MTPS Board of Education February Workshop Meeting (02.19.26)

001I think we should now reconvene the um meeting to public session. Will you please rise for the pledge? Now, just before we start the meeting, do you desire to ask any three former employees Leslie, Shannon Ford and Washington to sign this? She signed. Yes, can we add um Jackie Fenning to that list because we never did anything for her passing? So, Jackie Fenning as well. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Yep, he's in. Can you hear me? You ready? Yeah, he's at his computer. He's hearing? No, he just has the mic and camera. Oh, okay. Can I Will you hear me if I talk to him? >> Yep. Ross,

002we are ready for you, so you can turn your camera on, please. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. I'll have to say yeah. So, um just so everybody has some contacts, we have um brought Mr. Haber back um to share some additional findings after um he presented his his initial information at our last um meeting, and certainly we did receive a lot of feedback surrounding that. Um the administrative team also um wanted to review some additional iterations of of possibilities. Um certainly, as we all know, part of the rationale for um wanting to look at some different configurations is is obviously to continue to move forward to a more financially health healthy future for the district um in addition to creating more equity in class sizes across the district um and programming across the district.

003So, um we went back and re-engaged with Mr. Haber and said, "Could you possibly um run some additional iterations that look at cost savings?" Um and you know, as as we know, potentially cost savings comes in the form of staffing and buildings and you know, obviously, he is familiar with our um with our infrastructure now and our class sizes and um you know, he took that all into consideration. We also shared with him um the plan that we had proposed last year, so that way he had some knowledge of that um to weigh that out against, you know, other iterations that he was going to be looking at on his end. So, he is going to be sharing um his findings from those conversations that we had and um his his um work tonight with

004the public. Okay. All right, first of all, good evening, everybody. So, um just a very quick overview. When we started the project, um one of the one of the requests from the district was, "Could we find a way to close one or two or three schools if possible due to find, you know, financial reasons?" So, we started out with that with that in mind. But, two things two things um happened. Number one, in the process, one of the things that we did and was full knowledge of of of working with the administration was that we did not include pre-kindergarten or self-contained classrooms. We only listed instructional space in the building for gen ed and mainstream students to see what what how we could go about uh changing things, maybe closing a school. Well, after the

005numerous iterations uh over the past 6, 7 months prior to the January meeting, there just was not enough space to close a school a school. Um so, in the end, what we did is we made the January presentation. What we did is try and do a little bit of minor redistricting, which involved about 125 or so students to maybe uh get better use of the instructional space. Um obviously, that was not met with the greatest uh enthusiasm by the district then. I can understand that, okay? Because one, we didn't the original the original mandate was to try close school, but physically we couldn't do that. There was just no way to do that. So, after the January meeting, um we went back and and met with the administration, and a decision was made that pre-K

006students and special needs students could be relocated in other parts of the district. There were there were mobile I don't want to I don't want to say mobile programs, but they were district-wide programs, and uh and and and and superintendent told us yes, she could do that. So, we were given the gift of 14 students. Uh I'm sorry, 14 class additional classrooms, which gave us a lot more opportunities. The other thing that we did is that is that in the original mandate, we were constrained by capping all classes at 25. And what we found is that if we could have a little flexibility there, okay? Not a huge amount, but if we could have if we if we came across one or two sections or grade levels that were above us, that might force us

007to go to 26 or 27 kids, it would be for one one group for one year, would that be would that be possible? Again, given this small flexibility. Not that it was desirable to go to 26 or 27 children in a classroom. We know that's not desirable and not educationally sound. We believe that. But again, we just wanted some more flexibility. So, we went through the process of of doing this, and uh we were able and we targeted two schools. One in the south, which was which was um uh Riverbank, and one in the um north, which was um Madison. We were able to do this, okay? We're able to effectively close schools and find enough classroom space throughout the district to do this. Two things with three things that emerged from that. One, yes,

008we could do that. But uh but the second thing that came out of that was going to increase class sizes considerably. In fact, we wound up with um something like five I'm literally five sections of 26 students throughout the district, and five sections of 25 students. So, throughout the district district-wide, we had several sections of 26 students and several sections of 25 students, and the rest the rest of the the rest of the district was in the low the low 20s, 21, 22, 23. Um so, we did that. Again, but again, problem we came across was again, the class sizes were were, you know, larger than we might be desired. Now, did it give us room for growth? I think we explained uh at the we we In our last presentation, we explained that there

009are two kinds of capacity. One is school's horizontal capacity, and one is school's vertical capacity. What horizontal capacity is, it gives you the number of classrooms that exist in the district. So, we looked to see if we did our projection, how many classrooms district-wide would we have? How much horizontal capacity would we have? And it turned out after doing this, we had a net of three classrooms across the district district-wide that were no use in terms of our districting, but of course, they could be put back with special needs or or pre-kindergarten along with the other things uh that Dr. Alfone um intended to do with those two groupings. So, anyway, put this together, we came up with a matrix, we showed the um we showed what the class sizes would look like um if

010of course the board. Again, as I said, very doable, okay? Very very doable, but the other part of this, too, is as I said earlier, is that because every single school in the district would be involved, every single elementary school in the district would be involved, and we would create a movement of about between 7 and 800 students would be moved. Given the 485 in Navesink and Leonardo and Navesink uh and and and Riverbank, even those that was the four that was 385, but on top of that, another 3 to 400 students would have to be moved to make up the capacity in each of the in each of the um in each of the schools. Uh so that was so we we brought that into a report. We reported that back to the superintendent.

