to increase, and that's almost $795,000 that we were able to put into the tax levy to help manage the budget. And we had a $35,000 additional curriculum reductions, which is more like some online platforms and some other resources that we decided we're

038not going to renew yet. We're keeping what we had. Um our social studies curriculum. And then we did have uh the state aid numbers came out, and unfortunately, we were not a winner. Uh we went down about $91,000. I mentioned that $895,000. That was like um how we went line by line. Some of the things that we were able to to come up with that number, one was we looked at our actual current pre-K enrollment for next year, uh people who've already signed up. So, that was the number we were at $211,500 revenue. Uh so, we had a little bit of a bump in our revenue line item there. Um we had a uh we looked at our gas and electric bills, you know, for this year, figuring it couldn't get worse uh our our

039gas-wise cuz of the this cold weather uh winter we had. And so, we said, "Okay, this is what we spent all year on gas and electric. Let's budget, you know, increasing on that, not just applying the increase." We uh looked at our bank interest bank interest performance uh to make sure that that was accurately accurately reflected. So, that gives us another $200,000. We did find one line um that was budgeted twice, so we were able to reduce that. Uh and some of the smaller things, we looked at some of the um reductions in uh purchased ed services. Um one of the like special education program that we don't have the students here anymore, and general admin >> [clears throat] >> services [snorts] and supplies. So, those are smaller cuts, but we were able to to

040get really lean. Uh so, our budget is very very lean this year uh going in for next year. We always wonder why is that reduction in state aid? And they said the state looks at state aid with two different uh lenses. One is your adequacy budget, and one is the local fair share or local cost. Um adequacy basically says state believes that the uh program should cost $28 million uh more or less, and your program costs $35 million. So, you're above what we think you need to be at. And then when they look at our demographics or socioeconomics and and real estate whatnot, they say, "We think this community can afford this kind of uh funding, and this is what you're actually paying." So, they believe that Millstone can afford $45 million to be paying,

041and so we use that vision. Um and we're paying about 33, almost 34 million. Uh and you know, that's just the way they kind of justify how they divvy up state aid uh based on uh what they think you're spending and and what you think you can afford to spend. Our enrollment trends uh over the last three years, you can see we were from 1163 to 1112, uh 1132, uh down to 10, just under 1100. And you know, obviously, that's projected for 2026-2027. Uh preschool is is uh ongoing, and I just kind of estimated our current enrollment plus two students per grade level. Right now, Allentown High School has We have 431 students this current school year at Allentown High School. Class size projections, uh you can see the the current uh class size uh

042this year and what's projected for next year. Uh for preschool, again, like that enrollment's not is ongoing, but that's state max at 15 per class anyway. Um the biggest hit really in in class size change would be our primary building, where this year they average 16 to 17 students in a class, and next year they're looking at 20 with maybe one section of 21 in a class. Our uh 3-5 um going to be between 21 and 22, and our 6-8 21 and 22. Uh so, you can kind of see that trajectory uh going forward. As I shared in the beginning, upper field tuition, um you can see uh that went up again half a million dollars more than um it was the current school year. Now, the average Millstone home uh this year is estimated

043to be for six uh for the ratable value $635,106. And you can see over the course of time that's gone up each year. So, that's how that tax levy then is is calculated. I don't know what the $600,000 on the Millstone is, but that's the actual tax. Um So, what does that mean? Uh our tax levy proposal is 4.34%. Uh that would be increasing our budget to 1.51.472 million dollars. Uh so, that'd be on the average home a $204 increase. Uh Our debt service is expiring. As I said, that loan continues to get paid down. So, as a result, the debt service is down $187,000, which reduces uh the tax bill by $60. So, net tax bill for the average home is looking at a total change of $144 or like I think $12 a

044month. If your house is 1.2 million, uh that's $208 or $24 a month. When we look at our budget as a whole, you know, because it's our budget's more than the 33 million, our budget's 45 million dollars. Uh you can see our operating budget has gone up about $111,000, $112,000. Our capital outlay, this is a a five-year lease purchase that's expiring, you know, gradually. That's gone down. Our special revenues, unfortunately, that's the you know, that side funding, whether it's state or federal, has gone down slightly. Uh our debt service, again, that loan we're paying off has gone down. So, our budget actually this year, our total total total budget is 0.13% less than it was this current year. Now, we always hear about the per pupil costs, right? Everybody's like, you know, you take the

0451100 students and divide it by 45,000 45 million dollars, and and the narrative [clears throat] is it's $45,000 to educate a kid in Millstone. And that's not an accurate representation of the numbers. Not everything is included in the per pupil rate. Things that are excluded, debt service, capital projects, transportation costs. Again, that's because every town every town and community is different. So, they're going to have different costs in those areas. Uh state uh paid teacher uh pension costs. Again, the state pays that, but you know, some districts are bigger and some districts are smaller, so that's a you know, different numbers. Um we have uh most state and federal grant programs. If there's a grant a program that's funded by the state or federal grants, that is not included in the per pupil rate, uh

046unless it's the preschool program that's grant funded. And then any out-of-district tuition, residential placements for students, uh legal judgments, things along those lines do not count in the per pupil rate. Things that count in the per pupil rate are any related to classroom instruction, student support services, admin, operations and maintenance of facilities, and then the maintenance of high school tuition in our case. So, that's how that's calculated. And and that's done in a way so that districts can be compared and you know, the excluded part kind of eliminates those factors of big districts, little districts, you know, and all the different details that go along with that. Um So, our per pupil rate this year, currently in our you know, you can find this in the user-friendly budget documents that we post on our websites

047was $24,184. [clears throat] Our proposed per pupil rate for the next coming budget is $23,366, a 3.4% decrease in our per pupil >> [clears throat] >> costs. I also got You can look at the trends how we went from 21, 24 down to 23. And I also looked at six other districts that are in the same You don't use that anymore. This is the G groups, the I districts, but I used what used to be the I districts in Monmouth County as a comparison. And you can see the lowest was about $20,000 per pupil this current school year. I just included our proposal for next year and the highest is 27,000. The average between all the six I districts is at $23,000. So, we're right in range of those three other you know, we're one

048of the three districts right around that average. And so, that's uh what we're looking at for the per pupil costs. So, now let's look at the last three years cuz this is an important part of the details. 2025, your taxes went up 2.7%. Uh that was a $557 decrease in the average home because of the rateables that came on market. Last year, taxes were 4.41%. That resulted in a $367 increase because of the rateables. And then this year, uh 4.34%, you're looking at an increase of $204 um in the tax levy, but as I mentioned before, our debt service then continues. So, our debt service went down $90 from $20 more than $60, which is $100 um $70 total over the three years. So, here's the grand scheme. Our tax levy increases $14 from over

049the last three you know, at a look at the three-year trend. It's down $170 um with debt service. So, from 2024 to 2025, the average home taxes are still $156 less than they were prior. And that is the budget presentation. Board, any questions before we open the public comments? Excellent presentation. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, as Dr. McCartney said, any public comments? Can we talk about the um I know the up here was on the agenda. Can we talk about that? Well, health care was pulled. Yeah. But it was on the agenda. To to the extent it it impacts the budget, you can talk about it. Otherwise, there will be another public comment portion where you can address the board. This is This public comment is related to the budget But go ahead. How's that?

