001[snorts] [laughter] [cough] >> Hey. It should [snorts] be, yeah. Yeah. Call to order of course. >> [laughter] >> I went from seven slides to 22 slides. You guys are in the treatment for treat, so. In compliance with the Open Public Meeting Law of New Jersey, P.L. 1975, CH 231, adequate notice of this meeting was provided on January 29th, 2026, by sending notification to the Asbury Park Press, Trenton Times, posting at each district school, and the clerk. Please rise for the national anthem by our wonderful students. >> [singing] [singing] >> Still got a working microphone if you can hear me here. Please remain standing for hearing our students sing God Bless America. God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light [singing] from above. From the
002mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam. God bless America, my home [singing] sweet home. God bless America, my home sweet home. >> [music] >> Would you remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance? 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 >> Before we start, Mr. Presider is not here tonight. So, I'm going to ask the board attorney to serve not only as board attorney tonight, but as board secretary, if you don't mind, Bruce. Is that all right with you, okay with you, sir? Okay. So, What's the comparison to the old? Roll call. Uh Mr. Widawski? Here. Ms. Weinkauf? Here. Ms. Reese? Here. Ms. Kinsey? Here. Mr. Gigantino? Here. Mr. Signarella? Mr. Carr? Here. Vice
003President Ramos? Here. President Secor? Here. We have a quorum. Thank you, sir. At this time, we'll turn it over to Dr. McCartney for the administrative report. Uh yes, good evening. My uh report will be short only because I will be doing the budget presentation uh when we get to the board secretary report. Uh right now, the only things on my report are the action items, uh the enrollment report, and the HIV report. Uh for the HIV report, we had two um two uh accusations. One was founded, and one was not. And that brings our totals to uh zero at the primary school, one at the elementary school, and six at the middle school of the claims. One elementary and three middle school substantiated uh at this point as through February of the school year. We
004have a motion to accept the HIV report. Roll call. Second it, please, Kathy. Whisper. Yes, you can. >> All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, moving forward. Uh Dr. McCartney, the uh board secretary report. >> [clears throat] >> There we go. >> [clears throat] >> All right, good evening. Uh I just gave all of you a copy of the slides that I'm going to be going through, so you can uh take a look at that as we're going through the presentation uh for those in the audience. I um I have your email address. Uh just as a review, our budget calendar, uh this is the cycle that we've gone through over the course of the um starting back in December in our budget development. Uh as you can see, we've had um a couple different
005important dates, uh including the uh couple different budget presentations, the governor's address, and the release of state aid state aid. Uh and we're at now at the March 24th, uh which is the uh goal for the adoption of our preliminary budget. I wanted to kind of give some >> [clears throat] >> some broader context. Uh as many of you probably have seen in the news across the state, uh many school districts are facing very difficult financial situations uh and and decisions. Um mainly because of of a variety of factors of I'm going to talk start talking in a second. Uh so, what I kind of did was at the uh county level, we sent out a survey I sent out a survey to all the other county superintendents asking kind of where their heads were
006at or where where their budgets were going to be uh with the percent increase on the tax levy. As you all know, 2% is what's mandated as the maximum tax levy you can you can uh go up. However, there are different uh avenues to go beyond the 2%. One of them being, for example, a health care waiver. Another one being bank cap. Uh so, there are different ways that you know, communities might go beyond the 2%. So, uh there are 55 districts uh 55 superintendents from Albany County. I was able to get 33 responses, which is uh over 50%, not bad. Uh and you can kind of see up here the results of of where their communities are going with their tax levy. Uh you can see uh 48.5% are going between 5 and 9
007and 0.9 under than 10% tax levy increase. Uh 12% are going between 4 and 5, and then you can see a way scaling back. Um you know, this is this is the reality of the costs that are increasing uh across the board. Some of the main budget drivers for school communities right now include the increase of health benefits, which we've been talking about for months. Um you know, the state health plan, for example, went up over 30%. Uh a lot of communities are facing similar rises in their health care. Uh the other piece that's uh impacting the majority of the districts include the contract and salary increases, which again, you know, anywhere from 3 to 4 to a little over percent maybe a community uh negotiated. And when you only have a 2% cap, you
008know, that's a tricky uh math problem to solve sometimes. And you can see other factors, every district's a little bit different, whether it's loss of state aid, uh increased special education costs, whatever that factor might be. Uh but you can see by far the majority of of school districts are feeling the pain of the health care increase. We asked, "How are they going beyond the 2%?" Since you said 50% of the districts were going beyond the 2% more than 50% 60%. Some are using bank cap, which we didn't have any left. Uh some are using majority are using that health care cost adjustment. Also, as we look at the budget and the development process, we have to keep in mind a couple of different factors. One of them being the strategic plan. The strategic plan
009is what we've been building uh towards for the uh launch in September 2026. And we ended up with these five main goals uh as a community, which is student achievement, social emotional wellness, financial planning, safety and security, and then community communication and connection. So, those are important details to keep in the back of our mind as we're building a budget. We can't build a budget that kind of goes against these goals, right? Because that doesn't seem to be uh seems kind of intuitive. We also have that long-range facilities plan that we're working on that was presented at the last board meeting. And you saw the initial phases of initial phases were completed uh and and Mr. Nichols was here presenting to the board. Today, I did a walk-through with uh the architect, uh the principals
