001This is to advise the general public that in compiance with the open public meetings act board of education meetings is advertised in the Anbury Park Press city pressed at the office of the board of education located at 307 Cross Road, Little Lake Harbor, New Jersey, and posted at the office of the municipal clerk of Little Lake Harbor. I have a roll call, please. Mr. Sakone, here. Mr. Fello, here. Miss Lawrence here. Mr. Leega here. Dr. Snider here. Miss Bart here. Miss Ber here. Corian, please. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Motion to approve the agend. Are there any questions? [Music] Roll, please. All in favor? I I do extension. Any [Music] opposed? The motion
002passes. Okay. Recommend motion to accept the following minutes. I have a motion. Motion. Second. Second. Are there questions? Roll call, please. All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? The motion passes. Okay. Public comment agenda items only. Board of Education now welcomes the public to comment on the items which are on the agenda tonight. It may not always be possible or appropriate for the board to directly answer questions during the public comment period. Each speaker is allotted maximum of three minutes to make their statement. No one can speak more than once on one topic. You are required to give your name and address before speaking. Please keep your comments respectful and non-defamy and maintain the level of appropriate for a public meeting where minors may be in the audience. Would anyone like to speak? Right up
003here. There's a microphone right here. Good evening. My name is Liz Moritz and I live in Frog. Uh one question I have with regard to the um contracts the the approved contracts within your agenda here. What is the difference between contractual salary and guide salary? I mean, yeah, it's pretty easy answer, right? Most salaries are on contract, especially the administrative and the guide is where it's put into detail by the association and there's certain salaries for certain steps. Each year you start, you work your way up in increments. Okay. So where it says guide salary, is that a locked number or is that a range? It's tied to the It's tied to the Is it a range or is it a locked in number? It's locked in. It's locked in number. It's locked in and
004that's associated with the step. Correct. Okay. And degree. I'm sorry. And your educ educational degree. Right. Okay. That I get. And the other question I have being that this is your contractual season. If the cost of goods and services do come down, which there is a trend now and we have a significant tax increase, you folks can't do an unanticipated revenue, right? you don't get. So if you contract say with the bus company and it's based on gas prices and we know gas prices are coming down. My cousin sent me yes. He pays in Tennessee $185 a gallon. So that may be coming down. Is there something in your contracts that allows for if it go if it drops below a certain amount? I'm not qu you know I'm not arguing over pennies but if
005it's significant do you get a reimbursement on that is there a clause in the contract that allows for that question no there's no clause in any of the contracts that allow okay so you're basically negotiating all contracts based on the current or I'm just going to speak on the I'm assuming you don't and the teachers contract because I was on that. Um that is a three-year contract and those are not related to COLA cost of living adjustments. Those are step increments which are different. So teachers do not receive COLA which is related to cost of living. They only receive a step increment based on their uh I think it's like when it's a year to a day. Yeah. No, no, I get that. I'm talking about something else with regard to contract. So, so pretty
006much whatever you negotiate at the dollar amount at the current time is what you're going to walk into regardless if it drops even if it drops significantly. Every time your time is up to go ahead, Mr. Green. Thank you. Okay. So, we can use the transportation contract as an example. If we negotiate a contract, we enter into that contract, the board approves it, and it's for a specified period of time. So, it's from July 1st through June 30th and the contract doesn't change during that time. Thank you. Thank you. And Robert, that's statewide, right? Statewide. That's correct. For all contract, anyone else like to speak? Put it on Is the light off? Good evening. My name is Jackie Gang. I live at 371 Center Street, Little Harbor. I'm here tonight to speak on agenda item
00713 BC regarding the reduction in force. I am the maintenance worker whose position is being reduced. I wanted to be here tonight to put a name, a face to the title you see on paper. I'm not just a line item or a number. I'm a real person and this school has been a big part of my life. I lived in this community for 20 years. I worked in this school for the last seven. I never expected to enjoy a job as much as I enjoy this one. The staff here has become like a family. I've always taken pride for being part of this team that keep this school running for our kids. My son is a student here. It's been a gift to watch him grow up in these hallways and to see his classrooms