011Um I wrote a memo to the Board of Education regarding that with a table that shows the class sizes. Concurrently, we also took a look at the 20 24-25 um proposal, which was closing Navesink and Leonardo, move those students into Bayview. Um which could which has more than enough capacity to to hold them. And um in looking at that, that would it it seemed to us it looks to us to actually be much less disruptive to the school to the school district. Class sizes would probably be would be lower than the ones that we're presenting in in our two school closing. And um and there'd be there'd be there would be room to grow. And even uh there would be space in that building possibly to include some of the special needs classes and some

012of the pre-K students. Uh the only disadvantage I could see to that is that because you're bringing kindergarten students in there, there might have to be some renovations to laboratories. Uh because it is a middle school. Uh but in in in in in looking at both of these proposals, um it's our opinion that that we believe that because of the class sizes, um it is probably more advantageous to the district to go with the with the junior high with the middle school proposal, the one from 2024-25. We believe it to be less disruptive. It does close two schools. Um and we think it would be worth and down the road, we're also putting out in in our recommendation, down the road it might be desirable to um close to close Riverbank in the south, but

013that would it could be done years down the road, but that might require this No decisions have been made. Because you'll have a chance for public comment after Oh no, we're not I'm just we're We're making an overall report, okay? Okay, to the board. That's all we're doing. We're saying that there're two options on the table. Okay? One is closing Riverbank and Navesink. The other is closing Navesink and Leonardo and moving those kids into Bayview and doing what needs to be done. Okay? We think in the short term the uh the recommendation from the superintendent from 20 from 2025 probably makes more sense. It's less disruptive uh and it does save two schools. That's just just our opinion. Um the data is there. It's a board decision and we leave it to that. We just

014all we did was provide the data that these two things could happen. Okay? And board, I'm open to questions from the board. I have a question. How does this How does this improve student outcomes? We didn't look into that. Well, isn't that what That isn't that the most important part? That's not part of our study. It was defined space. That was our study, okay? Uh and the the only thing I can say is that um that's dependent on class size. We did not study We did not Our study was enrollment projections to be clear, enrollment projections, facility analysis, and facility analysis and redistricting. Those are the three matters to give you the data to make that decision. In the in the RFP, there was nothing about educational I think that's very important. That's That's what

015our role is here. And what about the middle school? Everything else is secondary to that. Now, we can't have people yelling from It's now time for board discussion. You'll There'll be a time for public comment. I'm asking you just please let's have an orderly meeting and you'll have an opportunity to speak. There's no votes being taken tonight. There's no action on the agenda. This is for in- in- in- informational purposes only and it's a presentation. I would I would like for him to speak now that the public's here about what he said before, how this all came about, when the reports came out, how people had this information not board members beforehand. It It should have been shared before tonight. I I would like you to go back to your presentation that you started before

016when we cut you off and explain to the community how this all came about. I'm I'm not sure I'm so much I I thought I'd just [snorts] give an overview. I'm not sure what Well, I guess maybe start over with your overview. Okay, if that's >> started earlier. >> that's your call. >> Okay, again, an RFP was put out for us to an RFP was put out by the district which to which we responded. The RFP basically asked us to take a to do an enrollment projection, okay? To then take that projection, apply it to the existing facilities, and then see if those projections those existing facilities could accommodate the possible closing of one, two, or even three schools. I'm talking more about the part where you came out where you thought we already had

017the information as a board. I did send I sent the memo I I sent the memorandum. I gave it to the superintendent. I don't know what he On Tuesday. It was Okay. I I just provided the memorandum. You should have And could you Could you tell because it sounds like a lot of the audience and I would really like to know the impact on the middle schools with your middle school proposal? That I turned it over to the superintendent. That's her proposal. Yeah, but how do you How do you see the enrollment there? How do you see it affecting the kids and the overcrowding? You've got more capacity in the middle schools than the combination of Navesink and Leonardo combined. No, but those are two small schools. Okay, okay, then okay, and you've got a

018500 and an 800 student to it. Again, I I didn't do this study, so I'm only telling you what I read in the study report. They're safe to be I'm I'm Well, my understanding is enough capacity to middle school to accommodate Bayview. Not even remotely. Where did you get that? Were you given any direction to on where to go or you just came up with Whoever did this report, obviously it wasn't you. Whoever did this report, I mean, what direction were they given about >> We shared with him our iteration from last year so he would have a reference point and be able to sway that against other iterations that he was running. The historical capacity of Thompson has been in the 900s. And the projections stay within them over the course of the next

0195 years in that model. Same thing with Same thing with Thorne. We provided him with that information because we were able to roll We can roll up our our attendance We can roll up our enrollments from year to year because we know what our enrollment is currently. So that is how he got that information. We shared that with him because he was examining other things. But filling filling those schools up just because the capacity was there. We heard from Thompson for many years that the school is overcrowded. >> When it was at 1150, which it has not been not >> the kids the kids don't have the same opportunities. They don't have the sporting opportunities. But but you could you could do other things where you could offer more options for those activities. For instance,

020having a sixth, seventh, and an eighth grade team separately. Many middle schools that are large do that. Any other questions from the board? Are we going to let the public ask questions? Not right now. Public will No, he's not going to answer questions. This is a joint This is going to be a board decision. I get it, but there's a lot of questions that >> I I understand. And just the way this whole thing started before and we put a stop to it in closed session so that the public could hear it. The way we heard it wasn't We were shocked by the way we heard what he was saying. He was always supposed to do a public presentation. Yeah. And we followed up with doing an executive today. We asked him to do both.