010of the middle the primary school and the middle school, um and we kind of looked at the spaces physically. We talked about their needs, some of their goals, some of their ideas. Uh so, that's also part of that development process. It's not just that things like the HVAC units are are expiring. It's like, all right, how do we take that courtyard and make it something that's more useful for eighth graders and middle school students as an example. Um I also met last week with uh D C O Energy. That's that energy savings improvement uh company that was mentioned in the past. Uh so, their next step will be now to look at our um our our bills over the course of several months, and also do some site visits. Uh but this is an opportunity
011that will reduce uh costs, but basically provide savings for us to then use uh in other aspects without, you know, reducing costs uh overall. We have to keep our mission involved in in mind. You know, I I always talk about, you know, is this decision mission aligned? Is it is it mission driven? Uh you know, our our core word in our in our mission is academic excellence. So, we always got to keep that in mind as well. So, some of the factors that we have to take into consideration, I mentioned that 2% maximum tax levy. Uh the health care waiver, which does allow districts to go beyond that 2%. We had 0% bank cap at this point. We have 3.55% or or, you know, more or less salary increases for all of our members of
012of our collective bargaining agreements, that's teachers, administrators, and whatnot. Uh we're looking at estimating the energy cost of 20%. All of us who drive by a gas station and see the cost of gas going up every time we drive by. Um you know how that's going. I don't even know. I got I went to the Wawa, got gas. I just filled it up after an automatic fill-up. I don't even know what the bill is. I'm afraid to even look. I just I go inside, kind of sell stuff, and came back out. It was done, so I don't even know. Um we're estimating 20% or higher health care increases, just like a which is actually conservative, considering many districts are are facing 30 or plus or our broker prices in this range, so we're good. Um
013we have a debt service decrease, which is that expiring debt from from referendums years ago. That's constantly going down, just like a mortgage payment. And then, I mentioned previously that our our tuition >> [clears throat] >> uh bill went up about half a million dollars. So, this is where we had to then make a balanced budget. So, we know what our revenues are versus uh our costs. Uh we went through the budget line by line, say like, all right, let's look at every line from revenues to appropriations, and say, "What is this? Is it Do we Are we over-budgeting, under-budgeting? Do we have more coming in revenue than maybe we had thought?" And and and figure out those things. So, after that initial review, we found about $95,000 that we were able to then put
014towards uh balancing that budget. Unfortunately, we did have to look at reductions. Um you know, primarily driven by enrollment. It's not even driven by the finances. Uh it's driven by our our our numbers of students going down. Um so, we're looking at a reduction of 11 positions for instructional staff, which is student-facing, and five positions reduction in non-instructional staff, which are not student-facing. Uh does that make sense? We are uh launching that um >> [clears throat] >> I like to say participation participant funded but that pay to play revenue which we budgeted uh $250,000 to help balance the budget. We have that health care waiver. Originally our waiver was looking at about $500,000 502 I think in change. Uh once we entered all the numbers into the same budgeting software it ended up spitting out
015the number 793 uh thousand dollars. $793,94 in that waiver that we had eligible. We did a few other curriculum reduct- uh reductions. Uh some of the online platforms things like that we looked at. And and then we got the news about this and that was you know I was feeling like we we had given all we can give and then we got hit with another almost $91,000 uh in state aid reduction. And there was always a why do we lose state aid? I I shared this last year but I'm going to share it again. Two key terms adequacy and local uh cost share or local fair share. Uh basically the state determines what your adequacy adequacy budget should be. So they're estimating that uh you know your your per pupil budget should be your budget
016should be $28 million more or less. And we're paying 35 almost 36 million. Uh and that's probably over the over the years we've had the the luxury of of being able to do those types of things. Um and then the uh local fair share is what they expect us to be able to pay as a community based on our our economic our socio- socioeconomics and uh real estate values. And so they're saying we should be paying 46 million as a community and the reality is we're paying 33 almost 34 million. Um and that's because of over time we had again also that luxury of not having to raise taxes 2%. And so that's what we're able to do flat sometimes you're allowed to do one it'll do one. You know but that's coming now to
017fruition you know in in a way that's reducing our state aid. So there uh there was no um equalization aid there wasn't any last year as well. Um and so and our our state aid is a as a whole overall has come down. And that's also partly with that enrollment decrease as well. So I know class sizes was always a topic. Um so I wanted to kind of share as an overview of what we're looking at uh with the class sizes based on some of those reductions that I mentioned before. Uh these are our projected enrollment number of students. Preschool is kind of in the process though so it's hard to to put a exact number there. However what I did was I basically added several students per grade level more than we have currently
018enrolled. Um so we looked at our K2 uh being at 301 projected class sizes going from 16.6 to 20. Uh 35 342 20 21.2 and then 68 370 21.3 21.7. So overall our our average class size as a district is going from 19.3 to 21 which I think is still appropriate 21 students. We reviewed these fact- uh these these numbers before but it's important to keep in mind that the average home value has gone up which then obviously impacts the you know amount of taxes you pay. The average home for Millstone Township for 26 27 is $0. There you go. $635,106. Um so that's kind of like that benchmark we use when we start looking at the impact [clears throat] of the tax levy. Over 3 years and I can tell you this is like
01925 26 and this is the current coming up year. We looked at a tax levy of 2.7% 4.41 and then this year's proposal is 4.34. That's the maximum tax levy we can go up based on the health care waiver. Um and so there's there's other levers we're pulling in that sense. Uh what that means is we look at a $204 increase for the average home. However there's also the debt service which is going to be reducing uh that that levy because that's the debt paying we're paying down. Um so you can see that 2027 debt service uh will be less $187,000 less which is a $60 reduction in taxes for the average home. So what does that mean? That means the total change uh for the average home again at 600 $650,000 just round numbers