050Okay. Lisa Kennedy, MTEA co-president, I'm a resident and I'm a teacher in town. Um Good evening, members of the board, Dr. McCartney and members of the public. For years, the association and district administration have worked collectively and responsibly to manage rising health benefit costs while preserving stable, reliable, high-quality coverage to it for their employees. That cooperative approach has served the district well and all through the years. It has controlled costs, maintained continuity of care, and protected employees and their families from unnecessary stress and uncertainty. The current proposal represents a significant departure from that history, the one that was on the budget earlier. Regardless of how rates are revised or represented, changing health benefit carriers is not a simple financial adjustment. It is a major disruption to the employees' lives. It introduces stress, uncertainty, and instability.

051That disruption has a real human cost and it should not be minimized or brushed aside by shifting numbers. The MTEA and its membership place deep value in the Blue Cross Blue Shield network because of its proven access, continuity of care, and reliability. These are not abstract preferences. They affect people managing who are managing chronic illnesses, families with medically complex children, and employees in the middle of treatment who cannot afford interruptions or confusion in the care that they need to receive. These concerns are further magnified by findings from the office of the state controller that this board cannot ignore. According to the OSC's report, the school health insurance fund paid approximately 36 million to PMA while that firm occupied multiple roles and earned substantial fees without disclosing the conflicts of interest to the state regulators or

052to the school officials responsible for the oversight as legally required. That money is taxpayer money. That money includes employee contributions, money our members paid toward their own health insurance. This is not a technical oversight. It is a serious breakdown in transparency, accountability, and public trust. This is something that Shift must answer to. So, the question before the board tonight is simply is not simply whether new rates appear lower on paper. The question is whether it is a responsible decision or even prudent to involve employees' health care and public funds with an entity highlighted in a state report for undisclosed conflicts and improper influence over public health insurance contracting. This is true Is this truly the path the board wants to take? I don't think you do. I know many of you. The association is not

053dismissing the challenge of rising health care costs. We have consistently engaged in good faith efforts to address them responsibly. But any proposal of this magnitude must be driven by transparency, stability, and trust, not disruption, rushed rushed decisions, or unresolved concerns. We are asking that the board slow the process down and not even put it on the May agenda. We demand complete information, seriously weighing the impact on employees, and and explore alternatives that do not destabilize the health care coverage that are we currently are receiving. A decision that introduces introduces stress, fractures continuity of care, and relies on arrangements clouded by serious state-level findings is not responsible governance. We strongly urge you to put this on pause. The MTEA formally requests that this statement be entered into the official record and attached in full to the

054minutes of this meeting. The association expects that these concerns, findings, and objections be documented accurately and preserved as part of the permanent public record. Thank you. Would you like this copy now for your records? >> [snorts] [applause] >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Can we continue on I mean, it was really is commenting on the budget. That really wasn't a comment about the budget, although health benefits relate to the budget. So, if your comment is about support or opposition or comments about the budget, then it would be appropriate now. Otherwise, it'd be appropriate actually since it was removed from the agenda, it'd be appropriate public comment on any topic whatsoever. Okay, anybody else on the budget? Okay. John, before we move along, can I I ask a question with regards to to the budget and

055specifically the health care? So, if we're tabling the Shift, okay, till the next meeting and our budget that we're supposed to vote on tonight is the reduction in the health care costs as reflected in the budget um does that pertain to the movement to the Shift plan? No. So, the reductions are based on what our current plan that we have in district now. Okay. All right, thank you. Anybody else? Okay, board uh We have a motion to approve the closing of the public hearing on the 2026-2027 budget. We have Kathy, seconded by Karina. Steve? Mr. Carr? Yes. Mr. Cimorelli? Yes. Yes. Mr. Cimorelli? >> Yes. Yes. Last two action items for my report include the enrollment report which shows grand total of 1,622 students K through 12 or pre-K preschool through 12. And the HIB

056report this month shows one claim zero substantiated bringing our keeping our totals as is for a total of four substantiated throughout the school year HIBs and eight alleged. So, much improved numbers as a district. That's good. Okay, motion to to approve action items in B one and two. We have Kathy. We have seconded by Karina. Steve. Yes. Okay, board secretary report. I know we have an attachment Steve. Yes, there is board secretary report attachment number three. Okay, we have a motion to approve the minutes from the Board of Education meeting on March 24th, 2026. Okay, I see that's proceed and seconded by Mr. Paul. Steve. Yes. Okay, at this time public comments on agenda items only as per bylaw 0167. Any comments on agenda items only. I know you're waiting for public comments but I

057have to read that, okay? Okay, moving on. Mrs. Ramos, can you move human resources, please? Yes, I would like to move human resources in its entirety. I would also on behalf of the board I'd like to thank Kathleen Green for her more than 20 years of dedicated service as a power professional. HER COMMITMENT >> [applause] >> HER COMMITMENT, [clears throat] CARE, AND SUPPORT have made a lasting impact on our students and school community. We are truly grateful for her years of service and wish her all the best. >> [applause] >> Any comments before I ask for a second? We have second. That's Mrs. Cinerella. Okay, I just want to remind the board your vote here excludes A1 because you already approved Thanks Mrs. Steve. Yes. Before I ask Mrs. Ramos to move education, if you

058can look to your left, my right, you see all the books that Dr. Baker put out there that the math committee have narrowed down to two choices. Before you leave, if you have time, feel free to peruse them. Board members, before you leave, feel free to peruse them. Dr. Baker's in the back. Dr. Baker, thank you for bringing that to everybody's attention. Okay? And again, before I go to Mrs. Ramos, we're all proud of Artemis two, correct? And um I was especially proud because one of my former students is a NASA scientist who was part of the team. The reason I bring it up is because if he was here, he would say the scientists get all the credit. But what about the welder that put the spacecraft together? What about the electrician? What about

059the plumber? At last night's meeting at Upper Freehold, I mentioned that the female astronaut had to fix the toilet. There was a plumbing issue. These are things we take for granted. College should be available for everybody but college is not for everybody. There's so much money, self-esteem that can be found in the trades. And one [clears throat] of the grants that Dr. McCartney alluded to is going back to career education, shop classes. I mentioned last night my mother died when she was 100. The reason I said that is because she always had on her table all those years a napkin holder I made in eighth grade. You know, I'm sure some of you, you're a lot younger than me, but eighth grade was always where you had shop classes. And I thank Dr. McCartney and

060Dr. Baker trying to bring back those classes. With that being said, Mrs. Ramos, education. I would like to move education in its entirety. Any discussion? We have a second. I see Christine. Steve. Yes. At this time, Mrs. Weinkopf, policy, please. At this time, I might like to move action item one. It is the second reading for all policies and regulations that we discussed at our previous meeting. Any discussion? If not, may have a second. >> [clears throat] >> Looking around, I see Ron. Steve. Yes. Okay, at this time we have the Upper Freehold Regional School District report. Do we have that video? Kevin. The Upper Freehold report. If you haven't seen our meetings, rather than a read a report >> Millstone Township Board of Education. This is Mark Chartel. Just want to give you the

061Allentown High School report. >> [laughter] >> Good evening, Millstone Township Board of Education. This is Mark Chartel. Just want to give you the Allentown High School report. We've had a very busy few weeks here and really excited to share some of the really cool things that have happened within the district for our kids. First and foremost, we had four teams compete at the Penn Relays which is our which is sort of the preeminent local track and field race that covers kids from high school, college, and beyond. Really a great experience for our kids and they all did really, really well in their heats. One of the things I always talk to people about is how public speaking is one of the greatest fears in people's lives and this is a picture of our freshman, sophomore,

