MTPS Board of Education March Workshop / Voting Meeting (03.24.26)

001Okay. Hello. Thank you. All right. I'm going to call this meeting order. Adequate notice of this meeting is provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press, Middletown Patch, Middletown Township Public Schools District website and the posting of such notice at the August T minor administrative offices in each elementary middle and secondary school in the district. Roll call and start. >> Mrs. Minuise, >> I'm here. >> Mrs. Scholasi here. >> Mr. Sapparowski >> here. >> Mrs. Tobacco. Mrs. Torres here. Mrs. Linstein >> here. >> Mrs. Wright >> here. Mr. Capone >> here. >> Mr. >> Here we have a motion to enter into executive session. >> Second discussion. All in favor? I opposed. privilege and personnel matters. Thank you. Okay, folks. I'm going to close meeting. Amen. You are my God. Okay, this time

002we're going to move into community reports curriculums. Right. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Uh we had our curriculum meeting on Wednesday, March 11th. We went over quite a bit of stuff, so please bear with me. Uh we continued to talk about the K through three progress reports initiative. Um this was really good because as we've been moving along to try and actually get more information uh out to parents at a more timely fashion in terms of how the students are doing. Uh we talk more about the actual progress itself highlighting a three-prong communication process that will be put in place. And this along with the grades four to five live CR grade grade book pilot project which is in preparation for next year's official launch. We think together uh both of these will be

003housed in the gen Genesis parent portal and will help streamline that communication that I was saying before. So that way parents more in real time can actually track and follow along as to how their children are doing. Uh just to note that due again to this incredible winter that we have this year and our uh recent snow days, the trimester number two, the elementary report cards has been extended through March 17th and the report cards will be accessible uh now via Genesis on March 26. We talked more about uh the dual enrollment courses at both high schools. Um and I think really it's just a testament obviously to the really great work that our students are continually doing every single year and actually taking advantage of all those courses. Uh we talked a little bit

004more about the New Jersey's requirement um under FAFSA for when basically on the financial education that each student that's getting ready to graduate. Uh there's a form that they have to fill out uh as per the statutes now. And so right now just to ensure compliance the district holds the release of marking period 3 grades until the necessary form has been completed. Just trying to see what else we went through because we went through a lot of stuff. Oh, and one thing that we've been talking about uh quite consistently and you've been hearing the report on it is the ongoing pilots to determine what the new K through five math programs will be for next year. Uh we're continuing to get teacher feedback on both Amplify Desmos and I Ready. Um I believe there was

005a meeting that was scheduled actually for the day or two days after we met as a committee. Um articulations were happening with the teachers so they can uh continue to decide which one uh we are going to land on and I believe that that information and a decision uh should be forthcoming when we meet actually this month. So more to come in terms of where we're going to be moving in terms of a new math program. Uh we spent a little bit of time talking about the K through math block structure and actually what happens uh throughout the day uh with respect to just really trying to make sure that uh students are not on devices on Chromebooks for the entire class period. I know there's been a lot of discussion in the past couple

006months and also reports uh in the national media about trying to sort of walk back some use of technology. Um I think it was a good discussion for the community members. I was able to give my experience of you know having a child that has already gone through completely K through five and what happened at Beayshore uh during that time period and just to make sure that this is being consistently done throughout uh the district. And so I think it was just a good discussion in terms of what's really happening. We uh continued to talk about uh the K through5 lit literacy instructional strategies with Orin Gillingham and Morphology. We have two new field trip destinations that is on the agenda to be voted on tonight. Um, as the committee learned, uh, there's an English

007class here at High School North, which is currently reading Romeo and Juliet. They would like to attend the live performance of the play at the PAX Amicus Castle Theater. And also, Leonardo's LOD class is asking to visit the Just Kitting Around indoor playground. And so, those are on the agenda to be voted on tonight. There's also professional development um, to be voted on as there is every month. One thing to note, and I know this has been advertised, but it's good obviously to make sure this is on everybody's calendar. Uh Rob Frenic is coming back from the editor-inchief of the Princeton Review. He's going to be at High School South on Wednesday, April 29th to give a presentation about the growing influence of AP exams in the college acceptance process. So, please make sure you

008mark your calendars. Uh we have the college application information night at high school north. I believe that was on March 5th. And then the uh high school south event was settled um scheduled for March 19th. Just trying to think what else. Oh, and I know I'm not going to say this name correctly. Just make sure I say. Okay. Just want to make sure I pronounce it correct. And Mr. Rago was uh celebrated as the band director of the year. And one other thing to note is we had 75 students this year who have earned their seal of bilateracy which is just a tremendous accomplishment. And congratulations to all of those students. Thank you, Miss Right. Facilities, Miss Ming. >> Yes, we had a meeting on March 11th. We discussed a lot of things, so bear

009with me. Um, we talked about the Thor Thompson and and the addicts roofing work. The final pricing isn't in yet, but it's guesstimated to be around $59,000. Um, current facility issues. The High School North stadium lights. There was a rack of lights hanging off one of the poles at the High School North turf field. The district had has already completed it. They went out and they fixed it. Um, they repaired it. Scoreboards for high school North baseball softball, high school south baseball. These scoreboards are currently not functioning. We were told that it's been over the last two years, but truthfully, I haven't heard anything about that happening. But, um, as of this time, the high school south baseball scoreboard is functioning as of 320 and work is still being done on the high school north

010scoreboards. Thorne, there was an insect issue. Mr. Nasser reported that there were some flying ants in the room at Thorne and it's being addressed. Prep for spring sports. The ground staff is working on all fields to get them in playable condition for spring sports. The winter was long and the harsh with the delay this proc it delayed this process a bit. We did get an email about the high school north baseball field and they are currently working on that. Um the annex open items for the linkup annex are alarms closing out permits and following up on the indoor air quality. I did request at this meeting that we do an indoor air quality and a mold check on the basement before we move any students into that building. I did visit it. Um I still

011would request that they they follow through with that and they said they would. Summer building use ESY district's ESY programs will be held at Harmony and Thorne. The committee discussed the use of Thorne and the impact of the preparation of that school in September. Mr. Nasser and Mrs. Dhy shared that the ESY program only uses a portion of the school and we can rotate those classrooms around the building to allow for summer cleaning and work. Outside summer camps, Champion has requested to use New Mammoth and Linkra for summer camp locations. The township has requested the use of Nutswamp for summer camp location. the district will be able to accommodate these programs and both Champions and the township will be sharing revenue with the district from these camps. Mrs. Gallagher, could you explain that revenue that

012we're going to be getting in from both of these? Yes. Champions will be sharing revenue with us uh in accordance with their proposal and their contract that they have during the year. So, it will be a 15% revenue share. the township will be sharing the profit from the camp uh with us uh 50/50. Thank you. Under the facility budget, um we talked about it. I have asked for the long range facility plan that's in place now to be presented. I started asking in January and I was told we're working with um we're working on it to revise it for the plan to reflect the school's consolidation plan. I thought that we had to use the plan we have, but I guess you know there's going to be some revision on that. There are no updates

013from the budget detail that was discussed at the January February meetings except for the reductions related to the proposed school building closures. I did ask to see a line by line budget but was told we talk about it every meeting. I have not seen where and how every dollar is being allocated and for what. School consolidation. Mrs. Dy and Mr. Nasser shared four plans um a basia with the proposed elementary layout as well as a map of the campus. The committee also discussed building capacity information. The committee members were offered a tour of the space but declined. I have to disagree with that. That's not true. Mr. Cullen was at our meeting in the beginning and offered to take us on a tour of the building before he had another meeting. Um leadership overrode me

014saying they've already seen Bayore to move on with the meeting and by the time the meeting was over the only one left was myself because um leadership had somewhere to go and Mrs. Torres had another meeting to attend. It didn't make sense for me to go by myself. Committee member topics before and after care contract with champions was discussed specifically revenue sharing and participation. Mrs. Doerty also shared comparable information the previous year with the YMCA. An overview view of the facilities usage revenue was discussed. There were also a few other things discussed. Um Mrs. Torres asked a lot of questions and a lot of her questions were answered, but at that time there was no cost as of yet for moving the schools. No transportation cost of yet because it's too early to put the

015bids out and no definite plan for the playground as of yet, but possibly asking the PTAs to fund raise. We also spoke We also spoke Mr. Nassau also spoke about the capacity of the buildings. He was the one doing the capacity of the buildings. He did mention at some it at some point it's a little hard because you don't know what's going to be in the classrooms, how many classrooms some of our special needs programs are going to take up and it was hard to come up with >> cut off the mayor's cut off. He did say the capacity was 1175 and I did make a comment that I felt that was a little high. I've been in that building with a thousand students and 1175 is a little bit high. I just don't understand

016how we come up with these numbers. I'm not a capacity person, but and my only question was how did we come up with closing the schools without having a capacity number first? And let's feel that some of the five conversations we have need to be discussed with the full board. Before we go on, is it okay if I add in facilities meeting? >> Yeah. >> Is that okay? >> I am on facilities. Yes. >> Right. So, I wanted to I had some follow-ups that I had emailed, but I haven't gotten a response. So, I just wanted to put them out there so that we have all the information. >> Um, so I did ask those questions and like Miss Minui said, we don't have a plan for the drop off. Uh, there's no plan for

017transportation. They have to be rerouted. There's new bids. There's no estimated costs in the budget. Um, after spring break, they're talking about orientation. I did ask ahead of time for a map of um Beayshore to the Leonardo playground which I am appreciative that Mr. Nasser did and followed the actual sidewalks instead of just the bird's eye view. Um and so from that door, the door closest to the playground, it is 489 ft to the playground. Um, there did not seem to be any real plan other than there's probably going to be two staff members out there to bring kids back to go to the bathroom. Um, I do welcome someone walking with a group of 5-year-olds to the playground and back to see how long that takes. So, I would be interested to see how

018long their recess time is with that. Um, additionally, I did ask about um, contingencies such as the toilets. I know that we are expecting um, waiverss. Um, I was told that we keep an inventory of toilets and I do believe this week we said there's going to be one toilet, >> one stall installed with a smaller toilet, >> but there's multiple bathrooms on the floor, >> right? But only one stall for each of those bathroom sets. >> So, how many is that? I believe there's there's three pods of classroom. So, three >> three toilets for the entire kindergarten. >> There's four >> that size. >> There's four sections. >> Four sections. >> Yeah, >> three toilets. >> And did we decide about sinks? >> Mr. Nasser is investigating. >> So, we don't know. >> We're

019looking to move a sink down. Absolutely. >> Looking to move the sink down. >> Yes. The plumbing weapons are >> Okay. Um, I also would like to comment about the um, tour. We did not know going into it until about 20 minutes before that a tour was offered. I know that for myself, I was more interested in getting answers to my list of 19 questions instead of a tour at that moment. Um, I have offered and Miss Darnney has said that she would bring us on a tour when I have my spring break so I can actually see it during the day. So, I plan on doing that if anybody would like to join me. Um, but there are still a number of questions that I don't have the answer to that I would like

020if anything has changed since our meeting. Um, is there a place in the budget to put a new playground at Beayshore Elementary? what are the budget numbers and how can we asssure that we'd be put in over the next year or as soon as possible so the students and staff are not left waiting and I know that we referenced this but um it came up again this week that new mammoth is still waiting so do we have any of those numbers for the playground that was referenced in the consolidation plan okay nobody's answering um I asked we also for a map of the drop off and pickup plan at Beayshore. Judging by the issues at Beayshore now, this is going to be something that should be thought of, planned out, and addressed in the right

021way so that adjustments can be made if necessary. That has not yet been done. Uh transportation costs for students attending Beayhore. After our conversation, I would like to know the unanticipated routes needed for Thor Thompson High School North and South to be added to that as well with the new routes that are being put out there. Um, what is the actual plan for the bathroom remediation with anticipated costs as well as the supplies you already have? I know Mr. Gasser said we have some of these already. So, what do you have and what do we need? uh plan for locker remediation. It was briefly discussed but the decision is not made so I'm adding it back in. So what is the plans for the lockers? What is going to be used? What are they going

022to what's the plan? A theme here. Um instead of facilities usage for the next 5 years, can you get copies of the work orders for this year and last school year? So we talked about with champions and the YMCA and the township using facilities that they're not contracts. their work orders. Correct. >> I'm really not understanding what you're talking about as far as they're using their build using the buildings and then work orders. I'm not sure. >> Yeah. Well, we talked about that in the meeting. You said there's no uh there's champions contract, but when other groups, whether it's wreck or the town or somebody else uses the facility, >> they'll have the facilities used for >> facilities. So not a work order, it's a facilities use form. >> So I'm requesting those facilities use

023forms for the last two school years instead of the last five so that we can see how much money is coming in like what is the revenue, how much is being used and what the impact is on the buildings. >> Yes, you asked to discuss that the next facilities being >> right. So, in my email, I said, could we instead of the last five years, cuz I recognize that going through all of those would be quite tedious to pull each individual piece of paper, can we just get those for the last last school year and this year? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, to get an idea of our usage and costs and revenue. Um, and then again, the copies of the champions contracts. You gave the revenue, but I would like to see the

024actual contract and copies of the contract with the town parks and wreck once it's worked over worked out for this summer camp so that we can explore future revenue with that as well. Finance. We had our finance committee meeting on March 17th. We went over the tentative budget. We reviewed the draft. We started discussing the updated amount of healthcare tax levy adjud adjustment which is 1.892 million or 1.017%. There was no indication or direction from the committee that anyone wanted to include the additional tax levy over the regular 2%. There was no consensus on that. So the tenative budget is being presented today that includes uh just tax levy of 2% and option of the world. The screen has been Daniel, how are you? Hey, good evening everyone. For those of you that don't know

025me, I'm Amy Daryy. I'm the business administrator for the district. Uh tonight we are going to review uh the tenative budget uh for the 2627 school year. So how are >> the first slide presents we just want to bring back to everybody's attention that the New Jersey Department of Education does uh require us to list a statement of priorities. Uh we have to address There's a statement of priorities that we need to provide narratives to the department of ed for to say how we are addressing uh various priority categories and then apply them across all subject areas. So this is just a reminder that and we have to provide a crosswalk between what they're looking for and how we're addressing that in the budget. Our first slide here go into the numbers of the actual

026budget. We review the budget and revenue. Uh as Mr. Ravita mentioned the tax levy increase that's being proposed in this tenative budget is a 2% increase over the uh current year's levy and that provides an additional $3.5 million dollars in revenue uh to go toward the budget for this year. Uh and so we are approximately 90% funded by tax levy, approximately 8% of state aid and 2% in other revenues. So, just to give you an idea of the breakdown, uh, our state aid for this year, uh, we're showing a net change of $471,000. Our actual increase in state aid was about 890,000, which represents 6% increase in state aid. Uh, the way that the state ran the formula this year was similar to last year. uh they ran the formula based upon the components of

027the formula, calculated what districts were entitled to, but they were holding all increases to no more than two uh 6% and all decreases to no more than 3% so that districts were not subject to tremendous swings in the amount of aid. Uh the reason we're showing I'm not showing the $8.90 here is because we did receive $418,000 last year of additional state aid related to the tax levy incentive uh increase. So you know that brings our net change to 471 and that 418,000 is non-recurring. Um I will also say that when if you look at our state aid notice when they ran our state aid for this year uh we are actually entitled to approximately a million dollars more than what we are receiving but because the increase was capped at 6% uh we aren't

028able to realize that last year that number was about $2 million. So in some you know in some ways yeah it would be we would be very benefited by getting the money but it also shows you how when they run the formula each year it can be different. I mean ours if we got the actual amounts would be a million dollars less than last year. So um anyway we got the $8.90 and we were thankful it wasn't reduced and we got 6% increase. um our projected extraordinary aid. This is uh aid that we get to offset special education expenses. We uh submit toward the end of each fiscal year uh amounts that we've spent in special ed for students who have extraordinary expenses and then the state reimburse us for a portion of those expenses.

029I mean it's supposed to be totally funded but it depends upon how much is in the state budget to fund. uh we have been getting lately between 55 and 60% of the amount that we submit to get reimbursed. Uh so that amount will fluctuate each year depending upon what expenses are submitted and what's available in the budget. Um the other hard thing about this is that we don't know what the amount we're going to get back is until after the fiscal year is closed. So for example, for our 2526 year, we'll submit in the spring. We won't know until very end of June or beginning of July what that number is actually for the current fiscal year. So we estimate based upon what we've been getting in the past but we have no way to

030know what the uh actual revenue will be. our other local sources and interest that includes not only interest but we do receive tuition revenue uh from preschool and also from uh we have special education programs where we'll we'll accept students from other districts and we do get revenue from that we also have uh some rental fees in there enterprise activities which is our before and afterare that revenue is there as well we are showing a a somewhat of a decrease uh for next year Um, our interest revenue has not has declined. Uh, we've been getting less. We've had less cash on hand. Uh, and you know, we've reflected some other reductions in revenue as well. So, $163,000 less. Our special education Medicaid initiative, that's our semi-reimbursement. Uh, we do participate that. You have to get

031a waiver from the state not to participate in that. uh that's billing uh Medicaid for certain special education services that are qualified for Medicaid reimbursement. Uh we do share that revenue with the state. The state takes a portion and then the state also tells us what our target number is that we need to budget. So that $48,000 is what the state is telling us we need to budget. If we don't make that revenue, uh then we do have to explain to the state why it wouldn't, but it's not a significant revenue driver. There's actually quite a bit of work that goes into that, but we do um we do well in that and we do always meet our targets. Uh transportation revenue from other districts. Uh this is based on anticipated join routes with other

032districts. Miltown uh has been working with districts around us for the last several years and putting together transportation routes for out of district students and reaching out and seeing other districts around us or sending students to those same out of district schools and putting together our own our own share routes to save money on those routes. Uh there hasn't been as much demand for that. We were doing more in a few years ago, but we do generate some revenue from doing that, putting that together ourselves. Starting off with our proposed budgeted expenses, our regular programs instruction, those are all the um that includes salaries, supplies, uh services, things of that nature, everything for regular uh program instruction. Uh we're showing an increase this year of 2.4% 4%. Uh regular and special ed instruction is largely

033comprised of staff. Uh negotiated raises with the MTEA are 3.34%. So regular instruction also includes updates and new textbook platforms for K K to5 math and social studies. Uh these increases are somewhat offset by uh reductions in staff and breakage that we realize uh we project to realize during the year. Uh our budgeted tuition reflects anticipated 2627 placements and rates. Uh our 2526 tuition budget has been reduced because uh which is our current budget because some of the tuition placements that we anticipated when we did the budget did not materialize. So we did realize some savings there. Uh detailed schedules of tuition placements are submitted to the NJDOE for review. uh they do review them carefully to make sure that our placements and our amount can be budgeted in a tie. Uh we also um

034have improvement of instruction, staff training and media services uh they've then reduced for next year due to savings on staff and reductions in professional development and curriculum writing for next year. Next slide. Continuing with our proposed budgeted expenses, uh we start off with our uh school district central and IT administrative costs. Those are actually showing a reduction of 2.3% for this year. Uh operation of maintenance and plant and that also includes security. Uh we're showing an increase of 3.2%. Uh we do have some again, you know, our staff get you a lot of that is labor. So we do have raises built in there and also uh all the supplies and services we need to maintain the buildings. Um health benefits projection is actually uh if you take a look the health benefits line employee

035benefits our health benefits projection is actually 7% higher uh than the 2526 projection even though we are showing here a reduction of 1%. Uh we did increase our current budget uh the 2526 budget uh for this year uh to because our claims are running uh high and last year we did utilize some of our reserve to cover claims. So we did take the opportunity to move some uh money into that line this year uh to avoid having to do that uh for this year. Prescription coverage is driving our increase as it is for most other entities. I'm sure you've heard about that and read about that for um it's private sector, public sector, all over. Uh we've been working on this with our broker consultant and we've instituted changes that have increased our prescription rebates

036and we're also looking for other options and cost containment. Uh we also the elimination of some physicians which we'll talk about in a little bit will also impact and that's controlling our increase for next year as well. Uh we have an item here for capital outlay that includes an undesated uh deposit to capital reserve of $500,000. We'll talk about the reserves in a little more detail in a few minutes as well, but um that is you know that is a good thing to be able to set some money aside for some capital projects which we haven't been able to do in a while. Uh we've also budgeted a deposit to the maintenance reserve which is included uh at the bottom of the slide of $500,000 to put some money back into that reserve. Um talking

037about transportation, transportation CPI is 3.58%. Um our 2526 transportation budget, the amount that you see here, that's actually been decreased from our original budget because we did realize some savings on routes and bids that we put out for the current year. So we were able to uh reduce that budget somewhat for the current year. Uh we also must demonstrate in this budget uh that we are able to have the funds by the end of this fiscal year which would be June 30th 26 to restore our fund balance to 2%. We talked about that when we presented last year's budget that the DOE was requiring us to restore our fund balance back to that level. Um we will be able to do that. We have put in our documentation to send to the DOE uh that

038we have realized savings in the transportation. As I mentioned before, we've had some salary savings well as well and we will be able to restore those funds back to get our fund balance back up to the 2% that the county was requiring. >> Can you talk about the transfer of funds to charter schools? >> I'm I can't hear you and I just I would like to go through the rest of the presentation. I'd like to go through the rest of the presentation before we take any, you know, we talk about any questions. Um, tax levy increases, we wanted to show the trend on that tax levy increases from uh 1112 to 2627 and the reason why we use that snapshot is because that is when the uh the tax levy uh cap was set at

0392% back in 1112. So this shows our trend over the past several years uh of what the increases have been. The average tax levy increase since the implementation of the 2% cap in 2011 is 2.47%. So that would be including all of the uh ups and downs that we've had throughout the past 16 years or so. Um even with the 10.1% increase we had last year, you know, the average is still 2.47%. Um, with the exception of 2017 and 18, the year that S2 was implemented, and 2526, if you take those out, the tax levy increases have ranged from approximately 1.5 to just over 2%. >> This breaks down what we're eligible for for this year uh for tax levy. As I stated before and as Mr. Avida reported this budget is presented with a

0402% increase in a tax levy. Uh we do also qualify for an additional 1.07% which was approximately $1.9 million uh for a healthc care cost adjustment. That is an allowable adjustment to your tax levy to bring it over 2%. There's a few other adjustments as well, but this is the most common. Um we are eligible to utilize it. We're not utilizing it for this year. uh but it will carry forward and be available for the next three budget cycles if it's not utilized for this year. Uh as we said there is no consensus uh of the finance committee to recommend using the 1.07%. Um this will again be bank half and at this point if that lapses into bank half that will be the only bank half that's available to the district at this time.

