MARSD BOE Regular Action Meeting 3 - 9 - 2026

001I think time is now 6:32 and I calling our March 9th regular meeting. Um, the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have dance and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business interest in discussions act the man regional school district of education advert this meeting on February 27th in the park press. This notice was sent to the municipal clerks of tomorrow and public library. The notice was also placed on the district's website to the flag of the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all Mrs. Foley. >> Yes. >> Mr. McGovern. Mr. Mandela >> here. >> Mr. Monto >> here. >> Miss Pal >> here. >> Miss Scott >> here. >> Miss R here. >>

002Miss Fus >> here. >> Missing here. At this point I would like to um ask for a motion to second to move our executive session and continue on with the agenda as noted. Second. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion on a second to approve the minutes? So all in favor of voting and moving exactly >> I >> thank you a motion the second to approve the this a little bit easier. >> Sorry, our board secretary was right now. We're we're kind of wigging it a little bit here. Our person that keeps us organized unable to attend um minutes correspondence to the board. Motion and a second, please. Staff I'll second by this. >> Thank you. I would like to know. I'd like to now turn over our um presentation for the superintendent. >>

003Thank you, Mr. Thank you David. Twice a year the district is required to inform the board of education that HIP and student safety data is submitted to the Jersey Department of Education. Our reporting period data which is collected from September through December has been successfully uploaded to Department of Education portal. The data reflects the hand reports for a shared floor and group each period. This toies that we are thank you and before uh we move forward with the presentation I just want to give a statement to the community. Earlier today the district was placed on a lockdown while law enforcement investigated a reported threat at the Maran Regional High School. Due to the nature of the threat and within a limited amount of precautions, the Aine Police Department advised the district to place all schools

004on lockown. While we are in while we were in active lockdown and focused primarily on the safety of our students, staff, and school community, we were unfortunately limited in terms of sharing the specific details of the investigation while this was going on. Thank you for your patience as we addressed the situation, the initial moments of the situation. We communicated quickly with limited information and we recognize that. But it was in it was to ensure that we could prioritize the safety and wellbeing of all of our students and staff. Today, after a thorough investigation, law enforcement determined that threat was deemed not and advised the district to list them off. The district will not be will not provide additional information about the threat under advisement of the law enforcement. any questions you may be directed to

005law enforcement. We are incredibly grateful to the Aberine Town um township police and the M County Sheriff's Office for their quick response and investigation. Their collaboration with our administration ensured that students were safe and grounded situation. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to all the building administrators in each of the buildings that were here today, the teachers and the staff at each of the buildings who followed all safety protocols during the lockdown. Additionally, our counselor staff were readily available to support the students and the staff after the lockdown was lifted and we were available at every single building and there for students and staff. Any students who would like additional support are required to speak to somebody about today's events and follow up with their counselor or their principal tomorrow when they come

006to school. Finally, all schools will follow their schedules as planned tomorrow. Please note that there will be police presence around the schools tomorrow. Thank you. And I appreciate the word for your support and text messages and I know that um in terms of communication these things are happening. We're in we're in a mode and it's really really challenging to get communication out there but um I'm just happy that work together for us. I also want to be the board of education police departments county sheriff's department all the staff teachers community. I know that they followed the, you know, the drills that they practiced very closely and carefully and I helped make sure everything was safe and done and I'm grateful that it was not threat. Um I I had heard talking about I wanted you

007to reiterate that counselors will be available and um will also be on site directly. I personally feel obviously it's up to student discretion but I think that um you know becoming maybe better stay home being around your friends and getting any support that you might need knowing the place But the Heat. Heat. First, I want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting. Um tonight we're going to discuss shaping the district's future. It's an exciting opportunity to explore redistricting um and the proposal that we're presenting tonight for the board's approval. As you can see, the focus and you'll this slide's not up yet, but um the focus is really ensuring that our schools are well positioned to serve our community's needs. We'll be diving into details shortly. Um but first we want to take a moment to

008appreciate the importance of the initiative and thank our school community um from administrators and families to the board. We want to thank all of the community members for their feedback from parents to staff to our school community. All I'm going to say is that today I'm going to sidetrack a little bit. book this week. Last week it was right across I read a book to the kids and the title was when things go left. What do we do? We go right. So when you're having one of those days we just go right and forget what's happening over here and just move right and move forward and with positivity. So, I'm going to take a break because there's a malfunction of the mic and that's probably because if we walk around it's not necessarily because the

009mic >> I was going to add that um we're all very jittery. Shake it up. We have a lot going on today. So, really appreciate you as we kind of get going on this. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, um what we're going to do this evening, it's going to be a two-part presentation. On tonight's agenda, we're going to um well, we're going to have Fred, who's our consultant, um that did the demographic study, and he's going to present on all of the details in terms of how the proposal or how the scenario came about that he's going to share this evening. Along with that, without um I can't start the meeting, I can't start the presentation, but expressing my deepest gratitude uh to the community members. When I say community, it is everyone

010um in this district in the community. It's our principles who have been um essential in terms of working through kinks, our full administrative staff at central office, the board of education who've um asked questions throughout everything and really gave us some great feedback and insight from some of the community members that they're hearing with and also our staff and our students. So, some students, you know, provided feedback as well when we were walking through the building. So which is really nice. Um and our staff um they gave us a different perspective in terms of um historical perspective which we did not we may not have been aware of. Um and that really really helped us along the way. So tonight we're going to talk about um so tonight's evening um Fred from Citygate will um

011give us some insight in terms of the work completed the how behind the scenes and the why and what you can expect from Mr. Leman and myself who will be presenting. Um we are going to discuss everything on what to expect in terms of changes from school hours to schedules, enrollment to class sizes, Student experiences and opportunities because that is what it is all about. It is about our students and ensuring that they have every opportunity and experience in any building wherever they go. and we want them to have the best experience. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Fred, our consultant. Going to pop up. >> Good afternoon everyone. Um again, um I'm Fred Jos with City GIS. I uh initially did work on the demographic projections for enrollment for

012the next decade and then um there was a redistricting that was the following and what I'm hoping to do tonight is go over sort of step by step how we came about to create the plan that we have uh um we have here tonight. So, I'm not entirely sure which if I'm showing the presentation or if you guys are going to have it up. Fred, if you could share your screen, I sure can. Scroll through your slide deck. All right. this. Um, can you guys see the the first page? Yes. Perfect. So, um, one of the one of the things that I wanted to go over first was the project objectives. Um because these were created at the uh project's concept and I wanted to as we went through the whole process um we tried

013to sort of pay attention to these these uh uh project objectives and make sure that we can start to add other issues that were not initially considered to be um critical to the project and that started with balancing out tennis areas with school capacity. So that's that was the number one goal. Um we wanted to adjust great configurations to optimize facility utilization and account for future growth district. Um keep the communities and neighbors together to the extent possible. We wanted to improve um student transportation. The process needed to be uh transparent and open. Um, we took community input and anytime you do redistricting, you want to create the least impact um, needed to get sort of your other bars done. Um, with the final goal being that this was going to be implemented in the

01420167 school year. So where we started um when we do redistricting we generally want to do that um at the parcel boundary um level. The reason is we don't want ambiguity of where the lines are. So by doing it at parcel level you can specifically say if you live on this particular property then this is the school that you go to. And so using parcel boundaries removes any kind of ambiguity out of the out of the uh final final product. So we started by um getting the parcel boundaries for the district from um from the county and the map that you see on the right side of the screen is what we started out with. So the next thing that we do um with that map is we create what are called planning. The individual

015parcels are too fine um of the geography for us to draw maps on mostly because you can't project um enrollment on such a tiny um um piece of geography. I can't know 10 years from now who's going to live in this particular house. So what we do is we try to aggregate them in a way that um we can actually create projections for the individual um pieces of geography and these are going to become sort of our Lego building blocks that we're going to use for building our our district. Now uh building I'm sorry planning uh sorry late in the day building our school attendance areas. So, as we are creating these planning units, um, I put two examples on the left side of the screen because we're trying to pay attention to how the

016ultimate boundaries are going to affect transportation. So, for example, as you can see in the um in the circle of the top, you want to make sure that you grab both sides of the street and draw the boundary on the back side of the parcel line. So as the bus is going down this this particular street, it's big enough gets on both sides and you don't have to um send the bus down to us. So, same thing down here as you're coming around this um into this uh subdivision. Make sure that we sort of run the line unit on the back side of the properties so that we sort of keep account of minimizing as much as we can um the bus the the transportation boxes. So once these planning units were created um because

017I'm not from the area, we put these on the web and I asked the the um the school district to comment and allow us to make changes wherever we had either split sort of incorrectly or if further splitting was needed or if we needed to act in the area because ultimately what these planning units mean or all of these people anybody who's in a single planning unit is going to end that will be the same attendance area. Um the next step was to take all the excuse me um students um as of 2025 and plot them on the map and then use the projections that we had um previously created and figure out from each of these um pieces of geography what our enrollment expected enrollments going to be over the next decade. Now two

018pieces of information goes in went into this. One was of course the projections we did and the second was the individual uh developments that we knew of because those were specific they had specific geographies. We placed them in the right location. So we found which planning units each one of these developments were in. Then we took the number of units and the number of um students that we uh estimated as the yield from those units and we added them to the uh expected um student enrollment. So once that was done, I started to look at um how would how would the physical features of the district sort of play a part into um drawing these boundaries and there were two major sort of pieces of geography that cross crisscross the the district. The first one

019is the guard state parkway which I had read and the second one was essentially all the water features that bisect the uh the area. So I looked at those as being sort of my guide as I was looking at where boundaries were natural boundaries. Um the next thing we looked at was the existing boundaries. As I mentioned, one of the things that we try to do is minimize the impact and stay as close to the previous boundaries as possible um while achieving the goal of um balancing out the the student population with capacities. So this is what the elementary boundaries that I had from existing boundaries. So once we overlaid those um we basically came out with this particular scenario as our as our configuration and the line that goes between Lloyd Road and and

020Strathmore was essentially created to balance those two boundaries with their capacities and sort of segregate the schools such that it was one school of the boundaries. The schools are very close to each other. So the line is the line between them um went through the middle. But um essentially uh we followed um the natural there was a stream back here. So we followed that as our as our as our rout. Once we adjusted the lines, we had as I said um calculated enrollment for the next decade. So as we uh move some of the lines around the software provider provided us with the 25 26 well it provided for every year between now and 2034 what I've shown here is the 26 30 and 34 and I want to note that as you get further

021out your confidence level goes down. This is a prediction. So um your confidence sort of um goes down as the years go by but based on our calculation all the schools remain within um reasonable deviation and near their um capacity on through 2034. So once we had a uh working plan uh the next step was to take community input. So to do that, we basically put the the maps online and um we also added the potential clock zones which is highlighted in sort of that gray area. Um and the map allowed the users to turn the individual schools on and off as well as turn the walk zones off on and off for each of the schools and then provide us with feedback um that was location specific. So they could put a point on

022the map and provide comment specifically and um they had a choice of dislike or simply opinion or like and then they provide additional comments um their information contact information and then they placed the comment. Their comment was um email verified. So each person that placed a comment received an email that they validated and um so we received 62 individual comments and um you didn't have to comment. If you looked at the map, you could just not comment. It was not required to comment. So we had 3235 people that visited unique um sorry people that visited 3167 were unique visits. So 3167 people looked at um the uh the maps and where the um information on it. The graph at the bottom shows sort of how um the visits per day were. So we releas we

023released this uh map on the 7th of January 2026. There was a big spike over that weekend and then uh the number of visits slowly sort of gradual gradually went down um as the days went but we had a fairly good um response and a number of um comments that we received during the process. Um after that process was done we started to look at the transportation because one of the goals of the project was to make sure that we were reducing transportation costs and we were improving um how transportation moves. So in order to do that we had to essentially model the entire transportation process that started out with for each school identifying the um the walk zones identifying the schools that the students that will be bus versus the ones that walked and

024then um doing um doing a transportation analysis. And ultimately we went through the process that did a routing analysis and um determined that yes the plan that was being considered would work um and that would be a viable plan for implementation. So where we are now this was the trans uh project timeline that um we showed at the initial community engagement. So we're going to develop scenarios between December 25 and January 26. Get community engagement. Um really started in mid January and went through February and then um here we are at the uh March meeting for the implementation plan for March through August beginning of the school year 2026. So that's essentially the entire process from beginning um to where we are now. Um, I don't know if you guys want to do questions now

025or save questions for me. Does anybody have any questions on that part of the No, >> okay. Well, I'm going to um mute myself and I'm going to be uh available for the rest of the game if anything comes up um certain. >> Thank you. We're just getting the other presentation. I just stop sharing the screen. Heat. Heat. Heat. Go back to one screen. All right. So, we're going to begin here just as we're all clear and we had several meetings. We sent our correspondence just so that the board is clear and our community is clear what the recommendation board is for this evening. It's up on the screen. The models repeat this ravine drive, Strathmore and Cliffwood would be preschool through fifth grade road would be K through 5 and then preschool only at

026Park. So that is the recommendation. So, Mr. President, I'm going to advance one more about the process. Just to give everybody a timeline, some background knowledge, maybe refresh your memory if you haven't been with us since November when we had our last meeting. So, Fred, who's just on, he was the we hired last last year of the school year. He presented to the board in July. the board accepted his report in terms of where the district is going in terms of movement measurements. So that's the process began. After that report, we work on several things. So there's a lot of moving on the screen. They all happened at the same time and they were interwoven in the process. So we looked at enrollment numbers that we currently have that was projected by the demographer. We

027looked at our building capacity with architecture plans. So we knew what can be housed in what classrooms and facilities that we had available to us. We looked at you saw this the transportation routes the number of buses the capacity of buses where they would have been able to move around town. We looked at walk zones, transportation zones. We asked for community feedback and we asked for community feedback in several different ways. Comments were posted on the map itself. So Fred had mentioned that and he showed you a quick graphic when the map went up. folks who log on down to the site to the map could actually enter in your address. Your address will pop up and you could hit a button and you could post comments directly to thread and then come to us.

028So that is one way to post comments. There is the community forum which has been on our district website for a while. That's the typical way to correspond with the board administration. We had an FAQ posted on our website. So as questions were coming to us, we would be able to post that on our district website. So you can see the running list. There was our pre-district email that people on the course drafted through email and we do that. We had parent conversations at the building level with principles and supervisors with us at social office. We had conversations with staff as we walk through buildings and staff were very welcome to give us some historical knowledge to give us some background what the district had looked like 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years

029ago and the change that seems to happen every decade. So a lot of good historical information shared with us. And then of course we've had cross department meetings which allowed us to do a lot of the planning. The planning phase is at this point we're going to share a lot with you and then there are some details that we continue to work through which is typical for us as educators. We go through a school year we get to June and while the kids go home to all of you take a break we continue to work. We continue to plan for September. That's normal personal business business for us. So in terms of in terms of the FAQ themes um these are the running themes. So when questions were coming in whether regardless of the email

030if it was a board email or redistricting email or my personal email we were keeping a log of all of the questions coming in and these are the top themes that came out throughout all of the questions. They were your school star times. Um we heard feedback in terms of the times happening currently, how it doesn't work for some families. Um we did hear that um we heard uh questions about programming for special education services and related services in terms of ensuring that services are offered at each of the buildings that we were not going to have one house in one building. In terms of equitable access to four or five programs, I we're saying equitable access because we've heard a lot of we got a lot of feedback from our families and from our

031principles in terms of the programs that are taking place in grades four to five. So whether they're your clubs, extracurricular um your schedule. So those questions we we're going to discuss and ensure that in terms of how we um how we were able to address it through this process. Preschool programming um we all know the community knows that the preschool programming that we receive a ton and ton of questions and um in terms of where they are, where they're going to be, are we still going to house them? Are we not going to house them and what? And then our student experiences. We got a lot of questions about class sizes. Um hoping and some great feedback in terms of for example reduce class sizes to certain great levels from our parents. They share that.

032Um they also ask questions about specials. Um the wait period that's going on in each of the buildings. Um they share what's working, what's not. Um and also transitions from building to building or sometimes grade levels. So that really varied. and also transportation in terms of ensuring that kids are not on the bus for a long period of time, arriving to school on time, getting home on time. And so in terms of the preschool program, what we included this evening is um where we currently are right now, we have 18 classrooms at Cambridge Park, two at Strathmore, um two at playworth, ravine drive and light. So in terms of our preschool disabled programs. So those are those are separate because we are not funded for our preschool disabled programs. That is funded through local dollars.

033Our PDA what we refer to is funded through the aid the expansion aid that we applied for. So we have two preschool disabled programs. Um one at Strathmore Flipwood drive and at the reason this is important is because two things. Um we wanted to make sure that the plan that we're supposed to be seeking federal programs are in our elementary it is early but it is part of early childhood education. So we felt that that was important to um continue. The other piece um is in terms of our disabled programs. We also want them to have opportunities in their community schools, but also to have that option if they need to if they're looking for relationship environment, looking for opportunities to increase inclusion. Therefore, we added a school safety program in each of our programs.