062and junior classes together listening to student council speeches. And the amazing thing to watch when kids are up there in front of, you know, over 800 kids absent the seniors, really is a remarkable thing. Our kids did a great job in their elections and in their speeches to the kids, really a great, a great experience for everybody. This is our robotics team as you may know. Our robotics team who has come in front of your board, they went to Lehigh University for the district championships and had an extraordinary run which qualified them for worlds. So, they will be going to Houston this week to compete in the world championships. This is something that has become a norm for our team and one that we're really proud of and they work really, really hard from about

063January through this time period for almost every day meeting together, creating a robot, fine-tuning it, and it's all done by kids. So, really kudos to them and good luck to them in their world championship. Our dance team at the high school has really grown into a real powerhouse. This is an example of how they build the program and this is some fifth through ninth graders coming to a clinic that our team put on and taught them things to do and taught them different dance routines and stuff like that. And you can see on the right is a great picture of a number of kids that are really involved in dance. So, really excited and proud of that program as it has developed. This is our baseball team who went down to South Carolina. This is

064a picture of them in the Coastal Carolina University stadium. They had a great time, having a great season as well. So, kudos to them. These are our four senior softball players. As you probably know, for high school we have senior nights that honor our seniors for the hard work and dedication they put into Allentown High School athletics. These are our four sophomores. Really proud of them and our girls softball team's having an extraordinary season. They're 11 and four right now and really doing super well. Our junior prom has happened on April 18th and that was something our kids had a great time with. Our prince and princess, Will and Emma to the right. Our senior prom is coming up in June and we're really just always fun to see kids have a great time and

065and good fun. This is our French class. They were practicing how to order in French at a French cafe. Not only they learned about ordering, they learned about etiquette, they learned about how to order and how to get really the maximum for your conversation. So, a really good stuff from our French teachers. Girls lacrosse, as you probably know our girls lacrosse team is one of the best in the state and these are seniors, so we're really proud of them. Great group. State champions last year and you can see the baby pictures on the right. It's always fun to see. Recently we had last weekend in fact we had our Jazz on the Town where the Millstone Middle School, Stonebridge Middle School and Allentown High School Jazz Bands come together for an evening of jazz in

066our high school gymnasium. They transform it into just a beautiful scene and great music um and really just an enjoyable night highlighting again some of the arts that we provide here in Allentown High School. Really top top top notch. And something that I'm really proud of and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Finally just some little tidbits here. We had AP testing starts today at the high school. Not really a fun topic but something that has to happen and it is a NJASLA testing this week. AP testing starts next week and goes for about two weeks. Advanced Placement Test. The Allentown High School Hall of Fame is happening in October and the inductees were just announced so really excited about that. Finally on May 18th we're having a community conversation

067about the New Jersey cell phone ban just to talk about the effects primarily at the high school. Just like in middle in Millstone our elementary and middle schools don't allow the cell phones to be out. High school is a little different. We have a little bit of flexibility in between classes and at lunch so we're trying to have a community conversation about what that may look like next year. And this is really hot off the press. I shared it with our board last night because I got the text during the board meeting. For many of you who were able to see our production of Bright Star which was our theatrical performance. I always talk to people about how our theater arts program is is one of the best in the state without a doubt and

068I want to share with you a text I received last night. Every year Count Basie Theater in Red Bank puts on sort of like an Academy Awards for high school productions right in New Jersey. And um they just had their nomination ceremony for those awards and out of 32 schools in Monmouth County they nominate five just five for each category. So our play out of 32 schools, remember top five, in the following categories. Best set design, best lighting design, best direction, best musical direction, outstanding production of a musical, outstanding lead in Annie Gooley, Mary Kate O'Connor got nominated for supporting actress. Amazing amount of nominations and they have an actual award ceremony on Tuesday, May 19th at Count Basie Theater. So our theater program is is one of the best in the state and I

069would put that up against anybody and it's something that we're really proud of. This show was a unique show, one that many people didn't know about but was extraordinary and to have that many nominations for this show is something that I think we all can be proud of as the cast is made up of kids from all of our towns. Really something that we should all be proud of. And with that that is our superintendent report. I hope you have a great evening and I'll see you soon. Take care. As usual Mark does a great job and everybody in this room should feel proud because today there are students. Pretty soon they go to high school and they can't be successful in high school unless they were successful in middle school and in elementary school

070and preschool. So kudos to everybody sitting here and so it takes all of us to mold a child in the right direction. I want Dr. Baker and Dr. McCartney to hear what I said last night at the board meeting. I've been on the board since 2016 and I've never seen so much cooperation between the two superintendents and the two directors of curriculum as I have seen this past year. So that's kudos to Dr. Baker, kudos to Dr. McCartney and on the other hand obviously Mr. Gooderel and Mr. Leary. So I wanted them to hear what I said last night. With that being said, if you this is your first time at the meeting we changed community education engagement. Rather [clears throat] than me read something we have the representatives, the co-president of PTO Jen Peppy

071and Teresa from MTFEF. Did I say too many F's? Okay. Okay. MTFEE, okay. If you guys go to the podium and let us know what's going on. So instead of you reading it I'm going to read it because I didn't put any slides together this month but next month we'll share some photos of the events that we've been holding recently. Um So this is what we consider our busy season kicking off the week of May 4th we will be recognizing our teachers and our administration for teacher appreciation week. Um Thank you early. >> [applause] >> Yearbook deadline for PS and ES is May 8th. That's a pretty strong deadline. After that any orders that come in unfortunately will be on a first come first serve basis. So get those orders in by May 8th. Middle

072School families completely different process. Make sure you order them on time through the middle school because the PTO doesn't handle the middle school yearbooks. Mother's Day plant sale will be held on Friday, May 8th for PS and ES. So teachers get ready to bring your students down for plant plant selection. The PTO held their ninth annual dodgeball event on April 16th and we would like to formally congratulate congratulate our winners. Our five sixth grade winners were the snipers and our seventh and eighth graders winners were the dodge fathers. So Our father-daughter dance on April 18th brought in 450 guests. So yeah, it was a great night. It was a Candyland themed dance and just everybody had a great time. So we're very proud of that. Um PS only PS only spring pictures has been rescheduled

073for Thursday, May 7th. Um I know I've mentioned this before. Our PTO is currently in our election season. Um Clearly less active than a Board of Ed election [clears throat] season so it's been pretty quiet. Voting will take place on Wednesday, May 13th and if you don't mind according to the PTO bylaws we have to formally announce the candidates [clears throat] so we're going to post that on our PTO page but I'm going to announce them real quick right now. For president our candidate is Kimberly Rothe. She may or may not be here tonight. She will be running uncontested and she will stand in and come in um as my replacement. So going forward Kimberly, you know, sometime over the summer will start to take over for for me here. VP for the middle school

074candidate is Tiffany Grace. VP candidates so there's two running for PSES so there's going to be one VP for middle school and one VP for PS and ES and the candidates for that are and I'm sorry if I butcher their names. Amrita Joji and Desiree Mishky. And then recording secretary is Jillian Thatcher, corresponding secretary candidate is Kelly Ann Semino and the treasurer candidate is Christine Tarantino. So those are our updates for this month [clears throat] and uh Thank you very much. Thank you Jen. Teresa. >> [applause] >> Hi everybody. Okay, so for the MTFE we completed two fundraisers since our last board meeting. So the first one was coin wars. So we raised well over $600 and kindergarten did win. We wanted to wait till tonight to announce it. Yeah. So we'll coordinate the ice