021Well, then when we came last week, all our voices were taken away, ours and the public's, and I think that they should have a right to ask him questions. And you have >> [applause] >> And and public will have an opportunity to comment. Absolutely. Comment. Comment. If you have a question, you can you can ask the question and we'll answer the question. Or if it has to be researched, then we'll get back to you with an answer. I have a question for Mr. April. Could uh you just be clear and reiterate, so what are you recommending? Cuz I I feel like I'm all over the place. I think that Okay. I think that the I'm I'm recommending the least Okay, I believe that the data in the middle school proposal is accurate, that it can

022accommodate the two schools, okay? I read the report. I looked at the projections. I didn't do that report, but I think it's least disruptive. I think that the other one um the one the one that I first one um is going is is a little clearer in terms of attendance zones, because it really it it it doesn't require you to do anything with those particular buildings in terms of kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. The bathrooms are there. All of that stuff is in place. So, I think both can work. What I'm saying is that is What I'm saying is that the class sizes um in in in the two school closing, Navesink and Winding Bank, those class sizes are a little bit large, but you can look at them. You have a table and you can make

023a determination. I'm talking to the board. The board has that information. You can make a determination Can it work? The big question is Can growth occur in that? Okay. Can growth occur in that two-school recommendation, Navesink and and Winding Bank? Growth can can occur vertically. There may be some classes that get large, that get above 26. In In this past I said there were five five classes of 26 and five of 25, which is the match. Uh will there be a time when it's possible that one or two of those sections go to 27? It's possible. Now it's 27. The record that that recommendation absolutely can work. It's got the advantages, green batteries. It's got the advantage of making no um no um major changes in the middle schools. And it can work. It's a

024matter of taking a look at those class sizes. Uh if you're comfortable with them, that's fine. But also keep in mind we're going to be moving The district had very excited the notion of moving 120 kids. But in this we're going to move between 7 and 800 students if you go with that way. And if you're comfortable with that, that's great. Both can work. Okay? I think that's the thing. The middle school one is less disruptive. Over time it moves It only moves the It only moves initially the children from Navesink to Leonardo. I'm just saying Don't I'm not arguing. I mean I'm I'm just trying to express what the data says. That's all. Can I ask another question? And what has your study done to address the class sizes in Lincroft and the possible

025develop Well, it's not possible. They're going to be building more townhouses or homes there. That school is at capacity. What does this report do to relieve that that capacity? The project The projections in The projections we made include any potential new housing. So, and Lincroft and and Lincroft and Lincroft um remains the way it is. We don't It doesn't make many changes in Lincroft. Lincroft You you can look at the class sizes and okay, there's room for growth there. There is a shortage of two classrooms in that building. There was just again by one or two students, okay? Uh but it's very difficult to make any change there. There's just no place to move them. So, then we just leave it like that and we depend on depend on the new development to overcrowding? Well,

026our projections aren't showing that. Did you look at the new development that was just approved? Absolutely. And we Anything that Anything in the projection excludes projections includes data housing that we got from planning and zoning. I think I think the original presentation had projections through 2030, if I remember correctly. Is that right? Yeah, but it's That's only elementary. It's only elementary on it. I just think we're doing The projection doesn't show the areas that are overcrowded. And and you could eventually, in the long term of a plan, shift kids out of Lincroft with some natural boundaries like he showed in the first presentation. However, you would need to create capacity in those other buildings, either by building or by moving kids across to other buildings where there is seat space. This is a very [snorts]

027simple concept, okay? If you can't move buildings. You just The buildings are there. You can't change the size of buildings. When you do redistricting like we did, we have to look at contiguous boundaries, right? We have to look at Can we move kids from building A to building B because those buildings have capacity? If the buildings next door to them don't have capacity, we can't do that. You know, the only The only thing that could And And because of the age and the size of some of the buildings and the difference in size, it may require some renovation over time. That's what we talked about a little bit when we looked at when we considered the the middle school proposal, that it may be at some point you may be able to do some change,

028but it's going to require um renovation. The buildings are finite. They only have so much capacity, okay? Even with the 14 classrooms that were given back to us in order to do the do the second iterate of the second iteration, we're still tight. You know, as I said district-wide we have a net of three classrooms, which are not helpful in terms of redistricting because of their location. Uh but they can be used again for special needs. They can be used for pre-K, whatever else. So, it's The constraints are not only are not only uh Our constraints also consider school size, school location, and also location of students. That's That's what really drives the drives these things along with class size and things like that. I You have that two proposals in front of you. The

029middle school one is a little more comfortable because it it it um inconveniences or less children. The one The first one of the two school closing, Winding Bank and um Navesink, um just have slightly higher class sizes. Again, you have a decision. You've got the data. You've got the data from my report, data from the 2024-2025 report. I'm not sure. Ask the question. Didn't he also mention about selling the land? About what? That's the board's decision. He doesn't You know, as as the question, yes. Well, I mean, anytime you close a close a school, you have property to either sell, lease, whatever, to generate revenue. It's selling it. But that doesn't That doesn't solve the budget. That just provides money for potentially other things or reserves. Did you do any financial reporting on any of

030this? No, it was not part of the It was not part of the proposal. You know what I'm saying? Financial reporting saying you have the Well, hold on a second. Who was on the board at the time when this proposal was approved? It was It was not approved. It was not approved. So, he just randomly did this presentation? This proposal was never approved. I asked him to find out It was turned in about four schools and I was told that wasn't four schools mentioned last year, but there were. So, how if if everybody that's presented the plan last year to now doesn't know there were four schools last year, then who knows what the real plan was? Cuz I don't. Okay. First of all, may I say this Our proposal was approved by the board.

031And we wished you to purchase all of this. So, there's no hanky-panky here. We We provided a proposal Your firm, yes, was approved by the board, not the proposal of closing schools. Read the That's what The only thing that this board approved was his contract, which to go forward. Which the contract did ask him to look at closure of schools. But we didn't Chris is saying who approved the plan last year. We're not talking about the plan. We didn't Well, I mean, in all fairness, to for him to go look into the study. That's it. Right. And we at least my understanding this, too, was that we were going to come back with several different proposals, which also would have included entire redistricting and moving of lines across the entire town as option one, which

032would have looked at different savings in different schools and also for transportation. And then moving into other different scenarios. That's what my understanding was is that was going to come back. And then even from his own words tonight saying that there was many discussions back and forth and many numerous iterations over the period of 6 months. Quite honestly, we've been waiting for 10 months for something. And we didn't get anything. [applause] Yeah, it's just the fact, Chris, we did not last year and not everybody on this board is on the same page of what that plan was. It was rammed down like it was tonight. No, I don't think it was rammed down. We're not voting on any of his recommendations that we >> get that. >> saw. >> We I I get that. I'm

033just saying the way it's presented is I just think it should be more long-term. I mean, we need to be looking at 5, 10, 15, 20 years, not what's going to get us to next year with a band-aid and then we're talking about it. But and we tried the band-aid approach last year. We'll get into that when I give my finance report. I'm drinking You got to want to hear. Yeah, is there any other questions from the board for We could always email him if we have any additional questions. Yeah, you can email him on Thank you, Ross. If we have any additional follow-up questions, we'll email you and reach out. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, get out. Good night. Moving along for committee reports, co-curricular, Mr. Saccente. All right. Uh the co-curricular we met on

034uh Tuesday. Tuesday? Wednesday? Wednesday. Um and we reviewed the district's current tracking process for clubs and activities. Um the administration presented us with electronic spreadsheets that are currently being used um to track sign-ins and sign-outs for clubs to make sure that there is actually attendance at the clubs. Um it's being piloted right now at Bayshore. They ran us through the whole system, showed you know, that you're actually seeing the attendance of the children at the club. Um and the plan is for all co-curricular clubs and activities district-wide to have the sign-in and sign-out um beginning next school year. Mark, I had a question Yes. >> you don't mind. So, is this just something we're doing on our own in terms of So, we're doing this just >> using a a regular database or is this

035an actual program >> is through Genesis. Okay. Through the Genesis portal. Actually, they showed it and it's it's pretty good because it has all the contact information for the coaches or [clears throat] the club advisors if they need to get, you know, emergency contacts. Everything is streamlined into Genesis so that it's a one-stop portal rather than different sheets and having to cross-reference things. And it also shows the attendance at the activities to see if they're still viable. Okay, great. Thanks. I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't something new that we were getting >> not new. It's >> into. >> it's using the Genesis that exists. >> you. Um for athletics, the winter sports are all winding down. The middle school season has concluded and the high schools are currently in the playoffs competitions.

036Uh spring season is scheduled to begin on March 9th. We also discussed girls flag football, which continues to grow in popularity and the state is moving to make it an NJSIAA sanctioned sport. So, that will prohibit athletes from participating on multiple teams during that season. That'll start next year also. Um at High School North, low enrollment uh may impact the ability for a boys tennis team this year. Um they just don't have enough sign-ups. And finally, girls wrestling, participation continues to increase. So, at this point they there is an anticipation that there will be a team at both schools, hopefully. Girls wrestling team, but if not, um there'll be a one team between the two schools. So. More attention to that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Saccente. Curriculum, Ms. Wright. Yes, so we met uh

037last night and um we had a lot of things to discuss. Uh some of it is still sort of in in uh in flux here in terms of some of the pilots. Um so, one of the things that we talked about was the uh i-Ready diagnostic and also the MyPath. Um we've been talking a lot about that as a board. I know the community has raised some concerns about it. Um one thing that we were looking at is uh a survey did go out to the teachers to talk about their feelings about i-Ready and how they uh use it in the classroom, if they think it's effective, um and what they actually use it for. So, we're able a little bit of that data last night and have some discussions about things that we may

038want to be able to change going forward. So, the only thing I'll say right now is we're committee is still talking a lot about that and so hopefully there'll be some decisions that are going to be made very soon. So, there's more to come. Um as you all know, we've reported on this in the past that there's two different uh pilots happening through K to 5 as we try to land on what the new math program is going to be for the next uh school year. We've been looking at i-Ready and Amplify. So, we've been hearing some of the feedback that has been coming from the teachers um who are piloting both of those in their classrooms. And so again, looking to make a decision on that uh very soon for the next school year

039starting in September. Uh if you don't know or if you do know, uh recently um it was uh a new bill that was signed by Governor Murphy before he left that cursive writing is going to come back into the schools um in grades 3 through 5. So, we talked about what that's going to look like for next September and that will actually start in the new school year, which I think we all agree is a really great thing um to have C come back uh into the curriculum. There are some field trips that are going to be on the agenda for Tuesday for us to consider. Um we talked about the really great news uh that 14 of our students applied and were accepted into the Teen Arts New Jersey program, which is run by

040Brookdale Community College. So, we're really great to see that number continue to increase um and allow our students really to be able to shine in terms of what they're able to do in the arts, which is encompassing um acting, dancing, painting, and also vocal music. I do believe there is going to be an art show. Mr. Cohn, is that correct? Yes. I don't know if we have the date yet though, right? We do have the date. I'll just have to look for it. Okay. Um so, I want to make sure everybody gets that out and so we can get it on our calendars because I think it's a really great thing obviously to continue to support our students and the great work that they do. Uh last month I talked about the uh DIBELS screener

041that was administered through K to 3 um and we're now starting to get that data back and look at it. But the other really good thing that is going hand-in-hand with this is that in the last professional development day for the teachers, which happened I think a week or so ago or 2 weeks ago, um was all focusing on DIBELS and how to use that data now in terms of driving individual instructions for their students in the classroom and also identifying those students who may need extra services as well at a very early age, which is extremely important. Um Read Across America is happening uh the week of March 2nd through the 6th. Um I believe that as in the past, invitations are going to be going out to board members to come into classrooms

042and read to the students. So, hopefully we'll all be able to fit that in during that week at some point. Um as usual, professional development will be on the voting agenda for us to consider next Tuesday. Um dates that are really important, if they have not gone out already, uh but just to reiterate here is college application information night will be happening at both high schools. North, it will be Thursday, March 5th, 6:30 here at the media center. High School South, it will be Thursday, March 19th, 6:30 at the media center. Uh we have the financial aid webinar that is going to be happening again with Matt Mulhern and that's going to be via Zoom on Thursday, April 16th. And I believe information is going to be going out about that to the two high

043schools as well. And that's pretty much it, I think, from what we went over. >> Great. And Ms. Wright, our art showcase will be at the MAC. It It essentially spans through March, so you're looking at art pieces from K to 12 students um that will be showcased from March 7th through March 27th at the MAC. And that's open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Great. Thank you. Facilities, Ms. Minue. We had a meeting the other night. Um few things that are coming up on the agenda. We have the renewal of the grass cutting bid. It's a contract renewal with Diamond Property Maintenance for the term of uh March 1st, 2026 to 22827 as per the bid for 2425 in the amount of $86,000, no increase from the prior year. The contract covers all elementary

044schools with the exception of Harmony and also Bayshore. Custodial equipment will be on there for purchase of chariot scrubbers, which are floor machines, from Scroll System in the amount of $52,759. This equipment was included in the 2526 budget. Current facility issues going on, there was a steam leak at Harmony. Mr. Naser reported that there was a steam leak above the ceiling tiles in the boys bathroom at Harmony. During the repair process, some mold growth was identified and remediated. Indoor air quality testing was performed after the repairs and removal of the mold was completed. No issues were noted. Piping and infrastructure, Mr. Naser showed the committee sections of a heating pipe and water piping to demonstrate the aging that is occurring. The heating pipe that first was from New Monmouth, repairs were made and the section

045of the heating coil was replaced. We also discussed uh UV lighting disinfection procedures. Mr. Naser and Mrs. Dority shared a draft of standard operating procedures for the utilization of the mobile UVC disinfection. The district establishing thresholds for the use of the UV lighting for disinfection based on the presence of a suspec- suspected outbreak. The definition of outbreak used in the NJDOH general guidelines for the prevention and control of outbreaks in educational settings. The The selected staff will be trained on the use of this device and and enhance our manual cleaning products. And that was my concern during that, was there any um concerns for the staff using this and it was explained they're going to be trained and only certain people will be able to use it. Uh the 2026-2027 budget operating, we discussed operating,

046but really when it came to the the budget, there really wasn't a lot of discussion because there apparently there is no budget set yet. Um we talked Mrs. Doughty and Mr. Naser reviewed proposed projects and equipment that currently have placeholders in the 2026-2027 budget. The items included for consideration are focused on safety and security. The 2026-2027 budget does not currently include any allocation for major repairs, replacements of the high school South turf fields. Facilities use um Champions are new before and after care program wants to run a summer program in 2026. Um Mrs. Doughty is working through the arrangements with them and I know when they came on board, that was something that our parents were very interested in. So, they're working out the the cost and the benefits for us. There also was a

047group called Backyard Sports League. Um Mrs. Doughty reviewed two facility use requests for summer programs. The district will be working with representatives from Champions on their proposal for running a summer program at New Monmouth Elementary School, which will include a revenue share for the district. The district needs more information on the proposal from Backyard Sports League before we have any further consideration. Sub custodian rates, we talked about that. It's really hard to get substitute custodians. So, we're looking into um raising the minimum wage for them. Um I think we're looking at $18 an hour and that probably will be on next week's agenda if the board um gives a consensus on that. after this Oh, sorry. They're starting at 16.50. It changed since our meeting. Sorry. I didn't know that. Um the Monmouth County Historical

048Commission Preservation's Award Program, they're going to submit the annex to Lincroft and um hopefully they'll get award. Unfortunately, there's no money involved in that. It's It's an award. Um The draft of master plan facilities assessment and budget are the next steps. I did ask prior to that meeting if we could have a presentation on the long-range facilities plan, but that's not happening. Um I did explain the reason why I wanted it was because we are doing strategic planning and we are coming up with a new long-range facility plan and it would be good for us and the public to know what was in the last one and see where we are, where we're going. And I'm hoping that we can have that in the future. And that's it. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Uh finance, that

049would be me. So, um there's no items on the agenda for voting this month on the January voting meeting agenda. Actually, Mr. Mr. Habel >> That's February. I'm sorry. Mr. We just we do we are going to have a transportation item that I we just opened the bid yesterday. So, that will be on the agenda. It's for athletic transportation. That's the only thing [snorts] we have. >> Stay corrected. We'll have a transportation >> Yes. Things are always developing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Uh so, the board the committee discussed the 2026-2027 budget overview. Um Miss Doughty had provided the entire board with a memorandum on February 5th, which was a budget update. Um so, the that was the main discussion that we had with the the committee. And it said it it centered around the

050need to come to a consensus regarding the direction for addressing um this year's $3.2 million shortfall uh between projected revenues and expenses for the 2026-2027 school year budget. The 2026-2027 tentative budget um cannot be finished until it's determined whether the district and the board will be planning school closures for or consolidations for 2026-2027 or uh for 2027-2028. And obviously, this this decision will impact the management of the 2025-2026 budget for the remainder of the year. Um more importantly, unless the district can reduce its operating expenses with changes that will have an impact in future years going forward, the budget will continue to be in a structural deficit going forward. Based on the the business office's projections and just this is just maintaining status quo at state mandated 2% uh tax levy increases each year and

051state aid stable, you know, being stable or even with minimal increases, the district can expect to see [snorts] budget deficits of 6.6 million in 2027-2028, 10.2 million in 2028-2029, and 13.9 million in 2029-2030. That's if we just maintain the status quo, don't do anything uh moving forward. The 2025-2026 increase in the tax levy that was passed last year, that allowed the district to have more time to formulate and to vet prepare a plan for reducing operating expenses going forward. It was also necessary to give the district the ability to put funds in in our reserves, which were depleted. So, it it helped kind of stabilize us for this year, but we're still facing a deficit just for the next budget cycle of 3.2 million. The district's infrastructure, as we all know, is aging. And until

052we have a large-scale capital plan and funding that's in place, there will be increased maintenance costs to just keep the facilities operating. Right now, and I Mr. Habel touched on this, right now, what we're trying to do is just address the issues that are safety and security related until we can come up with a longer-term plan to address the funding. Even without considering the age of the facilities, the district has 17 campuses to maintain and must have the ability to address unanticipated issues and make improvements without relying solely on bond issues. Uh you heard the um presentation, the additional information presented by Mr. Habel uh regarding the facility and boundary analysis. And the board will consider to continue to discuss, you know, the the finance and the budget going forward knowing that, you know, we

053have about a month to go before we have to approve our tentative budget. So, I just want to say this, like I I understand I I've seen hundreds of emails as the board has. And I I understand your passion cuz, you know what? I have children. And what I have children, yes I do. And when it comes to your children, I I understand and and can understand how you feel. But we're in a position now where to maintain the status quo is not working. So, I'm not I don't think any individual board member, and I've spoken to everybody on this board, >> [clears throat] >> they know my feelings and where I stand. Something has to be done. I'm not going to sit here and hold my heart and say that I have the plan

054cuz I don't. You know, the administration will develop the plan and the board will vote on it, whatever it's going to be. But if we do nothing, we're we're failing our kids. We are. Okay. Well, so what All right, but it's the board's responsibility cuz we have to vote on the recommendation. The public doesn't get a vote. It's November. You vote in November. That's right. Right. And my platform was very clear. We need a plan that's has long sustainable financial path that's going to put us on set sound financial footing. We don't have it right now. So, every year, as you know, the conversation is dominated by the budget discussion, where we're going to find the money. But nothing's ever done. We kick the can down the road and say we'll deal with it next

055year. Well, the can is is is disintegrated and we're at the end of the road. So, we need to do something. And again, it's up to the entire board, not one person, two people, the entire board, to come to some kind of agreement where we can all agree on based on the recommendation of the superintendent and the administration and move and and try to move this forward. And with that, um legislature I have some questions. Please. Yeah, sure. Okay. Cuz I wasn't there, so I'm just trying to also fill in the gaps in terms of of what was discussed. So, there was no discussion at all and I'm not talking about the larger plan. I'm not saying that that doesn't have to be discussed. So, please don't don't twist my words. But, there was no

056discussion at all in the interim of trying to dwindle down the $3.2 million deficit. There was no discussion from either the superintendent or the business administrator in terms of directions that were given perhaps to department heads to figure out how to shrink some of that. None of that was discussed? No, absolutely not. So, what was discussed? Because >> have spoken to every department and met with them individually to determine what is what are things that we could potentially scale back. For instance, in curriculum, you can look at cycles of textbook renewals. That might be up for adoption. You could look at holding off on certain curriculum rewrites. We're looking to cut our expenses with our digital tools that we use. So, all of those things are definitely conversations we had, but there has been no

057decision made on where we're going to trim that. But, those are nickel-and-dime things. Those aren't going to make up $3.2 million. Not even close. The way you make up big money is through staff through salaries and benefits. I hate to say it. Um it's what it is because it's the biggest piece of the budget. So, unless you can shrink your operating costs through those mechanisms, you're not going to make up 3 million, 6 million, 9 million dollars and be able to sustain that. So, yes, we have discussed with every department, but we're kind of in limbo until we have a determination from the board as to the direction we're going to start to reduce those operating expenses as well. And Ms. Wright, to your point, you know, I I will say that in discussions with

058board members, there have been ideas, whatever they were, about doing it and they were they were good ideas, but they like to Dr. Alfons Dr. Alfons point, they were they were minimal consequence when you're talking about the projected budget. Um that's just a stack of money. >> I I and I said that at the top. I'm not talking about the larger discussion. I think I think I think you know. So, I'm not happy with the disposition. I don't think anybody here is. That's not That's not my point. That's not my point at all. My point is in that the 6 years that I've been on this board, when we've gotten close in terms of budgeting and when there have been problems, there was more of a collaboration and more of a discussion ongoing about where

059we were going to trim to try and actually meet the budget that we had to actually then have, right? There has been none of that and all I know is that for the past 10 months, again, like I said before, as we waited for this report from Heber, I would have thought that there would have been more of a discussion amongst the administration and the board, even if you wanted to invite, you know, representatives from the public to come in and maybe even use our own administrators who are very intelligent and knowledgeable about what goes on in this district to even come up with more ideas about eight long-range plan that we could then have an on-ramp of maybe a year or two to get the community ready. And none of that happened. We all

060sat around and none of that happened. And [applause] it's wrong and I think I'm sorry. You know, what you can say what you want about me. It needs to be said out loud again. Because it's a complete failure in terms of the time that we had. And again, I'm not sitting up here saying that at some point the footprint of this district that I was born and raised in, my parents went to the schools through here, may have to change so that it sustains itself for the next 50 to 60 100 years. But, not again to have to do it within 2 months. So, my question [cheering] again, because I asked this in November and I asked it in December and we were told by the business administrator in December that they were starting to

061talk about the budget. Clearly, it was known that we were heading to a $3.2 million deficit. In the real world, the leader of whatever organization and whatever CFO, whatever title you want to give the person in charge of the finances, would have started to work to figure out how to in the interim close that gap. That doesn't then say you don't look at what the projection needs to be. Of course, you have to do that. But again, there's been no discussion and now we're like being held hostage about this $3.2 million deficit unless we suddenly figure out what Heber report proposal we're going to go with. That's not how the real world works. >> And we're not saying that there has to be a decision on a school closure this year immediately. And I'm going

062to tell you right now, we've we've analyzed this budget line for line. And I said it last year, I'll say it again. >> right here in the sentence of this report. >> There is nothing that you are starting to dwindle down the quality of the education that we give to our students if you have to make up $3.2 million by looking at the line items in the budget. And we are going to dwindle down >> don't disagree. I am not an advocate for 27 kids in a classroom at all. All right, wait. Folks, please please I asked to hold the comments. We'll get We'll get to the the public comments. Are you done now? So, I think the other thing that I want to raise, too, is and I've said this before and several other

063board members have said this before, is that and on June 30th, it's my understanding that the contract with the uh school safety officers is going to expire. Is that right? And that's $1.2 million, right? Okay. So, I don't remember the exact day of the email that I sent it. I think it was March 31st of last year. I sent an email to the entire board and I had the administration on here, right? Because a couple of us had gone in and met with you, Dr. Alfons. We met with Mrs. Doherty trying to figure out what other savings we could come up with for that particular year, again, to close just that year's budget gap. And I think at the end of that meeting or somewhere along those lines, we identified $6 million in savings. >>

064Right. But, the other thing that I had said the next day, right? And again, it's right here in an email. On March 31st, anybody can see it if they want to see it. And before my words again get twisted about not, you know, being concerned about the safety of students, I am. I also have a child in this district. I'm concerned about my child's safety. But, I said back then, I don't understand why we weren't going to the township even before that to ask why we weren't be able to to basically share that contract. And then things happened and things happened fine. But, then there was just a reluctance to go back to the township and again talk to them about this being a true shared service. Because it's also my understanding there is no

065district in New Jersey that is taking that cost on completely themselves. We can't afford it anymore. And that's [applause] really sad because the safety of our students should be paramount. But now, that's $1.2 million that we don't have. So, is there going to be a conversation with the township about sharing it? There is there Well, we get when we get to shared service, we've got into announce there's a shared service. The meeting scheduled for when can we start talking about 26th, next week. It's the next week. Uh we don't The board doesn't set those meetings. They're done through the township administrator and the business office. I I wasn't on the board last year with all due respect. Can you When it's time for public comment, you can ask your questions. I appreciate you trying to

066have this forum, but when you present information this way to the public, it it kind of backfires. What backfires? I'm I'm stating facts that were given to me in a committee meeting. I don't expect you to understand. Okay. I just have a question. I mean, you keep going back to inefficiencies with all the elementary schools. Have we looked at inefficiencies with the middle and high schools and a lot of duplication and things like going on there? Yeah. [snorts] We We analyzed all the staffing at all the What about funding two high schools? You know, So, are you suggesting we should consolidate into one high school? >> have one high school. Okay, you can put a proposal out there. I I do have something to say. In the past during budget process, the board has had

067discussions and and we did it last year, Dr. Alfons, when leadership didn't want to, you invited us. We went. We had discussions. We came up with $6 million worth of cuts. We're not discussing that this year. I did bring something up in facility and finance about us looking for it. And I know that some of the areas that I would like to see cut, you do not agree with. But, we should be cutting everything possible that doesn't affect the classroom if we need to make up that money. And that starts at the top. And it goes down. And we are not having those discussions because that is not in interest. But, we should be before we're taking kids out of their buildings and moving on so that we can form a plan that's going to

068go forward. That it's not that there's not an interest in doing that in having that process. We are waiting for a recommendation from the board as to what we're doing with the larger budget picture because no matter how even if we cut at the top and move down, you're never you're not going to make up that money. It's It's but it's a start, but it's not It's going to chip away only a small bit at that. We came up with $6 million last >> Right, but eventually you run out of things to cut. We didn't touch the top. Yes, I And no, we We did. We cut administrators. We took two assistant principals. That's it. That's a hefty amount, and I and I have done this data. There is a lot of ground to cover

069in just observations alone, and the amount of manpower it takes to be in compliance with the district of this size, it is pretty is is large. You have I am not wrong. I am not wrong. I You know, because everyone else knows better. I'm just saying my point of view is that our kids are are our top priority here. It should be they are put first. We are disrupting the whole north side of town, actually, and now we're talking about disrupting River Plaza. >> You're going to have to disrupt something here in order for things to change. >> you done the whole thing. We've done the whole thing, and we've had years to to discuss that. No, we did it last year. We need to start looking at cutting things that are not going to

070affect the classroom and not going to affect our kids until we can get on a plan that is going to help us district-wide. What do you want to cut? And if anybody, I'm just going to say if anybody has a list, please share it. What what was brought up in finance? I think we need to start at the top with administration. When you guys ran your campaign this year, it was about the 4% raise that our administrators got. Everybody Yeah, everybody in town was talking about oh, we're administrative heavy. Okay, let's look at that. The community wants us to look at that. We should be looking at that. And I'm sure there's many other things that are in this budget that are not going to affect our kids' classrooms. I I Well, I'm I'm just

071asking what was talked about in finance. I wasn't in finance. I brought up I brought up administrations, supervisors, whatever. >> Yeah, and I said if you give us a list of who you want to cut in the administration, but that's not your recommendation. That's not your recommendation to me No, about cutting administrators. No, but it's a suggestion that we all had part of last year and every other year. This is nothing new. Everybody's saying it's not our decision, and it's not, but we've had many meetings over the years with suggestions and areas to look at. If you want me to go on about personnel in public, I will, but You can't do that. You know, we can't do that. But we You know what? This board is operating on an email basis. We never talk

072as a board. We never do. We're talking now. Yeah, we're talking now. I'm not limited to things that we can talk about. Everything is done by email. Oh, you know what? If you have a suggestion, email me. But I don't know what everybody else is emailing. Maybe I'll agree with their suggestions. Maybe I won't. We're We're in a bubble here. I know, Joan. Joan, you've been on this board for many years. You know that there's it's open public meetings act. There's certain things that >> But Chris, I get that, but we never have an opportunity to speak anymore. Never. We had to do it in small groups last year. And and you said But we did it, and we and it's the same thing I'm asking for, suggestions. She didn't have to take our suggestions

073last year, but she encouraged us to come and meet with her and tell her what we thought. That's what I'm saying. I'm not looking to break ethics and and tell her what she has to do, but I'm willing to tell you what the community and myself feels and where we should be looking. I want to put our kids first, and I want to make sure they get everything they need, and by doing this the way we're doing this, we're right back where we were last year because we didn't discuss it. We had We asked Dr. Alfone about plans, and she said that leadership wasn't interested in meeting about it. So, what are we supposed to do as a board? What do we do? I just been using I can only look at the numbers now,

074and there was a presentation last month by Ms. Doherty. You know, we burned through 19 million dollars in non-recurring revenue items that we don't have anymore, and that was in addition to the tax levy increases for those five years. So, if you average it out, that's about 8 million dollars a year. And that was the hole in one year. Wait, wait, and then the board raised taxes last year 16 million. So, we're still in the hole. There's a structural >> nobody got anything for it. Not one child benefited. Oh, that's not true, Jackie. What What did we do? What did we do? >> That's not true. We still have programs in place. We didn't touch the kids' programs at all. >> We didn't add anything, I'm saying. We didn't add anything for the 16 million

075dollars. We did not add one thing for 16 million dollars. >> the year before >> we're still in a hole. We kept We're in a hole 3 million dollars, And this board and this board said no. sat on their hands for 11 months. literally said no. I was speaking until Devon interrupted. This board literally said no to sharing the services of the police in the in the schools. Literally, this board said no to that. And why, Jackie? >> And why? I I have no idea. I have no idea why you said >> Why did you say no? Because the county commissioner turned our budget down, and that 5.88 wasn't going to help us at all. That has nothing to do with why [cheering] you didn't It has nothing to do with saying no to the

076shared services. It has nothing to do with it. Yes, it does. That is a blatant lie. It was a package deal. It was It was a package deal. Jackie, you know what, Jackie? You guys met with shared services and didn't even include us until we went to the press conference, and I was all for it until the county >> Every single person was called and told, and every single person on this board sat in No, that's not true. Every single person was called after that shared services meeting. Every single person was called on this board after that shared services meeting. Oh, I'm not lying. I am not lying. I sat there, and I made phone calls, and so did Frank. Jackie, we were called and told You guys All you want to do, Joan, is

077pander to this audience. No, that's enough. We were called. No, All right, one person at a time. We were called. We were called and told to come to town hall at 7:30. I was excited. We were told at 7:30 in the morning what the plan was, Jackie. You might have called us and said, "Can you be there?" That's all we were told. We were not told the plan. And I'm not a liar because there's other board members that were the same way. Every single one of you got a phone call that day. And for that 16 million that made us whole, not We were not completely in the thing, but it got us through, and it made up for things that we would have had to cut on top of this year. Well, you know

078what? I stand by what I say, and I'm not a liar. You want to prove me a liar, go right ahead. I've had enough of it, Jackie. You don't even communicate with us. I'm not board leadership, Joan. I'm not board leadership. I'm not in communications with you. We have no reason to communicate. >> have it. You're You're on a board together. That's why you communicate. All right, this this isn't going to solve anything. It's really not. It's not. We have no leadership. It is. It's 20 years of your leadership lies. Is that all the meeting meetings? Negotiations, um Ms. Wright, we already had a We already had a discussion. Number three, one three, one. Where you going, Chris? Uh personnel, policy, Mr. Bacco. No meeting. Student services. Student services, