001e e e we'd like to call the meeting to order and welcome everyone this meeting is being held in accordance with the schedule of meetings adopted at the organizational meeting held on January 6 2025 adequate notice of this regular meeting of the korth board of education has been provided to the home News Tribune The Star Ledger local Source on January 16 2025 a copy has been filed with the korth bur clerk posted the board office the uh canorth bur Hall berley and Harding schools as is provided by the open public meetings act thank you Mr Gala please rise and join us in the salute to the flag I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice
002for all Mr Galo can we please have a roll call yes biner here crink coli here David Ferrara here hather here herina here M here panichi here Zimmerman we have a quum thank you Mr ganella we will now have the receiving of the minutes and committee notes of the secretary the regular Boe minutes of the secretary from February 10th 2025 and committee meeting notes from February 11th finance and facility committee February 20th curriculum and instruction February 24th 2025 Personnel committee February 26 2025 finance and facilities and also March 3rd 2025 finance and Facilities also can I please have a motion for the receiving and acceptance of the minutes please second second motion made by Mr Ferrera seconded by Dr Koli all those in favor please say I I oppose eyes have it motion carries Mr
003Gala do we have any reading and acceptance of monthly correspondence yes we have one item of respondence a letter dated 22825 uh from Mr Davies and Dr panichi to Senator cryan regarding State a FY 26 thank you can I have a motion to accept the monthly correspondence please move second Mo M motion made by Mr hather seconded by Mr herina all those in favor please say I I oppose eyes have it motion carry thank you we will now have superintendent reports and presentation superintendent Mr Davies thank you Dr Pichi um I'd like to start off with uh Nel Sully our student rep from from breely she's going to provide us with the student rep uh report welcome nalie good evening everyone I'm Nel suly and I'm excited to be here as David burley's Board of
004Education representative to talk about our recent and upcoming events on February 28th the Black Culture Society hosted their Black Celebration event in the cafeteria students gave presentations on the famous black historical figures as well as to listen to jazz music by the David the Alex dver quartet we also had fantastic food at this conclusion this past weekend the dbhs drama Department presented this murder was staged on Friday and Saturday evening it was great to see everyone get to perform under the new light and sound system the Middle School play will take place on Thursday April 3rd and Saturday April 5th today was the first day of NJ GBA test in all Juniors took the first part of the math test today they will take part two of the math tomorrow in English on Wednesday and
005Thursday all 7th 8th 9th 10 and 12th graders have a delayed opening Tuesday through Thursday brle will have a regular schedule day on Friday March 14th Spring sports are underway and the teams are looking to have fantastic Seasons the counseling department has met with the class of 2026 and their parents to choose classes for their senior year next week they will begin to to meet with sophomores freshman and eighth grade students thank you and I look forward to seeing you just before spring break have a great evening you n thank you Nel does do any board members have questions for nassie before we move on no thank you thank you very much um I want to uh move now to uh some two presentations that we have regarding our budget um but first just a
006few comments from myself the 2526 school budget has been top of mind for several months for all of us here uh the leadership team under the guidance of Mr ganella has been hard at work since October to make sure we maintain and grow our programming for our students through the budget process all the while appreciating our support sure that we do not Place undue burden on our taxpayers um it's a balance balancing act of unfortunate competing interests I proud of the work of my team several of whom are here tonight to present some of the highlights from our budget um in addition to the work of the leadership team we've been appealing to all levels of stakeholders to sing it from the rooftops that our Kenworth students deserve their fair share of State dollars just
007as much as students in surrounding communities I've been to a state board of education public hearing we met with our state level legislators we met with our kennworth mayor and burough Council liaison I met with the pto's of both buildings I met with the faculties of both buildings and all of those stakeholders received the same message that District costs are increasing greater than 2% meanwhile state aid continues to decline state aid Figures were released on the 28th of last month if you recall this time last year kennworth lost approximately 1.6 million in Equalization aid from the year prior uh to further emphasize uh the losses in Equalization Aid just note that in 2023 2024 we had 3.9 million in this Aid category and this coming year we have 650,000 uh so it's a significant drop
008in Equalization aid over 3 years Mr Canelo will get more into that um and you'll also recall that in June of last year we did receive $633,000 in stabilization Aid back from the state but that did not come our way this year um long story short kennworth has lost 3.92% in state a um add to this equation that costs are increasing and cost many expenditure categories and the um situation is not a strong one budgetarily the administrative team has been and will continue to be working hard and thoroughly reviewing the budget to determine how to make up for this deficit as always we will prioritize students needs and do our best to preserve the opportunities for our kids there will be some difficult cuts and Personnel ahead despite any Cuts we will work to maintain
009the excellent program programming that is a Hallmark of our district I am upset by all of this I am upset by all of this because I know that the heart and soul of our district are the educators many of them who are here tonight who make up our ranks and give their best to our kids each and every day and I know despite the cloud of potential cuts and despite the uncertainty associated with what's happening our teachers our counselors our case managers our Educational Services professionals our coaches our secretaries our custodians our AIDS our related service providers all of us at kennworth Public Schools will continue to bring our best we'll continue to bring our Heart and souls to the betterment of our students and for the betterment of the kennworth community community no matter
