03-18-25 Manalapan-Englishtown Board Of Education Meeting

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 your 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. Kevin please call the roll. Thank you. Mr. Ferber. Mr. Green. Here. Mrs. Herr. Here. Mr. Kane. Here. Mrs. Lucas. Here. Mrs. Parisi. Here. Santoro is absent. Mr. DeCetti. Here. Dr. Wallace. Here. Duval Quorum. Please rise for the flag salute. 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. Okay. Dave you want me to turn

002it over to you or do you do? I'll take it. So welcome everyone tonight. Thank you for coming. Most of you received my letter and that's why you're here and I thank you for that. We truly appreciate your presence and your willingness to discuss this topic. I understand that some of you had wanted more information prior to the meeting but the purpose of this meeting was really to be an informative session where you could hear you know our thoughts our rationale and why we're moving forward or presenting this proposal to the board. Please understand that raising a topic like this is never something that I want to do the school district wants to do or that the board wants to do. We don't aim to upset anyone quite the opposite. We like when everyone is

003happy and satisfied with our schools. However we felt that there was a pressing need and it needs to be addressed and whether we like to address it or not it's something that we are obligated to address to our students. So we ask that you listen to our presentation with an open mind. Please try to consider the information we're sharing based on what's best for all children based on emotional reactions. We understand this can be challenging but it really is crucial. After the presentation there'll be time for public comment. Please note that this comment period is not intended to be a Q&A. However I will make every effort to address questions specifically related to the proposal. I'd like to also thank our administrators in the room. Ms. Festano with transportation is here. Ms. Foy the principal

004of the ELC is here. Mr. Duffy the principal of Lafayette Mills along with Ms. Singer the assistant principal of Lafayette Mills is here and Ms. Marsala the former principal of Taylor Mills School is here as well as Andrew Perez as supervisor but he's here for another reason but we still thank him for coming. So they are all here they're in the audience. If you have any school specific questions please do not hesitate to speak to any of them after we're done presenting. We welcome it that's why they're here. Again thank you for coming and thank you for your attendance. I'm going to go through the presentation like I said once the presentation is done we do have a short budget presentation because this is also our budget meeting and then we will open up the

005floor to Q&A. So what is the goal? So we're looking at students who reside on the east side of Route 9 would attend Lafayette Mills instead of Taylor Mills School. This would include students on the following streets. This is why you receive the letter as many of you reside on one of these streets. If you look at the map thank you. Lafayette Mills distance wise is much closer to where you live than Taylor Mills School. I don't know why you were initially districted to Taylor Mills. I can't answer that question I wasn't in the district at that time. It may have been due to enrollment of different communities I'm not sure but as we look at it now this is where we are. So one more Rebecca please. So there's three main reasons we're looking

006to do this. The first is equity of resources, the second is safety, and the third is operational efficiency and fiscal responsibility. So I'd like to touch upon each of those points. So currently we are I'm looking at the enrollment between each school. If I took all of our elementary schools all five of them and I divided the students amongst each school evenly there would be about 466 students in each school. That being said Lafayette next year is projected to have 397 students which is about 69 students below that average and Taylor Mills is projected to have 513 students which is 46 above that average. If we went with the current proposal where students in one through four would attend Lafayette Mills and kindergarten would attend ELC and the fifth graders remained at Lafayette Mills. Lafayette

007Mills would then be at 452 which is about 14 below the average and Taylor Mills would be at 456 which is about 10 below the average. So we're looking at Taylor Mills currently being a 46 over Lafayette being 69 under to them both being about 10 to 14 under. So what does that mean for equity of resources? With Taylor Mills having over a hundred more students than Lafayette both schools have the same support staff which means both schools have one principal, both schools have one assistant principal, one guidance counselor, one nurse, one enrichment teacher, one child study team. So that means that Taylor Mills those support staff are now servicing a hundred more students than Lafayette Mills and also above the average of most of our schools. A hundred students is a large number of

008students and it does make a difference in what they can do to assist your students, how they can help them. So what we were looking to do is really balance out enrollment amongst our schools. We may have to look at other schools in the future but this is the first step that we were taking. As far as safety as you know the intersection at Tennant and Gordon's Corner is very difficult to navigate. I travel it twice every day as I'm sure most of you do as well. So I know I personally would never want to navigate that in a 54-person bus. It's not easy. If the students where you live, your children, go to Lafayette Mills we would take Robertsville and avoid that intersection altogether. Christine our transportation coordinator also looked at the possibility of

009being able to do that for the ELC run as well. We were looking to see if that's possible. If that's possible we would like to do that as well and that would avoid us passing over that intersection as many times as we do. We currently have two buses that go to your neighborhood so that's two buses that navigate that every day. That brings us to operational efficiency and fiscal responsibility. So this is going to be a lot so bear with me. We bus and transport over 4,600 students every day to our schools. That is done on a four-tier system. Our first tier is MEMS. MEMS bus is about 1,100 students. Our next tier is Taylor Mills, Wemrock Brook and Clark Mills. That transports about 1,500 students. Our next is Pine Brook and Lafayette which right

010now does about 900 students and then our final run is Milford Brook and the ELC which does about 800 students. Then we also have some pre-k runs but we don't have to get into that. So for those runs the second tier which is where Taylor Mills is buses our largest number of students which is 1,500. As you know we have a lot of growth in our town. There are a lot of new developments being built over by 33. Those developments based on where they are are currently being districted to Wemrock Brook. So that puts them on tier two as well. We may need two buses during tier two now to bus those students as well. To purchase two buses and to provide drivers is about a half a million dollars. So that's funds that we

011would be taking away from all of our students and we would be putting into transportation. Now again this was not the first reason we came up with this plan. It was actually something that we thought of while I was making the PowerPoint. Our first concern was truly the equity of resources and balancing out our schools. But it would be remiss, whoops sorry, it would be remiss not to mention that. So what is the impact? Our current data we have about nine students that live in that section of town in first grade, about 20 students in second grade, 12 students in third grade, 14 students in fourth grade, and 16 students in fifth grade. With the current proposal in front of the board those 16 students in fifth grade would be allowed to remain at Taylor

012Mills for the year. One more please. Thank you. So what would this implementation look like? Students in grade K would attend the ELC which is consistent with students that from Lafayette and Wemrock Brook and Clark Mills do. Please also know and I'm going to mention this later on the presentation but I want to mention again Taylor Mills kindergarten holds about 66 students exactly 66 students it's not about. They hold 66 students so even this year they have about 13 students that would be at Taylor Mills that are now at ELC so it is not uncommon for Taylor Mills students to attend the ELC and there's no guarantee when a child registers for kindergarten that they will be at Taylor Mills. It depends on the enrollment and if any services are needed. Students in grades one

013through four would attend Lafayette Mills and be scheduled in classes with their previous classmates to the extent programmatic needs allow. We recognize the need for social development. We recognize the need to have a familiar face so we would do our best. I've talked to Mr. Duffy and Ms. Singer to ensure that the students that are going to Lafayette Mills can be enrolled with their friends and people that they know. Students in grade five would have the option of either attending Lafayette Mills or remaining at Taylor Mills School and receiving transportation so we would still transport those fifth graders for the one year. Items mentioned in the rationale are obviously the positives that's why we're doing this. Some other positives with this plan and I'm saying positives with this plan because there was other plans we

014considered which I'm going to get to. Students in grade one through four transition at the same time so it's making an easier transition for them because they are with their friends. The balancing the class sizes in both buildings currently in K2 we like to keep class size around 22 students or less. In our current projections if we do not move forward with this plan second grade at both Lafayette and Taylor are at 23 students. We don't like that but we sometimes have to have have to let that go based on how many teachers we have in the budget and so forth. If we move forward with this plan by just adding one more teacher Taylor Mills in second grade is reduced to 18 students and Lafayette Mills reduces to 22 students so it also makes

015smaller class sizes in second grade by adding one teacher where otherwise we'd have to add two which we don't currently have. And then the negative of course would be what most of you had emailed me about. Approximately five or six fifth grade students have siblings in the younger grades. If a student fifth grade decides to stay at Taylor Mills siblings could be in different schools for that year because obviously the next year they're going to Pinebrook and they'd be in different schools anyway. Another thing is that Lafayette Mills is on the same timeline as Pinebrook so if you do have a student in fifth grade in the next year your children would all be going to school at the same time. But like I said we considered other options. Other options were presented to a

016board committee. Other options were also presented to a team of administrators. We actually sat down in one of our administrative cabinet meetings with our whole administrative staff and we talked about all these options and we went through all the different things we could see both positive and negative so I want to share some of that with you. So one of the options that we said was that we don't allow the fifth graders to stay and all students attend Lafayette Mills. The positives we looked at was that the siblings were then remain in school for one more year together and fifth grade students would have the opportunity to meet 75 more students prior to entering Pinebrook so when they go into Pinebrook the following year and they blend with five different four other elementary schools they

017would now know two-fifths of the school. The negative of course is that fifth graders would not be able to attend Taylor Mills for their last year. We did not go with this option because we didn't think it was right. We thought that the fifth graders who had been there since the beginning should have that final year. So the next option that we looked at was could siblings of fifth graders grade students stay for the one year. Now when we looked at this they would only be for the one year until their sibling who's in fifth grade either attends Pinebrook or leaves the school for another reason. The negative the positive is obviously that siblings can remain in the same school. The negatives we saw was that if you look at some of the grades where

01820 students are transitioning if your child stays at Taylor Mills for one year that means 19 students are transitioning together and getting acclimated to the school together and your child is not they're coming a year later. Now we had thought about that but as as a school district we didn't think that was best for a child so we did not promote that to you as the parents and we did not put that forth in front of the board. It would also if we let siblings stay we would probably have to increase staffing by one teacher at Taylor Mills as well. Other information and this is what I said before but I'm going to reiterate Taylor Mills kindergarten only has placement for 66 students. We can never guarantee that a child will be at Taylor Mills.