020is $144. $12 a month uh for the average home. If you have a $1.2 million home that's $288 or $24 a month. All right? Um and that's based on the increase in tax levy and the decrease with uh the debt service. Now I used 3 years uh data or Bernie and I used 3 years data for a reason um which I'll show you in a second. Beyond the the tax levy there are other revenues that we are leveraging. Um we have our state aid. We have our fund balance which is money that was left over from the past years like 2 years ago um that we were able to ever use for the supplement this budget and last year's budget. Um we have a variety of miscellaneous revenues whether that's fees uh interest for our
021our that was a big finding for us our bank interest was a lot higher than we had budgeted. Uh so we're we're we're doing very well there. Uh our tuition for our preschool program that was a we had budgeted a certain a number there I we under budgeted there. And then once we looked at our current enrollment figures we were able to bump that up about $130,000. Uh extraordinary aid comes from uh the government. Our transportation fees that's what other districts pay us uh as uh our transportation being managed for them. And then you know we have a small Medicaid reimbursement. Grant applications this year since I guess I could say from the 2025 to 2026 to present day we've applied now for sustainable Jersey grant. Um we did not it was an unsuccessful application
022but we are applying uh for grants as we can. The cops school violence prevention was for uh $160,000 for security upgrades. Uh we just applied for sustainable Jersey again a few weeks ago. Uh that's going to be related to um hydroponics and and uh AI technology. We but we did get the invention land uh grant. The tricky part about that is they give you a discount on the refund things you still have to pay money in order to do the renovations. So we did win that earn that we were awarded that grant but we still need to figure out the logistics of that to be possible. We had 18 months uh to make that decision. Uh we applied for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs which is that set it was $35,000 of playground
023upgrades uh or improvements. We are going to be applying for Project Lead the Way uh which is these different programs we're going to try to force us to implement here at the middle school. Um they're basically elective courses. Uh one is Building for the Future which is um and the students in this explore construction design and building real world solutions using uh the tools and transferable skills that help industry professionals succeed in their careers. Long story short like they almost start out with an engineering with an architect's blueprint and then they build it to they bring it to fruition. And um flight and space which is more about students and the engineering with the science of flight. Uh Project Lead the Way is pretty well known uh program. Uh my daughter's in courses for that
024in high school and they get college credits uh as well. So um this is not like one of those like you know unknown programs. Project Lead the Way is actually very well well thought of in in the educational world. So that uh is the grant we'll be submitting soon. So looking at the 3 years tax from 2024 to 2027 the average home has gone up $14. Uh with the debt service decreasing the average home has gone down $170. So the total impact on the on the average home since 2024 to present day is actually a decrease of $156 uh in taxes for the average home. So they're paying people are paying less this year coming up than they did 4 years ago. It's a good feeling that because you feel like you have your money
025in your pocket now you're taking it out but that's reality. And that's that's the numbers. Um so uh that's what we're going to be asking for as representing to the board for approval to then submit to the county uh this week uh and then we'll do this budget presentation again uh April on the 28th. Questions? Yes. Yeah just first of all really [clears throat] challenging you know fiscal environment and I think you guys guys did a great job given all the pressure and the angst and so kudos. I just had a question about the preschool expansion grants. I remember um I think it was last year we talked about that and and you mentioned that the whole kindergarten in the state the state and the federal was giving money towards potentially fully funded preschool programs.
026Is what's the situation? Is that something that we're considering or have the parameters of the program changed? So unfortunately the the rules changed on that grant. So we went to the uh state meeting for that last spring. Um and the way it was originally the original grant was that they paid for 100%. Uh they then changed it to they pay 60%. And so the the districts on the hook for the remaining 40% and you can't charge tuition any longer. So we ran a cost analysis of what it would what pre- preschool costs the district this year $208,000. So I know we look at it as a revenue but when you look at the staffing involved it costs $208,000 out of our pocket. If we had only if we had a not charged tuition and only
027got the 60% from the state it would have cost us $408,000. So it actually would have been a cost lo- a loss for us financially. In prior years wasn't it 100%? >> Yes. Okay so they changed the prior Right, so the year before we the year before we had full day kindergarten it was 100%. That's why we went to the meeting all excited. They shared the new numbers and new the new ratios people got up out of the room and left. And and so we were uh disappointed. And you know it is again it was not like we still wanted to do the exercise of running the numbers but to see that it would cost us more to to get the grant than it would be to not show not and versus charging revenue charging
028tuition and making that revenue. Can I add something to that? Um You know, I'm the liaison with upper freehold and every time upper freehold brings up a good idea I share it with the administration. I knew about that pre-K grant from upper freehold and came back and shared it with Dr. Banks at the time it was entering. And the decision that the administration made at that time was not to go to the meeting to find out what the parameters were. Well, by not going to that meeting the rules were if you didn't go to the meeting you could not apply for the grant. So we missed out. I wish Dr. McCourt was here a year earlier because we would have missed out. If you don't apply for grants you can't get them. We missed out
029on the 100% funding pre-K grant. I just want to add that it's not your fault. You did what you were supposed to do but unfortunately the rules changed the year later. Do you have questions? I I have a couple of questions. Um speaking of of grants only because it's something that I come across. There's a program that school districts use for preschool. Okay. So in the district where I work the cost of that, okay? Kathy, can you raise the volume please? Oh, I'm sorry. Let's see. Is that better? Okay. So the cost of that was reduced by 40% by grant money. So is there a way that some of the programs that we're using within our school can qualify for reimbursement for for grants? That would be too late we're going to have Okay. Okay,