075cream party with the district. And that'll be announced soon. And then our second completed one was the Dave & Buster's fundraiser. So they haven't given us our totals yet. They um kind of like an audit in a couple weeks they'll let us know how much we raised. Now going to the upcoming fundraisers. So the Dave & Buster's they give us the option to up the fund redo the fundraiser again. So we are running it again. It's kind of just a really easy fundraiser. We don't really do much for it. It's just you know it's our link for those of you that don't know about it. Basically they're just the power cards so they're game play cards. They're $20 power cards. Whoever purchases them it's no different if you purchase through our link or if you

076purchase it when you go to Dave & Buster's you still get the full $20. The only difference is if you purchase through our link they give us 10 bucks. So we get $10 out of that. Yes, it's a 50% profit just for using our link. So that's going to start again on May 1st and that'll the next session will run from May 1st to July 31st. So that link you can find if you go to Everything is on our Instagram page which is much easier to link everything there. So if you go to the Millstone MTFE on Instagram under our in our bio is our link tree and it has all of our links. So the new Dave & Buster's um link is up there. You can click on it now, but it won't go

077live until May 31st. Okay, then next we also have our read-a-thon that is coming up. So, we're really excited for that. Dr. McCarthy um brought it to our attention. So, we decided to run with it. It seems like it's going to be a great fundraiser. Um you know, what I really liked about it is through the company, they kind of they have a lot of different incentives and different prizes, which is really cool. So, one of the um incentives that's going on now that's going to start on May 4th. So, between yesterday when the initial paperwork went home when the parents register their students, from now until May 4th, I believe it's a the family sends out 10 text messages, they're automatically entered um in a trip to win for Disney World. And then there's

078also an incentive for teachers as well. So, the we registered as a district, but they counted as a you know, as a school. So, one person, whoever from the district, whatever teacher, whatever class reads the most minutes, that teacher is automatically entered in a trip to Paris. Yeah, so it's really cool. So, it's it's it does I don't know how many people you would be entered with, but it's definitely going to be one teacher from Millstone cuz it's whoever has the most minutes read. So, what we did inquire about that. So, if teachers would like to designate a period each day for their class to read, you would just log in those minutes. Once the parent registers their student, you would just go on and log those minutes, and then it would count towards your

079class. So, that's really cool incentive, too. So, we like that. So, we're excited for the read-a-thon. Um and then lastly, we just announced today on our social media pages that we are doing a 5K. So, we're really excited. It's going to be June 6th at 11:00 a.m. It's going to be the Millstone Loop 5K. It's going to be at Millstone Park. So, it's going to be um 5K also vendor fair. So, we'll have food trucks, we'll have vendors. So, if you would like to come you know, as a runner again, on our Instagram page you can sign up. It's $35 per runner. Um and then to come to spectator or to the vendor fair is completely free. And if you would like to be a vendor, you can also that application is also on our

080website. Yeah, so we're very excited Thank you very much. How about a round of applause for those who >> [applause] >> Yes, Dr. Gordon. Yeah, so I just like uh along with the read-a-thon uh stats, I know the information just went out and we have an email scheduled to go out tomorrow, but total donations are already $1,900, which the district or MTFE will receive $1,425. And that's where we're at as of just a few days. Um so, that's amazing. We have a total of 1,456 readers registered. So, one of the benefits of this is obviously the finances, but the focus, you know, on reading is a is a really nice thing. Uh ideally, you know, in the future we might do do our Meet Across America, which I was watching my son do it not

081making the connection. I'm like, why don't I not make the connection? Uh but on the flip side, it's testing starts next week, so they'll probably be light on the homework. So, kids will have a little more flexibility to read. Uh so, that's a a plus there as well. One other thing, um Jen Patrick mentioned the elections and uh when she mentioned the the president uh person um running on uncontested, it also hit me. I'm like, I've only known Jen for a short time uh as president, but she's she's been so supportive and and been awesome to work with. And since we have a larger audience than usual our board meeting, I know you don't believe it, but usually there's like nobody here. Um I think we should just give Jen a round of applause for

082all her work. >> [applause] >> Plus, she's going to be here for a while uh and and Jen thinks she's going to escape easily, but I'm not going to let her go easily. Uh I'm going to still be picking your brains as much as possible, but it uh it's really appreciated everything you've done for for us. In my short time, it's been amazing. For those for those who know me, my love of mathematics, it's going to be a shock to hear me say this. The most important course that you can take is reading. If you can't read, you can't do anything else. So, kudos to everybody involved. At this time, I'd like to move finance with the exception of item 13. And before I ask for a second, any questions on finance? May I have

083a second, please? Arena, thank you. Steve. Mr. Carr. Yes. Mr. Carr, I would Yes to all but number one, I will abstain. Mr. Kinsey. Yes. Mrs. Reese. Yes. Mr. Weinkopf. Yes to everything except in the bills list, I need to recuse myself for anything that has to do with the Weinkopf family scholarship. Mr. Gigantino. Yes. Mrs. Ramos. Yes. Mr. Caputo. Yes. Mr. Carr. At this time, it's turned over to operations, Mr. Gigantino. That will be it. We'll have one more meeting at in June at with the new BA for operations. Nothing to report otherwise. Thank you, sir. And I understand we're going to do a walk-through with the new BA and see what the long-range facility plan is. That is correct. Thank you, sir. Okay, at this time, drum roll, what everybody's been waiting for,

084public comments on any item. Who wants to go first? We have a young lady. You. Hello, everyone. My name [clears throat] is Kelsey Plunkett. Um I teach eighth grade language arts here and um I'm ending year 21 in the district. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. I'm speaking tonight not just as an employee, but as a person who depends on the health care decision in a very real life. On paper, switching from Blue Cross to Aetna may look like a reasonable or even small [clears throat] change. But for the people sitting in this room and the families at home, it's not small. It's deeply personal and impactful. Health care isn't something you think about only when it's convenient. It matters most on the worst days of your life. Picture this for a moment because for

085someone this will be real. You sit in a doctor's office and hear the word cancer. Everything shifts in that instant. Your focus becomes one thing, getting the best treatment as quickly as possible, saving your life for you and your family. Your doctor recommends a specific medication, the one with the best chance of working, and then you're told it's not covered. Or worse, you're told you have to try other treatments first, ones your doctor already knows may not work for you. So, you wait, you appeal, you fight paperwork while you're trying to fight for your life. That delay, that uncertainty, it's devastating. Not just physically, but emotionally. For you, for your family, for everyone who depends on you. That delay can not only be debilitating, but deadly. That's the difference we're talking about. Or think about

086somebody who has finally after years found the right doctor or right health care plan, the right stability for a chronic condition. With one decision, that could be taken away. Suddenly, their doctor's out of network. Their costs go up. Their care is disrupted. And they have to start over at a time when stability matters most. These are not rare situations, unfortunately. These are real people. They're sitting in our classrooms, working in our offices, raising families, and showing up to work every day for this district. I understand budgets matter. I understand the pressure to make fiscally responsible decisions. But there is a human cost here that doesn't show up on a spreadsheet. I'm asking you, please don't make a decision that could leave people fighting their insurance company at the exact moment they should be focused on

087their health. Because when that moment comes, and for someone it will, this decision will matter more than anything else. Please stand with the teachers and the staff on this one. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Gina Cruno, 408 Millstone Road. I'm a resident as well as a teacher at the elementary school. I'm here tonight to express my displeasure and concern over the possibility of the Board of Education switching our current Horizon health cover health care over to some Aetna plan through SHBP. I have had Horizon since I started working in this district 28 years ago. Not once have I ever had to worry about mine or my family's doctors being covered. Almost three years ago, I received that cancer diagnosis. Not once did I question where I could go get treatment. I decided to

088go to Sloan Kettering. I had no worry about being cared for and being mind have my bills be paid for through Horizon. This past fall, my son while at college broke his toe, again. Didn't have to worry because Horizon is so widely accepted, not only in New Jersey, but out of state as well. This change of getting benefits through a fund concerns me on so many levels. Has any research been done to find out why other districts like Plumstead or Colts Neck are no longer a part of it? They had benefits through SHBP and are now out of it. Has any research been done to find out what happens if the fund becomes short on money to pay for the health care coverage? I understand that the Board of Ed is looking to save money

089on benefits, but at whose expense? Is the $60,000 that the Board of Ed will save really worth the peace of mind of its employees? I urge the Board of Education to reconsider this decision and keep us with Horizon, a plan that we all know and trust. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Anybody else? My name is Jennifer Modica. I'm a special education teacher here for 24 years. I am actually reading a letter from a member who wishes to remain anonymous. By forcing this change to an inadequate insurance fund, you are directly interfering with my medical care, something you have neither the authority nor the right to do. This is not a policy adjustment. It is an overreach that puts my health at risk. Your actions make it clear that the well-being of district staff

090is not a priority. Given the extensive extensive ethics complaints already tied to your leadership, it is deeply alarming that you would move forward with a decision that could so clearly harm employees. For years, I have relied on out-of-state doctors who have quite literally saved my life. Because of this change, I now face the very real possibility of losing access to those providers and the medications that have kept me stable. This is not hypothetical. This is a direct threat to my health. You are asking employees to sacrifice their medical stability and safety for a decision that shows a complete disregard for their lives. This is unacceptable. I expect immediate reconsideration of this decision before irreversible harm is done. [clears throat] And then I have my letter. Dear members of the Board of Education, I am writing

091to express my concerns regarding the recent proposed changes to our health insurance coverage. Like many staff members, I have built long-standing relationships with my health care providers over the years. I was disappointed to learn that several of these trusted doctors are no longer included in the network. This change is not simply an inconvenience. It disrupts disrupts the continuity of care and forces difficult decisions about whether to change providers or take on significantly higher out-of-pocket out-of-pocket costs. While I understand that cost savings are often a factor, it is unclear how these changes are definitely going to benefit the staff in long term. The reduced network may ultimately create greater financial and personal strain as employees may need to seek new providers, repeat medical histories, or even delay the necessary care. Also, since these are pooled funds,

092all the research that has been done states that they can become underfunded. If health care costs rise faster than contributions or too many claims occur, it has also been found that in extreme cases benefits may be reduced, contributions increased, or plans restructured. What's going to happen then? I respectfully ask the Board to reconsider these changes or explore alternative options that preserve access to a broader network of providers. At the very least, I urge you to take into account the significant impact this decision has on the well-being of all the staff who serve in this district every single day. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Um Allison Lombardi, I teach at the elementary school and I'd like to share regarding the potential change in our insurance Aetna. I did a quick search

093of my family's current providers in order to see if they accept Aetna. I was crushed to find out that my son's neurologist does not accept the Aetna plan. He's 12 years old and he has been under her care since he was nine when he first developed the need to see a neurologist. We had to make We waited 7 months after calling for our initial appointment with her and we struggled through that time as a family. She has guided us through diagnosis and treatment through medication and adjustments to that medication over the years since we began working with her. If we were to switch to Aetna, I would have to find a new neurologist for him and his care and his access to medication would likely be disrupted while waiting for an available new patient appointment,

094which is typically six or more months out. I hope that you will consider keeping us with our current health benefits plan. Thank you for your >> [applause] >> Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm Michelle Morris, resident and also special education teacher. Um I'm speaking as a current teacher and also resident in the district um to respectfully share concerns regarding the proposed change to our health insurance plan. Um in speaking with many of my colleagues, it is clear uh that while they remain deeply committed to their roles and to our students, a significant number rely heavily on the stability of our current health care coverage, not only for themselves, but also for their families. I understand that the district is facing increasing financial pressures, particularly with the rising cost of health insurance, and I appreciate the complexity

095of these decisions. However, I ask that as you move forward, that you carefully consider the broader impact such changes may have on the well-being of staff and their families. Many employees have established long-term relationships with their health care providers, and transition to a different insurance plan may disrupt the continuity of care, potentially requiring families to find new doctors and navigate unfamiliar situations and systems. Additionally, Additionally, I encourage the Board to consider the long-term stability of switching to a SHBP >> [clears throat] >> um and whether the projected cost savings justify the potential disruption to staff and their families. If further changes are anticipated in the coming years, it raises important questions about consistency and the cumulative impact on employees. Um thank you for your time, consideration, and continued support for the district staff. Thank you.

096Hi everyone. Uh Tina House Connect, three Francis Court resident, but also teacher. Um I just wanted to say a quick thank you actually to the Board for um and to Dr. McCartney for postponing um any decision-making on this because I think it is really important that we all do do diligence um teachers as well. I mean, we need time to kind of figure out if we're going to be covered with certain things, and just even doing a quick Google search on what this supposed fund looks like, it did not come up with very good results just initially. So, I really do hope that um and I know you guys will, and I trust that you will. So, I just wanted to say thank you for that time. Thank [applause] you. Anyone else? Hello. Rose Coons,

097uh co-president of the MTAA as well as a fourth grade teacher here at the elementary school. I'm just going to share some concerns that have been spoken about in the last few days regarding from staff members, also from the association as a whole. Um SHBP hasn't been around long enough. There's not enough research on it. Only 125 districts in New Jersey out of a 640 are in this fund. Many people have highlighted the fact that what happens when that fund runs out of, you know, funds and they have to raise things, you know, the rates, etc. The coverage is changing. Um Dana mentioned how many districts have were inside of the SHBP and now have left. They are neighboring districts, not far from here. They realized how horrible it was. They got their employees in

098a bad situation, and they have now gone back to Blue Cross Blue Shield after being within that SHBP. Um we also find it extremely concerning that the Board is choosing to disrupt, and you've heard from many people here today, their health care for their families, themselves, that includes their coverage, their medication, etc. just for a savings of $60,000. That $60,000 also is only coming from the educator health plan and the Garden State health plan as well. As you know, our base plan here is the Direct 15. According to our contract, any change that must be made should be equal to or better than our base plan, which is Direct 15. When you look at the comparison charts for Direct 15 to SHBP, the SHBP rates are actually more for the premiums for single, adult, family,

099parent-child, etc. So, that does not meet our contract, which would then be a breach. That $60,000 has also been thrown around how there is over $100,000 in ethics charges that the Board is currently undertaking. That's That money there could have gone towards some of those health care savings. Those ethics charges could have null and void some of those, you know, lawyer fees for resources, teacher salaries. We just saw 11, you know, staff members were let go. It could have gone to school improvements, for our roofs, our HVACs. Also, another concern that we have is that um Dr. McCartney and Brown & Brown reached out to, you know, the association to have a meeting with us to share these proposed changes. They asked us to take a look at it. We did, Dana Cornell, Lisa Kennedy,

100and myself. We responded saying that, you know, this wasn't something that was in the best interest of our members. And we felt like our time was definitely wasted because that decision was already made given that this was already on the board agenda. This looking into the SHIP fund clearly has been going on for quite some time. Um we just felt like it definitely our time and everything was not taken into consideration. The last thing I would like to mention is we are concerned of why the association needed to reach out and ask for all of the paperwork and the attachments to be sent to staff members. That should have been something that should have come from our brokerage firm, from Brown & Brown, if they were truly being transparent with everyone, rather than us finding

101out that this is on the board agenda through the board agenda, through Dr. McCartney. Um we're very disappointed that this decision was made prior to us even having a say in it and all the staff members being notified. If it weren't for the association, many in this room would not have even known that this was on the board agenda and that their lives could be completely disrupted. So, we please sincerely, strongly encourage this to not be put back on the May and for some more research to be done into the SHIP um the SHIP plans. Also, I know that SHIP came in at 16% increase premium. Um Blue Cross and Blue Shield came back with the same 16%. It seems like it's apples-to-apples right now with the increase. What's a whole 'nother year to see

102what does Blue Cross Blue Shield offer us next year. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> Anybody else? Hi, I'm Linda Nuzzi, a French language arts teacher. Um I'm coming here saying off the cuff, very ill-prepared, which is unlike me. Um the only reason I'm speaking kind of is to follow up with Dana and having the opposite experience. Um many years ago, when I had two young children at the time, my mother's insurance had been switched from Blue Cross Blue Shield to United Healthcare. And subsequently, she receives a cancer diagnosis. And desperately, as her daughter, I was trying to find the best care for her. And I was calling around Sloan Kettering Sloan Kettering, which is the gold standard, and I said to them, they said, you know, United Healthcare does not cover Sloan Kettering.

103And I said, well, can we pay out of pocket just for um you know, consultation? And they said, their response to me very nicely was, you could be the Rockefellers and you cannot come here. You cannot afford >> [clears throat] >> to come to Sloan Kettering Kettering. So, my mother could not get that care. And in the short year that we had my mother, instead of spending time with my mom and with my children and enjoying that family time, I spent a lot of time fighting the system and appealing and looking for the best care and not getting it. Um on the opposite end of the spectrum, my brother currently um is fighting stage four colon cancer and shockingly is having great results because he has had access to the best of the best care

104with Horizon. So, I am pleading with you for for everybody, for the teachers, the support staff, everybody that counts on you. Um I'm a teacher in the district for almost 30 years and some of the faces here um have been around for a very long time and can attest to the fact that we were a family, a community, the board, the teachers, the kids, every everybody. And and we always felt supported. So, just asking that that support continues, especially in light of $60,000, unfortunately, hearing the the budget, that that's a drop in in the bucket. So, please stand with everybody. Thank you. Thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU. ANYBODY ELSE? SO, THAT EVERYBODY KNOWS AND WILL understand is Dr. McCartney, he's the one who pulled it, okay? Because he wants to

105check into it further and study it and make sure it's the right decision. So, you have a great educational leader here and um not too many people would have pulled it, okay? >> [applause] >> Don, I have a question. I have a question maybe you can answer this. Um speaking as someone who uh just recently, I worked for the New York City uh Department of Education and um my health coverage was just recently switched to United Healthcare. So, it's been an uh to say it's been not fun, a nightmare is an understatement. Um my biggest question is, um did we reach out to these other districts that do have this current SHIP and find out from them, you know, a lot of these companies, they lure you with the low rate in the beginning to

106get you to come in. And then, once you sign up, next year, they hit you with a higher rate. So, did we reach out to any of those districts to say, you know, hey, you're in year two, did they hit you with a higher rate or was it status quo? Did we find out that information? I spoke with um there's only two other districts in Monmouth County that are in the SHIP. So, I spoke to the first one that joined, which was about eight years ago. Uh the superintendent there uh was actually my assistant principal when I was a teacher. So, uh I have a good relationship with him. And he shared uh all positive experiences and again, I'm not, you know, saying that to spin anything. Um he said that uh they have the

107worst uh loss ratio in the SHIP. And they're thankful that they're members of it because otherwise, their rates would have gone through the roof uh this year. So, again, that's their experience. It's one of 125 and and and whatever, but I just had that that opportunity to speak to somebody that I've known since I was 25 years old. Um so, it's just a few years ago uh we met and uh I was able to get that experience from him. But that's part of like and I I even I I asked um Rose and Lisa just to give me some of those names of those districts. So, I wrote down the two that you shared just now cuz those are the ones we want to contact up. Not so much the ones that are in it

108now and then what their experiences are because they stayed in it. You can opt out anytime you want. >> Right. I want to know about the ones you opted out already and what their experiences were. Yeah, what was the reason? Maybe it was something cuz school group uh school community is district that joined eight years ago maybe locked into different things. You know, because they joined at a different time. So, I think before um we even consider making a change like this, we need to have those answers because this is a very serious issue and like I said, it's not fun um searching for new doctors and different things. So, if you could get that information, thank you. >> [applause] >> 16% in the SHIP in one year. That's a 15% increase. Well, as I

109said, Dr. McCartney Dr. McCartney is checking into it. Let's give him a chance to do the uh due diligence. Did you do a disruption analysis and look at in terms of Brown & Brown as the current set of providers? And did they do [clears throat] an analysis of who is in the plan that's currently being used by the association? Yes, they they did an analysis and I mean, they the numbers say 90-something percent, but I want to look closer at the actual cuz in the chart, it says 80-something percent. So, there's a there's a discrepancy that I'm not fully following. And and one of the realities is I just got this handed to me pretty much like this past week. Uh up until uh up until then, you know, it has run through the business

110office. So, my my direct access to Brown & Brown started having these in-depth conversations more recently. Uh so, that's partly why we need to kind of do a little more legwork. Uh they did do the analysis. They sent a spreadsheet of these are the doctors that fall out of network, these are the doctors that would be adding to the network. How you know, that but again, it's a it's a spreadsheet that they shared. So, I don't know, you know, 100% what that looks like. >> Can I speak to that real quick cuz I looked at that very closely before I called in. The fall out doctors, many of them are counselors, therapists, those type of group of doctors. And you could see how many people like use that doctor, how many claims are for that

111doctor. Those are doctors that fall out. Those are doctors that people take the time and get build a relationship with. To expect people to have to find a new therapist or counselor or whoever, whether it's for themselves or a family member, I'm sorry, it's not acceptable. The doctors that fall in, I did I left the paper on my desk and I apologize. Out of the doctors that fall in, um I think there's like 100 85 of them are either uh let's see, I think almost 20 There's laboratories listed, like medical supply. That that's not doctors falling in. I'm sorry. Uh there's also 15 doctors that are out of state, which are no use to anybody I mean, out of state like Texas, California, um you know, no use to us. And then, there's another, I

112want to say 60-something that are way out of Monmouth County, like way north Jersey. Like which is not acceptable. So, yes, there's more providers falling in than falling out, but the list of what's falling in is not acceptable. Out of that entire list, I think there were in Monmouth County and some of them were, you know, like Rose said, laboratories or, you know, medical supply companies and that's sorry, that's not a acceptable. So, I think we will all agree that Dr. McCartney will do his due diligence. Okay, I think you all should hear this. Ethics complaints were mentioned twice. Go on. I have a question on the health care. Um Can It's okay. Can um Dr. McCartney ask uh Brown and Brown to come back in? And speak with They want to I want to

113I mean they want to present answer questions, present the people with the They're they're willing to do that. anything or anything. And you know, I I think we're we have to lean into their expertise. And regardless of what direction that may be, uh because you know, just like if Chris would recommend something to me, I'm like, all right, well you're the lawyer. Like, I don't know, you know, sometimes. And so, uh what the people in the room that have the questions that are more detailed and and specific are we the ones that are going to help us uncover the information we need to know. You know, not just the spreadsheet, but actually the the answers that are anecdotal in reality. And from there we can make a more informed decision that's going to be based