008grow up too around school. I'm I'm not just the maintenance guy. I'm the kids known as Jackson's dad. And when he when something breaks, they say, "Ask Jackson's dad to fix it." That's the kind of person I want to be. reliable, familiar, and someone the kids and the staff can count on. I know you believe these decisions have to be made, and I know one speech won't change everything, but I wanted to stand here and remind you that these decisions affect real people, real families, real lives. Thank you for your time and for seeing me, not just as a physician, but as a person. [Applause] Anyone else like to speak? [Music] Good evening. My name is Rachel Ang. I live at uh Center Street as well. Um, my family and I are here for my
009brother Jackson, who's been awarded student of the month. While our hearts are filled with pride and joy for him, we are also here to find out whether my father will have a job by the end of this meeting. My father, Jackie Yang, is a maintenance worker for Bron Elementary School and has been since 2019. He has five kids and a wife who rely on him physically, emotionally, and financially. Being able to serve the school district as a maintenance worker has allowed him to be close to home, have school hours so he can spend quality time with his family and not to mention have the schedule flexibility required to take my brother Jackson to his essential doctor's appointments. When my dad is not at work, he's spending time with his family or volunteering his time at
010Fine Lance Community Church through their food pantry or for their Sunday service. Anytime I'm introduced to a co-orker of his outside of work, they always say, "That's your dad. He's always so helpful and he's so great. We're so lucky to have them. We've lived in this community for over 20 years, and my father, Jackie, has worked tirelessly and relentlessly to serve the people here, especially their children. If you know my dad, he's the most hardworking and generous person you could know. He even tells me students stories of other students in my brother's class that have come to him and asked him to fix their headphones. Even children as young as my brother know that he's a guy to find when you need help or need help getting something fixed. My dad utilizes his knowledge of
011maintenance repair to ensure the safety of all students down to the unsung details like mowing the lawn so kids have well-kept grass to run on during recess. He comes in on weekends to make sure the parking lot is clear as snow, spends his summers rearranging desks and classrooms to allow teachers to better focus on educating. He is the man behind the scenes making sure the building is stay safe and maintained for students and staff. This man has a physically demanding job that he loves to do because he gets to help people in this community in the best way he can. The first week of May, my dad was told to come down to the office, that my brother is being awarded for student of the month, but also that he may not have a job
012come by summertime. So far, we've also been fortunate to have health insurance through the school because of my dad's position, which has proved vital in providing proper care for my brother Jackson. My brother, student of the month, who consistently has to go to specialist at shop due to his disabilities and medical history, may no longer have health insurance. I understand that you have a job to do, but my dad is an essential part of the school. He's not just extra money you should cut back on. He makes sure each child has a safe and functional day at school. He is what makes the school day run smoothly. He might be behind the scenes, but does not mean he's not important. Thank you. Anyone else like seeing? No one. We'll move on. Um, next on the
013agenda, correspondence items,formational items only. I just like to comment. I read Mr. report and I see the roof leaves are being marked on. That's good to know. [Music] I also heard the curriculum services uh report looks like we're spending less time online. Any other comments? Any committee reports? We have any committee that Super. Oh, sorry. Sorry. It took me a minute. Um, I had to get my document up. Okay. So, the personnel committee did meet. Um, we met on Friday the 2nd, 8:30 in the morning. Um, three board members, a couple administrators. We discussed several things. Um, we talked about the director of special services search update and timeline. Talked through some of the candidates and the process that's being followed. Um, we had a lot of questions. Um, there was there's a committee. Um,
014and the process is still going on. Um, we talked about a bookkeeper update and timeline uh for hiring that sta staff member and then the next steps in the recruitment process were discussed. Couple questions asked around salary um just to make sure we're bringing someone in with the right skill set at the right level. There were some grievance matters we needed to discuss. Um, so discussion around that. um discussion around some environmental service issues uh with um some increment withholding issues um being addressed. Uh we talked about the reduction in force um and the pink slips uh being issued to all non-tenured staff. Um we talked about the appointment list for the May board meeting um which is being approved on the agenda tonight. So you all have that in front of you. Um we
