001the time is now 6:30 welcome to the Madan ay Regional School District Board of Education meeting for March 20th the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or agreed upon in accordance with the provision of this act the Matan aine Regional School District Board of Education advertised this meeting on June 5th 2024 in the Asbury Park Press and the Star Ledger these notices were sent to the municipal Clerks of the burough of madaan the township of aine and the mwan aine public library these notices were also placed on the district website we please stand for the to the of the United States of America and
002to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Mrs Mr M here M Mr mon here Scott here M BR here M Martinez here M here [Applause] be it resolved that a closed session be convened for the purpose of discussing privacy personnel and legal services 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 30 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action will take place and I have a motion and a second to enter executive session second we are in ex executive session um back in session for theit of the whole can I have a motion second to
003accept correspondence to the board super good evening and Happy Spring doesn't feel like it um I just have a brief update because as we're going through the budget process um we've been reporting out at each board meeting um what our budget process looks like and how it started from I think I feel like we started school opened up school and then we're into budget season um we started which is started back in the fall so there has been some on the agenda tonight there's a um the tenative budget for submission to the county is up for approval from the board in addition to that we were recently um counties and school districts were recently noticed um notified of a tax incentive program so I'm just going to share a little bit of information because we
004as we go throughout the process it's important for us all to be fully transparent with this process so the community knows and the board is well aware as well so the tax incentive program for public schools allows districts that are facing under adequacy funding to apply for an increase in their tax levy for the 2526 school year this onetime initiative provides an opportunity for districts to secure additional funding to enhance durability to deliver a thorough and efficient education under the program the state will also contribute $50,000 for every million raised for the increased tax limit so this actually within the week um we were told that there were 300 districts that were eligible to apply for the program there are 20 districts in Mammoth County which include many of our neighboring towns the the state
005has allotted $20 million for the program um we were recently notified that our district is eligible to apply due to being under due to being under adequacy funds funding we are waiting for the official application we think that it'll be within the week however we're waiting and as I think we all know that a lot of times we wait and wait for things to roll out um and applications to rule out um I do not have any further details in terms of what the application is going to look like what we do know is that the application is and the funds are to be utilized to ensure that we are providing and deliver a thorough and efficient education so essentially what that means is that the funds can be used for some of the areas
006that we are finding that we're struggling with in terms of budget so that could be um it could be Transportation special education um instruction of programs and services and professional development so um you have questions in addition to that I did find a line item and Governor Murphy's um detailed funds of um budget where keys will be funded um not fully funded but they will receive an allocation for the upcoming school year as well I'll be able to provide more information as I have a call out to the senator um to find out how much it was for so Keys Academy is our recovery high school program it's only one of three in the state and um it gives students who are in recovery a way graduate from high school um I would like Miss
007K our business administrator to explain what under adequacy means because it sounds like like a bad thing but it's not necessarily A Bad Thing sure so I'm going to take a that back to explain it so the state aid formula there was a couple changes this year made to it uh with that being said everything is a weighted average within the state formula being that weighted average it used to be that it would be sens so a 10 year look back uh this was the first year that we were funded for special ed categorical based off of our October 15th snapshot so that would be our current enrollment instead of 10 year old data and then the other thing the other difference in it is that they talk about local fair share and then we'll
008go into under adequacy or over adequacy so the state determines um again what we should be spending on our budget and to be old data and now they're doing a threeyear average on that data and so that data is based on the property and wealth of all the towns and so with that being said if they decide the state has a read formula that tells us hey your whole budget you should be spending $100 if you spend um $90 instead of 100 then they're going to say you're $10 under adequacy and if you actually spend $110 then they're going to say you are over adequacy so uh before the formula change our district was over adequacy but now our district has changed our wealth indicators and we are considered under adequacy by uh just shy
009of $6 mil with their new formula calculation uh with that they actually have an equalization formula in there that Equalization formula is where we actually lost a good portion of our CD this year um and again we did see a rise in our special cat that is based off current follows that can I restate to make sure I understand a couple times okay so um Ence what you're saying is that the um the state has figured out how much figured out how much we should be spending on oural on our total District um and even though within that they figure out how much we ought to be contributing locally tocal equ okay so then um even though the total dollar amount we receed from year similar to what we received last year it's gone down
010in Equalization it's gone up in special education so in the past we were kind of covering the extra special education cost that we really did have in the State Rec they wering current data and now instead we're going to be covering Equalization somewhat equal but are we are we I mean is the total pot foration we should be spending more money here they're they're looking at it for every part of the C formula is a weighted average based off of where your enrollment is right so each child based off of grade level gets a weighted average component ass sense to that and then if there are any extras that they need then there's an additional weage built into that and so as they decided so what they're doing right now is rers is assisting them
011on working on a new formula they work meeting on it monthly one of the things that they determined is that instead of looking and utilizing old data 10 year old data now they're going to be utilizing a threeyear average with that threeyear average then they calculated everyone the hardest component of looking at this too is that they view things with they'll view the term relative but they don't tell us what that relative formula is equivalent to so we don't right so it makes now you have formulas upon formulas right and now you kind of understand why other districts requesting the state to release their formula calculation because as we're trying to forecast future years it's very challenging for us to know where our categories may or may not end up so so so we really
012know like what what CH did something substantively change about well they took away adjusted aid from all the districts and so they still have right a pot of money and then they take that pot of money and they backend it into the formula and then they separate it out amongst the categories that they have they're also required in certain categories right like we still receive federal grants from idea for our so with that they have to show their own maintenance of effort and so with that they have to show how many dollars they've given to the districts in order to do that so that's why there is a special ed categorical a category and so a lot of times if they're not showing their maintenance and effort in that area they might increase that particular