114on the big picture, the whole picture, not just you know, small snapshot. So, that's It goes back to what I said. We all agreed to let Dr. McCartney do his due diligence. Okay? >> It's all on you, Dr. McCartney. Okay. Okay, uh this is very important what I have to read now. If you can listen attentively. The School Ethics Commission reported in March that two ethics cases one was a secretary filing an ethics charge against Mrs. Ramos. Mrs. Ramos will read that decision. And the second, Reese Wyncoop from Kinsey filing an ethics charge against me referencing an open board seat. Both of them were dismissed by the School Ethics Commission and I will read that decision. Also, the case filed against me by Reese Wyncoop and Phyllis where my attorney stated in court that they

115threw everything at me but the kitchen sink had to go to an administrative law hearing because all the three items were dismissed. Following three days of testimony, the judge ruled on April 8th case dismissed. All of these ethics cases were frivolous and wasted a lot of money today, approximately $100,000. Last month, Reese Wyncoop and Kinsey filed another ethics complaint, this time against me and James Signorella. And there was another administrative law hearing which will be scheduled anytime now where Bernie filed an ethics complaint against me, Mrs. Signorella referenced the Eisner RFP. If you remember what that was we wanted RFP where we can save money without affecting services. I was advocating for that since 2016. It finally got approved and the Eisner report is very very substantive. All these cases were frivolous and as I

116said, wasted a lot of money. And this is the big one now. You ready for this? This past week I was notified that Reese Wyncoop and Phyllis filed an appeal of the judge's decision to dismiss the case. On appeal where the judge after three days of testimony dismissed the case. And I'm going to let you know what the items were in a few minutes, okay? And when I read it, just remember I'm not making this stuff up. I'm going to ask Mrs. Ramos to read the School Ethics Commission decision in her case. Then I will read the School Ethics Commission and administrative law judge's decision on my two cases. But before I do that, I would like to state some comments that were made by the New Jersey School Board Association presenters at the Ethics

117in the School Board Trenches workshop Tuesday, October 21st. The attorney who spoke on school ethics said that board members use ethics charges to try to make changes that they want. Statewide, 95% of all ethics charges are board members versus board members, while 5% come from the public. The speaker said that it is obvious that ethics charges are a bullying I repeat that or a bullying tactic against their adversary. He stated that the electorate, that's the voters, decide who should be on the board. At that time, October 2025 in New Jersey, to his recollection, over 3,300,000 dollars has been spent on defense of ethics charges. He further stated, listen to this carefully. He further stated that unless a board member committed a crime no one will be removed from the board by the Ethics Commission. He

118repeated that the voters decide who should be on the board. He concluded by saying that it's okay to disagree but filing ethics charges is a bullying tactic and a complete waste of time and money. I happen to agree with him. At this time, I'd like to turn to Mrs. Ramos so she can read the school board ethics decision to dismiss the case against her. Then I will read the two against me that were dismissed. A business administrative secretary filed an ethics complaint against me with the School Ethics Commission. However, after review, the commission found insufficient evidence of any violations of NJSA 18A:12-24-1 and determined that a reasonable person could not conclude the School Ethics Act was violated. The complaint was formally dismissed. Thank you. The one filed by Christine, Cathy and Paula against me was

119referencing open seat. Okay? In accordance with NJSA 18A:12-22B and for the reasons detailed herein, by the way, what I'm reading from is public information. You can go to the website and get it. Hereby notifies complainants and respondent that there were insufficient facts and circumstances pled in the complaint and in the written statement to lead a reasonably person to believe that the the act was violated as alleged in the complaint and consequently dismisses the above captioned matter. The written decision is a final decision decision of the administrative agency. What a waste of money on that one. The other one that I sat in court for three days, okay? Uh there were over 100 items that were thrown against me. Three of them made it as probable cause. And I'm going to read to you what it

120was and you tell me if this is in la-la land. Two items alleging that I set up a food tasting with the school's food vendor and I'll go through that. And one alleging inappropriate involvement with a potential candidate for interim superintendent of schools. Fact, October, New Jersey School Board Association convention. At the time, Mrs. Reese was Millstone's Board of Education president. Bernie sent out an invitation to all board members as well as Dr. Huss, superintendent to attend Macheo's reception. For those who may not know, Macheo's is our food vendor. In fact, the night before Bernie saw Mrs. Riley, Mr. Signorella and me and reminded us of the reception. However, the night of, only James and I attended. Macheo's employees were going to each table talking to board members asking if the district was satisfied with

121their food services. If Bernie, Huss and Reese attended, they would have heard the conversation. I mentioned that I was a retired superintendent and I always asked food services to have a food tasting for parents and it always worked out well. I inquired, subject to superintendent's approval, if they would be interested in doing a food tasting for parents after school. In fact, I texted Bernie, Huss and Reese and I wish I saved that text, but I did save the picture. I sent them a picture of James and me and two Macheo's employees and I stated that we were having a good conversation about food services and I inquired if Macheo's would be interested in doing a food tasting for parents subject to superintendent's approval. That became an ethics complaint. You tell me, what did I do

122wrong? That was dismissed. Listen to this part. Part of the that count, Keith leader of Macheo's was talking to Bernie in his office. I happened to be leaving a meeting with Dr. Banks. And as I walked out, okay? He ran after me. Okay? I had just left the office and he was talking to Bernie in and Bernie's office. He ran after me to ask me if he could talk to me about food tasting. In the complaint, they said I waited for him and wanted to talk to him. The truth is he called out to me and asked if he could talk to me about the food tasting. I asked him who he was. I had no idea who this guy was. Now, you ready for this? The sheer and nonsense that occurred at trial when

123he was under oath he was asked, did he ever meet me? He said, no. But he had his back to me and you ready for this? He was wearing his Macheo's jacket and I should have realized that he worked for Macheo's because I should have seen the jacket. Now it was my turn to testify. When I testified under oath, I stated I do not have X-ray vision to see the front of his jacket when his back was to me. Note Bernie corresponded with Wyncoop, I have a gift for you. We have a text. This is in black and white. She responds write it up. That's a directive to an employee. Isn't that an ethics complaint? But I'll tell you what, I'm not going to file an ethics complaint. I'm going to take the high road

124cuz if I file this, that'll be probable cause and that'll be another $40,000 towards the district. The last one that was dismissed allegations of inappropriate involvement with a potential candidate for interim superintendent of schools. It was alleged that I reached out to him inappropriately. I did reach out to Dr. Baker via our board attorney at the time, Michael Paterniti because I know I couldn't reach out to Dr. Baker directly, so I went through the attorney to see if Dr. Baker would be interested in acting superintendent of schools. If he was qualified and was, you know how much money it would have saved us? We were paying Dr. Banks and Mrs. Boyd $700 a day. That was all. Total waste of money. However, Dr. Baker turns out to not have the necessary certificate at that time

125and Dr. Baker also testified to that. Uh I was going to read some more things, but I'm just going to just go to the end. Uh as I said, there's a lot of things here where I can turn around and file an ethics charge, but again, I go on record. I'm going to take the high road. And uh the decision, the common nexus of case laws of for violations NJSA 18A 1224.1 is that board members jeopardize their respective boards by taking action that could be imputed to their powers as board members without the approval of their board or within the scope of their authority. Such is not the case here. The only facts in issue are whether respondent, me, inappropriately involved himself in the food services contract and a personnel matter hiring the hiring of

126a new curriculum director {slash} interim superintendent. The only credible evidence produced was that the respondent had a conversation with the food vendor at a party in Atlantic City and suggested a food tasting event in the district. Following this initial discussion, all subsequent activities involving the setting up of a food tasting involved the business business administrator and the administration. Moreover, he had absolutely no involvement in the RFP process to solicit proposals for food vendor. Nor did he represent anyone that he had any authority with respect to such an award. Again, as I said, if the board president and the superintendent of schools attended the Macchio's event, which they told everybody to go to, they would have heard firsthand. The second charge relates to a personnel matter involving a vacant position in the district. It would be

127a great stretch of the imagination to say that the brief telephone conversation which included counsel for the district to potential candidate for a vacant position in the district constituted a violation of the code of ethics. There was no evidence that any representations were made about having authority to hire or any influence on the open position in the district. Moreover, following this conversation, there was no evidence of any further involvement by the respondent in this personnel matter. For the reasons cited above, I conclude that petitioners have failed to demonstrate any violations by a preponderance of the evidence and the complaint is dismissed. With the other ethics complaints, um I'm guessing, correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. McCartney, it's probably going to approach about $150,000. Frivolous waste of money. That money should go where? To teachers. To

128students. Okay. We're here for not here for the kids. I ask my colleagues, what are we here for? Okay, Jen Pepe went to the podium the other time at the last meeting and said it's time to stop these agendas. Okay, if I say that, it's on it's recorded. Okay, I agree with her. So, I reach out. I'm throwing an olive branch to my colleagues. Just put an end to these frivolous, ridiculous complaints. If not, we'll see you in court and McKinney will win again. With that being said, anything for executive session? >> Actually, John, I do have something I need to say. Um with regards >> Oh, hold on. Motion to end public comment. Sorry about that. Need a motion to end. James. Need a second. Second. Karina. Okay. Now my speech just took place.

129Okay. So, I have a comment. I do have a comment to make with regards to the case of Felice Weinkopf and Reese. That case is not settled. Meaning that the administrative law judge makes a recommendation back to the school ethics commission and it is not dismissed until there is a ruling that comes down from the school ethics commission. Just as a matter of of point. >> Kathy, let me interrupt so the audience can hold on. No, Kathy, listen for a minute. I read directly from the judge. Now you can talk. But you get the answer from the school ethics commission. We haven't received that yet. It's her point. >> So I understand that, but I but I read from the judge. You were allowed to speak, so I should be allowed to speak also. I

130am just talking about procedure. So, to say that it's been dismissed is premature. So, you know, you're laying all of this um saying it's frivolous, they weren't frivolous. And with respect to the case against you and Signorello with Bernie, that's not being heard by the school ethics commission. That was serious enough that it is being investigated by the New Jersey Attorney General. So, I I think it's it's important. Yes, you know, we need to to get along. However, to blame people for wanting to hold this board members accountable for the decisions and how this board is being run on an ongoing basis is not productive and is not to me um a good way to move forward. Kathy, what's not productive is your ethics complaints and I think you missed the point that a New

131Jersey judge dismissed every charge that you brought against Dr. Siccone. Furthermore, said in in the decision, and everyone the decision is public, that the testimony >> Please read it. >> the testimony was not credible from the witnesses that you brought forward, including Dr. Mary Ann Banks. Not credible means they lied. With no reason given for why they weren't credible. No, please look it up. Please look it up and read it. Please do. Please No, I read I read the results. I read the I read I read the I read the results that the judge wrote. I read it. But also, John, you neglected to mention the the case that you filed against me. You neglected to mention that, which was dismissed. So, let's not forget that. >> No, I wholeheartedly agree with that, but if

132you remember what I said, I reached out to the attorney to reach out to your attorney and say, "Look, I don't want to go forward on this. All I want to make public is that you cannot use school resources for politics. I got documentation that I sent to Patanati. You said your attorney never received it. With that being said, I guess the board doesn't want to come together and we file more charges. Jen. Yes. So, I just want to provide clarity to my statement. So, yes, I do agree that this district has spent money entirely too much money on ethics complaints. I do agree with Kathy that if there are reasons or things that need to be people need to be held accountable, that is a completely different story. But you have to understand that

133from a resident, we hear pieces of this information. So, you know what's going on day-to-day. The point of my statement was that I'm leaving this district. My daughter is in eighth grade, we're moving on. My point was it would be nice to see this board recru- get along or even for this town because of the arguing for the past six year- This is the first time anybody's ever even sat in these seats. I come to these meetings, we're talking to empty seats. Most people will never see the Millstone that I moved into, and that was my point. So, that's what I wanted to clarify. >> Thank you for clar- clarifying that. >> [applause] >> Before I make a motion to close the meeting, you're reasonable people. If your BA invites you to a reception and

134every single member of the board is invited to that reception and that food service is our service, knowing darn well they're going to come around and ask you, "Are you happy with the food service?" Doesn't it behoove you to attend? When James and I was there, Macchio's kept asking us, "Where's everybody else?" I said, "I don't know." That's when I text Don, James, I'm sorry, uh Bernie, uh Dr. Huss, and I believe Mrs. Reese, definitely Bernie and Dr. Huss, with a picture with a statement, "Where are you?" If they were there, here's my point. If they were there, they would have heard me ask, "Would you be interested in doing a food tasting for parents?" Cuz it's not whether I like the food. It's not whether you like the food. It's whether the kids like

135the food. What does it hurt to have a food tasting [clears throat] for parents? And we had it. It was very successful. I found out that they catered to kids with allergies. If you know my granddaughter, Nicolina, she has terrible allergies. I didn't know they had food for allergies because Macchio's used to send the material to the business office and it was never circulated with the parents. We found that out and since that food tasting, that's been corrected. Okay? The bottom line is we're here for I'm here for the kids and you'll never find somebody in support of teachers more than me. So, I say God bless you all. Thanks for coming tonight. Give Dr. McCartney a chance to investigate it and I'll take a motion to adjourn. I'll I'm sorry. >> a closed session.

136Uh we're not going to enter executive session. We're not going to be It's very unfortunate that sometimes it feels like we're in high school when at the end of the day we're all adults. It's just very unfortunate that we can't sit and have a conversation about exactly what's going on behind the scenes and try to settle that as opposed to just filing ethics charges, you know. Christine gave me one because of my business. I own Metro Pets Hotel. Just because I didn't fill it out in my financial disclosure and at the end of the day it was my first year here. She could have said, "Listen, Karina, by the way, you messed up. You should have told me this." She didn't have to file an ethics violation, but she did. And at the end of

137the day I feel like it's to set a tone. But if we're all here for the kids, again, why must we spend that money on ethics violations instead of spending it on your uh insurance, you know, the the security in the school, our own students? Because at the end of the day if we're here for them, nothing else should matter. Why are you guys here? Why are you guys teachers for Millstone? Because of our children, okay? And it's very unfortunate that this is what we have to do. We have to fight for ethics violations because they do not know how to sit down and have an adult conversation. It's like they have an agenda. They have an agenda at the end of the day. >> Complete nonsense. They have an agenda at the end of

138the day. You know, tell me, Karina, you did wrong, you shouldn't do this or whatever, but to set a tone and to actually give me an ethics violation for something I didn't even know I did wrong. My first year sitting here? You know, you guys know this is a volunteer job. We don't get paid for this. We're here for only the children. I'm stressed out. Exactly. If you're going to do that to us, >> money. No, 100% Let's follow the rules. The rules The rules. Let's follow THE RULES. HE WASN'T DISMISSED. NO WORTHY DATES, MAY 19TH. That Board of Education meeting was switched to May 12th. May 22nd, early dismissal. May 25th, district's closed. Motion to adjourn the meeting. Lena seconded. All in favor? Thanks for coming, teachers.