019So I know some people who had children that haven't entered our school district yet were emailing me about this. I never guarantee that a child will get into either Milford Brook or Taylor Mills. It really involves on what programmatic needs they need. It involves how many students have registered when they registered so that's just other information that I thought you should be aware. And the last option we considered was independent transportation and that would be that students currently in grades one through four at Taylor Mills can remain at Taylor Mills if their family can provide their own transportation but that would be for the 25-26 school year. Currently we sometimes have people that move from one side of town to another and they'll request that their child stay in the current school. I try to

020honor that if enrollment permits and we never know what enrollment permits year to year. So basically we would allow that when we looked at this option we could allow it for one year but I couldn't guarantee it for future years because you may have more children moving into a neighborhood that also need to go to school. So some of the negatives we saw and one of the reasons why we did not put this in our proposal or recommend it was that it creates an inequity based on a family's ability to afford transportation or not or if they're capable of doing transportation. It also extends our goal of equity of resources which was our number one reason for doing this. The other part is that it would need to be reviewed on an annual basis and

021could change in any year. Students may still then have to transition to Lafayette Mills and again like I said in the other example they'd be transitioning a year later or two years later than when their friends did putting them in a situation where they're not going in and having that same experience of starting a new school with their friends. And again I reiterated the issue about Taylor Mills. So basically we had some possible accommodations and I think as much as this is an informative meeting for you as the public it's also a meeting for the board because I'm presenting this to them for the first time as well. Scenario one was if a student had a sibling could they stay and scenario two was you know if size permits the family can provide their own

022transportation could they remain for one year. Again as a district I don't recommend the other of these options. I don't think they're best for children but the board will have time to think about this and then I'm hoping to put on the April 1st agenda a proposal moving forward. So that's my presentation on this. Again this is a board discussion that you were invited to and then I will open up the floor to public comments so do any of the board members have comments or any questions for me? I was just hoping we went kind of quickly through the beginning in terms of the area of town this deals with and there may be people who live on both sides of Route 9 who are here. Sure. Can we just touch on that again to

023show exactly who is impacted and if you live on Tennant Road which is I think listed here it's only if you live on the Lafayette side of Route 9 correct? Yes it's on the east side of Route 9. Walk through that a little bit. Yes so basically we're looking at families that reside on the east side of Route 9 that were restricted to Taylor Mills so anybody that is on the right side of Route 9 and I don't want to say it like that the west side so the west side to me it's the right side because I live on the other side. The west side of Route 9 would still go to Taylor Mills. Is there any other questions or statements from the board? Anybody? When you're when you're considering a sibling right we're

024considering siblings that are already at Taylor Mills not somebody who sibling will be in kindergarten next year correct? Yes because I can't guarantee spaces in in Taylor Mills kindergarten and it would be for one year so I would possibly to be taking a space away from somebody who was going to be at Taylor Mills for the next six years and having them go to ELC so yes. And then what about after this year for say say there's a sibling in first grade this year and siblings in fourth grade and they're gonna go to they would if we didn't make this change students in fifth grade the siblings in second grade they decide to stay. What about third grade? Third grade they would go to Lafayette Mills. Automatically. I just I guess I wanted to add

025that as a parent right and as a board member I see both both sides of why we do this and as a parent whose kids attended Taylor's it's it's a little close to home but I like the ability to give the option to the families however I do agree that transitioning becomes rough and especially if we can't guarantee it it does you know it puts puts everyone in a hard spot and I and I think my biggest concern is the inequity as the ability to provide transportation because if we do look at that as an option although it's great there are some parents that just might not have that ability so then their kids are forced to go because they can't take that option and that that would be a struggle I think for me

026so I think I'd like to hear what you know other board members out there what the families have to say but that's something that weighs on me because again as a parent I would I wouldn't want my kid pulled from a school I get it and we feel very emotional about that but as a board member we have to look at what's best for all of the kids right and with that hundred students it does make a difference if you have kids with special needs and you have you know only one occupational therapist and now you have an extra hundred kids that need that or the guidance counselor so it does play into the quality of education and I think that's important to note as well so I do think this is something that just

027we really do make need to make sure we're looking at everything and we hear from everyone and that we're really listening to what people have to say before we make an informed decision because it's not it's not cut or dry there's there's a lot of different factors to look at and I want to make sure that we get it right so that's just what I'd like to have anybody else you know I agree with you with Dave David I agree with you with with the transportation I don't like that option at all I think it not only about the inequity but I don't like that every year the parents would have to ask again if their child could stay and then at any year it mean they may not be able to which may be

028their fifth grade year I don't want to put a child in that situation I don't want to put us in that situation I just I don't think it's it it's a good plan but it was one that was considered and I think it's you know to have an honest conversation I think it's important that everyone hears that you know I'd be more open to the siblings for one year but one of the reasons why I did not send that as an option one of the reasons why I wanted you here to hear me is because I don't think it's a good idea for children and I and I think when we met as an administrative team we all agreed that we did not think it was a good idea for children so you have we

029didn't have everybody have it we had our principals assistant principals we had about 15 to 20 administrators in the room that deal with children every day and we didn't consider that a good option for children socially and emotionally and I did not want to put that out there without parents hearing that from us hearing that specialists do not think this is a good idea but if the board wants to we can always offer that to a parent and let them make that decision and I recognize it may add a staff member and I'm okay with that I have the ability to do that and just a quick question on how long have we known about the disparity of the club the schools a difference in the enrollment how long have we known about it it's

030been slowly coming you know enrollment ebbs and flows in schools to some extent I think it's very neighborhood based right and then if any of you who live in a neighborhood for a long time you see you all the sudden everyone starts to get a little older their children start to move away and then the houses start going up for sale and then a whole new group moves in and then the schools have children again one of the issues where this actually really came to fruition was because Lafayette Mills used to have the AT program AT program I believe one of the reasons why Lafayette Mills had the AT program again this was before my time was due to the fact that enrollment was lower there you know and then you start to hear people

031saying should we close a school is enrollment that that you know if that enrollment in that school so low should it be closed and when we look at that we look at well now we have schools that are over capacity so we have a school under capacity and we have schools over capacity the under capacity doesn't mean we close the school it means that we balance our enrollment so all of our schools are at the right capacity and my over capacity I don't mean in terms of space there or fire code or anything like that I mean in terms of the need for resources so we transitioned to the AT program Lindsey around 2021 Lindsey right at the end of COVID so 2021 2022 weeks we began the new AT program and that's where we

032started to see the enrollment decrease you're saying enrollment decrease in so our our AT program for those that you that don't know and I should explain that more was our academically talented program so we had about 90 students from different schools that would attend Lafayette so when that program we stepped that out so as we did that the enrollment dropped every year by 30 students 30 students 30 students okay that was in 2019 right and that was to spread across the district so that more kids could actually participate in it so as an example a kid at Milford or Taylor Mills who wouldn't have had that option got exposure and got that other educational yes going for we had about 90 students across the district Lindsey I'm gonna put you on the spot you know

033about how many students we have in the program district-wide now at least a hundred in each so 10% of every grade in every school we have about 500 students in each grade so about 250 maybe from 30 to 250 90 to 250 90 to 250 and has the enrollment going up in each and all the other schools and just not Lafayette Mills over the past year no our enrollment total for from last year this year went down about a hundred students but we expect it to increase with all the new developments being built that kindergarten class size at Taylor Mills has been consistently 66 yes yes we have three classes at Taylor Mills we have three classes at Milford Brook and those are 66 also yes and the ELC has how many kindergarten you have

034eight ten ten ten this year put 22 in each one right can't do math that fast in my head sorry there's about 250 there's about 250 kindergartners at the ELC and do you know how many of these affected kids if we go to the slide that says I know it says five fifth graders have siblings in younger grades that's currently K through four or K through three at Taylor Mills right those five do we know how many are projected kindergarteners I know that we haven't started that selection process we have no way to know that right we started enrollment but when we create this presentation we're not there yet we're still enrolling students do we have a guesstimation how many siblings I don't just to be clear the 16 going into fifth you're saying only