034So, one thing that I will note and we've heard a lot of feedback from our community members in terms of preschool, we have um a total of 29 classrooms this current year accommodating 46 general education students. Next year, there will be a decrease in enrollment. We will have 24 classrooms which will allow us to serve 336 students minus around 70 students. Out of the 336 general education students um that we will be offering physical to 180 slots already filled because we have our threeyear-olds that are rising to four year olds. So adding that then we determine when we find out how many lottery seats will be open for March. So as of right now today March March 9th we will we are proposing that we will have 150 seats for the lottery that will take

035place at the end of the month. So um we've been actively doing pre-registration and then the lock will be at the end of the month and all the parents will be notified. So that's the process that's the process that we've had all along. The difference um from for next year in comparison to other years is that we have not had to have a true lottery um at the date that we did. So every March we did a lottery we were able to accommodate all of our principles. this time we may not I don't have the exact numbers in terms of queue for pre-registration but it will run as a true however the positive and I saw said you know when things go left right so the right the right is um telling us okay we

036hear people from our community we are going to look for opportunities for expansion with community providers we have two classrooms ready at lightbridgeidge we are scheduled to see if any of the additional classrooms um on site at library that they are that they are eligible to be able to offer program. So a few years ago we had three classrooms there's the classroom those are questions for us to ask is another classroom available anytime that we partner with um with a community provider that only answers to them now to students. So that'll be that process though will not be in place for September of 2026 in terms of the providers. That is not the process that we need to work with the department of education and ensure that all of the they meet all the requirements

037including classroom space including playgrounds because we want to ensure that the playgrounds are safe and that they are accessible to all of our students. So that will be my process that we will share with our school special education program. So we have received a lot of feedback throughout the process from parents who were concerned that perhaps it wouldn't be special education program at their school or would have programming for their child. That's not the case. Not the case. They will be special education program at all. All replacements are returned by students on page. So all the elementary programs continue to have program inclass support placement. Each building has operating level by each building. Each building will have self-contained programs and then related services like speech that will continue to be offered at all buildings. The

038goal of special education is always these restricted parking. When we perceive when working with students, parents, it's always about environment and creating those environments for kids having. So more details will come to those families, but we want to walk away this evening with this that we'll continue to have special education. Right. as a lawyer at school. Some additional feedback that we had received during the process were request that feedback was our rising fifth graders, students who are currently in fourth grade, next year rise to fifth grade. The request we asked was who we consider grandfathering students and that what does that mean? It means we allow rising fifth graders to all steady group. So we we put out a survey to families and one of the things there's many things we love about our community.

039One of the things that we love about our community is that parents are not afraid to give some feedback to us but things great but things are not so great we hear from them. So we heard you the survey wasn't the greatest survey that perhaps we could have put out there. There was a little bit of confusion. The intention was not just to confuse people and dart people on the process, but it was really to take time to capture the gauge that we see where we were thinking with this grand offering. So we did hear feedback. We heard feedback on both sides. So yes, I want that to happen. No, we don't. At the end of the day, we have to make their own decisions. And so the decision is to not grandfather those students,

040which means that they're going to go to their own schools. And we looked at it through this lens. When we look at class size and we look at the current class size where there are 24 to 26 students in a class and we kept the fifth graders there and class size went up again where it could be 27 28 29 students in a class. That's not the best looking. While it does happen and it happens this year and that's the reason we're going through this process because ours are crowded. We don't want to create those situations where we can leave things. The whole plan is to district help bring down class size, balance out enrollment, and ensure that we have effective transportation. So, we did make a difficult decision and we we know it's not

041going to sit well with everyone. We've heard from parents, we heard from students, and we we listen and we try to emphasize as much as we can, but the decision is not very In terms of student experiences, um we heard a lot from our parents um and also from the staff and our administrative team to um pay the bi in terms of what's working, what's not. Um we favor to our principles were charged with if it's not working, how can we utilize this, this proposal, what we're doing, what we're working on some of the areas and the challenges that we're seeing um in terms of whether it's firing a building or lunch periods etc. So we really took an opportunity and really gave every um our thoughts were with intent to improve and strengthen the

042program. Um currently right now um the offers at each of the elementary buildings they will be consistent and what we mean by that in terms of schedules language arts, math, science periods that is all consistent and we'll share a little bit more about that. Um curriculum and resources all the same. All the same. Instructional minutes, all the same. The intervention lock, all the same across all buildings. The enrichment programming, all the same. And LB to our elementary buildings, ESL, um, specialized services in terms of related services is turned on their IP, but again, as we mentioned that they were offered at all buildings. Um, the clubs and extracurricular activities, they will be offered at each of the buildings and it will be age appropriate. So for example um to be safe control we're looking for

043older that um help on the bus um and help in the hallways and things like that. So they will be age appropriate in grade levels. Some of the activities or the programs that will run at each of the building is safety control club games um and chess and instrumental and chorus which will be instated in there. In terms of school enrollment, what we have listed is our current year 2526 and then total enrollment projected next year. It adds a little aster over there that says based on the data from March 2026. Enrollment fluctuates. It's fluid. It can change from today to tomorrow till September 1st when we open up our buildings. So in terms of the comparison you can see that some of most of our buildings um they went down in enrollment and some

044increase. So for example if you look at woodro they went down in in enrollment not necessarily enrollment but because we're going 3 to 5 they will now have 476 students there. um at Strathmore 424. Keep in mind that that does include um preschool, Cliffwood 408 and Bane Drive 403 and it comes to a total of 7 1,711. So there is a dip right there in terms of enrollment from um 8 to 5. Um the difference also reflects that there's fewer preschool preschools in our elementary buildings as well. So sample school times one of the modified products of going through the process of redistricting that allows us to take a closer look at starting for our students. So we're here for a K5 redistricting conversation. So we'll talk about feedback in just a second. But we

045heard look for consistency, right? So that's one of the things that have consistency across our buildings across the district. So we look at our K5 buildings to be on the same times. It does some great things. It allows staff and makes some conveniences for parents which we'll talk about in just a second. What it also does, we take a look at times allows us other buildings that are not pay for example the high school. There is a lot of research that tells educators that our teenagers do better with a later start time. When they can sleep more, sleep consistency and their brain grows better and they can process information that they're learning. Teenagers later start time is better. That also transcends into middle school students as well. So what we are looking to do is

046for high school for middle school a little bit later having our K5s at the same time. Now you may notice Cambridge Park. Remember Cambridge Park is preschool. You have that on the same tier of Boston. That's high school. For those of us at Bway have three children who are aesthetically at the previous slide. There is a footnote that says this is the same time. We are still working through some details at the moment. This next slide here changes schools behind it. ucing on some of these alignment with elementary schools. So the peer models on the bus that blouse we have K5 students ride the bus and our fifth graders our peer buddies and our safety patrol that allow us them to be role models for our younger learners. That's great. some family logistics. We've heard

047from families up to this year, including this year, that it's difficult if you have a child to go from Cambridge Park to strain more time in between driving from public events. This allows additional time if you're a walker, you drop yourself to school, you need that time that before and after programs. So if you run that through my time through Y continue to have those programs just tons and then piece parents often say what you start at high school how that impact athletics. So we continue to have athletics at the after high school practices after school to attend games. So athletes and out of district activities we'll maintain we'll have we should actually have better transportation systems everybody come back in terms of class sizes um this is projected what it will look like for

048the following year we included each of the building from cliffwood road strap at our feet drive. You will see that the class sizes are running between um 17 to 24 students in some buildings. What was really important to us and we heard from um community and also from our leaders that they wanted to make sure that we weren't just going to have a single section section of the grade level. So like we would as you can see on the slide we have multiple we have two to three session sections of each grade level running at each of the building. If we saw when we're you know going working through things in terms of what we didn't want was one grade level of fourth grade. We wanted them to have more of their peers in each

049of the building. So this is how in terms of the scenario proposed this evening we were able to um ensure that it's you know the numbers are pretty much the same across the board. What I want to point out with this is that with for example with Lloyd I'll use Lloyd Road um for this current year our science and our social studies there are certain content areas that go well above 27 students at this time. Um so in terms of proposal this evening we will not see that. So we were able to decrease class sizes specifically in our fourth and fifth graders, our fourth and fifth grades add. So now it's pretty much across the board. That's demographics and I and I notic in the audience we're taking notes. Great. We're taking pictures on screens.

050Great. Um just a quick reminder here all the data and tables and charts that you're seeing, we shared that with community last week. So it is in your email and this will also be posted to our district website. So if you happen to miss something you will have access to this. So the numbers might be small if you're sending back space. So if you have attended by the older news you attended our presentation on student test scores for the fall and then in November when we were at William the community we talked about current demographic numbers. These numbers reflect the new zoned schools. Again, we're looking to balance students, balance out the enrollment, balance out demographics. So, you look at our numbers, we are a lot in terms of balancing out based on race and

051ethnicity. And what's probably has been more interesting for us that the last column, if you go all the way to the the right, it says meals, those students who are eligible for free lunch. Those numbers are now also balanced. What's interesting is that they they have been increasing for the past couple of years. Um so that gives us opportunity to work with those families and work with those students. But when we look at just through the lens of our district and looking at the classrooms in our new schools, this is what the the numbers are showing us. So a sample just schedule. So we I talked a few minutes ago about some of the details that we're still working on. We meet with speak with principles all the time. and we meet collaboratively with our

052principles and our curriculum directors and we talk about scheduling what the schedule would look like in the new model of K5 or preK5. So here's a sample schedule. First thing I want to point out second thing I want to point out is that the times going down are going to look a little bit different than what we just talked about on the previous slide cuz you're still working through what those details would be like if you were to align the start times. But we wanted to show you that there's some consistency. So if you look at the period one 9:30 that says when open period is what I need that's an opportunity for students to get enrichment to get some remediation some prevention that is going to be a consistent model similar to what's happening

