001God bless America. >> What about Mark uh G's upper freehold? >> That's actually on Bernie's. So, the way we have it set right now is we can change the source. So, we'll do the beginning of it on this one and then switch over. >> This one's just smooth. That's all. >> Yeah. >> And on the uh when uh we're doing something new tonight, I'm going to introduce the MPF co-presidents and Jim Pepe. >> Okay. >> Uh can you like zoom in on them when they go to the podium? Uh sure. You know. This message is for the community and just want to zoom in. >> Okay. >> I tell you what to do. You know what to do. >> I got you. I hope Not so much. Thank you. It's so good. She got two
002both teachers. Why are you not Happy New Year. Give me the video. I can set it up. I'm going to What happens There are other people Let me shuffle again. All right. I don't know. Compliance with the open public meeting law of New Jersey PL1975 CH331. 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. Would you rise for the national Oh, you see why the dawn was so proud and bright. We were so glad our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star of the Still gives me goosebumps. Please remain standing for singing of God bless America. >> God blessed our stand and her night from above. From the mountains to the cloudies to the
003oppos. God bless America, my home. God bless America, my home. Beautiful. You may stand and repled for the leaders. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the standice for all >> Mr. Bid. >> Thank you Dr. Mr. Bar. >> Mr. Cigarella >> here. >> Pigino >> here. >> Mrs. Kinsey >> here. >> Mrs. Ree, >> Mrs. Wine, >> uh, Mr. Wowski >> here, >> Vice President Ramos >> here, >> and President Zika >> here. >> Before I turn it over to Dr. McCartney, I want to recognize one of our board members, Mr. Wikowski. has just been promoted to captain of the free council of police. Mr. Wikowski, please stand. With that being said, Dr. McCarthy, administrative report. While we're waiting for Dr. McCartney, I want to take this time
004to thank the residents who attended the three strategic planning committees. The schools belong to you. the people that attended. Excellent participation. The next step now is Dr. McCartney and his team puts everything together with New Jersey school boards. Then it comes back to the community for review. Then the board looks at it and then we vote on it. So with that being said, we're good. All righty. The moment everybody's been waiting for. Strategic plan update. uh looks like it's going to have some um creativity in the Zoom level of the slides. So, we're going to see how we make that work. But uh as mentioned, this is going to be an update of our most recent uh strategic plan session, which was session three, the third of three sessions total. As we're waiting, we don't
005have to worry about the school budget because they say silence is golden. So, you get a lot of gold. You want me to try from here? >> There we go. Now it's like moving really fast this way. That's why it's um just to kind of give you an update on an overview. And then on January 13th, we had a total of 21 participants. Uh the focus of this session was to take the big idea topics that we came up in session two then identify uh goal statements, objectives and strategies to try to address those five uh goal areas. Participants were able to sit in a topic of their choosing. We had five different table set uh areas. The five topics were financial planning, social emotional wellness and mental health, student success and achievement and safety
006and security. Go away. So goal one, financial planning. The goal statement that was created by that group is to improve financial health of the district to ensure long-term fiscal stability and invest in student success. Then you can see the objectives that were identified uh within that goal statement. Identifying uh inefficiencies or redundancies, looking for grant opportunities, developing a a plan to sustain and grow the district to support goals from the strategic plan, transparency, communication, early communication uh about budget realities and tact implications which will begin tonight. Goal two, social emotional wellness and mental health. The statement was is to implement a schoolwide approach to social emotional learning that builds resilience, emotional regulation, and positive relationships. And that group of of uh that that in that focus group their objectives they identified were um fostering positive
007relationships creating safe environments promoting healthy coping skills and stress management encouraging self-confidence and then um leveraging anti-bullying PBIS and positive reinforcement systems. Goal three, student success and achievement. As I said, category statement to increase student success and achievement by providing rigorous curriculum programming and maintaining highly qualified staff and keeping class sizes low. The objectives include offering rigorous curriculum across all disciplines, providing appropriate and effective professional development, and increasing and encouraging parental involvement. Four, safety and security to enhance school safety by implementing measures that deter, detect, and delay threats, ensuring a secure learning environment for all. Objectives identified for that include improving our cellular coverage in all schools, particularly at our elementary and primary schools, updating sufficient and making sure we have sufficient cameras for school grounds and buses. Uh leverage a DOE audit for physical
008security controls. provide extensive training for emergencies and then making sure we have the right cyber security in place. Goal five is related to community communication and connection to engage the community through informed accessible and multiplatform communication that is dedicated to educational excellence. Some of the objectives included reviewing our website, see what revisions or updates need to be uh made, develop a parent academy to inform parents of new programs as well as topics of interest, explore ways to reach all members of the Milstone community, not just those who are connected, directly connected to the schools, and then revamp our social media presence. The next steps now that we've completed the three sessions of the strategic plan requires the leadership team now to spend time working on the action steps action plan for each of those those
009areas. The timelines will be then attached to those action plan the action plan of a 3D you know for uh to complete the plan in three to five years. The action plans will include major activities that we need to do in order to achieve that those goals. Who's responsible? What resources do we need? when are we going to complete them and then what markers or indicators of success show that these goals have been achieved. So there's some concrete evidence. So kind of look at a timeline of that. The leadership team is going to be working on that action plan in February and March that can then be shared with the board of ed committee uh for the uh for them to review what we have in place. We finalize the action plan. April 28th is
010scheduled to be our budget hearing on u public hearing on the budget. So, we're going to push the next part, the last part of the string plan into May. May one, we submit everything to New Jersey school boards. They put it all together. They come to our board meeting on May 26 to present the plan and we either approve it that night or if any revisions are necessary for the June 16th to be then launched September 2026. Any questions? Now, the reason why everybody's here is not just looking at my picture of the water. Uh, I found a quote that I think really resonates well with uh really the reason why we're all here tonight, and that's to celebrate our teachers and educator educational professionals of the year. Now, the Daly Lama said, just as
011ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have farreaching effects. And that's what we can say about all the professionals that are in this room. This the effects that they have can are are far much more further reaching than they even realize. And it's great that we have an opportunity to recognize them tonight. So, we're going to get started. I'm going to begin with our primary school. We're going to call up our primary school team. They're going to come up. They're going to say a few words. We're going to announce who those uh teachers of the year recognize them. And we have something for them uh to come up and collect. And at the end, we'll take a picture of everybody. All right. So, Mr. Miss Hall
012coming up. Coming up. >> Good evening everyone. I'd like to start off by saying it's not easy to follow the Daly Lama, but we'll we'll do the best that we can up here. U the first person that I would like to recognize is our 2526 Governor's Teacher of the Year, Mary Kate Lane, preschool teacher. >> You know, all these people here, they got to see you. From the very first day of preschool orientation, Mary Kate Lane has created a classroom where every child feel welcomed, comfortable, and excited to begin their learning journey. Her bubbly and caring presence helps children address with confidence and joy. This makes her classroom a place where students truly feel at home. Mary Kay thoughtfully meets the individual needs of her students academically, socially, and emotionally. She recognizes each child's unique
013strengths and provides the right balance of support and challenges to help them strive. Whether through creative lessons, gentle encouragement, or intentional routines, she fosters curiosity, independence, and a kindness in her young learner. Equally impressive is Mary Kate's connections with the families. As you can see, first three, four, 10 rows. She communicates openly and positively, building trust and strong partnerships that extend learning beyond the classroom. Parents consistently express appreciation for their warmth, professionalism, and genuine care for children. Mary Kate's dedication, skill, and heart make her an outstanding educator and a valiant member of our school community. She or exemplifies the best of early childhood education and is truly deserving of recognition as governor's teacher of the year. All right, our next recipient makes it a clean sweep for the B-wing and the preschool. Our 2526 educational
014services professional of the year, Alisandra Russo, par professional, or as she's known around the hallways, Miss Ally Alexandra Russo is an exceptional paraprofessional who embodies professionalism, compassion, and dedication in all that she does. She consistently treats children's and adults with respect, kindness, creating a supportive and positive learning environment for everyone around her. Ally has a remarkable gift for working with students with disabilities, especially those who are non-verbal. Through her patience, empathy, and effective communication strategies, she helps students express themselves, build confidence, and achieve success in both academic and social settings. She truly understands each child's unique needs and provides the individualized support that allows them to thrive. Parents often share heartfelt gratitude for the progress their their children make under Miss Alli's care. The child study team and preschool staff deeply value her reliability, flexibility,
015and willingness to step in wherever she is needed. Her impact reaches beyond her classroom. She contributes daily to the strengths and the spirit of the entire preschool population. Alli is a dedicated professional whose warmth, warmth, skill, and commitment make her an invaluable member of our school. She amplifies the heart of early education and is truly deserving of the recognition of educational services professional of the year. MRS. AMADOLA. It is my great pleasure to recognize Deborah Monero as Milstone Elementary School Educator of the Year. Mrs. Monero is an exceptional educator whose dedication to students, families, and colleagues is evident in all that she does. She consistently demonstrates strong leadership at the grade, school, and district levels, including vol volunteering to pilot new language arts and mathematics programs. Through her extensive professional development, collaboration with administrators, and
016sharing her expertise with colleagues, and visiting districts, she embraces change and innovation while remaining steadfast in meeting her students needs. Mrs. Monero is deeply invested in student growth and works collaboratively with colleagues and specialists to improve instruction and outcomes. As a member of the school's response to intervention team, she continues to share her knowledge and leadership to support learners. She also fosters a positive positive classroom environment and strong school-to-home connections through ongoing communications with families. her flexibility, compassion, and commitment to ensure her students grow both academically and emotionally, making her a truly deserving making her truly deserving of this recognition. It is an honor to call her a colleague, and I am so proud to announce her as our elementary school educator of the year. It is my great pleasure to endorse and announce Alisa
017Wasserman as Milstone Elementary School's educational service professional of the year. As a member of our child study team, Mrs. Wasserman works closely with special education students, staff, administrators, and families, creating a welcoming and supportive environment where all students feel safe and encouraged. Her consistently positive attitude, professionalism, and collaborative work ethic have earned her the respect and admiration of students, colleagues, administrators, and families alike. Mrs. Wassermanman goes above and beyond to support students with diverse needs, serving as a knowledgeable resource and strong advocate for both students and families. She builds meaningful connections with families, helps connect them and staff to valuable resources, and ensures students receive the support they need to meet their learning goals. As a leader in our school, she contributes invaluable insight as a member of the PBSIS committee and the broad assessment
018team where her calm demeanor, educational experience, and mental health background are essential. Mrs. Wasserman's dedication, expertise, compassion make her an invaluable asset to our district and to our school, and we are so very proud that she is our educational service professional of the year. Mrs. Wasserman, day in and day out, I go to you for advice and I truly truly appreciate it all that you do for us. Thank you and congratulations. >> Okay, Mr. Dominic, come on up. I'd like to call up Mr. Kazangian as our teacher of the year. 25 25 26 24 is an exceptional sixth grade science teacher whose dedication, creativity, and enthusiasm have made a lasting impact on his students and school community. He delivers a challenging biology-based science curriculum with clarity and accessibility, simplifying complex and abstract topics so that
01912-year-olds can truly grasp and apply them. His hands-on projects and experiments allow students to explore science in tangible, meaningful ways, fostering both curiosity and confidence. Mr. Kazangian consistently motivates and supports his students through positive reinforcement and thoughtful, constructive feedback. His classroom is one where effort and growth are celebrated and every student feels seen and capable. Beyond the classroom, Mr. Kazanjan is a positive presence in the sixth grade lunchroom where he connects with the students socially alongside colleagues strengthening rel relationships and building a strong sense of community. His commitment extends far beyond teaching far far beyond teaching. He volunteers at school dances, attends field trips, coaches not one but three school sports teams, models teamwork, sportsmanship, and school pride. Mr. Mr. Kazangian is also responsive and collaborative with families maintaining clear communication and partnership with parents
020through his tireless dedication, enthusiasm for science and genuine care for students students. Mr. Kazangian exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding educator and community role model. He is truly deserving of recognition of teacher of the year. It's only fitting during National School Counseling Week to also bring up our educational service professional of the year, Mrs. Tomlinson. Gina Tomlinson is an exemplary school guidance counselor whose compassion, professionalism, and dedication make her an indispensable part of our middle school community. She is a true role model for students and staff alike, consistently demonstrating empathy, patience, and unwavering support for everyone she encounters. Mrs. Tomlinson plays a vital role in the social, emotional, and academic well-being of our students. Her calm and caring presence helps students navigate challenges with confidence and resilience. She goes above and beyond to ensure that
021every student feels valued and supported. Whether she is providing individual counseling, guiding classroom lessons, or partnering with families and teachers. A true leader and innovator, Mrs. Tomlinson was instrumental with the development and implementation of our Wise Up program, which celebrates and reinforces positive character-driven behavior throughout our school. Her efforts have strengthened our school and culture and helped foster a community built on respect, kindness, and integrity. Mrs. Tomlinson also coordinates many key initiatives that enhance the student experience, including our elementary to middle school transition days and the annual high school open house, ensuring each milestone is seamless and student centered. She regularly volunteers to chaper on grade level field trips and served with dedication as our HIV harassment intimidation and bullying specialist. Always handling sensitive matters with discretion and compassion. Through her calm demeanor, tire tireless
022commitment, and genuine care for others, Mrs. Tomlinson embodies the heart of what it means to serve an education. Her professionalism, warmth, and devotion to success and well-being of every student, excuse me, make her truly deserving of the title of educational services professional. Congratulations again to all of our um to all those who were recognized this evening. I will say it's an honor to be able to work with such dedicated professionals who spent every day coming here to our schools to make a positive impact on the students of Milton Township. Uh I think we should give them another round of applause. And if anybody everybody in the room can bear with me for a few more minutes, there's cake uh so just give me a few more minutes to finish this presentation and then uh all
023of you can see in the back. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So, quickly I wanted to update uh those who aboard and anybody else who's here um about our HOS alert uh system. I'm going to read a quick statement from the uh our partner um the HOS uh alert company. Milstone Township School District is taking road safety in Milstone Township to the next level with safety cloud by HOS alert. This technology sends digital alerts to nearby drivers when they are approaching a stop. You and I receive these alerts directly via the ways navigation app either on your phone or through Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. By giving drivers more time to slow down and stop for school buses, Safety Cloud helps keep students safe and it supports compliance with New Jersey school bus stop armor arm laws.
024Hos Alert is committed to partnering with communities to make roads safer for everyone. So in essence, what this is is a system that we installed in our buses that when they open, the stop signs open on the bus, it'll send alerts to cars in back, you know, coming up the road that there's a school bus stop ahead. We installed in I guess late October, um in our first month of operation, we had 1579 alerts sent to cars and then the following two months, December and January, you can see 2,638 and 2,630. So, in just three months, we've notified almost 7,000 drivers about the school bus ahead. So, this is not just safety for our kids, which is our primary focus. It's also safety for all those drivers who are on the roads as well. As
025part of our our um the new partnership, they came to our district and filmed some of our drivers and some of the buses and created a little bit of a a video highlighting our partnership, which we're going to share next. My name is Jennifer Ganelo. I'm Monica Kner her and I'm a bus driver for the Milstone Township School District. It's a lot that goes on that we have to be responsible for. >> The most stressful part if any of people don't run through our lights. I've had a kid almost get hit. The person was coming down the road, wasn't even paying attention as they went through my lights. >> One particular occasion was extremely alarming. We had a car going through the lights coming towards the bus simultaneously as a car was coming from behind
026the bus. I stopped and a car started to stop. They looked at me while my stop sign was open and they continued to go. And it's really dangerous because you really never know if a child's going to come out from across the street or what's going to happen. What I would say, the message that I would say to people um when they see a school bus, just remember we have people's children on our bus and our main thing is to get their kids to and from school safely. Last school year we documented about 80 instances of cars going through the lights. I think we're seeing so many driver violations because people nowadays are always in a hurry. People are looking at their phones, they're distracted, and >> it really only takes a second to look
027at your phone, look at your radio, you're going around a bend, you're going up a hill, and all of a sudden there's a bus stop. >> When you think about safety, really important to be proactive than reactive. The house alert system is a proactive approach to alerting drivers that there's a school bus stopped ahead. It will send notification through the navigation apps, especially for those using ways. Send them an alert in advance to know, hey, listen, there's a school bus up ahead. I need to be alert. I need to slow down. I need to be ready. Maybe that little blip on the car, you know, alert you that there is a school bus stop 200 feet in front of you. Uh especially in inclement weather or fog related, you know, conditions, it'll, you know, give
028you that awareness to slow down and stop. And when we had this opportunity to add another layer of safety to our school buses, it was a no-brainer. It was one of those things where we was like, why wouldn't we install this on our on our buses? Why wouldn't everybody have this on the school buses? >> Any measures we can take to keep our students more safe, we're going to do that. Okay. So, uh, our transportation director, I think, said it all. Said it best at the end. Any measures we can take to keep our students more safe, we're going to do that. We're the first school district in New Jersey with this technology on our buses. Uh we're the fourth school district in the nation with this technology on our school buses. Um and we're
029excited to be able to provide this added layer of safety for our students. So I wanted to share that information with the board and everybody else who's here. Okay. In addition to recognizing our teachers and our educators of the year, I also like to take a ch a moment to recognize our school board because January is uh schoolboard recognition month. So, I'm going to read a quick excerpt from the resolution that's provided to us by school boards. Whereas, the Milstone Township Board of Education embraces the goal of highquality education for all New Jersey public school students. And whereas school boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students, including those with special needs. And whereas board of education, boards of education provide accountability to the public, they communicate the needs
030of the school district to the public and they convey to school administrators the public's expectations for the schools. Therefore, be it resolved that the Minnesota Township Board of Education does hereby recognize the services of local school me schoolboard members throughout New Jersey as we join communities statewide in observing January 2026 as school board recognition month. And we have further resolved that the Millstone Township Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with our local boards of education and public schools public school staff toward the advancement of our children's education. Just want to thank our school board members for their time volunteering. This is not uh an easy position by any means and the pay is zero dollars. So it's not for the money. Um they do it just like our educators in the
031room do it because they care about our schools. They care about our community. They care about our students and they want the best uh for everybody who's who's here in Milton Township. So, uh we can give them a round of applause. Also on our list, we have our our school calendar uh will be approved tonight for the 2627 uh school year. That's in attachment number one. You can take a look. Um and action items wise, I have our enrollment report uh and our HIV report. I'd like to highlight it again. We've had zero um allegations and zero founded of course zero allegations have happened for our HIV for the month of December. So um that is my report. >> Okay, we have a motion to approve the action items from the superintendent report. Second by
032Mrs. Kinsey. >> Uh it's actually a NB. I know um you just mentioned a I'm sorry B because the resolution about school boards month is in A. >> So we can stay a and be the entire administrative report. >> Thank you Dr. Seco. All those in favor. >> Any opposed or abstensions? I see none. Motion carried. >> Now Dr. McCartney said wait for cake. >> Refresh. Uh teachers educators of please come up. We're going to take a picture by the cake and then we'll cut the cake. >> Principal Come on. >> Right here. We're cutting the cake. If you want some cake, come on up. What's your crew is here. Are you serious? I think this is performer. in the halfway. >> Okay. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I get it. over here. >> Why don't
033we go up here? >> Oh, yes. I will You know, they probably could actually bring Follow me. >> Congrats. Congrats. Congrats. >> Scott, very nice to meet you. >> I was at the primary school for a while. Give us a little watch. Okay. There you go. You shall be >> two hours. You can like >> Yep. Two hours total 27. I need those second result. Why is that just for Thank you. Watch this. Hey, thanks. telephone stuff. What's up, brother? >> Huh? What do you do? It doesn't pick it up that far. It only picks up from the feeds that come. That's why you >> sir Karina little shop right there. Serious. I'm like, I just have Here, I'm gonna give that to you. >> Okay, everybody has to be in a >> congratulations. Apparently,
034I have an entourage. Thank you. That's how it goes. >> Thank you, Steve, for coming. >> YOU'RE THE BEST. >> YEAH, it was crazy. basketball practice at 7. >> Hello nice people. We're going to go on with the uh meeting again. Congratulations everybody that's still here. Okay, at this time >> carry my purse. >> I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. He's going to do the board secretary report. >> Thank you Dr. B approval December 22nd January 5th January 13th a motion in a second. >> Do we have a motion? >> Second. >> All in favor I >> anyions Yeah. 60. Um that's the the minutes out of way. No old business. If you don't mind, I'm going to bring up Mr. Waldron from home train Allison the district auditor to present the uh audit
035from fiscal year 25 prior to doing the other two reports. >> That might not be on. >> Can you hear me? Sorry about that. Um, thank you very much for having me. My name is Brian W. I'm the partner with Bernie Alison. Uh, we are the school district. I'm here tonight just to give a very high level overview of the financial statements for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Uh, the date is reported the report, excuse me, is dated December 19th, 2025. Uh, and it was submitted prior to the January 15th due date of the state of New Jersey. uh the deadline for the state continues to sway back and forth. However, we have submitted all information on behalf of the district on time and time we submit it. So that's the first most important
036thing. Um I'm going to give a high level overview. If there are any questions, please feel free to stop me, ask me any questions afterwards. Uh our firm provides three opinions that we have uh in our audit report. The first the most important report is our independent audit report. Uh this report states that the financial statements are materially stated in all respects uh and according to what generally except accounting principles government auditing standards and also those requirements set forth by the department of education. Uh we have issued an unmodified opinion. It's a company's opinion. That's the best opinion that we can write and again just states that those financial statements are materially stated with all respects. Um the second opinion we have is our report on internal control and compliance. uh this significant amount of
037testing and compliance that goes into it regarding the state of New Jersey and Department of Education. Uh we did have one instance of non-compliance that I will talk about uh related to what we call recommendation 2025-001. Um and that is also an unmodified opinion as well. So again a cleaned opinion uh along with that recommendation as I'll speak about in a minute. Then a third comment a third report that we provide is a report on internal control and compliance over major programs. Uh as you're aware the state which means the district receive significant funding from both the state and federal governments and that triggers what we call an additional audit or a single audit. Uh and this year we had just a state single audit uh that was tested I believe your reimburse uh and
038then there was one other grant that we had tested as well which was our transportation aid. Uh we had no bindings or recommendations related to those grants on the state side. So a clean unmodified opinion for that as well. Um your overall school district uh I'll say your um main operating count your general fund as we call it. Uh you have about a $41 million school operating budget. Uh the fund balance at the end of the school year roughly about $8.2 million. Uh that represents roughly 20% of your operating budget. When we look uh at school districts and try to provide financial stability or kind of a picture of where you are, we like to look anywhere between that 10 to 25% as far as your overall fund balance compared to your operating budget. Uh
039just shows that you're either not too lean if you're on the other side of that or not too flush we would say if you were sitting on too much fund balance. Um your fund balance is broken down to various different reserves that you have additional reserves, capital maintenance, tuition reserves, other excess surpluses for budgeting. Uh I would say roughly 50 45 to 50% of that overall $8.2 million is what we call I'll call free uh you know unassigned balances or reserve balances that can be used for budgeting. Um the other four four and a half million is going to be used in your upcoming next two cycles for budget process. Uh so yeah overall I think in a healthy position as far as your fund balance goes for the school district. Just kind of looking
040here. I apologize. I know what we're about. >> Yeah. See C1, right? C1. >> Yeah. Usually these about 200 some pages here. And I don't believe you forage that page 99. Exactly. Actually the bottom of page 99. Um, while we're looking at that, the the the recommendation I did re uh want to bring up was related to our uh proprietary or enterprise funds. The district does have four enterprise funds. Uh what we um are self- sustaining funds. Uh the the largest uh the two largest would be your food service fund and your performing arts academy. Uh your performing arts um has certainly done very well over the years. Uh continues to be a strong base for the school district. Uh the other funds you have, you have your I believe it's your community education and
041your shop fund along with the student the food service funds. Uh those four individual enterprise funds this year did suffer a a deficit during the year. Uh two of those resulted in overall unassigned balances. Um the district is currently working to implement a directive action to um to supplement some of those funds from the school district to make sure that they are operating uh solely by themselves without the need necessarily from the school district uh in the budget that already spoken to your business administrator. we already have uh that action in works and in your upcoming I guess in a few months May and June we'll make any transfers necessary to to remove these and correct this action for this year. Um I can talk about a lot more things that are in here. Uh
042just get overall we would like to thank the board for having us. You know it's hard to follow. I know there's not many doctor recognition. It's great to see all the students here as well and the recognition that the district gets. Uh and hats off to the first uh school bus transportation. I think it's pretty cool to see. Hopefully the rest of our districts will start to follow in your footsteps. So if there are any questions specifically related to the audit, I'm happy to answer them. Yes, I have one. Can you explain the community education short? Sure. I didn't understand. Yep. So if you if we're looking at the actual financial statements themselves, this would be on page 42. Um, so you have there so your community education that program itself. So the the position
043would show a negative it looks like it's about 90 $91,000 as far as a net position as far as in the deficit. Um, what had happened what it seems like would be that the those funds are allocated there's expenditures that are allocated to these proprietary funds that are not solely related. They're we say the the individuals the employees their sole job necessarily is not just in this program. So the allocation portion of some of the expenditures both health uh benefits and salaries what looks to be this year and also in previous years have been contributed more I'll say on an allocation basis versus what their pay and benefits should have been allocated towards a regular general budget. Uh so speaking to your uh business administrator, it seems that it looks like it was more of
044almost a 5050 split versus the the revenue aspect what you would allocate was probably more of 80 to 85% to 15 to 20. So too much expenditures were being allocated to these this individual community education project or enterprise fund versus what should have been charged to the regular overall budget. So it's been alerted to this administrator that we're going to we've already I think in the 2025 26 fiscal year have corrected those expenditures to make sure that they're being properly allocated according to the time usually typically based on time and or revenue of what they're working on. Hope that answers a little bit of that question. >> Followup question. Am I correct that community education programs in my experience should be profitable? Well, the the goal for any of the enterprise funds that that the
045districts have, you know, the goal would be that they're profitable. Uh if they're not, that's something that the board should continue to look into, make sure uh the operating for the sole purpose of what they are. If you were to look at your overall performing arts, great example of one that continues to be a profitable type of enterprise. But um so to answer your question, yes, that would be the goal. Um, so it is something you need to monitor to see if it's something that it's going to continue to do, which I believe to discuss with the business administrator when we when they allocate those expenditures differently. It looks like that will turn the corner and then from there you'll have to determine whether or not something that will the future, which I can't predict
046unfortunately how that will look. Thank you very much. Of course. >> Can you also comment further on the $44,000 deficit for the food service? >> Sure. So, uh, the food service aspect, uh, there's a couple different combinations of that. Um, I was here a few years ago when a different auditorium, I think, speaking to this when, um, what we had our, uh, the pandemic, there was a significant amount of funding came from the state and federal governments. Uh, and if you remember, there was comments in the previous years relate to local net cash resource. So, we had significant excess cash that the state was expecting you to spend on a fast basis. So there's a little combination of continued expenditures to remove that net cash resource. Uh so the so that portion of that would
047be some of that's related to that. There are also expenditures related to either salaries or health benefits that were during that time same time frame but more towards the food service uh for AIDS I believe it would be as well. Correct me if I'm wrong. um while to continue to remove that comment at the time uh that were not then re I'll say fixed and reback allocated towards your general fund. So again something that 25 26 school year been alerted while we were doing the audit to then correct those allocations to further correct the what you're seeing as a deficit during the year. >> Thank anybody else. >> Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Mr. Beside, I don't see Dr. T, so we'll postpone that until February >> you haven't
048seen Dr. T. >> No, >> Dr. T from the Jersey school boards. Uh, something must have happened. He was supposed to do ethics training tonight. So, we'll postpone that till February 24th for the next meeting. Um, we're good. Bernie, anything we have to vote on? >> Uh, nothing there. You're going to accept the audit um later on in the agenda. Um, I'm going to pull up the budget presentation. >> All right. So what we wanted to do is we wanted to begin communication on the budget presentation budget uh for the commission year as soon as possible. Uh so this first presentation is one of four. If you look at the basically every meeting going forward starting today we'll have a a budget update presentation for the board of ed. Uh so this first one is
049going to touch on some high level you know overarching type topics starting with you when we go to the next slide the schedule as far as what we're looking at as a budget calendar over the next few months uh kind of start our way backwards uh starting in December uh we started developing the school budgets for the upcoming year through departments and schools uh that continues to continue continued into January January 27th so last week uh Bernie and I met with the county superintendent for our midyear year budget review uh which is an annual uh process. We are uh getting reject we've got received some projections from our healthcare broker which usually happens in January of the school year. So we're going to touch on that in a little while uh in the slides. Our
050audit presentation was today. Um tomorrow is the deadline for us to receive tuition for up from upper the costs. We already received that so we're going to share that shortly with you as well. Um the governor's address is typically was scheduled to be for February 24th. Because of the change of office, they told us to expect a two-e delay. Um that budget address is important because then we get our state aid numbers following. So right now, we're anticipating that budget address will not be until March 10th, which is going to get two weeks later than usual. At our next board of ed meeting, uh as part of our budget presentation, we're going to present the long range facility plan update, see where we are in that process and kind of align that with our budget
051development. um important. Uh February and March, Bernie and I are going to be meeting with all the departments uh and schools to go over their budgets to kind of go line by line, see what the what the requests are and see what legal room may or may not be. Sometime in March, we'll get our state aid numbers, uh which we're going to touch a little bit on later. Um March 24th board meeting, we had to adjust that. So that's why it's highlighted yellow. pay change, which I know Fran already mentioned to you. Because we're tenatively expected to have to submit our budget to the county by March 27th, we needed to move our board meeting to the 24th instead of the 31st. That's something we need to approve before we submit. Um, so that's what
052we're looking at for March. Uh, from now through April, we're going to continue these ongoing department board committee uh discussions on the budget. And then April 28th is the scheduled date for our public hearing on the budget. That's kind of the hierarchy calendar. Ready? >> Sure. Um again about uh early in um January um late December um we get some official uh placeholders um from our broker in regards to our health health benefit renewal. Our health benefit benefits given up in and of itself out of a $48 million budget. Um this year makes up about $5 million of that budget. Um we continue to see a increase in healthy people um within the district. Um our medical loss ratio was 67% October on a calendar year that loss ratio is 81%. Um, prior to October,
053we had some months that were over 100%. So, our running loss ratio right now combined for the history and the data that we have since May is 81% in health. Um, again, you see there that in June we spiked up to 145%. Prescription claims continue to be high. You see the data there for September and October um and November. Um 206% in September, 203% in October, 147% November. We still uh at this time do not have the December data for either prescription or health. Um but um the calendar year loss ratio for prescription coverage uh dropped from 214 to 207. When you look at the combined ratio prescription and health, um we're down to 103 through November from 105 in October. Back to my initial statement that we continue to see a little increase in
054healthy people um districtwide as our um our um data continues to decline slightly each month. Um, our renewal will be based on the as much data as possible. We did go private in May out of the state health benefit plan. Um, so we're able to get that data on a monthly basis and our broker Brown and Brown as soon as that data is available to them gives us a report how it runs. So we continue to monitor that monthly and more to come on that. Um this is a um process. Uh it's not something that's settled in January. We continue to shop and and squeeze and and scratch and claw to get the best number possible for the following um renewal cycle. Uh the placeholder that we're asked to put in the budget is a
05523% increase. Again, um we continue to shop for lower rates and we are evaluating a optin employee paid um vision plan. Um there might be some incentive. We currently use Horizon as a carrier for both um dental and health and they do offer prescription plans. So there might very well be an incentive if we went to a Horizon vision plan. although it's employee pay some incentive to have a reduction on the health and prescription um side. Um they did that when we moved from Delta Dental to Verizon Dental uh last year. So they gave us I think another percent off our health benefit coverage. So more to come on that. Um just a little statistical data when you hear about the state plan. Uh the state health benefit plan is looking at a 33% increase
056effective January 1st of 2026. So on January 1st of 2023, we were in a state health benefit plan along with 349 other districts. June 30th of 2025, 200 districts were left. They were then at that time talking about that 33% increase. January 1st of this year, 2026, only 170 remaining districts in the state health benefit plan. They're all, what that means is they're all bad. They're all having a horrible year both health and prescription wise, and they have no options. They can't get out of the state health benefit plan. >> Uh just looking at our enrollment, obviously that's an important uh factor as we look at projections of of our budget. I just wanted to share the totals over the last three years just looking at the trends. Um we had 1163 students 2425. We
057dropped out about 30 students in this current school year. Uh and we're looking at a potential another additional uh 2530 students. Uh again the projections are just really projections. It could be higher, it could be lowering. Um the one circle is a 160 students. stepped up our largest class which is our current eighth grade who will be graduating obviously then going to the high school. What that means is then there will be students who pay tuition in high school. So that's our largest level going forward and that's going to then be a tuition in town pro and also the most recent information that we just received from upper freeold late last week. Um, again, tuition up for freehold makes up uh for the 2627 school year, now $8.5 million of the $41 million budget that
058Brian had spoke about. >> Um, so we gave you a comparison um line by line of what makes up the tuition. Um, the per pupil times the number of pupil uh multiplied by the number of students being sent there increased $416,000. The true up or adjustment from prior years. So in this case for the 2627 school year at $1.3 million. Um there's a difference there of $137,000. Um that's the result of the audited numbers from the 20 425 school year and also upper freehold because these adjustments are so um large. They're allowing us to actually split the adjustment over two years. So, what makes up that $1.3 million is a 50% of the adjustment from two years ago and 50% of the adjustment from last year. We will then owe going into the 2728 budget
05950% of the adjustment from the current year. When you look at resource room, um they're proposing the same cost. Um you can see that we're really dialed in on the resource room line. Um the adjustment is s was almost cut in half the $43,000 or um down $56,000. When you look at all those components of the tuition lines that we sent up preole, um tuition in and of itself to upper preole is going up almost $500,000. Just quick slide. Um very preliminary um tax information. Um it's we created this side just so you can see the value of the average home in Milstone as it compares to other homes and gradables throughout town. This is the same home that eagle down there has lived at the same home um for the last four years or
060even probably 20 years prior to that. When you look at that home and you compare it to all the other homes in the town along with the ratables uh throughout town uh in 2324 the average home that same home was worth 543,000. The following year about $1,000 more. Um in 2526 uh there were some reassess assessments that happened. Uh that average home increased to 620,000 once again going into the 20167 school year. Uh the average home increased um by about $15,000. So when we present the um uh cost or the tax levy on the average home, we actually use the value for that year. Um it's the most I believe accurate way of uh presenting that and that's why we do um do this for you. Again, this slide is mainly there just to say
061it's the same home just valued differently each year. Um, in a reassessment year, which is what we had here, all homes probably went up a little bit or 90% of the homes went up a little bit. Some of the houses that were over assessed went down slightly. So, the value of homes um, uh, municip municipalwide went up slightly. If everything remains the same, that brings the tax rate down. If there's no new taxes introduced, um that would then bring the tax rate down slightly. A little bit of history over um the last couple years of the general fund tax levy and then some scenarios of the 2627 um school year budget and how it would impact taxes on the average home. Uh you can see 20 2024 we had a large amount of gradables come
062online with the um with the warehouses um we had a significant decrease in the um obligation uh of taxes levy by the school district and by the town based on those school the same house the following year the 2526 school uh school year the budget that we're in Now, um, that home saw an increase. Same home saw an increase of $367. We did see some additional ratables come online. There are also the um the reevaluation throughout town. Um, but there was a couple houses that came online. There was also a couple um I think one or two increases in the uh industrial or farms that came online. Um ultimately over the ratables across Milstone went up um over hund00 million. So again a combination of a couple new houses, one or two new commercial properties
063and also the reevaluation through town. So, when you throw that against a 2% tax levy, if the board settled on that in April, um the average home raising 26, I'm sorry, $679,000 worth of taxes districtwide, which amounts 2% of our general fund budget, would see an increase of taxes of $3 per year. We anticipate the ability to um qualify for a healthcare waiver because of that 20% or 23% increase in health benefits. Um that would allow us to increase taxes of 4.64%. Total of 1.574 million. What that would mean on the average home is an increase of $229 annually. Debt service. I know we've talked about this quite a bit and as we move forward in both the budget process and long range facilities planning, um we have expiring debt. So you can see and
064these numbers will change because we get debt service aid as part of the state aid um when it's released. So the debt service proposed will change slightly based on the amount of uh debt service aid we get. If it didn't change, you would see that we're going to see a a decrease in our debt service tax levy of $182785. because of expiring debt through 2031. In 2031, the district will be debt free. What that amounts to on the average home is um we would see a reduction for that component of taxes of $58. When you look at three years worth of tax levy history, even if this is combined general fund and debt service, even if we went with that 4.64% 64% increase for the 26.7 budget. We would be the average home $126 less
065a year for school taxes than we were four years ago. So when you look at those um three years combined, we're still lower than four years ago with the two components of the tax levies based on those new gradables coming on board, based on the reassessment uh townwide um and based on our tax levies here in the district. >> Yeah, sorry. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. So what right now one of the things so as we indicated in the timeline back here in the first couple slides um all the budgets are department budgets are ready um we will start going through the department meetings with all the administrator supervisor and line by line Dr. McCartney and I will um review the budgets. We'll do presentations to the um staff, presentations to the community, presentations to this
066board, and we will be looking at every line of this budget along with shopping benefits, looking at renewals, all that kind of stuff for the next two months. But when all the departments um have submitted their budgets and I put it into the overall district budget, including a three I'm sorry, a 2% tax levy um of $679,000, we're $3.2 million away from balance budget. So, if you took that 2% out and said, "We're not raising taxes at all," we would be looking at about $3.8 million needed to balance the budget. So, that's where we are right now. Um, I think last year we started about a million dollars more and were able to get a balanced budget, but had a 4 over 4% tax levy increase. We're starting a little bit less. Um but there's
067also less bean on the boat. Um so this is a year and I I um I think I remember saying this last year that um it's a it's a year in which tough decisions um are going to have to be made. Remember the bullseye that we presented in years past on a slideshow. We are the center of bullseye with programs and start from the outside work your way in. I think we're at the point where we're at. So some of the factors that obviously we touch on a lot of these throughout the presentation but things that are in the back of our head as we're playing and working with the numbers. We look at it at two 2% of our maximum tax levy. allowed by law uh beyond that uh that 2.64 healthcare waiver option
068which is anticipated. We don't even know if that's for sure. Um but we just ran the scenarios just as hypothetical so we can see what we're dealing with. We have zero bank cap left. So that's not something that a lot of other people um we are going to look at request for proposals for our professional services to make sure that we have the best pricing uh involved as we go through um looking at if there's any way we can save money in any other areas. We are faced with a 3.55% salary increases that's contract totally required. U we're estimating a 20% energy cost increase as we mentioned that estimated a 23% healthcare increase. uh our debt service capital LA is decreasing you know just not mirroring the decreasing of the increases of the other areas
069and then as we shared our upper pre-ole uh tuition is is going up just under half million dollars uh as part of our budget process. So these are just factors that we have to kind of manage and work through as we're going through this process. As Bernie mentioned, we're going to continue like we did last year with the presentations at the school um at the schools, the public forums. Uh we see potentially do another PTO meeting that we did last year. UH AND THEN tonight about the budget. Um our budget presentation will continue tonight and then all of our meeting following will be some presentation related to our budget development including that was March 31st 31st. That was before we had realized the date that's going to be March 24th. Bless you. Um and then
070April 28th. So March 24th would be that preliminary budget followed by submitting it to the county. March, April 28th will be the public budget hearing to approve the budget questions. I have a question for you. So obviously one of the biggest concerns is the talking the microphone. One of the biggest concerns. So we can't change our confined ratio, but since I've been on the board, correct me if I'm wrong, but they work on a commission basis, which means more that we pay more. So after changing workers, we just need to talk to other ground commission structure. what I can speak to as far as the the the services that's part of our process. That'll be, you know, they're all the professional services. Um, that's not going to change the current year because we're in the
071process of them now, but going forward, we're going to, you know, put it out there for any broker to apply and see what what they offer. So, that will happen in the future like conversations with them. But I I think that they are working relatively diligently on trying to find the lowest rates for us. >> But again, they're working just as clear, >> right? the more that they charge, the more premium we pay, more I would say that given the increase that we saw last year. >> Anybody else? >> Uh we it'll be online. We uh there'll be a budget bullet on our district website and then as we present stuff it'll be >> okay. Uh public comments on agenda items only >> Mike Lambro 25. I just want to clarify something. Did you say
072that you're looking at a $4 million deficit if you kept your budget the same for next year? >> Uh no. Um um what I said was uh right now um with the wish list from all the department departments um without further um line item reductions uh review by both board and the departments. Um it would um if we didn't raise taxes at all, we would be looking at an unbalanced budget of about 3.8. We have 3.8 million. We have the ability to increase taxes uh 2% 679,000 plus potentially um the health benefit will favor about to total about 1.5 million. So if we did that it would that that um unbalanced budget would we were raising taxes that much that unbalanced budget would then be cut right now without further um massaging of the budget
073further revenue sources or cuts that we need to make for 3.8 meet on >> and then um not sure if this I can ask any questions about this but I'm looking at the uh audit data and uh under operation grants and contributions is that money awarded by grants from the state? >> No, you would have to what page page 144 of the audit. Uh what was your question? >> So the operating grants and contributions is that grants that you guys applied for and received money like awarded. It's 3,329,592. >> It's on the bottom. >> Bear with me here. Yes. >> So that's money awarded from grants that you guys apply. >> Yeah. Combination everything um non um general fund related. >> Yeah. So my question is from 2018 to 2025 there was a 63% reduction
074in grants awarded. So I'm just curious >> you guys applying for more grants. >> A lot of that had to do with federal co money >> 2018. >> I'm sorry. >> In 2018 we received $9 million in operation grants and contributions. >> Yeah. 2020 is when we start to see the or 2020 2021 is when we start to see the co co money coming in. Uh 2018 I'd have to look back specifically for that. >> Are you guys in the like actively looking for more grants because it's gone down every year since 2022. >> Uh we continue to look for grants. In fact um last uh month um the district just approved a service to help us uh with several grants. So yes, we uh Okay. Because I just, you know, it's it's a 20,
075it's a 39% decrease from 2022 and just curious if you guys have more grants, we could, you know, unbburden the taxpayers. >> The board is interested in the district applying for more grants. That's a fact. Dr. McCartney is making that one of his priorities. That's all I wanted to say. >> Anybody else? Okay, Dr. Tegan just arrived, but we're going to bypass him for a moment. What I want to do is uh move community engagement up because we're doing something new starting tonight rather than have the chair of the committee read a statement that the PTO and MTF is going to do with their activities. My philosophy and I thank the president of PTO and the MTF co-presidents, they agreed rather than give us a statement that I would read to come in and present
076at the podium directly to the public what they plan on doing. And the more people that get involved, the better it is. So, at this time, I'd like Carissa Dissa and Jen Pepe to come to the podium. And whoever wants to go first, public, please pay attention. Thanks to people like this, they bring in a lot of money to the school school district. >> And Carissa, thanks for bringing the young man. >> I did send in some slides a little bit late. I don't know if you can access those. If not, I can just kind of talk to them on that share. >> Okay. So, okay. So, um, my name is Jennifer Pepe. I'm the current president of the, uh, parent teacher organization. We refer to it as our PTO. Um, we, our goal ideally
077is to foster a nurturing and caring environment that strives for continued parent involvement in helping to build a better educational environment for our children. Um, that's our fancy way of just saying that we're the party planners of the district. Um currently we are in the second year. So each board term for us is two years. Uh we are currently in the second year. Um the next election is in May for the 2026 through 2028 school years. Um my daughter Livia is in 8th grade now. So this is sort of the last harrah before I move on. Um my co-president um Jennifer Coswell focuses on the primary school and the elementary school while I focus on the middle school with my vice president. It was Paula Arsanian. Paula and I have sat on the board several
078times um since our children have been in the district and uh we currently have all of these positions open um as we go into the next term. Um just a couple things that I wanted to share um that the PTO does. So again, we do a lot of the extras. Um and then we donate all the money that we make each year back to the three schools. So um every summer, we kind of divide the money up between the three schools. In years past, it's been anywhere from $20,000 per school up to $30,000 per school. Uh right now we're sitting on approximately $45,000 in profit. Uh before we head into some of our our biggest events that are coming up, I'll share those with you. Uh so far this year, we've done a couple things.
079Uh we've done our book fairs, our ice cream social, our Field of Terror event, our middle school Halloween dance. Uh the trunk treat was held here at the middle school in October. We did the pie sale. We do the wrapping paper sale. Um there's been a couple of sporting events. Uh we've done we do Yankees games, right? Not Mets games, Yankees games. That's what it is. Yeah. Yankees. We I always forget if it's me Yankees. Um and then we added a Devil's event. And then we do the holiday bazaar for the children to shop for their parents through the holidays. And then we continue to focus on um extras for our teachers. Uh during the week of teacher appreciation week, we do flower sales for Mother's Day. Uh one of the big events that we
080have coming up coming up, which tends to be one of our biggest money makers, is our um daughter dance, which is um you know, the girls in the district take their special special guest to um a dance, which will be held on April 18th this year. Uh we just um and then in March here at the middle school, we have our dodgeball event scheduled for March 28th that allows fifth grade through 8th grade students to put teams together and then they basically fight for bragging rights and a trophy that goes up in the um in the front of the school. So So those are the things that are coming up. Um, Friday night we did the PTO had the Sky Zone event which is an annual event again fifth through 8th graders. We started inviting
081the fifth graders to the middle school events to start to acclimate them into being around the older children. Um, our registration was a little bit down a couple of weeks before the event. So, we extended it out to the fourth graders and then we capped out at 200 people for the event. So, um I think it was just a combination of people registering late and us getting nervous that we weren't going to meet meet our numbers. So, um and then one of the other areas of focus between now and the end of the year is obviously the end ofear milestone events for our second graders, fifth graders, and eighth graders. Um getting ready for the eighth grade graduation events that we are planning for the children. Um, fifth graders get their clap out and then
082second graders also have their um, you know, their ice cream socials and their um, those events. And then um, a couple other events on the docket again is the bingo night that we held last year at the Elks. And then the PTO is also responsible for the um, preK through five yearbook and we are responsible for the school store. Um let's see just a couple other things that I wanted to share. Uh we are always looking for new members and new chairs. And again anybody um if we can spread the word that we do have openings on the board. Uh quite a few of the families that have historically chaired a lot of events um are graduating out. Their daughters and their sons are graduating out. And then uh the easiest way to become part
083of the PTO or un uh get an understanding of what's going on you we have our second we have our PTO meeting on the second Wednesday of every month in the primary school library and we are very proud of our Milstone PTO.org page that we keep up to date um on a regular basis and then of course um updates on our Facebook page our Milstone PTO Facebook. So, and thank you for having us tonight. Anybody have any questions? >> Thank you for coming. >> Of course. >> Hi. So, I'm Kissa Hines. I'm the vice president of the MFE. So, what we basically do is we do fundraisers that um for grants and other projects that are outside the scope of the budget for the you know, the normal budget for the school district. So right
084now we're doing our um we're doing our sock fundraiser which keeps a little something for Valentine's Day for the kids. So we have our Valentine's Day sock form um water form and the flyers went out. So we have our appeal to both genders. So they're just kind of like fuzzy pink comfy socks and those are dress socks. So just kind of two different options just like kind of a fun little thing for the kids. Um we're also we also set up a fundraiser with Dave and Busters which I think would be very lucrative. So, what basically it's going to run for 90 days and we're selling if they people purchase through our link the $20 David Buster power cards, they're giving us 50% of all the proceeds which is pretty big. So, you know, for
085every $20 card that we sell, we get $10 back. And what's awesome about it is anybody can share the link any with anybody anywhere because it's for all the bunches location. So, it doesn't just have to be people and they'll sell them for the free location. People all over can can purchase them. So, you share those links out and it's good for 90 days. So, we're going to be sending out more information on that and we're going to do some, you know, contests. We'll be getting people to sign up for their own links and kind of share the cards. That'll be fun. Um, another thing that we're kind of in the works with is we're going to be selling, we talked about, I know that, you know, we have the school store that sells the
086um the Millstone T-shirts. So, we kind of talked about more stuff for school spirit. So, we're working on selling school spirit bracelets. So, we're kind of putting these together. So, that one has NMS on it from Milville Middle School. There's a smaller one that says NPS for those primary school. I know it looks small. We kind of fit on a preschooler, but um but anyway, so we're and then we're going to have another option that again for both genders. We're going to work on something for boys as well. Um and then we are going we're working on a a larger fundraiser for the spring. So we we're not announcing that yet because we're still finalizing details, but that'll be in the spring. And then we're also um working on getting up social media. So we're
087going to put an Instagram account together. We can kind of put out our you know forms and links and things like that, share with what's going on at all Facebook. So that's that's coming out. >> Thank you very much to the public. This is going to be uh every meeting. Uh Jen, Pepe, and Carissa and Tara will be here presenting, letting the community know what exciting events that we have. And the people that are watching, get the word out. Join these two bubbly organizations. Again, >> we'll be a member soon. Okay, >> anybody's more than welcome to join. >> Any comments from the board? >> Okay, thank you so much >> and thanks for bringing the young man. Uh, >> Dr. Kian, uh, we're going to go back to the board secretary report. We thought
088something happened. I had made an announcement. We're going to postpone it to February 24th. We didn't see you, but thank God you're okay and you're here. >> So, for the board and community, we have Dr. He's going to do our annual ethics report or presentation. >> Jen and Carissa, thank you so much. >> Thank you guys. >> Would the board members look at the last page? sign it after the presentation and give it back to Bernie. >> Right. So, yes, this is the exciting ethics presentation. Um, I was in the building. I was actually doing the county meeting. So, I was presenting down. I was down in your media center down there. So your poor custodian was trying to get in there and kept saying, "Can I come in now?" I'm like, "Not yet. Not
089yet." So, uh, so I I was not lost. Um, so this is your ethics presentation. Just so you know, this is legal information. It's not legal advice. You only get that from your board attorney because if the if you follow what the board attorney tells you and it's not correct, he's the one that has to defend you. So don't take it from us. Um, so the school ethics act was actually put in place to make sure that your community knows that you as board members are behaving the way that's expected. And so it's telling it it creates the tenants, the code of ethic tenants that tell you as board members what you're expected to by. It's supposed to be uh created by nine school ethics commission members. Uh, but it's only had six for the
090last two plus years. These are governor appointments. So, we're hoping that with the new governor, those seats will be filled. There's currently two open for the board members and one open for school administrators. And that's the way it's been. Um, this is important that there's only six seats that are currently filled because advisory opinions can only be made public if they have six positive votes for it. And uh what a public opinion what an advisory opinion is that's made public is where somebody has submitted something proactively asking for advice on whether they if they do something will it be correct or not correct and the school ethics commission if they feel it has a more far-reaching impact that it would be something that could impact others and other districts across the state then it becomes
091a public opinion. Um, unfortunately when they only have six, that's what they need as a vote to make something public. If somebody's not at the board meeting, then they even if they wanted to make something public, they can't. And so that's why this year, I think it was December 13th or 14th, it was the first time that any of the advisory opinions for the year were published. And so we had 22 uh advisory opinions published in one day. So, you know, that's in the presentation, just so you know. Uh, this is it. you have you're going to be getting a PDF if it hasn't been sent. Uh but there's a PDF of this. All the um links to the cases that are here, all the citations, they're all hyperl so you can click on them
092and get a lot more information. Um if you're like me, you like reading this kind of information. Some of the stuff is very interesting. Um some of it is you question, you know, what they were thinking, the the board member or the school official. Um but you also sometimes question how they come up with that decision. Um, so when you read the full cases, it gives you a lot more information. So these are the four areas that as a board member or school official you're expected to be following and that is mandatory training which you're have to do no matter what. That's why it's called mandatory. And then you have the code of ethics. There's 10 of those, the tenants that you have to follow, the disclosure statements and the prohibited acts. We're going to
093talk about all four of those. So the mandatory training you have governance one, two, three, and four. Governance one is for brand new board members. If you're a brand new board member, you have to finish governance one within 90 days of being sworn in. So if you're if somebody leaves your board and you appoint somebody in two months from now, that person would have 90 days to finish governance one. So you have to stay on top of them, make sure they're they're doing what they're supposed to do because they might not know as a brand new board member. Um, but governance one gives you the foundational knowledge that you need in order to be able to be a smart effective board member during your first year, which is the toughest year. Governance two is on
094focus on finance and student achievement. You have to do that any time during your second year of your first term. And then governance three that focuses on policy and labor relations. You have to do that any time within the third year of your first term. And then governance four is uh legal and there's legal issues, legal cases. Um you have to do that every time you're reelected. So if you're reelected this year, you have to do it anytime during this year that you're reelected. You get reelected in three years from now, then you would do governance four again. People do sometimes take these in advance of the year that they're supposed to take it. And you're welcome to do that. But the year that you hit, so if it's governance three, it's your third year.
095You still have to take governance three even if you took it in year one. Uh but a lot of people do take I find governance 4, they take, you know, every year or every two years because they're interested in the new cases that are out there. Um so just know that that those are the options that are open to you. Uh every single one of them is offered uh in person. It's also offered virtually live and then it's offered uh self-paced, which is virtual. Um, so it's digital and that one there's a new component with it which is coach Carla and you'll you'll if you've been to any of the county meetings they've been talking about it there and that's basically an AI coach that's part of you know the program. So each year um
096if you're brand new board member you have to do it in 30 days of being sworn in. you have to fill out a financial disclosure statement. And if you're on the board, you have until April 30th of every year to complete that financial uh disclosure statement. It does not ask you how much money you make. It just asks where are your sources of income. At school boards, we had to finish it in January. So, we're already done. Um know that when you submit it, it actually does not go right to the school ethics commission. It actually goes to your VA who will review it and if there's any issues with it, he'll let you know that you know you missed something. And so don't realize that if you didn't put something in right, it's not
097the end of the world. A lot of people mess it up, myself included. Best advice I can give you is when you finish it this year, print it out and then keep that for next year and then you just put the same information in unless something's changed. Um, so I'm not going to go into all the cases because like I said, these are hyperl and there's short summaries of them, but there have been some financial disclosure cases where somebody did not file their financial disclosure statement or they filed it, but they didn't necessarily put all the information in there and then ended up being a conflict arose and then end up being an issue. So know that you that there are cases out there and so that you have to make sure that you're abiding
098by that. It's also part of QAC. So, if you're being evaluated, I don't know what year you're being, but you are being evaluated this year. Okay? So, it's really important that you do it because that will be they do a 12-month book back and so they'll see if if everyone finished it when they were supposed to. Um, so we're going to go through the tenants of the code of ethics. There's 10 of them. And just so you know, everyone always thinks that it's New Jersey school boards that came up with the code of ethics. We did not. We're not the ethics police. We did not create it. Uh, we do not enforce it. However, you know, we do share with you about what those code of ethics are. So, the top part actually comes from
099statute, which is 18A, and the bottom part comes from code, which is 6A. And so, when you're looking at what it is you're expected to do, that's the top part, which is from 18A. If somebody is going to file an ethics complaint against you, they're going to file it. um you providing the factual information that's delineated within CIFA which is the the bottom part of that slide. Okay. So the first penant is that you're going to uphold and enforce all law laws rules and regulations. So you are required to follow the law on all the rules and regulations. If you don't like it, there's other avenues that you can pursue to try to change those, but you are required to follow them. When you're a board member, you have to make decisions that are in
100the best interest of all of the students within your district. So that's the primary reason why we're here as a school district. We're here for the students. So everything that we should be doing should be in their best interest. You're going to confine your job as a board member to policym, planning, and appraisal. Your job is not to run the district. It's not to tell the district what to do or how to do it. It's you can say this is what we would like but you don't tell how how it's going to fit. And as um for you guys you just went through strategic planning and we talked about that how you know the people that were participating were doing the what that that more global um balcony type of perspective on what they would
101like to see happen. The how is the action plans which are actually done by the superintendent and team. So you guys are just like that. You're the what. Superintendent team are the how. So the what is the policym planning and appraisal and that's what you're expected to do. Uh your job is to make sure that you're not administering the schools. So once again if you start saying how something should be done that means you're administering the schools. That would be an ethics violation. So you're as a board member everyone knows that you're a board member. They'll come up to you. They'll ask you to do things for them to make something happen. You cannot make any uh personal promises to anybody. So don't say I'll fix that or I'll take care of that. That's not
102your job. Once again, that's an administrative position. Um and as an individual, you can never do anything anyway. As as a board, that's where you can take action, not as an individual. You have to keep the special interest and the political stuff out of the district. Your focus, like I said before, is on the students. special interest in politics obviously are trying to make their way and they have made their way into public education. Their focus sometimes overlaps with what your focus is which is students but their purpose and their intent is very different. They have their own intentions of what they're trying to accomplish. You're trying to accomplish what's in the best interest of your students. To me, this is the most important one which is confidentiality. As a board member, you are privy
103to a lot of information that is confidential. Um, that's why you go into executive session and that's because that's that information is not for the public to hear or know about. Um, you also do receive communications from your superintendent that is highly confidential. Um, so all of that information has to be kept confidential because it is a code that you're expected to follow. But you can also open up your district to a lawsuit if you're not being confidential. So make sure that you are being confidential. It also destroys the um working of the board as a team. If I don't trust you as another board member that if I'm sharing something with you that it's going to get out there, then that breaks down that trust and therefore the board will struggle as a team
104to get the things done that they want to. Uh your job is to appoint the best qualified people. Now, your job is not to interview all the different candidates. your job is to look at the person that's being presented to you as a board to make sure they they meet all the requirements of whatever that position is, certifications, the background check, all of that. Um, so that's that's your job. And then your job is also to support and protect your uh staff. And that means you don't go up to a staff member and tell them what to do. You should never do that as a board member. Um, that's the job of the superintendent to do and and his team. But you have to protect them. Even if um a staff member does something wrong
105and let's say it hits the news, you don't go out there and start bashing that that uh staff member because that's not protecting. Okay? So your job is to protect them. Your job is also to refer all complaints to the superintendent. Your job is not to fix the issues that pop up because like I said, people will seek you out. So do not try to fix the issues. Your job is when somebody comes to you with a concern or a complaint, you say, "Thank you very much." And then you redirect them to the chain of command. Nine times out of ten, that's going to be the classroom teacher, but it could be somebody else on the chain of command depending on what the issue is. The next step is you tell the superintendent, "Hey, I
106had so and so come to me. They came to me with this concern. I redirected them here and I'm just looping you in." Once you do that, your job as a board member is done. You don't follow up to see how it was handled or any of that. that's outside the scope of your role and responsibilities. So when somebody does file file an ethics complaint, they have to do it 180 days from the time that the alleged um incident happened. Um so if they go 181 or they go longer than that, the school ethics commission is not going to reveal it. They're going to kick it out and say, you know, sorry, you missed the wound. So when they file it, they have to file which tenant or tenants that they felt that the person
107violated and then also provide the factual evidence to support it. So they can't just simply say I think you know so and so did something wrong and I think this I think they breached confidentiality. Okay, but you have to provide the factual evidence. When that person files it, you will be notified by the school ethics commission and they will say so and so has filed a ethics complaint against you. Um and then they give you the opportunity to provide your side of the story. So the school ethics commission is actually getting both sides of the story before they make a decision. Okay. So, um there was also because there's been a number of frivolous um filings that the school ethics commission has come out with that if they determine that it's frivolous filing, they can
108charge the person that's filing it $500. So, if somebody is found to be uh in violation of one of one or more of the code of ethics, um they will file one of these four penalties against them. The first one is a reprimand which is like a slap on the wrist that says yes you you did something wrong don't do it again and that's it and it's from the school ethics commission directly to you as a board member. The second level is much more public uh it's a censure. So what happens is the board has to adopt the resolution that says such and such board member violated the following code tenants within the code of ethics and um as a result they've received the censure from the SEC. The third one is even more serious.
109That's a suspension, which means SEC says you can't be a board member for X amount of time. You can't participate in any board activities or any board business. It might be 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, whatever it is they determine. And then the fourth one is a removal from the board. So, you're actually removed from a board and you can't be a board member again. So sometimes when a board member um missteps, they will s they'll claim that it was a council defense. They'll say, "Oh, it was my attorney's advice that I followed." And there's four uh prongs to that defense if they're going to use it. The first one is that that the uh that the advice was received prior to the person doing the wrong thing. So, in other words, you can't
110do something wrong and then go to your board of attorney and say, "Oh, by the way, if I do this, am I going to get in trouble?" And they'll tell you yes or no, whatever the case may be. You can't do it after the fact. You have to do it proactively. You have to say, "I'm thinking of doing this and not having done it before." The second one is that you have to ask your actual board attorney. You can't go to, you know, your neighbor who's an attorney or somebody else you know who's an attorney or someone who believes they're an attorney. You have to go to your board attorney. that's who you get your legal uh advice from. The third one is that you have to um give all the information, the facts of
111the case. So, if you only give part of the story, your board attorney is going to give you their recommendation based upon the information you give them. So, if you don't give them a complete picture, then that advice may may be wrong for you, but it's based upon the information that they were given. Um, and then the last one is that you actually have to follow what the board attorney tells you. So even though you did all the other parts and and you said, "Okay, give me the advice." If the board attorney tells you, "No, you can't do that and you do it anyway," that means you can't use this defense either. So like I said, I'm not going to go through all the cases, but these are broken down for you into the different
112areas. And in this case, these are the uh code of ethics cases from 2025. And then you have recusal on abstension. So if you are a board member and you don't have enough information on something, an agenda item, then you abstain from that vote. And a lot of times that will happen with uh the minutes because you weren't at the last board meeting and you're approving the minutes at this current board meeting. For the last one, you weren't there. You don't really have all the information. So that would be an appropriate time to abstain. A recusal means that you're actually conflicted and therefore even if you wanted to vote, you can't vote and so therefore you recuse yourself from voting on that. It basically sends the message to your community whether you had enough information
113or not and whether you could or could not vote on that item. In your packet that I gave you, there's from an advisory opinion. Those are um it's a handy little chart that people always say, well, if I have this relative um you know, can I be involved in something? And it tells you yes or no. You're still going to go to your board attorney if you have potential conflicts of interest. And then you give the very specific details of that relationship that you have and and what it is. And then the board attorney can guide you and say, "You're conflicted in this. You can't be involved in this. You can't vote on this or you can't be in this discussion." So they'll guide you in what you can and can't do. As I said
114before, the advisory opinion, you need six votes to be considered public and to be uh published. Um if you think about advisory opinions, they are proactive. So it's before you decide to do something wrong, you're you're seeking advice from the school ethics commission about if I do this, will it be right or wrong before you actually do it. Whereas an ethics violation means that you didn't seek it out. You did something and somebody called you out on it and they found that you were wrong. So one's proactive and one's reactive. We use this as a nice visual. The police officer advisory opinion. Even though it says opinion, you are required to follow these advisory opinions because it's like a police officer if they pull you over and they let you go with a warning. If
115they you violate what they just told you not to do and they pull you over again, they will give you a ticket. The school ethics commission acts the same way. If there's an advisory opinion out there and you do something that's in violation of something that was already published, that was already made public, then they will find against you. So these are the from the 22 that were published. These are all hyperl and you'll see that there's like the question that was posed in a nice oneline summary for each one of the cases and there's two slides of that. So when you see that you're like I said if you're interested in the cases click read all the information. I think it's pretty interesting. uh benefit cases. There's a lot of those as well. And
116it's not just whether you believe there's a benefit to you. It's whether there's possibility that there's a perception from your community that you would benefit in some way. So, for example, let's say I have a company and I want to donate something to the district as a result of that. And you say, "Yeah, it's no benefit to me. I'm actually giving to the district." That's a good thing, right? And it is a good thing. Unfortunately, the SEC probably would find that that was a benefit to you if somebody filed an ethics complaint. And you would say, "Well, why is that?" Well, part of the reason might be because it's free advertising. And so, they might say that is a benefit to you. So, if you're thinking of doing something where it could potentially be considered
117a benefit, once again, share with your board attorney. They can guide you on whether you should or shouldn't do that. Um, I did have a board member in another district that had a paving company and he wanted to repave the black tops and we know that's always very expensive and for years he keeps trying to every year he says he wants to do it and every year he's told no that's a conflict you can't do it and the reason why is once again you know people know it's his company and then he would be considered a benefit in that way and he did actually go get an advisory opinion and he's told them um these are a list of the prohibited acts so these if you fall into one of these This may create a
118conflict for you, which means that you might have to recuse yourself from whatever the agenda item is that falls in that or that discussion. And these are prohibited act cases. So once again, you can click on the hyperlinks and it brings you right to it. So as you saw, there was quite a few of those. So that seems to be a hot button. you know, conflict cases or benefit cases. There's a lot of those that are popping up. And then this is hiring personnel. So, if you're a board member and you have family that works in the district, that's okay. You can have that. It'll probably create a conflict for you depending on who the family member is, the relationship. Um, it may cause you not to be able to be involved in negotiations or
119vote on the contract, but once again, you're going to share that with your board attorney. But once you become a board member, you cannot hire anyone that's in your family to a position in the district. That would be considered a compromise. Um, and you can't retire or step down from the board, let that person be hired, and then come back. That's kind of circumventing it, and people will call you out on that. And there's there's been cases of that. This is just an example of if you are a board member and you have a conflict, it could actually create more than just being able to be uh voting on a certain agenda item or be involved in like negotiations. It can actually impact your ability to sit on certain committees. And if you're the board
120president, it may impact your ability to even assign anyone to committees. So once again, if you fall within this, you're definitely going to want to share with your board of attorney to get the advice of what you what committees you can and can't serve on and what you can do in terms of um voting for any agenda items. This is a handy chart for collective bargaining. If you are conflicted, meaning that you have a family member that's working in this district and they're covered by one of the uh unions, as a result, you would be considered most likely convict uh not convicted, conflicted, and therefore you would not be able to participate in negotiations and you would not be able to participate in the voting on the ratification of that contract. If you have a
121family member that works in another district that's covered under one of the contracts, you most likely will not be able to be involved in negotiations, but you may be able to then um vote to ratify the contract after all the terms and conditions are done. And then the final one is if you don't have anyone working here and you don't have anyone working outside, you are going to be one of the lucky ones that can be part of negotiations committee. Um so consider yourself lucky. And so that's just once again a handy chart for that. Uh campaigns and collective bargaining. If you've uh received financial contributions from say the teachers union to run your campaign, that can create a conflict for you where you might not be able to be involved in negotiations for that
122first year of being on the board. uh if they just endorsed you, that's probably not going to create a um conflict for you and therefore you would be able to be uh serving on negotiations and vote on everything. As a board member, you can absolutely volunteer in school. It's encouraged. You had the PTO uh people come up and talk about that. By all means, you can be involved in all the things that they're doing. Um, you just have to be careful about how often you're in the schools because you don't want to give the impression that you're running the schools and you don't want to be in a volunteer position where you're directing staff because if you're directing them, then once again, you're giving that impression that you're running the school and directing the staff
123and not protecting. And this is just advice. It's not a requirement, but it's uh suggested. when you're visiting a school, loop in the superintendent, let him know that you're visiting a school for whatever reason, and then stick to whatever that reason is. So, if I'm going to the school because I have a parent teacher conference, which I'm absolutely able to do, and you should do because you're a child's advocate person, let the superintendent know I'm going into next school, I'm going to go for a parent teacher conference. And then stick to the parent teacher conference. Don't come in a room like this and say, "Oh, you know, I noticed some of the lights are out and we could use a paint job over here." and then, you know, go off to the BA or superintendent
124and say, "Hey, I was here for a parent teacher conference and this is what I noticed that needs to be addressed." Don't do that. That means you're running the school and you're not there for the purpose that you were there for. And then on social media, the best advice I can give you on social media is if it has to do with your business, do not post about it. Okay? Because um in your in your uh policy, the superintendent is a spokesperson for the district, the board president is spokesperson for the board. If you're posting about um district business, somebody could potentially file an ethics claim that be potentially found it. So, you have to watch the content of what you're posting. Um if you are posting something that you believe could be linked to
125school business, then you're better off using the disclaimer, which is right there that the SEC created and it basically says you're not talking from board as a board member. You're talking as a private citizen. The SEC will look at the content though of what you're posting. So even though you use a disclaimer, doesn't mean you can say whatever you want. Disclaimer helps you when you're you're posting, but it will come down to the content. And these are just social media cases and we're seeing a lot more of those. And then I said this is information to keep in mind is texting from the board table. um your community can see you texting and so if they see you texting and you texting down there, they could make the assumption that you may be talking to
126each other and then they can over request your phones. And so the best uh solution is that if you have to text when you're at the board table, simply get up, walk away, do your texting or your phone calling, and then go back to the board table so you don't give that impression. The same thing is a lot of districts, they have laptops, they're not using paper agendas, they're using digital ones. That's totally fine to have that laptop open in front of you, but while you're in the board meeting, don't sit there and start answering emails because once again, people will think you may be emailing each other and then they'll over request your emails. Um, I just was talking to a district today that where the two the board member was actually over requested
127her emails for an extended period of time and she was like, "What?" And like, yes, that can be done. So, realize that you're not immune to that. That that can definitely happen to you. Um, as I said before, you are your child's advocate. If you have a child or grandchild in the district, by all means, continue to be that advocate for your child. Just because you're a board member doesn't doesn't say that you can't do that anymore. Just don't go into that classroom or into that school and say, "Well, you know, I'm a board member, okay? Because then that's using your position as a board member in a way that you should not be." And then this is just hyperl to some of the resources as well as the um advisory opinions and the uh
128recent ethics cases. And you can go back to last year, the year before, the year before. They have an archive of them. Um so if you're into reading and you want to read all about all the cases that are out there, by all means, click away. A lot of fun. Any questions? >> Anybody from the board? Any questions? As always, thank you so much. Okay, getting back to the agenda. We have uh human resources next. Mrs. Ramos, would you move human resources? >> Yes, Dr. I would like to move human resources in it. >> Any discussion? We have a second run. Okay, no questions. Mr. Car, >> yes. >> Mr. Cigarella, >> yes. >> Jiggantino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kinsey, >> yes. >> Mrs. Grace, >> uh, Mr. Winnowski, >> yes. >> Vice President Ramos,
129>> yes. >> President, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Back to Mrs. Ramos, would you move education? I would like to move education in its entirety. >> Any discussion? We have a second. Got Ron again. >> There are dollars being spent. This is roll call. Mr. Sigerella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jigino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kinsey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ree. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Wowski. >> Yes. >> Vice President Ramos. >> Yes. >> Mr. Car. >> Yes. >> And President Cu. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. What policy? It's Mrs. Blind call from Mr. Wowski. I know they don't have a meeting set up until very near future. So at this time, no action is to be taken. Going forward, we have the upper Freehold Regional School District report from Mr. Brutero.
130His video. These videos are nice. It shows the kids at the high school. It's all about the kids. If we're not here for the kids, why are we here? Do you have it? >> I have it here. >> Hello, Milstone Board of Education. Uh, this is Mark, superintendent of schools, Denver Regional School District, giving you the Allentown High School report. Um, lots happening in the district over the last few weeks and I wanted to share some of those things. Now, um first and foremost, um our kids are rehearsing for the musical. Um and one of the big parts of our high school is our fine and performing arts and uh our high school musical, Bright Star. It will be at the end of February. Tickets will be going on sale soon. Uh always an amazing
131production, uh Broadway level, and uh we have a wonderful cast and certainly excited to watch them flourish on the stage. So, uh, stay tuned for ticket information and, uh, look forward to seeing pack houses each of the three days. Uh, our seniors right now, as you probably know, for anybody who knows a parent of a senior or is a parent of a senior are in Disney. So, every year, as part of our tradition, seniors go to Disney Universal uh, during the semester break time period. Um, and so throughout their time in high school, they raise money, they do everything they can, but it's that our kids will really look forward to. And unfortunately, the weather is a little bit more chilly in Florida right now. Um, but they are having a great time and all
132reports say they're doing fantastic, being great representatives of our school and our communities. Um, so we're really excited about that and uh certainly happy for them to have a good time with each other. Um, athletics, we have a lot of like senior days. This is our senior night for wrestling. Um certainly giving props to our seniors who have put a bunch of time and effort into uh their their sport, their their seasons of um sort of athletic prowess. Uh we we salute them and they've done an excellent job being ambassadors for our district as well. Our basketball team just won their first division title ever. Um so we're really proud of them. It's really a young team made up of sophomores and juniors and one or two seniors that um really do amazing job. So,
133kudos to them. Girls basketball senior night. Um, again, honoring them for all the work they put in over four years. Our track and field, indoor track and field has about 100 kids involved in it right now. Um, so these are our seniors and kudos to them for being the leaders of the team. Uh, this is a picture of Jake Luchance. He's one of our uh students who plays on our ice hockey team. For those of you who know or don't know, we have an ice hockey ice hockey co-op with Robinsonville High School. So um we have our players play um on their ice hockey team and it's a collective group. So it's the Robinsville Allentown ice hockey team. Jake is the leading scorer in the state of New Jersey. Um he is a senior. He
134has about 40 goals at this point. Um and our team is hovering around the top 20 in the state of New Jersey. So really excited to play at Mercy County Park. If you ever had an opportunity to go watch them, it's really a a lively event and something that um as the playoffs start, we are really excited about the potential for them this year. Um one of the things that we do and Mr. Pay, our principal, has done is really focus a lot of attention on mental health at our high school. And one of the one of the avenues to do that is to bring in some uh therapy animals during the day occasionally. So this is right before exams. Very stressful time for our kids. Uh something that um our kids love as you
135can see. This time we we coordinated with Red Valley Ranch in Wilstone and and they brought over some alpacas, some goats, some pigs. Um and you don't necessarily see that all the time at a high school. However, uh the amount of stress that just gets sucked out of each of these kids when they see these animals and uh really to you see it really as something that is therapeutic to nature is a benefit to our kids and our kids rave about it. Our kids love it. Um and you can see they all flock to uh the various animals that the Red Valley Ranch brings. So, I just want to make you aware of that. Uh just a couple other tidbits. Uh semester day one is today. So our second semester, if you remember, we're block
136scheduled. So our second semester, it's like the first day of school for many kids for most of our kids because they're starting new classes. So uh just as the first day of school in September, today is the first day of our second semester with new classes, new schedules. Um and so that's off running soon. Uh we as a district and as a high school are talking about the new cell phone ban that's coming next year. So we're ready to rock and roll with that. Red Birds Rising Academy, just to make you aware, is um through our guidance department. It's our transitional services to colleges. So, it talks about everything from, hey, my kids going to be a junior, now what? Or I'm going to college. What do I what should I be doing my freshman
137year? Um all of those types of workshops, including sort of I'm an athlete, I want to play sports in college. So, we bring in a guidance uh person from excuse me, and a life director from a college to come in and talk to the kids about, hey, what do I need to do in order to get um on a team? What should I be doing in terms of getting recruited? So, it has covers everything from the academic piece to the athletic piece. And finally, on our February 9th meeting, we also will be approving our calendar for 26 27. We've worked um Jim and I have worked together, Dr. McCartney and I have worked together to make sure that it's in sync. We also had a couple very nice meetings with Mr. Rashada and Dr. McCartney
138about the budget. So, excuse me. So, that's coming and uh we're, you know, always excited and and happy about our relationships with this. That's basically it. So, I wish you a great board meeting and uh we'll talk soon. Take care. >> High School does a lot of things. It's a very good school. Okay, moving along. Uh, I'm going to move finance in its entirety. Are there any questions before we go for a second? >> Okay. May I have a second, please? Again. >> Okay, see no questions. Uh, Mr. Clark, >> yes. >> Mr. Sigilla, >> yes. >> Mr. Jantino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kinsey, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ree, >> yes. Mr. Wowski. >> Yes. >> Vice President Ramos. >> Yes. >> And President, >> yes. >> At this time, we're going to turn it
139over to Mr. Signarella for operations. >> Thank you, President. No updates at this time. We'll be meeting. >> Okay. Any public comments on anything? Okay. Uh, we do not need an executive session. So, some noteworthy dates. February 13th, school closed for students, staff, person professional development. February 16th, district close, president's day. February 19th, early dismissal. February 24th, board of education, our next meeting. With that, I have a motion to adjourn. >> I have a question. >> Question. Yes. >> Hi. Um, for our committee meetings, is there any way we can the board can know when committees are meeting? because we have no idea unless you're on the committee when that committee is meeting. And also, we're supposed to receive agendas three days um after a meeting is held for that committee. And we are all
140supposed to receive the minutes the day after a meeting is held according to our bylaws and you're supposed to get the minutes prior to school board meeting. Prior to this administration, the committees used to meet prior to the board meeting. I made that change two years ago. So when they have the meetings, the committee chairs send out the uh minutes. If there's an administrator on the committee, the administrator will send out those uh minutes. >> Okay. But we have not been receiving all the minutes. >> I disagree. If there's any ones that you do not speak to the chair. >> Okay. I will. I'm just going by our bylaws. >> Yep. I agree. We go by the bylaws. Anybody else? Okay. Motion to adjurnn. We have James seconded by Karina. Oh, we're going to take
141the picture now. So, please take the picture for us, sir.