041Uh the rest of it was exhausted when we did last year's budget. This this graph shows our state aid uh trend from 2011 to 2026 2027. And this shows when the original cut in state aid was done in Middletown uh back in 2010. You can see that deep decline, significant drop there. Uh at one point uh Middletown was receiving over $20 million in state aid. you know, as you can see now, you know, even with the uh dips and increases that we've had, you know, we still have not recovered back to that level. You know, we are, you know, receiving approximately, you know, not quite $16 million in state aid uh this many years later. Um but after that initial decline in in 2010, the state aid did climb back up for a period of

042time and remain relatively stable. You know, those years up to when S2 was implemented in 2017, you know, then we we saw our state aid go back down again with those decreases over that 7-year period. Over the last two years, we have received increases. This year about 890,000 last year was similar. Uh so we do see a slight uptick there but again still not at the level that we received you know 16 years ago for this budget. We do have anticipated personnel reductions uh due to the consolidation of schools. Uh we have uh administrative positions. We're anticipating taking three of those positions offline. uh instructional staff 25 support staff 12 for a total of 40 positions. Uh we anticipate that these positions will be absorbed through attrition meaning retirements non-renewals for performance and etc. This

043slide is an update from a slide we presented last year and we wanted to show the difference in the funding of our budget over the past uh four years. Uh we have the totals down at the bottom, but uh looking at 2023 24 u compared to the 2627 proposed budget, uh the increase over the over these four years is a total of 6.7% uh with the average increase being 2.23% per year. Uh but the other relevant fact on this slide is to look and see uh how it's being funded. our operating budget and our grants budget uh have our operating budget's been increased and that's the amount that's funded by our tax levy and state aid. Uh the grants budget back in 2023 was about 8.2 million. Uh we're now anticipating for next year 4.4

044million. So again we've been we've talked about the fact that you know a few years ago we were receiving much more funding. A lot of it was related to the pandemic. uh and those funds were supporting a lot of things that we were paying for uh for the students in the budget that we've retained and we've now had to shift the cost of those in many cases to the operating budget. Our debt service budget remains relatively stable. This slide details our proposed equipment purchases. Uh we have a total amount of equipment purchases budgeted of $586,000. Uh the major items on here are uh we have repairs that are needed for the challenge courses at both high schools. Uh high school south uh I'm sorry, high school north uh is the maj majority of the challenge

045course work that is needed here in the budget to keep those courses running for the curriculum that we run. Uh we also do have some money in the budget to purchase some vehicles. Uh just to give some background on that, we have 33 vehicles in our facilities fleet. Uh the average age of those vehicles is 11.6 years. Uh two trucks were purchased in 2023. Uh but these are the only vehicles that we've purchased since 2019 which was 7 years ago and everything else is older than that. So we do use those vehicles daily. Uh they also came in very they were played a very important role in all the uh snow removal that we've had to do this winter. We use them to plow and to clear snow and in our daily operations. Uh we

046also have included here a security camera software upgrade to uh allow our camera systems to be able to get updates and software. Um the cameras that we we have now, you know, the original installation was, you know, probably about 10 years ago at this point and we've been adding cameras over the years and and upgrading, but uh we we need to do a software upgrade. Uh we also have some other uh equipment purchases here related to facilities, salters, snow plows, uh a mower, um some signage outside. We always do allow a certain amount for IEP driven needs. So we budget for that as well. Um we talked about actually in uh with the facilities report, we are working on getting all the outdoor scoreboards up and running on the uh softball and baseball fields, but

047uh we may need to do some replacements next year. and we're budgeting for that as well. Uh and also the sound system in the high school north gyms uh is not in good shape and we're planning to do a replacement of that. If we go to the next slide, our proposed capital projects, we have total capital projects scheduled uh scheduled for $65,000. Uh there's n there's a few things in here that are um related to security. Mainly the uh fra frame and bank of doors at high school south at the main entrance and also by the cafeteria. Uh those doors are um in need of replacement at this point and uh we are budgeting to do that. Uh we're looking to do some grading improvements at Harmony to uh address some drainage issues. Uh we're

048also looking to replace some concrete curving and harmony in the front. We did a temporary repair over the past year that unfortunately didn't hold. Uh and it's, you know, it's a safety hazard. We want to get that repaired. Uh we also have some bleacher repairs for High School South and Thompson. Uh inside uh they need flooring replacements and some infrastructure repairs as well. Uh, and we also have some site improvements at Fair View and Ocean Avenue. Uh, for playground, Fair View being um the replacement of the railroad ties around the playground and the reinforcement of that area. In Ocean, we're looking at resurfacing the preK area and doing some improvements there. And then we also have some recurring lease payments for equipment purchases again built into the budget. We mentioned reserves before. Uh as of

049this year, uh we started the year with a capital reserve of $42,000, maintenance reserve of $36,000, total $78,000. uh based, you know, for a district our size, you know, that is uh not not sufficient to have uh reserves available for unexpected things that need to be repaired and for uh putting toward capital improvements each year. Uh we don't have any budgeted withdrawals for the 25 26 year. Nothing was in our budget uh to take out for projects. Uh we at this point don't know if we're going to have, you know, what funds we'll have available out of the 2526 budget to put toward the reserves. Uh if we do have funds available that we're able to save out of this year's budget, uh we will be able to deposit those in June, but those that

050has not been determined at this point. Uh so our balance again would be $78,000. But as a reminder, we did budget some deposits in next year's budget uh proposed budget. So that would increase these amounts if that budget is adopted and approved. Talking about debt service, uh that is a separate fund. uh there's a separate tax levy uh that supports the debt service fund and that tax levy was agreed to uh when the bonds went out for referendum and the community approved the issuance of those bonds. So that's not something that uh we really have any discretion over. Um the way the debt service payments are funded is through the tax levy that again the community committed to and then we do get debt service aid from the state which uh funds part of our

051bond payments. We have three outstanding bond issues at this point in time. Uh we have a refunding issue from 2020 which refunding means we refinance the bonds for a lower interest rate and realize savings on those. Um our principal balance on those bonds current or by the end of this year after we make all payments will be about 7.7 million. Those bonds actually mature August 1st, 2027. So we do we did schedule payments for them for next year's budget but when we do the 2728 budget uh that will be the last payment for those bonds and they will be off off the books. Uh same with the 2013 refunding issue. Again that was another bond issue from years past that we uh refinanced in 2013 for interest savings. Uh the outstanding amount on those bonds

052is 1.6 million. Again, those will be completely paid off by August 1st, 2027. Uh we also have a third issue uh that we issued in 2014. That was an original issue. Uh th that those bonds were issued to supplement uh a numerous amount of broad grants that we were able to secure in that year from the state to fund capital projects. Uh we have an outstanding balance of $6.1 million and those bonds will mature in uh August 1st, 2029. So, as we've been talking about for a while, you know, in a matter of a few years, we will have all of our debt completely extinguished. Right now, our outstanding debt at the end of this current year would be a little over $15 million, which, you know, can be looked at as a good thing.

053And but you know it all it is also time for us to start thinking about issuing new debt so that we can reinvest back into the uh facilities uh to do projects that are needed throughout the district. I mean we haven't done a major bond issue to do any significant improvements to the district uh in you know 15 to 20 years. our budget timeline. If we go to the next slide, uh tonight the board will vote on the tenative budget. Um and if the board approves a tenative budget, uh we then submit that uh to the DOE. That is due by March 27th. Uh we submit it to the DOE, the Mammoth County Office. They will review the budget in detail. Uh then if they approve the budget uh to be sent to the board

054to approve as a final budget uh we will advertise that budget and then hold a we have to hold a public hearing and adopt our final budget statutoily between April 24th and May 7th. Uh we right now anticipate holding our public hearing and adopting the final budget at our April 28th voting meeting. Um so that would be the timeline for that. And so in summary, uh the proposed 2627 budget maintains all of the programs and services that have been put in place to benefit our students, including instructional supports and curricular updates, a robust extracurricular program, enhanced security, and mental health services and supports. It also provides for a step in the right direction uh in dedicating some funds for maintenance and capital projects. Uh it will be critical after the 2627 budget plan is finalized

055for the board, the administration and it strategic planning groups to work together to formulate next steps in preserving these programs and services going forward to while we're continuing to face financial challenges. We don't anticipate the state aid picture changing significantly over the next several years and we will have to continue to look for ways to be able to maintain all of these programs and services and continue to invest in our facilities and improve them and make needed repairs and uh maintain everything as functional uh while facing these financial constraints. You answer questions. >> Are you taking questions? >> This this is not the public hearing. This was a presentation for the board as part of our finance committee. Heat. Heat. There's nothing. We just lost power up here. Oh my god. Okay, I have a

056few questions on finance. Um, in the transportation line, we still have our hazardous busing. We we have hazardous routes that have been established that uh would allow students to be eligible for transportation even if they are below the mileage. So the hazardous routes have not changed. Okay. Just want to make sure that and um has have I guess Mr. Vita that's a good question for you. Have you seen the line by line budget saying what every department is getting and what they're using it for? >> No. Only through the committees. What was that? >> But that wasn't really a line by line. Like if you're going say we're say take athletics for example, they get a dollar. They're getting a dollar amount. What's being spent for salary? What's being spent for equipment? What's being spent

057for uniforms? That's what a line by line budget is. And when we're being told that we start over every year, those numbers would automatically change and we would be seeing what we're getting for our money. So, you haven't seen that either. No. >> Okay. I just want to make sure about that. And I wasn't the only one. Um Amy, the question about the um health waiver, >> have we taken that every year? You mean the the tax levy adjustment? >> Yes. We well that's been in place since they did the 2% increase in the tax levy and there no there were years that we did not take that. It lapsed into bank cap and then it expired and we never did utilize that. In recent years uh there's been years where we haven't taken it.

058It's gone into bank cap. But as of last year we had caught up with utilizing all of the amount that we had had banked as levy. But years ago, uh, we we did bank, you know, a significant amount that we didn't use. >> What about like over the last four or five years? >> Over the last four or five years, we didn't we didn't always take it and it went into bank cap, but like I said, when we did the increase last year, we were required to use all available bank cap at that time, which we did last year. So, when we after last year's budget, there was no more bank cap utilized at all. I'm I'm just curious by not taking it is going to make us the way we've been going make it

059worse for us. >> YES. >> One of the questions that I had had um and listening in a in a direction here where unfortunately as as careful as we might be trying to be I'm concerned that we're actually going to miss some things. And so to me at this point, the way I look at it, um, especially again trying to be mindful of the tax increase and going to the cap of 2% this year, which I think we have to do, to me, it actually makes more sense to actually include the healthcare cost adjustment so that we actually have additional money in case YOU also led to my question. Um, was that discussed at the finance meeting? >> It was brought up, but there was no conversation. It was just silent. >> Well, I I

060did ask the committee whether anybody, you know, whether the >> She did ask Yeah, I'm not saying and no one no one said that they wanted to include, >> right? There was just no conversation. Yeah, it was brought up and there was just no conversation. >> There was >> Well, we didn't Nobody spoke about it. So, that's what I'm asking. committee for direction because I I did know that >> I know you didn't say a word. >> Sorry. I think it's also important to note that money becomes reoccurring revenue, >> right? >> I think that's money you hold on to forever and it compounds favorably over time. >> So I think my question with that was um why it wasn't chosen to be used? Why did the finance committee or there was no conversation? So

061I guess why are we choosing not to have that? I'll tell you why I didn't have a conversation because I think that's a conversation this entire board needs to have. >> Um I don't know if it was done but I know that in some of my emails I had asked for two options of the budget. Are there other options for this budget? We Amy did talk about another option when we originally presented this which did include use of that healthcare adjustment. >> That one yeah which was 2% the healthcare adjustment potentially using some fund balance which obviously you have to make that up the next year. Um in addition to some modest cuts from programming um you know like staffing that we could absorb through attrition and other programs that we might be able to

062defer for a year. Um there's a variety of different ways that that could look, but the main components of that we're going to use the entire healthcare waiver plus utilizing a a portion of the fund balance. >> But as of today, we don't have any other budgets prepared. >> Well, I think when we have what you're talking about like when you build your budget, you build it into your software. You don't build this like you have other options that people that direction obviously oh sorry um you know you build it into the budget software and as you're doing that you're putting in what you know to be true about your staffing and your expenses etc. But to do that in a secondary fashion certainly that is the framework for the secondary piece is you know

063you know you're going to gain an additional 1.8 8 approximately in revenue from that healthcare waiver on top of the 2% plus we estimated about a million dollars of fund balance we would probably need to use which again is a non-reoccurring revenue which would then compound for the next year um and then we would be taking an iteration of um staffing reductions um that you know we would have to examine in the sense of exactly where they would come from but they would most likely come from deferment of programming that we might be able to put off for a year, but again, we would have to make that up in the next year's budget. Plus, um maybe supplemental support services, for example. We may have to cut down our interventionists, things like that where, you

064know, we wouldn't be impacting the in-classroom experience. We would be in impacting supplemental things at this point. Um so though that's the type of iteration that would be in com like in contrast to the school closure plan. Okay. So, unrelated but not if they did put in the 1.7 or 1.07% for the healthcare costs, does that change the state's numbers? Because I know that that was a thing last year when we then were more adequate with our funding. The state provided more funding. Is that on the table this year? >> Okay. No, that won't change our state. >> That won't change our stating. So again, looking at this in this dire situation that we're in that is so dire that we have to do this big move now without a full plan, without any knowledge

065of how much it's actually going to cost to make these moves. Why are we not taking advantage of a conversation of this? having a conversation. >> They they discussed the necessity of moving forward with a reorganization plan. >> Who's that? >> The the board >> when last year and then >> last year plan forward. >> Wait, I have a question. Dr. Alone, >> I have a question. >> Wait, let me finish. Let me finish. So there was a plan because put put together about the reorganization last year when we were short and the hole and then there was an alternative plan that was devised and then voted on by the board that increased taxes $16 million that was going to >> Sure. And then you go and then what happened after that? Everybody thought that

066that was going to carry us. But this year we we learned in the English year that we're still $6 million short even with the $6 million tax. >> As someone >> by taking the kid down the road, it's just going to accelerate the budget for your state. >> Well, a couple of things that I'd like to clarify in that >> I was here. I was part of every strategic planning. I have the folders of everything that we did, right? And at no point was there there was the overall plan. There is no implementation plan for getting this done. >> There are ideas. There are things that are being thrown out there now. And as we can see by the questions and the uncertainty and the feeling in this room and everywhere we go in this

067town, >> the plan is not a plan. AGAIN LAST YEAR. They came in with this and with all of the questions and then the things that happened between the March 18th meeting and when the budget was voted on, there was still no plan that was implemented. What happened after that is the strategic planning which I keep referencing but we were at every one of those meetings that was then supposed to take into consideration a whole bunch of things that stopped in July maybe August when we were waiting on that habber report that didn't come but let me finish did not come out until January and we've had no strategic planning meetings since. So, when you don't have the buy in and you have all of these questions and you have no real numbers, we have

068no real numbers. Nobody can say how much the moving is going to cost. Nobody can say how much the teachers are going to be paid. Nobody can say how much they're going to pay for subs on the days that they're allowing teachers to pack up their classrooms in April and in June. And I'm sorry, but if we're talking about a school, those days go until June 22nd of this year. And I don't want my child in a packed up classroom. The things that I say hard, they're not difficult. All they take is planning and cooperation. And we don't have that. >> WE DON'T HAVE IT THERE. WE GOT >> in the process, >> but it's not in the process, Mr. whoever to to raise the tax of $16 million. And you got to ask them

069why they didn't. >> But I can tell you by being here and being at every one of those meetings, the reason that it was raised that high is because there was a hole that wasn't fixed. There were lots of things happening along the way that weren't planned for. And you're right, I don't know exactly what it was. I remember it was a disaster when they were trying to vote on it and it was a lot of confusion about people throwing out numbers here and there. So, I don't know either. But here we are and what are we doing to make a good plan for this town, this community, and these children because that is our responsibility. confident in the administration's ability. >> I understand that your confidence, but it is our job as a board

070to ask these questions and make sure that's happening. And it's not happening. And if you can please point me, you or anyone else can point me to where you are confident in these decisions. I am happy to hear it. I am happy to be open to it. I know there have been people with conversations with families that have talked about it. I know there are conversations about these beautiful buildings and this thing that's going to be a grand plan and a great place for the children to be and a model for the whole district. And I'm not seeing it. So, I would love to have that information shared with me. >> So, if anybody can please do please do. We're here. I can guarantee there's a lot of people looking for that information. So, please

071share it. What? What about this makes it so much better? >> Paul, Jackie, anybody out from the audience, there'll be time for public comment. >> Anybody else? >> Yeah, I'd like to speak. >> Um, before we talk about the budget numbers, we need to talk about priorities and process. Cuz what I'm seeing in this budget is spending on short-term fixes and non-essential items while we claim financial distress. is usually unhappy money and every dollar must be tied to a clear long-term plan that improves student outcomes. And right now that plan does not exist. And even more concerning is major dis decisions impacting this district appear to have been made outside a transparent structured process. And this is how you end up with this confusion and mistrust and bad outcomes. I'm not up here to agree

072on budgets that have bandaids. uh we need to have budgets that have accountability, long-term planning, and decisions that actually make sense for this district and our town as a whole. So before I can support any portion of this budget, I have a couple of questions that I need direct answers to. Not generalities, not talking points, clear answers. And the first one is for Dr. Alone. Dr. Alone, can you confirm whether school consolidation was your recommendation for this year and whether you or the business administrator discussed >> and a little bit about that? That's why I'm not going to answer that right now. >> I think I that's fine, but I my I will repeat my question so everybody knows. I would like to know whether school consolidation was recommended by the administration for this year

073and whether or not this you and the business administrator discussed or supported that action with the board leadership prior to it being brought forward on February 24th. I'll respect that you want to answer that later. Second question is for Mr. Vita, who specifically authorized our legal council to draft two separate motions for board action and was author and was that authorization approved by the majority of board? >> I did not I do not know who did. >> So we don't know who authorized that because there is a line on on the lawyer's bill that he spent two hours working on that. So who authorized that? >> Deferred to Mr. Burns. >> Mr. Burns, who authorized that? In preparation of the last meeting, the administration made clear that this board in public needed to give the

074administration direction on how to prepare the budget for the 26 27th school year. The two options that were presented were to authorize the preparation of a budget that did not include school closures. That was one of the resolutions that was prepared and circulated. The second resolution was to prepare a budget that included the school closures and that resolution was prepared authorizing the closure of the two schools. >> When was this motion made? >> Cuz I don't remember ever having this discussion. >> It was it was at the last meeting. >> It was when when this board made a motion prior to the beginning of the meeting to amend the agenda. >> No, no, I'm talking about before that. You came into our executive session with two prepared motions. >> Absolutely. Who authorized that? I >>

075I just answered the question. It was after >> administration authorized that. >> Yes. >> To give a clear direction. >> In the finance committee meeting in February, which of you were a part of? >> Yes. It was it was relayed to us after we got an update on the budget and what the projected deficit was going to be for the next four years. But there was never okay let me down these people you can forget and it was $30 million in the next four years. So the administration said we need clear direction from from the board before we prepare a tenative budget whether the board wants to close schools in 2026. >> I I don't know 2027 or excuse me I don't know if we're at the same meeting because Dr. Alone was not at

076that meeting so I don't remember this conversation. Use the finance committee today. >> We never discussed in that meeting drafting two motions in public. >> We never discussed drafting two motions. You don't know anything about it. >> We never discussed drafting two motions. Who authorized that? >> I didn't draft the motions, but we had to give direction to the administration whether to present a budget with closing schools this year or next year because it has to be done. So, we didn't want to put another $16 million band-aid on the problem. So there's your answer. Okay. So you >> also said in that meeting that you knew what your plan was that we should be coming up with ideas. >> That's not our >> So anyway, I just want to finish. I didn't get answers to

077my questions. >> I just answered you. Okay. I just missed you. M before approving this budget, is there a comprehensive board review long-term plan that outlines facility utilization, class size target, staffing level, and measurable student outcome benchmarks? And what specific met metrics will we use to evaluate whether this spending is actually working over the next 5 to 10 years? Is there anything prepared for that? >> I can't hear you. I would defer that question to Dr. Alone. I mean, I I compare the financial portion of the budget to the instructional recommendations and the programs included in the budget are the instructional administration decisions. And you know I will also remind the board that as we talked about the first the very first slide of the presentation we have to submit all of this financial information

078plus our support on in narratives for how we are addressing all of the standards and initiatives that the state is looking for. They review all of that information. We give them not only a detailed budget but we give them support for you know the ex the things that are included in the budget and also again our narratives and uh checklist showing that we're addressing all the educational requirements. So they the the budgets not only reviewed by the county business administrator but it's also uh reviewed by the uh county superintendent and also their uh I I think her title is educational >> educational specialist >> right so and and I think they also have a spe a separate special ed review as well so this is not something that's just purely looking at the numbers it's

079also required to be looked at for those educational uh aspects that you're talking about. So while it's a superintendent's recommendation and includes all these things, it also goes to the NJBE for radio. >> We don't know if it's a superintendent's recommendation or not yet because uh without all this information, this seems more like a reactionary budget. Uh there's not really a road map for the future. It's just get us through next year. And we are being asked to approve significant financial decisions while operating in the dark on any sort of a long-term plan because there is no long-term plan. GAS in my opinion that's not how you run a district criticize and it's certainly not how you build trust with the public and when major decisions are made without transparency without legal work being done

080without clear authorization I mean it was done and when spending is disconnected from outcomes it raises serious concerns and it's not just about this budget it's the whole process behind it and this district deserves better and short-term thinking and lastminute decisions. We should be leading with a clear vision and defined benchmarks. And this should also be a disciplined plan that ties every dollar to student success, not scoreboards and sound system. We're going to spend $200,000 on a camera system, upgrade the camera software so that it can have AI technology which is going to really help our students in the classroom. >> So until we have more clarity with this, I think we owe the taxpayers honesty and realistic budget that makes sense. You should have thought about that last year before tax% without being justified.