010what happens with our budget and so without further Ado I'd like to introduce Mr bubnowski who's going to lead our leadership team in some of the highlights of our 2526 budget process good evening everyone so we we just flick to the next slide I'd like to highlight some Harding budget items there they are okay the the Showcase up on the screen reflects initiatives that we've been working really hard to adopt over the and refine over the years our budget is designed to support a multi-sensory approach to learning ensuring that all students have access to highquality research-based instructional materials our language arts materials that you will find supported in this budget our first is our Orton Gillingham program which is a structured multi-sensory approach to phonics instruction supporting our early literacy development all of our teachers
011K through three are certified in Orton Gillingham all of our teachers K through through six are trained in readers and Writers Workshop which is a research-based instructional framework that Fosters student Independence in reading and writing through many lessons and guided practice in our older grades our teachers use morphology to enhance vocabulary and comprehension by teaching students the meaning and the structure of the word Parts L we would really like to expand and diversify our leveled book collections to support independent reading and student engagement in grades K to five putting books in students hands and fostering that love of reading in just a short while you're hear about our new math program roll out the items listed on the screen pair really well with our new program offer offering supports for our Learners number worlds is
012an Intervention Program designed to help students who need foundational support in number sense and problem solving touch math is a multisensory program that reinforces number Concepts through touch points cubes and other manipulatives benefiting students who need that multi-sensory approach and then lastly our investment and steam initiatives over the years Foster creativity problem solving and Innovation preparing our students for the future ozobots and spool are interactive coding robots that promote problem solving critical thinking and Hands-On learning and stem our maker space materials are tools and res resources that encourage creativity engineering design thinking through Hands-On projects in both our stem and mediate tech labs thank you Mr bbasi any questions regarding the Harding highlights for our budget thank you Mr I'm sorry I have a quick question sure um you said that the uh all your
013K through3 teachers are uh certified with Orton Gillian is there any uh push to make four through six certified go thank you the team approach Mr pillo is next uh principal of David Bley to review the breely highlights in our budget all right good evening everybody uh thank for having me here um so on the right hand side uh are some of the highlights of things that we're currently um using from the budget from last year uh our state-of-the-art Auditorium is 96% up and running we have a couple little things to add and then we're ready to go uh we were able to run our shows uh Friday and Saturday uh which was great to see and a great opportunity for our students um in the back of the building the new entrance and the
014new entryway to breely uh is is going to give kids a great opportunity to come in the building um and it's sort of a metaphor for the last tab which is the anticipation of our grade six students coming into the middle school next year uh they're coming into a brand new building with a brand new entryway um and we're using that right now it's uh it's on its way to being fully finished uh and going from there uh looking to the left in the white uh background um one of the things that we're really working on with the budget this year was giving David brle Middle School a true identity uh right now it's a seven we're a 7th through 12 School seventh and eighth grade we give them lots of love and lots of
015attention but they're missing that Middle School philosophy and that Middle School identity having the students the fifth graders from Harding come over next year is going to afford the opportunity for us to give that to the students uh which they really deserve um along with that we're going to be introducing and opening our new stem lab for the Middle School uh this is a two-part thing that works with us one it's a great opportunity to have sixth grade seventh grade and grade electives uh for our students whether it's Robotics and 3D printers and all the stuff that the students are using at Harding right now and they're going to be able to continue that pathway uh through to the middle school and that in turn will lead into uh more stem opportunities for our high
016school students so we can continue a pathway from sixth grade all the way through 12th um which is going to be one of the AC Academy programs we're working on next year we're going to be introducing a Criminal Justice Academy uh for students who want to go that route we're going to be using that as the spring board to add moreis in the years to follow so thank you thank you Mr Pearl any questions regarding brierly thank you thank you next up is Miss hle who's going to cover our curriculum professional development and textbook budget hi so over the past two years we have been engaging in an in-depth exploration of best practices in mathematic instruction and how new math programs can effectively meet the needs of our students in Kennelworth as a part of
017this effort we've been piloting three comprehensive and research-based math programs ac across grades K to8 this year the implementation of these Pilots have provided valuable insights and we are already observing Innovative and engaging mathematical thinking among our students we are pleased to announce that beginning next year which is a huge part of my budget we will will launch a new new districtwide k to8 math programming designed to enhance student learning and achievement this initiative will include robust support for parents and the comprehensive R wraparound programming that Mr bubnowski referenced to provide additional learning opportunities for students who require reinforcement and practice in the coming months we will share further details on how families can collaborate with us to ensure a smooth and successful transition next year our staff will continue to collaborate at with expert
018staff developers across various content areas to enhance instructional practices and enrich the teaching and learning experience we're committed to continuous professional growth recognize that highquality professional development empowers our Educators to refine their skills Implement best practices and deliver the exceptional instruction that they do by fostering a culture of ongoing learning we ensure that our classrooms remain Dynamic engaging and responsive to the needs of all of our students and the last one referenced on there as a third as a part of our unwavering commitment to Equitable we are launching a comprehensive three-year training initiative to equip all staff with specialized expertise in sheltered instructional practices for multilingual Learners this evidence-based approach is designed to enhance academic achievement by integrating language development strategies into all content instruction ensuring that all students regardless of their language background have