053this year at the road will consistently happen at all four. So same time, same approach, same curriculum, same resources, same desire to help students achieve. And then as you look through the schedule, you'll notice that we have our web of contents. There should be a block for writing. There is there's a block for reading, data reading. So that's phonics, that's um shared reading. There's a block for math, science, social studies, your enrichment courses, that's your art, music, physical world, language. They're not going away. They're studying. We're actually building schedules are more consistent from building to building which is important. Not this happens often but if it did if you lived in Cliffwood and moved to the burrow of Maton and you live you should be able to move on to the next school and the

054schedule will pick up and I say okay that is the goal that tightly for students this is what we're working on. just want to um talk about transportation. Um again um we have two options. We're currently on four tiers for transportation. This is the times we had to then the times are going to dictate the ti proposal. It will bring us to three tiers. Um and with that that will allow us to bring some routes back in the district. Um so for example our added district students that go to whether it's non-public or public um we would be able to um bring those routes back in and they will be driven to and from school with our with our buses. Currently we have an estimated $2.4 4 million that we scheduled that are um that's

055projected each year um for all of those additional crafts. Those additional crafts are not only special education. They include our vocational um our vocational students that go to um our M County vocational schools which are five of them and our career center. Um it also includes any homeless um that we are required to transport to and from school and it also includes any charter schools. So, some of our families, they've chosen to go to private schools, charter schools, and we are responsible to transport. Now, we save $2.4 million um because we can't bring in all of the routes. However, there will be some routes that we hope that we can bring um bring in the other piece to that we will add on for the 26 um going into the 26 27th school year. We

056currently this year we had eligible preschool eligible um preschoolers that were eligible for transportation about approximately about 157 students to Cambridge Park. 157 students that were eligible under our current transportation policy. 53 students are taking with us. 53. What we look to do is to again in terms of efficiency is that when students are not taking the bus, we will send out a letter when they first register. Number one, if you are eligible for busing, are you waving transportation? And the other piece is that when we start school on day one and we are not on the bus, if the child is not on the bus, asking again and outreaching to our families to ensure are they going to take the bus? because we have buses going to each of these homes every single day

057and the kids are not getting on the bus. That is not efficient. That's not efficient. So we are asking for our community members and our families to help us in terms of addressing that because when we get asked and our board of education members get asked in terms of can we get transportation across 35 can we do group sounds can we do all the things we can't do that because if parents are not saying they are not taking the bus and they don't sign off that waiver we cannot cancel the bus. we are required by law to offer based on our hazardous routes and our current policy. So I beg even after tonight, you know, in terms of even with anything that happens, that is something that we need to all together work as a

058community and collaborate on that with that. There are parents that are asking and asking there are parents that are paying for Ubers that to get their child to school when if we had availability then we can work together with the board of education and also with community members and see if we can make any changes in terms of our current policy. We can't do that now. So at this time so like I mentioned we'll send it out more information on that. But right now the projected in terms of the proposal um and what projected is three tiers um to be able to help with efficiency in terms of busing. Also with the busing what was interesting is that Fred um mentioned like all the routes and the lines. Um but was pretty neat about that

059is he he drew out lines in terms of where how busing how they're going all around town between Malon and Clifford Beach and Aberine to get students to school. They're they're on the bus for a long period of time. So sometimes going across towns. So in terms of this process, we were really looking to um to ensure that kids weren't on the bus a long time, but improving again efficiency and that they're not going across towns and we're able to go say down one road maybe a left or right, go down the same area and those kids are on the bus. The buses will have um K5 at this time. We're projecting that K5 will be on the bus. sustained. Our staff is extremely extremely important in this process. Not only from the very beginning

060of giving us feedback in some historical context, but then moving forward the success of this redistricting, a lot of that responsibility will be with them. So, we're here to support staff. So, there will be opportunities ongoing opportunities to support staff, provide professional development for specialized programming. So there there's going to be an exact classifier. We met the staff last week. There going to be some movement teachers that if they hadn't had the opportunity to be trained in specialized programs like foundations program schools or tools of the mind okay opportunity that they will be trained in those programs so that way they're ready to come back in the fall. There's great opportunities for vertical articulation. That means when you have K through five teachers that they can talk to the grade level above them. So that

061articulation is a great thing to have in place where they can say hey what are you learning in the previous grade? What should we expect when the kids come up? So that vertical articulation is great. And now that the K5 schedules are similar, we can have horizontal articulation. So third grade teachers across the district while they've always been they've had an opportunity to come together. That's not a new thing. This just makes it a little bit more efficient. Part of the process we have been going through regulating staff certifications. So in the state of New Jersey, you have to have these certificate to teach a particular grade level course. So every educator holds a certificate. So we go through review the certifications to make sure that the certificates are aligned to what teacher certificate someone

062has that that they are teach. That's a good thing. and that we we met with we met with staff in this room last Wednesday of the presentation. So the staff this we've traveled the buildings the directors principles constantly contact with their staff. So typically our staff find out in June what their assignment is going to be for next year this year. When we get back from spring break, staff notice in April, they will find out what their assignment is and continuously and what their location is new location. They'll be well aware so they can start the process of preparation. In terms of what everyone can expect and looking ahead for spring uh 2026, you can still expect end of year activities that are taking place in the elementary buildings. those are still on the grade

063level celebrations. Um and we also we over the last few weeks we developed a transition committee um that is our school social workers, some teaching staff along with um school psychologist to create um resources um for parents um resources for teaching staff in terms of how to support their students if they are transitioning to a new program and 20 and then we'll work through that throughout the summer as well for 26 27 school year we will have we do plan on having districtwide fifth grade activities and experiences. What that means is that um so for example and these are ideas we may need to come to fruition but these are things that were discussed at the table. Um so why not have a districtwide fifth grade um art the night of the arts where we

064house um all of our fifth graders come together they demonstrate their artwork or if it's the talents if it's um chorus and band and pulling along together and even have holding these activities not at the rope but holding on at the so this way they start to see the man's experience um because that'll be here together. Um, and they have opportunities to be able to walk the hallways and things and do those sort of activities together. And most importantly, but the key piece is bringing all the kids together. Um, we talked about even dances um as well um for the holidays. All all things are on the table in terms of planning. What we will we will do like we always do is collaborate with our PTOs and our parents in each of the buildings

065so that we can help coordinate this as well. The other um the other piece too is the preparation for the man's experience. Um in terms of we man holds a lot of shows. They just had grease this weekend, right? So um but taking our fifth graders over to Ms and seeing some of the shows so that they know the offerings too that are going to take place at M. So the team at MS um the administrative team at MS will will be taking the year in terms of how they're going to bridge um fifth to sixth grade and strengthen that transition time um for the for our students and whether it's schedules, electives and different activities. Um Wood Road is hosting a color run here. Um, but how great would it be to have like

066a districtwide color one? Um, and that we're all not just one building, but as a district that we're raising funds for what if it's back to go back to the schools wherever wherever um whatever we want really. But I think it's just really really lends itself to really creating that community feel for all of the buildings. So at this time um I'm going to turn it over to Miss provided I will ask if there's any questions. Um um I I think we'll start with four. Um I think we'll hear from the community first. Is that okay? I just had two things that I wanted to bring up. Um one is the preschool universe where the state determines um how many preschoolers we can or they expect and how many we've decided that we want to

067have. Um And then I just had a quick question. Is the wind program in all the schools now currently? >> Yes, but operating a little different. There's there's some variation in each of the um to to answer your question with the universe for the 26 27 school year. Now this was before um before elections um each district who receives PDA funds needed to make a projection complete. They gave us the number and then we had to say okay these are the number of students etc and submit to the department of education so they could come up with the formula how they're going to fund all the preschool programs. So the department of education told us that our universe back in the fall for the 26 27 was 505 students. So it was an increase in

068terms of the university and as I mentioned before on the other slide that is not what we will be serving for the following school year. Good evening. My name is Amanda Nallet and I'm a parent in the district who will hopefully have children attending both Cambridge Park and Lloyd Road. I'd like to express my concern about the proposed start and end times for these schools. As they are currently presented, the schedules are drastically different. And for families like mine with children in both buildings, coordinating morning drop off and afternoon pickup will be extremely difficult. Additionally, Lloyd Grove does not offer prek like some of the other schools. This already separates families who may want their children in the same building when possible, and the large difference in start and end times only adds to that

069challenge. I'm also concerned that having white road and track started and end at the same time could create significantly heavier traffic in the area during arrival and dismissal, which could impact both efficiency and safety being that they are so close. I understand that balancing schedules across the district is complicated, but these decisions have a real impact on famil family's daily lives. My question for the board is whether the impact on families with children in both Cambridge Park and Lloyd was considered when determining these times and if there is still an opportunity to adjust them. I strongly encourage the board to reconsider the current time differences in a way that better suits families in our community. >> Thank you very much. Um before you respond to this question just I would like to keep this portion