035about five of them have siblings yes in K through I don't know how many have siblings that haven't gotten to school yet in the one through four yes any other questions from the board anything else dr. Santora do we know how many of those 16 of the five have multiple siblings yes if you give me a second I can pull up that whole spreadsheet I have a spreadsheet for that thank you so we have one has a sibling in third grade another one has a sibling in third grade another one has a sibling in second grade second grade fourth grade two three four that's my five and I think I have one more which makes me to go to six and then another one has a sibling in first and third okay I mean did

036you say we're in third grade I'm just just I think you said three I just was trying to do the math of two plus one now I know we said no right and I know this is all case by case right so I'm just trying to think of what could get brought to us if we've got one of those five that have two siblings and ones in third grade is gonna make them a fourth grader next year right would we consider that fourth grader next year being able to complete fifth grade because there's only three of them then we would be bringing a bus for one or two children I we don't have no the little vans I mean I'm trying to work with I'm trying to work with everybody you know I'm saying like

037I see the benefit but I also want the parents to understand that I understand their concern too and I want to make sure that we do our due diligence and understand like each of these five child our five child children with a brother a sister a mom a dad right like they need to realize that they elected us here and it's our job to speak for them as their elected official and I know that I sat on this committee and I don't know why I didn't ask that question earlier but I think it's something to consider that we have all these different pots of scenarios and that we can't just say hey this of this this answer works for the whole entirety because you know who knows maybe maybe that's something where I just lost

038my train of thought sorry we're like it could benefit this kid down the line too in their development and understanding instead of penalizing them you know I do want to put on for the record that I don't think anybody going into kindergarten should go to Taylor Mills with their sibling well I understand that a third or fourth grader yes but I think that kindergarten those children are starting on their academic journey and we would be doing them a disservice to put them in kindergarten at a school to be with their older sibling who's gonna go to a different school the next year and then uproot them and put them in another school let them go with the kids that they're gonna continue on their educational journey in our district with the only thing I would

039say is well then what about the other students in third grade like why is the one school student being an exception because they had an older sibling well we're giving them that option right like we're saying that if you have a younger sibling that's in a younger grade right and you're going into fifth so right now there's three of these kids who are in third grade and their sibling is in fourth grade we're gonna give that sibling a year and then we keep the sibling together why would we say hey we did it for your brother or your sister for their last year here you've been here this whole time and now for your last year elementary school you're gonna go to a different school because we're gonna allow them to stay there for fourth

040grade well are you because we haven't we haven't definitely no no well that's one of the procedures if we do that next year so they're they're going into third they're in second now right right right so right so next no but I asked if there was any in third going to fourth that's where I got the three okay so it's even easier it's one kid it's exactly a case-by-case basis like it makes my argument even better like that one kid if he wants to stay with his sibling for fifth grade why would we uproot him the fourth grader in fifth grade that's something the board could discuss I know it's a minibus but we still pay the driver the same amount look we got to do is right for these parents maybe it's one of

041those ones that they can provide transportation maybe it's one of those ones that they can provide independent transportation and they understand that that like we give some we're asking them to give and we got to give to all right well let's that's one student so let's circle back to that well I understand that but I want the public to know too that this is a greater discussion and not to just like oh hey you guys talk like let's get Jesse to shut up like let's you know because Jesse talks a lot like Jesse says some controversial stuff like hey let's just get Jesse to quit monopolizing the microphone like you know this is a board this is a board decision I appreciate all the admin from admin but the people in the audience are the

042ones that elected us to make these decisions and they need to hear where we are it's a board discussion and we turn it over to them I don't I know you weren't trying to silence me but that's how it can come across and I don't like it Jesse so this is gonna be really awkward wait this is gonna be really awkward at this point I actually made a mistake there is no one with a fourth grade sibling sorry sorry about that I highlight it wrong it was five parents I knew it was five parents and then when I counted again it was six sorry sorry you were silenced for nothing then there you go well I just want I just want to acknowledge really quick that I do understand why we're doing this and it's

043never an easy decision when to do it but it has to get done and I think Dr. Santora she is definitely providing options that are there it's going to be based on individual basis but we have to come to understanding that we are doing this for the benefit of all the children and as a parent it becomes very emotional I was in your position years ago when I lived in Knob Hill and they were they were definitely redistricting and it was a scary moment where the kids were going to go but with that said they meet so many children and I know at this moment it seems like we are really uprooting them but knowing that there are options and we're gonna be here listening to your concerns and we'll be discussing this for sure

044so your your voice is not you know on ears that are not listening to you we are listening to you okay and I just want to make sure you understand that we're doing our best here I think the presentation really just shows that we are really about the children and making sure they're getting the best education possible but we do understand once again your concerns I just it has to get done sooner or later and just so happens that this coming academic school year is a year that's going to happen so just some you know we're here for you okay anybody else on this topic so I wrote next steps I don't have any next steps at this time because I think we need to hear from the parents before we can move forward with

045next steps and my last slide Rebecca if you can just go to my last side it just has my email address and also mr. Duffy's if you have any questions specifically about Taylor middle school and me if you have any questions about the presentation or the district I'd now like to turn it over to miss wolf to do our budget presentation I just say one thing real quick so just to clarify we are not making any decisions on this tonight we can but we're not planning to those for next one right if we make the decision next time we're gonna have to vote on it because if you give the option for like siblings to stay we have to be able to change our staffing that both plans are gonna affect staffing at both buildings

046and we have to let the staff notify how many staff members we need we need to finalize the budget and I want to if we allow siblings stay I want to get parents enough time to consider that and I don't want to say you know we have a two-week turnaround I'd like to be able to give them a few weeks to think about it okay and then I just wanted to know before you launch we're gonna have our public session after our budget discussion so just bear with us for a few more minutes please okay as you are aware on the agenda tonight we do have our 25 26 school year budget up for tentative adoption tomorrow is the deadline to do our tentative adoption it usually is the 20th but there's a holiday that

047the state is celebrating so they pushed it back to the 19th we are balanced what holiday is that if you don't mind me in a room what holiday are we celebrating on the 20th I'll tell you in a second we're not celebrating it but this it's a state holiday right that's what I'm asking what is the state celebrating it is Norah's Norah's that's it's on the election calendar so it's all I know it's Norah's that's how you know anything about it other than that it's caused us to move the date up okay so we do have a balanced budget we are currently just under 98 million five hundred thousand dollars we are using approximately four million seven hundred thousand dollars of surplus of that amount four point three million was required as part of the

048audit report from last year and the budget law requires us to use that we did backfill slightly with about four hundred thousand dollars of additional surplus which I'm confident we'll have at the end of the school year Ronnie I want to interrupt you for a second about the surplus we every year try to decrease our dependency on surplus so in 2324 we used about seven million a little over seven million of surplus last year we were a little over five and now we're down to four point something so we are working towards that goal of decreasing our dependency on surplus every year yes that's that's a major goal every year when we sit with a bud with the county superintendent and county business administrator that's something that they really focus on is that we really

049need to try to break our surplus dependency it becomes unsustainable at some point so we've been making progress in that area which I'm sure she'll be happy to see I just ask you why you say we're required to use that they're only allowed to maintain 2% of surplus based on the prior year's expenditures as on it's like just undeserved undesignated unreserved surplus anything over that 2% we have we're forced to use in the in the following year's budget that's just part of the stack the statute where we can't keep it we could always put it into a maintenance reserve or capital reserve but then again you start tying up money and funds that you might not be able to tap when we have needed it basically to keep operations at the consistent level that we've

050been able to maintain them at even with the state aid loss that we've suffered over the last seven years under s2 real quick only because I have a very bad memory what what was the number we had to cut from this last meeting to this meeting to balance it was I want to say 17 but I know that's not right no 17,000 was how much less we received in state aid right I knew there was 17 somewhere it's like 300,000 I think it was around 400,000 yeah so I have to look at the last present I don't have the last presentation with no that's cool thanks Ronnie so if you look on the first page of the handout that I gave you basically our tax levy is up four point four one percent which is

051the two percent statutory allowance our use of banked cap and then we also have an automatic adjustment for increased costs in health care just about 1.8 million dollars which offsets most of the increase we saw for health benefits but not all of it we still have several hundred thousand dollars more in anticipated costs for health benefits than what the adjustment allowed we capped out at that most of our other revenue items are based on current realized revenue like for interest purposes and stuff we use our current interest rate interest earnings every month and we annualize that and everything else as far as fees facility rental fees field rental fees before and after care program fees all remain the same summer program tuition graduation we did waive the student activity and athletic fees this coming year

052so that's some that's a good plus for the for the parents in the community we did try to be very cognizant of trying to maintain that that suspension of fees it can't guarantee that it won't come back sometime in the future that all depends on you know where the state goes with aid and other financial conditions that come up I'm happy to say though even under this scenario based on the assessed value of each community we will see a tax rate decrease I can't say what that means for each individual property tax owner but it is a tax decrease English town is going to see about a half a cent decrease and manalapan is at about a quarter of a cent decrease so because we have the public here could could you explain that half

