001This speaks to me. Um 2.5 here. 34.7% more of our economically disadvantaged students passed the assessment this year as opposed to last year. And 37.6% of our 504 students um grew last year as opposed to last year. We did see a 10 percentage point slide for special education. I do want to speak about special education because many students IEPs those advantaged students and our students with 504 plans. So any of our students in any kind of diverse subgroup, whether it be socioeconomic or ethnic, we're showing growth and that's a wonderful thing. These improvements reflect the impact of targeted intervention strategies and support systems particularly for historically underperforming groups. So what does that mean? What we're doing, what we're implementing at Hope Pathon High School is working. We are gaining traction. We are using data to
002drive student performance. We are taking a look at standards students are not necessarily meeting. We're working with those students to make sure that they're able to increase their performance. And the data also highlights Pathon's progress in closing achievement gaps, preparing more students for graduation success. So that's the good, but we can always grow. So, here are some intervention strategies for us. We're going to continue to utilize standardized and benchmark data to personalize instruction. Uh, a few different things we're going to try this year. Our juniors are now going to take the linkit NJGPA released items benchmarks for ELA and math. Those are available to us and what it does is they assemble some released items from the state and the students will actually take an assessment based on real items that were administered in years
003past. that way we really get a pulse on um what they should know and what they might need to grow in and that way we're going to be able to um you know help them. We'll identify tier t two and tier three students and support their areas of need. We're also going to administer an algebra readiness screener for all of our students. Making sure we capture the students who are ready to take algebra in eighth grade and in ninth grade or those who might need a little bit more assistance. And also algebra aptitude screeners at the conclusion of an algebra 1 course just to make sure that they've mastered the standards that are necessary for passing the NJPA. We're going to intervene earlier and more often. We're going to be piloting RISE in for our
004eighth grade students. RISE is review, intervene, support, and enrich. We're building in a period. It's going to be period three for our eighth graders. What we're going to be doing is working with our teachers and students, giving them further time to master key concepts and skills that are requisite to success, not only on this NGPA, but throughout high school. So, we're going to start with that group of students. We're going to make sure they know what they need to know for high school before we set them off into some more advanced courses. And by doing that, I think that we'll gain a lot of traction. We're going to continue to battle chronic absenteeism. We have made some gains in chronic absenteeism. The data is still forthcoming for a formal presentation, but I can tell you
005right now that we have, and I see some nodding heads, that we have really doubled down on our efforts to battle chronic absenteeism. Let's face it, if you're not in school, you're not learning. Okay? So, we want to make sure our kids are here, they're here on time, and that they're ready and prepared to learn. Finally, we're going undergoing an administrative reorganization at our high school. We're going to have a principal of academic affairs who's joining us tonight, who will be introduced later. He's going to work to lead student data teams to oversee and streamline the RTI process for all of our students. RTI stands for response to intervention. So, basically, that means that we know these students need help. The principal is going to work with the guidance team to make sure that we
006arrange services for all of these students so that they can access the services that they need in order to master key concepts and skills that are necessary for high school. And that's my presentation. At this point, I'll take any questions. Phil, >> good question. Uh uh uh are you using CBT computer-based training at all or do you have any computer based training involved to do? >> Uh we we are using at the high school level which is a computer-based training. So that does a benchmark for students and then automatically adjusts based upon what they >> uh and ELA >> and the other. >> Yes. Based on what they know and don't know and it leverages their skills in order to help. >> Do you think that that's part of the reason why it's it's gotten
007better this year than last? >> Well, that's been used in the past, Phil. I think what we're doing is we're really getting teachers involved in the nitty-gritty of student data and really having them custom tailor instruction to meet student need. And I think that that's really I want to credit our teachers with taking that first step was a heavy lift this year because it's something that we have done in pockets in the past but haven't necessarily really made our core focus. I know our board goal this year that is going to be approved in August hopefully to continue on this path. So that's something that we're going to be doing. Absolutely. Anyone else from the audience? Board members. >> All right. Well, I want to thank you. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. >> Will this be