081Maybe you should have thought about that last year before you voted to raise taxes with Miss >> and hemorrhage the taxpayers without playing. And that was never on the agenda. >> Right. 10.1% was not on the election. Yet you voted us last year. Remember that? >> No. Remember about the way that you love. >> I loved it. We had no choice because you you were reckless with this budget. Here we are one year later in a same situation. But you want to raise them up again because you were sleeping. >> And Joe, for 25 years, you've been doing the same thing, averaging in a big fraud this whole entire town. 25 years. Last year after the 10% and after they said they were doing strategic planning, did you do anything to ensure that we were

082having those strategic planning meetings so that we could get the community involved to figure out how that 10.1% could bridge us to where we need to be so that we are not here again today. >> We were here today to push 10%. Can I ask you a specific question? >> Mr. Kei, please. >> May I can I ask? So, my question is that as you're now board vice president, but when you were board president, when we had this budget passed last year, cuz you're right, I wasn't here. Was I advocating for it? Yes, I was advocating for a plan and I was at every meeting in every strategic planning to make sure there was a plan and a conversation. And I think that you know enough of me by now to know that I'm here

083to have a conversation. >> Correct. >> I'm asking do you >> I I don't see what you're saying or >> I'm asking No, let me let me say this. Yes. >> I'm asking you, have I not been to these meetings asking questions and here to have a conversation? >> Have I ever not tried to answer? >> I didn't ask you that. I asked you. I'm asking me, right? >> Have I? >> Sure. Yes. >> So my question is that as the board leadership last year, why did that stop? Why did that process stop? >> Because of what's going on here today. environment with board members. That's stopped there. You weren't here. So you >> But I was here for our exact session. How people have their >> But I'm But as a leader, wasn't it

084partly your job to make sure that we could get to that place agenda from certain board members to try and make it look like it was a fault of ours when it wasn't in actuality? >> But then get out. 100% and we're back here in one year. And I told the whole entire community we'd be back here in one year. >> But I believe but I believe that that is done on purpose. That's Mrs. D. >> M. I'm sorry. I'm That's I'm going back 25 years. Um you >> I know. Do you um could you tell us how much the tax increase will be >> with and without if we went for the um um healthc care waiver? You mean the tax impact? >> Yeah. So on an average assessed home of $785,000, which is

085the figure that I got from the um township tax assessor uh to benchmark the average assessed value. That's actually up from $728,000 from last year. So it is up, but um our annual tax increase including debt service at 2% uh is $148 for the year or $12 per month. uh at 3.07% uh that figure would be $223 for the year or $1859 per month. >> Okay. >> I do I still want to address a few things. >> Yeah. Okay. >> You're right, Mr. Capone. I've been here for 25 years and all of my 25 years I've always felt I did the right thing. Obviously, I've made a lot of mistakes >> and I'm willing to admit By listening to I was doing the right thing and I'm not pointing my finger at you because it's

086going back 25 years. >> I've always been here for the kids and I'm here for the kids now. And I feel that this budget and where we are now because we were told we'd have time to bridge and come up with plans. I believe that this budget was put together and supported IN SPITE. WE SAW what was going on. Our kids needed it. We kept our budgets for years. 1% 1.5. Look where it got us. It didn't help us. And I kind of feel that way right now about the the um healthc care waiver. for passing up money that we could use. >> So you can you CAN BLAME ME, JACKIE. I'M NOT SEATED YOU, JACKIE. I'M NOT >> SPEAK. >> SO, UM, we our kids needed needed what we did last year. We needed

087a bridge. We couldn't just go in. And Chris, you keep telling us we had a heated discussion after finance, a very heated discussion, and a lot of information came out. We needed that money. We did not vote on a plan. You kept telling me that we voted on a plan last year. We never voted on a plan this year. Did you vote on A PLAN, KATARINA? DID YOU VOTE ON A PLAN? None of us voted on a plan. You keep telling ME YOU WEREN'T HERE last year, BUT YOU DON'T WANT TO GO BACKWARDS. YOU'VE GOT TO GO BACKWARDS TO FIND OUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. And there was no plan voted on. We are in the same position last year as we are now. And we shouldn't be because we have the money to go forward

088to make a good plan on how we're going to do things. not throw our kids in buildings and put step stools at toilets and sinks, not knowing what IT'S GOING TO CAUSE US TO BUST PEOPLE ALL OVER THIS TOWN. I really think that we have a great town. We are ripping the heart out of this town. But what makes great too is the people in it and our schools. People come here for our schools, too. We shouldn't have to be graveling for money. We should be coming up with a plan. And we should be putting our kids in schools. And if we have to make these moves, it should be safe plans, not throwing them in at the last minute. I have seen so many changes to this plan online that we haven't seen as

089a board and discussions. That's not the way it should be. We should all be a part of it. >> To your point, what I said about going back was the plan should have been developed last year after the tax increase. It's not my fault. That's what we finish. This is what I said to you. I'm here. It's less than three months. I can only act on the information and the facts that are presented to me from the administration against this district and they are telling me there's a structural deficit in our budget and we need to do something otherwise we're going to be $30 million short in four years. I look at that and say what should we do and they say you could decide to close schools this year or next year but you're

090going to have to take action because we can't support the footprint of this district as it is. And by the way, we all know this isn't just a Middletown problem. This is happening for every suburban district across the state of New Jersey. >> At least they have a plan OF >> the Joan. These districts, they're they're coming up with these one-time non-recurring revenues to plug their budget deficits year after year, and they're just pushing it down the road. Eventually, Joan, there's no more where no other place to get the money. We're on the 2% cap. We can't go above 2%. So, now you're talking about cutting massive staff, ending co-curricular, taking away sports. >> Nobody take over. This is the state. This is the main problem. It's it's a state funding formula next. >> Where

091did this list of cuts come from? We never saw that. We never saw that. If the budget deficits continue to grow, you will have to make more severe and drastic cuts to cover year after year. >> But why are we not having conversations now as a board and as a community to figure out what works for Middletown and not the rest of the state? >> Why are we not doing that? But in my opinion, when they raised the taxes to 16 million this year, >> you just heard you just heard that they stopped it. But now you're in leadership and let's do it. >> Aaron, again, what I'm saying, and you alluded to this board, too. >> Making decisions based on what I'm told. You don't have to agree with it. That's fine. >> That's

092fine. But I would like to have all the information. >> And Mr. You could you could pin the 10.1 on me and I'll take it all day because I paid property tax in town twice. But I also showed up to every single strategic planning MEETING for that was your idea to get the Ross Hab report going. That's what you wanted. Remember the Ross report that you wanted so badly? >> Wait, can I just say >> No, Mark. Continue mark. Continue mark. >> If you're ready to pin it on people that raised 10.1%. >> All five, all six of us. Katarina was there too. >> Attended strategic planning to try to make right on it. >> I was a single one. >> Mark, I told you last year 10.1% you're going to be back here this

093year with a single looking at $30 million in the next three years. >> Taxpayers of Middletown and they'll never forget that we're back here again. >> 25 years young. You know what? I'm really proud of what I did. question. >> Okay. So, anyway, Mrs. Dory, I have a couple questions for you, please. Um, in the facilities fleet replacement, you're talking about, um, I understand obviously we have 33 vehicles and they're very old, but how many are you looking to replace for that amount? I'm sorry. What what I didn't hear your first part >> under the proposed equipment purchases. >> Okay. >> The facilities fleet replacement >> so that we did set aside an amount that would represent two trucks, but we've also been talking about the uh the concept of leasing trucks and using that

094payment toward the lease uh and being able to replenish more of our fleet. So, we're looking at different options but staying within that budgeted amount. >> Okay. And then for the proposed capital projects, are these actual quotes or estimations? >> These are estimates based on uh rough budget numbers that we've gotten from vendors, but you know, of course, no commitments being made, but um you know, so we that is you know, that's the only way we really can budget without actually soliciting a bid. Like some of these things may have to go out to bid for official quotes. >> Yeah, because that's what I was wondering about. You know, I know we're not going to do it now, but those are the things I was wondering about in terms of like the replacement of the

095concrete curve harmony. I understand. >> Yeah, that would have to go out to bit, >> especially with the change in the legislation that just came out. No public works cooperatives. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. I just have one question in regards to the proposed equipment purchases for the security camera software upgrade. That 200,000 is extremely excessive. Um are there any other packages available to us that >> we haven't committed to a specific um you know this is what we're getting as an estimate but we you know as far after this amount gets approved in the budget then we go through the purchasing project uh process to actually secure the upgrade. So like like Mrs. Wright was saying exact prices will be after we either get bids or we get official proposals from vendors.

096So that is the estimate based upon the information we have right now. If it turns out being less then we will you know obviously we wouldn't spend less. >> Okay. >> I did I did ask in that meeting we didn't capture the current software that would happen whether or not it was still working and functioning and I was assured that everything is still fine. >> What the consensus was it could be deferred. It could be deferred for a year if we needed to but it's something that has to be done. I mean there there's differences between cutting things and deferring things. If you defer something, it it still has to be done. It's just going to have to be done in a future budget. If you cut something that isn't recurring, then that would be

097a lasting savings. So, some of these things you could say, okay, well, I'm I'm not going to do it this year. I'm going to eat one more year out of it, but then we'll be looking at it for next year's budget. >> So, could that be something you do with closing schools >> to actually make schools would be a recurring savings, >> right? But could it be deferred a year? >> Yes or no? >> It could with financial consequences, but we don't know what the financial consequences are of this move this year now either. >> Correct. >> But do we know but do we have any cost for this move? I mean we have already discussed that there we're not planning any major construction that the transportation although we you know we do have to

098route specifically to address this that we've talked to our transportation department they are not anticipating you know any any significant change in cost for transportation. You know as far as these other things that we've been discussing they are things that we're going to be mainly doing inhouse. So, one thing we did mention was, you know, possibly possibly getting a mover to assist us to move things. We have to get a proposal on that. If it's too costly, we'll have our we'll have we'll have it done internally. But if it's more efficient to have it done by having an outside vendor, then we'll do it. But again, it's not something that we would be spending, you know, a significant amount of funds on. >> But if we are in a significant financial crisis, everything needs to

099be looked at carefully. Well, we are we do look at everything carefully before we procure something. >> It does not seem like we don't have numbers. >> Sometimes you only get numbers when you actually go after a bid or get an official. >> But I know that if I'm preparing my own budget, I should have an estimate of what I might do, >> right? I >> But you didn't give that to us either. Again, you know, we have already talked through transportation and you know, we don't know every year what the exact number is going to be. We have to bring new routes if we have to put them out to bid that fluctuates every year. We may end up seeing some increases this year because of the gas prices increases this year. >> So,

100you know, that that's not something that we can necessarily give an exact dollar amount until we work it through. >> But I'm not anticipating a significant change. >> Okay. I don't go anywhere. >> Wait, I'm talking about I was at a PTA meeting last night and the increase of buses for class trips went up 25%. >> And they're struggling to raise monies for that. I I know. >> Next next on the list, student services. Well, before I do student services, there's I know uh Miss Gillespie had a question and my last question was because it was in the budget that's presented about uh Ocean Avenue and Fabrio with the playgrounds. >> So, improvements improvement for the playgrounds, but it was also mentioned to staff, to us, and whatnot about improvements to the Beayshore playground and

101new Mammoth. What happens if they don't get their grant? What are we doing about those? Are those still up to the PTO's to final? >> Well, we would I mean, obviously, no final decisions have been made on anything, but part of what's included in the proposed budget is to actually allocate some money for reserves that we don't have right now. capital reserve, maintenance reserve, and those are the type of funds that the board can discuss using to come to fund things that aren't necessarily anticipated or included in a budget. So, that's why it is important to have funds available to be able to put into these reserves just to have for our regular use. I understand that. But when we're looking at that and that we're going to have two middle schools that need to

102have construction to make the spaces bigger to accommodate the students, I think that would come before a playground. And we're also counting on a referendum for the people that are so angry about how we're spending money now to then say, "Here, have more." I don't think that's a really good plan either. I will say that there are there is and we've talked about this for years. There are a significant amount of improvements that need to be made to all of the buildings across the district. Windows, um, HVAC, you know, parking lots. I mean, these are not things that can be funded out of our operating budget. I mean, we can fund repairs and some smaller things, but that's why, you know, we've been discussing for many years the fact that we are going to have

103to put together a large capital project. And we've been talking about the debt falling off and and not having anything. And that's what that's what districts do. They will replace that then with more funds to invest in the facilities. I mean, that that is a big issue here. There's a lot of things. There is a whole master facilities assessment that's not being addressed by our operating budgets and we are going to have to address that at some point and that needs to be part of the long range planning as well. I've been I've been saying this for years. I'm not I I you know this is not new. I understand it's not new and I need to be completely honest with all of you that you know by now I am not married to a

104building but I am married to a plan that has the children's safety and education first and that is not happening. I'm sorry. >> Um, so since the finance committee really didn't discuss including the health care cost in the proposed budget, right, >> um, I'd like to make a motion to include the healthcare cost. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Discussion. >> I think we had it. Thank you. >> I agree. >> Roll call and start, please. >> All right. Let me >> This is a motion to include >> motion to adjust the tax levy in the tenative budget to include the 1.07% adjustment to the healthcare. >> Okay. >> And one one comment to that to Miss Minu's point. We did discuss it. We did say it there should be a more decision. It should

105be >> so motion Mrs. Torres second and Mrs. Minways. Correct. >> Mask said it. >> I'm sorry. Mrs. Goladski >> and seconded by Mrs. Mrs. Min. Okay. >> All right. Roll call. Mrs. Minis. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Golanski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sarowski. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tobacco. >> Absolutely. >> Mrs. Torres. Absolutely. I said >> yes. >> Mrs. Torres, >> yes. >> Mrs. Weinstein, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wright, >> yes. >> Mr. Capone, >> yes. >> Mr. Avita, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Oh, I got to talk. >> Sorry. So just as a matter just as a matter of procedure when we get to that voting item on the agenda we will also reference that uh adjustment and we will then reflect that in we'll have to update the numbers. Um student services met

106after curriculum and after the facilities and we had a lot of discussion and a lot of um things clarified and uh whatnot with Miss Granger and um Mr. Colin regarding the first thing we talked about with the Lcraft annex and we ran through really what a typical day would be uh how many students were there, what they were working on, um security officers, PT, OT, uh use of par professionals, things like that. um as well as future goals for the program which um were very enlightening um and hopeful that we can get that done as soon as possible. Um they are planning an initial field trip for the staff and students in late April and there will be a ribbon cutting and orientation in August for the families um featuring the tour and overview of

107the goals. Uh we talked a lot about what was going on outside the building um and specifics about the area. So that was a pretty great conversation. Uh we also talked about special class programs and planning for maximizing opportunities for students to remain in homeschools and increasing purposeful feeder patterns to the middle and high school. Um this comes kind of on the back of the school consolidation. So, uh, hopefully we will have more on that as those initial plans take place through the spring. As the committee noted that thoughtful scheduling is underway and projection sheets are actively forecasting needs and services and resources. Um, they're aligning with IEPs and that is usually the first part of any school schedule that we get through there. Uh we talked about an extended school year and the concern

108especially at Thorne with all of the changes happening. Um and we were assured that the Thorn classrooms that are used are in a specific hallway and that those um would be able to be managed at the end of August to get everybody ready for September. Um, same thing with Harmony, but that has been done in the past and they're not having the same transitions that Thorne is projected to have this year. Um, we talked about progress reports as well, uh, and aligning them with trimester 2 report cards and the, uh, progress reports will be released this week as well. This week is also development developmental disabilities awareness week. Uh, there were many themes that were um, for each of the elementary schools, middle and high schools and they were specific to the needs of each

109building. But there is also a thread of consistency to make sure that that is happening throughout the district. Um there is more of a message with the themes this year instead of just a you know on this day we do this. So those themes and announcements um that are being taking place in the building each day really being bring more of an awareness and inclusive inclusivity to this week. Uh the hockey team is on April 18th. The Bay View MD classes are going to Middletown's Ice World um with funds that were raised by the high school North and South uh hockey teams to bring the kids. And it sounds like it's really going to be a great event. um reminded me of what they were doing with the basketball. So, I'm interested to hear about

110that as well. And the there is a new stabilization program at High School South that Miss Granger gave us a lot of in-depth um discussion and knowledge about which was really appreciated and I'm looking forward to how that could be expanded in the future. Yes. to keep more kids in district and also to ensure that like kids that even if they were placed out of district have what they need in district as well. Um the Echos Cafe at Bay Shore and the Brew Crew at the high school south are still going. They're open on a weekly basis providing the authentic opportunity for hands-on learning. And um what I found really interesting about this is that it's become more of a reverse inclusion situation to have more students um involved with it that are not just

111our special needs population but getting more of our students involved in this which is a great way to use that time. So I hope that that continues. And the unified kickball planning is underway. Um the high school manager, the case managers, I'm sorry, at high school North and South are identifying the students that would like to participate and the goal is to have a team at each of our high schools who will compete with each other as well as against uh nearby districts similar to the basketball. So that is really on the list of things to get done. It was very much pushed forward that we were going to uh get that done this year. So looking forward to that this spring. >> Thank you, Mr. Uh next up is shared services. We had a

112meeting on March 4th. Um the committee is myself, uh Frank was there as well as Aaron. Uh we discussed the ongoing projects that they had started a while ago. Irrigation um as well as the township said they'll be putting down new side as well and um black tile. Uh they're replacing the turf field over at Nutswamp that the township's paying for that. It's not coming out. We also discussed trash and recycling collections which will come for approval soon. We discussed the fuel sharing agreement. They also brought up um a summer camp program that the township is sponsoring us. They wanted to use nut swap to uh to do that. They offering us uh a 50% cost sharing on that. Um so that was discussed as well. Uh did anybody else have anything? Okay, we all

113also brought up the class three officers and that contract that's coming up and the mayor uh did not give any kind of confirmation any which way other than that he would talk to the rest of the township committee and police chief and see if they can come up with an arrangement for >> when is the contract up. Um, also in that I know that we talked about the um parks running the camps. Uh it led to a bigger conversation about possibly bringing in afterare uh more camp programs and things like that that could be a shared service since it is a 50% revenue over the 15 of champions >> like township facility >> but with the township facility. >> Yeah, they were going to look into more information on that because they already had the

114system set up for it and the infrastructure. So, that was a conversation that um went on pretty long. Um but I would really before we agreed to anything, I would really like to see what the cost that we're putting out to have these facilities open to use them, the wear and tear of things that are going to be replaced. Um and have that really explicit with the parks program because, you know, they have the infrastructure for staffing, we have the facilities. So, how are we going to balance the two? Um, it's >> a good conversation. >> It was a good conversation and I I do hope that the conversation about the class 3 officers can continue especially as this is coming up um >> was there another meeting scheduled for shared services? >> Was there

115another meeting? >> Is there going to be another meeting? >> April 13th. Thank you. >> Next up, uh, super superintendence report. >> Great. Um, so I'm going to, um, ask you to bear with me while I read something, um, that I prepared. Um, given the fact that, you know, there's lots of information out there, some of it accurate, some of it semi accurate, some of it not accurate at all. But um first and foremost, I want to take a moment just to clear up, you know, how this process unfolded throughout my eyes and certainly um you know, my beliefs in in what's happening. Um and then I'm going to add a little personal statement at the end. So, I'm just hoping that just I ask that you just listen. Um first and foremost, I believe

116in my heart of hearts that school closures are necessary and inevitable for us in Middletown. I think that I've had conversations with so many of you sitting in the audience and you know we all know that something has to change and something has to happen. Um and I think we came to that understanding. Um even though it was a rough road to get there last year um I think we we were we were moving in that direction. Um this is necessary for the district to continue to move towards greater financial health while sim simultaneously preserving the high quality of education we've come to be known for. But with that being said, I did not recommend the plan be placed on the February agenda because we had no indication at that time as to if there

117would be number one consensus among the members of the board to move in that direction given the budget deficit and conversation surrounding school closures were not held earlier as the budget shortfall did not crystallize until we returned in the new year and the fall months are typically spent coordinating the budget build amongst all the departments. Given these facts and the district's ongoing efforts in strategic planning, I did not feel comfortable advocating for school closures when these facts were unknown and I felt it was unnecessary to cause greater upset in the school community until further discussions were had and all options could be examined as we reassured the community. School closures were not the only option considered. However, it was the option that a majority of the board felt was the appropriate course of action at

118this time. The administrative team and I believe that the structure is sound educationally and is the least intrusive step we could have taken because for the most part it kept students and teachers together. Other alternatives were far more disruptive as a first step and would result in the risk of higher class sizes and many more students being separated from their peers. If the process for closures was paused or ceased indefinitely, it would be much more detrimental to the district because of the financial implications that would undoubtedly in the long run jeopardize the high quality of education that sets us apart from other districts. The financial projections won't change unless we proactively take significant measures to do so. And while these decisions are challenging, the alternatives are counterproductive to regaining financial stability and preserving quality education.