015discussed the process on on renewals and how that would work with some communication and criteria reviewed. Uh we discussed uh pair of professionals and um future hiring of paraprofessionals and benefit strategies to keep the budget in mind and just an emphasis on you know sustainable support for the budget around what we do in the future with staff. Then we discussed the class sizes because even with our budget and our tax um increase, class sizes are still going to go up significantly in grades two and six. So, we talked about different federal funds that might be prioritized for these grades specifically. And that's it. Thank you, Evie. Welcome. Thanks for sending it out to everybody, too. brings us to the superintendent report. Our state performance report came out and Little Lake Harbor School District exceeded standards
016in mathematics with student growth which is measured by median student growth percentile and met the standards for ELA and student growth as well. Our performance is still below the state average, but but we are showing growth and that's important as well. It's also important to make everyone aware of a concerning trend circulating on Tik Tok and other social media platforms that pose a significant risk to student safety and school property. This trend involves inserting small metal objects like paper clips or push pins into the charging ports or internal components of Chromebooks to create an electrical short circuit. This results sparkling electrical sparking electrical fires, battery punctures, all of which cause serious injury and damage. So, obviously, we don't want our students to get hurt. Uh, and if students choose to participate in this inappropriate behavior,
017obviously the the Chromebook has to fully full replacement of the district Chromebook will be charged to the students and the family at the cost of a new device. And additionally, there might be some disciplinary action. Now, let me be clear. We've had no problems doing this in our district, but it is trending across the state. We do have an acceptable use policy, policy 2361, which outlines everything. And we wanted to we're asking for support in speaking with your children about the very real dangers of this trend that's happening. Uh there are districts across the state that have some students have gotten really really hurt by this. So I wanted to make sure everybody knew that's it. Thank you. that the news presentation students of the month acknowledgements for George J. Mitchell Elementary and Far whoever
018would like to go first. Good evening. The character trait for April for the George Mitchell School was fairness. All the students who were chosen were chosen based on that quality. First, Ariana Ferris from Mrs. Bit's class. [Applause] Mrs. Lee said, "Our classroom family would not be the same without our Ariana." Ariana has the biggest heart and is always the first one to lend a helping hand and offer kind and encouraging words to her classmates. Ariana never lets anyone feel left out and listens when her friends speak. She is someone who any teacher here at GJM can always count on to be the best role model. Keith Soren Ariana. [Applause] Next we have Autumn German from Mr. [Applause] Johnson. Autumn is a shining star in our first grade classroom. She is kind, helpful, and always ready
019to lend a hand to her classmates and teachers. She is someone her classmates can count on and is reliable and responsible in everything she does. Autumn treats everyone with fairness and respect. She includes others in games, listens when her friends speak, and always tries to do the right thing, even when no one is watching. Her positive attitude and bright smile light up our classroom every day. Autumn truly enjoys learning and being at school, and her joyful spirit makes our class a better [Applause] place. Next, we have Lucas Marshall. [Applause] Hey, Mrs. W said, "Lucas has grown so much this year. He has been able to accept and celebrate his friends when they win a game and he doesn't. He has greatly improved his ability to wait and share the spotlight with others. We are also
020incredibly proud of how much work Lucas has put into himself to become a model of fairness. [Applause] and Haley Sansson. Mrs. Mrs. Slip said, "We are proud to choose Haley as our student of the month for showing outstanding fairness. She always makes sure everyone gets a turn, listens to others ideas, and plays by the rules. Haley treats classmates with kindness and makes sure things are fair for everyone. We're so proud to have such a caring and fair friend in our class. [Applause] Smile. [Applause] She's retiring. [Music] No. She goes, "No. Good evening everyone. I am here to present our fry pond students of the month for the month of April. We are going to start with Miss Woff's student Charlie Reese. Here's what Miss Woff had to say. Charlie is a dedicated and hardworking student