008posted on the website? >> Absolutely. We'll have it up tomorrow. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh I'm proud of our progress. I'm proud of our team and I'm proud of our students. So, thank you all very much. >> I need I need Thank you so Matt so much. I was so happy to hear all this great stuff. So, thanks for all of your efforts. I know you this has been your baby. So, congratulations and well done everybody. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. So, just in case you hear noises or maybe you can't completely, I do have a couple board members um that are on vacation this week but still wanted to join. So, they're here with us uh remotely this evening. I do want to um thank Mr. Robinson and certainly our teachers
009for the effort that they have put forward to really start to dive into the data to use it on a more regular and ongoing basis. And so um if you are involved in education on a on a yearly basis, I think one of our our greatest strengths and one of our greatest faults in in one is that every year or professional development, we move on to new initiatives. We move on to new ideas, right? Whether we've completed our old goals, completed our old training, we have to move on to new things. And one of the things that we are trying to commit to both my Matt Matt and myself and and and certainly as we look at our goals for next year with the board is to make sure that we are seeing through what
010we set out to do. So our three board goals this year, one was to begin to use data and dive into that data deeply and start to use it with fidelity. Uh the second is an emphasis for us on chronic absenteeism and trying to reduce our chronic absenteeism by 5%. And the third is tied to our referendum projects in our our facilities. And one of the things Matt and I have talked about and we talked briefly in our board committees um last week is saying, you know what, those goals aren't done. Those goals are a work in progress. I don't want to pass on those goals and implement something new because we start to lose focus. I I want those goals to remain at our forefront. Chronic absenteeism, while decreased, is not where it needs
011to be. We're going to continue to hammer chronic absenteeism this year and find ways to support our students, our parents, and our families. We're going to continue to work on not just identifying the data that we have gathered, but now use it effectively to help drive instruction and look for opportunities for remediation. And our third goal tied to the referendum will start again in September with going out to bid on those projects that the referendum has been approved for, selecting contractors, finalizing the architecture work, and seeing those projects full to uh to to conclusion. So for me, we're not going to go down a different tangent and to choose some new initiative to work on just because we need to choose something new. To me, we need to be able to see these things forward
012and that's important. One other note for students and parents of the class of 2026, the alternate assessments that you can take to demonstrate mastery if you do not pass the NJGPA, that list has not yet been finalized by the state board of education. Several years ago, they the state board passed a list of assessments for the class of 2023 through 2025. Those were PSAT, SAT, ACUPPLACER, um those tests. They have not updated that list yet for 2026, although they did meet in March. They did propose some suggestions, but we are waiting for the state board and the department of ed to release that finalized updated list. So, if your child has already taken the ACT or the ACUPPLACER, uh, and your thought is, hey, they've taken the test, they passed it, that's going to be
013their ticket to graduation in 2026. I just need to remind you that the state has not approved any of those yet and our focus needs to be on passing the NJGPA first and foremost. Okay? And and that's going to be part of what we do. Um the second tiein to that. So the uh second component of that is something that the department of ed calls. It is the New Jersey single quality accountability >> continuum education. We love to put a bunch of initiatives together in a bunch of letters. Um the QAC evaluations of school districts are conducted by the department of ed. Previously they were done every five years. They are now moving to an every three-year cycle. All right. So for us during our last cycle in September of 2023, the district passed all
014of their indicators. There are five uh fiscal management, governance, operation, personnel. Uh instruction and program is the area that we did not score in 80% or better. All right, 57% and that is tied to student test scores. If you aren't meeting the targets under the old QAC, you got zero points. So if the target was in ELA, your kids had to get 85% proficient and you got 84.9, you got zero points out of 20 on that continuum. for this upcoming year when we hit our new three-year cycle, the state has changed that scoring parameters and they are taking into consideration growth for school districts. So, you saw our growth numbers here tonight to say, "Hey, we're making progress in several of these areas. The state is now awarding points in some of those areas as
015well." For us on our interim placement, there's a 3 percentage point change in our curriculum and instruction score. um that will go away and we'll start September 26 um with a new set of scores as we go through this upcoming school year. All right. So, the board will hear more about QAC and so will the public as we go through it the rest of this year. Uh item B under my my superintendence report is just a um a second reading of our HB report for June of 25 that we uh excuse me yes that we presented at our June 16th board meeting and our superintendent's hip report on first reading this evening for two cases that were presented to you. With that, can I have a motion on the superintendence report 7A and 7B? >>
016I'll make it. >> I'll second. >> Jim and Jana. And on a roll call, Dr. Capello is absent. Mr. Davio, >> yes. >> Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano, >> uh, there was no discussion. All right. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yeah. No, actually, no. You I'm just saying you should have asked for that, but it's >> my apologies. >> Yes. Yes. Fine. >> Miss Paulina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri, >> yes. >> Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yeah. >> Item eight is acknowledgements and correspondence. Uh, a congratulations to our middle school students who made honor roll and honor roll for the fourth marking period at the end of this school year. In addition, a congratulations to our high school students who made honoral
017and high honor role for the fourth marking period as well. A job well done to each of those students and we certainly want to recognize each of them. Uh parent teacher organization representatives, anybody from PTO here that wants to speak this evening? Anyone else? Anyone else? Anyone at all? Yes, ma'am. On behalf of the music boosters, we were so excited to see that we have marching band work for being hired. Thank you so much. Um, we're moving forward with marching band season camp starts next week. The kids are really excited. The boosters are excited. The parents are excited. Um, we've been in contact to make sure that the season goes up without hitch. And the drama club has selected Arsenic and Old Lace for the fall play. Auditions were held a few weeks ago and
018play dates are November 20th to November 23rd. >> Perfect. That's a great play, by the way. It's a great >> Yes, it is. >> All right. Uh, public comment. Let me see if we have any signatures there. >> Thank you very much. >> Right, Nancy Raleigh. Nancy, you're up first. >> Thanks. Um, first of all, I'm sure everyone probably got their tax bill. Um, now I know we all voted yes in November and It didn't really seem like it was going to be that much of a shock until I saw this. My taxes for the year went up $438. That may not seem like a lot to you, but it's a lot to me. Um, now you I just heard you say something. According to this, the projects were supposed to start in June and
019now they're not going to start until September. >> No, they actually started in June with the architectural work. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Um and then it's going to continue for the next three years. Okay. So after the next three years, since now you have our our money held hostage for three years, um you got to think of other ways to come up with money. Fundraising, selling candy, um auctions, you know, things like that because if taxes keep coming up like this, everyone's going to move. I mean, no one can afford all this. you know, brokerage prices and now electric prices being high. It's insane. Um, and then in these minutes, I also read that there's 64 para profofessionals. Why so many? I mean, because I kind of did rough math, and correct me if I'm
020wrong. I see that they're getting paid $16.73 an hour. So if you say there's six hours in the school day, I multiplied that. I came up with $100.38 per day times 5 days a week. That comes out to 50190. Then I took that and multiplied it by 64 people. Came up with 32,16160. Then I took that and multiplied it by 36 weeks in the school year. That's $1,15637760. That's a lot of money. We could be saving some money there. >> Thank you. >> That's all I got to say. >> Uh Natalia Karina Roman are really happy. really excited to start our season. Like the kids are really eager. Within like eight hours, we designed our shirt for the season. The kids are really eager. I mean, we're I'm holding a sectional with with some seventh
021graders tomorrow, a sophomore, going to be a junior, and Rose is going to be a freshman. >> Thank you. Thank you. And Megan Mark. >> So, this is regarding our upcoming fourth graders for the middle school. So, we were told there's a lot of concerning parents that we were told that the parents are not allowed to go into orientation with the kids um and that we won't be able to see the school until back to school. So, the kids would already be in school and probably all nervous cuz you know they're going to a whole new school. Is there something that we can do or that you guys accommodate like the parents coming in with because I know that previously you guys had it before and I guess like after CO it stopped and then
022it never went back. Have you reached out to the building principal? >> Not. >> That's got to be your first step. Reach out to Mr. Benfati at the middle school and have that conversation first. Um because the board of education doesn't run the individual schools. Um but have that converation first. I know that that program is set up to provide support for the students themselves so they can see classrooms. They get toured by uh other students in the building, take them around for those tours. But have that conversation with Mr. Brenott and I'm sure you you know together you guys can come up with a real simple solution for it. I >> think it would make a lot of parents happy too. >> We have to be careful because the timing of it is such
023that that school won't be completed to open up until the following week. So we have to limit the number of people that are in the building because we still have furniture in the hallways and things like that as we're cleaning classrooms and preparing. But reach out to Mr. Manfati. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to take that phone call and talk with you. >> All right. And then I have one more thing too. Sure. Um so regarding the reading specialists at Durban and Tulsa, are they being pulled out for general um education as teachers? And if so, is there going to be a replacement for the RTI and um for the IEP kids? >> Yeah. So that's actually a great question and it's something that's on our agenda this evening. Um and it it
024kind of ties back to something that Miss Raleigh said, right? So, uh, she commented about the cost of paraprofessionals in the school district. Paraprofessionals are something that are required by law in students individualized education plans. So, it's not a matter of I could turn around and say we we're going to fire 64 paraprofessionals. They no longer work here. Individual students with special needs have legal documents that require them to be in it. It requires the board of education to pay for those associated costs. This evening, um, the board of education is going to make an additional, very difficult decision to cut an additional four teaching positions, staff positions from our school district tonight. The reason for that is expanding and exploding health care costs. So, we participate in a health care plan for our employees,
025something called the state employees health benefits plan. It is a consortium of school districts across the state who pull all of their employees together. So insurance when you think about your home car insurance or your homeowners insurance operates on a risk loss basis. You look at people in Florida there are homeowners insurance is going up thousands of dollars. The people in California their premiums are going up5 $10,000 on their homes if they didn't get burned in fires. It's called risk loss. When insurance company pays out more in claims than it brings in in premiums, what does it do? It increases your premiums so that it can continue to make its profit. State health benefit plan is no different. It is experiencing losses as a result of increasing costs of health care. I'll use round numbers
026for you. We pay well over $5 million for health insurance for all of our employees in this public funded plan. It is much cheaper than being in a private plan if we went out with Sigma or someone on our own. That $5 million rough estimate rounded in premiums is being increased in January by the state by 29.7%. Let's round that to 30. If you have 5 million in premiums and your premiums are going up 30%. Your health insurance costs are going up 1.5 million on January 1st for 6 months because the health insurance operates January to December and a school budget operates July to June. Six months of that increased cost falls on our budget that we already passed and we cannot change by saying we want to go out and get additional revenue. Half
027of 1.5 million is $750,000. The state turned around to us two and a half weeks ago and said, "Here's your new cost. I can't change my revenue. The only thing I can do is change my expenses." We budgeted for 17% insurance premium increase. It's coming in at 30, which means we are a little over $500,000 short as of July 1. On July 10th, I froze all spending in the district. It's the earliest we have ever frozen spending. And every single order, whether it's a nut, a gallon of gas, has to be approved above a local department supervisor before we can spend money. Tonight, we're cutting four additional positions to save $400,000 because a teacher salary and our share of the benefits covers is about $100,000. Plus, throw in our cost as an employer for social
028security and Medicare contributions. It's about $100,000. We are cutting two reading specialists. We are cutting a high school social worker and we are cutting a an elementary guidance counselor. So, we are going to be sharing an elementary guidance counselor between our two elementary schools. >> That was my next question. We are going to be sharing a much larger case load among all of our social workers and LDTC's for our child study team. And the responsibility for a lot of our tier one and tier 2 interventions are going to have to occur in our classrooms. We knew that in additional years we were going to be even more budget challenged. So, we've already started the process of training a lot of our teachers in Orton Gillingham um in letters reading um to provide some of those
029supports and we're going to be adjusting some of our schedules to provide some of those continued supports for our students. My hope is that some of those additional reading supports may be picked up by potential grants that we're looking at after the school day as a way to try and help. But the reality here is like everyone else, our costs go up and we can't operate on not increasing the revenue that we utilize in this district out of 11 years. Seven of those years, the district tax increase was 0%. Seven years, the state of New Jersey says that the Hopakhong Burough schools are funded under adequacy by $3.5 million. What does that mean? It means that the local taxpayers, according to the state, have underfunded their schools by $3.5 million. Meaning those seven years where
030there were no tax increases, taxes could have or should have gone up to keep things moving forward. But I can't go back and change those seven years. This wasn't the board that was here. I wasn't the superintendent that was here. We have to focus on the here and now. And I understand that costs are going up for everyone. I also have a statutory and constitutional authority under the law to ensure that every child receives what's called a thorough and efficient education. It is mandated. And so a couple people sent me an email and said, "Hey, why can't we do what Tom's River is doing? Why can't we tell the state, "Forget about it. We're not increasing our taxes. Um we're we're not going to do anything and we're not going to pass a budget." Well,
031let's be honest. I am a licensed individual. The state of New Jersey could pull my license for failing to follow the law. Like all of you, I like my job. I like what I do. I like where I work. I would like to not lose my license. And sometimes you have to be cautious about what battles you pick to try to get to an end result. What ended up happening in Tom's River, the state of New Jersey stepped into Tom's River and said, "You cannot operate without a budget. You need to increase your taxes by 13.9%." And the state mandated that in increase and increased the taxes in Tom's River by 13.9%. We could have in theory under the law this budget year increased our taxes by 13.5%. To cut into that under adequacy amount.
032We tried to limit it at five and we cut nine positions back in March and we're cutting four more to try to balance things to try and balance the tax increase versus the services that we offer. Um, but next year you're going to have a different governor. You may have the same or different legislature. You may have different funding depending on the national economy. So when education is impacted by politics and the changing regulations that come from the state and the federal level, and I haven't talked about the federal funding, we get about 8% of our budget from the federal government, IDA, special ed money, title one reading support money, struggling student money. Um, if you have heard the news, the president embargoed all of the education funding. All of that money is on hold
033for us. So, I don't know if and when that roughly $385,000 will come from the federal government to us. We haven't made additional cuts there yet because I believe, maybe I'm an optimist at heart, I believe that money will come from the federal government because Congress has appropriated it and there are legal stat stipulations that go with that. But it's possible we could be back here in September saying, "Hey, the federal government hasn't paid us a dime. We're $300,000 more short because they're not going to give us the money that Congress passed that's supposed to come to the schools. We'll play that out as we go. This is a is a very very difficult timing and decision for us to make these cuts now because we're at the end of July. We're going to be
034telling four people that you're out of a job. and the hiring timeline for school districts. Most school districts have hired their staff for the next school year already. So, these people are going to be going out into uh a hiring pool where there aren't going to be very many positions left available for them. Some maybe, but others it's going to be a struggle. I feel badly for them. I feel badly for the taxpayers that that bear a burden. Um, for us again, I'll say it again, the taxpayers in HopeCom, even after this year's tax increase, local taxpayers, 53% of your tax bill goes to the local school district, it is still the third lowest percentage in all of Sussex County, and it is the fourth lowest out of Sussex and Morris County combined as a
035percentage of your tax So from a value proposition, the percentage of what you pay to operate our school districts is incredibly uh in line and certainly under what other districts pay. Now, you may look at it from your individual budget and say, "That's a lot for me." But compared to your surrounding districts, we are trying to value every dime that you provide us to try and deliver the best educational opportunities we can for the students that we have. Um, it'll be interesting to see, right? All right. With that, let's jump ahead to finance item 11 A through J. And I do want to bring forward item K. We discussed it in executive session. As part of the referendum uh that we approved, we have we're going to be replacing roofs at the high school as
036part of that design process. >> We Yeah, Jeff, we skipped 11 A through C. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. >> It's going to be 11 and 12, right? >> My pages are out of order. Gotcha. All right, let's do 11 A through C first. All right. Nope. No, you're good. I'm not sure why it broke up that way. All right. 11 A through C. Let me have a motion on that first. >> I'll move it. >> Second. >> Bill and Jana. Questions on that. >> Dr. Capello is absent. Mr. Davi, it looks like I lost our connection for our virtual folks. I'll try and get them back. >> Miss ShraMM. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dphano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Citri. >> Yes. >> Miss Gulan. >> Yes. >> And I'll try
037and get virtual folks back up here. >> Finance 12. So for finance 12, item 13 that we are looking to add back in is on the high school roof. We have one section of the high school roof. I spoke about it previously at one of the board meetings. It is above the stage at the uh auditorium. We experienced some pretty good roof leaks in that area. Um we had the uh roof company come out and take a look at it. They gave us a quote of between 15 and $20,000 to simply reattach that poor roof membrane back down to prevent it from ripping off in the winter. This is a roof that's going to be completely torn off in June to be replaced as part of the referendum. So, what we are looking to do
038is pull that project out and accelerate that project. To me, it does not make sense to spend 15 or $20,000 of taxpayers money to bandaid a roof that is in really, really poor shape when we're only going to tear it off in nine months and and replace it. So, uh, item 13K >> section 12. Looks like there's an issue on our agenda. Thank you. So 12K, it is recommended that the board approve the contract with weatherproofing technologies for project number 506 high school roof area 10 under ESCJ contract roofing and envelope services in the total amount not to exceed $181,9643. cost of the project shall be paid for from the district referendum account. The base project cost is 16 uh 164,633.12 with an additional contingency built in of $16,463.31. And as I shared with the
039board when we originally went out to referendum based on our project estimates, the estimate for roofing was $7941 per square ft. This bid comes in at $72.89 per square foot. This section of the roof comes in $14,670 under uh our original budget. So that is item 13. >> It should be 12k 12k >> that that I would ask be added to the agenda. >> Sure. >> With that, can I get a motion on 12 A through K and then we can open it up to discussion. Motion. >> I'll second. >> Jana and Jim and I'll open it to discussion. I think it's very smart that we're making this decision and not just wasting more of our funds on rep on, you know, temporary repairs. So, thank you. >> Anything else with 12 A through K
040with that? Dr. Capello is absent. Mr. Davio, >> yes. >> I got him back. Veronica, >> yes. Miss ShraMM. Uh, Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano, >> yes. >> Miss Paulina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri, >> yes. >> Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert, >> yes. >> Item 13, personnel. Uh, this evening, we are approving the hiring of our high school principal for academic affairs. Uh, he's joining us this evening. I don't want to put him on the spot, but I'm going to anyway. Uh, Mr. Christian Jensen. Mr. Jensen, if you wouldn't mind just standing for the board. Uh, Christian was one of 40 applicants for the position. Wow. >> Uh, we screened down to 10, interviewed four finalists, and he was the unanimous selection of a committee of teachers, administrators,
041Mr. Robinson, and myself for this position. um want to take the opportunity to thank both all of our candidates who were part of the process and um who also um were were part of this selection process. Um one of the things that I want to point out, Miss Jess, you can grab a seat. >> Yes, sir. in in doing this this evening. If you are familiar at all with our former high school administrative structure, and I've talked a lot about this with the board, we had a high school principal years ago. We cut our vice principal and athletic director positions in budget cuts. And to operate a building of 500 students with just one person leading the building is incredibly difficult. And so previous superintendent made the recommendation to bring in basically what you would
042consider to be a dean of students. We had a someone who taught uh some classes and handled student discipline and we had somebody who taught some classes and handled the athletics component of of our high school. When I first started here in this district back in 2002 school year, there were 27 administrators. We are down to seven administrators is all that is left in the district after all of those budget cuts. We looked at the salaries that we pay those teachers along with the stipen they were receiving for being those deans. And we determined this year that if we moved those two individuals back to the classroom on a full-time basis and we cut the two teachers that they would replace and we went out and hired another full-time administrator, we would actually save upwards
043of $50,000 a year because we cut two teachers. It's salaries and benefits for both of those along with our contributions for Social Security and Medicare. We hire back one person who has an administrative license that allows them to complete far more job responsibilities than the two quasi deans that work under teaching certificates. That allows us to complete a lot of the tasks that we were struggling with uh with administrators. Now, this is also incredibly important because on your agenda this evening is the resignation of Mrs. Tammy Miller, our director of special services. Mrs. Miller is retiring in December, and we are not replacing her, and that was built into our budget cuts this year as well. So when we look at it and we say we're hiring a principal here this evening in December, we're
044cutting another administrator and not replacing that position. So we're reorganizing things, but we are obviously operating at bare bones. Our teaching sta staff cuts and our support staff cuts continue to reduce how we deliver instruction. And as I shared with the board and I'll share publicly, the four cuts we're making today are the best worst choice we can make in terms of what we're going to cut. Because if we cut a kindergarten teacher, our class sizes go to 29. If I cut a second grade teacher, our class sizes go to 33. If I cut a third grade teacher, our class sizes go to 36. And so we are at the limit in terms of the least number of staff that we can truly employ to provide the core services that we need to be able
045to offer for our students. And I think that's important. Um so on the agenda this evening besides hiring uh Mr. Jensen is our several resignations. We will be uh cutting two non-tenure teaching positions uh this evening as part of those budget cuts. And there are the termination of two other individuals that we just offered contracts to um 30 to 60 days ago that have not even started working here that their positions are being cut. In addition to that, there are under you a series of other employees that are being transferred as a result of these position cuts uh to move uh properly certificated staff into new positions. Um so that you see each of those things. Uh you go through item W is the paraprofessional renewals. X is the approval of the coaching advisor positions.
046Uh there are some coursework and curriculum work that is approved for summer work that's mandated by the department of ed for curriculum updates. There are some course approvals that are mandated by contract. And that takes us to item AA. So in this case uh the motion for 13A >> through BB 13 BB. With that, first and foremost, can I get a motion on 13A through 13B? >> I'll make the motion. >> I'll second it. >> And Phil, any discussion on A through BB? Uh, I just want to mention that Tammy Miller will be missed. I think she was an excellent administrator for the type of work that she had to do for the special services. That was it's it's sad that we have to lose her >> and and we will we will celebrate her
047uh in December prior to to her uh her departure. >> Uh thankfully I've known Tammy for a long time. You are correct. >> Uh unlike my daughter who wants her birthday to be celebrated I think every day of a month. Um I you know I I know Tammy will certainly accept the recognition but that's not why she's worked here. Um she's a tremendously hardworking individual and an asset that we will miss. >> Other comments on on 13. >> All right with that let me call the role. Dr. Capella is absent. Mr. Davio. >> Yes. >> Miss ShraMM. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dphano. >> Yes. >> Miss Paulina. >> Yes. Mr. Citri, >> yes. >> Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Item 14A
048is travel and professional development. Um the only cost to the district uh for the one uh here is mileage reimbursement per state law uh for staff members to attend the counseling association. Any uh questions on 14A? All right, let me get a motion on that, please. If I could, >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> Veronica. >> Dr. Capella is absent. Mr. Davio, >> yes. >> Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano, >> yes. >> Miss Paulina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri, >> yes. >> Miss Gulan, >> yes. and Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> All right. >> Item 15, policy and regulations. Uh first reading for 5440, uh honoring student achievement and 5430 class rank. Uh this is to align our policy really with both practice and other
049school districts around us. Uh the calculation of validictorian and saludiatoran um will be based on students grades at the end of the semester first semester of the senior year. >> Okay. >> Interesting. >> Any questions on 15 policy and regulations? >> I'm sorry to ask, but why are they changing it? >> So our current policy is actually very impractical. Um, it calls for all of the final grades at the end of the fourth marking period to be calculated, right? >> Awarded and then determine your validictorian. That doesn't happen until the school year is done. >> So, you wouldn't be able to determine your validictorian and saludiatoran until after graduation. >> So, >> that's no good. >> Exactly. So, what what other school districts do is they base it on half year. >> Yeah. Yeah. >>
050Uh or third marking period for us because we have semester classes for the most part. Half year makes the most sense. >> Gotcha. >> Okay. So, I need a motion on 15, please. >> Uh Phil, I'll do it. >> Okay. >> And I need a second. >> I'll do it, >> Jim. And I need roll call here. Dr. Capello is absent. Mr. Davio, >> yes. >> Uh Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. M Chaffy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dphano. >> Yes. >> Miss Paulina. >> Yes. >> Mr. Citri. >> Yes. >> Miss Gulan. >> Yes. >> And Miss Falcone Sher. >> Yes. >> Thank you. All right. Item 16 uh resolutions. I item A is our standing uh approval resolution uh for the New Jersey Intercolastic Sports Association of which all New Jersey school districts
051are required to be part of in order to participate in athletics. We have to uh adopt uh the constitution bylaws and rules of NJSIA. Item B is the idea um grant funding. Uh so we are approving both the funding amount and the application submission thereof for that. Uh item C is the sidebar agreement with HAPS. This is a a recurring agreement for the last two years to provide uh support services for the preschool expansion grant program. Uh that stipen is paid for out of that grant. Uh item D is our memorandum of understanding with Sussex County Community College for us to offer concurrent concurrent enrollment courses with the college taught by our staff here on campus that allows students to take college classes as part of their high school experience and be awarded college credit
052through the community college. Uh item E is our annual submission of our bilingual education waiver to the Department of Education. And item F is the disposal of uh two uh items, vehicles that have outlived their service life. Uh the first is a 2013 Chevy wheelchair van uh and a 2010 Collins 16 passenger wheelchair bus. Uh both of those vehicles have uh far exceeded their vehicle lifespans and the cost to repair those vehicles uh more than double what their actual value is. Uh the district will auction off those assets uh at a public auction. Um we we use an online uh auction platform called Gov Deals to auction off those assets. questions on 16 A through F. >> I got one quick question. Uh what this regarding item D, what classes are we offering that Sussex
053County is accepting? >> So we offer a sociology class >> uh concurrent English 4, which is uh for college credit. >> Those are the two off the top of my head right now. And we are working uh to try and establish some potential partnerships uh for some additional classes to add some other credit bearing classes. >> Okay, that's it. That's it. Thank you. >> You got it. Can I get a motion on 16 A through F? >> I'll pass. I'll do it. >> Bill. >> Yeah. >> And a second, please. >> I'll second. Veronica. >> All right. On the roll call, Dr. Capello is absent. Mr. Davio, >> yes. Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano, >> yes. >> Miss PCA, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri, >> yes. >> Miss
054Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert, >> yes. >> Item 17, A through six. >> A through B6. uh is the Sussex County Co-op. Uh it is approval of their bills list, approval of a new member district, the North Brunswick Township School District, uh the resignation of Lonnie Nikos uh from the co-op. Lonnie is moving on to another position. She's been with us for uh eight or nine years. So, I want to wish Lonnie well. and then acceptance of quotes and roots for special education extended school year uh field trips, athletic events and they will be uh going through the bid process for the upcoming school year for a number of school districts as well. Uh transportation related cost is controlled by the state. The state offers uh something called CPI. So, if you
055have transportation contracts and you don't want to go out to bid and you want to renew that contract for the following school year, a transportation vendor, a private contractor could increase that contract by up to 3.57% for the upcoming school year. If they offer that increase or anything less than that, the contract can renew. If they don't want to renew it, then that contract has to go out to bid. Um, so the co-op handles that right now the co-op handles uh transportation services. There are up to with North Brunswick I think 88 school districts across the state. They provide transportation bidding and support services too. Uh the co-op also because we house them in this building. We are charged no service fees for utilizing their service. and the rent that they pay us is revenue
056in our budget uh to the tune of about $200,000 a year um that we solicit from them. All right, so item 18B6 >> 18 or 17. >> Sorry. >> 17. I can't read tonight, Phil. >> Yeah, >> you just sweat in your eyes. >> That's it. >> 17 A and B. Can I get a motion on those two, please? I'll make it. >> Jim, >> I'll second it. >> And Jana, any questions on the co-op agenda? >> Hearing none, we'll roll call. Dr. Capello is absent. Mr. Davio, >> yes. >> Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano, >> present, >> sir. Miss Paulina, >> yes. >> Uh, Miss Mr. Citri, >> yes. >> Miss Gulan, >> yes. and Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> All right. Board comments this evening
057besides it's hot in here. >> Absolutely. >> Um well, first I just want to um thank everyone who attended our meeting tonight and just I appreciate people who are asking questions, expressing their concerns. Um you know, I I do understand the concern about raising taxes. Um we're all experiencing that. We all live in the same town. Um, no one likes to see their, you know, their personal funds be depleted because of raising costs just regularly in pipe. Um, but I do want to assure you that the board is doing everything we can to look for where we can save money, where we can be more efficient. Um, and I hate that we have to let go of valued employees. I hate it. I hate that that is a part of our conversation and that's the
058reality of where we are right now, that we are backed into a corner. um and that we have to make some compromises. Um and so I'm sorry that we have to experience both the um the pain of seeing our taxes increase and losing colleagues at the same time. That is not an ideal situation to be in. And um I want you to know that you're heard and that we're doing everything we can, but um we really are backed into a corner at this point. And so I want you to trust that we are doing what we can at this moment. Um, but I also want to um just highlight some of the amazing things that we are doing and that our students are accomplishing even with a barebones budget. Um, so there's two things I
059want to highlight. Um, first is there was an article recently this past month that highlighted the NJ high schools ranking um for their SAT scores. Um and it's listed by county the top schools and um Hpakon district came in four work within Sussex counties um eating Lenipede which I think is really telling um and I I highlight that because we are underfunded um we're doing bare bones and functioning on what we can and our students are still excelling and so I want to just raise that so that we can say how proud we are of our students. Um and then the second thing I want to highlight is um just Matt's presentation today to show the growth of our students. Um that's really a testament to our students and our teachers, the hard work um
060the board really trusting our teachers and our staff to um really focus on those goals that we set forth at the beginning of the academic year. Um, and I'm really proud of the progress um that our students have made because seeing that um 84 percentage and that 50 percentage even though we're still not at that threshold of the state for mass like I think it's a 9% growth that's amazing um to see our students do that in in one year's time. So, um kudos to our teachers um and all of our supporting staff and our students. these are the things that we should be talking about more. Um the growth, the progress, and all the amazing things that our educators and our students have to offer. Um there's a lot of noise out there. Um
061and I know it hurts our pockets when we see our taxes increase. Um but I don't want that to be the only conversation we're having because our students are amazing and they're doing amazing things and so are teachers. So, bravo to you guys. Um and I think that's all I wanted to say tonight. >> Well said. Anything? >> I have nothing tonight. Bill. >> Um, certainly I want to underline what Veronica just said. It was excellent speech by the way. Uh, but I want to also uh give my congratulations to both of you, Jeff, Jeff and Matt. Uh, because since I've been here since 20 2016, I've always been concerned about academic achievement. It's always been an underlying issue for me and we've never really had any serious progress. This year seems to be a
062turnaround for me, for you all actually. So, congratulations. Definitely a testament to our staff. >> Yeah, >> absolutely. >> I just want to say thank you guys uh for this entire team that what we're doing to really try to balance our budgets and not make the town suffer because of unfair calculations from the state. >> Jim, um Veronica, well said. Thank you so much. Um welcome, Mr. Jensen. Um you're in good company back there with Miss McFaden. She's awesome. Um, and like Veronica said, we are trying our best to be good stewards of your money. That is what we are desperately trying to do up here. When I ran for board and I joined this board, I honestly I was really thinking about like trying to fix academic scores, get graduation rates up and stuff.
063I never imagined we would be dealing with mostly budget issues, but that's where we are right now. um we are dealing with budget issues and it is an amazing testament to our teachers, our staff, our leadership about how well we're our students are doing right now. Um you know and I hope that in the future that we can get to a point in our budget where we can focus again on solely just the academic issues and not have to worry about the financial ones. But to get to that point, we uh as good citizens need to put the pressure on our state politicians and our federal politicians to start funding education adequately. The onus has been put onto us, the local community, and we obviously can't afford that. So, please reach out to your state
064representatives, reach out to your federal representatives, encourage them to fund education. It is incredibly important to our children's future. That's all I have to say. >> Thank you, J. With that, can I have a motion to adjourn this evening? >> I'll raise it. >> I'll second it. >> Phil and a second by Jana. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. With that, our motion uh motion carries. The meeting is adjourned at 8:15 p.m. >> If anybody wants a >> Thank you all. Have a good evening. >> Nicole, you still there? >> I'll call her. Yeah, I'm here. >> Oh, hi. If you don't mind, Nicole, that that was an excellent letter you wrote. Hope you can hear me. Uh, and I just want >> Nicole, I just want to congratulate you on the letter you
065wrote that you sent out to us. Uh, but I was I'm going to suggest that you uh consider having this the the people of the town sign the letter. In other words, don't just send it out with our signatures or just your signature. Send it out with everybody's signature. to get out of this game. >> How do you get the whole town involved?