013category so that they're meeting it so that we still get our federal dollars but now another category might have less of a pot of money I guess I'm just trying to okay I know thrown a lot of data out so if if they gave us essentially roughly the same amount as they did last year they did and we were planning to increase our local Levy by let's say 2% um what about here made the state think we need an addition I'm not not trying to argue trying to figure out that we need an additional almost $6 million spent so M mm County goes ahead and they look at everybody's tax assessments every single year so there was a pilot program back in 2013 why budget need to be bigger it's not well what happens is
014that means your town wealth goes up every single year but then you have but but but in the state size the town is richer and when you look at that right every year your town wealth is increasing and so then saying our share but I meant what we're talking a net gain of $6 million on the whole right we we are AB our enrollment growing in tremendously what what the C believes that the town can p no they just realize that the towns wealth goes up so that they can actually contribute more money but for us create the budget we are still held to a 2% cap so it doesn't matter what your wealth indicator is because you can only take last year's base and add 2% to it and we still have to balance
015the budget right so I remember talking about this um in the past where U Miss case has said the state thinks that we have this much money just because of our income level and housing values but they don't give us a way to get that money so this is kind of their answer to that that's the tax incentive plan is the answer not what they did to the city yeah yeah no the this tax incentive is their answer to you've always told us that you know we tell you you can afford this but we have you have no way of collecting that money here's a way to collect but I mean going back to I know we don't like the term under adequacy but like let's treat it as being let's just look at it
016for a sec are they saying that we're not spending an amount of money for kid this will be the first year that we will qualify as under adequacy that we are but if we have the same roughly the same number of kids as we did last year how how did that change in one year yes that's what I don't understand they were looking at 10year old data and now they're looking at an average for the last three years oh okay a way different picture right because they were looking at before everybody moved before we had a lot of special education people so they finally recognized that it is 2025 this year and instead of 201 and okay now I understand million questions get that point so the the just because our homes are increasing does
017not mean that our bottom line is increasing at our at our home correct you know let's face it put paycheck to paycheck the homes in Madan aine are astronomical so the state is looking at that but they're not looking at income well it's it they look at it at property wealth and income but wealth meaning that's not what I have in my pocket no they're not that is what people are they're also not assessing utilities went up 22% for electric and 177% for gas or that health benefits are double digits right or that all plays back into Transportation cost or food we need to eat or right basics of living and then all of that has to be um absorbed into our operation budget at a 2% cap thank you super um so president's report
018I'm kind of building upon this theme of trying to share as much as we can um as mentioned we're required by law to provide us our own efficient education for student in our district and we have to keep within our budget District can raise the tax um cap by 2% as Allowed by LW despite expenses increasing at a faster rate which we just heard about um some of the largest expenditures that we have include those special education services so the thing is that we have a really good reputation for providing great special education services so people are actually looking at that when they're choosing where to live so if they have a special needs child they they like to come to where there those kids are going to get services and we have a good
019reputation for that um and one of the things that we now have uh for the last couple years is a state funded full-time preschool so we have a way to have early intervention so we can minimize maybe spending on Services as kids plus you get older so we're C we're catching the kids sooner and and if they need Services we are providing them earlier so that there may be less of a need later if we can you know kind of um mitigate those Services as well as a less need for kids to be um sent out of district for services which is also another expense and that would be for things that our district would not be able to provide um our district is very similar to your household budget and we try to kind
020of thinking about it in terms of a household budget we sort of have three big categories so this is what we definitely know is happening so increases in electricity fuel all those things um salaries benefits then what we can predict so again those base line items and the increases of those increasing enrollment we have some you know way to predict that but not always and then there's certain things that just pop up like emergency repairs um and then sometimes we have uh substitutes that we don't you know all the teachers are entitled to PTO so we have to cover for that as well um we've spent uh just to speak to that um we have you know a good amount of staff here and they have entitled um as part of their contract PTO so
021this year the district has had 4,000 requests for substitutes in all areas not even just teachers that includes secretarial staff everybody and that's approximately um around $3 million to cover that those substitutes um and then we're having trouble finding substitute so if you know anybody that wants a substitute please have them look we have some information on our media channels for how to become a substitute so we would love you know if you're looking to get back to work or if you're a mom and or for Dad who's fully you know mostly taking care of your family but you want another source of income this is a great way to do it um and then we've also spent a lot on just like I brought this up at a couple of meetings ago just sewage
022repairs like toour grinder because things get stuck in there that are flushed down the toilets specifically Vapes and that costs us like thousands I don't know tens of thousands hundreds of thousands every every time I mean that's happened more than once where we had to remove 30 to $40,000 in sewage um in the Grinder repair and they found how many hundred babes couple hundred babes yeah in there so tell your kids don't flush them down the toilet please um and then as far as the Staffing goes in central office administrative positions we have the fewest number that we've had in a long time um we actually reduced positions in central office administrations and because of that our remaining administrators have had to take on additional state required roles like overseeing our hiip um security specialist
023we have an AI a new position that the state wants us to have which is like AI coordinator type role so all those things a lot of those things require certification so it's professional development and um just on top of the list of that fall under their actual position this is all above and beyond and you know there this is something that needs to be done it's it's not a um you know I'll volunteer for that uh and to remain competitive with our teaching staff benefits and salaries our starting salary next year is around 58,500 and 62% of our certificated teaching staff makes more than 880,000 a year so um you know it's just talking in numbers about uh funding the this the salaries and benefits and we're always looking for ways to decrease costs
024and ways that don't impact students and sources of revenue so smaller school districts in the area actually pay this school district through the business office for services for things like payroll and for that we make um around $400,000 a year in Revenue so that helps us offset some of our costs and we are doing a summer um program this summer through the YMCA so we'll be making a little bit of income that way and then our summer theater program which is extremely popular um we were running it as at a deficit and we were able to get to a point where between registration fees and ticket sales we're actually making a little bit of money off of it so we're always looking for those things um to save money to spend wisely and so we
025just want to be um transparent about that um and then to the president's report so we will go through the agenda of curriculum and instruction thank you good evening we're going to begin this evening under ccul instruction we're asking the board to take action a couple of items we're recommending to approve items under a travel B other field trips that are listed on the bottom of page one all of page two and the top of Page Three those are action items for the evening not for action but will be considered at the regular Action meeting next week will be Item B long where we recommend to the board to approve a partnership with SH District advertising for the 25 26 school year I'll just take a exp with the board which as partnership means short
026search advertising is a corporation located in M ocean counties where they partner with school districts and they partner with local businesses where they sell sponsorship and AD space on school grounds and school property where that profit then comes back to the school district as Revenue uh so they do certain things I share exle pictures other school districts so it's banners and signs around athletic fields signages on buses uh if there's opportunities for naming rights at stadiums and theaters all those are different possibilities so we're excited about the opportunity for this has a lot of potential has a lot of room to grow over the next couple of years uh going to be one of the first it's approved one of the first districts in M County popular Ocean County so we're looking to this partnership
027that concludes CRI instruction I have a motion second to expect the curriculum and instruction agenda any questions I just want to verify um so this would be a way for us to make money yes so it would be advertising for businesses on our um whether it be at the high school or on our grounds and then so it's actually money brought in not spent correct Rue so the way the way it works this compan do the liary for us so they go out they list the businesses they put a portfolio together what we have to offer in terms of sponsorship that selling space the businesses are required to then purchase the space purchase the signage artwork design that's all on the business it's part of their investment and then what they get returned is visibility
028in front of our school community so there's no there's no cost to us the agency makes a small profit and then the rest of the revenue comes to us great um and then lastly who would make the the final decision on what we are choosing to put out on our fields or uh what not who we make that decision so that there's really there's three different levels in that process the first one really starts here there's a board policy that allows us to do and not allow us us to do certain things in terms of keeping kids safe so one is the board policy two is short District advertising they do some screenings um they have a pretty good sense of what works what doesn't work at schools and then ultimately it's CET so we
029make the final decisions in terms of what sponsor best for our district and if it's not a grof it's something that we don't want to see on campus it's enough for us great um I would just ask if we could just be part of that you know conversation and during the loop of what we decide on you know before we move forward yeah yes yes what we can do so what some of the pictures I shared with the board um yeah so the agency can actually mock up based on what our potential space would look like and so they go out they find what they to realtor and they would then mock up what the artwork would look like on our facility we can share that with the board get to that point of found
030Partners know what going to look like look like then we can share so you can actually see what look like before you thank you is there any idea of approximately part of like have they you could make up to this much per year or yes so year one which is the the year we really getting it started about $20,000 um they would expect that to double in year two they don't have a ceiling as far as how high could go um but that that's where we starts at $20,000 from the year and is it a yearly thing that business a sign up for one year and then they contract with us two years so it's when when a business Dees partner with us and short District advertising it's a twoyear sponsorship which actually is very
031helpful to us because then when it comes to revenue and budget we'll actually know a couple years out how much just two years probably obvious that um the spaces that we have that have already been manged in honor of longtime staff members Student Services Under student services we asked to take action on two items item number one is bedside instruction for student that's listed and item number two is tuition rebild for 2324 has this on the agenda that include student services can I have a motion in a second to accept the student services agenda a motion second any questions thank you we have on Personnel agenda we do have one action item that we're asking the board to take action on a staff array change as listed for an acting Transportation supervisor uh a paid
032differential as listed uh that ends our action items we have resignation chemistry teacher as listed uh on one page 107 we also have new section B A leav of absences with some amendments that listed continues on to page two and I don't see we have an appointment um as we said which has been ongoing appointment uh that has been going board meeting to board meeting for RS uh we have also extracurricular activities as listed in section on page 307 we have rck instruction Title One literacy night and family nights as listed uh we have some tbds there which you'll see also for our summer extended uh extended school year program we have tbds as well based on those postings which we're uh excited to get those filled in the upcoming month those postings go on
033to page four of s as six item number five on page four we have our credit recovery uh programs for supervisors who will assist students who are doing Credit Recovery during the summer month we also have a summer school summer theater um as listed which there is uh unfortunately we have a a duplicate if you see choreographer that's going to be corrected we uh item number seven we have home instruction as listed and on page six of seven we have some college student observers uh who are going to be at the high school and at the middle school as listed we also have a volunteer and item number 10 uh for a baseball coach uh actually yes for y for baseball coach for the 24 25 school year as listed uh on page six finally
034we have the other we have our hi reports we didn't have any to report on last meeting so you see zeros there uh we have our high school graduation Chapter Room as listed along with the dates of the ceremonies uh on page seven of seven we have High School nurses for graduation as listed along with Middle School graduation chapon uh TB and we have Middle School school nurse as we have with high school for graduation uh we have some school calendar revisions um that revise the graduation dates and we have the administrative Bel as mentioned uh I'm sorry as listed number seven and then we have a settlement agreement uh for veterans payback as listed and we have one longevity adjustment uh for 2425 and 25 six as list and then finally we have some
035additional hours um as list in item number 10 that in the personel thank you I have a motion on a second to [Music] person any questions I have a question um I feel like harder to get higher level science science and math teachers um they know anybody I know that uh we're trying hard to recruit um you know good people and I just I guess I'm hoping that we get applications to fill some of the positions and just and plan for future because I know there's Science and Math teachers that have been with the district for a while fortunately as much as we'd love for them to stay forever yes we we're we're working I was just at a job there yesterday uh doing so and unfortunately science teachers are at a premium fair today