030that's So when you go to the slide for the others revenue sources for the fund balance that you're going to are you do we need to keep a minimum dollar amount in our fund balance line item for just in cases? So this fund balance is not an option for us to use or not use. It's required for us to use. Basically, when they did the audit two years ago or three years ago they said this is the balance you have and you need to split it over. Last year we used 200 2.6 million I think it was. Okay. And it was it was basically almost divided in half. It's not a choice of use or not use it. It's like you have to use it to supplement the budget. The problem is it's $300,000 less
031than it was a year ago. So next year we're already starting in the hole um that difference because we uh won't have a fund balance. Um not 2.3 million we won't have we won't have the $300,000 difference from last year's fund balance to this year's fund balance. Okay. So then my final question comes around the slide where you talked about the budget analysis and identified reductions. Mhm. And I know that it was something that was discussed at the finance committee. My concern is you're you're reducing instructional staff and non-instructional staff. You're going to now ask parents for them to contribute for participation in sports I'm assuming clubs all of that type of thing. However I am of the mind that if we have to have cuts at this point everybody in this district needs to
032feel the pain. And that also means administrators. So I don't see anything here that you know talks about um administrators. At one point we had a principal that was in the building who was also acting as the interim director of curriculum and instruction. So have you looked anyway to combine administrative positions so that not only as our staff and our student class sizes everything is going up but I I think something needs to be done administratively. Other than that that's really all I have to say. Any other questions? In reference to the administrators we cut an administrator last year Dr. McCourt. And we were headed to being we cut an administrator when we we recently cut we did cut one out. Thank you. And how much have we wasted on ethics charges? Uh the running
033total is about $96,000. That's great. I could have been a teacher. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's real small. Well, if you want to have a conversation I think um blame is being laid where it shouldn't be laid and maybe board members need to sit back and kind of take into consideration what their actual roles and responsibilities are and to be able to follow the state statutes that are in place for board members. >> Okay, Kathy I'm going to cut you off. Let me let me let me cut you off. We had a big court case and public knows the results will be here in about 25 days. So let's postpone this discussion until the April meeting as we get the results of the court case. And let's see who really really knows what they're doing and
034who doesn't know what they're doing. So let's continue this discussion in April we have facts to talk about. Okay? I second that Dr. Sica. I third that. Any other questions? Done. Yeah. Jim, can you give us a list like in the past um before I I had sent suggestions to John that we discussed at the finance meeting. Before I sent those I went through previous budget presentations just to get a feel for you know what we used to do whatever cuz you know I went through my notes cuz I didn't I don't remember everything off the top of my head. And they used to be what we're cutting so we can see exactly what the district is losing. And I don't see that here. So is there any way that you could provide us with
035what exactly is being cut? You know, and we did cut an administrator but we weren't last year but we weren't this far you know we did we cut an administrator and we didn't have to raise class sizes. We didn't have to lay off what is it between teachers and non-instructional staff 16 staff members and teachers. So I think Kathy's point to revisit that combination position is something that we should consider cuz that's a big a big chunk of money that we could use. But if you could provide us with what is actually being cut I think that would help us understand you know what you know what exactly is going on in you know with this budget. I'm not really sure I'm following exactly what's being cut. What do you mean? Like what's being cut?
036Like if you would like No no no no. Like Okay, do you want their names? No. No no. Not the names. That's not what I'm saying. I didn't ask for names of people but what is being cut? What was cut to in order to get this budget to be to be able to be um um balanced, right? What did we cut is what I'm like other than reduction in instructional staff what was cut? We added paid to play but what other things was cut? Revenue in budget refinements. What were those budget refinements for $895,000? That's my question. In the past we've gotten you know we could we're saving this. We've we've cut this. Well, what is what is what are we cutting? I just like to see some more of like a breakdown of exactly
037what we're cutting. I'm going to vote on a budget where I don't know you know what what what's actually being removed from the budget. Dr. McCourt let me correct me if I'm wrong. Your your plan was to have it approved tonight and then go into the specific details once the county approves the budget. Is that correct? Yeah, and again this this presentation is basically copy paste from last year's presentation. This isn't like we we reduced things. I actually added 15 more slides than in last year's presentation I did. So But you will provide us with actually what the budget budget refinements were. We will see what the cuts actually were. Yeah, we can look and see what the requirements were. I mean the reality is there's a lot of things in that budget that were
038maybe um incorrectly entered. And so when I went I find $200,000 in energy savings that we put in too much in the budget you know that's almost 20% of of of that. So you know yeah, we can go through it line by line but you're not going to find like um you know you know Like if this position is cut from three down to two. We instead of having four school aides we now have three. You know, just give me an idea of what exactly the schools are missing. What what's going to be less? What are we working with? What what what what services are we not getting? I mean as I said the majority of our our staffing cuts are related to our declining enrollment. And our class sizes being we uh brought to
039what was the average? Uh from 19.3 to 21. As as a district. That would be where that Well, average is actually 22 because you know what's 22.7 of a child but it's actually Oh, you know you know I'm saying of of the case through a spectrum. Right. So that's that's kind of the main driving any other questions? Dr. Carney, I want to thank you and Bernie and your staff. I'm not mistaken. higher effort administrators everybody directors putting their heads together trying to make this and trying to make the cuts as minimal as possible. So again, on behalf of the board if I can say that On my behalf, thank you. And as I was saying, nobody wants to make any cuts. I mean it's like it's like it's terrible. I mean these are human beings
