001Statement is hereby made that adequate notice of this meeting was given by the prominent posting of said notice in all district schools and other public places, the mailing and or hand delivery of said notice to the designated newspapers, the Asbury Park Press and the Manalepin Patch, filing with the clerk of Manalepin Township and the clerk of English Town Borough. I'll call the roll. Mr. Ferber? Here. Mr. Green? Here. Mrs. Harp? Here. Mr. Cain? Here. Mrs. Lucas? Here. Mrs. Parisi? Here. Mr. Chesetti? Here. Dr. Wallace is absent this evening. We do have a quorum. Please rise for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. David, it's all you. Good
002evening, everyone. Thank you, Ronnie. We are going to be going right into our student performance and presentation for the Italian Language and Culture Day competition, so I want to welcome everybody here. I want to congratulate everyone on another amazing job, which our Italian department seems to succeed year after year, and you guys just crushed it again. So bravo to you, thank you, and we are excited to see what you guys are going to do for us tonight. Good evening, everyone. Before the students begin, I want to give you some information about the organization that sponsors this competition. It's called the Italian Teachers Association of New Jersey, which I've been a member for for over 20 years. Every year, they come up with a theme, they give it to the students, and the students create a
003skit based on the theme. This year's theme was l'impronta globale degli italiani, Italian's global impact. We started to stay after school the first week of January, all the way up until March 20th, when we went to Rutgers University to compete. The students stayed after every Tuesday and Thursday for about an hour and a half. They wrote the script, we translated in Italian, they worked on props and costumes, and they memorized their lines. I'm very proud of them, they worked very hard. I told them that whatever we do, we represent men, and we have to be prepared, very well prepared. Along the way, they also had fun. We went outside sometimes and played ball just to take a break, there was always food, and they also learned, which is very important. So as I said, this
004year's theme is l'impronta globale degli italiani, Italian's global impact. They came up with the idea of a fashion show. La Filata di Milano, and they have a famous designer, and her name is Schiano. She used to be an Italian teacher, but now she teaches fashion. Through her fashion designs, she wanted to show the world all the credits, all the wonderful things that famous Italians have done. So before the students prepare or do their skit, they're going to read to you in English what the skit is about, because I presume many of you don't speak Italian. All right, so I'm going to give it to the students. You're going to have to move down a bit, so... Ciao. My name is Giovanni Carta, and I'll be one of your hosts this evening. Tonight we will look
005at the latest section of the famous Italian fashion show, Schiano. Fun fact. She started out as an Italian teacher at an out-of-the-world school. She now prefers to teach the world a lesson in fashion. Today's lecture is called l'Italiano mondo, l'impronta globale degli italiani, Italy's global impact. During the skit, I asked every single model their name, what they're wearing, and how much they know. Ciao. My name is Thomas Ferro. I am also one of your emcees for this evening. I think everybody's outfit is beautiful. Buonissimo. Ciao. I am a model, and my name is Giuseppe Felippo-Samuele. The emcee makes a comment about me having three names. Anyway, tonight I am modeling the Gucci of Gucci. It is inspired by the multitude of famous Italian fashion designers. Gucci is considered one of the most important luxury fashion
006brands. Una del più importante casa de moda elurso. Gucci represents luxury and quality. Hashtag verde rosso. Hashtag red and green. When he asks how much my outfit costs, I tell him we'll discuss it when he stops wearing Gucci slash guccio fashion. That's what Thomas says. Buonissimo. Ciao. I am a model, and my name is Lorenzo Leonardo Federico Carnata. The emcee makes a comment about me having four names. He says I'm a show off. Anyway, tonight I am modeling the Lorenzo Medici. It is inspired by Italian contributions in the banking world. The Medici pioneered the modern banking system, including rewriting the tax code and creating a system for international banking. The Medici set precedents in banking that are still being followed today. Il Medi hanno creato il sistema bancario e il primo codice fiscale ancora in
007oggi. Hashtag quanta bella giovanezza. When the emcee asks how much my outfit costs, I tell him I'll talk to him when he can afford his rent. That's what Thomas says. Buonissimo. Ciao. I am a model, and my name is Silvio Michele Zaccaria Emilio Berdimento. The emcee makes a comment about me having five names. He says we Italians think we are very special with all these names. Anyways, I am a model of the Michelangelo. I am modeling the Michelangelo. It is inspired by the many contributions of the Italian artist. Michelangelo Panarotti is the genius who painted the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo is considered one of the greatest artists of all time. He is known as the divine artist of all time. That explains his four million followers. Hashtag Instagram famous. Hashtag Instagram promosal. That's when the emcee