070of the meeting to questions specifically related to the presentation. Public comment will be part of a regular board meeting as we usually have. So I appreciate that but comments will be for public comment. This is for questions. Um so we'd like to stick to our you know just questions based on this presentation. So specific um scenarios that apply to your family would probably test um directed to the administration. >> Yes. So, thank you for your feedback. Of course, we appreciate that. Um is there still room or opportunity to move times? Yes, this that's a sample of the schedule. Are we locked in? No. But are we pretty close? Yes, we are. In terms of traffic, knock back it out. If you go to constructor, for example, for missiles, the traffic that section, we understand that

071we work with police often in terms of how we best approach buying the cars around our buildings. That's an ongoing conversation with them. It's a work in progress, but it's on top of our in terms of keeping community safe travel around town. So we recognize that we look at the current schedule and we have road different times in straight on the same schedule. Will it change volume? Yes, we're aware of that. The timing for that. So we do the best that we can knowing that we create the walks. We anticipate that there are older students who are walking through bikes. It's a great thing there. We do allow our older students to walk with younger students. So there are opportunities for that to go all over again. Right? So not only are we creating some

072of the traffic for for us moms and dads coming over there streets that people access. So >> if there's um specific I've witnessed the administration work families to solve problems of all kinds. So I think it's best to email them or directly you have a specific concern for your family there's anything that can be worked out before. >> Hello. Thank you. I appreciate you guys taking questions now very long. Um some questions I had um regarding the information down uh there's been reference to five tiers 34 tiers actually sure what the four are currently I'm just language tier the elementary road maps high school plus all of the other districts so I was wondering if we can consolidate it down to 84 or if there's a way to manage the out of district buses correctly

073run as of the last meeting two different buses to partition mentality of those just one bus we are able to cut off that way to possibly consider changing the time and keeping my bridge and bridge closer to that 8:45 lead down to 8:30 8:15 just because for 34 year olds they're open they're up to 7 a.m. in terms of if we are at home is able to get them up and out of the house 7:30 kids who might be going to school at 95. Um, and then I know for that sake is not out there for Cambridge and Wbridge. When my son went to Whitebridge, he's currently going to work next year. He was automatically signed for bus. I had no idea he was even on it until I turned Genesis and transportation be like,

074"Hey, he's not taking the bus and that's on it." So, if there's a way to kind of My parents said, "Hey, we're on it Genesis. Opt out." That way maybe we could plan to adjust the one bus that's going to heat one bus that's maybe a big bus there. And let's see in terms of a foreign afterare um if we can get pricing out for that less fee and currently they're going to be operating a $35 premium afterare which is a significant difference in cost between me and that time they were not aware of the time change when I spoke to them last week so they have not yet and that's something to keep into consideration because a bridge preschool students at the same time at the same time have to pay difference in which

075we'll have to every single day so that's going to be something that's a big family for us and also in terms of the high school starting later I know there has been a trend of times moving later I know some schools delivering back to that in the area pushing back that earlier. And in terms of the athletic component, I just looked at my email. I have 20 emails I did of students who had to leave before we released different dates because students had to be released earlier between 12:30, 12:30, 1:15. So if the school day is getting out later, that means they're missing more school. They're not just missing 45 minutes, missing an hour and a half or maybe two hours. So that's something I was wondering you take into consideration >> especially speak about

076Lidge. >> Yes. Um like Life Bridge received the same community notification that was sent out to communities. Lidge is not um is they're a community member. They wouldn't receive any of the specific details. That's so that's why they don't know exactly what's happening for all of the buildings across the district. um when we talk about five will have before and afterare um we will address um any separately those terms and costs exactly um those situations and then YMCA will be placing out once we finalize um schedules and things like that they will begin to finalize their prices as well um that all comes out we're right in the middle of planning so that is all coming out within the next few weeks that's our typical um that's just our typical October is not um in

077terms of any other the other brief shape or feedback we definitely um I want to emphasize that that is a sample schedule that is tenative to change and that's why we as larger um I know what everyone needs to walk away is that there will be changes in the school in the school hours there will be changes um what they they may not be mapped out specifically that way however there will definitely And that was the purpose of us sharing that with our community that there is definitely going to be change in school hours for next year. The board does not vote on the school hours. What they're voting on this evening is the redistricting and the zooming um for next year. Any specific questions? >> Question or comment? >> What was the reasoning behind

078Cambridge. So uh boy road um we cannot house there the playground is not so um and then park we all those classrooms are out school in terms of keeping it clear not transporting kids have a lot that we have it kind of put us in a spirit. That's why they probably have bathrooms. However, the outside remember years ago was um we have in terms of buildings department that So they'll say for example they said you want to use those two classrooms they don't have bathrooms they went around the building we said that that classroom has bathroom that classroom has bathroom those parts so they tell I also want to thank you guys for giving us the time to comment and ask questions. Um, for context, my family was reasoning to Lloyd in Cambridge. So, I

079want to see a lot of this people have spoken up already. I don't want to meet a dead horse. Um, but my question, Mr. Le, you had mentioned that one of the reasons we're having the gap in the start time going to Cambridge is so parents have time to take their kids to both locations. But in what scenario would you need over an hour and 80 minutes to be exact, to get from Cambridge to Long Beach? I also want to say that my school asleep until 7:30, if not 8. But the the concerns that you're sharing, you're thinking of in terms of um the amount of time being too much. You can flip the room and have 50 people here saying it's not enough time and that feedback that we've been hearing stress this year

080for many many years. It's not enough time. So we have to find a balance, right? So take your feedback and take your feedback to try to find that balance. But just be aware the same frustrations that you're feeling the opposite frustrations are happening. I also want to point out that we also we also I look back at school times we also said hey can we do a like so we're kind of we're still again I can't emphasize about that we're still working that was my first I'm like let's do this and then no that doesn't work like so everything that we did before right now what is it we can't you can't work sometimes between the end times and this time so it's very glad transportation type actually help us as well. So we're also

081troubleshooting with our department here but then the department that works at city they're also they have all of the information as well. So they're also saying hey you guys that this might work better. So there are still that question. >> Hi um I appreciate that you guys did some districtwide fifth grade activities. Um I noticed you specifically mentioned certain like PTO activities like lipstick, graduation, carnival and all things that you can create normally together. Are those included in it as well be talked about? >> We would love that. That's for um for us to to discuss and collaborate with so >> Hi. Um my question is pertaining to more towards the boy road teachers. I know that most of them have taught fourth and fifth grade basically for quite a while. And I know if

082you're um elementary, it's K through five, but are we going to have some early childhood education teachers transfer there as well? I don't know. My daughter is younger, so I'm a little more concerned that those teachers are used to the older programs and maybe to get some other teachers coming in or just get their own train, but you know, just a refresh on some of the younger programs that I love that question. Um, and we are in the process of staffing and that is our goal is to ensure that our staff at the grade level um in a sense with their experience or personal certification and then um also with experience we can make everyone happy. Um however um we did um as part of our workflow each year this time we send out all

083staff members um and intent to return. And so after that form is distributed the all staff members are required to complete it to boss personnel and they include hey you know I love my spot or I would like to transfer I want to try a second grade level I'd like to switch and they could range from retirement there's all sorts of reasons that they can put in terms of indicate how bad that form went out before the plan and then we went just to ensure that our staff had voiced we distributed next month. So with that um with the test staff are asking for what they're requesting may be able to accommodate um may not um in that building now in terms of ensuring that all staff um we have experienced staff at the level

084um so that's where the switch is really but yes it's very impressive and if they don't have the training and they selected to teach first if they don't know what they selected first grade. Um, which is great too because then they know where they're scaffolding up to get them ready for the next grade level. So those are always always wonderful opportunities. They know what to teach the kids um to get them ready to grade level. So that's a great opportunity. But at the same time, we also recognize that any changes like that. questions on the presentation. Thank you so much for answering all the questions. I will question as well. Um just to reiterate if you have a specific concern about your own family situation, please and you know see what any alternative solutions or

085just even to for lack of a better word. I'm sure you know we've been hearing from lots of people and you know we are the best for please don't let you reach out to us we are not personalizing we recognize that um this is a big deal for um um we recognize that um two guests are older but it's always very daunting transition children so please know that um presented was thoughtful. It was interpreted and that really question Um, so some of our questions were actually similar similar to the audience questions. Um, but a couple of others that I know that answer that really was that was basis for a lot of the questions that you just want to clarify what you just mentioned. Um, Okay. So, so we still have that. So the general

086so regular specials are integrated and then still have so like enjoyed but um they used to have the art club after school and fifth graders in um at the elementary not all some activities that we offer in the building, right? So the team the administrative team at each of those buildings came up with the interest that students are saying that they had and also based it off of what currently has where their interests are. So your board name is another one but they have so and then I'm guessing school based on the students that are actually in those schools where the interests are whatever it is they will find out where the interests So of course for example And then I know it sounds like the lunch periods. So in terms of lunch periods maybe

087right now it's a time Just make sure like that's They are possible right now. Thank you very much. I know that a lot of times this building together. Share with the community. perfectly aligned with our teaching plan. in terms of the specific schedules and all of that will be forthcoming to um share that but also share um before the school year starts. So it may not be by June but early July finalizing schedule. And again, this is something that the board does not have any voting ability on specific even um just occur to me that opportunity to do very couple special. Um so I have a third grader who is directly affected by two children system my elementary school. Um my third grade so um a big um concern for me with all the um

088enrichments and the extracurriculars and all those things that occur. very important to me that um they are implemented in all four elementary. So I know that we're talking about it now together and that's phenomenal. Thank you. I really really really hope that we see that through um this next year. Um, I would love to see the Google form come out in the fall that does every fall with the interest. I know that we're talking about interest now in buildings, but what's the interest next year? So, gardening sounds amazing. I didn't even know that was a club. Fantastic. But I can't say I think my children are interested in gardening. Um, you know, games and chess, that's fun, too. But I think there are other ones also that we probably talking about because not here, but

089I just want to make sure they're all getting like art. And then there are indoor sports that the kids like play and rotate through. I think that's a club also. Um Buddies is phenomenal. Safety patrol continues. Um and I'm assuming that the clubs are really just geared towards the older children, the older grade levels in elementary schools. Like I don't know if it's the fifth, third, fourth, and fifth. But I don't even sure how that's going to play out, but um I do really want to see all of those again by interesting unfortunately, but by interest um so I hope to see that. And then uh my next um my next main concern was the transitioning of the fifth graders, the fifth graders, the incoming fifth graders. I know that they're going to be missing

090their friends like a lot for one year. Um, and all the activities that we do and road um again such a phenomenal um I hope that by the PTO maybe the PTO's can collaborate, right? I hope the PTO parents out in the audience now maybe the presidents can talk in all the buildings and maybe come up with districtwide um events that all four buildings can get together. I know a lot of fun things are fun. So maybe there are some things that go buildings can get together and together. I don't know. I I asked some of the moms today actually maybe try to do something like that. I'm not on the details, but um I think that would be really special to readers um because they are amazing, you know, together events that they think.

091Um and then uh my last thing I guess I was just curious about the first thing because I do see um 7:30 I mean I know early forever um but 7:30 is early so I'm wondering like do they transformation. >> Right. Right. So, right those that eligible for transportation. Okay. Because I see that makes sense. the dance because there wasn't enough time to get all the basketball. I was thinking if there was no transportation for the preschool. people knowing that babies are required. to make sure that it is probably something to It probably takes a lot longer for three or four year olds to get on and off with us. So that's also part of that time because you particularly like seeing the class sizes even though you know the cohorts are all going to

092be like in two third grade classrooms and two different classes. The fact that there's like 20 grades. Yeah. So the fact that their class sizes are um 20 to 22 students roughly I think that's 20 to 2. I think that's going to be something experience you know you can pay more attention and get more I don't know but I feel like you be able to spend a little bit more time with the students having students in the classroom um but anyway thank you so much for I I only have one kind of piggy backing on because of the opportunity here because we have a lot of very active parents. I'm seeing a lot of folks that I I know are very active parents. Um so this is more of a question comment and it's probably

093more open to the community because it's um we're I mean I'm aware and I think we're all aware that Floyd Rose PTO is going to be kind of most folks are not going to be there anymore. So those of you all I mean my kids are older unfortunately otherwise I'd not but those of us that are still need to start thinking about how we can support that and and those with the community I think that need help especially those who need um because that kind of has to get built um because almost everybody else we got a today funds. So, we obviously have nothing to do with PTO funds, but I think a question was valid in terms of the funds that are at PTO right now. Um, you know, that's another question to put

094to our PTOs to see what the plans are and just to the members and the parents requested a few times over a couple years sometimes administration together leadership all together to talk about an issue issue conference. Um and so maybe this is a time for everybody to come together. Anybody else? >> Yes. You know, we spoke about it the other day and now I'm stuck on it and I think it's a great idea while we're redistricting one stop bus stop for community members. One of the suggestions and I think that know how long ago, but there used to be more roads. There used to be um group stops by 34 and 35 where students if they wanted to take a bus shutt days. Um, and they cross those highways. And then um so that discuss

095something and see what we can do to support However, >> thank you so much. Um, thank you, Mr. getting this contribution together building principles, administrators, directors, supervisors, appreciate all your help. Um, I know it's a big thing that's going to, you know, benefit including our class sizes and things like that. So, um, moving on, um, I'm going to um, we're on to our next big list budget. Last year, the board approved a balanced budget without the state's tax incentive proposal that would raise the tax by double digits. The difficult decision to reject the increase reflects our commitment to protecting taxpayers while safeguarding instruction and services. The same disciplined approach is guiding the 26 27 budget. A public hearing and board adoption of the final budget is coming this spring. Details will be provided as we

096get closer. This year's planning has included considerations tied to redistricting focused on resources, staffing, programming, and transportation. We're also keeping the state of our facilities top of mind. Some of them are aging for the systems in MRA. As always, the district must include unfunded and state required in our budget consideration as well. For example, just one is the cursive writing curriculum. So, we have not talked cursive in a while. there's going to be some curriculum attached to that, some training attached to that that will be um an unfunded cost to the school district. Um next year, uh as everybody is probably aware, the phone the man the state is mandating no cell phones bell to bell. So first bell to last bell, no cell phones districtwide statewide. So um the board of education's current policy

097is pretty close to that to be honest. So um we will be looking at that getting it ready for next year to make sure that it's completely wellto eliminated and how the you know how that it's followed adhere to and and discipline involved in that as well. Um it's an effort to support focus engagement and meaningful social connection. Um, one thing that me personally, and we'll talk to the board about it, I'm considering initiatives to delay social media use among students as research continues to demonstrate its detrimental impact on youth mental health. There's a lawsuit going on right now following in court that claims social media companies know that or knew that their apps could be addictive for kids and failed to to change actually made them more addictive. Um, Mammoth County and on that

098note, Mammoth County Mental Health Symposium at Brookdale Community College is happening on Wednesday. It's one of the things they talk about. Um, last year we focused on a book called The Anxious Generation. It's very eye opening uh book and uh it's free and open to the public. It's on Wednesday at Community College at 5:30. I've gone the last couple years. This year's keynote is called Positive Childhood Experiences Are the Foundation of Lifelong Resilience. And the first 300 people will get a book called unselfy themed at helping kids keep others in mind in a world that's centered in an all about me that too. So sounds interesting and that is the president's report. Move on to agenda items curriculum and instruction. >> Thank you. We're asking the board to take take action on this agenda. So

099item A is travel. Item B in red lab. We're asking the board to take action. Superintendent recommended that the Mad Lab Regional School District Board of Education approve the MSD redistricting school proposal which includes grade level configurations and school boundaries for implementation beginning the 26th December school year. We're also asking the board to approve items 2, three, and four which are field trips. That concludes curriculum instruction. >> I have a motion and a second to approve the curriculum instruction agenda. Any questions? >> Student services arrest board to take action seeing on listing services agenda. Arrest the board to approve item number one, which is bedside instruction for students as listed with cost effective dates as listed. Item number two, which is a permission to approve bedside instruction for the student as listed with cost effective

100dates as listed. Item number three, we're asking the board to approve the following students who attend district placement 25 through 26th school year program cost listed. Item number four, ask the board to approve the following tuition and extraordinary aid rebuild for the 23 24 25 school year as listed. That's on the bottom of page 102 continues on the top of page 202. And item number five, ask the board to approve a revision of the student was previously approved at the June agenda. We're asking the board to approve the recommendation for the student title 121 for this replacement for 25 days of the school year with the program cost listed that includes student services. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion in the second to approve the curriculum and sorry student services agenda? >> Any

101questions? I have a question about the extraordinary aid rebuild. Can you just explain why that happens in I know I know this case isn't here but it's an important piece that I think is all about. >> So basically they can bill us as long as they want to. Avery bill is there was an original approval rule that the board approved um perhaps a year and a half ago, two years. Each each um private school they have up to 2 years to say hey was the wrong rate. Um we increased rates we you need to pay change and we have to pay that makes sense. This case really we have we're obligated to any other questions and personnel. >> Thank you. Uh this evening we are asking the board to take action on personnel items as

102follows. Uh we have several items in red. uh one including the resignation and retirement of page 106 I'm sorry the retirement of Kelly Vera uh 32 years of service um as listed and then in section B we have leaves of absence as listed uh all leaves of absence on page one of six and 206 have gone through the proper protocols and terms of approvals on page three of six we have appointments as listed. Uh we have bus drivers, both appointments which are going to help us out in the transportation department. Uh we then have curriculum construction approvals for a midday tutorial program taking place at the high school which is exciting. Uh and then on page three of six we have staff rate changes. Uh all staff array changes uh have gone through proper scrutiny

103in order to provide services for students in those classes with certified teachers. Uh that goes on to page six listed. On page five of six, we have three student observers. Two of which are new and are red that we're asking the board to take action on. Uh these are students who will work within our school district not volunteer but uh they would be doing fulfilling class requirements for college or university. Uh we have volunteers listed. Uh we have a district volunteer um who is a district employee and then we also have a non-dist employee as a volunteer is listed. In section D on page 506 we have the ifs from last month we have school nurse for graduation events for both middle school and high school uh to supervise our graduation in June. And then

104on page six of six, we have this calendar up and we also have in red items five, six, and seven um as listed. That concludes personnel. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the personel agenda? >> Um any questions? more of a comment than a question. I know that the Jewish calendar functions differently in the history um calendar, but I'm very disappointed to see that there are no days off Passover. I think this is the first year since I've been a resident of Man. I don't So, so very disappointed to see that as a choice. >> Any other questions? >> Well, I I did have a question. the uh uh I just for background a little bit my younger son has been on one of the roots the double

105up roots and I was just wondering these new hires are all open positions filled now for school bus driver >> no unfortunately not but we're close to but we do have some folks who are on the scene I talked with supervisor today and these folks I think And then I also want to take a moment to um congratulate Mrs. Farah on her retirement. Um she again her son she had a very outsized role in his young education and support our family during a critical time. So I I appreciate her. Mom's going to pick you up. Well, I'm going to piggy back off of you and congratulate um Miss Dra on her years of service here. or 812 32 years. Um, and I hope you enjoy your retirement. Thank you. Um, so there go congratulations to

106Okay. So, um two questions. One is regarding as the um high school midday tutorial. So, how does that work? Is it how is it determined when students get to take part in it? When do they take part in it since it's day? How does that work? So did this grant. And so part of the grant is to identify subgroups of students who fell all the benchmark assessments. And so typically those subgroups similar to the chart I showed. As I know this is two of the three. So staff are available. Um, I have one other question which I know I sent in. Um, over the past several months, uh, you know, ironic and so I noticed that we have this agenda, um, five positions in transportation. Um uh well between the two agendas we have a

107number of leave of absences um in the transportation department and I just want to make sure I want to better understand how are we feeling about coverage. Do we have enough coverage number two how are we handling it? I know you mentioned doubling into your doubling route. Um as we move I want this to be top of mind for all of us and we're saying we're dropping from with that and make sure that it's empty. Um but just something we really have to be mindful of um especially dropping down So um to answer your first question if it's impacting um the operations of the department it is um doubling um some rounds and our transportation coordinator and another staff member that is usually in the office um they are now on house as well. So

108which then takes place when a parent is calling um as we all so it ensures that they are all they're allian monitor get Hi, I have a question about the volunteers. I see that one district volunteer is a district staff member, one volunteer is not staff member. Is there a difference in the vetting process? Um how is it selected that someone is from district or non-district? How how does that process work? >> The the process is the same. It's the same process. Um if it's a district employee, they won't have to go they wouldn't have to rather go through the same protocols at the time because they have previously been to work and students would rather say but the process is the same. We wanted to distinguish so that community would know and board would

109know that there is a variation between the two. >> Thank you. I know that there is a specific requirement in terms of coaching that that there has to be at least a subcertification according to the board policy. So that that volunteer is either certified or will be alongside a certified coach. >> Yes, we're still following this. Sorry. Um I know that uh I'm always very intrigued by like all the different offerings in the high school, but I don't quite understand everything yet. Um probably will, but um I see that I in the past we've talked about how like we have um collaborations the the Malawan region collaborations with different colleges in the area. So, I wrote down a while ago like FDU, Rowan, Delaware, and I don't know if Common was one of them or

110not, but I see we have two um we have two what is this um observers um coming into the district for teaching and one of our students. Yeah, all for teaching special ed and then math. So, is that because of the collaboration we have or is that just because people are want to come to our district to observe? Oh, they live they live in there. But is that because of the collaboration or not? >> No, I'm sorry. That typically the program, the university they assign, but sometimes students do have a say in where they would like to go and if they live in town, they will say, "Hey, can I get paired up maybe with my school that I went to? Sometimes that does happen, but typically the university has partnerships with the district." >>

111We have partnerships with universities. So, correct? >> Yes. In these cases, these are students who attend those those universities. >> Yeah, but that's not okay. >> No, no, that's just >> But our collaboration then is for credits for different for different career paths. Is that what that's >> Yes, you're talking about more pretty much. I think Mr. Le was just talking about programs and things like that. religion. I think you said FDU. >> Yeah. We have like a STEM with FDU and then those those are programs where like some students are in high school but they can also take college courses while they're in high school simultaneously. So those are those types of partnerships. So that's more of that explain more. But >> can can you quickly I always love hearing about this and I'm

112in that trajectory like I'm heading there. So I'm I'm just I'm sorry. >> Sure. So you're speaking of um dual enrollment dual junior college courses as our high school. Yes. So FDU is anticipating partnership uh has a couple Stevens Institute for next year that Delbert Doug pass on the university of course program. So those are opportunities where that organ high school students were enrolled in the high school and also enroll those universities in a course and earn high school credit. >> Okay. Okay. more on the agenda don't have that type of relationship but we have a very good relationship. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. I always see um familiar names for student observers. So I know some of them do come from the community and it's fun to see

113that I knew them the way that went. So um also congratulations to Miss Farah. She's my older daughter's um I only have one daughter but my older child's first principal. And just fun fact, I used to go to high school and college with her but we didn't really know each other principal here. Um and I also had a question about Oh, it was answered. It was about the coach. So that's it. Any other questions about personnel? Um okay, moving on. to policy. Dr. >> Thank you. Uh we are asking for to take action on one policy per second read and adoption. Uh that policy is 8561 procurement procedures for school nutrition program. Um which this is a second read. That's all for policy. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second to

114approve the agenda? Any questions? Finance agenda. >> Good evening everyone. Under finance, we're asking for approval on the following items. the board secretary monthly report for January 2026 payroll certification under items number one receipt and acceptance of the January 2026 board secretaries report item number two the treasur's report item number three um the appropriation transfers item number four the revised added district 2526 school year item number five the added district tuition for 2526 for um one student um which is prrated to attend our peace academy. Under item number six, another student um pr-rated for the remainder of the year to attend our peace academy. Under item number seven, approval for the special education Medicare initiative known as semi action plan for the 2627 school year. This is required um for approval prior to a budget

115presentation. Uh we do not meet uh 90% parental consent responses uh for the revenue for um for students who are getting services, but we're trying to build include some fun medic. Um under item number eight, we're asking for um February 2026, the acceptance of the district enrollment report. Item number nine, fire and evacuation drills as listed. Item number 10, award of rental contract for student transportation. And item number 11, um the award of transportation of ad district routes for the um 2526 school years. There were some adjustments as listed that includes finance. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the finance agenda? >> Any questions? >> Okay, thank you. Okay. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on matters of interest to the school community. Individuals wishing

116to speak must state their name and address. Comments are listed for three minutes duration and an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard. All statements should be directed to the board president and no participant may address or question the board members individually. All speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others whose legal rights may be affected. Please note, while it's not the board's intention to stifle comment on matters of legitimate concern, the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law of definition or invasion of privacy, they may face personal liability to the injured party. If speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of

117their comments, the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal advisor. Do we have any public comments? I am Hoffman and I live in um I have the unique ability to be a teacher in this district and also a parent. So I guess I'm going to ask from the teacher point of view is there any way your calendar can be rebuilt that now it might not reflect this but in the past elementary schools for parenting teacher conferences have been the same as Cambridge Park. So, I have not been able to attend Rebecca's conferences. Is there any way of Cambridge on its separate place than elementary? Um, and one year the high school um could put and Cambridge all on the same schedule. At least high school was flip-flop with my schedule. So,

118I have never been to I really like to. So, I don't know if it's set in stone. I don't want to make more words, but I really really appreciate. >> I'm sorry. Can you just tell us your name and your where do you live? >> I'm Cameron and I live at three Bailey Road. Dearend, assistant superintendent President and the and the board of education members. I'm great student. I'm speaking in regards to the redistricing plan for next year. I I understand you are decisions to make for all students in Meline and Aberdine. However, I disagree with your decision not to bring in color students into Lloyd Road to want to stay. I disagree for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have worked hard to adjust to Lloyd Road as a new school. I'm

119a straight A student who cares a lot about school, but changes still are. Switching back to Strathmore where I was from kindergarten to third grade and then to the next year means three big changes in three years. Second of all, I have made some really good friends since kindergarten at Strathmore, but they are all staying at Lloyd. Also, me and everyone had just entered Lloyd where just met new friends and now you're separating us. Many of my new friends will go back to Raven. So, what I'm trying to say is that because of this redistricting, it feels like to all of us that we have to say goodbye to our brand new friends. My request is to allow students that want to stay at Louis Road to stay there. It is a single year but

120would make a lot of kids happy. If the main problem is the class size, I don't think it would be a big issue. I currently have 26 kids in my classroom and I don't think that a couple more kids would make a big difference, especially considering the tradeoff. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you so much, Cameron, for coming out and and talking to us. We appreciate I know that it's not easy to do and thank you so much for waiting until your turn. I appreciate it. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Rich Valley Road on campus staff. Um I appreciate all the work that's gone into this redistricting plan. It's a lot of work, time, and effort um to balance the the enrollment and maintaining optimal class size. A letter

121sent to the community states that the plan is intended to provide stability and support continued educational success. I respectfully ask that the board consider allowing current fourth graders the option to be grandfather so they can complete their final year of elementary school at Cameron attended Strathmore third grade from fourth grade will turn into Strathmore for fifth grade then transition again to middle school to sixth grade that's four schools in four years which feels like the complete opposite of stability for a child research from organizations like the American Academy of Pediat atrics and the National Association of School Psychologists emphasizes that children in late elementary school benefit greatly from stability, consistent routines, strong peer relationships, especially in the years just before transition to middle school. I also understand the the goal of managing class sizes. The

122materials reference class has a potential reaching 27 to 29 students. But as Cameron shared, her student her class is already 26 students and projected to grow this year, which suggests that allowing this one grade level to remain would likely have minimal impact on class size, but a mutable impact on the students involved. Allowing grandfathering for current fourth graders would not change the district's long-term plan. who has simply allowed this group of students to finish their elementary experience with classmates that they've already grown up. We we support the district's long-term plan. We're simply asking for a little flexibility for children who are already in the middle of their elementary school journey. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you so much. Um, first I want to thank Cameron for um for your courage and

123for coming here tonight. You waited a long time and I love the email that you sent um to myself and the rest of the board was beautiful, well written. So your your experience I can see just in your writing was phenomenal. Um, and you know, I I I wrote in terms of friendships, um, I hope you know that friendships are going to evolve. You're going to keep your friends and but I know, however, it is a difficult time for our kids to build those friendships and sometimes they have to go through a change, too. Um, which is challenging, but we're here for you, too. Um, so Mr. enough. We did um like we there's a lot of there's a lot of the work that wasn't shared tonight and one of once we heard about um

124families and kids wanting to stay at the board and considering that grandfather in we worked tirelessly and really hard to try and make that happen. However, it put us over capacity building. So um that is why we had to say all right we have to make a hard decision in terms of um you know not allowing it and then to select certain individuals who um wanted don't want it um there was a mix of feedback of that as well but we really really did try to over capacity over over building when I say over capacity not the classroom over building capacity for the one year but we did we did really try to do that with this Yeah, I think um it gets to be very tricky when you want to try to individually approve

125um certain exceptions and it puts the district administrators in a really awkward spot. So um I understand why that is not considered that way. Um the other thing that I just want to bring up is the stability piece is while stability of the students is really important the way we were looking at it was the stability of the district the the health of the district over the next decade. So that is a little bit different from the kind of although very important is different from the stability that you're speaking of just to clarify that. Hi, Angela Del University 75 in Delaney. So, I know um spoke about a lot. I think it's a big thing with the fifth grade activities. Um I had more of a suggestion talking about this with other parents. Um having

126a fifth grade whole PTO instead of each school. So, a PTO for fifth grade and that's where kind of use the boy fun that fourth graders, fifth graders use for that. thing that that stability for the kids my daughter's very upset her best friend she wants to travel more so just to keep them together especially graduation stuff so I think that's a s suggestion for PT as a whole to do whole fifth grade stuff together that's a good suggestion also maybe um even if it's for that transition year you know to have that overlap of a PTO that's covering the entire grade while we get through this. You know, I think we all know that that fourth grade current fourth grade cohort is the most impact. Thank you. If you don't mind just kind of

127commenting on that that I think I'm hearing exactly what's going through my head is that some of the things that our our fifth grade right now was capable of doing is because it's so big and that maybe something like that. That's not a bad idea. a fifth grade district-wide PTO if people are into it because then going forward that that you're not I don't know it could be interesting like a healthy transition to dance and you're able to do some really spectacular things but you got that many kids so that many parents involved just thank you so much um I really appreciate all the thoughtful questions responses emails, board, lots of questions. Um, we're asking a lot of the same questions that the community is asking. Um, so we're kind of here as the that's

128our sort of role as being representative of the community. So, we're really taking that seriously. We hear from other people, not just ones email us. We're hearing from, you know, friends and family and all of that. So, um, appreciate everybody here and your thoughtful questions as well as all of you who have come out, emailed us and, um, submitted questions as well and comments. Again, we get feedback, good events. So, it's always great. It helps us learn and grow, too. Um, I think if there's no other public comments, we we'll move on to roll call vote. This is a tough one. >> Mr. Skooley. >> Yes. >> Mr. McGovern. >> Yes. >> Mr. Montella? >> Yes. >> Mr. Montel? >> Yes. >> Miss Pal? >> Yes. >> Miss Scott? >> Yes. >> Miss Fru? >>

129Yes. >> Miss Files? >> Yes. He says I have to abstain from student services number five. >> Thank you. And Miss Warick. Yes, Cameron. Hi. I would just like to say this isn't an easy decision. I It affects my son also. I know um he's in third grade, so he would be going to Lloyd Brook School and having the experiences that you had there. and some of his friends are going he's districted for Strathmore and his friends are going to um he's not going to have the lawyer experience and he's going to be separated from his friends too for 2 years and when he sees his friends again at Vans they're going to be completely different people but you know what I'm going to do I'm going to do my best to keep them together

130as much as I can in those two years because it's not an easy decision to make and I have to you know keep our friends our friends regardless of what building All right. Okay. But you'll see your friends again. Okay. >> Thank you for that. Sorry. Do we have any unfinished business? >> Okay. Um I think for unfinished business we can give an update on Do you have any updates for facilities and finance? >> Uh we did and um board workshop where we went over finance in terms of um so in terms of uh we met uh we discussed that the governor had pushed out the um stated budget to u March 10th right yeah tomorrow um and then from there we hope to hear our numbers shortly thereafter. And then on the 23rd of

131March, sorry, um on the 23rd of March, uh we'll do a topline um budget presentation for um approval and from there uh at the end of April will be the bigger presentation um to the community. Uh yeah, so we're keeping everything in mind. Um you know, we've talked to I think the last time I updated the community, I said we talked to all the building administrators um to see what the priorities were. We've also since then talked to facilities um to see with that as we've discussed numerous times um across quarantine past year. Our roofs are in um not great shape. Obviously our all seven buildings are out of um therefore next year um and we'll be discussing it a lot more in months to come. do plan on putting out their referenda from the

132roofs. Um, currently, especially as we did snow. Um, we had a lot of leaks that happened within the buildings. Um, so actually two buildings in particular, it was road and drive. Um, so something to keep in mind, but we're also keeping that in mind for this year's budget, any sort of grouping workers that can roll this over. Um, and those are big topics for finance. >> Thank you very much. Um, policy update very general. I think we're kind of on pause right now. Um we closed out policy, healthy coaches policy and we're putting on hold the facilities to publish what we're doing with the budget and in the meantime I think the next one will stop what the state previously will start towards the cell phone policy. We have the state guidance already so things

133in place. >> Yes. Thank you so much. I think we worked um hard to get it to a place um that it's not going to be a huge change. I think it might be a huge change for the students um but because they're used to having it at certain points in the day, but hopefully they'll get used to it. It'll be better for any new business. I I did actually this is New Jersey School Association um that I wanted to share. that the um schoolboard association um uh Mont County Association, excuse me, is having their eighth grade dialogue tomorrow. So that's um eighth graders from around the districts um uh join up at at their location county and they just talk about um emerging issues as they see it in education which is really cool

134because they're eighth grade. Um, and so we have a we have a member uh coming from all hands and so um I'm going to attend and uh yeah, it's going to be a good time. >> Thank you, Miss Paul. I was hoping somebody would be able to attend from the board because unfortunately I won't be able to make it. Um can I give a little shout out to um uh the M's production of Greece over the weekend? Um, I had the privilege of attending on Friday night, opening night, and I have to say that everybody is so talented up there. They did a great job. Again, Mr. Lavine made a uh surprise guest performance appearance. Um, so that was pretty cool. Um, I just want to congratulate everybody. It was a really cool show. I

135was the same. I had the pleasure of seeing it multiple times in a 24-hour period. Um, and it was great every time. And those kids work so hard and unbelievable. They're so proud of themselves. And uh, the high school has coming up in two weeks. Thank you. I participated in Reading Across America Day in Strathmore. It's my first time reading there. Um, I actually did move from somebody mentioned it to Everine. So, um, didn't get to I went to Cliff. My kids went to Cliffwood and so I've never really been to Strathmore. So, that was kind of interesting and good to get inside there and I had a nice time reading to the children. They were great. Um, I read One Fish, Two Fish. Forgot how great that book is. It's a pretty cool book.

136That was fun. Um, any other? No. Thank you so much. Be it resolved that a closed session be convened for the purpose of discussing privacy, personal matters, and legal advice. The subject matter of these discussions will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality subsides. Although the board cannot guarantee it, the length of executive session is estimated to be 45 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action will not take place. Can I have a motion and a second to convene close session? Motion. Thank you.