021who puts forth her best effort in everything she does. I am so proud of her and all that she's accomplished this year. Not only does she approach her studies with determination and focus, but she also treats her classmates with kindness and respect. Charlie is always the first to lend a helping hand, her positive attitude and willingness to help others make her a value valued member of the classroom community. Congratulations. Good evening everyone. And before I get to our next third grade student, I know no one will believe me, but Mr. Denning and I do not coordinate office work with someone for a long time. These things just it just happened. Um, our next third grade student is from Mrs. Nan's classroom and specifically selected by a group of special teachers. I'd like to bring forward
022Jackson. [Applause] So teacher and all the special area teachers say Jackson, you just saw this coming down. Jackson always has a positive attitude and specials. He always tries his best. He listens well to directions. He was willing to try new things. And I love this last compliment. Whether it's working with other students or learning how to do a new activity, the special area registers noted he has great patience and that is a great compliment. Congratulations, Jackson. Next from Miss Lupos's class, we have Gabrielle Scabetta. Come on up, Gabrielle. [Applause] Gabby is a wonderful student who is always willing to lend a helping hand. She participates often in classroom discussions, works well with everyone around her, and is kind and courteous throughout the school day. Whenever there is a problem, Gabby is willing to step up
023and to help solve the issue or discuss a possible solution. She is not only hardworking, but has a caring heart as well, which is shown in her daily actions. For these reasons and many more, Gabby deserves recognition as our April student of the month. Keep up the [Applause] amazing moving. We're moving on to grade five from Mrs. Bruno's room. Kathleen [Music] [Applause] Vazi. Mrs. Bruno says that Kathy is a ray of sunshine in our classroom. She cares very deeply about others and is always there for anyone in need. Kathy Kathy has such a positive outlook towards life and learning. She puts her best effort into all that she does all the time and has an excellent work ethic. She's a wonderful role model for her peers, has a lot to teach others about respect, responsibility,
024integrity, and kindness. From Mrs. Bruno, she says, "Kathy, I am so honored to have you in our class this year, and I am certain that you will be successful in everything you do." Congratulations, [Applause] Catherine. And our final student of the month, I know she is here. Come on up, Sophia Nicholson from Miss [Applause] Andrews. Sophia truly embodies the spirit of a model student, making her an ideal candidate for student of the month. She consistently goes above and beyond and is always ready to lend a helping hand whenever needed. Whether it's picking up something someone drops, volunteering for tasks, or cleaning up after others, she's always first to act. She is incredibly responsible, organized, and proactive, often asking how she can help or what she can do. Her positive attitude, strong sense of responsibility, and
025willingness to help make her deserving of this recognition. I am fortunate that Sophia is in my class this year. Congratulations, Sophia. [Applause] Look the other way. You're good, buddy. Yeah, just like one more [Music] congratulations to all. Okay, moving on to the action items. School business administrator action items. Uh, recommend a motion to approve finance items A through F. I have a motion. Motion. I have a second. Second. Are there any questions? Have a roll call. Mr. Mr. Con? Yes. Mr. Pichello? Yes. Miss Lawrence? Yes. Mr. Lee? Yes. Dr. Snider? Uh, yes. Except for D I Are we? No. H3. There's no DI. Just D. Oh, we're up. Okay. Yes. Sorry. Miss Warren. Yes. Miss Ber, yes. The motion carries. Okay. We recommend a motion to approve facilities item A. I have a motion. Motion.
026Have a second. Second. Are there any questions? Roll call. Mr. Sakone. Yes. Mr. Fishello. Yes. Miss. Lawrence. Yes. Mr. Leacha, yes. Dr. Snider, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Ber, yes. Motion passes. Recommend motion to approve school business administrators non-personnel items A through D. Can I have a motion? Motion. I have a second. Second. Are there any questions? See none. Roll call, please. Mr. Sony, yes. Mr. Fichello, yes. Miss Lawrence, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Dr. Snider, yes. Miss, yes. Miss, yes. Motion carries. Recommend a motion to approve personnel items A through G. Can I have a motion? Motion. I have a second. Second. Are there any questions? [Music] My only question is that our staffing item is not um currently the the expenditures are not approved yet in the legislature and that's my only concern. So,
027have to abstain on that but I sorry I didn't interrupt you just said the payroll um yes so with regard to the new hire and again something personal against the individual I just think we have to be a little more conscious about hiring at the same scale than the individual who is leaving um and I think about our ability to train someone for that has the potential to work up to that position because if you're the person that's being replaced has been here 20 plus years and we're very close to that starting salary for someone who's been here for 20 years. So that's just my only concern comments questions. Okay, roll call please. Mr. Sakone. Yes. Mr. Lee. Yes. Uh, Miss Lawrence. Yes. Mr. Filigella. Yes. Dr. Snider. Uh, yes. With the exception of DI.