053a cent and quarter of a cent what that per what right well the rate the rate that you pay everything is based on a rate per hundred thousand dollars of assessed value so if you take your value of your house and divide it by a thousand that's the number of units let's say you take those units times the tax rate and that's what comes that's how you calculate your tax bill at least for our portion of it so English town for example last year's tax rate actual was eighty one point eight cents per thousand of assessed value and is going down to seventy six point five cents per thousand of assessed value manalapans going from seventy eight cents to seventy five and a half cents these are not things that we calculate we basically are

054charged with coming up with a tax levy I have no control over the assessed value or any changes from one year to the next within it or in calculating the levy of the tax rate after saying there may be some large tax appeals I think this county has tried to minimize the impact of tax appeals by having a pilot program for the last number of years which is kind of leveled out the need to have spikes and dips in tax rates so again I just take the total levy and divide it by the preliminary assessed value that I get from the county and that's what I'm using to to come up with these rates it's possible that'll change slightly last year it was pretty accurate though it's gotten to the point where it's been fairly

055accurate if you look at our general at our budget overall on the third page this is broken down in the way that the state budget breaks down programmatically regular programs for instruction special ed basic skills bilingual each area has a code section in the budget so I've used that to show you know the breakdown of the budget into those general areas general administration school administration central services which is my office and the HR office technology security transportation employee benefits but if you look at this I pulled out of the all of the budget accounts the salaries salaries in the general fund account for 58% of the overall budget just over 57 million dollars or salaries you add into that then almost 24 million dollars in health benefits and that's not just health benefits it's benefit

056employee benefits of all kinds purse pension contribution health insurance disability workers compensation unemployment severance things like that anything that falls into those state designated categories of employee benefits that's about 24% of the budget so when you add those two numbers together things that relate to staffing salaries and benefits we're talking about 80 over 82% of the budget so there's really very little wiggle room and a lot of what's left there is things like garbage removal electricity water and sewer property insurance small amount for supplies some equipment but predominantly the budget is is based on staffing it's it's it's people people and benefits that come along with that so anytime we see a need to really cut that's where our cuts generally come from would be staffing I think we're pleased that we were able to

057maintain staffing this year the fact that we took advantage of the additional tax levy last year really helped us in balancing this budget and not having to make really difficult decisions like we've had to make in the past as to programmatic adjustments or cuts and where to where to balance the budget without impacting students so I think we did a good job that this year with that yeah I would like to just reiterate that in this budget we were able to maintain our class sizes increase our beyond the school day accounts and add a new RTI program and also increase our budgets for instructional resources and that's also to given the fact that we don't have ESSER funds any longer the last several years we've actually had ESSER funds that have helped kind of fund

058those things that we couldn't fit in our regular operating budget a lot of curriculum purchases large one-time kind of things and we've able we were able to manage this budget fairly well without even without those funds this year so I think that was a good step if anybody has any questions I'd be happy to answer we do have the ability to make changes between now and our final adoption which will be on May 6th we have to submit this tomorrow to actually I'll push the button tonight and the software submit all the supporting documentation to the county office tomorrow and then we get put in a queue we do have to be reviewed and approved and I'm sure the county business administrator will have a bunch of questions and as she usually does but we

059will go through that and then we'll get approval we'll have a advertised budget in the Asbury Park Press anticipating that to be May 1st and then we'll have our public hearing the night of the 6th and then our final adoption and any changes we might need to make or want to make we can between now and then do you want to talk about that in tax incentive program at all or no no I think we wait okay you don't know enough about it yet yeah it's fairly new guidance from the state any questions yeah the is on here it says only because I don't remember ever seeing it I'm just curious how that number was picked the state gives us reimbursement for menstrual products of 7500 bucks that's new yes like I'm just okay so

060it is new yes is it based on the size or we submit receipts like I would how does that it's if you look it's on both sides there is a reimbursement on the revenue side and an appropriation on the expenditure side which are equal so it's basically a no impact it's just an estimate of what we've spent in the past and what we might purchase and then submit for reimbursement it is a reimbursement basis alright so every this is what I'm questioning right so every district in the state gets a refund from the state for reimbursement for menstrual products even if that district gets 1.4 billion in state aid they get a reimbursement on their menstrual products also so the state had us and chime in if I'm wrong but the state had a statute

061that required us to provide menstrual products yeah once that happened the state can't have an unfunded mandate and because it's a mandate then they have to fund it so in order to be an unfunded mandate they reimburse us our expenses you could choose not to so even if you get 1.4 billion dollars from the state you get more money for buying state mandate state pay that's what that's what the someone please make this make sense to me man I alright cool thanks any other questions Ronnie I don't have any questions but I did want to thank you and dr. Santor and everyone for working on this budget you always do an amazing job balancing it and I am really happy to see that we were able to keep the pay to play out because it

062doesn't seem like much but when you have more than one kid in the school at a time and you have to pay $200 instrumental music and 25 for this and 300 we recognize that and it does add up so to be able to save that on the families I think is really amazing to still be able to do that and to add the RTI and and all that stuff and not lose programs and and keep the class sizes the way they are kudos to you so I do appreciate all your effort in that this is what was always important to us the pay to play was something we were left with no options when we implemented it it was not something we want to get it was not something we wanted to do but we

063were out of options because the revenue from that we had estimated about 225,000 which saves two staffing positions which lowers class sizes but if we don't need to do it we will not so thank you for recognizing that I'd also like to thank Ronnie Nicole and the team that did this but you know one of the numbers that Nicole put out was that that we lost $17,000 in state aid right if you read the paper when the budget came out and funding for school districts across the state they raved that the state of New Jersey gave out an additional 379 million dollars this year a hundred million dollars of that money went to two districts to Newark which already had 1.25 billion dollars in aid and another 25 million dollars to Camden so a hundred

064million dollars went to Camden school districts and Newark school districts which is a third of what the state tried to celebrate as an increase in state aid just so you guys understand like this is a big deal it's it's we talk about equality we talk about these things I want you guys to understand that what these women do is very good with the money that we're getting and while we might see on the news that the state is raising the support and aid 379 million dollars a hundred million went to Newark and to Camden thank you Jesse and also recognize that our state aid was about 12 million dollars less than what it was seven years ago so I appreciate that anybody else on the budget okay well then I will also echo the thank

065yous we know how much hard work goes into this so thank you to everyone is up here and everyone behind the scenes who's part of it we certainly appreciate it so absent anything further we're gonna jump into public now right yes okay so this is your opportunity members of the public you can give your feedback on the redistricting proposal or anything else on the agenda we ask that you please state your name and your street that you live on and we're gonna ask you to limit yourselves to three minutes each because we have so many faces here we want to make sure everyone has enough time so please do your best to keep within three minutes I'm going to use a timer to just we usually have we used to have a timer clock but

066I'm gonna use my phone for right now okay we can wave her Ronnie we could wave her she could talk as long as she needs when Kerner 42 Heather Drive hi my name is Quinn Kerner and I'm the fourth grade president at Taylor Mills school before I begin I just wanted to thank you for allowing myself and the other future fifth graders affected to have the choice to stay next year at a home school Taylor Mills when you walk into Taylor Mills you instantly get this feeling an incredible feeling that brings comfort provide safety and give strong connections just like a family speaking of family our neighborhood is a family a family we have grown up with played around the block with and have rode the bus with for years with this new proposal not

067only will this neighborhood family be broken up but for a lot of us including myself my own family will be broken up as well how can this be family consists of people who support and love you the people you can confide in and trust the people you can give just one look to and they know exactly what the other is thinking being the oldest sibling and having a first grade sister I am always looking out for Tatum and making sure she's okay on the bus and in the hallways I even have the privilege of having lunch with their grade this year every day I get to give a hug and a wave to her and her friends while this might seem so meaningless to some it is something I will always remember about going to

068school with my sister another cool memory I have is last year when I earned enough tickets my teacher allowed me to go to Tatum's kindergarten class and read to them my teacher knew exactly who a teacher was and made a quick simple phone call without my parents even being involved in the planning this simply cannot happen if Tatum and the other siblings are separated from each other and not with us at Taylor Mills human board game field day assembly spirit days those are the things that matter to most elementary school students to share these days with your siblings and neighbors is fun exciting and creates such a strong relationship with each other please do not take these simple and precious moments away from us by splitting our neighbors neighborhood and siblings it just isn't right

069the monalapin English town school district says we are an award-winning district which would with the tradition of excellence I am hoping that that this tradition of excellence is is carried out when the board votes on this proposal I am hoping that my sister my best family and my fellow neighborhood families get to stay at Taylor Mills that place that brings them comfort provides them a safety and has been their school home for several years to quote mr. Rogers it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and it would be a beautiful day in our neighborhood if we all remain together as one and as Taylor Mills Tigers thank you thank you very much for coming up and speaking to us today it's a tough fact to follow my name is Jacqueline Pizzolo I live on Briarheath

070Avenue I'd like to first thank you for the time that each one of you spent reading my emails over the last couple of weeks for your time on the phone we were asked several times during this meeting by the board to remove emotion from this topic you're sitting with the room full of parents we make hard decisions every day for our children we think objectively and we do the right thing but this is an emotional decision as well as well as a logistical one I'm a parent of two children in the MERS district a fourth grader at Taylor Mills and a daughter registered for kindergarten this September I'm here as a concerned parent and also an advocate for the 90 households that signed a letter of petition over the last two weeks a third of

071them were directly affected but the overwhelming majority were parents that believes in what we were fighting for many of them are sitting here today and I'd like to thank them for showing up in solidarity this is not just about shifting school boundaries it's about protecting the well-being stability and connections of our children Taylor Mills is more than just a school it's where our kids feel safe supported and part of something bigger than themselves this plan disrupts all of that it separates siblings a group's friendships built over years it forces young children into unfamiliar environments however beautiful Lafayette Mills and ELC may be if we learn nothing from the pandemic it's that emotional health and stability are vital to learning we've asked this generation of students enough in terms of adapting to change and I'm asking

072you not to ask them to make that change one more time if it's avoidable this is my son's Taylor Mills spirit wear shirt my daughter clings to it as tattered and worn as it is and she wears it's her pre-k class and it falls over her knees you are asking a family like mine to have my fifth grader picked up by the bus in September and to have my daughter wear this shirt and stand on the corner and wait an hour for another bus to pick her up and bring her to ELC mr. society she would have to make a transition from kindergarten to first in this plan regardless and I'm asking if this board would consider individualized and phased alternatives for families like mine so that I can make a choice that's best for

073my children which in my case may be keeping my children together at Taylor Mills and having her transition other families may make alternative decisions based on their own needs and what they know to be true about their children redistricting doesn't just affect students it affects families next June I expected to attend my son's fifth grade graduation and my daughter's kindergarten stepping up ceremony just days apart beautiful bookends to my experience as a Taylor Mills parent now that experience is threatened to be torn into this plan also weakens parental involvement Taylor Mills thrives because of dedicated families who organize PTA events volunteer in classrooms and build strong relationships within the school that investment does not automatically transfer to a reassigned school it's built over years logistically this plan creates real hardships Taylor Mills families have structured

074their work schedules and childcare around having their children in the same school from K through 5 now we'll have to juggle must multiple bus schedules and school calendars before it's necessary adding stress that again could be avoided I recognize that redistricting may be needed for equity and safety and operational efficiency but there are better solutions grandfathering younger siblings would preserve family stability they should be grandfathered throughout their tenure at Taylor Mills a phased approach would ease transitions and minimize disruptions and finally mr. Tosetti I heard you say on the February 18th board meeting that I quote anything that has to do with kids is a large issue you called for deeper discussions and the right decisions for families on all topics no matter how few children are affected that is the leadership that we believe

075in and we voted for I hope each of you will consider the lasting impact your vote will have on our children tonight we're asking you to listen not just to the numbers and the data but to the families and the students like Quinn who will live with this decision and please work with us to help find a solution that puts children first thank you thank you I could just hi everybody I'm Robin Google user can you hear me no closer Wow can you hear me can you hear me no I'm loud so it's fine Robin Google use a 56 West Canadian Woods Road good evening I come here tonight as a parent of two children who attend Taylor Mills elementary school and one of the families obviously impacted by your redistricting proposal thank you for

076welcoming us here tonight to voice our concerns and I ask you to carefully weigh the consequences this decision can have on our children's social development academic success and emotional well-being first we must acknowledge the most significant aspect of a child's school experience the relationship they built these strong connections they develop in the primary grades form the foundation of their education to uproot them from their current environment would not only disrupt their academic progress but would also force them to start over in a whole new social context the trust they have built with all members of the school community are meaningful relationships at such a crucial age when a child needs additional support whether it's through the guidance counselor RTI services for academic support special education or related services they rely on these relationships they have

077built with built with these adults to continue to progress through their time in elementary school furthermore many students who may have taken years to build friendships would be at jeopardy to be separated from the very peers who make school a happy and exciting place to be not all children make friends easily so to take these friendships away would be detrimental a child who feels safe and accepted is a child who is confident and engaged and ready to learn when they are taken out of their familiar environment that sense of security is replaced with feelings of uncertainty and may cause a decline in their confidence and overall well-being beyond socialization we must also address the impact on academic performance the stress of trying to adapt to a new school can easily overshadow the focus on learning

078for a child who struggles academically they rely on the continuity of instruction year after year with staff members who know their needs for a struggling student moving schools will only set them back further additionally as a fourth-grade teacher in a local district myself I know firsthand that children do best with consistency and stability a child is more than data on paper that can be passed from school to school additionally the emotional toll of this proposal cannot be underestimated change is hard in general even for us adults but is especially challenging for children the anxiety of leaving behind familiar faces places and routines can have serious consequences the uncertainty and fear that come with attending a new school can be overwhelming especially for such young students who are still emotionally developing this burden is completely unnecessary

079and avoidable by allowing all current Taylor mill students and families to finish their elementary years they have come to love so very much I'm almost done I swear in regard to the transportation issue mentioned earlier in your rationale please keep in mind that ELC is across the street from Taylor mills Pinebrook mems they're all the same place in Manalpen the same direction the buses would have to travel to equal distance or even further to close as educators parents a community we cannot dismiss the profound social educational and emotional impacts that redistricting would have on our children these seventy one fifty five if you don't include the fifth graders are not just member numbers in a system they are individuals with the needs and feelings if redistricting if redistricting is inevitable with district leadership and this

080board make the more sound and reasonable choice to allow all current Taylor mill students to finish out their years in the very place they feel most secure valued and understood thank you for your time and for your consideration thank you and thank you very much for your presentation tonight and I think it did bring a lot of clarity to it I know you said this wasn't a Q&A session but I do just want to know if you have this statistics of historically how often you've had to redistrict because my fear is now we're going to move my first grader into a new school in second grade you mentioned all the building on 33 and all around an elephant does this mean next February I'm also going to get another email saying that oh we have

081an overcrowding situation again and so and so and so and so are all going to be moved again or is there going to be guaranteed if this proposal goes through I would do that again too at all and these two schools do not have any developments being built there all the developments there was the one development right now in off by the auction and they're going to milk or grow and then the three developments over offering we're going to Webrock we've already had the one development behind Franklin Lane I want to say the old follow-up Franklin Lane and they are district is Lafayette Mills but they've been there for about a year or two now and we haven't seen much enrollment from that so this is not something that I would do again okay thank

082you hi my name is Lisa Sotoro I'm on Timerack Drive I have two kids second and first grade I'm just bouncing off of what she just asked only because my neighbor who just left because she's retired and kids are in college she told me that her kids were sent from Taylor Mills to Lafayette and then three years later got bounced back on their senior year so I know you're saying it's not going to happen but my kids are going to get affected bad and I can't to the fact so that was waiting for I was here I know that the one and Mr. Chitsky has been here longer she may be able to speak to why that happened I wasn't here about the last major in the 2008-2009 school year effective for the 2009-2010 school

083year when we redistricted to become K through five schools or one through five schools and I recall that because it was my first year as assistant principal at Lafayette when Lafayette took over and had a one through five school prior to that Lafayette was a four five six school so there were changes where students had to be transitioned out of Taylor Mills to Lafayette specifically for those schools but that was also district-wide where other schools were impacted as well as to the specific change or noting where they moved out again I can't speak to that but I think I can think is because they were grade level schools they may have went from one two to then they went to what yes it was um so they were grade level schools and then they switched

084to community schools so they switched once because they were grade level and then they wound up switching again when they became community schools and then they moved her second grade over there and then her senior year fifth grade they moved her back to Taylor I can't speak to that so that was I mean I get you guys have to do what you do but as parents just getting them we comfortable these first work we went years and then to take that away and then you get them settled and then that could possibly take them away again it's just it's devastating like I said this is not something we wanted to do this is not something I wanted to do no one has been calling or emailing me I put this out I have I have

085people that are here that are upset with me that's not something I ever I never start off my morning say let's upset people today right this was something I was avoiding trying to do at all costs but when you look at the data and you look at being able to provide children with equal access to services it's hard for me to ignore because I want people to be happy right I'm here to do make hard decisions that are best for children and something like that I would not do again I recognize that and it wouldn't be right I grew over there um you're gonna do what you're gonna do that's obvious but I have a couple of questions I mentioned my son for the upcoming kindergarten year nowhere on that registrations didn't ask if there's

086sibling already in the school did I miss that or is that like a thing here no that isn't why because enrollment is based whether you're attending or if the ELC is based off of if your child has any needs and also we usually do in the order of enrollment so once the 66 students have enrolled if you enroll after that you would go to the ELC it's not based on whether you have a similar to my grandfather into which school of choice you have so again why why is it being grandfathered in and I change for a little more I don't think that it was in fact if you realize I spoke up and said what about this how many are in third grade to fourth grade like I totally get it you know and

087I know this isn't supposed to be comments back and forth like a tennis match but I I understand the separation and families right we talk about COVID and what stress we put under my daughter is a fourth grader at Taylor Mills she was looking forward to the time that she was gonna ride the bus with her two older brothers she had to ride the bus with a mask on for half day she never went to school with her older brother it sucks I totally and I want people to understand that that the comment you said I made on the 18th I hundred percent agree with that and I also made a comment that I'm not gonna make everybody happy a hundred percent of the time I will listen have dialogue with every single person here

088about it and we as a board will work for the best possible solutions I was an advocate for case by case on this I totally get and sympathize and I'm empathetic with all every single one of you parents in this situation it is not easy it's not at all it's nothing that I'm going to look at the number and be like okay that's right you know I'm saying I hear every word that everybody has said and I applaud the president of the fourth grade class to have the integrity they the grit everything it took to get in front of here and talk about adults it can be anxious I mean I'm a grown man and it gets nerve-racking sometimes to speak in front of people so I applaud you young lady keep using your voice

089use it for good and we will always listen to you I have another question laughing at mills does not have a K correct could we change that if you're gonna show up us all now there and now the ones that are going into kindergarten are separated from from their siblings and more of an up or more of a stress more of the safe places being gone in the cloud the ELC was was really a kindergarten building with the intention of letting all kindergartners attend there it just wasn't big enough for that to happen which is why Taylor Mills has a kindergarten in Milford Brook so we would then have to we can't do that because the ELC needs to have students and Lafayette Mills is not built to have kindergarten classes okay but just to

090be clear the grandfathered in is not an option of all these options that's not an option no I never said that I said we were open to the idea of siblings but I wanted to board to not hear you're open to it yes that's not gonna do anything for us I'm sorry but it's not I understand that is there anyone else from the public so really not really trying to change your minds at all I'm sure pretty much the board already kind of voted in their mind what they want to do just a kind of a few rhetorical questions and comments first just or as parents now are we able to kind of get a preview of Lafayette Mills and check it out to be quite frank just like speaking to some other parents I

091haven't really heard like the best things about Lafayette Mills maybe that's wrong but in comparison to Taylor Mills I was told like the curriculum is much more rigorous like my daughter is tested on a regular basis in math and reading spelling I'm told the Lafayette Mills they don't do those testing there so I don't know how accurate that is no I'm gonna just stop you for the I'm sorry to interrupt you but our district testing is the same throughout all of our buildings and our curriculum is the same throughout all of our buildings so just would we still get buses like so if I'm not gonna get to Taylor Mills is like a length restriction or mileage that you would say oh you have to drive your kid to school no no no no transportation

092is always included and just as terms of the facilities like I have to really look the grounds but just looking at Google Maps just like there's just a few baseball diamonds they not have like playgrounds oh they just redid their whole playground yes they just okay and just come yeah and just in terms of the buses like that's like just the one like kind of like cop out kind of common I felt because you know you shouldn't have bus drivers that can't cross Gordon's Court so it was something that we avoided by doing this as well but miss Fostano had said she can possibly reroute them around taking Robertsville so they would be picked up first they take Robertsville and come around the back way and then this way they cross at the light on

093Taylor Mills versus doing the intersection no that's true that is true we didn't think about that I'm thinking that Christine has a better reason but Christine's looking at me like that's the wrong answer please there was like oh you know we didn't foresee this it was done in the past it just doesn't seem to be like any accountability here so nobody there's I've ever heard one leader say that you know it's I'll take responsibility for the poor planning or anything like that I hold on I'll take ownership because three years ago when I got initially elected there was a completely different board there was David Kane and Christine Nicole was had just became the superintendent this is a whole brand new board and we are trying we really are so if you want somebody to

094point the finger at pointing at me because I'll eat all of it all day you guys know that I'm telling you we're gonna listen and I've already said I might just be one voice but you've heard me ask questions I will continue to ask questions Serena Wallace who just joined the board has been steadily doing this myself and Christine and you were on the committee for this so if you want to point fingers at a board member point him at me yeah I'm telling you this curriculum is the same the Browns they've got a brand new playground like we're trying to do the best with what there was we've lost almost 60 million dollars in aid in the last five years we lost 17,000 you heard me say earlier that the state's saying they're given

095379 million dollars in aid and they gave a hundred million to two districts like if you want to blame somebody blame me I'll sit and talk with you every day if you want to I'll give you a blow-by-blow update as much as I can legally with legal but like this is you have to understand that we're trying to do the best and be accommodating to every single student parent family in this district and to say that the curriculum is less at another elementary school when this is a leading district is is upsetting so if you want to blame somebody blame me I'll eat it all day long I don't know my kids at Taylor Mills I apologize right and I nope no I did not I said that I would not redistrict your children again

096I don't we can look into that we can look into that there's always sometimes students that are sent to a different school for programmatic needs and I can't guarantee that so if you needed services or something you sometimes switch schools but we can look into that for your children but no we are going to have to look at redistricting again I think miss pepchinsky brought up a good point the last time this district redistricted was 15 years ago 16 years ago so for 16 years we have been status quo and when you have a ebb and flow of people moving in moving out communities growing you can't stay status quo for 16 years there's districts in our surrounding area they redistrict every two or three years I think the fact that we've run 16 years

097without having to to do this and at this point we're not doing it on a large scale it yes it's not I'm saying other districts that I said we haven't we haven't done this for 16 years anyone else from the public good evening my name is Floyd Mendez I'm on Wicketunk Road I have two children in Taylor Mills first of all thank you like I can I feel like you've given this a lot of attention you've given a lot of a lot of consideration you don't do this lightly I also kind of acknowledge I the temperature I'm feeling in the room is that is probably will pass and if it does sort of related to the question of just giving us more information about Lafayette Mills would you also give additional considerations to the students

098transitioning in because you know my children get anxious and they liked knowing like the first year of school was difficult the second year wasn't as difficult because they know where they're getting off the bus they know what path they take to their classrooms they know where the water fountain is like dumb little stuff like that is actually incredibly meaningful to a child and that can help ease the transition and then also as they get sort of later into into the elementary school the students get a little bit clicky or it's just a little harder for them to make friends it's not the same as it was in first grade so just some acknowledgement are flagging the students to the teachers the teachers know who in their class is now completely new and may not recognize

099as many kids and maybe seating them with other kids to help them make friendships and sort of foster that to sort of bring them into the community a little bit better of Lafayette Mills yes we we had talked for those sort of consider we had talked to a few ideas that mr. Duffy wants to speak as well we would absolutely have an orientation we would try to schedule the children with children that they knew mr. Duffy do you want to chime in too I'm Gregory Duffy I'm principal of Lafayette Mills so I was here in 2008 9 when we when I hired mrs. Papchinski and miss singers here because we run a I think a co-administration she's as equally available to me to you as she is to me as she is to your children

100so I think with that said we would definitely run a transition meeting with you as parents with your children present and give you a tour of the building certainly we have three playground areas and what you see in the back of the building is not where the kids go out for recess they go out in the front we have a great fence situation that we just put in and we're very proud of what we do so just as much as Taylor or Wemrock or Clark or Milford and all the principals work together very very closely and I call Carrie all the time mrs. Marsala I now call Leah Kamuda that's your new principal and we're very proud that we have relationships over many many years not sure about the curriculum concerns but I'll be glad

101to address any of them and on an individual basis but as far as the transition goes that would be an initial plan and meet with you as individuals because you are all individuals and I think that's resonating with the board as well as meet with you as a group and make sure the transition and your children are placed in classes with other kids that they're comfortable with I think dr. Santora started off with that and that's where I would end you know in the same place where the kids are comfortable in the classes they're going to we establish new friendships and new relationships just like children that move in from Monroe from Newark from wherever district they come from we welcome them they do great stuff they do great things in every building of now

102up in English town and as district supervisor of mathematics many many years ago I have great pride and I learned from everyone that I interacted with at the administrative level and I think that's you know how we would continue to march forward so I'm sorry but I just feel I should answer that question so you're comfortable thank you okay I'm really bad at this hello okay apologies in advance because they speak very bluntly so no offense when I speak so me personally I'm not convinced with the rationale for this change and see like there's a lot of parents here that I think feel the same so I just wanted to know how much does our opinion you know weigh on this decision and when will this decision finally be made so we invited you here

103because we wanted to hear from you and to hear your opinion if we move forward with this I would like to put something on the next agenda because whether we allow siblings stay or we look at different options I would want to give parents enough time on May 15th we have to hire our staff and then by the first meeting in June we have to tell them where they're going to school and based on what plan we go with staff will be moved around between buildings so we need to be able to follow our statues and make sure that we give staff enough time and in order to do that I also want to make sure that I give parents enough time to know where we're at also I'm pretty sure that Lafayette has a

104different time yeah so it's like an hour ahead right like they come in at 9 we're a little later right so they come home by like 4 right so the time is 850 to 320 yeah so that's also kind of something that's why I wanted to be able to vote next time too because if we vote at the first on April 1st that provides some time and notice yeah so that's also kind of something to think about like I guess some people didn't know you know also I mean I agree with the other guy that said you know the whole bus safety thing is a little bit neither here nor I included it but our more concern is the equity of resources yeah that was our biggest concern so here's another thing so I know

105you said if if they don't transfer this year so they'll transfer probably next year or something along those lines but how do you know who is gonna be moving in next year you know or like that development that you spoke about that's on 33 or another development that's being built or whatever how do you know how many kids are gonna be there you know and what age is etc if there's kind of and they're empty for now so that's why I don't really understand the logic so those developments would not be going to Taylor Mills or milk for our Lafayette mill school okay so then okay so why are we mentioning them because I went to them about transportation that I would the buses that the two buses that would now be on Lafayette Mills

106time would then be able to bring those children to school and save about a half a million dollars those children meaning the children that might be in moving in developments right but we don't know that you know I know I know based on what's happening right now in our current enrollment I'm gonna need at least one bus probably two but that's something that you know like we kind of have to I feel like we but that but that's sort of and I hate to cut you off but that's sort of why we're planning because I can't know I need a half a million dollars after the fact no I get I just feel like we're kind of the ones that are you know have been here for a few years and have attended this school

107are kind of getting the short end of the stick only for the potential of the newcomers coming in like let them you know go to a difference or whatever you know what I'm saying and the primary reason was really the equity of resources it's really servicing children we're talking about when you did the chart and I'm off by a few numbers but the median was like 40 something kids off or something I think it was like right now Lafayette Mills has a hundred less students than Taylor Mills over a hundred okay so I don't I don't remember there was like a 40 in there somewhere I guess like the median over the average okay but right now those two schools in general are on on the bottom and the top tier of being not equitable

108no I get that I just feel like if you're looking at it on average right between all the middle schools we're looking at like 40 something kids it's not that you know crazy you know to be able to be grandfathered in as an option would be kind of like the best-case scenario because I don't think like that's enough students to be really kind of gung-ho about shifting everybody around etc like me for example the timing just my personal for my personal reasons like the timing for me is a little bit off like just the time an hour later it just kind of messes my whole thing up and I got it one that's supposed to go to kindergarten in Taylor Mills I got one that's already in kindergarten and I won that's in second grade

109currently was actually doing great he's in enrichment and like I really would hate to pull him from any of that that's like my own personal opinions thank you I appreciate you sharing it's up to you we I am NOT being affected by this I'm just here to support the parents and let everybody just to let you know you know last thing on your guys's list to worry about but my child and all of the other kids you know they're going to miss their friends and just so you know like you got your friend your kids are going to be really missed so just want to say that and thank you for considering and listening to everybody today Christine do you want to say something so this is miss Festano our director of transportation I think

110hi everyone you can blame me I I came up with it but not really what what happens is I always have to project I have to look what's what's coming what's coming you know we only have so many drivers you only have so many buses and when we noticed which we weren't informed by the planning board that there was two developments that were opening up and they were coming and technically the one canter square that's on iron ore is really Clark Mills boundary can't fit there so both of those developments will now go to one rock and we already have students that are registered and started at one rock pinebrook and mems and those developments so when I looked at everything and I spoke to dr. Santor about it I said I don't have two

111buses eventually it's good it's going to fill that there's a couple hundred homes in these in the developments and parents calling all time where am I going to go to school so we know they're coming I'm thankful they're a little delayed because I'm using mini buses right now because they don't have an empty 54 passenger to service those areas so this is where it becomes a problem so I'm hoping that I can eke through to the end of the year using the minis which are already filling up the one mini at one rock has like 16 so now you're also taking away from the special ed if they come in then what so it is a bigger problem and I don't take this lightly I'm a parent I get why you're upset I understand it

112none of us took this lately but then if we didn't look at everything and then we looked at all the numbers together as an admin team and been very involved in this I would have to go say okay now I need to buy two new buses and hire two new drivers to serve us the new developments so that's irresponsible to use the taxpayers money in that manner when we could equalize the schools and then it doesn't impact the budget so there's a lot that goes into it that maybe you don't understand and the benefit of not crossing over to four lanes of traffic that's just a benefit we've been doing it for years I'm not saying that it's horrible we shouldn't be doing it because we do it for for Pinebrook and Madden's I get

113it so I just I don't know if you understood that piece and why we're here tonight to discuss it that's a very big piece in transportation we don't have the bus and we don't have the drivers thank you thank you I appreciate you with the two developments well for one rock they'd have to be one to five to be able to fill up so if I have two buses so you're different time it's at a different time so Pinebrook and Lafayette are at the same tier so I would take those buses and put those drivers in one rock I just want to clarify that I'm not sure if you understood all that thank you thank you Christine anyone else for public comment okay okay okay we're gonna close public comment I guess at this point

114thank you everyone can I just make a quick comment I know I really haven't spoken yet I wanted to hear from the parents nothing is set in stone we've done a lot of discussion on this and we've taken everything into consideration and we are going to continue to discuss it but I just wanted to say that all of the schools in our district each one has their own individual culture and our kids who go to a particular school yes they love that culture they've grown with that culture but before you make a decision I think it would be a nice idea to visit Lafayette Mills and mr. Duffy and just see for yourself the environment that mr. Duffy has created the culture in that school before you know keep your mind a little open it's

115hard to move from one family to another but all of our schools have wonderful families in their own way and I think if you visit Lafayette Mills and mr. Duffy's school you might have a different idea about it and we are going to continue to discuss this so thank you thank you Christine I think to know mr. Duffy is to love mr. Duffy yes so I do have one I do have one comment that was sent to me earlier yeah let me just preface so public sessions over and this is we waited until the end we normally do not read anyone's comments or someone that couldn't be here's comments during public session but because this topic was so important and we wanted to make sure that every parent had a voice we did have a

116parent send in their comment and we are going to allow miss wolf to read it to give them a voice even though they couldn't be here but it's I'm not going to let it be a precedent-setting thing in the future dr. Santora and the MERS school board members my name is Allison quarry and I live on calling core and my husband Michael our children Ethan grade 4 and Mackenzie grade 2 begin began their elementary education at Taylor Mills I'm ready to express my deep concern regarding the proposed redistricting plan which would require my children to transfer to Lafayette Mills as a parent who has been an active member of the Taylor Mills community for the past five years I am deeply invested in the school's environment and the positive impact it has had on my

117children's social and educational development my children are thriving academically and socially at Taylor Mills they have built lasting friendships and developed a strong sense of familiarity and comfort with the school staff and students as a regular volunteer at PTA events I also built meaningful relationships with fellow parents who support not only my children but also the school community as a whole this community is key part of our lives and has played a crucial role in the success and well-being of my children both my husband and I work and the ability and the stability of our children's school environment is paramount to our ability to balance our professional and personal lives the educational equity at Taylor Mills is provided particularly through opportunities such as the ELA enrichment program that has been available to our daughter Mackenzie

118since first grade is something we value deeply we are concerned that if this redistricting is implemented Mackenzie may no longer have access to the same opportunities at Lafayette Mills switching schools midway through a child's educational journey can significantly disrupt their learning the inconsistency in learning styles curriculum and even social dynamic at a school at a new school can create gaps in knowledge lead to academic setbacks and potentially cause emotional challenges such as social isolation and decreased self-esteem these disruptions are not just theoretical theoretical they are real concerns that could have long-term consequences for our children's development and well-being this change may affect a limited number of student of families but I ask that you consider the significant impact it will have on my family the state safety and stability and continue in continuity that my

119children have found at Taylor Mills cannot be replaced and the emotional educational toll of moving to a new school would be profound I urge you to reconsider the redistricting plan and allow my children to continue the education at Taylor Mills my children do not deserve to be negatively impacted we are grateful for the positive experience and opportunity they have had at Taylor Mills and I ask that you consider the long-term effects this change would have on our family thank you Alice inquiry 5 Colleen court thank you okay we're gonna take a quick five minute break and then we'll get back we're gonna continue on with our agenda we thank you all for coming out we certainly heard everything you said you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting any agenda or of course

120if you want to leave this is an opportunity we recognize how that's late so thank you all again we appreciate it yes okay so we're gonna get our meeting restarted again I do want to before we go into it I do sorry I want to take a moment and welcome Jessica Diwasaki she is on the agenda for the assistant business administrator position she came to be with us here tonight she comes with a wealth of experience with over 14 years as roles of school business administrator and assistant school business administrator so she's on the agenda I wanted to take the moment to introduce her to you we normally don't do that we normally say hello hello nice to meet you thank you very much for coming out it's good to see you okay are we

121ready to jump forward yes okay so we are at E changes and revisions do we have anything else other than what was emailed to us earlier no good okay so we are at F for the board's information so we have four items here does anyone have any questions about those and noting that the fourth is Ryan's excellent referendum committee notes and we will talk about those more further or that those topics further down in the agenda so if you have questions maybe hold off on that but any questions on anything else nope okay so we will go on to G administration can we have a motion in a second for G one through G for Jamie Jesse I don't know how to word this question I probably should have asked it on the side but

122it just dawned on me when I read it right now can I can I have a quick conversation offline with him real quick about something that's in this right here that affects I think me that I need to ask before I vote you mean for your ability to recuse I want to get clarification on what how I do this and I don't want to put something out on the yeah I think you're yeah I think you're gonna have to abstain oh okay any questions from anyone else okay thank you mr. green yes mrs. her yes yes mrs. Lucas yes mrs. yes mr. Tosetti I'm gonna abstain on one and three and I'm a yes on the others dr. Wallace yes motion carried okay we'll move to section H the tentative adoption of the 2526 budget

123thank you again for all the hard work everybody motion thank you mrs. her I would you any questions or anything before we move okay mr. yes mr. Kane yes mrs. Lucas yes mrs. Parisi yes mr. Tosetti yes dr. Wallace yes mr. green yes motion carried okay section I for business so we'll move it and then I think Ronnie's gonna give a quick intro to those topics right yeah I can discuss them if you like so why don't we get a motion in a second first I'll make that motion Ryan and Kelly and then Ronnie you want to have a minute and if there's any questions yes I'm assuming you're talking about the yes the bids the results of the bid openings um we had very busy a couple of weeks with our bid openings we

124had one which was the paving on the 6th of March and we had the other four on March 11th there were some issues with some of the submissions on the roofing as you can see on the agenda I noted which let me just get to that section paving was fine everything was good with that all of the vendors all of the contractors that provided bids were deemed compliant so Bradley Sklar from school our new construction attorney reviewed everything and he you know was in agreement that the lowest responsible bidder was black rock and he said that we were you know willing to go ahead and and award those capital projects for HVAC we had several three contractors for the one project all of which were compliant and we had one bidder for the other project

125which was a little disappointing not having a little bit more you know competition there but they that was compliant we did discuss potentially rebidding but typically that doesn't always go well it usually winds up having higher costs because people's cars are someone on the table already so I think that we are overall in a position where all of the bids collectively we're still about 2.5 million dollars below the construction estimates so we're good there the architect was very pleased with the way the results came in under the roof replacement contract 16514 one of the bidders was rejected with a material defect they were they failed to identify a subcontractor and on the other roofing project VMG was the low bid on both bids the lowest responsible bidder not respond lowest bidder on both but because

126his allowance of how much work he could carry at any given time less his outstanding contracts put him over the amount where we couldn't award to both so he opted to withdraw from contract number two which put us in a position where we could award to come to the second lowest bidder USA so which is compliant we're about 30% of the bids at this point of the projects will be awarded at this point and going forward we will be doing more early April and then in May with awards in May and June for work that can be done throughout the school year that wasn't so dependent upon getting it out early so we can do it during the summertime we'll also in the fall do the second round of paving roofing and other HVAC at

127that point too so many questions Brian do I take anything on to that I know I'll just add we had a productive meeting yesterday we got the minutes out as quick as we could this morning just for the board's information because we did talk about quite a bit I do want to compliment FVHD our architectural firm as Ronnie indicated their projected budget was was on and actually we are ahead of the game right now we're still early so we'll see if that continues throughout the life of the referendum but the meeting yesterday was also very positive because we really had the whole team together including new road construction management our new construction management firm the architects were there the district administrative team so things really are coming together and it is exciting to approve these

128contracts this evening one thing I'll just draw attention to that is noted in the minutes I kind of asked the question well what happens next like are we ordering roofing materials tomorrow and it's not quite that quick which is good our architects explain that there is a very detailed process that the contractors now have to follow in terms of putting together specific plans for the projects that have to get approved putting together a schedule for the projects there's all sorts of paperwork that has to be submitted on a specific timeline that gets approved by all parties involved so while tonight is a big step it is still one step of many towards actually seeing you know materials arriving at the buildings and you know construction people with hard hats we're doing work but we are

129on schedule to to start in June and just want to compliment the entire team on being able to get these bids on here tonight that's super helpful so thank you that's very exciting we haven't we've have not undertaken anything even close to this significant in 20 years so it's it's really something to be involved in and I'm excited a lot of work but it's it's it's gonna be good okay thanks to you both anybody else thank you mr. Kane mrs. Lucas yes mrs. Parisi yes mr. Tresetti yes dr. Wallace yes mr. Green yes mrs. Hart yes motion carried okay item J curriculum can we get a motion for J one through J six please Christine Jesse any questions for for for number four that's gonna be during prep hours what I mean I asked the

130same question I was gonna proactively answer that you beat me to a Jesse all of the internships involving our staff members are outside their contractual hours anybody else thank you mrs. Lucas yes mrs. Parisi yes mr. Tresetti yes yes dr. Wallace yes mr. Green yes mrs. her yes mr. Kane yes motion carried okay item K personnel can we have a motion in a second for K two through K 14 Jesse Kelly any questions just for crossing t's dot nines number seven that's this year's contract into school and then renewal right and then that's pro rated rate of the number anybody else thank you yes okay yeah yeah yeah we were good it's it's the contract you know how contract is till June 30th is indicated it's I just want I just want to make sure

131that it was just like all y'all's rigs up for her right like it's just that's why I was dated that way that's all yep Kevin mrs. Parisi yes mr. Tresetti yes dr. Wallace yes mr. Green yes mrs. her yes mr. Kane yes mrs. Lucas yes motion carried okay that's our agenda so we're gonna move into executive session now right and then would you want we'll do new and old when we come back out yes and I would okay good yeah I agree good so Ronnie do we need to yes we're gonna go into executive session a motion in a second please to go into executive dr. Wallace and mrs. her for the purpose of discussing an HIV appeal on student number 38 369 personnel matter involving employee number one eight eight zero four and we're

132also going to have a discussion about salary negotiations for a potential can a candidate for a vacancy before we close out I want to welcome Jessica to the district welcome to the district and we should be about what half hour or 40 minutes all right but there will be action after close there will be action afterwards now I need a motion in a second for items m1 and m2 which are action after close what is it we doing the resolution affirming the decision of the superintendent and the HIV matter involving student number 38 369 which was to uphold the determination of HIV and then we have a suspension without pay for employee recommend the board suspend the following employee for five days without pay effective as noted employee one eight eight oh four for March

1337th 2025 and dates to be determined by the transportation coordinator can have a motion in a second please Jamie her second Jesse I'll call the roll mr. Green yes this is her yes mr. Kane mrs. Lucas yes mrs. Parisi yes mr. Tosetti no dr. Wallace yes okay those motions are successful and that leaves us to old and new other business I believe you guys are gonna turn it over to me sorry I told you this you could speak and then I spoke okay I have two quick items so the one is the calendar discussion I had sent you guys an email that we always revise the calendar for the first April meeting usually because that's when parents want to see it it looks like it's gonna be rather warm which means that we will hopefully

134not use any snow days from now until the next two weeks if that's the case we have three snow days that we can put back into the calendar we did consider other options right now what we'd like to do is end school on June 18th which is a Wednesday the district would still be closed for all employees on June 19th and then we would have graduation on June 23rd one of the things we like about this is that everybody in this school district can help with graduation and also attend we would have to pay the staff members to attend because they have a certain amount of days in their contract but as far as our administrators they can be there our secretaries can be there so it's a nice experience for people who have not

135always gotten the opportunity the other nice thing about it is if we end on the 18th we can start the referendum work a few days earlier yes so I will be placing that calendar on the agenda for April 1st and then hopefully we don't run into a situation like this again the future because it kind of worked out weird I don't want to assume the graduation practice will happen before the 18th and then we got to do practice we got to make sure they don't forget in five days yes I'm not trying to be that guy but you know they'll be fine they're gonna be eighth grade graduates they can remember how to sit and stand up okay the staff directs them very well they know exactly what to do on point yes and we

136did interview the staff to make sure that we would have enough staff to be able to be there and we're fine very quickly I do have one more thing so I didn't tell the truth the RFPs for a board attorney are due to the district on Thursday as we did with the labor attorney admin will review each one and score them based on a rubric as what's done with RFPs once narrowed on the rubric we can schedule interviews for the whole board during a closed session that being said we could do April 1st but I'm gonna think that we're gonna need an hour and a half to two hours and the board meeting starts at 7 which means we have to be here at like 5 and then have a full board meeting other option

137is maybe possibly another date like April 8th and we could start at whatever time you guys are available we could start at like 630 or 7 or 6 because we're just going directly into executive session if you guys want to talk to Dave or email me your preference on that or if you want to say here are you good with April 8th I think if we do it before a board meeting first of all we're not sure if they're gonna be done on time and I think it's just gonna can we do it before the April 1st meeting on this subsequent meeting that you're talking about I mean I think it's key to point out that we're still in litigation with the state and we need to secure an attorney I don't think we'll have

138to we probably we're not opening until the Thursday they close on the 20th then we there's 30 there's 31 days in March but we have to analyze them in right how long does that take it takes a few days it's right so two to three days so that opens up the end of next week make sure that people are available right I understand that I mean but you got to remember that we're still we have an attorney we do have the same firm that represented us for that I don't I've had no problem with the service right now I I don't think we're going anywhere with a lawsuit I don't see a rush I mean I'm just one voice that's all I'm saying I'd like to do it I'd like to do it sooner my

139votes for April 8th I'm not available April 8th so I like a different date or date after April 1st and either Serena I won't be here I believe maybe this is something that Dave should send an email around yes available and then try to get a date that works perfect okay one of us can talk to Dave that's great is that everything yep are we done can I have a motion to adjourn Dave and Kelly and we are adjourned at 11 12 p.m. all in favor aye good night everybody