040we're talking about and so we sit here and and put numbers on a paper, but the reality is it's it's the most terrible part of the job that you have to do. And so it's not like anybody's doing it frivolously or haphazardly without, you know, losing sleep every night. So I just want you know, it's like one of those things where it's not just us, you know, and it's citywide and you see it in every every headline in every paper. Um and and we're we're not you know, I mean to a no different one. So my final question revolves around I guess the long-range facilities plan because I'm assuming that within this budget we really don't have a lot of money that we earmarked for capital projects here in the which is going to make
0412 years in a row. Well, it it probably is that there hasn't been money earmarked for capital capital work with within the the three buildings. So what is the anticipation then with the long-range facilities plan and for us to ensure that we're able to maintain um our facilities to what we what our expectations are? Yeah, I mean obviously the plan is to map out what that's going to look like financially and how we're going to navigate our debt declining especially adding new debt. We have about half a million dollars in the meetings reserves which we're we're not touched for this budget so we have that kind of as as a emergency fund. But the reality is we need to identify that. Uh oh and then the VCE energy is another solution potentially where they the
042money that you save in energy costs are then reallocated towards let's say improving a new HVAC unit or adding in lighting that you know, it improves energy costs. So that's also a way that we're going to try to fix some of these things before we go to a a a a grander scale financial, you know, kind of referendum approach. Okay, thank you. And Dr. McCartney, correct me if I'm wrong, was this discussed I think Bernie brought this up two meetings ago and Mr. Nichols mentioned that the referendum would never pass. So it was mentioned before. It's okay to keep mentioning it. Any other questions? Dr. McCartney, I just want to thank you for applying for grants. I feel like we would have applied for grants many years ago, even last year, it would have helped
043the budget as well. So I thank you for starting to apply for grants now. Well, I mean the grants are great revenue source especially for those I mean they're mainly really for that one-time cost, right? Because you know, you can't get a grant funding for a faculty member is difficult because it comes every year. But a lot of the things we're applying for are program based so we're able to then enhance our program. Because like I said, one of the important pieces about that strategic plan and just our mission in general is to have that academic program be the best it can possibly be. And when you're facing budget cuts, that's a tricky needle to thread. So that's where we're going to say like all right, I can't just say we can't afford to purchase
044programs but there's a grant for them and I think even Kathy mentioned some of these tools of my grants like let's look and see where we can bring in money to make sure we're moving forward rather than being stuck in sand and so we're not moving backwards. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, thank you, sir. Sorry, um I got to go take that. Okay, uh Dr. Zigo, before we move to public comment, there is a motion to approve the minutes. We need a motion to approve the minutes from March 3rd and March 12th. A motion to approve the minutes. Karina, seconded by Paul. With all in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstentions? No. Okay, public comments on agenda items only as per bylaw 0167. Anybody from the audience? Seeing none. We'll move on to the next
045topic. Human Resources, uh Mrs. Ramos, Mrs. Whitecoff. The one um Do you want to go first? >> No, I'm sorry. Karina can go. I'm just a little frazzled. Sorry. Mrs. Ramos I would like to move Human Resources in its entirety. We have a second. Ron, any discussion? Roll call. I have a question. >> Question. Um one of the positions here listed with the new position Who has a question? Who has the mic conference? It is Hello. Um I just see this um letter J, there's a raise from 50,000 to 65,000 from accounts payable or secretary, the new position. That's a $15,000 raise. Is that what we we um we posted that position for? I just I just thought it was kind of a big jump. From 50,000 to 65,000. Yes, so basically that's a decrease
046in what that salary that salary is currently and it's a pro it's a uh So 65,000 is less than the current person is making. Okay. $10,000. Okay. I just thought it was a big jump when I saw that it it That's a nice decrease. Um Roll call. Mr. Renowski Yes. Mrs. Whitecoff Uh yes. Mrs. Reese Yes. Mrs. Kinsey Yes. Mr. Gigantino Yes. Mr. Signorella Yes. Mr. Carr Yes. Vice President Ramos Yes. President Zigo Yes. Can I just have a point of order? Did we vote on the meeting minutes? Yes. Okay. Sorry. Okay, with that being said, we'll then go to education, Mrs. Ramos. I would like to move education in its entirety. We have a second. >> [clears throat] >> I'll second. Kathy Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Renowski Yes. Mrs. Whitecoff Yes. Mrs. Reese
047Yes. Mrs. Kinsey Yes. Mr. Gigantino Yes. Mr. Signorella Yes. Mr. Carr Yes. Vice President Ramos Yes. President Zigo Yes. Moving along, policy, Mrs. Whitecoff and Mr. Renowski. John, before we move on to that can I just ask under education is the board going to get updates on number one, that corrective action plan for the chronic absenteeism? >> [clears throat] >> You can find it on No, but is is that completed or is it something that is ongoing and will we be getting updates? No, it's basically it's a plan that we need to have in place in order to address chronic chronic absenteeism. Unfortunately, we don't have uh this necessary for next year. Our numbers are all below for the following school year. Now this is for our primary school this year identifying chronic absenteeism, what's
048our intervention plan including uh discussion with the RTI team to determine the ways we can support students who maybe are not in school as much this year. So basically attendance has improved. Yes. Thank you, sir. Roll call. We did that. Yes, so we're to Policy. Moving along, Mrs. Whitecoff and Mr. Renowski, policy. So um I'd like to move action items one and two under policy. Number one is a second reading from the policies that we reviewed um at our last meeting and number two is a first reading on the policies and you'll see the M's after each one means that it is mandated and uh Dr. McCartney also uh got a list of policies that we needed to ensure we had as well as update for our upcoming in-district um choose that review. Okay, do