008says he has five followers and one of them is his mom. When he asks me how much my outfit is, I tell him it's priceless. A, D, O, V, R, D, E, D, C, D, M, R, V, A. That's when Thomas says. Buonissimo. I am a model, and my name is Carlo Giovanni Antonio Stefano Biagino Iaccarino. The emcee cannot believe that I have six names. Anyway, tonight I am modeling the Galileo. It is inspired by the many contributions of Italians in the study of astronomy. Galileo Galilei's discovery that the sun is the center of the solar system was significant and impacted modern astronomy. A sostituto in modello astronomico che pori un soletto al centro del sistema solare con i pianeti che girano intorno. Hashtag e porsimo ver. Hashtag e iet mus. Hashtag I told you
009so. When the emcee asks how much my outfit costs, I tell him there isn't enough money in the universe to buy it. That's when Thomas says. Buonissimo. Ciao. I am a model, and my name is Giulio Antonio Pietro Stefano Camillo Sergio Calabresi. When the emcee hears I have seven names, he makes a comment that Italians dominate the art of the name game. Anyway, tonight I am modeling the Enrico Fermi, which I am totally wearing. It is inspired by the many contributions of Italians to the sciences. Enrico Fermi is recognized for his discoveries that paved the way for the development of the first nuclear reactor, making him a key figure in the atomic age. When the emcee asks how much my outfit is, I said it is so expensive that his head would explode if I
010told him. Hashtag fissione per il futuro. Hashtag fishing for the future. That's when Thomas says. Buonissimo. I am a model, and my name is Giulio Antonio Pietro Stefano Camillo Sergio Calabresi. When the emcee hears I have seven names, he makes a comment that Italians dominate the art of the name game. Anyway, tonight I am modeling the Enrico Fermi, which I am totally wearing. It is inspired by the many contributions of Italians to the sciences. Anyway, tonight I am modeling the Enrico Fermi, which I am totally wearing. Hashtag fissione per il futuro. Hashtag fissione per il futuro. When the emcee asks how much my outfit is, I said it is so expensive that his head would explode if I told him. Now you can think of the rich cultural legacy of the Italians, how they have
011contributed in all fields, including architecture, music, fashion, cuisine, literature, science, technology, cinema, sports, Jewish attendance, banking, business, and so much more. We came, we saw, and we conquered with our ideas. Ci siamo, abbiamo visto, e abbiamo conquistato con la nostra idea. Hashtag veni, ridi, ridici. Thank you. Benvenuti! Mi chiamo Tomas Frode. E io sono Giovanni Carti. Noi siamo i porti. Bello che tornate per las raste. Seremo a diamo l'ultima collazione della collazione stilistica. E per tantissimere, che lei dava lezioni di lingua italiana ammennata. Ora il vecchio preferisce darci lezioni di mota. Ma solo collazione in tipi lati. In Italia non l'ho. Non dicova l'italiano. Allora pronunciamo. Ecco il primo modello. Bellissimo! Cittica del suo nome e cosa in rosa. Mi chiamo Giuseppe Filippo Samo. Tre nomi. Questo insieme si chiama il Guggio Guggi. E' ispirato
012dai concittuti degli italiani in campo della moda. Guggi è considerato una delle più importanti case di moda del russo. Guggi rappresenta l'eleganza e la qualità. Hashtag verde rosso. Mi chiamo Lorenzo Leonardo Federico Carnate. Quanto nome. Quante pari. Questo insieme si chiama il Medici Ed El. Ispirato dai successi italiani nel campo dell'economia e della finanza. Questa famiglia di Frenza ha creato il sistema bancario e il modello. E' ispirato dai successi italiani nel campo dell'economia e della finanza. Questa famiglia di Frenza ha creato il sistema bancario e il primo codice fiscale ancora in uso oggi. Hashtag quanta bella giovanezza. E quanto costa. Ne parleremo quando riesci a pagare da finto. Tu bebe pagare la gulletta dell'acqua. Va bene. Grazie. Ecco il prossimo. Bellissimo. Ci dica il suo nome e cosa è in rosa? Mi chiamo Stelvio Michele
013Zaccaria Emilio Bermento. Questi italiani si sentono così importanti tutti questi anni. Questo insieme si chiama Michelangelo. E' ispirato ai contributi di artisti noti. Michelangelo Bororatti e Eugenio che ha dipinto subito dalla cappella satina. Lui è concierto come olivio artista per tutti le sue opere. Ecco perché ha 4 milioni followers. Hashtag Instagram promosso. A cinchiglia. Già vi chiamo cinque milioni. C'era molte. E quanto costa. E' di un volone inestimabile. Va bene. Grazie. Ecco il prossimo. Bellissimo. Ci dica il suo nome e cosa è in rosa? Mi chiamo Carlo Giovanni Antonio Stefano Biagino Iaccarino. Sei dove? Questo insieme si chiama il Galileo Galilei. E' ispirato ai contributi degli italiani nel campo dell'astronomia. Nonostante la minaccia della chiesa, Galileo ha sostienuto il modello astronomico che pone il Sole al centro del sistema dell'astronomia. E quanto costa. E' abbastanza
014generale nell'universo. Che caro. Va bene. Grazie. Ecco il prossimo. Bellissimo. Ci dica il suo nome e cosa è in rosa? Mi chiamo Giuseppe Filippo Samuel e Giulio Antonio Biagino. Siete nomi. E' evidente che gli italiani dominano un'arte da uno. Questo insieme si chiama Enrico E' ispirato ai contributi degli italiani nel campo della scienza. Lui è conosciuto per le sue scoperte che hanno aperto la strada allo sviluppo del primo reattore nucleare a fissioni. Ma scelta fissione per il futuro. E quanto costa. Se gli dicesse la sua testa esploderebbe. Mamma mia. Rano di mamma. Mio padre è sparito dal mio Instagram. Che strano. Signore e signora, lasciate a pensare. E' una specie personale. Ecco la sua vista, schiano. Ma che nome porto? Schiano, lei può condividere con chi non intifano cosa ha ispirato questa collazione? Sì. Quando
015insegnavo che devo ai miei studenti cosa li veniva in mente quando pensavano all'Italia. Mi danno sempre la setta risposta. Pista, spaghetti e Ferrari. Questo non rende l'idea giusta e non dà abbastanza credito all'Italia e agli italiani. Siamo molti li. Voglio che pensino all'Italia. Abbiamo contribuito a tutti i campi come la chittura, la musica, la moda, la cucina, la literatura, la scienza, la informatica, il cinema, lo sport, la giurisprudenza, il mondo brancario, le affari e tanto tanto di più. Ci siamo, abbiamo visto e abbiamo conquistato con le nostre idee. Hashtag veni, vedi, vedi. Thank you. Does anyone have anything to discuss in executive on the HIV summary? Jump ahead. Okay. I'm going to welcome Mr. Ricardo Rivera on behalf of the Foundation for MERS. Nice to see you. Nice to meet you. And please, you have
016my floor. I'll think Dan turned it on. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate the board extended the invitation to me and for MERS. My name is Ricardo Rivers. I live at 11 Beechwood Drive in Menalpen. I'm father to twin girls on fourth grade here at Runrock. So very excited about that. I'd like to begin with just giving a little bit of background about myself personally and then go into the Foundation and some of our activities and things that we're looking to accomplish going forward. So professionally, I'm a financial advisor for a major brokerage firm. I have 25 years of financial services experience. Locally, I'm also a volunteer with the Menalpen Business Association where I serve as treasurer. I've been the trustee of the Foundation since 2018 and recently became president in
017January of this year. Externally, in terms of the field of education, I have a lot of volunteer experience through my alma mater at Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I've served over 20 years as a volunteer with the college in various roles. Most notably, I was on the alumni board for eight and a half years from 2007 to 2016. I served as its president and was ex-official trustee in that role. Currently, I'm a trustee of the college as well. I was elected in 2021. I also sit on the college's investment committee where I'm a financial advisor to nearly $500 million of college assets. I'm also vice chair for the fundraising component for the general fund for the college. And so these are some of the experiences that I'm looking to bring to the table to be
018able to support the district and our foundation in order to help fill some of the gaps that are needed from the philanthropic standpoint. What I'd like to begin with in terms of the Foundation is acknowledging a few of our trustees that are our attendants, Dr. So currently we have 15 trustees who are very passionate, energetic, and really, really energized to really support the district. We are looking at this point to really move the foundation forward with a new strategic plan at this point. We are putting together ideas to work towards a plan that's going to be implemented most likely later this year and it will encompass a five year period. So we're looking at the plan to be effective from 2025 to 2030. In addition, we're also going to be focused on additional fundraising efforts,
019mainly geared around building an endowment and also STEAM initiatives. We've had a discussion on some of the needs in the district around STEAM programs and this is something that we'd like to build around in terms of establishing a capital campaign in order to fund some of those necessities. And also having a stronger presence in terms of community outreach. I think that we've done a good job in terms of engaging the local community. I think that there's some areas that we can do an even better job as we move forward, such as engaging other foundations that are external to the local community, engaging corporations in order to get additional grant assistance that will then further support the district going forward. One of the key points that we're looking to do is really bring together new programs,
020bring together new activities, new fundraising thoughts, and our trustees are very, very energized in order to bring a fresh perspective and a new set of eyes to move the foundation forward for the benefit of the district. That concludes my remarks. Thank you. Are there any questions for me? Thank you. First of all, the introduction explains what's happening with the foundation right now and what the plans are coming up. I appreciate that. I'm not sure how familiar you are with our current board compared to our past boards, but our board is fairly new in terms of its membership. It's turned over a lot over the last few years, so a lot of the previous members that were around for a long time and had a lot more familiarity with the foundation and involvement with it are
021no longer on the board, so a lot of newer members here that probably have a lot less familiarity. Definitely, anyway, you guys can continue to engage us and help us to be involved or at least understand what's going on and how we can certainly work together and support the foundation and vice versa. Please continue to reach out and keep that communication open. Definitely will do and we appreciate the partnership. I just want to thank you for coming. Your partnership with the district is so valuable. Your foundation I think has brought in over a million dollars since it first funded into the district and a lot of the programs that we have now that are so successful, you initially funded when we didn't have the funds to allow us to try them and see how they
022would pan out and you made an amazing influence on our district, so thank you for all that you do and I'm glad that the foundation is wanting to continue that partnership and wanting to continue to support us and move forward, so thank you. Okay, we're going to move on. Changes in revisions. Anything else to add besides what we received earlier today? There were quite a few things. There was nothing that we added, but at the request of a few board members to allow some more time to review, we're going to administratively pull J6, the summer reading list. Okay. I don't think pull it. We're going to table it, correct? Table it. You're not going to move it for now. We'll just take it off the agenda for now. We just won't move it. J1 through
023J5. Yes. Thank you. And I'll ask the board who needs more time and wants to spend time to review that item just to please try to do that so we can have it on our agenda for the next meeting and move forward. We are up to our public comment portion of the meeting. If there's anybody that would like to come to the microphone and speak, you have three minutes. Please feel free to step up to the mic. Going once, going twice, and public comments is now closed. Item G, for the board's information, any questions? Anyone have anything regarding enrollment or any of the items in item G? I had one question related to our enrollment figures and the relationship to number of IEP students. Whether or not, you know, is this something that is I
024don't know what's considered standard, let's say, but it's about a 15% of our student body that are IEP students, and is that, you know, sort of in relation to other districts of similar sizes, is there kind of a balance that we typically see? From what Ms. Patilla usually tells me is we're a little bit below average. When she did her presentation, I believe she said that we're a little below average. I think the average may be around 18 to 20 percent. Maybe a little more. But so we're a little, we think a lot has to do with our RTI program is that we don't go into always immediately classifying students. We look for other methods to remediate. And usually our RTI program, because it is where it is remediates some students where other districts may
025just classify them. Got it. Thank you. Okay. All right. Could I have a motion and a second on items H1 through H2? Jamie? And Kelly? Any questions? No. Mr. Farber? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mrs. Her? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Santoro? Yes. And Mr. Cicetti? Yes. Those most successful. Thank you. Thank you. Could I have a motion and a second on business items I1 through 15? Jesse? And Mr. Kane? Any questions? What do we do with a vehicle when we dispose of it? Do we like just take it to a junkyard? Like what do we do? It depends on the scrap value. Lately we've been, in the past we'd always take it to the junkyard. We would take anything off of it that we could use as parts on
026to repair any other, you know, vehicles that were in the fleet with similar inventory. And we would scrap it at the scrap yard for scrap value. Or more recently what we've been trying to do is use GovDeals which is the online auction. So we're looking to do another one in the next month or two. Jeff will be leading the charge on that and he'll be reaching out to the principals to see what we may have in the schools that we could put up, you know, to put up for auction to make sure everything has been disposed of on a board agenda. And then there will be an action item on the agenda actually saying what's going to be put up for auction on GovDeals. So that would be coming in the future. Is this 2006