028Miss Warren. Yes. Miss Ber. Uh, yes. With the exception of D entirely D 1 through 11, I believe it is. Okay. All motions carry. recommend a motion to approve superintendent as schools non-personnel items A through H. I have a motion motion. I have a second. [Music] Second, any discussion, any questions? Um, yes. I'm sorry. I I did not get a chance to email this. Um what is the difference with the Marsh Marshall observation model for directors that we're going to be implementing versus I guess what we've been using that's for how they're evaluated. Yes. And my my understanding is that that is what they've been using for administrators. Yeah, I thought so too. It's just torove it. So yeah, every year you have to annually reapprove both models. Um, just a question on B. That's
029just that October date, right? I know you put it in the communicator, but it's at done. So, I just want to verify it's just that October date, but thank you. Any other discussion? Laura, I I'm You had a lot to email about the G comprehensive equity plan. Yes. Um, I thought um I guess the part for um underperforming students. Yeah, my questions um I I had asked it. It it does ask that we um sort of look into and research the gap between underperforming students and other students. We already segregate that data. We already provide that data. Our director does, but we don't see why. I guess the why I guess my concern with that data is that there's a lot of inter interlooping because I think like they fall in similar c categories like
030dreams lunch will be in the same categories you know maybe female underperforming versus they can cross over yes and so I think it skews the numbers in some ways I I don't and I wish there was an answer as like just at the collegiate level of why underperformers but I mean I can only in some ways attribute it to lack support at home in some ways. Um, but I don't know. I don't know that I know we've targeted those individuals in previous folks that were in the bubble. Yeah. You know, address a little bit further and I think we can do that with director. She would have to come here present to us if we're going to go. Are we going to have a presentation on the data for this year? Usually, I forget when
031that I thought it was closing September the the assessment data group. Well, I think we've normally seen the um performance reports. What's the programs that we use now? Jersey learning standards. No, no, no. In house, LinkedIn and IRA. Yes. Well, usually typically when we get the typically when the assessment results come out, that's when that's when we do all the presentations of all all of the I thought we'd seen the test mid year to see where students fall to see where they end. Mrs. Gallagher is shaking her head. I'm sorry. Not not since not twice a year. I thought twice a year too. Perhaps perhaps prior committee I think we know the difference. Okay, thanks for that question. Anyone else? Okay, roll call, please. Mr. Sone, yes. Mr. Fichello, yes. Miss Lawrence, yes. Mr. Lee,
032yes. Dr. Snder, yes. Miss Laur, yes. Miss Ber, yes. Motion carries. Is there any new business? [Music] Do we want to talk about the sixth grade events or are we volunteering for those this year or do public? Oh, sorry. Yeah. What about for the grant that you had shown us? Are we going to be able to apply for the grant for um I don't know the formal names in schools? The one I forwarded. Yes. Yeah. The the cops in schools. I think it has to do with primarily the school climate, but yeah, I would like to see somebody follow up on that. The um the grant I think grant for that for us. I'm assuming not. I wouldn't know who who that assignment would go to, but I'll I'll Okay. Yeah, we had that from
033the New Jersey School boards association. I did send it. Yeah. And and that sounds like, you know, free money for something we could do with the students and improve our school climate. I don't think it officers, but we have to look into. Thank you for bringing that [Music] up. Okay. Public comment number two. The floor is now open to members of the public. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues. The board requests that each statement made by a participant is limited to three minutes as cited in policy 0167. There's a signin sheet located on the podium. Please sign in before you speak. Would anyone like to speak? Come on up. I'm over here. You have to come up again. I'm sorry. Did you want to speak again? Yes. [Music]
034Just state your name, please. Hi, this M again from um with regard to the elephant in the room, which is the 32% tax increase. The articles I read were quoting 9.99%. I didn't see any articles where they quoted a percentage of over 30%. Did I miss something? Was that was that mentioned in a newspaper somewhere? The initial consideration was correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Green. 9.9 plus the bank cap, which brought to 13.9. Okay. Excuse me. I don't hear well at all. So if I don't see your lips. Oh, I'm sorry. I hear you. I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. So, the initial consideration was 9.9 plus our bank's cap that we had left over of $569,000, something like that to bring us to 13.9. However, that would not we'd have major layoffs
035and major um cuts in staff. So, the consideration was to go with with the legislative offer from the state. See, the state department of education said that we were entitled to 10 more million dollars. We took three of that, which brought us up to that 32.6. Is that right, Mr. Green? That's correct. and the board did that in the interest of the district. But I also from the board with the board's permission wrote a letter to our legislators asking how it's possible to keep going raising these taxes above the 2% tax levy without legislation without you know that's the law the 2% you'd have to have we've never taken that before except for last year we took some healthcare enrollment adjustments. So I'm going to if I may I'll read to you the letter I
