MTPS Board of Education May Workshop/Voting Meeting (05.19.26)

001Yeah. Okay. So, passing? Yeah, okay. Call to order, please. Adequate notice of this meeting is provided by sending such notice to Asbury Park Press, Middletown Patch, Middletown Township Public Schools District website, and posting of such notice at the Office of the Superintendent of Schools and each elementary, middle, and secondary school in the district. Roll call, please. Mr. Mrs. Minue. Here. Mrs. Galaski. Mr. Saporaski. Here. Mrs. Tobacco. Mrs. Torres. Here. Mrs. Weinstein. Here. Mrs. Wright. Here. Mr. Capone. Here. Mr. Aviles. Here. Now, I need a motion to go into executive session. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Let me get that. Thanks, Howard. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> All right, we're going to reconvene our public meeting. Everybody, please rise to the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of

002the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's not me. Okay, student speakers, High School North, Jason Woods. Hi, so Jason couldn't be here today, so filling in for him. I'm Rashi Mopsiker. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about what happened at Middletown North in May. So, first to start off, senior Mark Conway received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award recognizing New Jersey students who demonstrate excellence in academics and good citizenship. Juniors Christian Baletto, Santiago Bermudez, and Gavin Plath were chosen as delegates to attend the American Legion Boys State Leadership Program in June. Maddie Ginocchio was selected as the Girls State delegate. Senior Isabella Caruso received the 2026 Monmouth County Guidance Directors Association Caring Award. Senior Mia Golis

003was one of two high school seniors to win the YMCA of Greater New Jersey's 37th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Contest. Junior Asli Senoglu won first place for both her silk pink pink bouquet arrangement and cactus dish garden for the 49th annual New Jersey FFA Horticulture Exposition in March. The Middletown North Academic Team placed in the quarterfinals of the 36th annual Allentown Academic Open. Freshman Eva Diarco received an honorable mention in the Monmouth County High School Playwriting Festival for her play Zombie Prom with Me. The The North Theater Program received 10 Basie Award nominations including Jimmy Friedly for featured performer performer in a drama and featured actor in a musical. Violet Higgins for lead actress in a drama. Nicholas Pryor for lead actor in a drama. Amanda Faria for both for best direction

004in the play The Diary of Anne Frank for best play. Mia Portelli for supporting actress in a drama. Miles Rello for supporting actor in a drama. And best stage crew and tech crew. And best student adult orchestra for Once Upon a Mattress. The following students from Karen Kuzman's Applied Arts and Design classes had their work on display during the MTPS art showcase at the Middletown Arts Center. Vicky Chen, Ralph Lacuna, Riley Luma, Ava Panzino, Kaylee Pile, Allison Singerline, Tracy Stanley, Lauren Sotak, Rory Yool, and Ava Valentino. The following students were winners in the 2026 Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest sponsored by the Port Monmouth VFW. Ethan Anthony Lizardi Jr. first place advancing for the chance to win a college scholarship. Olivia Williamson second place. Amelia LeBaron third place. And John B. Kumar fourth place.

005Congratulations to Robert Davis for winning the Rising Star Award at the Right Side Film Festival. The short film Bullies won runner up for the best comedy and I Miss You Lou won runner up for the best horror short. The Energy Detective was accepted to Dances With Films in Hollywood and the short film Sister was selected for the 18th annual Count Basie Film Festival. The dance honors honors students presented students of dance for their end of year showcase on May 13th. The girls track team placed third overall at the Monmouth County Relays where Helena Zap placed second in the girls distance medley and won the school record by 22 seconds. The girls team also won the B North Divisional Championship at the New Balance Indoor National Championship. Helena Zap ran in the two mile at 10

006minutes 47 seconds just off her own school record time. The distance medley relay made of Mia Sarni, Sam Fronapfel, Isabel Courtney, and Helena Zap placed placed in the top 30 in the country. Moving on to boy swim, Jonas Aldor broke a new record at the Meet of Champs in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.94. And the Middletown wrestling team concluded its season at the state tournament with one of the most historic showings in program history. Thomas Blue became the school's third state championship ever by winning the 106 lb weight class. And Brianna Kosiba became the first female wrestler from North to place in the state tournament as she took on as she took sixth place. The team finished as the number six public school in the tournament. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi

007everyone. I'm Jessica Cerullo. I'm a senior at Middletown High School South and I'm here to tell you all the updates about what happened at our school this year. In April, South softball team hosted a free softball clinic for Lincroft Little League leaguers ages 4 to 8. The teams were able to connect with our community and earn volunteer hours. Congratulations to Mr. Raguseo for being named All Shore Band Director of the Year. This recognition is earned for positively influencing students, supporting artistic growth, fostering a lifelong appreciation for music, and enriching lives through music education. This award reflects Mr. Raguseo's commitment to excellence. Congratulations, Mr. Raguseo. Our senior class won Battle of the Classes and will be having a lunch and field day events on Thursday, June 4th. Well done, seniors. Thank you to the PFA for

008supplying the lunches. South junior prom, A Night in New York, will be held at Jaques on May 29th. Senior prom, Glitz and Glam, will be held on Friday, June 5th at Ocean Place Resort. Relay for Life, a chance to come together in our local community to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against cancer. This event will be held at Middletown High School South June 6th from 5 to 10 p.m. Come join us for this great cause. Student playwrights Delia Carman and Maria Antsiferova won the Jersey Shore Young Playwrights Festival. Their original plays Bloom and Empty Chair were selected to be performed at the festival on April 25th. Five films from Middletown South were selected to be screened at this year's Count Basie Center Break Breakthrough Film Festival with Ethan Castro, Emily

009Amerman, Sam Crocker, and Alexa Rowland taking home the awards for best animation and best debut filmmaker for their films The Grass is Always Greener and Butterfly. Additionally, those films took home the audience awards for best cinematography at the Count Basie School Film Festival and they were awarded best experimental film and best comedy at the upcoming Montclair Emerging Filmmaker Festival. This past weekend, the Middletown South team eSports team completed the competed in the Garden State eSports Spring Championship at Court University. We had three teams make it into the playoffs, which is a first for Middletown South. More importantly, this was these were our results. And Rocket League became in fourth place. Mario Kart championship team came in second. And Mario Kart Valkyrie team came in first and won state championships. We also had three students named

010All-Stars for the year. This honor is given to players who were consistently chosen as MVPs by the opposing coach. Our All-Stars were Evan Thompson, senior at Middletown South. He played Super Smash Bros. Caden Leek, a sophomore who plays Overwatch. And Kacper Chabaudski, a freshman who plays Rocket League. I'm not sure if this This last opportunity to address the board and community, but if it is, I would like to say thank you for giving me this platform to speak each month. And express what activities we're doing at South. It has been an honor to represent my high school as senior class president and to talk and update you on the amazing things that we did. So, thank you. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> NOW, PRESENTATION STUDENT SAFETY AND assistant principal Meg Young Good evening. I'm Meg

011Young. I'm the district director of student support services. Tonight, I am going to present briefly on our SSDS system, student safety data system, and our hip grades. >> [applause] >> We have our next presentation is from Alera Group. They are a health benefits broker. We have with us tonight uh Rich Kazenski, Katie Foley, and Mark Weaver. Uh this is the team we work with and we talk to them a lot. So, they're going to just present for the board some highlights of some of the initiatives that we've been doing and you know, overall look at our self-insured program. So, Mr. Kazenski, you're going to start. Thank you, Patrick, and everybody. This is just going to be a high-level overview kind of what's gone on over I don't know over the last couple of years. If

012you want to go to the next slide. Just to put things in perspective, medical trend I'm going to turn it over to Mark. I get to talk about drugs. Pharmacy. Next slide, please. >> Yeah, next slide. Sorry about that, guys. So, the good news is we were able to deliver $2 million in savings, and these are hard dollars. This isn't kind of like a soft cost avoidance stuff. This is actual dollars back in your account, primarily through contract improvements around rebates and audits and basic utilization management protections. Uh next slide. Um that kind of just is exactly what I said. Right when I just wanted to step through, there was a couple different parts of contract negotiation that happened earlier on, and we appreciate your patience. And a lot of times we have to wait

01390, 120, 180 days for kind of like the contract term to kick in, but this is the timeline of when we started the different contract negotiations and when things started coming in, right? When the biosimilars started happening, when the different rebates kicked in. So, this is a timeline of all the steps that we took. Um and then the next slide Yeah, we're going to move on. Just wanted to give you a visual representation. So, on the left, the top blue line is your gross cost. So, that's how much you pay every month in drugs. The orange line is the net cost. So, you get rebates back every every quarter that takes what your gross was down to your net. So, the orange is your what you actually wound up paying after you get that rebate

014back. And the arrow that you see, that's when we started feeling the additional rebate dollars. So, that's where you start to see the the lines kind of separate between gross keeps going up, but the net keeps going down because we were able to negotiate a better deal for you. And the bar chart on the right shows kind of like historical quarters from '23 to '26, the most recent. And you see how it kind of was pretty middling around like $300,000 back quarterly in rebates. And then you see the fourth quarter '25 in uh so, in December you got the $610,000. And then in the first quarter of '26, in March, it was $800,000. And then we are predicting ongoing well, without significant changes in utilization, it'll stay at the $800,000 quarter back. So, we appreciate

015your uh your patience. >> Just to be clear on one thing with for everybody, rebates are dollars coming back to the district. So, it's money coming back to you based on the utilization patterns. And that was a change in contract, which why you see that spike. So, that's the pharmacy. And if you go to the next slide, and just some additional cost-saving measures, um you will implement the H health which supports um district members that are struggling with um musculoskeletal issues. Projected savings on that is $150,000. We're able to implement virtual care at no additional cost to you all, which is $45,000. We're able to reduce your administration fees, which is the cost to just administer the plan, by $30,000. Um we implemented a national advantage program where we negotiate out-of-network claims, which is $60,000.