027Ford pickup slated to be auctioned off? It could be, yeah. I have to talk to Jeff. I just want to we're disposing of a vehicle, I just want to know what we're doing with it. So we're going to dispose of it, like we're going to vote to dispose of it then it's still going to sit at the physical plant? Right now we're voting to declare it surplus. And it will be disposed of either as scrap value or through GovDeals, whichever they determine is the most financially beneficial. So we'll vote on that too. But basically we're voting to take this out of inventory and put it in another pile. Alright, cool. I don't think you'll vote whether we send it to the scrap yard or GovDeals. I think only on GovDeals. If we decide to do
028GovDeals you'll have to vote, there is a board action required to announce that it's being put up for auction. Alright, I just wanted to understand, like, we got this vehicle, it's unoperable, it's unrepairable, like it's just going to sit there? Alright, cool. Thank you. We usually get a couple thousand dollars at the scrap yard for vehicles. Thank you. It's a good question actually because I've wondered that myself. Thank you, Jesse. Okay. Anything else? Anyone else? Anything? Mr. Green? Yes. This is her? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Santoro? Yes. Mr. Tosetti? Yes. Mr. Berber? Yes. Those are successful, thank you. Thank you. Curriculum items J1 through J6, can I have a motion? We're going to do J5. Oh, I'm sorry. We took off six. Items J1 through J5. Can I
029have a motion and a second? Mrs. Parisi and Mrs. Her. Any questions, anyone? Yes, I have a question on number one. Are there any other more efficient, I guess is the word I'm looking for, programs to use besides Danielson? Are there any new and upcoming ones that are at- I know Danielson's been around a long time and many districts use the Danielson framework for evaluations. But are there any new ones out there that might suit our needs better? The state actually gives you the list to select from. We've actually adopted the most up-to-date version, which is updated from the 2013 to the 2022 version and model, which was implemented effective this year. It actually has been modified. It's a little bit more user-friendly in regards to understanding, and we've conducted intense training with staff over
030the course of the last, I'd say, 15 months when we started the training last August. And it is suiting the needs for what has evolved with the new standards, with new assessment strategies, the concept of having good rapport and relationships. Anything we felt that was lacking was definitely improved upon. We actually had Danielson in to train our admin as well to conduct an in-depth analysis. So what we are using is an up-to-date, better version. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Now for the evaluations, are we using all four of the- I'm having a brain. The four domains, are we just using like two? So yeah, all four domains are implemented. Each has a different area of focus. I don't have them memorized. I could give you a paraphrased explanation. I know which ones are all four.
031I just didn't know, because I know that where I'm at, they're focusing on domain two and three, and they're not looking at one and four, so I didn't know if we were focusing on a certain domain this year. You know what I'm saying? No, that's a really good question. Actually, when we rolled out initially in 2013, the older version of the framework, we did focus on certain modules and domains first, before having full implementation. But in order for a summative score to be given, you actually have to have scores in all four domains for it to be counted. You're welcome. One last one, sorry. Are these full evaluations, or are they like 20-minute evaluations? How are we doing? The standard is a snapshot. It's 20-minute evaluations. Non-tenured staff receive three of them. Tenured staff receive
032two, and then everybody receives a summative. Non-tenured staff have to have their summative take place and be finalized by April 30th, so that is happening this week, and tenured staff within the conclusion of the school year. You're welcome. Anyone else, anything? I didn't have my microphone on when I told Jody, thank you, so I want to make sure that he hears this so I don't get yelled at. I don't have a question, but I was happy to see that we're having a guest speaker for the fourth grade curriculum with the Holocaust, so I thought that that was I was just happy to see it. Is it for any specific school? I'll speak to that. Ms. Shevins is a retired speech therapist who worked in district for quite a many years. She worked primarily at Milford,
033and she always did present to Milford students in fourth grade. She does have grandchildren in the district, so she's also presenting and being a guest speaker where her grandchild is. So that's why it's very specific to those two schools, but I will say Ms. Marcella has been researching more opportunities as well, and you'll see that evolving, especially when we get to our comprehensive equity plan next month, which will be up for approval I anticipate May 27th, and I'll email you more information. That is our focus. Perfect. I just, like I said, I saw it was great and it would be amazing if we can get it at more schools. I love the word amazing. Yes, we agree. Anyone else? Mrs. Herr? Yes. Mr. Kane? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Santoro? Yes. Mr.
034Tosetti? Yes. Mr. Ferber? Yes. And Mr. Green? Yes. Those motions are successful. Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion and a second on personnel items K1 through 14, please. Mr. Tosetti? Come on Dave, I have to get one tonight, Dave. I'm sorry? Give me one tonight. Oh, there he is, Mr. Green. You never look this direction, so I gotta fight for it. Scott's just really... It's because he doesn't like you. That left side gets all the attention. Ryan, and who is the second? Okay, Mr. Tosetti. Any questions? Meanwhile, I have nothing to say about that. Sure. He just wants on the minutes. That's fair. More than fair. Okay, nothing else? Anyone? Yes, I have a question about the health assistant. Are we looking to hire for a particular school or one in each school?
035Or just MEMS? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. The health assistant. Yes, we already have health assistants in the district, but their job description was quite old, if I remember correctly. 1989, so we just updated it to reflect what they're actually doing in 2025. So I see they're required for CPR, sir? Yes. You're very welcome. Anyone else? I'm gonna make sure I do this. For number nine, we're just gonna pay the teacher not to exceed 10 hours to write IEP means across the district? Yes, there was some administrative content on that. We currently have someone on leave. So it's to fill in. Anyone else? I'm sorry, David? No, no. We're good, Ronnie. Mr. Kane? Mrs. Lucas? Mrs. Parisi? Mr. Santoro? Mr. Chesetti? Mr. Ferber? Yes. And that is the action portion of the agenda, I
036believe, yes. Okay, moving on. Moving on to new and old, I'm gonna pass the mic to Dr. Santoro. Hi, I have one quick before I get into the topic, I want to talk about one quick thing that I obviously also want to talk about. We had a winner, a student at Clark Mills took first place in the Law Day art contest for grades three through five. The student will be honored at the end of May in a student recognition ceremony in Monmouth County Courthouse, so we're very proud of that. We always like when our students are able to participate, and then also of course to win. So we're very proud of her. The other thing I want to talk about at the last board meeting we discussed applying for the tax levy incentive program, so
037I'd like to give you an update of where we're at with that. On Thursday night around seven o'clock p.m., we received confirmation that our application was accepted. We have to confirm the amount with the county by April 28th. At this time, the district is supporting the full amount. Please know even with the full amount, this tax rate for both Monalapan and English Town will see a reduction. I want to repeat that. Even with the tax levy incentive program, the tax rate for both Monalapan and English Town will see a decrease. So for the average home in Monalapan, the decrease would be about $76, and for the average home in English Town, it would be about $138. We will be discussing this in more detail on May 6th in our budget hearing, which includes why we
038qualified, the immediate positive impact that this will have on our students, but I also wanted to share with you the long-term impact very quickly. As you know, I think I'm like a broken record with this. We are one of the hardest hit with us two losing approximately 11 million a year in state aid and approximately 50 million cumulatively. It's hard to believe that we've lost that much money because we didn't make any headlines, right? We didn't threaten to close schools. We didn't have massive layoffs. We didn't cancel transportation. We worked extremely hard and efficiently to mitigate this internally. We changed a number of our hiring practices. We renegotiated with our units. We prioritized our spending and we also made very good use of the COVID funds that we received or the federal funds. That said,
039we've done everything in our power. At this time, we were kind of out of options. This money, which we will definitely talk more in detail with May 6th, I have a number of slides dedicated just to this, will help ensure a financial future moving forward so we don't become one of those districts that you're now reading about. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the future holds in terms of federal and state funding, so we want to make sure that we're prepared for our students and they get the very best education they deserve and we're happy to say that we can do that and also maintain a tax rate decrease, which seems like a win-win for us. I'll start with Mr. Santoro, if you have any comments you'd like to speak about. First, I want to
040congratulate the two teachers that were approved to retire in November and July. I definitely want to congratulate Ms. Chiano and her student performers for the amazing job that they did. Bravo. Bellissimo and bravo. Thank you. I also would like to disperse the Italian club for coming and performing today. I don't speak Italian, so I really appreciated the first half of it, so I knew what was going on. So when they spoke Italian, I felt like I was laughing at some parts because I kind of knew what was happening, so they did a really great job. I'm happy to hear that they won first place. Mr. Green. Thank you. I also want to thank the Italian team. They did an amazing job. To think that they're in seventh and eighth grade and can speak that fluently
041is just amazing. It's mind-blowing. But I also wanted to add that Mr. Geltsch and the Menalepins are going to be performing this weekend at the Allentown spring stroll. The spring stroll is from 10 to 5, but they will be performing somewhere between 12 and 1.30, so if you haven't had an opportunity to see them yet, I do highly recommend going out to see them. They will be performing, like I said, over that time frame. It's a big outdoor festival, so there's a lot of food and different things to do while you're there, but if you are available and you can support them, I think it would be really great. And again, thank you. Congratulations to everyone retiring. Mr. Tissetti. I'll just keep it simple. Thank the kids from Mims that showed up, but I also
042want to point out that the seventh grade men's boys baseball team won today 11 to 1 in their first game of the season. I don't recall who it was against, but they mercy them in the fourth inning. It was against Howell North Middle. So a good start to our seventh grade baseball season. Thank you. Again, I just want to congratulate Ms. Ciano for her ninth win in a row and the Italian club students. Phenomenal job as always. I'm going to thank Ricardo Rivers for congratulate you for becoming president of the foundation. The foundation has been a very important part of our district, donating and raising over a million dollars over the years. And I'm looking forward to you bringing it up to the next level and continue that partnership with us. So I want to
043thank you for that. And before the break, I did see the play Beetlejuice at Mims. It was phenomenal. The kids are very talented. It was a fantastic show. So congratulations to all. Mr. Kane. Just want to quickly say great job to the kids who performed tonight. It's amazing that they learned a foreign language better in middle school than I did by the end of high school. So they're incredible. And Ricardo, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming out. Appreciate all of your work and the work from everyone else on the foundation and definitely look forward to the partnership that you described. So thank you all very much. Thank you. Yes, I will echo a lot of sentiments. Again, Ms. Chiano and her students, fantastic job. Congratulations again. And thank you Mr. Rivers and
044everyone from the foundation. Thank you again for everything you guys do and your support. So we look forward to seeing what's coming up in the future under the new leadership. And to the board, I just wanted to point out that we've had kind of on hold right now since before the break our attorney interviews. And, you know, from some of the conversations I know some of us have had as well as discussion with Dr. Santoro that I think we're all seem to be on the same page as keeping that on hold for now. There's no critical or imminent need to rush it as we want to coordinate schedules. I know a lot of the board members, if not all, want to be part of that process. So trying to find a date that works for
045everybody has been a little complicated. So that is the plan right now. Feel free to reach out to me directly or Dr. Santoro if you'd like, you know, if you have any questions or want to talk more about that. The other thing, we have a number of candidates that we're going to interview and time wise, I was thinking that maybe if we waited till the summer we may be able to start a little earlier. So this way we're not scheduling interviews at like nine o'clock at night. Even if we did like a half an hour, we would need probably about three and a half hours to get through everybody. So, you know, if you're available or you think the summer could work where we started at maybe like one o'clock or something, too, you could
046let us know. Okay, so we'll continue to we'll circulate communication about that so we can try to get that on the schedule and figure out a date that works for everybody. Other than that. Do you want to cancel May 13th? Oh, yes. We had three meetings on the calendar for May. I spoke to Dr. Santoro about seeing if we can eliminate one of them as it's just, you know, it's a lot to ask of everybody unless it's truly, you know, critical. And we think we can make do without the May 13th meeting. So if everyone is okay with that, we're going to cancel that meeting. I will say that May 13th was also the concert at Lafayette. So if you are around and you want to go at seven o'clock just to support the Lafayette
047Mills band and choir, please come. Thank you for pointing that out. Yes. Yes, you can. Good. Okay. Other than that. All right. That's all I have. And we are We're up to executive session. We're going to executive, right? Yes. We're going to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiations with non-bargaining unit salaries and an update on Platkin versus MERS. Can I have a motion and a second? Jesse? Second. Christine? And Jen, we have no action after call. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. We're in closed session at 819.