036wrote if you're done with your comment. Do you want to ask anything? I I was just wondering why what Okay. So you knew the parameters of the funding impact on your budget and you knew that you had a range of 9.9 and then you knew it could have gone up to 32 33%. that that 32 33% was never mentioned in an article or that you had to go over the 9.99 in the article. Actually, it was we didn't find out that information until later, but I was at a remote meeting. I was in Florida at the time. April 3rd was our meeting and that was in the paper. I read it just the other day. The 30% was in the paper. Which which newspaper was that? It was the sandpaper or the leader or the
037Tucker? cuz I read the sand paper and I only saw the 9.99. Yeah. Equal third. A big article went out because that was the big thing and it did say the 30%. I have to go back and show Park Press. I'm sorry. Asbury Park Press. Yeah. Was it the Sandpaper or the Aspberry Park Press or both? The Aspberry Park Press was here at that meeting. I I think she's I'm talking about prior to April 29th. No, April 15th also an article went out. April 15th and April 3rd. So notice of a 30% tax increase tax increase went out on April 3rd and April 15th. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Anyone else like to speak? Good evening. My name is Cindy Phillips and I live on West Malikica Road here in Little Lake
038Harbor. I'm here tonight as both a parent and an educator. I am a proud mom of second grader here in Little Lake Harbor and I'm also a kindergarten teacher in a neighboring school district just south of here. I'm here tonight to express my full support for the decision the school board is making to raise taxes, not because it's easy, but because it's necessary. As a teacher, I know firsthand what happens when schools are forced to cut staff, increase class sizes, and eliminate essential programs. I've seen students fall through the cracks, not because teachers don't care, but because they simply don't have enough time, resources, or support. Over the past few years, the needs of the students have greatly increased. We need more than ever to prioritize smaller class sizes, especially in the younger grades. And
039as a mother, nothing is more important to me than making sure my child and every child in this district receives the education they deserve. These kids only got one shot at elementary school, one chance to fall in love with learning, one chance to feel safe, seen, and inspired. My daughter has received an excellent education so far here in the Little A Carver School District. Besides the strong programs and excellent teachers, the school offers many events for the students and the families. We have always experienced such a small town feel here even with the growing population. I understand this is a significant tax increase and I understand that it's hard. But what's even harder is the thought of our children walking into schools that are underresourced, understaffed, and stripped of the programs that make learning meaningful.
040I've learned that the state believes our community should be contributing 24 million to support our schools. And we are only contributing 14 million. That 10 million gap is the problem. This is not just a local issue. This is the state funding problem that has put Little Light Harbor and other districts in an impossible position. With all this said, if we weren't complaining about increased taxes, it would be something else. Everything is going up and no one expected to be paying prices for things now in the manner that we are. Rather than focusing on this, we should move on to how things can be addressed at the state federal level and continue to focus on the children in our community. These children are our future doctors, nurses, technic technicians, etc. I want to thank this board
041for doing the hard thing, the right thing, even when it's unpopular. You are choosing to protect our children's education, and I'm grateful for that. We tell our kids to stand up for what's right, even when it's hard. You are all doing just that, standing for what is right. All of your hard work does not go unnoticed and I want to thank you for volunteering all the time that you do out of the goodness of your hearts. Thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause] Anyone else like to speak? See none closed uh public session and open up board forum. I think I'll just start because I have I have something to say about uh abstaining and I wholeheartedly love teachers and support teachers. Um but my my thing is a moral issue and legis a lawful
042issue. I've reached out to the legislature twice now. My last letter being to Senator Amato, Assemblyman Rump, and Assemblyman Meyer. I am ready to request an update on the legislation that has not been voted on yet, as I understand, but gives the New Jersey DOE the permission to raise our school tax by an additional $3 million. Our board has approved all other adjustment aid in order to get this permission, but it is still unclear as to how the legislature can circumvent the current tax levy cap of 2% again this year. As was mentioned in this board's letter of testimony sent to the budget committee hearing on March 26th, please let us know where we can find the exact language on this piece of legislation and when the vote will take place. Also, it' be nice
043to hear from the senator at motto and others on the budget committee regarding their votes uh for for or against this appropriation committee. No response. That was May 6th. I wrote to our representatives, the ninth U legislative district. However, um Assemblyman Rams got back to me yesterday and I asked him the same question. Is there legislation? Has anything been passed to authorize this amount of money coming to our district? He said, "Please know that no in capital letters, no legislation has passed and possibly hasn't been introduced yet. So, I don't know how the prospective relief may be relied upon." Those are in quotes. The next voting sessions are May 22nd and June 25th. Um, and that's when the legislature is going to vote on this. So, right now, I believe it's still in liima. That's
044why I had to abstain. I I just suggest the public reach out because I know there was a lot of concern about our vote on this board and I think the public should reach out to our legislators because that's where the where the permission came from to increase our taxes so high. Uh the DOE permission and they're not legislators. Okay, enough on that. Anyone else want to speak to that? Okay. Um, also in forum I wanted to cover um the year end events that are coming up and I did email everybody those events. Um, I think it's only the promotion ceremony that no one has signed up for to be at. I can I can do Well, you said you there. Oh, sorry. Never mind. No, I'm going to be there as a parent. I
045can do the awards as a board member. Great. Signed up for that. Thank you. Would anyone else be interested in being at the uh year end promotion ceremony? As a speaker or just as an attendant? Well, just as I guess what did we do last year? What day is it? I'm just slammed. I have 5 million end of the year events that I'm conducting. The 19th. I'll have to take a look at my calendar. Okay. At what time? Uh, I think there's two sessions. Are you attending Laura? This usually I might be away. I'm waiting on I can do it. Secure Chris as a speaker because usually someone the board speaks. Will you definitely be around? Yeah, I don't have a time just there the whole day. Okay. Thank you, Chris. You're welcome. Sorry. And
046we did mention the Mikey Brown scholarship that we collect for every year. Does that I'll get you afterwards. That's okay. Thanks. Okay. We still have till tomorrow. But Mr. Dream, does that collection go out just to the board or how does that work? Because we initiated it. I mean, I know there's an account just for the Mikey Brown scholarship. So, is it dependent on just board donations as well? No, anybody can donate if they want to. Okay. I wonder if we could get that message out there, too. Yes, we can. Thank you. All right. Anybody else have anything? I have a couple things. [Music] Um, we said that we were trending positively in ELA and math. Can you just say that again? for growth, not for performance, for growth. Okay. Can you explain the difference?
047[Music] So, we're still performing below the state average. Yeah. However, the the state comes up with a formula for growth and whether we've met our growth or not. So, we have exceeded our our growth metric, which is positive. It basically it basically explains the uh amount of growth within a year that students that students perform on. So when Miss Mrs. Galler does the does the her presentation she'll really go into it but that's essentially what it means. So grow growth is positive. Oftent times when you're very very high performing it's much more difficult to garner that growth when you have a little room to grow. when you have a little bit of room, you see greater growth. So, that's positive that we're seeing that growth. And the reason I bring that up is a few
048years ago, that was one of our goals was to increase positively the scores and the direction of our district regarding ELA math. So, I think this is the second year in a row that we are trending upwards. So, I just wanted to highlight that. That was something that was said earlier. Um, another thing, uh, Jackson's dad is not here. I saw that him and his family left. Uh, you know, just want to acknowledge his service. Um, you know, it's unfortunate that both both things fell on the same day. Uh, but just did want to acknowledge uh his service and, you know, hopefully he can stay involved in the community. Obviously, his son was here tonight. Um, but you know, as a board as a whole, unfortunately, we wish we could hire everyone back, but given
049the economic circumstances, that wasn't possible. But I did want to thank him for his eloquent speech uh that he did give uh before the at the beginning of the meeting. Um I know it's a tough thing to do given the circumstances, but he he was very well spoken about it and I'm you know thankful that he did that. Um also Cindy, thank you for coming up here and supporting the board's decision. You know, we never love raising taxes. Um, and if you look at the other towns around us in Ocean County, they're choosing to lay people off, especially teachers. Uh, there's one school district that had to choose between cutting sports and cutting teachers, and they chose cutting teachers. In our district, we want to continue the positive trend that we have seen, for example,
050ELA, math, um, and do everything we can to support our teachers and our staff. And so we had to come to that decision for this year uh as you read in the papers of um raising taxes to keep as many teachers as possible. So um thank you for acknowledging that tough decision. And speaking of teachers, I want to just say thank you to the teachers, admin, paras, school resource officers, and all their staff as we wind down this year. Um, seems like just the other day I talked to you guys in the summer for the opening uh few days of school, but now we're coming to the tail end of school. Just want to encourage you to keep going strong. I know you will. And uh just thank you for everything that you guys do.
051You know, we meet here once a month, but you're in the trenches every single day. So, I just want to acknowledge you and thank you for your service to this community. And I know it will pay back tenfold uh many years to come. So, thank you. Anyone else? Um, I just want to say uh thank you to Mrs. Phillips for your kind words. Um, but also um, you know, this board has been discussing these budget issues since prior to January, I think probably November, October. Um at every meeting there's been discussion, debate, um countless hours of research, questioning. Um we put in a lot of time to figure this out and I think the context matters here. Uh our tax base is much much much lower um than other surrounding districts and other towns uh
052around us. So even though that 32% seems very very high when you look at the actual average or the number the dollar amount it's very similar to surrounding districts. Um so that actual increase per average home assessed and um we've been so transparent. Um the administration has been transparent. There have been numerous budget presentations that are posted on our website. They are posted on YouTube. Um, and I did just do a search that we had three different sources with um, newspapers here tracking all of the information. Um, so I would encourage in the future less apathy and more community engagement because typically we don't have many people at our meetings and um, you know, it's it's a lot of work being on a being on a school board and it would be better if there
053was more engagement, more parents, more community members. And I know I'm always preaching this, but the more engaged, the more we show up for our students, um, the better off we're going to be as a district overall. So, I just want to say to each and every single one of you sitting up here at this table, thank you for all of your hard work and time through this budget season because um, it was countless hours and we went through everything tooth and nail. And um I just appreciate all of you and I'm happy to to serve on this school board side by side with with each of you. And then the last thing I'll say is happy teacher appreciation week again. I hope that you all were all spoiled this past week because um there
054were some great things that happened in the school and I hope that your students followed that PTO schedule and brought you in all the things that you deserve. So thank you again for all that you do. Um I'm just going to piggy back off of Abby with the tax base just for reference. Um for River Lacy Township um they're they were proposing a 14.2% increase comparative to our 32%. However, the monthly increase was equivalent. So, we just do not have the the base that other towns have. In addition, Jackson Township has closed one of their high schools and now they're going to have 2400 students in one high school. Um, um, just the safety of having that number of students, keeping track of that number of students, there's just a lot of things that go
055into it. Um, and a lot of minutia that that people may not on the outside looking in might not think about. And we did we tried every potential scenario. Um because having again 40 second graders in a class is just not an option. And again not to have kids fall through the cracks. And I will say my children were through this district when class sizes remained small and they benefited from it. They were I had twins and I'll never I had I still have twins. Um they um you know noticed that they had a learning disability and because they were well behaved it would be very easy for them to just fall through the cracks and just move along each year because they weren't problem kids and but two teachers noticed them realized that something
056was going on and they're getting ready to enter their their senior year in college. so on scholar academic scholarships and everything. So if they didn't have this foundation, they wouldn't be where they are today. And so for that, I'm grateful. And with that, I'd like to also uh thank the teachers and nurses from last week. I hope you guys had a great weekend. Those of you who had a wonderful Mother's Day leading into that and um I hope the end of the school year goes smoothly, quietly. And um again, thank you for all that you do. Thanks. Anybody else? I just want to follow up on that grant, Christine, that you mentioned. Yes. It's it's called COP well new grant available COP school violence prevention program SVP and it actually h helps members locate and
057access funding for essential services professional development classroom technology innovative projects and member districts which we are member New Jersey school boards. It's designed for member districts to strengthen their school safety plans. The program helps fund school safety technology such as access control, communication technology, so forth. So something that we really should look into. Yeah, especially if it would help us with additional cameras where needed or anything like that. I brought it up. I will look up. The grant offers up to 500,000 in funding. That's it. Motion to adjurnn. Motion second. All in favor?