119The other item I want to address is the perceived lack of a plan with the events unfolding as they did. This has certainly been a factor. Yesterday, we shared information with the school community outlining the information that we do have because we didn't want to continue to be information absent. Over the next several months, if consolidation moves forward, we will continue to share information as it becomes refined. We also have enacted a consolidation task force which is composed of teachers and administrators currently and in the near future, we would also like like to invite individuals from the school community to partner with us. Um, if this is the direction that the board of education has chosen to take, then I feel that we need to come together to ensure the success of of it moving

120forward. Finally, I want to address my decision to retire because there's been a lot of people that have an opinion on that. Um, this was not an easy choice. I've given 26 years to education. Um, I certainly I'm going to try not to get emotional. I did not envision my career ending in this manner. Um over these 26 years, I've always acted with integrity and allow what is best for students to guide my decision- making. Um I still remain incredibly proud of Middletown. And I think in spite of the challenges and consternation of late, we have accomplished so many things that I'm proud of, including like Mrs. Torres brought up, the annex. Yes, it it cost us some money, but it's going to benefit so many students in the long run. And it's something that

121we have things here in Middletown that other places just don't have. Um, at the same time, there came a point where I felt I could no longer operate as effectively at believe I could as a school leader in the current environment. The level of discourse and the tone that has emerged in the last year has at times been deeply challenging and significantly troubling and has taken a toll on mine and my family's quality of life. It has also minimized my faith in being able to make a difference. I firmly believe that even when we disagree and there will always be differing perspectives, we must treat each other with basic human decency and respect. When that foundation is compromised, it becomes difficult to lead in a way that aligns with my values and beliefs. When an

122opportunity presented itself, I made the difficult decision to step away and pursue an opportunity where I know I'll be able to make a positive impact. So, I I appreciate you listening. Um, and I I certainly um, you know, I I wanted to clear up any misunderstanding there was in my position on school closures. And um you know, however the district chooses to move forward, certainly the administrative team and I are going to um ensure that it is as successful as possible. question. I appreciate you um saying that it wasn't your recommendation for this year. Um do you really think that we're going to have a good positive plan or would it have been better if we waited a year and came up with a good plan? >> More time is always better when you're looking

123at something as significant as this. Do I believe we can do it? 100%. We're going to make it work. We have a very skilled administrative team. However, when you have more time to plan, certainly you can stay out in front of the information for the school community. You can provide detailed and accurate information without as much refinement. There's a lot of benefits to more. I mean, that's with anything any kind of significant change or significant um you know, plan when you have more time to really vet it out and get it and and have those details prepared on the front end. Um, like I said, you can stay out in front and provide people reassurance that that things will go smoothly. So, no one's ever going to turn away more time, but there are, as

124I said before, there are, you know, consequences of that. And that's kind of the crossroads here, right? It's do you pick this camp? Because I in my heart believe that schools need to close. We need to consolidate our footprint. That has been a reality in Middletown for a very long time. I've been here for 10 years and this came well before, you know, any many of us sitting up here. So, this is not a new conversation. Um, but I also, you know, believe that, you know, that this may not be the only way, right? Like this is one iteration, but there there could be other ways. But I think taking things offline because the only way you're going to save on reoccurring expenses has to happen. Um, but I I believe the community believes that

125too in some >> when we came up when when you came up last year with the 10.1% increase, you said that it would be better to bridge this year. We would have more time to be do it the right way, make it better for our kids. Did you still believe that before February? Was this on your radar before February closing schools? >> No, but we didn't remember. We didn't know that we were going to be faced with a budget deficit this year. Um, you know, we and I said and as I said, we build the budget from a zero base, right? You build the budget from zero. So when you when you roll over your staff and when you when all the departments put in the things that are required versus the things that you

126know like example for curriculum, there are certain cycles where you have to rewrite depending on state standards. You might have to repurchase materials and all that comes into play and until you build the budget, you truly you have a rough idea, but you truly don't know necessarily where your deficit's going to lie. So, that was not something that was on our radar administratively in the fall >> cuz I know at finance when we spoke the other day, you said up until February that was not on your radar. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to open up the mic to only >> I did have one. I had a question about something you said. >> You said that a majority of the board felt it was needed at this time. Are you talking about

127>> the vote? You're not talking about before that. >> No, no, I'm talking about the actual vote that happened because the majority of the board, >> right, but before that was put out there. Why was it not on the agenda as something that we were going to do? Why was it brought up as a resolution? >> Because I didn't I would recommend it. because you didn't recommend it. So my question and my understanding is that as a board our job is to take the recommendation of the superintendent and either say yes or say no, not come up with our own recommendation. >> Is that correct? >> Yeah, you got the explanation as to how it wound up on the agenda so that the decision could be made in public. And I think it's very clear

128from that night the discussion that was had in public, the way the motion went. There was a motion to table and the way it went. So it had to be done in public and and Dr. Alone is saying she she didn't want to put it on the agenda because she wasn't sure what the board wanted to do. But keep in mind in the like I go back to the February finance committee meeting when we were informed that we need to make a decision whether we're going to close schools this year or next year. So there was no way to to do that unless it was discussed in public to make a decision and that's how it happened. >> So again it just seems a little off to me. >> This is this is off >>

129but that that's the facts. Who ordered the motions? >> What motions? >> The resolutions. >> We have two resolutions. Who ordered them to be printed? >> I think we had to come up with five other things because printed >> and there was a motion to table and can we move on to public comment, please. >> Who order our attorney to prepare those two? I'm >> talking to the president. >> Did Bill just say? >> Yes. Yes. Well, we're looping here because that has not >> Yes, it will be introduced to a motion. So, >> you ask you as >> No, I didn't say that. >> I didn't say that. >> I don't know. >> It was discussed. >> You're not answering the question. >> Executive session. Mark, there was there was a discussion as to

130the necessity of the board providing clear direction to the administration in public as to how the board wanted the budget prepared. No decisions were made in executive session or before them. Everything was done in public for that reason. >> That's not true. >> I'm not answering the question anymore. Mark I it's been asked and it's been answered. >> Dr. Did you did you order um >> I'm not going to I'm not >> please So then may I make a motion based on Dr. Alone's recommendation that we postpone the closing by >> No that you didn't make the recommendation because you did not feel that that was something that should have been this year. You were waiting for the direction. >> That's not what she said. That was good. So then explain it to me further

131because I miss >> I write my statement. I am not getting tangled up in this discussion. >> I'm not I clearly misunderstood. So I'm asking you to clarify. >> Please use your microphone. >> So then I am going to then make a motion that we postpone the closing of schools for one year so that we can have an actual plan. So take the RESOLUTION AND CHANGE THE GAME. AND THEN THAT that >> just just >> just to clarify the motion, it's a motion to delay the implementation of the authorization to close schools to the 27 28th school year >> for one year. >> And and the other reason I think that that's a good idea is because when we did have I'm sorry. >> Oh, >> that motion's been made. >> That's your motion. >>

132Please don't shout out from the audience. You're going to be asking >> There's a motion. There's been a motion made by a board member. >> I'm sorry. Can we just repeat what the actual motion is? The the motion summarily the motion is to delay the implementation of the authorization to close schools for one school year to not go into effect until the 2027 2028 school year. WITH NO PLAN. >> Please don't please don't forgive >> with a full plan and making sure that we have a new superintendent that can guide us through this process. >> May I add that? And will you second it again if I add that amendment? >> Do you have that? >> It should be to both. Sir, you don't want you don't want just >> you don't want just the

133implementation post >> the implementation with a plan. >> How do you plan to close schools? >> No, it's not a random plan. you get an administrative uh fullon plan that we can all see and be part of which is what was supposed to happen. I can hear you speaking to the mic. >> Jack, >> so then are we supporting the tenative budget tonight because it has to be to the state by the 27th. >> The budget is different. >> Let me I just want to clarify the budget, the tenative budget, you're voting on the numerical amounts, correct? Right. How you get to those numerical amounts, school closures or not, is a whole separate issue. So you could you could build your budget anyway to meet those numerical amounts. So technically you could still vote yes

134on the tenative budget because you're approving those fiscal pieces, but how you get there could be different. >> And from what I saw in the budget that was presented, there was nothing really in there about school closures. >> I'm sorry, that's not true because reductions to the budget specifically in personnel that So all of those all of those reductions would then have to be changed. >> So >> and would that be Dr. is that possible to do before it is due to the county superintendent? >> If I can chime in for a second with changing the motion with what you want in the total motion. That's not really an appropriate motion because it's condition on things that haven't happened yet. The appropriate motion would be a motion to resend. a motion to resend. So there

135is no way to amend the resolution to change it to the 2627 school year. >> Not with the extra stipulations and this board can't bind a future board. >> I'm sorry. >> No, not with the stipulations. And this sitting board cannot bind a future board with action taken tonight. So >> can you um >> So how would this be done? >> You would make a motion to resend the motion to authorize the closure of two. >> Okay. So if that happened, would I then be able to make an additional motion that would satisfy the people that want to close schools for the fiscal reasons? like how can we as a board come together to make this happen to make there be a consensus that we can all work towards >> 27 26 27 just 27

13628 >> well I'm guessing that if I vote if I make this motion to resend the same people that voted for it are going to vote against it so I'm asking as a board How do we then take this and not make it so contentious and actually have a conversation to figure out how we're going to solve this problem? >> There would be two options. You would either discuss it at board meetings as the entire board or a subcommittee of the board would be established. >> So Mr. Avida, Mr. Capone, Matham, Miss Weisste, Miss Gasi, you voted for this. I'm asking you how can we do this? I'm not resending my >> Okay. So, the other four, are you willing? >> I just want to be clear. Sure. I don't think you understand. I understand

137that you're new, but I don't think you understand. Who was that? >> If they don't get escorted out, I'm not going to finish this meeting. They need to be escorted out when they interrupt. >> I'm listening to you. I hear you. >> Okay. But you don't need to speak to me that way. I'm asking you a question. You're not understanding that it's not just you can vote on this budget and and receive the vote and everything will be fine a year. You can't bind this board to the to a new board to what we decide this year. Number one. Number two, this would mean that we have to go into extreme cuts. Cuts in programming, cuts in staff, cuts in a lot of things that we have been discussing and throwing this around a million

138times. And I think you also need to be really careful that you are not sitting up here. This is supposed to be a board that you're on. This is not just a parent perspective. Number one, I take great offense to that because here's why. I was a elected member and yes do I have an entire >> excuse me I'm talking and I'd appreciate you listening you did and then I started and what I said was that while I am a parent I am an educator I am a taxpayer and I am also I'm sorry I can't hear you Can you repeat that, please? >> What? >> Can you repeat that, please? >> Okay, >> that's a parent. I can't hear you. What? I didn't hear what you said to me. >> Well, talk to your

139audience that keeps clapping for you. >> Oh, it's I'm sorry because I'm a union member, >> Jackie. I'm asking you. >> You said it, so I'm asking you. >> Yeah, you are a union member. Yes. >> Thank you. No, because I was in the middle of talking, Mr. So, I'm going to finish my state. do whatever the motion >> I would love to but I >> what >> Dr. What was the second motion the second um resolution that was last week because we didn't hear what that was >> to direct >> Right. But did you have numbers in it? Did you have >> to it simply in in short form stated to direct the administration to create a budget absent of school closures. That was the that was the the other resolution that was. >>

140So, allow me to just finish with my statement about myself and my integrity that's being attacked over here. I don't know what else you said, but this is why you can't have a conversation. I'm looking to have a conversation about facts, about buildings, about staff, about safety, about student outcomes, and instead you throw out I'm just a mom. >> How dare you? I absolutely didn't say that. >> It's on tape. It's on tape. I didn't say that. So, what did you say? Explain it to I said that we have an entire district to represent up here. An entire town. You're not just the people in this room, not just our children, an entire town. That was my statement. So then my question is >> that was my statement. So then my question is if we

141are looking at$1 to2 million to close it this year to give us a year to figure this out. What do you talk about 1 to2 million? Your your numbers are completely inaccurate. We're not 6 million. >> We are 6 million short this year. >> Sorry. Do you tell me the exact numbers? >> You have papers in FRONT OF YOU. THE TAXES WERE raised over $16 million last year and this year we were told in February that we are $6 million in a deficit, a structural deficit. >> And everyone is acting like now it's only $1 million. >> Please don't audience. >> So if you would like to have a conversation, let's do it. >> Escort people out. They can't control themselves. >> Mr. If we did this raise of the health insurance premium, what are

142our final numbers and what is it that we need to get to in this budget? I when we originally were discussing based on a 2% increase in the tax levy that the projected expenses were approximately $3.5 million over the revenue including the two that with the revenue including the 2%. >> So if you took the% >> the one point well no I'm not taking the 2% out. She asked me about the about what we would do. So if we added the 1.9 approximately 1.9 million that with the healthcare adjustment then the balance of that to make up the 3.5 would have to come out of other reductions to the budget not related to school closures. So, it's the difference between 3.5 million and 1.9. That's the differential to make up because if you if your

143health if your health waiver is going to give you about 1.9 million and we need to make up 3.5, you're looking at the difference between the two of them is where the gap is that you still need to close to meet the budget numbers that we'd be voting. So, has the board had any more conversations about the shared services with the town for the officers? And have we brought up the land issues? >> That discussion had Mr. Torres. If you want to make a motion, you're welcome to. >> At this point, you want to make a motion, you should make the motion and let the board decide what they want to do. >> Just continue in this conversation. >> I made the motion. >> Okay. to what what is the motion that you want >>

144to rescend what was done last time to rescend the motion >> so that we come back and have a conversation. >> Your motion is to resend the school closures that was voted on and approved by the board last meeting. Yes. Motion. Okay. >> Motion. >> The motion would be a motion to resend the resolution authorizing the closure of two schools. No, >> we're closing two. >> Do we have a second on the motion? >> Second. >> Okay. Discussion. >> I have a discussion, Mr. Amy. How much deficit do we have for our next year now that you're projecting? Well, originally we had projected that based on a 2% increase in the tax levy and I don't have all that >> or 6.6 million >> that that was probably based on projections we did last year

145you know on what it would be going forward. Now I would you know I would say those numbers would change somewhat if we increased our tax levy by the 1.9 million obviously that would carry forward. So, if I take out the tax levy of two 2% the tax levy, that's about another $3.5 million. That's about a $10 million deficit green for next year 2017. >> And I don't understand why you keep saying take out the 2% >> 6.6 million. >> I understand what you're saying. I don't know why you would say that. I don't know why you would say that we wouldn't raise taxes at all. >> I'm not saying that right number. How much deficit are we in next year? Don't Don't be a tax levy included. Excluded. How much deficit are we in

146next year? Well, the deficits are based upon the difference between your revenue and your expenditure. So, if you're including an increase in the tax levy, that's going to impact that number. >> But you don't know how much support is going to go to raise it next year like >> No, but you the the fair assumption when you're doing a 5year projection >> I just want to know the 6.6 million with the tax levy correct of 2%. >> When I do my projections, I assume a 2% increase in the tax. >> Got it. So, it's a $10 million deficit and we're as >> Whatever you want to say, Mr. Capone. I'm just saying I I owe >> Is your tax money including the 6.6 million? >> In the projections that I've done, it includes a 2%

147increase in >> So, it's a $10 million deficit for next year. How are we making it? >> How are we going to make that up? >> It's not a real number. So, I'm not I'm not >> It's not a real number. >> We have a motion on foot. So, we have a discussion motion. Anybody else? >> I don't I'm very funny. Can we do a roll call, please? >> Okay. So, this is a motion to resend the authorization to close the two school buildings and to redist You're closing two buildings and redistributing the news. >> Okay. Mrs. Minis, >> Mrs. Scholasi, >> no. >> Mr. Sakarowski, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tobacco, >> no. >> Mrs. Torres, >> yes. >> Mrs. Weinstein, >> no. >> Mrs. Right. >> Mr. Capone. >> No. >> Mr. Avita. >>

148No. >> Okay. Motion fails. >> Okay. At this point, we're going to take a 5m minute rest recess. >> 5 minutes. Okay, we're going to call this meeting back to please now open it up comments for 30 minutes. Please keep in mind simple professional call out from the audience. If you'd like to speak, get online and not your address. It's 30 minutes and there's a clock here for 3 minutes. You will notice I'll I'll wait at 3 minutes. We ask you to wrap it up and then please >> Before I get started, I'd like to make a motion to extend public comment until everybody has had an opportunity to speak. >> Second, >> discussion. >> Can we extend the public comment to one hour? >> No. We haven't had an opportunity for people to speak

149because we canled the last workshop meeting. So, I'd appreciate if they got the chance to do it tonight. >> Roll call. Mr. D. >> Yes. >> I'm first. >> Mrs. Minis, >> Mrs. Scholasi, >> yes. >> Mr. Sberowski, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tobacco, >> no. >> Mrs. Mr. Torres, >> yes. >> Mrs. Weinstein, >> no. Mrs. Wright, >> yes. >> Mr. Capone, >> Mr. Aita, >> no. >> All right. Well, there's five yeses. Motion carries. >> I'm a student at BR Middle School and I want to make it clear to all of you on the board of education. You are not treating this. >> Move that down. Okay. So, can you just repeat your name, please? >> Uh, hi, I'm Daniel Cornell. >> Okay. >> I'm a student at Bore Middle School and I want

150to make it clear to all of you in the board of education and we're not thinking this through. The process in which this decision was made was poorly handled and was unfair to the people of Middletown. Last year, when this plan was first proposed, this was decided through many meetings and given process. This year was narrowly passed over one meeting. I know you think this plan was great on paper, but put it from the perspective of us, the students, overcrowded school hallways, bullying, bigger class sizes, etc. Not to mention the renovations to Beayshore, Leonardo, and Navinc, and the cost of accommodating these students with with what? With what? Sorry. With what money? >> And the promise of a 10.1 tax increase was not the closest false. You lied. Give Michael Thomas money back. Thank you

151very much. >> Um, before I start off, >> Rowan Young. >> Thank you. Um, before I start off, um, why are we giving charter schools $200,000? It was just on your slideshow. >> Go ahead. >> This is a public question. It's just a comment. Public comment. I I will just say we don't we don't have a choice in that if if a student chooses to go to a charter school and they reside in Middletown, the state requires us to make that payment. So that's not a board election. Um I'm a sixth grader at Beure Middle School and I'm here again to represent my school and all the other schools. I know you may not want to hear from me. You might rather be on your phone, but I'm still going to speak. Every everyone at

152Behore Middle School and all the other schools was in kindergarten, first or second grade during co we already lost so much learning time. Back then, your campaign was helping students recover, unmasking us, getting us back into a strong learning environment. Now, it feels like they're going to disrupt that over again at one of the most important times in our education. Middle school is already hard enough. At Beayshore, I love my teachers. I have the place I have place to sit with my friends in the cafeteria. I have good class sizes. I feel like I belong. We're be We're being told schools need to close over a 0.2% budget gap. But at the same time, the district is spending $260,000 on doors, $130,000 on bleachers, $180,000 on new vehicles, and $140,000 on a new scoreboard lease.