019Equitable access to rigorous highquality learning experiences question um with the textbooks are we using just hard copy textbooks or are we using licensing or both both most um classrooms now have like a a classroom copy of textbooks that they look at but it's mostly online and then the Partnerships with the staff developers are we is the approach to train our people in-house have some Consultants come out and then do our own training so that we don't have to pay the Consultants so over the past few years we've had multiple staff developers come in across all the content areas at those the teachers attend all those obviously as well as any coaches and myself I attend all of them and often the admins in the building so while we're there we are trying to build knowledge
020that will continue to live in the building if one person leaves or other people leave we have a cadra of people and knowledge that we can build upon so yes thank you and then last question we know that this is a new program so will it be available for the board periodically to get some info about usage to kind of align and look at like where we are what's happening with you know we're going to get our T data test scores but some insights once the program rolls out because we want to look at what we're spending the money on what the grades are what students test scores are so we can kind of just examine student usage all that kind of stuff so we can have some information to continue to evaluate if it's
021something that we want to support or you know work with for the future because we know the cuts are you know happening absolutely of course and also another big part of this will be the parent component um I did send out an initial survey to parents who were in um pilot classes for the different programs and so I did get some initial feedback that parents are feeling um a little reluctant in helping their children with their math homework because it seems very new or it was taught in different ways than they were taught and so because I believe and I know we all believe that it can't just all be on the teachers it has to have the parent support and it has to have a full community investment in the program um I do
022plan on launching a lot of different opportunities for parent training parent information um different ways that parents can stay involved which obviously would include all of you and you can be you know be welcom to attend some of those as well but from the data end the teachers will be inut putting into the system regular testing data pre-assessments post assessments that we will be able to track and take a look at you just to to piggy back on um what Michelle was asking about the followup and getting data and seeing as this is certainly not my first program yes renewal over the years um what kind of window of time are we looking at I know that's always been the case whenever something new came in yeah you know data you're getting in the same
023year that you're using it doesn't necessarily reflect that program so what is a realistic time line to understand whether or not this program is making a difference thank you for that question it's one of the things I think I brought up at the curriculum committee it's something that we don't want to hear and I feel reluctant to say but I'm just going to say it like there is typically something called an implementation dip that does happen the first year you implement a full new program what that means is especially as big as a shift as this program is going to be or any of the new math programs it takes time for the teachers to learn the new programming especially partnered with the fact that we have new math standards um in the pilot classrooms
024we I I will say we've seen wonderful things happen um but when it's you know broadly across we might see for one year an implementation dip possibly um hopefully just one year but in reality when you're looking at implementing a full new program and way of teaching and thinking it typically takes about 3 years for it to reach like its full maximum impementation of including all of the parts that it needs to have in order for it to truly impact scores right now I understand I just think it's important to be said because people at home watching this may say oh they got a new program so everything's going to be great and then when that year their children Slide the numbers slide it's like well wait a minute where did the money go we've
025got this new program why isn't everything fixed you know that that understanding needs to be out there as well that this is not an overnight journey and it might not be the end Journey at the end of that time period there may be another maybe at some point in the future I don't know but I can give a presentation either to the board or I will be giving to the public as well on what the new program entails what the shifts look like um and so we can see sort of some of these new ways that we are presenting the math I believe wholeheartedly in um the programs that we are looking at and the things that they are asking children to do we have seen amazing things I know Mr B you've gone into
026a bunch of the rooms with me as well um and just the way that children have been talking about math and thinking around math and the way we've been challenging them um the other day I was in um a fourth grade classroom and I sorry incorrectly looked at one of the problems at first and was like oh man and then all of a sudden child raised his hand and was like well it's da da da and here is why and I was like oh yep I completely got that wrong at first glance um thinking and he was able to explain why and it was like points on a number line and you know according to a fraction it was like hard thinking and if you first looked at it you would have thought something different
027as I did and they were they engaged in this R Rich discussion about why it was closer to one than zero and um it was it was awesome it was really it's been really nice to see the things happening in the classrooms um so I am very excited for so what was the last time we changed our math program I know we kind of grilled you on the finance committee and I apologize for that but we've had math programs roll out you know we very blunt with you about math programs that we've rolled out in the past that have not worked or not worked as well as everybody said they would so thank you for putting up with us for that but I don't remember what you said about the last time we kind of
028it's 2016 Okay so we've been using goath since then okay um and since then we've had basically two standard shifts um and there's also been new research out on mathematical thinking all the new math programs also include things that like um that we're finding like we need to have the math um the students to understand where math lives in our world and why it's applicable to what they do so in all the math programs there's like some steam components and there's some job connection components um so so our students understand like we have to know how to do this because we need this in our lives and it can help in the future so lots of new round mathematical thinking in children um that is will be in these programs thank you so much of
029course any other questions okay than thank you Miss thank you uh next we have Miss kucho who is going to take us through the highlights from the special education and guidance budget good evening so uh tonight I'm going to focus on uh a special education development as you know over the past several years we've been working to reestablish the Continuum of special education services and supports and we've had a changing cohort of students move in over the last couple years um and now at this point if you look to the right of the screen you'll see that our language learning disabilities program this year um is in place for K2 three through uh third through grade 5 and then grades 9 through 12 technically but we have middle school students in that class so next
030year we're actually going to have enough students to open up a separate middle school class so we'll actually have uh K2 35 6 8 and 912 that's exciting um as we are watching our students get older they are also um going to be benefiting from our enhanced transition programming so we have kly Marquetta who has been working with students and parents um conducting transition assessments and a little bit about language learning disability classrooms and how they might look different than other classrooms you might walk into uh there's typically a much higher Staff to student ratio in an lldd room if you walk into a classroom at any given time in the day you're probably going to see integrated related service therapies including speech occupational therapy uh phys thy and the behaviorist in the classroom um
031coming in and out you're also going to see a highly structured routine-based day and the curriculum in the lldd classrooms is typically individualized to student goals and objectives um as well as a modified core standard it's kind of the blending of those two the um objective in the learning list disabilities classroom is of course to close any uh learning gaps for students and prepare them always for adulthood and Independence so we're very exciting excited to have that development for our students thank you Miss K any questions about special education thank you thank you uh so when you look at kind of the the highlights um you know you heard Mr bbasi talk about the love of reading you heard Mr pillo talk math um miss kucho about the diverse needs of our Learners um so
032those are our areas of focus and I couldn't ask for stronger areas of focus books math stem diverse Learners um so I am proud of this budget uh despite some struggles that we have had with um you know Aid um but it is a it is a good budget and we're able to uh move forward keeping these programs going and even growing um Mr ganella is now going to walk us through um the budget overview and then I think he's going to Pivot to some construction updates too correct yes good evening everyone uh first I'd like to uh extend my gratitude to the leadership team uh for the diligent work this uh budget season um it's definitely been challenging as Mr Davies uh said um particularly with the anticipated loss of state aid um we
033were preparing for a loss of state aid uh as some of you are aware we were running two separate budget scenarios uh one with flat funding which would have been lovely uh and then the other one with the anticipation of reduction in our Equalization Aid which was the one that came to fruition um some of our budget timelines um so we're getting to the very end of the Board review uh process and submissions and approvals uh so tonight the we're we're in the process of reviewing the budget with the full board um the finance committee has met multiple times uh over the past uh two months uh the Personnel committee has met and we've reviewed some of the Staffing implications with the curriculum instruction uh committee specifically some of this uh class siiz information um
034so we're coming to the end of that process uh next week we have a special Board of Education meeting to adopt the tentative budget for submission to the executive County Superintendent who will then review the budget for technical review the board will still have opportunities uh if something changes uh to make modifications to the Budget prior to the adoption the final adoption of the budget in a on April 30th um I have to submit the budget to the executive County Superintendent on March 19th um by Statute uh and then we go through some advertising uh processes and then finally uh uh we would hold the public hearing on April 30th where the board would adopt the budget um just like to briefly review some of the phases of the budget as you know we have
035three phases of the budget the first phase is the leadership team uh phase the second team is Staffing and personnel and the third uh phase is the school business administrator documentation uh phase one leadership team budgets you heard some of the highlights from the administrative team tonight um um it's it's increasing uh a bit this year uh there are two primary factors behind that increase um that we try to keep it down the as uh the new implementation of the new math program that uh um Missle um reviewed earlier this evening is one of the reasons and the second reasons is in the extraordinary um Services area under special education uh we're required to provide some services to an added District placement student who will be returning back to the district so those services will
036need to be provided in District next year so there's a little bit of a shift uh the good news is the pluses and minuses overall um will result in a decrease for that specific student because we're no longer going to be spending out a district tuition so the increase is here but the decreases under the phase three budget which is in which is uh tuition so um a little bit of a shifting of resources from one uh area to the other the phase two two budget which is salaries and Staffing um um as U Mr uh Davies U stated uh this is a very difficult process for us to go through uh we projected Staffing overall the Personnel budget is currently down nearly 1% overall those specifics are still being finalized tomorrow select members of
037the leadership team will meet with Mr Davies and me to review some of these changes following this Mr Davies will provide the board with a detailed explanation outlining these reductions uh that that the reductions that are being made uh and the impact on the instructional program that will come via email um uh and uh it should be emphasized that these decisions have not been made uh lightly and should remain confidential uh until the Administration has an opportunity to meet with the affected staff members to discuss the implications it's very important um you know people's livelihoods are at stake we want to do this in a um respectful manner um phase three now this is a breakdown um graphically to show you how uh the bulk of our salaries go towards instruction and support services um
038close to uh you know 82% of it goes to to that all other categories are about 18% phase three which is the school business administrator documentation portion of the budget is down 3% from last year um note though however if you exclude the buildings and grounds um uh area which has some projects in it uh the total of all the other budget lines remains essentially flat so you can see there you have uh a negative $468,000 in the buildings and grounds area um and overall it's down about $470,000 so if you take that out it would be basically a 0% increase um and I'll provide further details uh both in an email this week um as well in my presentation next week state aid uh as we've discussed um um despite how it was presented
039by the Department of Education uh is down nearly 4% uh uh Doe's analysis did not really account for the loss of stabilization Aid which I believe is misleading uh at best but that's how they decided to uh provide the um the data I understand how why they did it that way because technically stabilization Aid isn't a state aid that is funded by the governor's office it's more funded by the legislature uh so I understand why they did it but it gave a very bad M representation to the public who looked at those numbers and said oh you guys did great you got more state aid well if you take that take out that $634,000 in stabilization Aid no it really results in a $274,000 decrease um special education aid went up significantly which we're were
040very pleased at Transportation Aid also went up uh Choice Aid also went up Choice Aid has an inverse relationship with Equalization Aid so as Equalization Aid goes down your choice goes up um that's one of the good things about this formula it recognizes that uh so next I would like to see here you got your expenditures I'll go over much more detail next week uh this uh they're down by 2. uh 26% as well as the revenues down by 2.2% um compared to the 2024 25 adjusted budget uh I said I'll provide more detail on this next week um um and in the email uh however it's important to note that we anticipated a tax levy increase that first line of about a 2.7% increase um and we will be utilizing 1 Point 1,800 1,
04181,000 in reserves to help offset the tax levy um and I am looking forward uh to discussing these details with you uh further uh and provide you more down to uh details on the at the March 18th meeting any questions um the pie chart 99.1% of the budget to admin salary how many admins does that account for 13 well is it yes for next the the upcoming budget accounts for can we review this next week because it has Staffing impacts does true okay or I can tell you after the meeting okay okay anyone else any questions for Mr ganella okay thank you okay thank you oh referendum you have to do referendum while we're changing slides just a note of thank to the leadership team um who are here tonight and those who are not
042uh this is a lot of work um as Mr ganella highlights um between the work that Mr ganel is doing with all the spreadsheets uh the state aid figures uh but then also just the planning and the decision making that goes on as well so I want to thank Mr babowski Mr pillo Miss hle Miss kucho for presenting um also from the admin the admin team that are here tonight is Mr Miller from Athletics Mr Connelly from buildings and grounds and Mr Rodriguez from our it Department uh so everyone has a hand in our budget process so just thanks for the hard work um yeah okay uh this is my monthly update on the referendum projects um field uh we're really really close to finalizing that uh basically we have to wait for some nicer
043weather for the company to come back and rroom the field one last time uh so that's nothing really really uh uh urgent but uh it's part of the contract that they come back and they groom it uh one more time and get those rubber beads all back in place uh after the winter uh and then it's after that we take it over and it's our responsibility to move those little rubber beads around uh HVAC upgrades uh brely controls and balancing is complete uh Harding controls and balancing is complete the build the BMS which is building management system training has been scheduled with the kboe staff and actually it took place this morning I did this uh uh um earlier I did not know that so that's good that was done it was successful and the
044punch list is in project in progress uh the active uh projects include the additions uh so the brick facade you'll see that really moving nicely and quickly those guys are really uh doing a nice job and they do it one brick at a time believe it or not and it's it's moving uh the me which is your mechanical and Electrical Plumbing rough installations is nearly complete the the fire stair walls uh stairwell and the stairs uh in the in the addition are are up the irrigation system is uh in progress s is scheduled for this Friday uh and the field preparation for the side is supposed to be uh finished this week as well uh dry interior drywall is in progress uh area B and D the auditoriums Harding Auditorium is complet complete we're just
045uh have to have the sound and light system uh upgraded there Harding punchless is also in progress BR Auditorium is complete um I was at the show on Friday night and the lighting looked good the sound sounded good um so I was very pleased to see uh everything in the um the the the the drama people even threw a little dig in at us which was good it was funny it was funny um they were going back and forth with the spotlights and the this the the actor was going from one place to another place and she was saying oh I can't figure these lights out and um at one point she said it's what did they just install these lights yesterday which which we did so uh so we do appreciate their time because
046this was the drama this was supposed to be a fall so we do appreciate their their patience uh and doing that um uh area C which is the lobby you could take a look at it uh Mr Rodriguez and Mr Connelly's uh team got the uh the TVs up um they're going be programmed soon once we get some more uh materials or some pro software for that and the as I said earlier the uh temporary certificate occupancy has been received for the lobby in the auditorium uh for some pictures you can see here um a picture of the addition from the uh the baseball field uh some Corridor work um the second picture some of the uh interior spaces you can see the drywall going up very quickly um the bottom uh left hand side
047you can see how much brick has been put up in the uh uh uh that's in the basically the courtyard between the two buildings and then the last two pictures are the stairwells that have been installed uh and here's a nice uh view of um of the brick work and the um exterior work and the nice mud pit that we got out there too so and then some uh action shots from the play the other day so uh it was very nice to to to see it uh all all come together um project breakdown um there have been no new uh change orders uh since uh the last time we spoke uh they have been relatively minimal which is good um and and um the first two projects uh project one and two are almost
048at completion um uh the additions work is getting closer to 50% which is which is very nice and we're still uh on schedule for our um um June 1st uh um substantial completion for that okay any questions okay thank you thank you thank thank you again Mr ganella for um both your oversight of the projects as well as your work on the budget there's a lot going on um throughout the district uh lastly for my superintendent report is the uh the Hib report um please note that resolution number 14 on the agenda is um your decision on the three HIV cases from last month that we reviewed um so those are not new um what we reviewed last month um in terms of and those were from January the incidents um the new ones from
049this past month of February are reported in your packet um there was one investigation at David Bley that one investigation the incident did not rise to the level of an HIV it was deemed Mutual conflict and um parents were informed of that and on board with that um so that's the HIV report from February you also have in there the discipline report from last month as well as the enrollment report and The Residency report give you a minute to just review anything if you have any questions for me just the other note um while you're looking at things for the public it's just an exciting um resolution in my mind um which is resolution number nine in the packet it is the creation of David Burley Middle School and I think that's just an exciting
050time for our community um this is the board resolution to officially um create uh a new CDs code which means we're creating a new Middle School which means we're changing the configuration of Harding which means we're changing the configuration of David Bry which means we're creating the Middle School sixth seventh and eth grade so it's an exciting resolution um I think it's a nice moment um so I just wanted to highlight that any questions though about t okay thank you Dr kichi at this time we will now move on to finance facilities and negotiations Mr L okay well Vince and superintendent dve has covered a lot and the administrator has covered a lot of the material for um you know finances so um I'll just go into basically what we've done in our committee um
051the committee has been actively engaged in the details of the um 26 budget meeting three taant our last board meeting the February 11th meeting the committee continued its review of phase one of the administrator's budget meeting with M Mr pillo miss miss kulo miss durillo Mr Miller um additional topics we discussed that evening were copier utilization in the schools unemployment trust fund reserves bond interest and arbit Arbitrage re rebate and the Harding School playground on February 25th the committee met with mayor carage and councilwoman perno to discuss multiple multiple topics which includeed taxes Redevelopment projects construction initiatives Recreation programs and facility use um we also conducted a detailed review of phase three which is the school administrator budget um we review the status of phase two salary and Staffing in Phase One budgets we discussed
052operational deficit potential loss of state aid fund balancing Reserves Windfield tuition rates for 2526 um and proposed facility projects um and we toward that we actually went out toward the new addition um in the March 3rd meeting the committee focused on on the impact of state aid overall expenditures and revenues tax levy and uh projected budget cuts hard and class sizes um additionally the committee has been evaluating the use of District Fields by athletic organizations to ensure fair and Equitable process while maintaining fiscal responsibility um basically they're Out programs not associated with the rec programs that want to use our field so we're trying to De develop a plan um to try to see if they can use our Fields what kind of regulations we're going to put on them and cost Etc um the
053committee also formally recommend to the full board the use of the district grounds for the in August and we'll have a resolution for that in the April meeting um for resolute you just heard the superint you just heard the superintendent reports I reviewed the bill list and the financials along with the line item transfers I didn't find any outliners everything seems to be in order um five or um there are eight workshops in tra um eight workshops in travel field trips there are three I think two are to the library one is to the Kart fire department seven are payments to the contractors for work performed um again I match everything up each month they all seem to be proper hitting um for the amounts paid for the work that was done um eight is
054the collective baring agreement with the custodian custodial collective bargaining agreement um except for a few tweaks with this unit such as snow days overtime summer hours uniform allowance it's basically the same contractors that was offered to the teachers um J um Mr Davies Bri um mentioned resolution number nine which is the name change of the school and 10 is the district calendar which you all probably reviewed at this time um it's a lot I'm sorry but um in negotiations we're still trying to few up cleaned up a few items on negotiation so I'll throw it that in right now um and that's all I have anyone have questions for Mr Lani about any of the resolutions or budget items that were sent yeah just just one um with the resolution number nine the changing of
055the the name to be BR David Bry middle school and David Bry high school as two separate entities does this mean that we are going to be operating the middle school as a truly independent middle school or will we still have classes where the students from the Middle School are participating with perhaps some of the high school students whether they be instrumental music vocal music any of the uh things like that or will we still be utilizing teaching staff in both the high school and the middle school as opposed to being two separate schools yeah uh good question our plan is to have uh two separate schools with separate faculties we are not there yet with separate faculties um that shared staff component has been in place a really for a long time and it's
056hard to completely divorce um in a small school in a small school district um but I cannot think of any course right now that we have planned for next year where there will be overlap um so right now I don't have any courses the one question mark that I would leave out there for the future would be instrumental music um uh right now our plan is to not have them co-mingle uh we want to have sixth through eth grade separated from 9th through 12th grade um and that's the way the plan sits right now for 2526 not sure about where numbers would go and Staffing wise what happens budgetarily speaking so I can't promise that in perpetuity that'll never happen but it is our intent to make sure that doesn't happen and as of right
057now for next year for 25 26 it is not happening okay but the students would still have to enter into the high school building for those things we're working out those Logistics still um we've talked about some different options for that um just trying to figure because I've had people asking me about it is the middle are my kids going to be still going in there or is it going to be two areas where we remain just they're question marks currently the dance program and instrumental music are spaces that you know like we have a music room planned for the middle school but do we want to equip it with the same number of it the tempy the band right right it it that's to be determined yet in terms of instrumental music dance for
058the dance studio which we created two years ago the students will still come down the stairs for that um luckily that space is right outside the Middle School stairwell where the students come and go so the the classroom is right around the corner from that but there would be just middle school students taking dance with middle school students correct there will not be any high school students going to the Middle School okay thank you you're welcome last questions okay thank you there's no questions we will now move on to personnel and management Mr hither yeah uh two resolutions tonight uh resolution 11 is the uh approval for 24 school year 2425 power professional AIDS and excuse me resolution 12 is the approval of middle school middle school after school program programs um read Personnel committee
059meeting notes uh we met at on February 24th at 6m uh in attendance for superintendent Davies Mr ganella myself Mr Hera Mr David and Dr panichi uh we discussed the uh reviewed the 20 2025 2026 staffing needs and modifications in budget Phase 2 uh we discussed potential budget cuts class sizes uh departmental departmentalization in Harden grades four through five was considered uh the leadership team organizational structure was reviewed including proposed changes involving the Middle School principal directors supervisor instruction position the committee endorsed a proposal and recommended proceeding with the selection of a candidate for the Middle School principal position aiming for approval in April uh the non-tenured staff list was reviewed uh the potential for a few increment withholdings was discussed we also we also discussed establishing instrument and timelines for the superintendent's annual evaluation
060uh Mr ganella has contacted the njsba and the portal is now open for the superintendent to update his goals uh he will follow up the njsba to review and the login process with myself um and for the two new board members it can be a little bit of a nightmare getting in sometimes so um if you have any issues just let me know uh we also discussed the Board of Education self- evaluation for 2025 uh School business administrator contract for the 2526 school year was uh the committee agreed and reviewed a proposal in for with the full Board of Education and the school calendar for 2526 school year was reviewed Jed at 7:46 p.m. um you want to read this now uh you can sure was there you can do an that's policy yeah for
061the steering committee yeah okay um under policy review it's a resolution 15 it's a second reading uh to adopt it's um P 9163 spectator code of conduct for inter Scholastic inter Scholastic events um in summary in May of 2024 njsa updated spectator code of conduct require that all members all member schools adopt a policy regarding spectators at inter Scholastic games and events if a spectator violates a code of conduct the penalties increased progressively requirements of the policy include immediate removal from the event disciplinary measures including suspension from future events an educational component for the individual who violates the policy and appeal process and appeal process and posting requirements of the policy and the impact is our district already removes violators suspends them for future events for a period of time and includes an educational component
062this policy strengthens our position when inappropriate sportsmanship on the part of Spectators arises at our home events for example the policy states that for a first-time offense individual is immediately removed and suspended from the next event if there's a second offense within 365 count days the individual is suspended from the next three events and so forth this policy will be communicated to all parents at the beginning of each athletic season Additionally the policy will be posted in our facilities and announce and an announcement is made about the code of conduct before games Mr any have a question on the policy so as I mentioned in my report and we did meet with the U mayor um in the in the rec people so with this policy right can we push this I mean should this
063go down to the wreck level or anybody using our facility like the cast play people in the summer or someone using the field or the gym um when parents are there because we should have some cod of conduct right and I don't know if this could be I guess maybe our attorney can answer that question because if we're going to develop a policy of charges and fees and 80 90% canorth kids we should have something some type of code of conduct when you're at our in the school right or on the ground I think you know we have the district's concussion policy uh blankets anyone who uses faciliity so I think in the same way yes any code of conduct policy could cover um anyone who uses a facility how to um police that enforce
064that I don't know but I think it could be something certainly that we incate incorporate and require that any organizations that use facility sign off that they are communicating this policy to their constituents for sure okay good the njs be the one cover no no yeah I just I mean doesn't have to be verbatim on that I mean we just have some you should have some code there sure anyone using our facility is bound by this policy yeah thank you anyone else have questions for policy review or personnel and management from Mr there just um in terms of the rec and things like that um using the facility I would assume that like old policies we have archived that we can reference just to take just to see take a look at what was done
065in Prior I assume years ago you know we shared the space now we currently we currently Shar the space programs outside of rre okay outside of our wreck that's you know that're going through to town okay what what was what was um the discussion with about that if you can share a little bit more about it um it's not finalized right at this time it's not finalized but basically you know Rec people that use the school are usually from the W Department right so we've getting a lot of requests from people that want to use the fields in the gym and everything else from outside Kenworth entities I should say so you know we always let the North kids do it but if you're going to have an organization that has 200 kids in 150
066Union you know there's got to be some kind of policy in there or some kind of fee structure to charge people for the use of our fields that are not associated with the rec committee or the recreation and the town because at one time I'm years and years ago there was a soccer team here playing they were using our Fields I think they were charging the kids $2,000 each to player they were mostly adults too so I mean not one kid was from Kenworth I don't think so you know that that happens but my opinion is that outside organizations have to have the majority of Kenworth kids on it if they want to use the facility so but something we're kicking around M questions no okay well thank you very much we'll now move on
067to curriculum instruction Mr Ferrera uh good evening um there's two resolutions for um curriculum and instruction um resolution 13 is appointment of providers for special education evaluations um and resolution 14 is the hip report for January um I have some notes here from our um from our meeting from February 20th at 6m um we members and attendance was myself Dr panichi Dr um kcoi uh and Miss Zimmerman uh superintendent Davies was present along with school business administrator Mr ganella director of curriculum instruction and Innovation um I'm going to put your name I'm Sorry Miss uh hle H how was it h sorry sorry um uh we began with the overview of the mission and operations of the curriculum instruction Department uh she explained the work we done to support our math instruction with a focus
068on math program Pilots uh Mr Davies and Sam H Hino uh provided updates uh to the program of the studies at uh Brier brierly for the 20 25 20 26 school year including new electives as part of the budget um Miss hle and Mr Davies spoke about Harding's data team meetings uh round math and El Ela achievement he also provided a road map and a timeline for potential pre expansion for the district which I'm excited um they also covered additional items including review of next year's proposed school calendar and an update on their um and that's all for me I apologize for my attire I was teaching well not teaching I was uh helping my daughter uh with her first day at t-ball so apologize for my attire but that's all I got um yeah
069I'm going to get your name by the end of the practice you only got three more years to figure out I know and anyone of questions for Mr fera on curriculum or instruction no okay thank you very much we'll now move on to Old business does anyone have questions under old business okay we'd like to remind the public um to please review the Friday folders for opportunity information about the district it includes referendum updates Communications with leadership team budgets information and it is a um resource for anyone of the community that they can use to get information and if they need additional support or help please reach out to the leadership teams the superintendent or some so that they can address your questions and work through responding to you new business I com sure I
070just want to wish everybody um a happy St Patrick's Day coming up but really remember when we celebrate um it especially this part of the country that we're really celebrating the Irish coming over to America so really we're all immigrants in this country so just take care of each other and happy St Patrick's Day thank you Mr thank you uh two things that I uh would like to add the Union County Educational Services Commission had their monthly meeting I'm on that board if you're unfamiliar with the commission it's a board member from every one of the 21 believe it's 21 um counties and Union we all sit on that board they approv their budget for next year so some of our services might potentially be outsourced to the commission they reviewed their rate increases and
071approve their budget so they will share that with us and then we will communicate it just so you know we are part of the commission and we may Outsource some of those Services also the commission is responsible for managing the non-public Services which is our Catholic schools in most communities the money is funneled into the commissions and subsidized out to pay for things for us at St Teresa's so we can give a presentation at some point if anybody has questions but understanding that the commission which I serve on for this community regulates the non-public school funding for St Teresa's our school so if anybody has questions about that you can always direct it and I will give any updates as they become available each month with a commission um we would also like to new
072business wish our superintendent happy birthday happy birthday Mr Davies you're here on your birthday thank you anyone else have anything to share under new business at this time no okay thank you we will now move on to open up the meeting to the public for comment can I please have a motion to open up the meeting to the public second motion made by Mr Ferrera second and by Mr Mr hather all those in favor please say I I oppose eyes have it motions carried Mr ganella public comment is will now be accepted the Board of Education sets the limit uh for the public to speak at the board meeting to five minutes per person unless prior permission has been granted by the board for extended time pursuing to uh kboe bylaw 0167 for the record
073when you approach the podium please indicate your name and address prior to for making your comments this time that would like to make a comment please step up so no one I make a motion to close the public okay second okay motion made by Mr Lei seconded by Mr hather all those in favor of closing the meeting to the public please say I I oppose eyes have it motions carried the meeting is now closed to the public Mr ganal are we prepared to do a roll there are 15 items on the uh agenda uh do any any of those items need to be voted on separately I would like to vote on number nine separately number nine okay um so this is for Resolutions 1 through 15 excluding number nine uh biner yes Koli yes
074David I'm sorry Ferrara yes hather yes herina yes M yes Zimmerman yes panichi yes motions carry this is resolution number nine on the agenda berer yes Ki yes Ferrara yes hather yes Cina yes L yes zerman yes and panichi yes motion carries okay thank you at this time do we need to go into close executive session yes we do okay can I please have a motion to go into to close executive session second second motion made by Mr biner seconded by Mr hadina all those in favor of going into closed executive session please say I I oppose eyes have it motion carry Mr ganella yes be resolved by the Board of Education the Board of Education meet and private session which the public shall be excluded to discuss the topics of of negotiations uh specifically
075uh Kea secretaries clerks and AIDS unit and the PSA uh unit uh as well as Personnel regarding the superintendent's annual evaluation um which private discussions being held pursu to section 7B and AED open public meetings act the matters under discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as final decisions are made and voted upon thank you Mr ganal thank you very much for attending we're now going to move into close session okay for