016And we were able to get you all a wellness um credit of $20,000 a year. So it's an extra $500,000 of additional savings there. Um but also when we first started working with you all, we recognized that there were some gaps in your stop-loss contract, which is your overall protection. That's what protects the district. So we we identified the gaps and we filled them in at this renewal. Uh so we were able to extend the terms of the contract and there are no gaps in coverage where there could have been a large claim that may have not get paid within the terms of the contract, which could have been a liability. That's completely solved now. And then we also put rate protection on there, meaning Unfortunately, in the years of doing this, we've seen some

017employers, some nonprofits, some public sectors get north of a 100% increase on their stop-loss premium because the claims had run so bad. What we were able to do is we were able to negotiate in a rate cap of 50%. So that is regardless of how poorly you run, you'll be at a 50% increase, but just on a the stop-loss premium is only a small percentage of your overall cost. So having that additional protection is good. The other important thing we're able to negotiate in is the idea of no new lasers. The microphone Um the other item we're able to negotiate in is the idea of no new lasers. So when you have a stop-loss contract, what in stop-loss insurance carriers can do is they can say, "Oh, this is someone who is sick, and so

018now we're going to not cover them at the regular level. We're going to make you pay additional premium." Currently in your stop-loss contract, when we inherited it, there were already two lasers. The new contract has no new lasers, so that can't occur again, and that's an additional layer of financial protection um for the township. The other item we were able to negotiate into the new contract is expedited reimbursement processing. When there is a large claimant, um there it is sometimes a lengthier process of going back and forth and determining eligibility and um double-checking plan design, and expedited process will ensure for claims that exceed that threshold over $100,000 that you're reimbursed within 5 days um to maintain cash flow. Um next slide, please. And then just some other items to note. Um we've implemented at

019the health advocate call center. Um this is experts on the line for staff, recognizing that everybody comes on site um and time is of the essence to have access to um uh to technical experts in regard to health care. Um this goes for anyone in your family. It could also help for Medicare questions. Um so this is a a robust program that's offered to anyone on our health plan. Um the data uh data warehouse, when you're self-insured, it's really important that we look at your data outside of Aetna cuz we don't want to see Aetna's spin on that data. We want to see the raw data. We want to digest it ourselves, and we want to be able to double-check it. Um and so we've implemented the Vital Insight as our data warehouse third party.

020Um with that is how on the pharmacy side, Mark, who you're looking at here, checks every month. He gets reports. He checks the pharmacy and he was able to see that we were being incorrectly charged for biosimilars and was able to save over a hundred thousand dollars by doing that. So, it's an extra level, you know, on checking on the medical side to make sure everything's administered as it should be um and so it's another way to help audit the plan not just annually but on a monthly basis. And then our wellness allowance that allows us to um that that would be something that's more prevalent in the marketplace now and it's just an annual allowance of twenty thousand dollars that can be used to support employee health and well-being experience. Uh another major thing

021that we did is change our communications, right? We offer employees great benefits and let's just let them know that, right? So, custom communications and the benefit guide, benefit at a glance, recognizing that sometimes it's our partners at home that are actually digesting this information. And so, that paired with our health advocate is really enhancing the employee experience. Um we have targeted postcards to discuss our new virtual care, our new minute clinic um alliance. And then to close out our new um benefits, we've um expanded our voluntary benefits. Just recognizing that everyone has diverse needs and priorities and wanting to make sure that we're really offering a well-rounded benefit um to our whole population. So, last year we implemented vision, this year we're going to implement accident, legal, and ID theft protection um that employees can

022can get at their own money. Any questions? And we do just want to thank the board for the partnership and Amy, you know, we meet at least weekly to really go over all the in-depth and make sure that the plan's running as is and and to enhance the employee experience. So, we appreciate Thank you. No. Okay. >> Okay. Next up is strategic planning at town hall. Thank you. So, um myself and Mr. Colon are going to talk briefly about the process for strategic planning moving forward. Um I first um just want to draw attention back to last year when we spent a lot of time um with uh Tim Team from New Jersey School Boards and had uh three community sessions where we spent a tremendous amount of time. Many of you sitting in the

023audience participated in that, which you know, certainly um was appreciated. And I do believe that we got a lot out of that. We got a lot of good information. Um and I don't want the community to think that was all for naught. I think it's really important that, you know, we we still have that information. It's still relevant, and it will be the springboard for us moving forward with strategic planning. Um we put out a new survey last week, obviously, to the community for people that wanted to continue uh participating in that process, most certainly in the steering committee work and the subcommittee work. Um we decided to do that because we knew that some people may have chosen to opt out moving forward. Many Many um people who were involved may have had children

024that graduated. Um and we also, I think, had some new interest, and we did see some new names and faces come up on this new survey. So, what Mr. Colon and I are working on now is we are um taking that information, and we are crafting our subcommittees. Um those subcommittees will be aligned to those priority and goal areas that were identified by the community back in May and June of last year. Um so, when we reconvene, um we will then begin just working right away on fine-tuning those goals, evaluating the objectives that were brought forward by the community, and then starting to develop action plans to implement those things. Um so, if you recall, um there This is a 5-year time span. So, certainly there's going to be a lot of conversation on when

025and how all these these actions within the plan unfold. But, you know, that that is our priority is to get those subcommittees formed, and we're going to be emailing those individuals um with information in the next, I would say, week or so. Um and Mr. Cullen's going to talk a little bit more about um how this is going to unfold throughout the summer months, cuz our intention is to work throughout the summer to get that strategic plan, hopefully, um in a way that can be presented to the public, and then um approved by the board in the fall. So, Mr. Cullen, I'm going to turn it over to you because I'm going to be passing the baton uh next month to Mr. Cullen, but um certainly be in very capable hands. But, he's going to

026talk more about the dates and the timeline. >> Always Always appreciated, Dr. Alfone, and I know that strategic planning is something that you actually wrote your dissertation on strategic planning, so it's something that you get excited to to speak with us all about. Um and Dr. Alfone did reference that we worked alongside NJ School Boards for three very comprehensive sessions last year. And the outcomes of those sessions are undoubtedly going to drive our process moving forward. So, as a quick summary, session one was on May 29th, and we examined our district's, enabling us to identify very specific strengths and challenges. On June 16th, we developed a vision, as well as specific initiatives for the future. And those again, those initiatives for the future look ahead but also embrace our rich history and the traditions that

027exist here in Middletown. On August 28th, we talked about goal areas. And those five very specific goal areas that emerged from our ongoing dialogue with our stakeholders were one, community engagement, two, school climate and culture, three, student learning achievement and experience, and that does include special education. I want to be clear on that. Four, facilities and finance, and five, communication. I also want to make note that the information from those sessions is available on our website in the Board of Education section under strategic planning. You can get all of the information from the sessions that we worked alongside school boards with. I'm very eager to start the process again, and believe it or not, it's already underway. So, our administrative team is making preparations. We're analyzing the information that we had accumulated from those meetings,

028and we're having our internal dialogue about how we can get ourselves ready to roll this out in our steering committees. So, as Dr. Alfone was was stating, we do have over approximately 100, I don't want to say over approximately 100 members of the steering committee. So, today we were assigning individuals to those respective committees, and we will be communicating with the members of the steering committee the very specific dates that will be meeting to do that important work. I also want to note that we have administrators who are going to be leading the dialogue for those committee sessions. So, for community engagement, we have Mr. Kirkpatrick and Dr. Young. For school climate and culture, we have Mrs. Granger and Ms. Shrek. For student learning achievement and experience, we have Mr. Pollan, myself, and Dr. Kerrigan.

029For facilities and finance, we have Mrs. Dardy and Mr. Valente. And for communication, we have Dr. Renella and we have Mrs. Orozco. So, at that time, I will proudly serve as the interim superintendent. So, my apologies to Dr. Kerrigan, who will probably be doing a lot of the dialogue in the student achievement section, because it will enable me to visit each of the other four sections and, of course, that that session as well, so that I can contribute to that dialogue. It's also important to note that those conversations are going to continue in our Board of Ed committee sessions and we will be reporting out on those from our committees and I'll provide information in the the uh superintendent update as well. For the most part, that summarizes the process at this point. So, please

030note that these sessions will be happening over the summer and, of course, regular updates will be shared with our stakeholders. Um as this journey unfolds, we'll be sure to keep everybody updated as we look to strengthen our future and, of course, honor our our past traditions as well. So, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Alfano and Mr. Pollan. Uh committee reports. Co-curricular, Mr. Saporosky. So, we met on May 1st and we got a update of the clubs and activities. With the end of year of advisor evaluations currently underway and buildings will start the process of completing their end of year reports, which offers detailed information relative to club meetings, attendance, and participation. And this information will allow building level administration to analyze stipends for clubs for the following year. And then an update on Genesis, which

031is going to be used uh all high school and middle school clubs will now have an active Genesis dashboard for advisors to use in the spring season. Uh and that helps with attendance, it eliminates paperwork, and it tracks eligibility of participants, and it centralizes communication through the Genesis And athletics will also use the dashboard um and it has features for coaches to track the sports. And then a spring sports update, the regular season is about half over. NJSIAA state sectional track at High School North will be May 15th and 16th. And all coaches are going to be on the May or June agenda. I don't see anyone here, so I guess it's going to be June. And then uh we have a new athletic director, Pete Smith. Congratulations. Okay, next up curriculum, Mr. Wright. Yes,

032thank you. So, our committee met on Thursday, May 14th. Uh once again, as our committee uh always does, is we did have further curriculum guides to review. This time, we were able to go through French 5 and 6 honors, uh and Dr. Kerrigan was actually able to uh help us examine the curriculum guide, and also uh wanted to note again that this class is offered as a Seton Hall University dual enrollment course, which is a great opportunity uh for our students. We also had the opportunity to once again look at the district's comprehensive curriculum guide site, which again, as we continue to review a lot of these curriculum guides, uh that particular site is always updated. And again, really appreciative of all the work that goes into it. Uh, we quickly uh, reviewed the letter

033that went out to the committee about high school final exams. Uh, the exams will be administered from June 11th through June 18th with designated A and B day make-up sessions to conclude the school year and we just want to wish all of the students that are getting ready to take their exams the best of luck. Uh, we were able to discuss uh, again the community letter that went out alerting parents of students in grades three through three through five about the cursive handwriting um, that will now be incorporated into learning standards for next school year. And again, I think we all just had a moment to say what a great thing this is actually to bring this back into school. Um, you know, unfortunately there's a big chunk of students uh, that missed this, but

034we're really glad to see this uh, being incorporated back into the learning standards. Uh, we talked about the Battle of the Books competition. This is a fifth grade Battle of the Books trivia competition that basically has students really understanding and highlighting their strong understanding of class novels that they are uh, given to read and then we have them going up on stage to really being uh, featured in terms of how well they comprehend these novels that they're reading. Um, the trivia questions about them that they're asked, it's really great to see. And these schools that participate in the Battle of the Books is Leonardo, Navesink, Lincroft and Fairview, which then really led to I think a great discussion amongst the committee about how we can expand this district-wide. And so there is now discussion about

035a possible fifth grade spelling bee that may be taking place in the future for all schools. So more to come on that. Uh, we talked about advanced placement, summer advantage fairs and assignments. Uh, to note, I know this has gone out, but just want to make sure that everybody is aware. The upcoming AP advantage fairs are going to be held at High School North on May 26th and High School South on May 27th. So, next week. These events provide authentic opportunities for current students and teachers to engage in dialogue with students who are planning to take AP courses next year. Supporting a clear understanding of course expectations and informed decision-making. And additionally, [clears throat] AP course assignments will be shared via email and posted on the district website tomorrow, May 20th. Uh, we once again

036got to look at, uh, the summer reading programs for all levels that are going to be happening this summer for elementary school, middle school, and high school. I believe that information is also going to be shared with families via email tomorrow, May 20th. So, please, uh, be on the lookout for that. Uh, we just went through the NJSL A and AP administration. That would happen to those exams happened between May 4th and the 5th. Uh, we do want to note again tonight, um, we had one of our students who received the New Jersey Council for Social Studies Excellence in Education Award. And that was given to Elena Burns, a senior at High School South. Who got this distinction for earning the New Jersey Council for Social Studies Excellence in Education Award. And it basically distinguished

037honor reflects her outstanding achievement across multiple social studies courses and exemplifying her academic excellence and a strong commitment to earning to learning. So, congratulations once again to Elena Burns. Uh, as we heard earlier, we also found out about the Basie Award nominations. So, we're really excited to see that between North and South students, they were uh, uh basically nominated for 30 Basie Award nominations this year, which is an outstanding achievement. And that's right. The awards are coming through. I'm my my phone is being because we're actually we were nominated for several awards and WE'RE WINNING. OOH. >> [applause] >> UH WE HAVE UP UPCOMING GRADUATIONS. I cannot believe that we're already here um for this, but we have our middle schools graduating on June 17th uh at High School South and then North and South

038will be graduating on June 18th. Uh and So on the voting agenda, um all of you can see once again, as usual, we do have professional development uh that we'll be voting on tonight. We also uh talked and it's on the voting agenda tonight about the agreement that we have with Yeshiva um University, [clears throat] which is to provide internship opportunities for graduate speech and language pathology students in MTPS schools. And I believe that's it for our curriculum. Thank you. Facilities, Ms. Nunziato. Mine's not quite as exciting as that. >> [laughter] >> I do have facilities though. Um okay, in our committee, we met on May 11th. We discussed the agenda items for tonight, the boiler bid renewal. This is a renewal of a current year bid that included pricing for 2 years, so there's

039no increase. The committee also discussed the proposed Horizon easement that um is recommended to go on to High School South property, but wants more discussion before recommending a placement on the board's voting agenda. Current facilities issues. High School North baseball field update, the sprinkler system is being mapped in preparation for moving heads that are in the clay areas. If anybody knows the past history, there were sprinkler systems out there in the past and there was an issue and somehow the heads got cut off, so there's no water back there. So, we are working on um fixing that issue so that the baseball field can be um improved. New Mammoth playground update, the PTA's equipment is being installed. It should be installed by now. I I believe I was there. >> I was there like a

040week ago, beautiful job and um hopefully it's going to get even better when they use the money that was in the budget for more pieces. Um it was the playground mulch was due Friday as well as the rubber border ties. Admin is meeting with the PTA to discuss the future improvements um on Thursday 5:14 they met. So, you met with Aaron. >> We did. We were having another meeting this week to talk about some more specifics, so he got everything updated. Yeah, it's a great time for them to be um purchasing that equipment. There's a lot of sales in those companies, so you get more for your money. Environmental testing update and update from the district's industrial hygienist was shared with the committee regarding large particles that were blowing out of some units. Graduation prep,

041power washing, and bleacher repairs are in progress to prepare the grounds for graduation, which will be here before we know it. Interior air quality, a letter was received alleging deficiencies in the district's program. The allegations were responded to by the district admin and forwarded to legal representation. Since then, the entire board has gotten copies of the remediation um from Mr. Nazar and um, he was here tonight, and they have been remediated, and there's no other issues to the district that needs to go forward. We all care about our children's safety, and the health and safety in the buildings, and we feel that, um, Mr. Nazar has done a good job in in jumping on that. With that being said, I do want to say that we need to follow the chain of command. When a

042parent tells us something, we can't forget what they tell us, but we can send them to the right direction on how to get this stuff remediated. And if we do that, it's going to get done a lot quicker than somebody just waiting around like an I got you type of thing. I'm not saying this is that all, but over the years, people say, "Oh, you know, they come to meetings to say, 'Well, we knew this a month ago.'" Well, if you knew it a month ago, tell it to the right people so we can address it immediately. And I think that, um, we have done that. According to the reports that we have read, they're pretty, um, pretty informed, and I'm sure I heard there's an article out tonight. I hope parents don't panic because

043we did remediate it. And as far as we're told as board members, it's completed. So, um, I just don't want anybody to panic when they read an article that might already be addressed. Um, we also talked about the '26-'27 capital items. The Harmony curb replacement, the district has reached out to its architect to state the planning process for this project. Timing needs to be determined. High school south door replacement, the district has also reached out to its architect regarding this project, which involves the replacement of two banks of doors. The main entrance doors, and the doors that lead to the cafeteria. Lead time on these doors being ordered could be months, several months at least. So, we're starting the process and hopefully we'll get them a lot sooner than 7 months. Monmouth County Historical Commission

044Preservation Award, the Linkrucker Annex has been honored with this award. The district applied for this award for the work done at the Linkrucker Annex building and has been notified that the project is being recognized with this award. An award ceremony will take place Monday, June 7th at 7:00 p.m. in the Commissioner's meeting room in Freehold. Supervisors are going over to this building on May 29th to um get acquainted with it and the students will be going over to see the building on June 1st. Long-range Facilities Plan Committee, Mrs. Dardy informed the committee that the district is forming an ad hoc committee to focus solely on long-range facilities plan. The committee will consist of four board members and district administration. The long-range facility plan has historically been reviewed and updated every 5 years and amended when

045specific project necessitated. The district needs and the scope of its responsibilities have continued to evolve alongside change in enrollment, programming, and infrastructure demands. At this time, the district is at critical juncture in which facilities requirements and financial pressures must be addressed. It is also in the unique position of being within a few years [clears throat] of entirely paying off its bonds. This This presents the opportunity to potentially replace this debt with new debt to fund a large scope of maintenance and improvement projects. The work of this committee will include all aspects of the long-range facility plan, building maintenance and improvement needs, building programming, capacity, and consideration of enrollment projects. It will also interface with the strategic plan and the district's architect when appropriate. Um we also talked about um starting to plan for next year's

046budget. It's time. Um the master facilities plan assessment and budget are our next steps in our committee. I just want to add that we only talked about the long-range facilities plan committee. Um Mrs. Torres and Mrs. Minue said that they expressed interest in participating. Um I would like to have two [clears throat] more board members and we weren't limiting it to the facilities committee uh join that committee and you know we we would want to start work, you know, as soon as possible. You know, we did talk about the facilities committee how it's going to require uh a lot of face time and discussions. So, you know, we're we know it's a lot to ask. You're all volunteers, but you know, we we do need to really put in uh some serious time discussing and

047analyzing things. We you know, as we've been talking about all along where we are at a a critical juncture here and we do need to um get the board uh on on on board on board with you know, looking at all of these things and to start actually moving forward and and even understanding uh you know, it's become uh apparent and obvious and not you know, that not everybody uh is at the same level of of knowing what's happening with the long-range facilities plan or what goes into it and because you've all been on the board for different periods of time and uh so we really would like to have two more people who would be interested to do that. Mr. Saperstein three. I'm a joiner. Mrs. Witt Well, I know there's two board members

048not here at the facilities committee. I think we all expressed an interest in being in it. There's a large time commitment for this particular committee. So, I think what we should do is probably appoint a chair of the committee like a regular committee and include some of the members of the facilities and just see who else is you know, wants to be on the committee and then we can take it from I think that's right you said, right? Well, we had two members from the facilities committee that had said definitely at that time. Yeah, and I think you're saying we should open it up to the entire board. Well, right. That's what Right. Right. I would like to throw my name in. Okay. So I'm on it. So Mr. Weinstein, Mr. Soperaski. Well, I mean,

049I you know I I'd be interested, but however I mean, you all can decide, but you know, we we four member we have to limit it to four so we can have committee meetings. Okay, let's Why don't you check with uh Katerina and Jackie and see if she's available and then we'll do it. But we should get it put together fairly quickly, so Yes, I can email the whole board tomorrow and I can let everybody know who's interested. Excellent. Okay. Anything else, Ms. Finneyas? No, that was it for me. Finance. Finance, we met uh committee met on May 11th. May meeting agenda items discussed, special education contracted services, home instruction contracted services. Uh we have professional service appointments about uh with the exception of special education and attorney and the auditor are not included. RFPs

050are going to be issued and appointments will be planned for June to be uh The RFPs did have gone out uh as of today, so they they're advertised, they're up on the state portal, and uh the due date for both of them is June 5th, Friday, June 5th. Okay, so we should have those for the June meeting. We also discussed the food service management company. This is already shared that this is the third renewal of this contract out of four permissible Renewals, renewals. The district's planning on conducting a competitive process next year for 27-28. I know I I did see a couple of emails floating back and forth between the food service committee on the pricing, which is also on. Does anybody have anything that you want to share with me on that? >> [clears

051throat] >> Comes out. I'm sorry. I didn't Yeah, well I know with So I know we were going back and forth. There was a recommendation and it was said pricing by 15 cents, right? Just because of increase in employee costs and whatnot. And then we were discussing an additional increase to be able to better the quality of the food next year. And based upon some of the estimates that we saw from Whitsons, in order to be able to make a significant change, that amount would have to be an additional 50 cents per meal, but we only added an additional 10 cents toward the 25% increase. So I just kind of wanted to see what we could do there. It it feels like 15 cents is required, right? As far as needing more money for the

052staffing and general increases. Adding an additional 10 cents, I don't think it's going to move the needle anywhere. I don't want to add additional money if we're not going to be able to do anything with it and we're only going to add profit. So it feels like we either need to do the 15 cents or we would actually have to go to 65 cents if we were looking to make a meaningful change in the quality of the food. So I just kind of wanted to cuz we were going back and forth on that and then we settled you settled on the 25 cents, but it it felt like not a reasonable change. Like there there wasn't enough evidence to back that change. So I just kind of wanted to bring that up and see I

053know we're kind of on a deadline with that, what we could do to address that. Just because I don't want to add an additional 10 cents for no reason, cuz I don't think based on anything that we received from Whitsons that we'd be able to actually get us anywhere as far as like a quality increase. Um I don't know if there's anything else that can be discussed at this time. I know it's a very specific matter [clears throat] and I don't want to hold up the meeting. >> No, I just don't want to share the other information that went around in the emails and you know, we do use the increases not only to cover net necessary increases, but we also use it It's not that we're building profit. First of all, I just want

054to remind everybody this is a district's food service fund. So, it's not It's not Whitsons making more money if we raise the prices of the food. This goes into our food service fund, but we use it for more than food. I mean, everything that's in the kitchens and involved in the cafeterias, serving lines, that's all paid for by the food service fund. So, as I was explaining in the emails that went around I mean, looking at buying different food or or looking at that is one aspect of how the funds are used, but we also use it to improve you know, also improve our facilities, replace our equipment, you know, all the ovens, all the dishwashers, everything else. That's all ours. So, that any any money that we have available to do that, to replace

055equipment is helpful. So, we did increase just so the board knows the history, we did not increase prices last year. We did increase some 25 cents 2 years ago. Um it is good to you know, and the maximum price we could go up I think it was another dollar 25. So, we are well below what the maximum price is for a school lunch at this point. Um I felt that you know, we did initially talk about 15 cents because we were looking at um not investing any more in the program. I you know, I do think 25 cents is not an unreasonable amount considering that we didn't increase last year and it will add to the ability of what we can do within the program, whether it's food or or other things the program requires.

056>> I don't think it's unreasonable at all. I just think that I don't know based on what we've seen that it's actually going to be able to change anything when it comes to the food. Like I understand it's going to be able to change things with the service, and of course we have to support that. But, if we're not I don't want to be in a position where we're raising it every single year. So, if we're going to raise it maybe every other year. I just thought that maybe, you know, based on the estimates that we saw for bettering meat or bettering any other type of food, we were looking at maybe a 50 cent per meal increase. So, I just kind of wanted to bring that up. I I don't want to feel handicapped

057next year if we were trying to make improvements where that money, of course, is going to go to better the facilities and everything we need. I don't know if our provider right now is going to be able to work within that increase to make any meaningful changes, that's all I'm saying, based upon all of the data that we saw. And I'm not saying that that's going to go to profit to them. It's just I understand that we need to better our services, but then there's also the food that we're feeding the children, which I think is very important to make sure that it's healthy, we're reducing chemicals, we're reducing preservatives, and ensuring that we're feeding the children the best possible quality foods that we can. And I don't know with that increase if we're going

058to be able to do that. So, the information that we had so far from Whitsons was just on a couple of specific things that were looked at, chicken, beef. I mean, we you know, as we were discussing amongst ourselves, you know, we certainly can take a look at, you know, other areas or other avenues, you know, to use the additional revenue and apply that to food costs. But, you know, again, the meal you know, this is an agenda item. It's up to the board to vote. The recommendation on the agenda is a 25% increase. If you want to have a discussion on it, that's up to the board. Okay. Can I just go ahead? Well, I thought in committee we agreed to 15 cents. We talked about that in the finance committee. Yes, we did.

059And I that was the initial >> cents on the agenda. Right. It's on and and we're explaining why, you know, why it went to, you know, we did decide to change it. Um, members of the food service committee had you know, had weighed in and contacted me and said, you know, they wanted to be part of the discussion. Although we typically haven't done that, it's it was a good discussion. And, you know, there were some reasons why, you know, we decided to consider a more of an increase. Again, it's really in line with what we did 2 years ago. Um and we are well below, you know, the state >> the important meal price. We are very we're way below the the regular What's the regular What was it? Well, it was the it's the

060maximum food price, which was and and I don't have my notes in front of me, they're in the book, but I I believe >> regular price? It's over it's four it's over $5 a meal for which is the maximum price that you can charge as being part of the food service program. I think we should just go with it. When we can when we vote on it, we can have a discussion then. Well, I have I know I have some comments to make on that because I'm getting the impression in in our emails going back and forth that some people don't feel that the food we're serving our kids is healthy or it might affect their health. Are we following all the state guidelines when we're providing food? Yes, we we're required to. So, that

061statement should not be put out there because that's another thing that's going to upset people. The other thing is we're waiting for our survey from Whitsons, right? Just because we as board members, and I'm included in the food service, it's not our personal opinion on what gets changed. It should be presented with the parents and the people that are purchasing the lunch, right? So, I think before we start making any moves about changes, which I'm all for change as long as it's good, but not everybody wants organic and not everybody doesn't want organic. We need to get those surveys back and find out what it is that the parents want changed. My concern about going up to 65 cents is people can't afford it. And I think that a lot of times we forget that

062there are people out there that can't afford it. And we could be taking food from kids' mouths. Just because we can afford it or our neighbors could afford it, doesn't mean everybody can. Not everybody applies for free and reduced lunch because it's pride. We shouldn't be strapping people down just because we want to make a big move. If we want to make a big move and change things, then we got to find a way in that contract to do it, not by just throwing a a price tag at the public. I mean, that's what contracts are for. I I'm with you on raising costs to force the board for everything. Well, I'm okay with the I'm okay with I was okay with the 15 cents. Um I just think if you know, if 2 years

063from now we find we need more, that's another story, but right now I don't think that's such a great idea. Cuz we don't know where we're going. And next year we're going out for an RFP for a food service. That's all upgrades, they're all part of a contract. That's what we should be looking for. It's just my opinion. I just don't think that it should be done by individual us individual board members. It should be done by our community. That's paying the price. Wait for the the the survey and we'll be discussing the committee. Yeah, the survey should be coming by our June meeting from what I But I just and I I know Mrs. Weinstein referred to this. I just wanted to make sure the board does realize that we do need to submit

064this information by the end of May. So, [clears throat] you will have to take a vote on this information this evening. You know, we can have continuing discussions and you know, talk about how I mean, right now the agenda is reflecting 25 cents, which we thought was reasonable. Um We agreed on that though. All right, this is this This process is off. We agreed in committee on 15 cents and now it's on the agenda for 25 cents. So, the process is is definitely off. Why did we go through the process of talking about it so in finance if it was going to be changed? It doesn't make a lot of sense. Next I have is sponsorship promoter. This is on the agenda. This is the first renewal of this contract out for four permissible renewals.

065The committee discussed the low level of sponsorship revenue so far, which was year one. Amy, do we have the number for year one sponsorships? The revenue I should say. The total revenue? >> Yeah. I I didn't bring it with me. Um I can certainly, you know, let the board know what it is at this point. >> Okay. Um I you know, I apologize for No, that's fine. That's fine. I just The district will monitor >> know, if I if you want me to just ballpark it and it was in the area of, you know, maybe 10 10,000 or so for this current year. Okay. About how much? About 10,000 I believe, but you know, I will get you an exact number tomorrow. And what's that what's that contract with them? How much are we paying

066them? Well, we we pay them on They only get paid on what they what's sold. So, they get 30% of whatever the ads are. So, when I'm saying with Arbor, that's our revenue and then they get a commission on what they sell. No, we don't pay them a fee. They only get paid They only get paid when when advertising is sold. Yes. >> Okay. All right, that's what I wanted to So, anyway, we'll be monitoring that activity for the upcoming year and then we'll make a decision whether to look at other options for the following year. Uh we also have substitute staffing services. The last permissible renewal of this contract. The district will conduct a competitive process next year for 27-28 school year. Uh Mr. Viera, can I just cuz I know you said this

067I didn't realize this is what we were talking about with the Yeah, I'm assuming this is ESS? Yes. Okay. What is the process for that? What does that look like so that we know I know what to look for for next year. Like when will that start to come up? Does it go for an RFP or are there people that bring in bids? How does that work? we do a competitive contracting process which is for lack of a better explanation a hybrid between RFP and bid. Um you do have to advertise it and it's um you know sealed proposals as a bid would be, but you can use a rubric instead of going by cost alone. Cost has to be the the biggest factor, but you can use other factors uh to score the responses.

068So >> things that you were talking that we were talking about when I was questioning them. Those are part of the rubric I'm assuming. Well, we we look at you know their um like what what they're proposing for you know how they would bring you know like increase our fill rate and um things of that nature. You know we we haven't done it in 4 years now. So we would be going out next year, but we would we would want to do that probably in the late fall. So you know we would have time to score it, you know, evaluate it and get a recommendation. If for some reason the district was going to make a change, we would need time to implement that. Okay. Thank you. And that would be more like on the

069finance committee in the fall we could look for that. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. Uh next up the NJ We discussed NJCCIC cybersecurity grant as the New Jersey Cybersecurity Communications Integration Cell. The district applied for and received um this grant for 4 years beginning in 2026-2027. This grant will provide funding for advanced endpoint protection solution consisting of the CrowdStrike Falcon endpoint detection response solution with 24/7 managed detection response and now Outlaw services provided by CrowdStrike in conjunction with the NJCCIC. These solutions that are included in the 2026-2027 budget that the district will now be receiving funding for Um for 2026-2027, these solutions will be fully funded by the grant and then the funding will also amount The funding amount also reduces to 80%, 70%, and 60% over the following 3 years. Things is about

07085,000 per year of a total of 345,000 for the uh We would have talked about it in technology, but we had not received notification of the award at that time, so that's why it's here. Uh NJSBA healthcare cost resolution. The committee discussed the resolution provided by the district in New uh to this district by New Jersey School Boards Association related to rising healthcare costs for school districts and the financial burden it is causing. The NJSBA is encouraging the districts to pass the resolution forward to their legislators. Committee decided just to hold off on this and will be considering that for June. Can I ask, can you send that to us cuz I've seen it in other districts and I think it's really um Was that circulated to the whole I thought It was I Yeah,

071I guess it didn't go to the whole board, but the school board sent it to us and I would like to see it. Yeah, I I can I can send it. >> it's important. Yeah, I didn't see it. I mean, I saw it not directed in um from us here, but I think that it's important for us as a board to pass this um because the clearly healthcare and the cost of healthcare is a major driver for not just our district, but every district, so why are we not as a county and as a board contributing to that for the county. So, I think it's an important resolution for us to pass. Yeah, I don't think it's binding I think. It's not binding, but it's a show of everybody together having the same issues. So,

072it's an issue we have. Why wouldn't we contribute? Okay. Can you Mr. Miller? >> I will I will circulate it to Thank you. Thank you. I think I feel it. Yeah, I I can say I remember seeing it from Scobee's. And if we could put it on the June agenda, I would appreciate it. Yeah, we'll we're going to we were we were going to continue the discussion in the June finance meeting, but yes, absolutely. Uh we had the Alera presentation district's health health insurance broker did their presentation. The 2026-2027 budget beyond the committee reviewed and updated the 2026-2027 budget that makes adjustments to compensate for the planned school closures that are not happening for the 2026-2027 school year. Uh the plan consisted of a reduction of the maintenance reserve deposit. Uh not filling several vacant

073positions that were budgeted for, the elimination of the playground and bathroom installations at Bayshore. Realizations of savings on the district stop loss renewal. Um and these adjustments were submitted to the to the county office and we did receive approval for that. We also went over a high-level five-year outlook, discussed different five-year projections based on varying scenarios, different levels of state aid, different amounts of tax increases, etc. Um there'll be more discussions on that obviously going forward. Um just to note a district a difference in the tax levy increase in year of 1%, which is about 2 million for us, I believe, um compounds differently over a 5-year period, but again, uh, we would take into consideration differences in state aids, either increasing slightly or staying flat. So, with all those different scenarios, uh, the projections

074um, will differ. The projections reviewed are based on the current level [clears throat] of capital spending, which is low. Increasing capital expenditures on an annual basis would have a significant impact on our budgets. Uh, state aid funding and tax levy increases cannot be guaranteed, which makes planning all the more difficult. Um, but even without an increased level of capital spending, three out of four scenarios that we discussed result in our expenses outpacing our revenues over the next 5 years based on, uh, status quo or doing nothing to stay the same. Um, and that's it for the work plan. Uh, next up, personnel we discussed in executive, uh, student services and storage. Um, thank you to, uh, Mr. Collard and Ms. Wright. I was unable, last minute, to make the meeting, but, um, both filled me

075in on what happened. Uh, first, Autism Acceptance Month was in April. All 16 schools did the human ribbons that they had talked about where they took pictures uh, of the whole school outside as human ribbons, and it recognized each district, uh, school had creativity and teamwork and collaboration for creating these, uh, photographs, and it gave students and staff an opportunity to reflect on Autism Awareness Month, and highlighted the commitment to inclusive education and fostering acceptance, understanding, and belonging for all learners. And a lot of the conversation was about how, um, in actually doing the activities and participating, it led to more authentic conversations with the kids. So, um also over the summer, I believe Mr. Collins, that's when lots of the pictures will be coming out. So, we'll be seeing those. Um the uh students

076at the Annex, the Lincroft Annex, the materials are arriving, the furniture is arranged. We have the program mission. We talked about the typical day. The students are visiting on Monday, June 1st. Um and they are now going to be called They're renaming it uh the Workforce Academy of Middletown at the Lincroft Annex. As I believe that's the final name or the potential final name. Correct? It's It's just about >> Just about there. Okay. Workforce Academy of Middletown. I didn't want to I didn't want to lock it in if I was not quite there. Um the excitement is continuing to build as the furniture is arriving and the skill development, the apartment, the kitchen spaces are prepared for the student use. The hands-on environments are designed to promote confidence, independence, and future success. Um in addition,

077like I said, June 1st, the students and staff will be there. For the extended school year, the planning is just about done. We have approximately 97 elementary and 75 secondary students attending this program. Um the I believe that it is at Thorn and Harmony. The autism program baseball game was on Friday, May 15th uh where high school South varsity baseball team uh joined students from the MD autism and transition programs for an inclusive whiffle ball game celebrating the connection, teamwork, and community. The event highlighted the value of inclusive experience in fostering peer relationships, empathy, leadership, and meaningful learning opportunities for all students. Uh on June 2nd for the PD, while the K to 5 is working on the amplified Desmos program that's starting next year, the other grade levels, especially middle school, uh is going

078to be focusing on specialized instruction, IEPs, and inclusive education. Um and finally, the unified kickball game was officially scheduled for May 20th at Brick Memorial High School. The teams will be there at 5:15, kickoff is at 6:00. So, if anybody is available and able to go, it sounds like it's going to be a great event on May 20th, uh tomorrow. Ms. Torres, unfortunately, the long-awaited kickball game was just postponed again. So, >> I haven't gotten all the specifics, but that game, again, we're all very excited for it. Our unified program continues to grow, and I did receive word that that game will be postponed. So, we're looking at an opportunity with bussing. We have bussing available during the day, so we're going to work with Brick Memorial to try to do a day game. Oh,

079great. >> In the in the near future. Who knew we'd have this heat wave before Memorial Day? It would be nice if it held off just a couple more days, but there we are. It's just be nice. And that concludes the report. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Torres. Uh technology with Weinstein. We had a brief meeting on May 1st. So, first and foremost, the 2026 student summer internship program is renewing this year. It's their 10th year of internship. So, over the summer, students are going to attend Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Um and they will be um included in projects such as setting up and prepping new Chromebooks, repairing and cannibalizing old Chromebooks, inventory of all classroom technologies, setting up and testing of classroom equipment after cleaning, Boxlight configurations, and classroom lab

080PC replacements. Um so, they're going to have a ton of Q&A time with uh multiple um staff at the schools, and they're going to be able to learn how their network network works and see behind the scenes. So, there are total seven interns on the agenda for approval and it's a great program and I think a lot of students are getting a ton of real world opportunity out of that. Uh we also discussed how we recently set up our my MPS portal. Um this is really just focusing on real-time insights into all copier and printer usage to best utilize devices and reduce waste. So, this is just focused on cost savings across the district. Okay. Thank you. Shared services, we had a meeting on April 29th. Uh we discussed an easement at High School South.

081The group discussed an easement for the Verizon repeater pole that the township has proposed to the Board of Education. The easement would allow Verizon to place a repeater pole on a parking lot island at High School South. Federal law permits cell phone companies to place these poles in municipal right-of-ways. The closest municipal right-of-way is adjacent adjacent to Bresh Boulevard. Since there are residences there, the township is asking that the pole be placed on the school property instead. The the board representatives will take this issue back to facilities committee for consideration. We did discuss that. And um it's >> Mr. Miller also talking Mr. Burns and I are talking to the township about trying to get even a more exact location of what was being proposed as far as placement on the High School South campus.

082They did send us a picture today late today about where Verizon had originally proposed to place the pole and sort of a mock-up of that and it was directly in somebody's you know backyard pretty much. So, I you know I we can share that with the committee when we meet and we're going to try to get them to give us some more exact location cuz we were looking at a map of South and you know, where they were looking to put it we weren't exactly clear. So. We also discussed the special law enforcement officers agreement which expires on June 30th this year. The group discussed the renewal of this agreement for July 1 and the Township expressed that they would have a proposal together for the board in July with the BOE representative stated the

083district uses special law enforcement officers for its ESY program over the summer so the new agreement needs to be in place before June 30. Township representatives representatives said they are reviewing the budget for this program and will have renewal information to the board by early June. We also discussed the Bayview field improvements. The Township will be opening bids for this project which will open on May 12th. They expect to have a contract award at at the June committee meeting. The project is expected to be completed by Labor Day. The America 250 parade the Township shared that the Middletown Township Police Department will potentially be looking to use Monmouth Elementary School grounds as a staging area for the June 28th America 250 parade. We also discussed our fuel agreement. The group discussed the existing fuel purchasing

084agreement. The Township is considering raising the per gallon administrative fee from 20 cents a gallon to 40 cents a gallon. It's a pretty significant increase so the board may need to explore other options for purchasing fuel in order to evaluate the pricing Yeah, I just want to add to that that the reason that they're doing that is because they have to rebuild their their station. It's not an It's not just an arbitrary increase. They have to do improvements to their fueling station. So, they are you know, looking at the cost of that. And we also discussed exploring other avenues for shared services between the board and the township. Next meeting is scheduled for June 8th. And that's a town hall. So, more to report back at that after that meeting. And I believe they were

085supposed to have that less information about the special law enforcement officers at the June 8th meeting so that we could have it by That's what they told Okay. Because we would have to approve the agreement at our June board meeting. Right. Yeah. And we told them when our meeting was and with all the graduations that is the only day we can meet. Yeah. And that's the end of the reports. Now, I'd like to open up the mic for public comment. 30 minutes on action item agenda action items only. Agenda action items only. 30 minutes. Please limit your comments to 2 or 3 minutes. Or we need 3 minutes. Okay. We I'm sorry. Do we have the recording of the questions? For this? Thank you. Okay. Uh hi, Rebecca Lara of Port Monmouth. As a quick

086means of background, I am an attorney. I'm a Tinton Falls resident and a mom of four, two of which are in this district's elementary schools. On May 11th, I submitted the letter that Ms. Manewal referenced regarding environmental health and safety conditions in several elementary schools. Um I'm not going to get into the details of that letter. If you want to see there is a patch I will pull as reference. Um I want to use my time to address the documents that I received that I believe that the board was also presented today. Wait, excuse me. Excuse me. Wait, this is only on action items only on the agenda. Oh. Oh, this wasn't Oh, okay. Because this is because Ms. Jimenez talked about it, I can't It's nothing It's nothing on I misunderstood. I thought if

087if it was discussed I could discuss. Okay, I'll go back. At the end you can comment for any any Okay. Well, no worries. Okay, thank you. Hi, Josh from the Middletown. I have a question about um section 10 I if that's a question I can ask about. Special education contracted service providers. Is that the totality of the list for special education service providers that we'll be having in the district next year? It's the list that we have right now. We do uh add providers during the year as needed. Uh but this is the initial list that we know we have at this point. Okay. My son currently uses Summit Speech School and and so if it's something that's not going to be continued we'd like notice of that um or when we could be aware

088of when other service provider would be on the agenda. It could be and I will I'll check with that department but if we didn't actually get their renewal contract for this agenda we didn't add them on and like I said we would add them when we get the contract. So this isn't an affirmative list that of the totality and all the list. >> We we we will and we do and we will be adding providers throughout the year. This is what we have right now. Okay, thank you very much. Hi, Kristen Rooney Middletown. Just a quick question on um strategic planning. Can I ask that's agenda. Okay. Um where I don't think we got to or covered anything budget related in any of our Wait, hold on. I don't know that we're voting on anything.

089We're just No, that's We're not voting. No, we're not voting on anything. We're just Okay. So, okay. Okay. You bring it up with the answer. No. Anybody else for agenda items only at this time. Okay, I see nobody else. We're going to close the public portion. Uh yes. >> Yes. Hi, Erica. I'll be Superintendent. I have no mic here. Now I do. And yes, microphones are on. Um I only have a couple of things. Um just a reminder to the community that Friday was changed to an early release day versus a full day off from school due to the weather-related school closures that we had this year. Um now we're experiencing a heat wave, which will be short-lived, I think. Um and then certainly we have off on Monday for Memorial Day. Um also just

090a reminder that June 2nd is a day where we only have staff in um and no students due to the primary elections. Um again, I'll reiterate we're really excited to restart strategic planning. Um we'll be sharing that information with subcommittee members in the next week or so. Um we also will be and we asked for um you know, people to volunteer to serve in this capacity from the community, um liaisons to the administration. So, we'll also be reaching out to those liaisons and their primary responsibility will be certainly to stay in more intimate contact with the administrative team as this process unfolds. Um, you know, just to um have deeper after the subcommittee meetings discussions regarding action plans um and you know, those priority areas that um the subcommittee discusses during those summer sessions. So,

091we'll be um reaching out to those individuals as well. So, thank you for all of um all of those individuals who um >> [clears throat] >> volunteer their time um and are willing to participate in that capacity. Um we're also excited as was in my update for the end of last month is our K-5 math program selection, Amplify Desmos. Um I'm a curriculum person at heart, so anytime um there's a pilot program where we spend um a significant amount of time and energy in vetting out a program um and we when we finally land on something that we feel can make a difference in the district, I think that's cause for excitement. Um I'm thinking that this is going to generate the same kind of product that our um shift to Orton-Gillingham did a couple

092of years ago, but on the math side of things. So, um that's an exciting initiative and as um Mrs. Wright mentioned in her update, um professional development on June 2nd for our K-5 teachers will be heavily emphasized with um starting that Amplify Desmos training for our teaching staff members. Um finally, on June 11th, we have our last recognition program of the year. This is where we recognize all of our retirees as well as um many students. I mean, we do the BCE awards, we do um athletic teams and and such, but um so please, if you can, come out and support specifically our retirees um who have given many many many years of service to our district and you know, it's a night where we can celebrate and recognize them publicly. So, thank you. It's

093June 11th. 6:00 here. Yes. Are you locked out of the phone? Okay. Need a motion to approve meeting minutes 9A through D. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Need a motion to approve items 10A through 10 BB. >> [clears throat] >> I have a quick question about one of them. Okay. You have a motion? So moved. Second. Discussion? Yeah, for 10A, the policies governing the district, have there been any changes to any of the policies? Not as of recently. What happens is, and we moved to New Jersey School Boards for our policy provider um last year, and fully morphed all of our policies over. Um what we found with New Jersey School Boards is they are very intentional with things that they choose. We did just receive an alert recently,

094so what we will have to reconvene a policy meeting a policy committee meeting to discuss those things, but they're minor things. Um nothing massive that is going to change our process or things that we, you know, are legally required to do as a district. They're more nuanced things like, you know, this statute was left out of this policy, etc. But, um what we're finding with School Boards versus Strauss Esmay is there is much less minutia in the policy changes that get handed down, um and they're very much more straightforward versus in legal speak that Strauss Esmay really, you know, kind of convoluted the situation with. Okay. So, as long as there's we're voting on taking what we have and using it through the >> Yeah, and also using school boards as our provider for those

095policies. This is not any This You're not voting on any policy changes with that today. Any other discussion? All in favor? I. I. I. Opposed? I'm opposed on 10G, the architect. And any abstentions? Okay, I need a motion on items on the business office consent agenda, items 11A through 11O. So, can we pull a couple of them out for discussion? Yeah, sure. Okay. Well, let's do a motion. Which ones do you want to Why don't we do a motion and a second, and then we'll discuss them one by one. So, do we have a motion on 11 A through O? So moved. Do we have a second? >> Second. Okay. Now, discussion. Yes, we can pull them out one by one for discussion. Um on D on the bills list, Mhm. can you tell me

096what we um paid Ross Haber for on I don't have the date here. It just says May 2026. That was the second half of the payment for the work that he did with the um redistricting the boundary study. It We'd only paid for half. Oh, I thought we paid for that back in We made one payment. We didn't make the full payment. We only paid for part of the work. Okay. I had a very small question about It's kind of silly, but the the cost of the Board of Ed uh meeting food. Was that just one month or is that from the beginning of the year cuz it was like $900? Yeah, that's that's not one month. I don't know I it might be the whole year so far. It's a whole lot for chips

097and water. >> [laughter] >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. Um I I think that with um I'm two things I have an issue with. The um on H the 25 cents, I think we agreed to 15 cents in the in the committee meeting and for it to be changed on the agenda, I have a problem with that because that was the point of having the committee meeting. Um and the second thing with the in terms of the uh sponsorship under I um I made a suggestion that we bring it in house. We're giving 30% away to a company that's not really doing anything for us and as far as I'm concerned, if it's an advertising company, they're in year one they should be going all in to get as many advertisings as

098they can, especially if they're commission based. You would think they would want to be um making revenue. So, I don't really think we should uh hook up with them again because they didn't do anything for us in the first place. Can I make a sug- Can I make a suggestion that we're not obligated to pay these people anything that they don't find for us, right? Cuz they're commission based. Maybe we approve this, but also try to to supplement it with in-house so we can fully morph over you know, over the course of time. I think 30% is too much and improve themselves in the first year. Maybe 10%. 30% of nothing is still nothing. Right. So, you know, I also just want to remind the board that we did put this out for a competitive

099contract and that we put we didn't we put we got proposals. I mean, this was the only proposal that came in for this specific need, you know. So, we did get you know, we but we did put it out for a competitive process. The other thing I just want to also bring up that we talked about in in um finance and we probably I think we've talked about facilities as well is, you know, we we also, you know, we really wanted to take the advertising um you know, and make it clearer. You know, we get a lot of questions about all the other signage that's that's on our properties. We we don't sell all the advertising that's on our properties. There's other groups that sell some of that. So, you know, I think as part

100of the whole discussion, you know, the board needs to decide, you know, a direction, you know, which way they want to be named, you know, if there's certain things that, you know, we would be selling as a district and certain things that would be uh allowed for, you know, the other you know, booster clubs and parent groups and so forth or, you know, do we does the board want to have a bigger discussion on that? But, cuz that that is a question we get asked a lot, too. We'd be figuring out ways to get as much revenue as possible. The scoreboards have to be paid back and I think the intention was that this ad company was going to do that, but they're not really showing any results. Would that be limited just to finance

101or is there a different way that we could discuss ideas about how we could bring additional revenue in for the scoreboards? Um I mean, I'm sure we're I mean, anybody can discuss it. I mean, we're Bring us suggestions forward. Yeah. Well, no. I mean, I know I I submitted a couple of like technological ideas. I mean, there are some ideas that, you know, a student I know Mark was talking about having like a student focus. I think just from personal experience, like students I just don't know if that would be a club or a work study program or something that they would do through school. I'm not sure how we could approach that, but it might be a good way to Yeah, we can we can talk about it some more and see how that

102would look. But, as Dr. Alfone said, that could certainly be supplementing. I mean, I'm not sure the the purpose of getting a professional firm was to reach out to larger entities. Maybe we are hoping to even get, you know, national companies and things of that nature. We haven't been able to do that as of yet, but I don't know if that will be coming in the future. We did talk about finance, you know, the fact that the revenues were not where we wanted them to be. Um You know, we did talk about giving it you know, really was not a full year last year and and the scoreboards were they were only put into service right before the beginning of the year and so that we didn't have the summer or anything to really sell

103ads. So, you know, >> any leads on ads coming in? What's that? >> Do they have any leads on ads coming in? I haven't met with them recently, but I mean, we you know, we did talk about we were going to regroup with them at the end of the school year and and see what the plan was for next year. We push this to the next meeting then? See what what their plan is? I Yeah, I would like to know like their criteria. Do they Does somebody just approach them and say we want to advertise and you play let's make a deal with a price or is there like a list of prices for each thing that we want to do? They They negotiate agreements and again, you know, being that they they take in

104a commission off of that revenue, you know, it would be to their best interest to be selling ads. >> We don't know that all the deals were so good. And I guess my I guess my concern is so we got Alliance to give $10,000. What if another company comes in, gets the same advertising, and they get less? Is there any kind of thing in the contract that specifically says >> they have a they have a standard. Like, you know. >> any of that yet. What is the contract? I'm sorry. >> anything in the contract? >> The contract that we have with them doesn't specify prices for advertising, and they're different I'm sorry. >> I'm I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. They don't have a rate card that they have like a standardized rate card

105that they can share. >> Well, there's I mean, there's there's been different types of deals, you know, we've had some things that are that were on the video scoreboards. We've had, you know, the the Alliance sign that you're talking about is actually a static sign on the back of the scoreboard. Uh there's been a few other things that they have brought in. Uh so, it depends upon the duration of, you know, when they're you know, what when it's going to be shown, how long is it going to be for, you know, obviously something that's up all year long and not on the video scoreboard, you're probably going to get more money for that because that's it never turns off. Can we make a request to see their collateral and what they're putting out to potential

106advertisers? Just to get an idea of what they're requesting as far as pricing, placement, eyes per ad, and whatnot. Just to get an idea of what's being put out to the public or their potential partners. Yeah, we can I mean, like I said, we were planning on meeting with them, you know, at the conclusion of the school year. We can get We can get all of that information. And I will say this is a reputable company. They do They do all of the ads for um the Shore Conference Athletics. So, they are like an entity that we've vetted, and they have a proven results. Um you know, certainly as as Mrs. already said, like this came Our scoreboards weren't even up and running till very late in the game. So, um And this is just

107this year alone. Yeah. Um but certainly we're going to we can meet with them and get that information. But I just want to make sure that this is not just, you know, a person that you know, the only person applied, so we're going to take them. They have a proven track record in the Shore Conference. So, all the athletic, you know, events that you go to that are Shore Conference sponsored, you'll see ads there. They do all of their advertising the solicitation of those advertisements and have raised quite a bit of money for the Shore Conference in doing so. They have but that that also circles back to the other discussion, the you know, and we have talked to them. They monetize a lot of the assets throughout the district and not just not every

108district has video scoreboards, so they're doing advertising in gymnasiums, in bubbles, you know, along the fences of fields. So, they are bringing in revenue for other districts that way. So, I think it's more of a an approach, you know, discussion that the board needs to have about, you know, how we're going to do this going forward as well. I mean, you know, this is all good discussion. There's different avenues that we can take. I think we also have to be clear on what what we are willing to sell for advertising. I think it would be harmful to start taking those signs that have been sold for years away from the parent groups because that's how that's their sole source of fundraising. I know it could benefit us, but they've been doing it for a long

109time and what they do with that money benefits our students 100% and I had this feeling the last time we did it about corporate sponsorship taken away from our PTAs. You know, when they're going out soliciting, if they went through all the local people, our PTAs would have no one to solicit to. I think we just have to define the lines clearly. So, can we table this then until we get some of this information? >> Which that leads to what I was going to ask. What do we know about like if we're talking about bringing it in house and having students possibly go out there to get some of these ads, would that I don't think that's that's I don't think that that's a viable Okay, but I mean if we're talking about in-house, like

110if we're talking about these other options, are we going to is that going to conflict with that contract if we've approved this contract tonight if we're talking about I don't think so because there is no obligation on our part to accept any of the proposals that they're bringing forward. I mean, that's what I would think. Like we're not obligated even when they solicit something for us, we have to review it and the board has to approve it prior to it being accepted anyway. So, any of the And they're only commission based. Okay. So, any of the advertising that they are going to put out we have to approve first. I just have one more question. So, I just wanted to clarify you're saying that one of the issues is that generally they're not selling a

111lot of video advertising, right? They're selling a lot of static banners and placements and all that. >> some video advertising, but that's really where we were hoping to get more. But that's not maybe their specialty because of the lack of video placements at other schools. You know, that's me saying that. That's not Just I'm just wondering out loud if >> No, and they sell video ads because for instance, like when they go to like the Shore Conference hold a tournament at Monmouth University, they have a digital scoreboard. So, they're their media that they're or their advertising they're selling for those events is digitized. Um same thing if you go to a basketball game, um they have the scrolling like the scores table has the scrolling, you know, kind of feed. That is also digitized. So,

112they're working in the digital world. Um it's just a matter of like having them be able to sell digital ads for a high school environment and also um having the people in the area who may be interested in in participating and and purchasing ad space being able to digitize their message for us as well. So, it's a lot of things having to come together. Isn't it also true that you're selling digital ads for scoreboards that are not on all the time? They're only on during games. Well, that's when they want them on. I mean, but games like can be all kinds of games. Like we hopefully, you know, we'll be expanding that scoreboard usage to other sports where we can, you know, digitize things. And you know, there's this idea of like ad time, like

113how long an ad would run, length of time, what part of the game. But then there's also other options where, you know, you might have your your ad up for the entire game, like in a box at the bottom of the screen, you know, like so there's a lot of different options. Um, you know, I think we're just scratching the surface in my opinion, but um, certainly we can look for ways to expand it in house, too. Doesn't hurt. I also want to make a comment on H-15. And I think Sarah said it pretty much before. H H H-15 H H Yeah, the food service fund for the 15 cents. It's not 15. If we're just raising it the extra 10 cents to raise it, what are we telling our community? Just leave it at

114the 15. >> 15. I say just leave it at 15 because if we're not going to get much, like Sarah said, 10 cents just to just to do it, then why are we doing it? I agree. We just agreed at 15. >> Yeah. We agreed at 15. Yeah, I I I think we should really wait. If we're going to get some kind of improvement Yeah. Yeah, we're not. Because that should really come with contracts. I think we should [snorts] wait till next year to raise it when we get a new food service director. Just leave it at 15. Leave it at Leave it as is. If we have to make a um a motion to amend. So I make a motion. Okay. I don't know if anyone else is going to second this motion. Or

115I'm just suggesting Yeah, maybe we should just make a motion not to raise it at all this year and do it next. Or you could maybe you could just make a motion to um um, you know, reflect a 15% 15 cent increase and then we can adjust the prices accordingly. As amended. So, reduce all the costs listed in the agenda. >> By 10 cents. Why don't we just not do an increase at all and wait till next year when we get a new contract? >> [snorts] >> Because we we didn't I I wouldn't recommend that. We didn't raise prices last year either and you really don't want to be in a situation where you have to raise them a larger amount all in one year. It is wise to keep pace. And not have not

116have a very large spike in one particular year. >> [clears throat] >> So, we have a motion and a second on 11A through 11O. I need uh all in favor on 11A through O with 11H being amended to include a 10 cent increase. 15 cent [clears throat] increase. This is a 10% reduction in the pricing listed on the agenda. You want to roll call? I really I'm sorry, one more question about transportation contracts. Sure. Um are we changing any routes or taking any routes out? Well, we won't know that until we have all of our numbers done. But, they got got to come back to you again. More um I guess I'm asking about the ones that we had talked about that were possibly changing for this year. >> No, the only the only changes

117in routes that we would make would be if is if we didn't need it for a certain reason, you know, like a special ed routes or if we were able to collapse due to ridership, you know, like enrollment and who's assigned to a route, we might combine routes, but no, there's no No, I'm talking about about economic affairs of the city. We're not taking nothing away. Thank you. We already Yeah, we decided that that wasn't going to happen. Any other discussion? Okay, roll call. This is on 11 A through O and 11 H is amended to include a 15 cent increase. Mrs. Benitez. I am no on 11 I and yes on the rest. Mr. Sofrański. I am no on D, no on H. I'm on D. D? D. Okay. H and I am no

118on I with the sponsorship. Yes on the other items. Everything else, yes. You got H for no? D, E, H and I. D, H and I. Oh, not not E. E is okay. D, E. Okay. All right, so D, H and I. Roll. No. D, H. D, H and then on I is a D is in David, H is in hotel. And I, for lack of a better description, B, right? Yes. Just for the sponsorship. Just the sponsorship. Just on the sponsorship, just short district average. No, I'm on the sponsorship, too. I'm everything else. Just the sponsorship. Right. Mrs. Torres. Yes. Mrs. Weinstein. I'm just double-confirming that H is a 10 cent reduction or total 15 cent increase. 15 cent increase. >> Yes. Mrs. Wright. Yes. Mr. Avita. Yes. So, everything passes except No. Well,

119do you need the five votes on that? I don't know why. There's only six There's only six members here. Yeah, they're up there on the list. Yeah, four No, it's a word of contract. >> Contract means majority. It will pass with majority. Contract means majority of the full board. So, you need five votes for that? Okay. >> So, the short district does not pass because it's not a majority. It's contract. So, the contract serves as the contract and it does not pass. Correct. All right. We need a roll call. Just a reminder that 12A, we need a roll call on the audio one. On 12A. Yes. Is that it? Yeah. So, uh let's I need a motion on 12A. Should we just do the number 306811? Yeah. First. Yeah, the appeal. Yeah. We need a

120motion. Motion. Motion. Second. Second motion. Voting on the appeal, right? Somebody has to second. There. Yeah. Okay. Discussion. So, this is only on the appeal. Right. Roll call. Mrs. Manuyag. Yes. Mr. Saporito. >> Yes. Mrs. Torres. Yes. Mrs. Weinstein. Yes. Mrs. Wright. Yes. Mr. Avita. Yes. And now you have to vote. All right. Now >> Who's 12A for the regular one? Excuse me? L. He's out. >> No, he's out too. He's out too. Yeah. No, yeah. No, 12A, and have to do the regular guess >> we do the balance of 12A. Okay. And then 12A the balance through 12L. L. L is personal. L is personal. So, I need a motion on 12A the balance and through 12L. Motion. >> So moved. Second. Discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? I am no on the

121yeses and yes on the noes. For 12A? 12A. Any other abstentions? Now, I need a motion on 12M HR1 through HR7. >> On the personal. So moved. Second. Discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? All right, moving on. Old business. Anybody have any old business? Um I just wanted to bring up I know um Mr. Collora was starting up a board for the public comment questions. Could we please get a copy of that from the last two meetings with the questions and then even the ones that aren't relevant anymore, I would like to still see the questions cuz that was the motion that we made to get those questions and answers from public comment. Yeah, we'll get them distributed. Okay. So, maybe end of the week? He has them done. Oh, great. I'm sure

122he has. Yeah. Thank you. We'll get them to you very shortly. Thank you. We'll get them. Thank you. I don't want to interrupt but Rashi and Julian block one starts very early and it's at 10:15. So, if you're thinking you need to get home so you can be right up hold excellence at at 7:20, let me know. All right. I don't want to break curfew. And thank you. Thank you, I'll give you more credit for being here this whole time. >> [laughter] >> Thanks for hanging in there, girls. I just wanted to bring up the wellness committee. I know I I think we're at the point where we have board members and administration. So, I just wanted to kind of check on going out to the public and what we really needs to do that.

123I know we have one person who emailed us months ago that was interested in what we can do next. Yes, I think our next step is we we were going to set up our organizational meeting. So, we'll have to circulate amongst the board members who have volunteered and the three of us and have you know, get a meeting to set what the committee's going to look like and sort of a path for the next few months and then we can get that out. So, we can we'll circulate dates and times. So, you're going to be the lead on that or do you want any of us to take it? I I I I can I can do Okay, thank you. Mr. Colon, I apologize. I just checked my phone so this is the second time

124tonight that I missed something from you. I apologize. What did he send today? He did. Like 10 minutes ago. It's okay. Forest, you're just like a minute or two behind. I am. >> [laughter] >> Too fast. Then it's a good day if I'm only a minute or two behind. So, thank you. That's a good problem. She's doing well today. Any other old business? Any new business? Yes, I do and I know that Jessica spoke about this before. But I just wanted to congratulate the e-sports committee for their um state championship. It took us a while to get e-sports up and running in this district. A lot of hard work, a lot of figuring out where it is. Um it's a great opportunity for kids that don't play sports and are very interested in doing the

125the games in the computers. There are lots of scholarships out there for e-sports. I don't think people realize that. Um, it just is a a great thing that includes anybody and everybody who needs something to be a part of and they enjoy it. So, it's really good. So, I wanted to congratulate Evan Thompson, Caden Lee, and Kacper Wizbowski. Um, Evan is in grade 12, Caden is in grade 10, and Kacper is in grade nine. Winning a state championship in this is a big accomplishment. And for the audience, the board did get an email um today from the organization that runs this and it says, "On behalf of everyone at the Garden State e-sports, I wanted to personally congratulate Middletown High School South on winning the Garden State e-sports Mario Kart State Championship this past Saturday."

126Middletown has been one of the foundational programs in our league for years and it has been incredible watching the continued growth of our students, staff, and e-sports culture. Programs do not sustain long-term success like this by accident. It comes from strong district support, dedicated leadership, and coaches who consistently create positive opportunities for our students. Coach Siegel deserves special recognition for this incredible work he has done building and sustaining the program. Mark has always represented everything we hope scholastic e-sports can be, student-centered, inclusive, competitive, competitive, and community-driven. The championship is a reflection of the culture he and your district have built over time. We would also like to help celebrate this accomplishment and I talked to Dr. Alfone about it. They would like to come when we recognize the team in public at the board meeting.

127So, congratulations to eSports. It's been a long time coming, a lot of hard work, and they did a great job. And that we will um include them and invite uh Garden City eSports to come on our June 11th recognitions. Perfect. Any other new business? Okay, we'll open it up to public comment on non-agenda items for 30 minutes. Please limit your comments to 2 3 minutes. Also, please direct all questions to the chair if it's a district uh level question, I'll defer that call for now. If it's a building level issue, we'll direct you back to the to the building. And if it's something we have to research, we'll get back to you. But, uh please state your name. Rebecca Lara, Board moment. Um going back to the letter um we're talking about earlier. Um I

128received this morning documentation, photographs, and some documents from the district uh about remediation of the issues that I had brought up in my letter. And I wanted to spend some time and focus in on one of those letters, um and just kind of point out some concerns that I still have. Um so, that report was provided from Environmental Connection Inc. Um and in the interest of time, I'm just going to focus on the one regarding the HVAC systems. Um the report assessed the safety data sheets for products used in the district's HVAC units, including a product called New Calgon Pan Spray Black. The product's own label states it is suspected of causing cancer, may damage fertility or the unborn child, and causes damage to organs through prolonged and repeated exposure. Now, according to the manufacturer's

129own website, that product is approved for condensate pans, swamp coolers, plumbing fixtures, roofing, and gutters. Notably, duct liner insulation is not on that list. Now, there are specific products, even from that same company, that are intended for use on duct liners, and those products are specifically designed for that application and are formulated and approved for exactly that purpose. Yet, the district chose not to use one of those products, and I'd like to know why. Um was it costs? Um Additionally, the district's own written IAQ program, which was provided to me this morning as well, um requires that before any sealant or coating is applied, the designated person, who is the director of facilities, must verify the product is appropriate for the intended use. New Caligun pan spray is not approved by its manufacturer for application

130to a duct liner. Uh that is a violation of the district's own policy. So, what does this report provided by EC uh say that has convinced the board that there isn't a need for an independent review? The report concluded the product is not hazardous, of course, um but that conclusion was based on the product being applied and cured on an appropriate surface. It says absolutely nothing about a 5-year-old degraded coating on an unapproved surface physically breaking apart and becoming airborne through an active HVAC system into occupied classrooms. That question was not asked, and it is precisely the question that needs to be answered. I also want the board to understand the sequence of events here. Before any testing was done or provided by this uh this third-party company, administration allegedly told a teacher that the

131black dust is harmless. The district's HVAC maintenance mechanic was then told to resign or be terminated after documenting the problem and stating his intention to bring it to the board. 10 days after the forced resignation, the district commissioned the safety data sheet review. Therefore, the report did not precede the conclusion that the dust was harmless. It was produced to justify it after the fact. And after the person raising the alarm was removed. I've also been informed since my letter was submitted staff have been working to address conditions I documented. Based on the facilities report by Ms. Minuez, that seems to be correct. That should not have required Oh. Okay, would anyone else like to finance the budget? No one else cares? Okay, cool. I'm Karen and I have two children. Notably, my children are not

132in these schools. That topic. I'm Kristen Rooney, Middletown. Um my question I think was about strategic planning and where I guess where in strategic planning committees does budgeting fall. I just don't remember ever covering it. So, maybe that's just something to note. There's a facilities / finance committee. Okay. Facilities and finance are together. Okay. Yeah, but if you think about finance and the budget, it's intertwined in all areas in reality. Okay. Thank you. Scott Pearson, Middletown resident. I have a question about the agenda itself, specifically board docs. So, uh Mr. Meade, I think Ms. Doughty would be the one to answer this question. So, I understand there's an issue with the website. When you click on the PDF, it's not actually downloading it. There's some sort of error. And I believe that's been brought to

133your attention. >> [snorts] >> Do you want me to answer or Yeah, you can. I mean, I don't know all of the specifics. I know my assistant has been dealing with board docs and they've had some Believe they made an upgrade a couple of weeks ago and there might still be some glitches from that. So, we are continuing to look and monitor the issue with that. Okay. Yeah, so the issue is like we can't see the whole agenda like we can here. We used to be able to and that was the issue. So, if for the next board meeting if it's still not corrected, which I understand it's not a district issue, it's a vendor issue. If you could print it out and scan it in a PDF and put a link up on the

134website, it'd be easier for us so we could have all the information for the meeting. Yes, we could do that. We could print it and post a PDF on the website. Appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Adita? Yes. I would like to make a motion to let Mrs. Laura speak finish speaking her speech. I'll I'll second it. Yeah, if it's more than 3 minutes, that's fine. All right, I appreciate that. Um Um where was I? Oh, that the that the maintenance staff has been working on remediating these issues and I do appreciate that. Um but that should not have required public exposure for that to happen. These buildings have known recurring problems and tonight in the Patch article, the president of the teachers union did confirm that she's aware of concerns and is working with the

135New Jersey Work Environment Council on behalf of her members. I don't know specifically what concerns she's working on, but it is a documented ongoing pattern in this district. It should not take public attention for school for the school district to act urgently on health and safety conditions that its own employees have reported for years. And quick fixes made without independent verification are not the same as adequate repairs. We have seen that pattern before with these buildings. The only way to know whether what has been done is sufficient and whether anything was missed is independent inspection by a certified industrial hygienist retained by this board, not by the administration. And I'm asking for a commitment to that tonight. Thank you. Anybody else public comment? No, seeing no one else at the mic, we'll close the public

136portion. I move to a motion to adjourn the meeting, please. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Good night, everybody. So the same day We ended on the same day that's We like those days.