049we have a second? Second. Okay, Christine Yes. Roll call. Mr. [clears throat] Renowski Yes. Mrs. Whitecoff >> Yes. Mrs. Reese Yes. Mrs. Kinsey Yes. Mr. Gigantino Yes. Mr. Signorella Yes. Mr. Carr Yes. Vice President Ramos Yes. President Zigo Yes. Okay, with the Upper Freehold Regional School District report, usually Mark does a video. Our meeting was last night so he sent me some things he wants me to read. Okay? Here are a few tidbits for the Millstone Board of Education meeting. We held our tentative budget hearing last night and our budget passed unanimously. The recorded version of it can be found online on the district page if anybody is interested. www.ufrsd.net. Some people in the audience watching at home may want to go and compare budgets. Sad state of affairs, everybody has to cut. Okay? Two,
050as always, there is tons happening at AHS. New Jersey GPA testing graduation requirement just ended for our juniors. The robotics team continues their run of amazing accomplishments. They finished ninth out of 40 teams in the first tournament. They continue this coming weekend. Spring athletics has begun. Golf is well underway. Baseball and softball are just leaving for their trips to South Carolina for baseball, Florida for softball. All teams begin their seasons this week. God bless all travelers. My granddaughter was dancing in Georgia. Atlanta, she was online for 7 hours. Never thought they're going to make it in time. Okay, that's not from Mark, that's from me. Okay. Mr. Allentown, an event that raises money for multiple charities, occurred on Friday, March 13th. Justin Kessler was named Mr. Allentown. And he was exceptional singing Piano Man by
051Billy Joel. The academic team hosted a competition of area high schools that will conclude this coming Thursday at Thursday at the high school. Our performing arts department brought a group of students to see The Great Gatsby on Broadway last week. The kids said it was an amazing learning experience. Mrs. Brian Revere has been named Allentown High School Teacher of the Year. Mrs. Revere teaches social studies. She's passionate about teaching her content area and being a supporter of kids. Junior prom is coming up, April 18th. Allentown High School graduation is on Monday, June 22nd. All Millstone Board of Education members are invited to attend and Mark is saying thanks. Okay. At this time, community engagement, as you know, we changed the process. We now have the co-presidents of PTO and co-presidents of MTFE. We have Jane
052and Carissa with us. Can you please go to podium and give us a delightful update on what's going on. Good evening. So, I do have a couple slides. Um, some of them are repeats, but [clears throat] I just want to kind of just make a couple points. So, um, for those of you that don't remember who I am, which is probably not many of you, but um, I am the president of the PTO, Jennifer Papi for the middle school. Uh, we are currently in an election. Uh, quite a few of us um, have eighth graders and we're moving on. So, um, up until April 1st, if anybody is interested in becoming a part of the amazing PTO board, they can do that. Uh, they can put their names in by April 1st. Um, I did
053put together um, I don't know who's in charge of this. Oh, okay, you Oh, there's a clicker. Oh, all right, this is fancy. It's in my computer. It's over here. Am I pushing the middle button? No, the arrows. Oh, there we go. Okay, so there's our board. Um, the next election will be in May and we're going to start transitioning things over as early as June. So, there we are. So, I put some pictures together because Dr. Sieger had asked me to and I went deep into the files and I found a picture of the Maldino family from when Nicolina was like in kindergarten. So, I pulled that out from one of the color runs. Um, I had to use pictures that I knew that was previously approved to be posted and then of course
054on the right is um, a picture from uh, one of the past father-daughter dances. That is my daughter Olivia and her best friend uh, Stephanie who is no longer in the district and a couple other uh, girls that are now in eighth grade. So, just kind of showing how quickly the years go and the uh, kids are on their way out. Again, a couple pictures that I wanted to share. This is my daughter Liv again with her friend Alex, Bella and Jerry on their way out in eighth grade and then we have my daughter again with a bunch of girls that are now at Allentown High School. So, um, that was the trunk or treat from several years ago. And then I wanted to share these pictures. This is dodgeball is coming up and I'm
055going to talk about that in a minute, but um, so this is the dodgeball trophy that sits in the front uh, cabinet up front that we update. Uh, so that just wanted to share that and then up in the upper right hand corner is the winners a couple years ago and and Ron, you'll see that Landon was one of the winners that year. And then we are getting ready um, to kick off um, not only professional administrative professional day where we uh, take care of all the administrators in the district. Um, we'll also be doing teacher appreciation week. So, that's just a photo from um, a setup that Claudia Krasnansky had done a couple years ago. So, just wanted to share that. Um, for those of you that are fairly new to the board, [clears
056throat] I just put a little thing up here. So, PS is always primary school, ES is always elementary school and MS is always middle school. Uh, this Saturday night the PTO uh, mother-son event is uh, scheduled for Saturday at I always forget what it's called. It used to be Sportika. I think it's called like multi-kingdom or something. Yeah. So, that's on Saturday night. Yeah, multi-sports kingdom. Okay. All right, thank you, Carissa. Um, April 16th is going to be the fifth through eighth graders um, can play dodgeball. It's going to be here at the middle school. We have I think five teams um, signed up. Mr. I have recruited Mr. DeMiceli at the middle school to help me um, and some of the current ninth [clears throat] graders at Allentown are going to come back. Um,
057I recruited uh, one of those Maldinoskis and um, a Chicharin to come and help. Uh, so that'll be on April 16th and then the father the daughter dance, historically the father-daughter dance is scheduled at the primary school for April 18th. I believe we have somewhere between like 182 dads and 200 uh, girls signed up. So, it's always a sellout event. It's always very successful. And as I mentioned before, April administrative professional day, uh, the PTO will take care of that. Uh, our plant sale for Mother's Day is scheduled for primary and elementary school in May. Again, teacher appreciation week is usually I believe the week of um, the annual New Jersey testing. I forget what it's called. Is it ELA testing or state testing or NJ? Yeah. So, we will make sure that um, you
058know, the teachers are well taken care of. They'll get breakfast one day if the middle school's getting breakfast, we're running over to do lunch for the elementary school. We kind of rotate it so that they all have a surprise each day. So, we are working on that and then we're at the end of the year. So, all our second graders, fifth grade graders and eighth graders will be having their milestone celebrations. Um, we did at at Are you going to talk about that, Dr. Sieger, or do you want me to mention the conference? You may mention the conference. Okay. So, um, So, some of the eighth grade events, we just dropped off all of the uh, class t-shirts for the eighth graders. They will be bringing them uh, I should have brought one and I
059I didn't. I'm sorry, but it says um, you know, class of 2026 Millstone Eagles and it has all the eighth grade students' names on the back in alphabetical order. Uh, they'll be taking them on their class trip on May 14th and 15th to Washington D.C. And then we will tell them to bring it back um, and wear it for their graduation practice. So, uh, those are all done. Claudia Krasnansky and I took care of that a couple weeks ago. And then we are also working on some of the um, second and fifth grade events. Um, and then as far as other eighth grade stuff going on, we're going to we're in the process of setting up um, so we hired Bill Schlepps' son to take pictures at the eighth grade graduation. So, the PTO is
060going to pay for that. Um, but we also hired him for we're planning on June 18th to invite all the eighth graders to Millstone Park and we're going to do like a sunset um, picture night and we've asked um, Bill's son to join us for that as well. So, we're very excited about that. Um, and then the eighth graders will have their breakfast and then they'll graduate on June 18th, I think. Is it June 18th? I'll go with Allison. Oh, right. It's June 23rd and we're having the breakfast on the 18th because the MPAC is rented that weekend and we had to bump it a couple days. So, it'll usually the breakfast is the morning 24 hours before the graduation, but it's going to be that Thursday and then we hope to have the sunset
061pictures that night. And then you'll be all ready to go on the 23rd, so I think that's it. And then the next I'm not sure if it's the slides on there. And then the next slide is just a reminder if anybody ever wants to speak or attend at one of our PTO meetings, they're usually the second Wednesday of every month. Um we usually do not have a meeting in April due to spring break and everybody on vacation and all that good stuff. Um and then just a reminder that we have our millstone.org page our millstonepto.org page as well as well as our Facebook page and our secretary Jillian has done an amazing job of keeping that stuff up to date. So, please feel free to check it out. Jen, may I add one more thing?
062You sure? Remember at last year's graduation for the first time we took a video. But unbeknownst to me there was nobody behind the camera. The camera was stationary. So, it was good for the first time, but not great. In talking with Dr. McCartney and Jen Peppy and Marissa um PTO is going to hire somebody to video tape. Yes. I don't think you have anybody yet, so if we make an announcement maybe somebody >> Yes, if anybody is interested in helping video tape the eighth grade graduation, we would love that and again PTO will pick up the tab for that. Thank you. So, so a couple things and I wish and I So, they can order yearbooks pretty much all year round. So, Lifetouch year I think this is the last year we're using Lifetouch. So,
063because we use Lifetouch, the middle school uses the school does their So, for PS and ES the PTO is in charge of the yearbook and Jillian Thatcher is in charge of that. You can order the yearbooks all year round. It comes through from Lifetouch, but we start to advertise like the sort of how it works is different. Like you can um when we do it, we [clears throat] kind of send out a flyer every and I want to say cuz I know they just did spring pictures and they're doing the final layout. So, it I'll get back to you, but they will be they'll get at all the K through five children will get a flyer home in the mail and we'll make sure that everybody you know, gets one and if um if you
064have to recheck emails, you'll probably see that you could probably order it right through Lifetouch cuz I get still get reminders and stuff, but we'll make sure we'll make sure that that gets out communicated of course. Thank you, Jen. Any other questions? Hi everybody. I'm Carissa from the MTFEE. So, we just completed um two fundraisers. So, we finished our Valentine's Day sock sale and our coin war. So, thank you to everybody who participated in that. I know I mentioned previously the socks are not are not a huge money maker. It was more something for the kids. I think we made a couple hundred dollars with that. We have not done counted yet the coin war. So, we are going to be doing a ice cream party for the grade that raised the most of that
065and announce soon. Um something we're really excited to announce is we started an Instagram page. So, we wanted just a way to kind of I know that you know, that our flyers go out on Mondays and take home Thursdays, but we kind of wanted a place where everybody could go in real time and kind of get all the updates and a place for all our links and everything a little more organized. You know, we do have the website, but I feel like Instagram is a little more relevant. So, if you go to Instagram and you we are on our handle is Millstone MTFEE. So, it's Millstone MTFEE on Instagram. When you go to the Instagram page, there's a link there on in our bio. So, when you click on that link in the bio, our
066link tree will pop up and we are keeping that up to date with all of our relevant links and all of our fundraisers going forward cuz I know you know, one of the issues that we had most recently was the sock sale. When our flyer went out on the listserv, it dropped the link. So, people were you know, calling and texting and you kind of freaking out because they couldn't have the link to order, which they're more than welcome to reach out to us at anytime, but if in when that happens in the future, everything would be on go to Instagram and everything will be in the links there and you can find our links for everything. Um we've also started a new Facebook page. So, when you go to the link in our Instagram
067bio, the link for the Facebook page is there as well. And we are still in the process of redoing our website. That link is up there as well. It is a functional website, we're just redoing it, making it more relevant. We're also excited to announce that the MTFEE has joined the Millstone Business Alliance. So, we went to our first meeting beginning of this month. So, we're really excited for that partnership. There's a lot of really awesome businesses in town, so we wanted to see how we can collaborate with them to better serve our students. Um coming up we also are going to be participating in a redesign. So, Dr. McCartney gave us that idea. We we set that up. We're looking at the tentative dates as of right now. We're still putting the materials together.
068They should be here soon. We're looking at all August. April 20th is the date for that's the tentative date for the redesign. Um something else that we have going on I know I had announced it at the last meeting, but we're doing we're going to be running a contest now for our Dave and Buster's fundraiser. From now until April 22nd, our goal is to is to sell We'd like to Our main fundraiser goal is to sell 1,000 cards. I'm sorry. So, the um what we're doing is when you go to we're going to be sending it out through the district listserv, but you can go to our Instagram page. On the Instagram page when you click the links, it will be a link for the Dave and Buster's there. You can participate a couple different
069ways. So, you just support us by purchasing a Dave and Buster's card. Again, the cards are $20. Um you get the full amount towards Dave and Buster's, so it's the same price that you would order you know, go to Dave and Buster's and get it except we get 50% of that. So, we get 50% of the sales as opposed to Dave and Buster's keeping the whole thing. So, you can either purchase it from our link and if you also are willing to, you can share our link on your social media. So, we're perfectly fine with that. And then but the thing that we're doing running the contest is if you would like to sign up for your own link. So, when you go to our actual when you click on the the link in the
070Instagram our bio, that will take you to the My name is on there Marissa Heinz. So, that will take you to my page. It's the page for the MTFEE. You there's an option there that say join my team. So, if you sign up for your own link, Dave and Buster's will keep track of what you sell and we're running a contest where between now and April 22nd, if you sell 25 cards, you'll get a $25 Amazon gift card. If you sell 50 cards, you'll get a $50 Amazon gift card. So, again you don't have to sign up for your own link, but if you do that's another incentive to kind of help us raise more money and then you'll you know, you'll get something back as well. So, we thought that would be fun. Something
071fun and again, you can also share our link on social media. We appreciate that as well if you don't want to do it that way. And then lastly oh sorry, two more things. So, we did start selling our school spirit bracelets. There's going to be an order form on our social media pages for that as well. The PTO was really generous and they let us they do our have a little pop-up shop at the Book and Go. That was a really awesome fun event where we kind of we sold some of our bracelets there. So, we're looking to hopefully do more pop-up shops at different events that we're going to be having, but also you can purchase online through the order form. And then lastly we're looking at a 5K. So, our tentative date right
072now is going to be June 6th. So, we'll have more information on that in the future, but we're in the process of planning a 5K run. Jen and Carissa on behalf of the board and the Millstone family and I think everybody will agree with me. Please thank all your members and we want to thank you Jen, Carissa, Tara, everybody for the job that you do. Remember working together we will and can make a difference. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Jen. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay, at this time I'd like to move finances in its entirety. May I have a second and then we'll go to questions. Second. James. Any questions on any item in finance? Seeing none. And just to be clear, I know one is the tentative budget. Any
073questions? Okay, roll call. Mr. John, I have a quick question. Based upon action item 14, is it safe to assume that another ethics charge has been filed um in the district? It's safe to assume and as I said in April we will discuss this in public in its entirety. So, we're going to be adding to the $96,000 legal bill that cost at least one teacher their job. Everyone take note of that. And again, we look forward to April for the discussion of that case at which time it's going to be some interesting conversation. Okay, thank you. Roll call. Mr. Manosky. Yes. Mrs. Mykoff. Um yes, except except on the on item number two. Um >> [clears throat] >> I've recused myself on anything that has to do with the Mykoff family scholarship and I also
074recused myself on number 14. >> Uh Ms. Reese. I am voting uh no on number one until I get um I can see a list of what we're actually cutting without teachers' names, of course. And I am recusing uh recusing myself from number 14. Yes to the rest. And yes to the rest, yes. Ms. Kinsey. Yes to the Yes to everything except I excuse myself for number 14. Mr. Digicino. Yes. Mr. Segarella. Yes. Mr. Carr. Yes. Vice President Roma. Yes. President Zicker. Yes. Okay, moving along. I don't see anything for operations, but I mentioned Mr. Digicino, Uh here's another you know, see another meeting in April and the architect will be showing us a the grounds with the listing made. So, we'll be walking this site. That's the only update we have for operations. So,
075that'll be [clears throat] through members of the operations committee, correct? Correct. Okay. Moving along, public comments on any item. Yeah, please state your name. Jennifer Peppy, 600 Duncan Terrace. Um I didn't have any intentions on coming up here. I'm not here as PTO, I'm here as a parent. Okay. So, this conversation is is directed at the board. And I'm going to exclude the gentleman on the end and and you can dwell on that cuz you're there, but I have to tell you that it's really disheartening still after all this time to see the way that you all engage with each other. There's nobody that attends these board meetings anymore and there's a reason. Nobody wants to sit and watch you guys argue with each other. And I think, you know, professionally and through the PTO
076and through my, you know, career, I've sat on boards for many, many years. Hearing that we're still spending all this money on ethics complaints and that you guys are still fighting with each other, the damage that has been done in this town is going I mean, I'm out of here in 3 months. These newer families [clears throat] will never experience the Millstone that I moved into. Please consider [clears throat] sitting down with each other and figuring out a way to move forward because [clears throat] it is really disheartening to sit and watch the way that you talk to each other. And I think it I I it's just it's gone on for too long. [clears throat] It's costing the district way too much money. I know there's two sides to every story. I know that
077I engaged in some of this for a period of time. It's time to move on. It's time to work together and it's time to move on. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, seeing none. Okay, we have no reason to go into executive session tonight. That's the planning. So, notable dates, April 2nd, early dismissal, kids will like that. April 3rd through the 10th, district closed for spring recess. Kids will definitely and staff will like that. Not so sure about the parents, but kids will. April 28th, board of education meeting and remember that'll be public budget meeting. And I understand that Dr. McCarty is going to go along, but once the budget's approved to give you what we did last year and go around and hopefully open it up to the parents. And again, I want
078to thank you for everything that you're doing. With that being said, we have a motion to adjourn. We have Karina, seconded by James. Audience, [clears throat] thank you for coming. All right, bye. Okay, and thank the official