153Instead of doing this, we could be doing things that would save money. For instance, um in this is just an idea I had. Um we could raise the price of unnecessary needed items, for example, like ice cream by maybe a quarter and then put our profit towards keeping the schools open. might not be millions, but it's something. Why are we Why are schools the thing that needs to be destroyed? I asked you last year for the data to support this. Still, no response. Please think about what this actually means for students like me. I want to be a NASA scientist. >> Finish up. You're almost up. Objective. A great education is something we all need to achieve our goals. We do we cannot do it in a classroom of 28. We are not numbers. We

154are humans. This is our education, our routine. >> That's it. 3 minutes or something. Thank you. There is no transferring of time. >> You have one time to speak on the table. >> I understand. But we have a lot of people here that want to speak. So let everybody have a turn. >> Okay. >> Hello members of the board. My name is Liam Austin and I'm a seventh grader at Bashore Middle School. >> I'm here tonight because Be sure means a lot to me and I'm really worried about the possibility of it closing. I have ADHD and different behavioral challenges. The school hasn't always been easy for me. I've been bullied for a while, probably since about third grade. And for a long time, I felt I didn't really belong anyhow. But at Payure that

155changed for me. This is the first school where I truly felt welcome. The teachers understand understand me and I've finally been able to make real friends. They sure gave me a place where I could feel safe and supported. I also wrestled for the Basher team and part and being part of the wrestling team has helped me grow as a person. It taught me discipline, teamwork, and confidence. If the school closes, students like me could lose a place where they feel where we feel like we belong. I know the board has a lot of difficult decisions to make, but I hope you will think about the students when you make them. For many of us, Behore is more than just a building. It's a it's a community that helps kids succeed. Please consider keeping Behore Middle

156School and the two other elementary schools open. Thank you for listening. THANK YOU. ALL MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, my name is Edward Austin and I'm a seventh grader at Bay Middle School. I'm here to explain why Bear should stay open. Number one is that at Thompson, what if there's not enough lockers cuz it's already crowded enough? There aren't enough lockers. That means kids will have to carry their backpacks and other hard stuff that they bring to our lockers to put away around the hallways which will make it even even more crowded in the hallways. Number two is um mental health decrease. Um this will this will happen because um the kids will feel overwhelmed every day because especially at Thompson it's very crowded but at Thorne they will still be crowded because it's just even

157more kids than already at Bay Shore part it's perfect there and it's not bad at all. Third reason is because um it will decrease grades and if the grades decrease we will look even more bad district and they will will decrease because the kids will feel overwhelmed and just not feel like you know like I don't know how to explain explain it but yeah thank you Hello, my name is Max Desmond. I have been doing some research and I have learned Frank Bone and Jackie Tobacco ran their campaign on kids first. But we haven't seen this month since you have taken office. I cannot understand after hearing all these kids speaking and how your decision is going to cause us so much stress and heartache and you still aren't even considering meals first and why

158have ran your campaign in the first place. That aside, this will affect me inevitably because I already have cuz I already received ridicule for my size. And yes, I know I am big. And just imagine how much more bad it would get with twice the kids. With more kids, I'll not be receiving the tools I need to maintain my mental health. But kids come first, right? >> Hi, my name is Nina Sa. I'm an eighth grader at Beore Middle School. And as a graduate of Navinc, I can confidently say that people make their strongest friendships there. The teachers are understanding, supportive, and they truly care about their students. Navincing is not just about learning. It's a safe place for so many kids. And it may be a small school, but it feels like one big

159family. The memories that are made there, from playing at recess to seeing people you know every day, are things that students are going to carry with them for years. It's not fair to take that away from them. At the short three years, I looked forward to coming here and having new opportunities, especially in sports. Now, as a part of of the graduating class of 2026, it's frustrating to see these changes being made. Beware is a great school with strong programs and a positive environment. Students don't want to be split up. Turning base an elementary school doesn't make sense because it already provides a strong support system for the middle school students and changing it would take away important opportunities. Beayore is also set up for older students. Younger kids will feel overwhelmed in such a

160large building. Programs like Project Plus were meant to help us build from build friendships for coming into middle school, but now those friendships are being disrupted. I've I also have type 1 diabetes and throughout my whole life I was scared of going to middle school because of what kids would say. While at Bayore I feel completely comfortable talking about it and nobody judges me for having it because of the support Beure provides. Another important thing is the support for students with special needs and autism. Behore creates a safe and supportive environment for them. Moving them into a more crowded or unfamiliar space will make things harder harder not better. Overall, these changes won't just affect buildings. They will affect students friendships and the sense of community. Schools like Navy and Bureau are more than just

161places to learn. They're safe spaces where students grow, connect, and succeed. My name is Audrey and I'm a seventh grader at Bore Middle School. When I think about where my school journey started, I think about elementary school. That's where I made some of my first real friendships. It's where I learned lessons that went far beyond reading and math. Navinc was a place where I felt supported, encouraged, and a part of a community. My teachers made a huge impact on me. They cared about every student and worked hard to make sure we all felt included and capable of succeeding. They encouraged us when things were hard and helped us believe in ourselves. Because because of them, school felt like a place where I belonged. At Beayore, I've seen how important it is for schools to support

162every kind of learn learner. The thing that really stands out to me is the education programs for students with autism. Seeing how much effort and care goes into every student shows how much our schools value, inclusion, and kindness. It's something that makes me really proud of proud of my school community. Um, at Nore, I've seen how important it is. It's it's something that makes me That's why the idea of schools like Nathan, Beayore, and Leonardo closing is so hard for me when I think about it. I don't just see a building. I see a place where I grew, where I made friends, and where our teachers helped shape who I am today. It's a place that means a lot to students like me and to the families in our community. From my perspective as a

163student, schools like are more than just classrooms. They are a place where kids learn, grow, and feel supported during some of the most important years of their lives. I know that you guys what you guys are thinking. Those kids will just have the same opportunities just in a different community. No, they won't. If your plan ends up moving all these kids to one middle school, those kids won't have the same learning opportunities since there will be so many more kids for teachers to pay attention to. With the small classes, it is easier for teachers to focus on individual kids who need extra help. I hope that when decisions are made about our schools, people remember how much these schools mean for the students to who walk through those doors every single day. Thank you. >>

164Excuse me one second. Are there any other students that wish to speak? Could they come to the Let them come to the front, please? No. Any other student? Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Hi, I'm Hi, my name is Luke Desmond and I'm in seventh grade. I feel like you guys don't understand the emotional deficit and impact that you guys are causing by closing vially. You are going to separate so many friends just because they live in different neighborhoods. I personally have struggled with learning since kindergarten. I'm finally doing great making honor roll and thanks to all the teachers and support I get in Bashwood. I'm afraid to go to top thorn. It's going to be all messed up because I won't have the help I need. There is not a plan for people like me because

165you guys don't have a plan for us yet. And there's not going to be enough focus for kids like me cuz there's going to be another 5 10 kids per class. THANK YOU. HOW YOU DOING? MY NAME IS FRANK DENTE. UM, I've lived in Middletown my whole life. I graduated from Middletown North. I have a master's degree in special education. I'm currently finishing master's degree in education leadership at Montlair State University. Um, I'm far from an expert in the subject, but I know more I would say than the average person. I want to say Miss Dy uh my professor John Ferraro spoke very highly of you. I really appreciated your presentation. Uh, Dr. Dr. Alone, congratulations on your retirement. Whether people agree with you or not, dedicating your life to education is something that's very

166commendable and I really appreciate that. Um, I want to say a couple things. First of all, uh, for Mr. Capone, um, it seems you have a lack of understanding uh, of what a deficit actually is. So, a deficit is when you take your expenditures, you subtract all of your revenue, and what's left is your deficit. So, it's not $10 million of deficit, it's $10 million of expenditures. Uh, and I don't know if you're doing it intentionally to try to prove your point or you just have a basic lack of understanding. Um, either way, you know, personally, if I was on the board of education and I didn't have a basic understanding of school finance, I'd be pretty embarrassed about that. I would then like to say you were jumping down Mr. uh, I believe it's

167Sarowski's uh, earlier about how you knew this was coming and you talked about last year about how raising the taxes and schools were going to have to close anyway. Um, I'm not going to lie, I agree with you. I did think this was coming and the writing was on the wall. Uh so then I think it's even more embarrassing that you guys have been on this board. You knew this was coming for the last year and there's been no progress made. There's no plans. You can't answer any questions about specifics, about numbers. So what have you guys been doing for the last year? I know you're not going to answer the questions. I'm sure you don't have an answer to the questions. I'm just going to tell you that you should be embarrassed. Kristen Bolin,

168Middletown. Um, my children are fourth generation educated in Middletown. I want to thank the Marine veteran that told me that we don't have a bill of wants and needs. We have a Bill of Rights. My children, all of our children here have a New Jersey constitutional right to an outstanding education. And you, the elected members of this board, were chosen to protect and deliver that right, not take it away. Last year, this community voted to keep our neighborhood schools open. We did our part. We showed up for the meetings with the understanding that there is a pathway of two to three years with a strategic plan. We don't have that strategic plan. We have nothing. But we did our part. Now you are trying to move forward closing Leonardo Davis and conve Thorne and Thompson

169over capacity and straight into violations. Under New Jersey state law, you cannot legally close these schools without providing the Department of Education formal asurances of sufficient capacity over the next 5 years and no safety risk. no safety risks whatsoever. Your own numbers that you presented tonight just proved you cannot give those assurances. This isn't just bad policy. It violates state regulations, endangers our children, our staff, and our faculty, and it breaks the thorough and efficient education guarantee in the New Jersey Constitution. Yep. Any reasonable person here in this town has a serious concern about the timeline and the overall readiness of this lack of a plan. If this somehow can move forward, what is the exact timeline that you're going to complete these buildings that changes before students arrive in September? How will this construction

170be done? Safety upgrades, inspections realistically be completed in just two months. And if they're not, what is your contingent contingency plan? What happens if a school's not ready in September? Do all schools push back the first day of school? Because we're one Middletown. So if one school can't open, will none of us open? This plan requires simult simultaneous work across multiple schools. How many projects will be happening at once? Who's overseeing all these projects? How will you ensure our right to a quality and safe education? We're not talking about minor adjustments. We're talking about transforming buildings, monumental redistribution of students and staff and faculty, and reworking entire systems under extremely compressed timelines. I guess I have three questions for you, Mr. Aveda, because you're the chair. Can you guarantee that all Beayore students will not

171lose their reserve spot for the academy high schools? It's a yes or no. >> I don't know the answer to that question. >> Okay. >> Have you reviewed all of the studies and analysis in the plan that's being pushed forward? >> Yes, sir. >> Public comment. >> Okay. >> So, who's ultimately responsible for ensuring that every building is fully compliant and safe before opening? >> Public comment. Kristen Mr. Middletown, New Jersey. Mr. I have a series of yes or no questions for you. They're simple and I believe the public deserves clear answers to these questions. So yes or no. Are you aware that the functional school capacity of a middle school is recommended to be kept at approximately 85%. >> It's public comment. >> Okay. So that was a no comment. >> Take it out

172you want. >> I will. So will the people watching? Are you aware? And do you understand that exceeding 85% capacity ignores how schools actually operate, including space needed for special education, specialized instruction, physical education, assemblies, and safe movement in hallways and cafeterias? >> Public comment. >> No comment. That was a no comment. >> Public comment. >> Okay. You also didn't answer the question, so let me move on. Are you aware that the superintendent stated that Thompson Middle School and Thor Middle School will each hold approximately 1,175 students yesterday? Did you read your email yesterday? >> Public. >> Oh, wow. Okay. Great leadership skills. Are you aware that the state minimum square footage for a middle schooler is 134 square ft per middle school student? Which would mean that at maximum capacity, each middle school, both

173Thorne and Thompson, could hold 963 maximum students under New Jersey state law. I have the statute. If you would like it, I'll send these in an email. Maybe you'll answer them. Has the administration explained how capacity increased by roughly 250 students per building without any renovations? Because that's what happened in yesterday's email. Are you aware that no independent capacity study was conducted for the middle schools before you all decided to vote to close a middle school and move children into them? There was no study done. That also breaks a law. Do you have any analysis that validates the numbers that you put out yesterday, 1,175 students? Has anyone explained the tradeoffs required to force buildings to operate with 1,175 students in them? Are you aware that the cafeteria fire code capacity of Thor and Thompson

174is 328 students? So on day one, every grade is going to be over fire code capacity. You will not be able to fit a grade in this cafeteria for lunch on day one. That's not even guaranteeing a five-year plan where you can fit everybody in the school. So, check that box. You missed that one, too. Are you aware that the district's long range facilities plan projects 263 middle school students by the year 2029? And do you understand that is with three middle schools open and that will be over capacity? The LRFP states that the schools will be over capacity in the year 2029 and that is if you have three schools. So again, you are failing to make a decision based on dating. >> Did you discuss the motion please? Attention board of education. My

175name is Emma Bonus and I'm a fifth grade student at Leonardo Grade School. When I first joined Leonardo Grade School, I didn't have many friends. In fact, I didn't have any. Then I met and bonded with my teachers and I met my friends and everything seemed to turn around. Leonardo Leonardo grade school has made such an amazing demonstration on these kids. So why take it away? I have also noticed that almost nobody on the board is talking about the impact on the kids. I haven't heard anything about how the kids feel. I've only heard things about the numbers, the percentages, the money. I would like to consider one thing. Instead of talking about the numbers and ignoring the kids, try figuring out how to make the numbers work to support the kids. Can you hear

176me? Can you hear me? Okay. Good evening everyone. My name is Talia Bower. I'm the mother of two girls, one at Navis Elementary and one who is not yet in public school. I'm not here tonight to uh talk from the standpoint of a mother, but rather as a licensed professional counselor to advocate for the mental health of thousands of Middletown students. Last year, I spoke at many of these meetings about the impact of sudden school closures on children's mental health. I cited sources. I provided examples. I talked about the slew of issues that our schools are already facing that will now become amplified once we overcrowd the hallways. It's become very clear to me over this past year that only one side of the table listens and values what we have to say. So this

177year I decided to site some sources that the right side of the table may be familiar with. In 2023, this source was quoted as saying, "Putting children first isn't just a slogan. It is a mission to ensure that Middletown schools are delivering positive results for all of Middletown's children and families. In 2025, this same source wrote an op-ed piece where she stated, "Standing up for our families means teaching our children that values such as respect, responsibility, and courage matter even in the face of adversity. Whether we're advocating for our local schools, promoting family values, or defending our freedoms on a national stage, I hope we find it inside of ourselves to stand solidly for what is right, what is good for our families, our children, and our communities." End quote. I find it incredibly contradictory

178that these same sources can now sit at this table in front of hundreds of thousands without an ounce of that same respect, courage, or responsibility that you claim to preach to your own children. That being said, I would love to give you the opportunity to prove me wrong. I have formulated a list of questions that I would like to ask regarding the plan that was emailed to us yesterday. As a therapist that works with many of the students and families in our local community, I believe that the answers to these questions are critical. Question one, what specific therapeutic services are included in the social emotional support plan that you plan on implementing in just 7 days for the impacted schools and those students? Question two, what specific therapeutic services will be readily available to students

179next year as they are adjusting and acclimating to a new setting? I saw that you plan on providing one whole school psychologist to handle the influx of hundreds of students. Question three, the plan stated that the child study team members and related services, OT, PT, speech will be staffed based on the needs within students IEPs. How is that going to work seeing as students obtain IEPs, 504s, and tier intervention services intermittently throughout the year? Question four, how do you plan on presenting your redistricting maps to students? Do you plan on explicitly outlining how you are moving forward with plans that benefit certain sides of town while directly segregating students based on external factors such as socioeconomic stat? Thank you for your comment. >> Good evening. My name is Logan Best. Um, I just moved here

180and uh, I got to say I love this town. It's been a lot of fun. My wife and I asked why haven't we moved here? Why didn't we move here sooner? Um, you know, tonight might not be the best light for that, but uh let's uh we came here with an open mind. Um, we wanted to understand what was going on with the schools. I went to your website to find your strategic plan. There was no plan on your website. Um, so I went and dug into the data myself. Um, did anybody on this board realize that we're in the low lower cortile for budgetary cost in the state amongst our peers? We spend $18,000 per per pupil. That's we're we're we're very low in costs. I've heard tonight that we're spending outrageous amounts of

181money on students. But that's not true. Like the data shows that we are not egregiously spending. Um you know, the natural next question was maybe we're spending too much on buildings. Maybe that's why we want to close. Well, if you go and you actually look at our building spend, our building spend is in, I believe, the 30th percentile or uh I can get an exact number. I believe it's the 40th percentile for all of the state. So, where is the disconnect between the numbers you guys are citing and the numbers that are showing up in the state reports amongst all of our peer school districts? This doesn't make sense. this disconnect between we're spending too much money and and where we're showing up in the state data doesn't align. So another question I have is

182is what is this all over? So there was a there was a confrontation between uh Mr. Compon and Mrs. Dhy earlier about the budget deficit. Ladies and gentlemen, this is over $417,000. That's what the the the deficit is next year. You guys can't get your numbers straight. We can't even get them straight up here. How are we going to be able to be assured as a public that you guys are going to make the right decisions when you don't even know your numbers tonight on the budget you're voting? The fact is that every single one of you up here has a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers of this town. And what that means is that you have to manage the money well. Does anybody up here know what the inflation rate was last year or

183is projected to be next year? It is not 2% ladies and gentlemen. It is higher than that. Which means if you are not raising your path raising the the funding by more than 2%. You are systematically underfunding the schools. And right now, ladies and gentlemen, by not passing that 1% levy and potentially letting expire in the future, you are systematically under underfunding our schools. I moved to Middletown because we don't believe in things like defund the police. Why do we believe in things like defund education? Why are we voting SYSTEMS here all the stats? Hey guys, Daniel Juel Atlantic Islands. Uh, so just to do a little bit of a breakdown on how Logan arrived at that 0.2% $417,000 deficit. So we have $3.2 million, which is the projected uh deficit after we do the

1842% uh tax increase. Then using that number, it reduces to from 3.2 to 2.3 after the 890,000 in state aid. And then with the healthcare adjustment that we just approved, which is 1.9 million, then the gap reduces from 2.3 to $417,000, which is the 0.2% of the $200 million budget. Um, so I just wanted to do that little breakdown. And also one extra exclamation point which is Addison Elementary School is ranked by US News and World Report as the 13th best elementary school in the entire state. And that ranking again for any of our schools until number 237 I think. So just consider that when we're thinking of schools. Good evening everyone. Alice Rosansky, Middletown resident. Um, I'm speaking to you tonight about guarantees and accountability with school closures should this decision move forward. I

185have a lot of questions as well that have come from the group of parents and residents. So, we appreciate a response. Um, maybe not tonight. to send these um given that no one's saying anything. So, who will be held accountable if the transition is not successful in September? What metrics will you use immediately to determine if this roll out is failing students? How will you address unexpected costs that arise during rushed construction and reorganization? And most importantly, what guarantees can you provide families that students will not be placed in overcrowded or under unfinished schools? We've all heard from students and families attest to overcrowding at Thorn and Thompson when student enrollments exceeded 1,000. Closing schools will guarantee overcrowding with the district's new current capacity numbers. How will you ensure that no child is placed into

186a temporary or inadequate learning space? At the end of the day, this decision will be judged not by your projections or estimations, but by what students will walk into on their very first day of school in September. Thank you. Deon Rafferty Leonardo. This is what happens when you put an inexperienced corporate director in charge of the board in the finance committee. When you do budgeting, you do options, you do contingencies, you look at different variances. So, let me ask you this question, guys. How did you come up with Leonardo and Navis, Inc.? And what were the other alternatives that you looked at? If we have this $30 million deficit, which by the way, Capone, you're confusing a stock inflow. It's EC 101, buddy. Back to college. But anyway, make that happen. >> Anyway, >> it's

187not >> what you're doing is revealing that you were targeting schools. You were not actually looking at fiscal fiduciary responsibilities. So, let me ask you this, Miss Darden. Were there any other combinations of schools school closures that were examined? >> The question should be directed to me as chair and this is public comments. It's not public question. Were there any other combination of school closures that were looked at? It's public comment. Thank you for taking the fifth. Although that's not legal, Mr. RS of course. >> Who was instructed to look at only Leonardo and Navy Singh? What were you doing? dusting off the old album. Okay. So, I think what we've established so far this evening is that we're not very good at basic economics. We don't know how to budget. We also have a

188dumpster fire of a budget that is going to overcrowd our schools, absolutely incur additional costs, wind us up in court, has no strategic plan, and then will also lead to additional school closures, which is in the document that Dr. Alone sent out yesterday. >> It says, I know it says we're considering how we're going to limit our footprint. it means you're seriously considering it. And with these structural deficits we have in place, I fail to wonder where that's going to go. The only other problem I guess I see is this is a budget that's prepared not knowing how many schools it's actually supposed to support. You see, the resolution that this board passed closes two schools. Dr. Alone sent out a communication saying that we're closing three schools. Specifically, she wrote closing Beayhore, which of

189course was not in that resolution. Mr. Burns, good luck with that one. But basically, you have a tentative proposed budget that doesn't know how many schools you're actually supposed to be paying for. That's what happens when an inexperienced graduate gets put in charge of finance and the board. Thank you for your time, everyone. Uh Emily Stenson, Leonardo. Um I'm a teacher in a neighboring district, so I'm trying to speak off of staff uh readiness when the school opens. So if this plan does go forward, teachers and staff will be expected to adapt almost instantly. Um, so how will teachers be able to prepare for new grade levels, new classrooms, new students in such a short time frame without putting substitutes in their class to learn these things? What training will take place over the summer

190that they will get paid for to ensure that they are ready by September? Um, how can you prevent chaos in September when both the staff and the students are adjusting at the same time? A smooth school opening depends on preparation. And right now that preparation window is extremely limited. Our staff members being compensated for packing and unpacking, moving. Elementary teachers have more than just a few boxes. I teach kindergarten. I know I don't want a substitute teacher coming into my room while I pack up. It takes a long time to plan for 25 students in a class so that they're doing things while the teacher is packing up their classroom and they have to see that. They don't want to see that. How much paid time will they have to set up their new classrooms?