036one science teacher I was Middle School certified science teacher on uh on the call but uh it's very difficult to find chemistry teachers as you just mentioned but we are actively recruiting um anding out universities and some of their directors for undergraduate programs to recruit um even at University where I do some ad juning I'm working with there trying to recuit some it's just it's very very difficult at this time yeah that's good to hear about working with the schools because um I know there's an example of just restrictive somebody who kind of had a change of heart in their career path and landed here and to a really great benefit to us so that's always another option as well students maybe weren't sure what they want to do and now feel like they're in
037the wrong career this is a great opportunity to switch anything else for that okay um policy thank you for the policy we are asking the board uh to approve the second reading and adopt for the second reading of the promotion and retention policy uh as well as the student smoking policy uh as listed both of those policies were discussed at our Cal Ram last I'm sorry Ram last month and that end can I have a motion on a second to accept the policy agenda any questions good evening we are looking to take action on the ten budget approval that we SP tonight that will include Health cost that we need use our maintenance Reserve withraw emergency Reserve travel is listed a new thing that was required as of last year was that we need to
038approve all of our tuition costs so that is listed in the chart and then third is approving our preschool expansion need as well as listed in the chart uh that'll end our action items for the evening as we go to the ram next week we'll be looking to approve the monthly reports as well as payroll accepting the treasurers report approving transfers approving list wonderfully accepting three donations to the district that we drill for and then our fire evacuation DRS for the month and that will finance I have a motion in a second to approve the finance agenda I'll motion second any questions this case can I just verify the um sit tuition cost that's money coming in yes these are anything for any students that would be coming into our this year okay questions um
039well we have um before we get to the rest of the um meeting I just wanted to get some updates from some of our committees so we have a finance committee that's been looking working very closely with um the uh superintendent the board Secretary of business administrator and the rest of the uh our cabinet our assistant super and our director's personnel and I just wanted to get an update from finance and then um we also have um our town representative Le on so we'll start with Finance good evening everybody um this is can't be here with us tonight so I'm going to go ahead and update on her behalf on the finance committee can everybody hear me great um the finance committee met earlier this week in preparation for the upcoming budget presentation we we
040plan to give an update at each board meeting so that the community is informed throughout the process at tonight's meeting C Board review and approval is the tentative fiscal year 2526 budget upon board approval the budget will go to the county superintendent's office for review and their approval they will then share any feedback or changes and we will continue to work through the overall budget details the tenative date for the public hearing of the budget is Thursday April 24th at 7 p.m. in cdge par Park Elementary School this date is pending County approval at that meeting we will present the budget to the public and get into the specific details of what is included as well as answering questions as we discussed in our last board meeting we received our state aid numbers on February
04127th total state aid for fiscal year 2526 is $22.7 million this includes money for special education security preschool expansion transportation and Equalization aid while state aid is essentially flat we are seeing increasing costs up to double digits in many cases for things like benefits programming utilities and special education both an increase in cost and anticipated enrollment for special education in addition to this we did see a significant Medicaid reduction for next year all of these costs must be worked through in order to ensure that the budget is fiscally sound meets student and staff needs aligned with our strategic plan and with the budget cap of 2% in mind the central office team continues to take an in-depth look at bigger cost areas and ways that we can approach them differently to deliver on our goal
042of providing an exceptional academic standard and a safe and supportive environment where every student is able to maximize their unique potential thank you to miss Perez Miss case Mr lean and Dr vs the detailed budget information being shared with the board thank you thank you m um Mr McGovern you have updated your Leon with a Township if you could please give us an update sure um reach house joei um gave him an update to share with the Town Council about our our white time flyer um received uh email back correspondents back saying thank you they were grateful for that information on attend budget and also just opening up the conversation to as we go through our process keeping them in the loop and talking with them about their process because their budget being developed around
043the same time and we were both very open for conversation over the next two weeks we're going to go out sit down have a cup of coffee and just exchange notes so to speak excellent thank you so so far we have um just so everybody knows we have 31 families registered for our y time um it's a preschool program offered for the Y um but I'm sorry it's a summer scho summer school so it's K through five K through five sorry I keep mixing it up K through five program through the Y to supplement the Town recreation programs it's a summer W program basically so last year um there was a you know a big demand and they filled up quickly and so this is um something that I actually had a Community member come
044to me and say I don't know what to do now because I you know wasn't able to make the lottery for my town and depends on the town sometimes you have to be a resident and so I actually brought that idea to the central office administration and they were extremely receptive and they worked on it all year and they were able to offer that extra um opportunity so that total is 60 kids so we still have 29 seats so um you know it's if you're looking for I saw today me that said um The Hunger Games of Summer W has started for parents because they're all trying to figure out where to put their their kids so um May the odd to be ever in your favor so hopefully you'll get you know a seat
045in the program that you're wanting um Mrs scy could not be here tonight but I know that she basically shared the same information with her counterpart in Manan and um so they're you know both towns are very uh appreciative and I feel like um the information sharing has been stronger than ever and we really hope that continues because we we like working together on these things um so I guess we go to public comment or new business first public comment okay public comment um the board recognizes the value of public comment on matters of interest to the school Community individuals wishing to speak must State their name and Municipality of residence comments are limited to 3 minute duration an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic
046have been heard all statements should be directed to the board president and no participant May address or question 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 is 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 defamation of privacy they may face liability to party if speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of their comments the board urges them to seek guidance before hand from their legal advisor Cindy santur um abine um I haven't been here a while sorry guys um quick question did you guys approve the meeting for
047next year like what days and times you guys are going to be meeting it's just that you guys seem to meet on the same exact in time that aine Township Council meets and I have to constantly make the decision um am I going to the board meeting which is incredibly important or am I going to Township council meeting which is incredibly important like today is there they're they're showing the Aberdine Township uh budget today so I had to make the decision am I going to go to the council meeting and and see the budget or am I going to come to the board of EV so it's it's difficult to make the decision so I just wish you guys would I doubt I'm going to get them change their dat so hopefully you guys consider
048me changing your data that's a Mr MC question thank you um so for as far as board meetings usually we don't look at that until May for the following year and um unfortunately there's lots of conflicts you know in terms of what's going on in the community but we really kind of try to base it on what's good for the board because we need to have at least a Corum here every every meeting um so we will definitely take that into consideration Mr McGovern is going to speak to his counterpart we'll do the same for maton and we'll try to get everybody um to a place where we don't have to step on each other for these meetings because they are important and and we're really grateful for the people that come to them I'm
049sure the town you know wants people to attend their meetings as well so thank you and I one of a quick thing um I don't know who's responsible but I take the 133 bus uh and I get off from the Lloyd Road and um where that bus stop is you know that field I don't know if it's owned by the border of Ed or the township but when we having the snow and ice storms treacherous and even the area like that like leads from Lloyd Road like to cross the street cat like fa dangerous and I don't know if you guys are responsible for making sure no one dies on that spot because really it's it's very slippery or is that the Township's responsibility like it's the sidewalk that runs along the field like you
050know Road there on Lloyd on actual Lloyd adjacent to where the field is yes like on your side where Lloyd Ro school is there's that that that side wall and the 133 I mean a lot of people are taking you know going to New York City and I mean like dangerous uh uh almost falling and that would be terrible if someone had a lawsuit so I didn't know who was responsible but I thought I would mention that um it's never shoveled or the IC and I don't know if it's yours it might be the township but I just thought mention it to you thank you please talk to the town the fields are are theirs and so in front of the sidewalk that's their so the sidewalk in front of the the fields is the
051tabs corre okay so I would let them know thank you um I just want to make one quick comment if I remember correctly our meetings for million years that I've been always been Monday we Mondays because of conflicts with other Town meetings so I don't know how that's happening again because I thought that's why we switched uh it wasn'ts I can't remember the cause of the switch but there was there was conflict though with one of the towns so I don't know maybe we could figure something out because I had I known a was doing their budget tonight maybe I would have gone there um but no like seriously I mean that's that's important there are six board members that live in averaging so yes hi my name is Michelle herl and I live in
052Aberdine um I have three issues I'd like to discuss um first one is pick up and drop off at Cambridge Park School as you know um the oneway direction has been changed dropping off your children through the road whatever the name of the road is you know what I'm talking about that long Forest looking Road um go when you pick up your child at the end of the day and you come into the parking lot and you're leaving they direct you to go the opposite way my question is who is at the end at the end of the road making sure nobody goes down that road cuz that will be a head-on crash it says one way it does not say do not enter between the times of 2:00 p.m. to 400 p.m. whatever so
053when they're telling me I need to go down that road which I went the opposite way to drop my child off you you're trusting everybody who lives in in the area to know which way to go what if somebody just goes down that road doesn't live in the area doesn't know the what's going on that's going to be a head-on crash one day and do not wait for that to happen before doing something because I usually um D Park on courtlands and walk my child in and pick out my child but I came early one day so I was like oh I got a spot good let me get in the parking lot over here but when when I had to leave I had to go down that road they told me don't go down
054that road no no no you got to go down that road nobody's directing me ENT the road to make sure no oncoming traffic is coming down that road change the signs do something that says do not enter between that time that's the first thing my first issue second issue um complaint um school lunches my daughter I make her really nice lunches every day but she wants to get get the whole whe muffin the muffin bag who eats a muffin for lunch my child sees that and think it's okay to be eating muffins for lunch she's begging me to get her school lunch so I said all right I gave in to her I was like all right maybe once a week I'll let her have it go online I can't give cash I have to
055use my credit card and so I like all right let me just start it out I put $10 in1 185 for transaction fees why well I have to tip them for giving my daughter a muffin I mean come on we we have to change the nutritional values of what our children are getting and the fees what if parents want to pay cash why can't we pay cash I pay cash I have credit cards but when I can pay cash to pay less I will do it you want to do everything possible to save money so why am I if I don't want to put $20 in at a time I just want to pretend I have to be punished and pay all these extra fees every time I want to add money to the account
056it's not acceptable and it has to change um my third problem is that my daughter you know she does beautiful work but she's bringing home a lot of reos you want to save money in the budget with the budget stop wasting money on all this paper you're killing trees why can't the children have workbooks that they use in the classroom let my child bring it back back and forth every day so I can see what she's doing she's coming home with at least six papers a day I I I just spent like 5 hours last night going through all these rack cells what am I going to keep what am I not going to keep and she had a workbook and then at the end of the school year she got to keep that workbook
057so much more needer than all that having all that clutter in the house and the last thing you need is clutter with two young kids in your house thank you sorry thank you I'm done I'm done that was my third complaint I think i' said okay thank you thank you yeah we can we can address some of these here and then some of them we'll we'll follow up with you directly thank you thank you for the information about the arrival and dismissal for K Park as for the school lunches um we don't accept casat but the one thing that would be great is if you whatever you like to load on you can send a check right in with your daughter and they can apply it to the account if that would there's no transaction
058tape okay just give a check and who do I address it to MSD cafeteria MSD cafeteria and then they'll be able to apply right to your daughters and then you won't have to worry about any transaction okay that's good thank and then you're still able to utilize a school so that you can always check the balances okay M RSD cafeteria this case is there a transaction fee every single time yes yes yes it's like $2 a a a a transaction it's like it's a percentage so you can't even I'm tipping more than I do at a restaurant so so I will say that that's across the board everywhere because I pay my daughter's rent for her apartment at school and for it to come directly out of my bank account they charge me a fee
059and it's higher if I use a credit card because I wanted points but I'm not doing that and it's even higher I mean all these different so unfortunately I think what's happening is as you know credit card companies have a fee and they're passing those transaction fees down so I don't know that we can really Rectify that I don't I mean even our we have a new provider fairly recent even the provider before had transaction fees well put it online too if you choose to pay by check please I I found this out now that's sound online yeah we can definitely do that we can make sure information avoiding the with the check okay thank you I just want to clarify the transaction processing fee goes to pay school Central it doesn't go to mados
060who is the lunch provider okay yeah and I'm happy to know about that check option also yes and you and you can um if you'd like you can also attach a account to pay schools and I believe it's a fixed amount as well but again it also [Applause] hi I'm Mary Elizabeth Germain uh madaan so I sent an email and we can uh take this offline if that's easier um with specific concerns about the condition of the high school bathrooms in particular oddly my son is adop to graduate and this was the first time I was ever in the girls bathroom in the high school was a couple months ago during a wrestling match and I was horrified at the condition missing um missing things from the ceiling and just overall grow um it's a
061little bit embarrassing that that's what our kids have to use um as well as when other districts are coming in for like it was districts or something for wrestling so there were a bunch of other towns so I don't are there any plans to do Capital Improvements in the school I mean it's just like the environment that the kids sit in to learn in dictates how effective learning and teaching is and it's just it's it was quite appalling for and again 17 years well not 17 years in the district but it took me that long to see it but I was utterly shocked I tried getting pictures but then the bathrooms were locked during the school day today as well which is a whole other question I um Miss case and I tting the question
062um we appreciate your concern and what you're sharing in terms of the conditions of the facilities part of the budget process is facilities so it's facilities and operations salaries as we were discussing so as we're going through the budget we are including repairs and improvements in that particular area unfortunately due to funds we just have a set pot of money so not everything will be completed but we are prioritizing the facilities in each of the buildings to because from what I heard what I saw is like the norm at least in the high school so again I haven't toured I don't know everyone um and then my other question related to budget is my son is taking Ceramics this year for his art requirement they've run out of clay so it's turned into an art
063history class and the clay is $65 for 50 PBS that would get them through the end of the year and again I was just shocked to hear that the district can afford $65 worth of clay sure I I'm going to kind of tag team with h facilities as well so every three years we have to go through a process called qac where the city comes out and they analyze our facilities tell you know tell us what they like what they don't like we are in the process of that um part of what we did for the high school over the past few years is that um I guess 20 years there were no doors on the bathrooms so last year we wound up putting all the doors on the middle school and high school bathrooms
064that did not have it uh they weren't anywhere in the building because they had been gone for so long uh so we made that Improvement we've been kind of going through uh different bathrooms there's definitely we agree with you there is rust on the partitions there's you know old tile we there's missing tile we agree with everything that you're saying um as we're walking through too there's a lot of concrete work is you know sidew work repair or or just pathways through areas that we need to be able to go to so all of that has been you know part of what we're trying to build into the budget so that we're able to utilize that and start correcting those we also know that we need to update our long range facilities plan so we're
065working with our Architects so that they can walk through pictures give us conservative numbers so that we have an estimate of what repairs would be part of buildings you know um every single group that we have throughout the district is 15 had a 15year warranty they're all expired um so we do not have one roof throughout the district with a warranty on it um if we were to get a warranty now it would be a 20 or 30-year warranty so that kind of identifies how old the roofs are throughout the district um so we did take the opportunity through the state to apply for Rod Brands which we did get approval on so that they um can help us that for for whatever the project cost is they will provide us 40% back so we're
066kind of working on those next steps so we can take those so we're really are trying to prioritize facilities so that you know we're we're kind of taking off a little bit in every single building so that we're starting to see improvements everywhere and not necessarily just in one building and then um you know with that try to also utilize any grants or resources that we can so that we can make improvements but one of the major things that we're going to have to work on is RO prep first we don't want to you know make a beautiful kitchen but then have a roof leak um so with that being said and then for the clay aspect so can I just ask one question on the facility thing um so when the state walks through
067this qack whatever um that's like basically their inspection bathrooms with missing tiles and rust are passing they they are they were brought out and they were identified and they're you know telling us no we need to fix them so um you will see that as we are repairing or replacing tiles um we're trying to get them as close to the color as we can but they may not be you could also the ones that are in that are like break F should yes from the 1970s um and you did share I think you were the one that actually sent me the the budget breakdown what are you do like I noticed there are a couple of different um Reserve categories are you using any of those funds for these types of improvements and and even
068tonight when you see the tenative resolution it would be the maintenance Reserve withrawal okay the CL so stupid asking about $65 clay but it just like it was right after the bathro of course we spent over $122,000 on Clay throughout the district just for the high school um while we were actually walking through usack they were actually doing clay projects quite in abundance to go into the K uh so we refer for that and one of the things that they did we to talk to their counterparts right we have more than one building so maybe we one exhausted it another building does have it so so they did help each other out okay so we're just trying to make sure that when we're being responsible that they can't just continuously buy all the all the
069supplies and you know each department has a set budget and we're trying to have them allocate those resources to use them obviously if more are needed or if we notice that there's higher enrollment in that area and they need to more absolutely but at the same time they have to manage the resources that they have in the classroom and also reach out to your counterparts we have other buildings with supplies maybe they're not us utilizing as many and that we can help out so they did receive the middle school so that they won get the of the it was the teacher that actually said it $65 is what I need to buy I like I almost ordered the clay for class I just wanted to add though in terms of get that particular class that
070what happens is going through the budget they're allocating and they're putting in a quote say for $10,000 for clay and that's the money that's you know that's the money that we're ordering for for and open up schools in September what happens between now February and September is a lot which includes enrollment numbers in some of those courses so enrollment went up and those particular in that particular class so it you know I could see how they may have run out of clim I realiz asking about clay sounds so silly but I feel like it's like a microcosm of larger things going on like if we can't Supply clay where are we having other issues from a supplies perspective and what they make in there is beautiful we were like I haven't seen anything all year
071so I actually don't know what they thank you yeah I was just going to add that that inspection was last week so the the when you're saying did it pass we just finding I mean it literally just happened so we're just getting like the final we actually have three more buildings to walk through but this this County Office takes a little bit of a break they're going to kind of redirect their position and focus on budgets for this month and then they'll come back so we have our second round of walkthroughs for different buildings at the end of okay okay thank you Miss casage just a quick um so when Q is in the buing they see things like this it's like a point structure right that we would lose points so at the end
072of the inspection like you're supposed to need a certain amount of points and as you're going through your work and that's the qack was also why teachers had to remove everything from their classrooms that they that was a big topic of conversation too but that was the same thing yes I actually would like Miss case maybe Miss uh for us to speak to that because um you know there was some some Buzz out there about that and once the actual list of um what's not allowed was posted all of a sudden the post disappeared so I I do want Miss case to talk about why those things are not allowed uh so we had what are called health and safety checklists and we're required to walk the building annually and then we're required to report
073those uh structures back to the state um so with that when we go through qac every 3 years we get the princip a list uh pretty much I think it's page 21 through 29 and uh it kind of delineates you know what's allowed in the classroom what's not allowed in the classroom and that uh can we please start working on that you know with all of your teachers and so that we can have the proper things on the classroom and not the proper things right so what are some of those things so as much as we love barland and decorating the rooms the the state views that as a choking hazard so we can't have those things uh signs with strings again they use that as a choking hazard so we can't have those we
074cannot have things dangling from the ceiling uh we cannot have the windows covered with any pictures um at all we can have them on the doors we can have them on the walls again uh there is a room on the walls you can only have 25% of your walls covered you can not have any more than that um so we we did have a lot of rooms with a lot more than 25% covered um so we kind of talked about that you know like we love seeing the artwork or we love seeing the report so you know sure have your student class work around but maybe some of the inspirational posters we can kind of you know cross out or U make sure that the windows are you know open and there's nothing on them
075or we have the HB back pets in the classrooms make sure that we're not you know covering the returns uh make sure that the furniture isn't as close to those returns right so that those systems can work properly uh when you're walking through you need 36 in around that door so making sure that the furniture or the desks or where the students sit are not um you know obstructing that so that God forbid there's an emergency that they have a proper way to evacuate making sure that the evacuation sign is at the height of the students so that they know where to go God forbid there is an emergency so those are kind of all the yes we can out we can't have everybody cannot have a cure for refrigerator andic there has to be
076designated set faculty room for those safety features uh no hot plates no things like that in the classroom um the other thing that comes back to is Furniture the furniture has to be school purchased and it has to be from uh fendors that we're allowed to purchase from and the reason for that is because God forbid we did have a fire in the building furniture that you have at home ignites much faster than the furniture that we're purchasing there's things on it to prevent or stop the fire and so um those things kind of had to go home or go go back to wherever they were uh we love the projects that the kids do with the rocking chairs and setting them up but we can't keep every single thing that the students create and
077so some of the paint or things again create a little bit of a fire hazard so those would need to go home um kind of just not not so much things that Home Furniture wise school or um aot of the rugs uh we are thrilled that the teachers are spending their money and and bringing things in um but we have to make sure that the rugs that are being purchased have the proper um compliance to it and some of them don't um unfortunately we can't really utilize Amazon um there's a lot of third party or overseas vendors and we're not allowed as procurement rules to work with them um so it kind of prevents where we use so we've been making sure like these are the vendors that we need to utilize these are we
078need to utilize them um and you know let us take care of the purchese so that everything that's in the classroom stays in the classroom and that you can use it year after year after year any other parts that I miss no that was great I appreciate that um maybe and I'm assuming that this happens and maybe it's like all the stuff that we get to as parents to just read and sign and we just sign it because we want move on with our day um they probably any other questions is everybody who has would like to speak want to spoken okay [Music] yes okay Cindy santor abine um so the second time I'm up here is I want to talk cuz I know I haven't been here in a bit because I've actually been
079doing the council meetings and I'm very concerned about the low income housing that we have to uh do and I'm not concerned because of low income housing but if you look at how it's written um their incentives are built in uh for the builders So 20% has to be low income but 80% is not because the builders have to make money so I mean I don't know if you guys have been pay ATT mention any of this and today abine is voting on changing the zoning of an area into more residential housing so I mean like they're obviously doing that because they're going to be building more which I know is going to affect us so I know you guys talked about some kind of planning you were doing study did you guys do that
080because I missed as I said I've been doing a lot of the council meetings with so I haven't been here so did you guys release the information on that study it's it's not complete yet but um they're still collecting we're um we're working with the towns because there's there's certain informations that the towns have to provide um so with that collaboration but we it's not completed yet so we're hoping that by the close of the year we'll receive it it's a study unfortunately that takes almost 18 mons um so expecting to get answers this year I'm hope the okay so I just wanted to make sure you guys are all aware about this low income housing thing I'm not sure if you're like if it's even on your radar but um it it really it's
081it's so much more than low-income housing because it's going to give a huge influx of of Apartments I mean we're talking about low-income housing it's going to be for families we're not talking about one bedrooms we're talking about multi- bedrooms do can you um the the resoning I'm just curious is that Bank of America where is that located um it's going to be over by glassw works no you're talking about that they're doing the resoning of area when they're turning it into residential that's over by it's going to be over by glassw in addition to Glass yes that's what that's what it looks like I'm as I said it's going on today and I just read the agenda so I'm just going by the still with the agenda I don't want to get false information
082I'm obviously not there I'm going to be watching the video later that Bishop posts so I'm not 100% sure but I know that that's something is happening today but I'm a little concerned about the the low-income housing because again about another 250 300 uh Apartments being built um is definitely going to put a strain on the the board and you guys are already talking about budget issues and you can't raise your budget more than 2% that would be very concerning to me so I just wanted to mention it make sure I didn't miss that study that you guys were talking about doing yeah well hopefully have year so um that's part of the planning process that the central office team is trying to project out enrollment um the demographer correct me if I'm wrong is
083so that we can plan out long like this longterm new development um that would have a like all at once impact right so that it could depending on what the makeup of the population is so year toe enrollment is always part of the you know we're they're looking at who we have coming in and that some of that can be estimated and sometimes we have a small like our graduating class this year is one of the biggest we've ever had we are projecting right now that the the incoming class is a little bit smaller or like more on target so that there are fluctuations but in terms of this type of you know like resoning it is it could potentially be a bunch of new students at one time so that's one of the reasons
084why we would go for a demographer to really look at what's going on with building in the towns that we could project out in future years like could there be an influx all at once yeah I just wanted to make sure that um I'm just government talks to the town about low income housing and uh what plans are and how many units they're expecting because it's not just 20% it's it's going to be a lot a lot more than that thank you [Applause] I did very that is one of the limitations that the demographers is looking at the current zoning and and imagin the ultimate buildout within what is permitted in that current zon Something Is Res especially from commercial residential that is L to you can't know something before you know something and uh
085so that does complicate trying to project anything at all you somehow get another like option C where the entire town was own residential like you know otherwise it's going to be there's only so much going on any new business or old business I did have a couple of questions u i just because I feel like the longer questions I have I start to understand more and more as far as the phenomenal we have we talked about funing tonight how are we how is it normally funed and how is it changing so when the program started Keys was funded by a grant by the state um as they have been unable to match the revenues year after year um this is the first year that we are requiring tuition and so that's why it was important
086to make sure that we approve the plan and so we're already projecting what students would be coming into the plan for next year as we bu how does it work how does it work for students who are already in our district there's no we still have to District they go for free they're not well they don't necessarily it because we're running the program it's absorbing the cost by the grant by the grant funding that we receed from the St so the grant funding covers a certain amount and then we created a tuition to supplement with whatever else we needed it's not actually based necessarily on cost overall it's after the grant we built the cost last year based off of how much the program takes to run we're Lu to have it on brookdale's campus
087and Brookdale does not charge us a lease fee so that keeps the cost down um it also gives them right a great ability to be on a secondary campus so we're thrilled with that um so that's helped us with costs uh the woman who runs the program is extremely resourceful and gets a ton of Grants um so and there's also donations and wathon so that participates to the total cost of the budget and so there have also been other unique opportunities where when students are coming in also receiving grants to assist and pay their tuition for which is helping us overall on the program and cost so program as a whole so I say I I went to one of the events there it is one of the most incredible progam I've ever seen um
088so it is not pulling on our budget at all our district so so I just want to go back the first year that we opened it was $1.1 Million that we received then it went down to 500,000 in most recent years and then we've had a lot of support for some from some of our um legislators um who also gave us Capital um Capital funds as well um so that was able to support the program it was this this year was the first year that we charged tuition we did not need to do that um it was of working with the county because we were seeing that there was a decline in in the support in the budget that's coming out like I mentioned earlier so that's helping for to keep the program running so
089while districts May and we work out we're pretty creative in terms of um helping the other districts be able to afford it um so this case is saying in terms of Grants there's grants that town for example has received from the op s it may have gone to the state police it may have gone to your Town Police Department um we they were able to kind of coordinate with that not myself but the um the principal and the the district so to help fund and support the student question sorry if this if it's new budget of business we have to vote on the agenda first I forg is it business it's something that you mentioned earlier yes if it's in here I say and you'll tell me okay you talked about the number of time
090off that the STA has taken I was just wondering comparatively speaking other conf districts if we know the number sounds like a lot and I'm just wondering if it's similar to other we don't have that but I mean they have it's it's part of it's part of the I mean unfortunately or fortunately you want look at it um some of that was like we we were required to do that oh absolutely it just was presented in the article as money that we were putting out so I was just curious how it was in comparison to other school districts that were similar and I don't know that we have access information well I saw online um some I forgot what school distri you have to um approach the podium and [Applause] sorry uh I saw online
091that um some schools um they're doing something where like if the teachers let's say they're present the entire month they get an incentive they get maybe a $100 bonus or something if you do that it might go along we do we have that in our contct oh you do yes and some and some staff do receive the incen okay that's good to know maybe you have to increase it thankk okay um betting the companies correct before we make a contract with them um okay and you're doing the vending of the companies or the company that we're hiring is doing the vending of the companies it seems both we're doing in conjunction with short District advertisement okay okay I just want to make sure that we're making sure on every level that these companies that we're
092going to put on our property whoever we're advertising you know there's they're proper and they they belong on you school grounds correct okay so um just to add on to that I did ask like what kind of it advertising and he said a lot of it is like real estate related maybe account fi HS new dispensaries that are going okay we're gonna take a vote on the agenda we're going to vote on the agend so Motion in a second to accept the [Music] agenda oh Mr Miss Scott yes M yes Miss Martinez yes M yes thank now any final thoughts new business old business I have one more comment about um the Beetle Juice Junior play at the middle school was seems like forever ago I think it was two weeks ago it was awesome
093everybody the kids did such an amazing job it was so delightful to watch um and I just commend everybody behind scenes and the students was it was phenomenal so good job on the he of that I make sure I also mention to the high school night of the Arts week and a half ago was absolutely phenomenal to see all different kinds of Arts speaking of play Ceramics everywhere and we also had students performing which is amazing and then we had actual student artists with their wees and we saw people it was cash only so we saw do you have cash do you have cash um it was just phenomenal every which way I'm just so proud of the talents of our students and that they have an opportunity to Showcase them thank you thank you
094um so I think with that we will conclude the meeting um I just want to say I want to thank everybody um the board members because um we are not unpaid we do this on our own time because we really want to have an impact in the students of the district and um they put a lot of work into reviewing uh the budget and we've been asking questions and trying to get as much information as possible and the um central office team has been really great about giving us everything we need so I just want to thank everybody for just being diligent and asking questions and you know helping everybody do their job and and serve our students and yeah uh we are entering into a second executive session um be it resolved that a
095closed session be convened for the purpose of discussing privacy personal matters and legal services the subject matter of these discussions will be disclosed by to the public but a reason for confidentiality subsides although the board cannot guarantee it the length of the executive s session is estimated to be approximately 30 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action will not take place um can I have a motion on second s MO