191They should be getting paid for these things. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Christy Montgomery. First, um apologize for approaching the stage. I have uh very little patience when adults act like children and set bad examples in front of children when you're supposed to be representing children. So, I I apologize for that and I thank you for letting me stay here tonight. This whole thing has unleashed a little bit of childhood trauma that that I'm realizing now. So, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. I'm third generation Middletown resident. I went to Navy school, be sure elementary and uh Middletown South. When my mother finally worked up the the the courage and the selfworth to leave my abusive father and uh work for the first time after she was told that

192she cannot continue her education after her associates at FIT, she started working. She had to work three jobs. Okay. in high school. Not a lot of people don't know this about me. I'm a pretty private person. I'm not on social media. I have the same four friends since kindergarten. Many of them are here tonight. I delivered newspapers with my mother before high school so that my mother could keep our house to keep us in middle town schools. Do you understand what you were what you were doing? My children, my son who's in sixth grade was in kinderg kindergarten when co hit. Do you understand the trauma that these children have? The fear that you put in them last year with this threat of school closures and the again these eggshells and I sorry miss tobacco

193I'm not just a mother. Yes, I did make sew a time. Hello. I did sew a uh Statue of Liberty dress out of a bed sheet for my daughter for a school project. But in my professional life, my last position, I worked on risk control for all of Bite Dance's non-China business. Bite Dance is the owner of Tik Tok. We do projects like project Texas where we move all of the data from China to the US so that massive companies can stay alive. I have had to travel to Dubai to Singapore to all over the world. I got a B blood clot and a pulmonary embolism from being on too many long international flights. I have put people in line and h had big egotistical people make hard decisions. You guys are big fish in

194very small ponds. And I'm telling you, my rage and the parents here, we are not going to let these schools close. You best be talking to Mayor Perry and get that land deal back on the table. And that is going to be the stop gap measure for this budget problem that generations of these inefficient boards have gotten us into. Not the closure of three schools. >> Hi, good evening members of the board. I'm Sue Henderson. I'm a Middletown resident for 30 years. My two daughters went through the Middletown school system. Um I I was PTA president, treasurer Thompson. Um I sat on the strategic what was done with the strategic planning board most recently. Um I did two years on the parent information committee. So I've seen a lot of discussions about what brings a

195good education. Um and on that note, young families move to Middletown for one reason above all others. It's our schools. It's what my husband and I did three decades ago. Our neighborhood schools are the backbone of this town. They're the reason people buy homes. It's the reason that people put um roots here. It's the reason that people invest in this community. That is not a sentimental, you know, idea. It's economic reality. When you close schools, when you overcrowd schools, when you place young elementary students into a facility that was not built for them, you were telling young families to look elsewhere. And we on this side of the table know what happens next. When educational quality declines, property values decline. When property values drop, town revenue drops. And when town revenue drops, community services and

196future school funding drive right along with it. You're not solving a budget problem now. just pushing the budget problem to the next generation. I'm a consultant and a project manager by trade. This audience has done a better job of risk assessment than you all have done. Your project management skills are, let's put it nicely, they're not up to par. Do you have a certified manager, a project manager assisting with this? Because you should. You're compromising the quality of education. And what about your fiduciary duty to this entire town? Not just the budget line, but to the people whose tax dollars fund it. You owe us full transparency, not just selected slides that you choose to show to us. We expect a clear financial analysis. What's it going to cost to retrofit Beayshore, transport additional students,

197and handle overcrowding? Those studies haven't been done. Yes, you put out a wonderful uh beautiful color five-page document and it did have a lot of you know, okay, this is what we like to do. Well, I can build a cast say I want to build a castle, but I'm not going to do it if I don't have the money in the footprint. You've not we've not seen responsible financial planning. What we've seen is a $3.2 million deficit, which sounds like it could be if you know that's all right. We're just simply being asked to trust it. But that deficit is less than half of 1% of a $200 million budget. It's unreasonable to use such a small percentage to justify dismantling schools without first showing us the cost of doing so. And this is just

198one year after we did a 10.1 tax levy. Finally, I want to say we need to show some respect. And yes, you can say that I'm, you know, old generation or whatnot, but I was appalled at what what went on today. I was absolutely appalled that you all could treat each other the way you did. In our um public policy or public comment, um no participant can speak more than once until all others who wish to speak have been heard. So if there was something you wanted to say, you could get to the back of the line. Um my name is Penny Roelle. Um I have two kids in the district and um they're actually fifth generation of my family to go to Middletown schools. Um, and I just really want to start very quick

199to revisit the fact that um, the tech thing, I really think we have to consider this. When I look at the numbers, it actually leads to a potential solution to a long-term budget problem. Um, the cost of keeping a computer in front of every kid are expected to double by 2030. And all of the new studies confirm that it's not really in the best interest of education. So, I really feel like we need to look at that closely since we have such a big bud budget issue. Um, and I also started a petition on change.org um, under Middletown Tech and Save Our Students um, and made a QR code that I don't know exactly what how people will get to that, but that I also have. Um, but the main thing I wanted to get

200across is that I wanted to make sure you all knew that a year ago I actually was open to the idea of school closures. I'm a practical person. I own a business and I assumed that there were lots of good analytics and data to support this decision. Um, I couldn't find all of the data in the analytics. I couldn't find the studies that had been done. Um I waited patiently and went to actually every board meeting and I even went to town council meetings. I was listening and um watching um to see where the plan was and I don't know if you think that tonight's meeting gave me any peace of mind, but I can tell you it did not. Um closing schools to reduce operational costs. I understand where you're coming from and wanting

201to do this, but this often backfires. The math is not simple. um especially when you're dealing with a complex system. Um we have historical precedent in this country that school closures have led to declining achievement, increased behavioral issues, disinvestment in neighborhood value. You've heard all these things, but reduced property values. Um overcrowding and sometimes unexpectedly negligible financial gains. Um there are legitimate unanswered questions here, a rush timeline and a very small budget deficit. Um there have been so many the conflicted hab report um the division amongst you all um Dr. Alone stepping down in the middle of this it all leads to a really horrible feeling I have and I was a person that was open to it. So I just want you to know that's what this process has done to me. If we

202have to close schools I believe that we need a thorough independent analysis without evidence of meddling and we need an extended and carefully considered time timeline. I'm a veterinarian and I have to take an oath. The most important part of the oath is first do no harm. Even if a decision may have long-term benefits, the first obligation is to do no immediate harm. I don't know if you all had to take an oath, but I would hope you do. You did because you're dealing with our children's lives and you're dealing with the health and wellbeing of the town. If you cannot guarantee a successful outcome by September, don't dismantle the functional system we have in favor of a system that might harm our children in town. that you cannot guarantee a safe successful outcome by

203September. You have to vote the budget down. Please, above all, I beg you do no harm first and foremost. Thank you. Kristen Coons, Middletown. Um I am one of those families that moved here, bought property for the schools. Um little buyers remorse right now. Um, Chris, you just came off the zoning board. You are now president of the board of education. You guys bulldozed school closures back into this budget. Closures that turn public schools into valuable pieces of land. And let's not pretend that we don't know what happens next. That land doesn't sit empty. It gets redeveloped, repurposed. And the rules for that redevelopment, what gets built, how dense it is, how valuable it becomes, all run through the zoning board. That the same system you Chris were just part of. At the same time,

204your campaign has received donations from businesses and individuals to connected to development interests. So from the public's perspective, this is a pipeline of influence. Close the schools, free up the land, and then shape what happens to it. That's exactly how this looks. Public trust is not built on blank spreadsheets, no plans, a wavering $3 million debt. We have let we have yet to see the line by line itemized spreadsheet of this proof. Proof. It's built on what your actions look like to the people you serve. Students, parents, taxpayers. I remember seeing those those taglines. This board is saturated in conflicts of interest. And your actions are violating your own code of ethics. And when that happens, you don't just push forward decisions that reshape public education. What you do is you step back. Now look,

205I am not the first person to ask this and I won't be the last and there's lots of things I can come up here and comment on. But what I want to ask you, Chris, and I know I'm going to get, oh, this is public comment. Will you recuse yourself from any and all decisions related to school closures and the future use of those properties? Yes or no? Can you repeat that question? >> Yeah, sure. >> I want to make sure I hear it correctly. >> Okay. Will you recuse yourself from any and all decisions related to school closures and the future use of those properties? Yes or no? >> I can't I can't make a determination on that because there's nothing that's before the board right now that I need to decide. And if

206there's a conflict, yes. But that would be determined with the advice of the attorney. >> Okay. So, right, conflicts of interest. So, my I mean I think what all of us see here is there's valuable land. There's a stream of influence. There's people that are benefiting monetarily by money. I don't think this is about kids. Let's talk about the bonus of kids. Oh, the No, you guys basically roll your eyes when the kids get up here and speak. Um, Bill Dow. Um, I live in Leonardo. I have a first grader at Leonardo and I have an incoming kindergartenner and I also have a 2-year-old to Middletown Middletown schools in the future. Um, I'm looking at this from a parent perspective, a taxpayer perspective, a stakeholder perspective because that's what we all are here. We are

207all stakeholders in the community. Whether we're parents, whether we have no kids in the district, everyone has a part, everyone has a say in what happens and everyone wants to have strong public schools. All right. Um, now I have concerns about how the district will remain compliant with um regards to IEPs and 504s and how not remaining compliant opens the district up to potential lawsuits for failure to meet those modifications, which is the number one thing school districts get sued for. Um, not to mention that legal compliance just doesn't mean effective. It doesn't mean excellent. It means the bare minimum required by law, which is really is that what the message we want to be putting out? We're seeking to do the bare minimum. And as I said last year when I spoke, just because

208a class can be 12:1 or 16 to1 for student teacher ratio doesn't mean that it should be. It doesn't mean that it benefits all the learners in the classroom. And the Beayshore building was not meant for elementary students, especially for our youngest learners. So, the students that I'm seeing most impacted here are our special needs students and then our youngest students, the ones that we should be supporting the most. And as a parent of an inco incoming kindergartener, I have concerns about his safety and all the students that will attend the proposed Beayshore Elementary. The school is not meant to fit their needs and the potential renovations needed will add to the district budget when the district is saying we need budget relief. Not to mention to repurpose areas to fit with the district's special

209needs classes as they will be housed at the Beayshore Middle School. According to the district's plan, recess time is critical for elementary students due to the health benefits and social and emotional development. And now the Leonardo playground is meant to s double the students that it currently does because they'll have the native students there as well. are additions to the and the movement of this playground going to occur because that works so well with the Port Mammoth closure and the new Mammoth transition and that was six years ago. Now I pass by that and I see that playground all the time too. So we are not here to just protect these schools. We are here to protect all the students of Middletown as these closures will affect all of them and the integrity of the

210district. Whether that's Leonardo, Davidson, Beayshore, River Plaza, Linkraftoft, Nutswamp, Thompson, Thor, the high schools, it does not matter. This is Middletown united. In a time of political division, all parents and community members can agree on certain things. And three things they can all agree on is they want public schools that are safe, ones that challenge their child academically, and allow them the opportunity to grow socially and personally. So, please put our children first. Hi, I'm John Converse. Uh, I was going to get up tonight and talk about lobbying and campaign finance. Um, which is just ridiculous at the board of ed level. What are you doing with $35,000? Um, instead it it's too late for that. We have three days to submit a budget to the state. It's a 227th, right? So, I sat down

211here tonight and I saw Miss Thory put together uh and present a very nice uh budget. There's some details in there. Um, nice graphs, clip art. The high school needs eight grand for uh wrestling mats. Uh, so she can do this. Uh, like Dr. Alon said, it's just a few clicks in a budget program. All you have to do is slap a bandit on this. Uh, Mr. Aida, you talked about avoiding extreme measures. What extreme measures are we trying to avoid? We're diving right into the extreme measures. Just slap the band-aid on the budget and let's do it again next year if we have to. Year after year, that's all we got to do. Just a little bit. Thank you. Hi, I'm Diana Paradis. I probably don't need the mic, but I'll use it anyway.

212Um, so I'm Diana Harris. I'm a Middletown resident, and I was going to ask a different set of questions, but then I saw this thing you printed out on Canva. And I started wondering, are we a sports facility or are we a school? Because we're spending how much money on new billboards, scoreboards. And then I started thinking, Alliance Orthopedics is the sponsor of that, right? And I'm sure we have a contractual obligation with the sponsor of the scoreboards to maintain the scoreboards in good condition. And so we have to spend the money contractually. I think I mentioned at the last meeting, I was in fundraising for 20 years. You would not write a contract that does not allow for your investment to be protected. What that means in practice is Chris and Sarah's campaign donors

213get their sign in nice working order and your kids get to use a stool in the crapper if they don't use the one that's in the band room because the band room at Thorn Newman. I guess when they did the transition they forgot that crapper. So it's in the middle of the band room and unless they're playing Sky, it's probably not useful. But Sarah's school's not closing and her donor is happy. She won't say anything that she never does. Um, and also Chris's campaign donor is happy. Uh, as I'm sure all of his other donors will be happy when we had to tear down these schools and build mega schools cuz who doesn't want their child attending mega school? It's awesome. Thank Uh, good evening. Um, my name is Jason Gzik from Middletown. I'm a

21440-year resident here. >> I have a first grader in Harmony. Um, I met my wife at High School North. Uh, so Middletown is, uh, pretty important to me. Um, I'd like to ask the board to walk the community through the assumptions underlying the projected 3 6 10 13 million deficit that has been cited repeatedly both in public sessions and across social media. Uh, specifically I have three questions. First, does the projection account for any alternative or supplementary revenue streams, grants, shared services, facility rentals, or other sources? Or does it assume the flat revenue and no proactive intervention over the three-year window? Second, the district has identified salary increases and rising health insurance premiums as primary cost drivers that outpace the 2% tax money cap. If the district has enough fiscal visibility to project the deficit

2153 years out with that level of specity, what is preventing the administration from taking earlier proactive steps to offset these known costs? And third, and I want to ask this respectfully, if the district is not utilizing the available 1.07 07 tax levy increase, which is roughly $1.9 million under state law. Is it accurate to characterize this as a structural deficit or is it at least in part a product of revenue decisions within the board's control? My fourth point is not a question. It's just a statement of serious concern. I recently went to the board of education website to review the budget proposal that had been publicly released and I was unable to locate it. It no longer appears to be available. I don't know if this was done accidentally or was just taken down for

216revisal and never put back up, but not being able to look up information that this board is presenting us is very frustrating at best. The community deserves a clear, transparent accounting of those assumptions so we can have an informed conversation about real solutions. Thank you. >> Hi, Heather Coberg Middletown. So, I have stood up here before and I say the same message every time and I just can't help myself from saying it again. I said it last year. I've said it earlier this year. The kids that face your matter. They're children. Okay? Stop saying they've been collateral damaged from day one here in this whole thing. These are kids that are having their whole world ripped away from them. Their school is closing. You stood up there getting upset when we said three schools are

217closing. Yes, they are. Be sure Middle School is closing as a school, right? >> Okay. Have some respect. Have some respect for what these children are going through. Maybe have some respect for the speakers. Make eye contact. >> I can't. Jesus Christ. >> All right. And then let's talk about I heard tonight. Why not saying we planning to pack up classes in April? >> What are we doing? Stop. Okay, it's bad enough this resolution was passed. It It was voted. I get it. Why are we doing this? You're just making it worse. Everything worse for these kids. You wanted this plan to happen ASAP. It's your problem to deal with. Okay, take the summer. Get it done. Like I said to my kids, your lack of plan does not make an emergency on my part.

218Don't Don't make this emotionally worse for my kids. Stay out of their school. Okay? When my kids are in the classroom, I don't need the superintendent coming around poking their head in there in the middle of THE LESSON GOING, "OH, WOULDN'T THIS MAKE A GREAT kindergarten sensory room?" >> Stop. These are children. This information hadn't even been disseminated to some children yet. >> There's no reason that should have happened. >> You do this after school. You do it on YOUR OWN TIME. YOU DON'T MESS WITH my kids. >> All right. And don't don't send the principles into schools with more confusing messages until the state weighs in. Until this is final. >> Okay? Wait till it's final. Keep the kids out of it for as long as possible. All right? Until we know it's final.

219They don't need these messages. I refuse to let my kids be psychologically harmed any further by you. YES. >> Hi everyone. Courtney Ferilla, Middletown resident. Um, I heard fiduciary responsibility. I heard requests for a plan. Line by line item. This is a district with an almost $200 million operating budget. This was a real business. No CEO, no CFO. No board of adviserss would approve long-term structural changes without knowing a clear multi-year financial model and quantify return on that decision. What has been presented is a one-year budget that's being used to justify long-term permanent changes. I have repeatedly emailed the board asking for a 5-year model that shows how closures stop the deficit, how long those savings last, and what happens when costs continue to rise. We had other commentary about, you know, inflationary environment that

220we're on. Um, we didn't decide to use that healthcare adjustment until just now, like what is going on? Where is the long-term plan that the community deserves, the transparency that they deserve, and questions we've been asking for over a year. My last point, what is going on with the debt capacity? By 2029, we know the district will have meaningful debt capacity available. You touched on it tonight, but I want clear answers. What is that borrowing capacity going to be used for? What capital projects at what schools? What schools will be available for capital projects? Right now, it appears we're closing schools today, planning for capital projects tomorrow, but we deserve transparency, communication, and an idea of what's coming down the line. Thank you. THANK YOU. Anthony Sataro. I'm a Middletown resident. Um my son is

221at New Mammoth. I have two daughters that will be. Our youngest is 18 months. I'm hoping that by the time she's in kindergarten, we have a playground at New Mammoth because my son's been there since kindergarten and we still don't have one. And I can't tell you how many fundraisers our PTA does, but it's a lot. Um, I also want to talk as a real estate agent. I'm a real estate agent and historian in the area. My family settled in this area in the 1880s. Uh, Middletown has always had a reputation as a strong community with a great school system. I can tell you firsthand that over the last year, the uncertainty that has been created in our town has had a real impact on people's decisions on the largest purchase for many people. Some

222of my clients are here tonight. Logan, who spoke earlier, he's very good at math. You should listen to him. Um, people that made specific decisions just a few years ago so that they could be in walking distance to bring their kids to school now are having that ripped away from them and they spent a lot of money and a lot of thought into purchasing uh those homes board. I do realize that there is a larger epidemic that is happening defunding our suburban towns by the state and Vin Goal is pushing consolidation on everybody. So I do not believe that this is the end. I believe this is only the beginning of school closings, not just here, but throughout the state. However, it's not solely about the school closings. And this seems to be the disconnect

223that the board is not really understanding here. It's about the dysfunction that's on display in front of the public and the trust or distrust on what will be done next as there seems to be no tangible plan. So when people ask me and I'm out looking at homes and they ask me, "So what school do they go to here? How is the school system?" That conversation, I send them everything and they get to figure it out themselves. And as Logan suggested, you go and you look through and you can't really find the data or the information that you're looking for. Now, the board is supposed to take the recommendation of the superintendent and she didn't give one. So clearly an agenda is being pushed through. Now Dr. Alone, you may know my father, Dr. Bill

224Sataro. He was a long time Mammoth County Superintendent. So I grew up at the dinner table hearing all of this stuff. And I'm not sure that everyone here really understood your statement, but I heard you and I hear you. And I think that this board needs to all look around and really hear what she's saying, too. and reflect on the environment that you have created here for our community. >> Hope thank YOU McGee Middletown resident. If this plan goes forward, beayhore students will be forced to change schools in the middle of their middle school experience. How do you justify disrupting students at such a critical stage? What specific support will be provided to students who are losing their their school community midstream? How will you address the academic disruption for students who are already halfway

225through their middle school years? How will you ensure continuity in curriculum, teachers and peer groups? And what data do you have that shows that midcareer school transitions do not negatively sorry impact students? This is not just a logistical shift. It is a direct disruption to students academic and social stability. I'll email these questions as you're not answering this evening. THANK YOU. HELLO, MY NAME IS JENNIFER GLEY. I'm from Middletown. On March 4th, I emailed all members of the administration and the board of education present here today. In that communication, I raised questions regarding my son's IEP and formally requested additional IEP meetings to take place between March 4th and the start of the new school year. Dr. phone. You responded that same day indicating you were unable to address my concerns due to ongoing litigation.

226However, you advised me to contact the Middletown director of special education. I did so promptly. She replied, "The district makes every effort to accommodate students with IEPs. However, her response did not address questions, nor do it did it facilitate the requested supplemental IEP meetings. Yesterday, I received an email from the child's study team requesting to schedule my son's annual IEP at the end of April. I responded by noting that I had previously contacted administration and the board 3 weeks prior with questions and a request for additional meetings. I inquired whether that information had been shared with her. She was not aware of my prior communication to either this group or the director of special education. I was further advised that a supervisor would attend the late April meeting in hopes that he might be able

227to answer some of my questions. At this point, four levels of administration have not provided answers to my questions, nor has anyone scheduled the supplemental IEP meeting, despite these being fundamental components of the IEP process and their legal requirements. How many administrators does it take to schedule a meeting for one of our IEP children? I would like to acknowledge that three members of this board did respond to my outreach, offering guidance and attempting to escalate my concerns. I appreciate those efforts. However, it remains unacceptable that after 3 weeks of continued followup, no supplemental meeting has been scheduled. My son's IEP is not complex. It's relatively easy. If the district is unable to provide any clarity on his IEP or to meet the very basic obligation of scheduling a requested meeting, it raises serious concerns about

228the district's readiness to effectively implement all IEPs by September 1st. This calls into question how families across the district can have confidence that all IEP and general education requirements will be met. My husband and I are fortunate to have the time and resources to persist through repeated emails, calls, follow-up, and legal consultations, and inerson attendance together tonight. Many families do not have this capacity. They rely entirely on all of you and the administration to attack to act in their children's best interest, and to ensure that all requirements are filled. Unfortunately, my experience over the past three weeks, that trust has not been upheld. This district has not provided sufficient communication, coordination, or responsiveness. So, I leave you with this question. When will you be contacting every IEP family that will be impacted about the changes

229and updates that their students will require? Josh Grley, Middletown. Beyond the financial rationale, a widely recognized requirement of any successful school consolidation is cultural integration. Actively working to blend school cultures to ensure respectful and productive mergers of all affected school communities. Best practice calls for the creation of a new shared brand, new colors, new mascots to represent the newly formed community that this board is insistent on reimagining. Based on the board's letter, planning documents, and tenative budget, this critical requirement has not been addressed. There is no updated budget line for rebranding signage, uniforms, or for any of the affected schools, Thompson, Thor, and Beayshore. We are truly consolidating that cultural integration demands that all schools undergo rebranding. The genuine merger does not leave one school's identity intact while expecting others to simply absorb into it.

230Every school's colored mascot signed uniforms need to be reimagined. Now, if the idea of rebranding every affected school strikes you as absurd, too costly, too inconvenient, too disruptive to the students and families who already settled, then I respectfully ask this board to pause and reflect on the profound hypocrisy and inconsistency of this plan because that is precisely what you're asking of more than 500 students. You're asking them to give up their school identity, their neighborhood community, their relationship with their teachers, their principal, secretary, their nurse, security guard, and many more. You're asking middle school students to leave behind the friendships they've only begun to build. A school consolidation is not a corporate buyout. You are not acquiring these communities. These students should not be expected to simply conform and assimilate into structures that already exist.

231The burden of institutional decisions, financial or otherwise, should never fall disproportionately on a subset of students. It must be shared equitably across the entire community. If the board is determined to require students to form new communities, then the entire district must equally be committed to building something new together. It is not the responsibility of 500 children to absorb the full weight of transition while everything remains unchanged for others. You know, there's a saying that when your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't haggle over the price of the garden hose. Well, our house is on fire and you can't be bothered to lend us any freaking. Have a good night. I guess I'm holding um Ver Piki Middletown. Um my phone was blowing up as you guys very quickly increased our tax basis again. Um,

232I know it's just another 1%, but I think there are people out there that are still upset about the 10. And that 10 is embedded. It doesn't go away. We keep building and building that tax base. I'm particularly a little bit upset about the increase, not because of the monetary, and I'm happy to chip in, but I'm a little disappointed in the shared services conversation. I think we could have a much more robust conversation with the township. I would particularly want you to address and I don't have the numbers with me but it has been very clear over the years that the board of ed is getting a smaller and smaller cut of the pie. You can see those percentages going down. They might be just a tenth of a point this year, another tenth

233of a point. But when you multiply that by the huge tax base, the the board of education is losing a great amount of money and that's due to the pilot projects that the taxes are bypassing the board and we are educating those students who are building who are living in those homes. And I would just ask similar to what Homedale did, maybe the town covers that curb in harmony. Maybe there are structural things that they can do for traffic or other things or parking lots because those projects are in increasing the volume through our schools. So, I'm just a little disappointed on the shared services conversation and I would hope that we would look to that before we continue to tax our residents. Thank you, >> Eric Dowinc. Um, this idea was not initially mine.

234It came from a local elected official, but I think it's a great idea. Uh we've heard a lot of data tonight. We've heard a lot of very good points coming from the heart. Uh but I'd like to extend an an invitation. It's to the superintendent, to Mrs. Doherty, uh to board members likely in small groups so we could avoid sunshine law uh and to a small group of community members uh to work through these issues in one meeting or a group of meetings soon. Uh, as you can see, this community has a deep understanding at this point of the budget, the payroll, bill pay, and the footprint. And the purpose of these meetings would be to discuss potential alternatives for options to square this year's budget. We could discuss additional reductions in administration. There are

235three right now. To be clear, they're not central administration. there are three well-liked school principles who have the misfortune of not having tenure. We could certainly cut more in admin. Uh we could discuss how many retired teaching roles to backfill because each position we don't backfill is worth somewhere around $85,000. Our jobs just got a lot easier because it appears we're going to take advantage of the health insurance waiver that raises almost $1.9 million. What's left to balance this budget is somewhere between$1 and $1.5 million. That is not much. That is, you know, with an expected 30 to 35 teacher retirements, it's potentially, you know, not rehiring half of that number. Or just sell some of your land. There's no longer any impediment to doing so. You have approval and you have appraisals. And I'm

236fairly certain that the township would be quite interested in revisiting those conversations. We'll follow up with this invitation by email tomorrow and we sincerely hope you accept it. If you don't, it will confirm a few things. It will confirm that this isn't about responsible budgeting. Uh that it's not about fidelity to taxpayers, that it's not about long-term stewardship of this district. I'd be interested in learning more about this supposed $30 million uh shortfall that we're going to have in 5 years. If that's the case, we need to do a lot of planning and closing three schools this year to potentially save a few million bucks, that's not going to get us there. So, how are we going to get the other 28 in 5 years time? The community deserves those conversations in that plan. A

237failure to take up this conversation to invite in a consideration of alternatives will confirm what this vote to close schools was really about. It was about a desire to close three schools. Period. And there is no intellectually or morally defensible reason for voting to close three schools. Period. Thank you. Hi refere from Leonardo. So if this plan goes forward, Beayshore Middle School must fully uh be transformed into an elementary school in a matter of months. I want to walk through that what that actually means based on the district's own documents. The district's facilities assessment estimated their own assessment estimated about 2.5 million for bathroom renovations alone for Beij. Tonight's budget contains zero dollars for that. Yesterday's consolidation communication reveals the actual plan. The district will apply for a bathroom waiver from the NJ DOE and

238install one smaller toilet in each nearby bathroom. This is not a renovation. This is a request for permission to not renovate. We're placing five-year-olds in a building designed for 11 to 14 year olds and asking the state to wave the requirements to make it appropriate for them. Tonight's budget shows 605,000 in capital projects and 586,000 in equipment. Not a single line item mentions beayhore. The consolidation timeline lists beayhore projects in July and August as if needed. We're not converting an entire building for a different age group. How is any of this if needed? The communication says playground equipment is still being investigated. Let's go ask mommouth how that's going for them. Have you investigated the distance of your closest restroom facilities to the playground? I have. Um I scaled the plans and it looks like

239from various points across the playground equipment now we're over 500 ft. New Jersey administrative codes do not specify a fixed distance such as feet uh specifically between a school playground and a restroom. Instead, they require restrooms be available within a reasonable distance and located on an accessible route. Typical building codes require employees be no more than 500 ft to a restroom and elementary students should never be more than 200 ft from a restroom. So, I don't think that it is a reasonable distance to the playground from there. So, now that's another cost. Are you going to build a bathroom? Are you going to put in a porta potty? That's going to cost money. It's just a cost that you're not talking about. And the accessible route, while the sidewalk, it looks like I measured that

240too, looks like it's all ADA compliant, but the slope, there is that portion where the sidewalk drops off onto the parking lot. The curve there is not ADA compliant. It's not flush. over 2 in and then you get to the uh asphalt that goes up to the playground and that is above a 5% slope. This means you are either putting in handrails for that position or you're spending money to now smooth it out. These are things we can do but these are things that nobody are talking about. So let's talk about all the risk associated with these changes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Melissa Doss. I'm a parent of three sons, one in elementary, middle, and high school. I am here tonight not just as a parent, but as a voice of concern

241for the teachers of Middletown. Many are not standing up here at this microphone because they fear retaliation from this board, which is a sad reality our teachers deal with. But their silence is not consent. I am here sharing today their reality. Our teachers found out that their schools were closing at the February board meeting at the exact same time as the general public. There was no heads up. There was no consultation on how to make this transition smooth for the children. Instead, they open their classroom doors on Friday morning after little sleep to students who are terrified of losing their schools. The teachers received absolutely no guidance from anyone at that table on what to tell them for the second year in a row. By the way, not one ounce of counseling or support has

242been offered for the staff. They are expected to just keep teaching to help the kids cope and to reassure panicked parents all while they're completely in the dark themselves. This pattern continues to this very day. One day they're told their roles are safe, the next day they're told they are in jeopardy. The district recently sent a survey to teachers asking about placement preferences, but only to Bayore teachers. Why are other teachers being left out of when everyone's placement is up in the air, especially non-tenure teachers, vice principles, and principles across the district? The communication given to our teachers and staff is a disaster. Just yesterday, weeks after the vote, the district finally sent out a guidance document. Our teachers received it at the same time yet again as the public. They were caught off guard

243and what they were given about their soontobe reality was full of vague plans, unknown costs, and if needed projects. It admits that a social emotional support plan won't even be initiated until April, weeks after our teachers already had to comfort crying children on their own. The lack of consistent information is beyond unacceptable. This picture unpainting of secrets, lies, half-truths, rumors, and manipulation would almost be comical if it wasn't real life for our teachers. At Nita, the teachers built a culture so exceptional that Rucker University highlighted them as a promising practices school and were rated number 13 in New Jersey public elementary schools. Yet, instead of celebrating that and using it as a model for our district, we are closing the school. Make that make sense. And since all of this began, not a single administrator

244or board member who voted for this closure has even bothered to visit to check any of our most impacted teachers. At River Plaza, Bay View, Fairview, Ocean, our teachers continue to read small print on every presentation that says, "We don't know exact details, but we have to explore future consid consolidation at some point." They're also being left in the dark. None of this should be a secret to the very people who are the heart and souls of our schools. I'm run out of time, but our children, their students deserve better, and this community is calling your behavior for what it is, discuss it. Melissa Grandal, Dr. Alone, I'm not sure if you remember me, but at the last superintendent council, you stayed after me, uh, signed after with me, and we discussed my backstory of

245moving here from Edison, an overcrowded school district. I asked you flat out if school closings would be considered this year. And while you didn't directly answer my question, you did have me leaving the meeting feeling like if school closures were to happen, it would come with a wellthoughtout plan and not something made out of crisis. This may not be popular opinion, but I do think you care about the kids in this town. And I do not believe your retirement was ultimately your choice. I have sent emails, but they go without response or with the legal disclaimer that you can't respond. So, I'm sorry to call you out like this. You stated before that you were going to read a statement. Then you said you were going to follow it up with a personal statement. So,

246if only the second part of your speech was personal, who wrote the first part for you to read tonight? Who is ultimately driving this bus? Thank you. Good evening. It's still evening. It's not morning yet. >> Not yet. >> We're close. >> Scott McFersonson, Middletown resident. So, look, I appreciate uh the discussion that was held earlier and the discussion about the healthcare credit, the 1.07, and the uh vote and approval of using that. It shows what can happen when the board actually does communicate and talk. Now, my daughter, seventh grader at Be Church, she said to me in the past, she said, "The nine members of the board, don't they aren't they friendly? Don't they get along? Don't they chat outside about their kids, about other things?" And I had to tell her, "No." In

247fact that it's surprising that that's what occurs and what happens because you would think that there would be discussion even if it's not necessarily about schoolboard things because that would violate certain laws but you would think you would have appreciation for each other and it just doesn't seem that that occurs. The theme tonight has been the lack of a plan in implementing these school closures and the plan that or is being implemented. It's being done on the fly. I think Dr. Alone, I think you would agree with that because there's really no other way to do it. You have to be doing it on the fly because this just happened in February. And Dr. Alone, I understand that you're leaving at the end of June. I wish you well, but you're not going to be

248here to see this plan through. You're not going to be here to see these kids in September when they're going to different schools. I would hope that we have a new superintendent at that point. So, I've been looking at school closures and you can decide to have a motion to delay implementation of this until 2728 to give yourselves real time to come up with and implement the plan. I was just looking at a resolution from Evesham back in 2016 and they didn't eventually it got approved but it wasn't going to take place until the 2017 2018 uh school year and that is a real option that's available to this board. There's a lifeline there for you. It would be appreciative if even if you don't take it at least have a discussion about it and

249let us know why you're not taking it. But there's a real lifeline that's available to you to delay implementation of this. And and I understand the five that voted for it and that's your feeling and that's the way it is. But you can delay implementation so you come up with a real plan, a plan that actually helps and supports our children, helps and supports your staff, your teachers, and everyone else who would be affected by this. And I hope you do that. Thank you. HELLO AGAIN, UH, DANIEL JUUL, Atlantic Highlands. I just wanted to put a little bit more emphasis on the point I made earlier where, um, we had $417,000 deficit, which I walked through in a simple manner of how we get to that point and put some emphasis on a solution for

250that deficit that does not involve raising taxes. Um, and that's the class three officer costs. When you compare the $1.5 billion that that cost us as a district to the $417,000 deficit, I mean, it seems to me a simple argument that school security is fundamentally about policing, not education. So, if retired officers are providing that security, that is essentially an extension of law enforcement. And if security is a town police service, the town should pay for at least some of it, perhaps roughly a third to a fourth of it, uh rather than pushing it onto the school budget. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. >> Hi everyone. My name is Katie Little. I live here in Middletown. I have a kindergartener in the district. I also have a three-year-old son. Um, it's 11:53

251p.m. Um, I purposefully I was sitting and listening. I didn't come here, excuse me, prepared with comments tonight, but as I was listening, um, I had the thought that public input is mandated for these meetings for a reason. Because the board is supposed to value what the public is, the input that the public is giving before you make your decision. And I mentioned it's 11:53 p.m. This meeting started at 7:30 p.m. And so far, not one single person from the public has come up to the microphone and said that they are advocating for school closures. And at the meeting in February that was a 6-hour meeting that went well into the early hours of the morning, 1:00 a.m. or so, 2:00 a.m. Again, we can go back and look at the tape, but not one

252member of the public in that 6-hour meeting came up to this microphone, not one member, and said, "I really feel strongly that this is what I want as a taxpayer." So please consider that input because we are everyone in this room. We are the members of the public that feel the strongest. That's why we're here speaking. Anyone from the public is welcome to be here >> and speak for what they for the direction that they want you to drive our district and the direction that they want you to use our tax dollars. So, this is the public's input. Please don't ignore it. Please take it seriously. I'm a NICU nurse. I'm a fierce child advocate. It's what I've been doing professionally for the last 8 years. Um, and so I'm trying to put what I've

253seen tonight into terms that I can understand. Um, and also I think all of you can understand because you're all parents as well. Um, we've all had little babies at one point. Um, and there's a condition in the NICU that I see. It's called with premature babies specifically, it's called necrotizing interroitis. We call it neck for short, nec. This is a bowel condition um where the bowel starts to die in the premature baby. And if it's so severe, the baby needs to go in for surgery and have a large portion of bowel removed. that sometimes the baby's lucky enough that it's not it's mild and we get treated with medication. Um, and this projection of, oh, it's we're going to be $30 million in debt in 4 years. To me, that's the same as saying,

254oh, the baby has mild neck, but let's go ahead and take her into surgery because her bowel is going to die in 4 years. That's not a responsible decision to make for a child. So in healthcare, we're interested in buying time especially for children to provide them with um the best possible plan of care. And I can equate that to the position you all are in to provide our children with the best care. >> Hi, it's Christy again. So I I want to talk from from two perspectives here. So one from a business mind the best that we are going to get is a one-year stop measure whatever we do because there has been an in either an inability and aptitude and unwillingness to actually strategically long-term plan by this board. And there are several

255alter, you know, several alternatives. One of which the mayor spoke about at a press conference last year, which is the offer to buy POE land and pay for half of class 3 safety officers, which that three-year contract is on, right? So, I had my 71-year-old mother come with me to tour one of those parcels of land, the one on the corner of Chapel Hill and King James Highway East. It is a wasteland. Okay. So I heard that there was a um a memorial for the challenging disaster and I thought how lovely would it be if the board can come together and say you know what town we are in a tough spot financially. We we are going to have some have to make some tough choices at some point soon. But right now, what we're

256going to do is we're going to give ourselves one year, one more chance to strategically plan in the proper way. We tried it last year, didn't work very well, but we're back here again. Let's buy that land. If the Challenger Memorial still exists, this is the 40-year anniversary of the Challenger disaster. How wonderful would it be when our children are learning about that in school to have a green space and a memorial that's been covered by like wasteland and I mean the amount of forms I was mentioning at the town council meeting that I can be a really bad foreign in people's side. I literally got forms in my side touring this property. I don't understand if we have to have a stop gap measure because of the you know the position that we're in

257and I know there's a lot of fingerpointing and you were on longer and blah blah blah blah blah. I don't I don't care. Like these are the conversations that I have up with things like kiddos. I don't care. It doesn't matter how we got where we are. This is where we are. And we're not I'm just telling you we're not closing the schools. I'm I'm not going to allow that to happen. I I I it's it's funny in in this space. No one knows me. So normally my reputation precedes me. So, in the global corporate world, I have a pretty good reputation and the people that have gotten in my way. It just it didn't end well. And that's not a threat. I was telling myself that someone that I I fired actually thanked me

258years later because he then went on to accomplish something great, which he wouldn't have done if he was stuck in a job that wasn't a good fit with him. I I I give speeches to colleges about the power of reputations. Okay. You guys need to work together. I don't care where the money's coming. I don't care what donors you have, but please figure it out. Take the land. >> Sell the land to Mayor Perry. Give yourself another year. This is crazy making. It's crazy making. >> Yeah. Hi, John Converse again. Uh, good morning. Good morning. I had to say it. Um, my neighbor Eric came up and made an offer. Uh, I also want to make an offer where we want to put in some work and we're willing to put in some time. Um,

259last year I found out that Navisync is eligible for grant money from the um, state of New Jersey Historic Preservation Trust. Uh, other districts have gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair their historic buildings. Um, I got an email from them inviting us to apply. No one applied. Um, if we can keep the school open, I'm more than happy to do the leg work for that. I'm offering my free labor to get free money. Please take me up on it. >> Hi, Talia Bower. I just wanted to finish my thoughts from earlier. Um, so I was asking the questions about the mental health services that you're planning on implementing both in April as well as next year. Um, and I wanted to sort of wrap up and ask a reflexive question. Um, when when

260everyone is standing here or sitting here rather uh thinking about scoreboards and bathroom stalls, I'm curious who else is thinking how I am, which is about increases in suicidality rates that will go unknown. um safety planning that isn't taking place and what will happen in those poorly sized bathroom stalls that are also going to be unsupervised. Miss Tobacco, I speak specifically to you because you fought tooth and nail to get children back into classrooms during CO. You said how your own son had suffered and every parent you spoke to had been struggling as many had watched their children experience heightened anxiety, depression, behavioral problems. You said how you knew that suicide rates and drug overdoses were on the rise. You talked about it openly in a a video inter uh interview about how a teen

261had tragically died in Middletown during the pandemic. And it seemed that you were really able to recall mental health impacts when it impacted you or your children or your friends personal needs. But what about the needs of the hundreds of families that you are slated and supposed to represent? the families you signed on to fight for. I'm truly in awe of the level of hypocrisy that many of you demonstrate on a daily basis. And I'm saddened to see what's happening. I'm even more concerned when I think about the long-term impacts that these changes will have on our towns, our our town, our students, and our families. I truly wonder if any of you will feel personally responsible for the seventh grader that gets repeatedly bullied and can't get in to see a counselor for support.

262I wonder if any of you would feel personally responsible for the third grader that struggles to read but won't get assessed for learning disabilities due to there being too many kids in the classroom. I wonder if any of you would feel any ounce of prolonged guilt or sadness or shame if anything worse were to happen to any of our students. Sadly, I think that I know the answer. And I just wanted to say I cannot thank the left side of this table enough for your consistent dedication to our students and for remembering that putting our children first is truly more than just a slogan. Thank you. Okay, at this time we're going to close the mic for public comment and move into proclamations. >> First proclamation is a child abuse prevention month. >> Okay, sir.

263>> Oh, sure. >> My son would be upset if I didn't mention this. First, fix this. You can't don't give up. Second, uh my son, who's uh becoming more religious these days, he'll still eat at the at the um cafeteria, complain to me about crosscontamination. It's been until I hear her, she uses the same night for ham she does for me. And we're not we're not uh cynic, but we're getting there. Next year, he get misery, he makes a choice which way he wants to go. right now he's decided he wants more clean food and uh the crosscontamin contamination is bothering and as it goes if you're not here to fix it why are you here when isn't you and don't let the toll brothers get all that land they got enough child abuse prevention

264month therefore it be resolved that the Middletown Township Board of Education hereby recognizes April 2020 26. Is that 2026 as National Child Abuse Prevention Monthly calls upon all staff, students, and residents to renew their commitment to protecting the children of Middletown. It's also autism acceptance month. Therefore, be it resolved that the Middletown Board of Education does hereby recognize April 2026 as Autism Acceptance Month of Middletown Township Public Schools and urges all employees and students to engage our district activities to foster a deeper understanding, celebrate neurodeiversity and ensure a culture of belonging for every student. Also, National Parent Professionals Day. The FB resolved that the Middletown Township Board of Education does hereby recognize Friday, April 3rd, 2026 as National Bar Professionals Appreciation Day in the Middletown Township Public Schools. And be a further resolve that the

265board of education extends his deepest gratitude and heartfelt appreciation to each Java par professionals for our their unwavering patience, their hard service and the profound impact they make on the lives of our students every single day. There's also administrative professionals days being further resolved that the boy expresses his profound gratitude to our administration administrative professionals for their dedicated service, resourcefulness and unwavering commitment to excellence of our schools and community. Uh uh moving along. Uh at this time I need uh approval of meeting minutes which is items 8 A through 8D. >> So move >> discussion. All >> in favor hold >> February. >> Um I can I'm abstaining from the February 19th. So A and B because I wasn't here. Okay. Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Extensions. On the business office

266consent agenda, I need the motion for items 9 through 8. Board secretar's monthly certification. What secretary's report transfer of funds and the bills list? >> Discussion. >> All in favor? >> I opposed ID. >> And um special note on Mr. Dula's bill. You know on D. >> I'm sorry. Mrs. Min, you know on B or D? >> Um, no on D, including Mr. Pad's bills >> on D. >> Yes. >> So all of D all of and Mr. Sra. >> Okay. All of D for me as well. >> Any other opposition extensions? Under the recommendation, superintendent schools consent agenda. We'll take uh item 10A, attentive budget the first. I have a motion. >> Did we do E? We did not. >> Yes, we didn't do E. business office transportation. >> I need a motion to

267approve item E which would be 9A under the business office consent agenda discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed extensions. Okay. And the recommendation superintendent schools to take a 10A first tenative budget for 2627 have a motion. >> Second discussion. >> I just want to clarify this is as amended. Okay. >> As as amended with the uh healthcare briefment included. Okay. Discussion. >> Um I do want to have discussion. Um, I'm going to vote no on the tenative budget because I would like to see us get together again with Dr. Alone like we did last year and talk about different kinds of cuts in this budget that are more valuable and take out the things that are um wish list and not needs. And I know this is a tenative budget and I know that we're

268supposed to go back and review before the actual budget and I hope that we can do what we did last year and come up with some other solutions. >> Uh, roll call. Mr. D. >> Mrs. Minuise, >> no. >> Mrs. Scholaski, >> yes. >> Mr. Sarowski, no. >> Mrs. Tobacco, >> yes. >> Mrs. Torres, >> does this sorry I know >> this is just intending to >> my question is >> if I am voting yes to this budget does that mean nothing can change like what does that mean as far as changes >> we can make changes to what's contained within >> to what's contained within the budget. So if it's a yes, we can vote. Okay. Yes. >> This is a perfect condition. >> Thank you, >> Mrs. Weinstein. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Wright.

269>> Yes. >> Mr. Capone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Adidas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Under recommendation, superintendent schools consent items. Get a motion to approve items 10B through J. So second >> discussion. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. >> I am voting on uh letter B. No on the yeses and yes on the nos. Okay. >> Any other thoughts abstensions? Uh >> no, we're going to do Okay. Now 10K 1 through 21 on the move. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> All in favor? I >> I >> opposed extension. >> Okay. On old business, any old business? >> Yes, I have some. Um, first I'd like to ask on the H report is did he recommend closing schools or did we tell him to look at closing schools? Our initial result asked him to

270look at the closure of potential schools. That was in our initial, it's actually in the specs of the proposal. >> And so was it his recommendation to close them or was it just his recommendation to redistric? >> His original recommendation was to redistrict because we had also informed him at that same time that the community was committed to maintaining community schools. So that is the first iteration that he um came to us with. And I will also say that we had a very hands-off approach to working with paper during that course of time because there was basically you know a a um a sentiment amongst um the community that we wanted a very um separate process that didn't include any influence from administration or board members. So, we didn't get involved until he presented that

271initial not so great plan. Um, and then we went back and re re-engaged with him. >> Mrs. Dy, could you give us an update on the email we got about the grant for two electric buses because we haven't really discussed that as a board. >> Uh, we did discuss that in a finance committee meeting I think a few months ago. >> Yeah. Just you know, we had an opportunity that came came out Dr. phone and actually mentioned to me like perhaps you know we could see what this was about. We did apply. Um we did receive notification that funding was available for us but we were you know initially we've looked at the costs of what it would be to essentially just bring in first of all it would just be to bring in two

272buses. We don't own any buses. So um the preference for this grant program was for buses to be replaced for people that owned buses to take them offline. Um, so I'm actually surprised we even got the funding because that means that there's they must not have had enough applicants of people that wanted to take buses offline and replace them with the electric buses. But um, apparently we did get uh approved for funding. Um however it it covers costs of um buses you know initially but then you know there was a certain amount that was I don't have all the numbers in front of me but certain amount that was allocated for the charging station everything but you know the other costs that were involved with that you know when I we initially looked at it

273months ago you know was that the board was still going to have significant out of pocket and then there's the whole question of how are we going to operate these being that we don't we don't have drivers. We don't have any other buses. Um we do have a van and we've had trouble getting someone getting even a part-time driver to drive the van uh that we do that we have had for the past few years. So, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty on whether this really um would be a benefit to the district or actually something that we wouldn't get a benefit from. I mean, if you only have two buses and you're hiring, you know, say we found two part-time drivers, what happens the day that part-time driver calls in sync? And then

274you have no way that you don't have a pool of drivers to to pull from. So, you know, the our initial assessment was that this, you know, may not be something that benefit the district. We can certainly take some more look at it, but um you know there was out of pocket cost for the district and also operationally you know we were only seeing how that would work effectively you know being that it would be such a small scale you know and we wouldn't have availability all the time to have drivers to drive with us. >> I just wanted to bring you that email. >> Yeah. Yeah. we we had we had put in just basically to see what would happen but you know then we were giving it more analysis and it wasn't clearly

275indicating that it would benefit the district but okay now some I have some old business on students we I attended all four plays last weekend incredible if you guys don't get the chance to go see our students performing out on a lot every play was packed and it was just incredible from middle school to high school. So, I want to congratulate all of them. I also attended the High School North Language Honor Society. Amazing group of kids. So many accomplishments. It was it was great to see. Um I also want to make a comment about Thorne. If this closure continues on, I just want all of our students to know that Thorne is a great school. It has a lot of great things going on. Um I I just don't want anybody walking away thinking,

276"Oh my god, this school is not um good. It's not good enough for them." It's a great school and there's great kids in that school just like there are in all of our middle schools. So if this does go through, I just want our kids to know that um the school is great and there's a lot going on for them to take a part of. I do agree a little less opportunities but it's a great school and I don't want anyone thinking that it's not >> I would like to add to that comment because we all know where I stand on all of this and it needs to be made clear my opposition is not to that school that building or the people that are in it. My concern is the number the number of

277students in the building and ensuring that we have the services, the staff, and the space that is adequate for all of our kids. Great. >> Thank you. >> Um I did have if anybody else had old business, I had two things that I wanted to bring up quickly. Um during public comment, it's been a conversation for the last year about recording the questions and getting the answers back. I didn't see any of them being recorded today. How are we doing that or are we not? >> We record the meeting. So then what are we doing to get the questions answered? >> We're trying to put them on the back of those sheets that we've been giving out. >> Okay. So, that said, if uh anybody's questions weren't answered, which was everyone, I would invite you

278to please um send an email and make your subject line public comment questions so that we can put them all in one place to make sure that those get out there. Um I have been asking mine, I have gotten some answers, but I'm going to not stop asking questions and demanding answers. So, I invite you to do the same. Um my second thing was about um meetings. And when we first met in January, we had scheduled workshop and voting meetings for the month of January and February. In March, we only had one um and then it was postponed because of the budget, which is why we're here today doing a full workshop and voting meeting. Um there were five of us that requested and signed on to get another meeting last week. It didn't work

279because of some scheduling things that happened. But I'm asking uh Mr. Avita and the rest of the board to look at our calendars and let's figure this out now so that we are not here until 2:00 in the morning every time we have a workshop and voting meeting together. So, can we do that for the month of April to have a workshop meeting and a voting meeting so that we can get all of the committee things out, get all of that information out there, give ample time for public comment, and then figure out the budget when it comes to time to be done because I know that that meeting is already scheduled. >> So, what is the procedure? >> There have to be a motion to one for April. So, is that what you need

280me to do to make a motion? >> I'm asking 28 or is that updated? >> I thought there was just the one. >> We have circle, but both of them is marked both of them are marked as workshop. >> I have 21st tensive workshop. I think I just put that in and then voted on the 28th. So, do we have the 21st? Is that a scheduled workshop meeting? >> Yes, that that that's on >> that's on the original >> I I believe this is I I believe this is the the Yeah, this is what I just pulled this out of my folder. >> Yeah, we have the 28th for a regular meeting right now. >> So, we have the 28th would be the public budget hearing, >> right? And then in May, I think it's

281our only monthly. >> In May, we have a meeting on the 12th, which is our rehire meeting. and the 19th which would be our workshop meeting. >> So can we on the 12th maybe do the workshop with the rehire so that we're not again here until 2:00 in the morning? I don't know how that works. >> Well, I think a lot of that's predicated on public comment too. >> I understand that. But having two meetings to give people opportunity to say the public comment would cut that time in half essentially. So, we're going to have three meetings tonight. >> No, I'm asking if with the special meeting, can that also be the workshop and then the voting meeting is on the 19th? >> Yeah, I mean that it might be a limited amount of information

282being it's only two weeks between the the board meeting and then the workshop meeting, but you know, the board can do what it chooses. working together, >> which I mean it seems like there's going to be a lot of planning happening in these next months anyway, so it wouldn't be a hard thing to ask 14. Appreciate it. Any other We have meetings for April. Okay, good. Um, any other old business, new business? >> Um, with shared services, I do have a question for old business. It was my first time being on that committee. Um, what is the role of each board member? Like, can I bring up things like the pilot projects? Can I bring up the land? Or is that something that our leadership should do? >> You can bring up you bring up

283I I asked everyone, "Well, I know your first meeting." >> I didn't want to speak out of turn >> and have it be that I was saying something I wasn't supposed to. I was really I was honestly taking your lead to try to figure that out. That's fine. You're welcome. You want >> Okay. So, I'll make sure that we do that next time. >> New business uh new business. It came up in uh finance committee that uh we were uh rec teams that are using our facilities if they're not paying to be using facilities and then some of equipment is getting damaged in the meantime and things like that. I think it's a serious discussion that we need to talk about because anybody that signs their child up for one of these rec leagues pays

284a fee towards these leagues. Um where my first question would be where is that money going? If it's not going to the facilities, where is that money going? But we should be charging in my opinion if the facilities are being used especially if damaged and we are in a budget crisis because these leagues are making the money. Coaches are volunteer. They bring their own basketballs. >> So, I'm bringing this up. You said to bring it up in the meeting. I'm bringing it up. Are >> all those things run by the town or is it separate? >> Yeah. I don't know how I don't know. >> That's why I asked for all >> facilities or the right facilities are collecting money. >> Yeah. I mean, I think >> we should figure out how much Yeah. >>

285How much money how much are we bringing in now? What are we charging people? What are we having to pay off the cost from potential damage, etc. But that like we would have to buy that back. I think two years is probably reasonable that >> Yeah. I mean I just al as we discussed in finance I just also want to make clear that when groups need uh personnel cost you know they get charged for that and all of the charges that we do assess to groups that use our facilities that's all laid out in board policy and regulations. So that's where the change would have to happen if we were going to change our stance for what groups get charged. >> I think if we start investigating it then we have I'm sorry it's so

286late. I'm sorry. I usually go to bed at 8:00. Um when we I think we should vet it and do an audit and then if there is comparison to the policy and then if there is a policy change that may want to be made, we bring it through the policy. >> You know, if if in fact we do want to charge more or change something in the language, um I think that would be the proper perspective. >> I think we should get the numbers at least. >> Get the numbers. >> Yeah, we have it doesn't have to be auto really. We we do have that information, >> right? We can get it through the finance committee and then the finance committee feels there monetary benefits that we bring up through policy. >> We requested it

287in the facilities because it was the use of >> I mean either one it could go through >> I mean we could do it in both. >> I think it makes sense to talk about it in the facilities. >> That's fine. Yeah. And then if there weren't a change then we bring it in policy for a policy change. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> I have just one one quick thing. Um, I'd like to thank everybody from the public who has um paid attention to the fundraising goals going out to our PTAs. The um Thorn gift auction is sold out and so is the Bayore gift auction. So, there is one more left that's coming up on the 25th and it's Bay View and it's a casino night and you could get all their information

288on the Bay View website. So, let's uh see if we can't get together and sell them out, too. That's all of the fundraisers that people have contacted me with. So, if anyone has anything else, let me know and we'll get the word out. >> Thanks. >> I have one last thing um to the entire board that um we see it, we feel it, the public feels it, and I need you to know that I'm here to talk. Um, I'm here to hear ideas. I'm here to do the work and actually have a conversation. That means that when someone is speaking, you don't shout out things. You don't degrade them. You don't question their integrity. You don't question those kinds of things. You're here for an actual conversation because that is what I am here for.

289So, I'm begging this board to stop. Please stop. >> I'm asking you to engage in this conversation. I'm asking you to tell me what you know about these shortfalls and how this is going to fix it so that I can understand it. Um what happened before was deflection. It was a way avoiding the problem causing more division on this board in this town and it needs to stop. This is why we are here. We have been elected to represent the people in this town. We have been elected to represent the community to the administration and the administration back to the community. And it's not a one-way street. We cannot forget that our most important job and the most important oath we have is to represent those children and the needs that they have in these

290schools and to ensure that they have it because we are the adults. We are the ones setting the tone. We are the ones that are here to do the work and I beg you to join me in that. Anyone business? >> Okay, we now open up the mic to public comment on non-aggenda items. Public comment for 30 minutes. Uh three minutes from person. Please state your name for the record. Hi, Kristen Rooney Middletown. Um, I also just want to start by saying I also have no problem with Thorne as a school. If given a choice between Thorne and Thompson, I would send my daughter to Thorne. I do however have a problem sending my daughter to school um where the administration thinks that they can put 1100 kids in a school because neither school will

291be safe. I don't care if it's gone or my intent was to find out. >> Yeah. No, but there's been some talk in the community about how the windy parents don't want their kids in school with the kids from Thorne. And there couldn't be anything further from the truth, >> right? >> I would choose Thorne. I chose North for my daughter. Um, every family has a different reason for why they do what they do and it's really not anybody else's business. But I feel like it needs to be known that parents want safety for their children and we want what's best for everybody in town, not just our schools. Joan, I also want to thank you because you are always there for the kids and I know my daughter sees you all the time and

292she she's just appreciative that you're so supportive of them. So, I want to thank you for always being there for them. Um I a couple things that came up tonight. Um I just have a couple questions based on what I heard. So did all member board members see this other resolution that Dr. Alone mentioned um earlier? She mentioned that there were two resolutions put forth in executive session uh at the February meeting. However, the public only heard about one resolution and that was the resolution to close two schools. Um, did the whole board see the other resolution in executive session? >> Can the board answer the question? Did you see the resolution? >> It's it's public comment. So, >> okay, but they're they want to answer. So, Mr. Sarowski shook his head. No, >> it's

293not a question answer. >> Okay, that's fine. So I guess let it be known that it doesn't appear that the whole board saw the second resolution. Therefore, five of the board members decided that that resolution that was voted on was put forward. So the whole board didn't vote on that. So you can't even do that. You have to put both resolutions forth and you have to follow the recommendation of the superintendent. She also said it was not her recommendation. So, I don't know what happened in executive session, but not everybody seemed to have heard the same thing or saw the same thing and the public never heard there was a second resolution, so we weren't even able to comment on it. Second question I have is we did not hear the answers. It sounds like

294Mr. Haber was hired and you said, Dr. Alone, that you told him we don't want to influence what you're doing because you need to do your thing. He came back and recommended small redistricting. That was Mr. Haver's recommendation. Then you went back and said, "Mr. Haver, look at school closures." Was it Mr. Haver's recommendation that schools be closed? >> Public comments. >> Okay. Mr. Haver's recommendation, Dr. Alone said it earlier, Mr. Mr. Haber recommended slight redistricting when he was left to do his own work and not be influenced by what you want as a board the five of you. So Mr. Habber's recommendation was slight redistricting and I don't know what's going on up here but it's not so we all know it. I've heard you guys drone on and on and on tonight. So,

295we were like, you guys hear me drowning on and on and on again? Why? Why? Why are we spending all of this time and energy on this very divisive issue? Look at me. I look like a clown because I'm showing you my love for Middletown. I again, I went to Beayshore. I loved Beayshore. I thought Beayshore was the unifying school in Middletown because you know what? Those kids brought the north and south kids together because half of your friends from Beayshore went to one high school, half them went to the other. So, I thought that was actually pretty great. All you're doing is further dividing the town. How? How? Why? I It doesn't make any sense and I and my frustration is normally when things don't make sense and I tell people that it doesn't

296make sense. It does. I don't have to say it again. I'm not used to repeating myself. So, this is frustrating to me. It's frustrating that we're not selling the land. Sell it. Sell the land that you're not using. Sell the wasteland. Make it into Let the mayor get green space money to make it into a beautiful place for our town and have that be the stop gap. You don't close schools, move children, hurt them psychologically. I'm paying for therapy for my children who are scared for the second time because they don't know what's happening. They don't know what's happening. This is Unacceptable. There is no answer. No one can look at me with a straight face and say that closing schools has a stopout measure. Everyone knows I hope everyone in this town knows that

297this is not a long-term soling these schools. Miss Alone said it, you said it too, Mr. This was a oneyear solution and we're back on that the same merrygoround next year. Why are we spending all of this time trying to figure out where how the students how we how it t this high is going TO TAKE A DUMP IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL TOILET? WHY ARE WE SPENDING OUR TIME DOING that when we should be strategic planning for the long term? We know that. or who knows because you no one knows facts anymore because everyone's saying 10 million different things but enrollment seems to be going down. People are having less children. People are having children later in life, right? So there's certain facts that we have to go on. There's something that's going to happen

298in this town. This is not what you do with 3 months notice. This is unacceptable. It's unacceptable. And not a single one of you that voted for school closure can look me or anyone else in this town in the face and say if your child was in that school that you would have voted yes. This is I don't know if I'm allowed to curse, but it's BS and is completely unacceptable. Emily Donnie Town resident. Um, I didn't plan to speak tonight, but I find myself again questioning why you do anything. But, um, Mr. Avita, you seem to be a little confused about the public comment. Um, cuz tonight you actually did answer something when they asked a question. So, you're choosing when you want to answer the question. So, for the record, you're deciding when

299you want it to be a public comment and when you want to actually have an answer. Um, and those inconsistencies are really your downfall because if you're going to continue to do things because you don't know your own policy, it's going to get it's going to get you in trouble because you did it again tonight, you're going to continue to do it. There's so many inconsistencies on on this board and it's honestly a detriment to this community. Um, you know, we say that we can't respond to emails because of litigation, but yet we make phone calls and because that's not on record. We decide that our open custodian is no longer going to fill OPAs because why? We don't know. Maybe you guys can figure that out as leadership. But now we find a board

300that is just literally not doing their job, not being compliant, picking and choosing what they decide to do. It's concerning. We spent the last year hoping you guys would change. And you haven't. Promises were made that school closures wouldn't be voted on if there wasn't a plan. Here we are. There's still no plan. You guys are still breaking policy, process, law. You sit up here. You don't care. You're picking and choosing what matters. And all of you know it's not our kids. Thank you. >> Hi, Christine Juliano Leonardo. I have three sons. Um, one graduated, one's graduating north this year, and one is graduating major this year. Um, my first question doesn't have anything to do with school closures. Um I'm just wondering if the board is aware of what a disaster the high school

301graduation test was this week or last week. Um students were supposed to take um one unit on Monday and both units opened on Monday and nobody really realized it. So they were just forced to like rush through two units in one unit time frame and then told to come to school the next day even though there was no unit to take and then they couldn't reopen it because it was already submitted. and then they were told, "Don't worry about it. We'll count something else instead. It doesn't matter." Well, those are high stakes tests and they do matter. So, that's concerning that it was such a a mess. And I don't know if that was at the state level or the district level um or if you all are too busy like doing, you know, whatever

302you're doing to close schools that you're not doing other jobs effectively. Um but that's a problem. Um, and I think it needs to be addressed because those test scores do matter to certain kids and they do matter to our district and in me to me they should be invalidated because I know as someone as a teacher when I give tests if something goes ary we sometimes have to invalidate it and you know do it over. So I think you need to look into that because those test scores are probably not going to be indicative of what our children can do because they weren't given under the right um, you know, parameters. Um the other thing I want to say is that um several of you are lacking a moral compass from what I can tell.

303Um Dr. Alone um I wish you well. However, it seems like you wanted sympathy from us, but you get paid a lot of money. You left the classroom for higher, you know, office. I would never leave the classroom because the children are my why and they're like the only thing that makes being in education worthwhile to me. So, I would rather tutor and work at your jobs to make ends meet than leave my kids because that's what is my connection. Um, so I mean, yes, I I'm sorry that it got so stressful for you, but now you get to go off to your new job and we have to deal with this nightmare. Um, some of you have young children that are still, you know, going to school on the south side of town. When

304you go to put your um head on the pillow at tonight, I'd like you to ask yourself if you would be voting the same if they were your schools because you're very quick to blame other people for only looking out for their children. But really, it's all the middle schoolers. And middle school is not an age that you want to overcrowd. Are the student to counselor ratios going to be the same as they are now, or is it going to be increased? Because if something happens to a middle school child, those of you that voted to close schools are going to have the that on your hands. And Jackie and Frank, you ran on a platform of like a call to action. You felt this compelling need to get involved and advocate for children. Well,

305we're doing the same thing. And you act like we're annoying, annoying little people that need to go away because our issues aren't as IMPORTANT AS YOURS. SO, I RESPECT THAT YOU felt that call to action, but that's all we're doing is advocating for our children like you advocated for yours. >> Ky Middletown, I just want to read a poem. Um, this is a poem that my mother first read to me when I was 13 years old and it's stayed with me. Um, it helped me through a lot through my life and I keep it in my phone. It's by Mother Teresa. It's called Anyway. People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will

306win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. Hi, Melissa Doss, Middletown resident. Um, last week with the high stakes testing for the high school, um, my son did not get his bus one single day, which meant I needed to drive my son all

307the way to South for testing. This is a problem. You are now going to increase transportation throughout the district and last week 5 days no bus came. Yesterday the bus was 12 minutes late. Today it was 12 minutes late again. I was told by transportation I was lucky to have a bus at all. >> I'm over six miles from the school. How am I lucky to have a bus? I pay for the bus. And my son deserves a bus to school that comes when it's supposed to come. And last week he almost missed that high stakes testing which was also a disaster because of the incompetence of the people that you hire for transportation and the bus companies that you hire. We peacemail it together. I've noticed how many different bus companies you use. It's

308incredible and they're all unreliable. My youngest son refuses to take the bus home from school anymore because repeatedly some drivers have missed our bus stop and that children have to direct them home and yet we are going to have more students on more bus routes to schools. This is unacceptable and that we are leading to a disaster. Get it together. >> Hey guys, uh Dan Juel at letting Pilots. Uh I'll be quick. I just wanted to draw some attention to this stack of flyers that Logan had dropped off earlier in the evening. I don't I just want to to the guy's horn for a minute. He did an amazing job doing >> I didn't know it was a stack. >> It's Yeah, it's just factors there. So, let me do wrote a whole web app

309to try to compare based on the state provided data for specifically for comparing townships against each other on spending metrics and all the budget stuff. And uh you can see how low we rank in spending amongst peers or just statewide, countywide, any way you slice it, we under spend versus our peers. and it's all in there and you can play with the data yourself on the web app and it's pretty cool. >> I'd be happy to share any or Logan Bass and Middletown. I'd be happy to share any more data with you guys, walk you through it. Um, it's not hard. There's really good answers in there. Um the the the reality is that we have underfunded education in Middletown. So you guys keep wanting to say we have a spending problem, but the data

310doesn't lie. In fact, the data tells you exactly what is happening is that every year we have let that 1% healthcare levy lapse. We have systematically underfunded education. You have chosen to not pay for kids. This doesn't make sense. This is bad economics. This is bad business. If you guys were in the corporate world, you would be beaten by your competitors. Right now, the good side of that data is that we have better than average outcomes. We're in like the 33rd percentile for outcomes, depending on how you split it. That's like a controversial metric, but like whatever. So, we've spent less. We've got better than average outcomes. If we keep spending less, if we keep pushing down on the price of our education, it is a nonlinear function. At some point, you have a tipping

311point where you get terrible outcomes. What you are doing now is not a small incremental decrease in the cost of education. It is a substantial change. It is perhaps that tipping point that will cause this nonlinear change and all of a sudden you have much worse outcomes. That means people like me don't move to Middletown. You don't pay taxes here. You guys want this in the long run. There's lots of good information in there. Please take the time to read it. I'll send it to every member of the board tomorrow by email as well. At this point, if no one else wishes to speak, I'm going to close the public portion of the meeting and ask for a motion to return the meeting. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed?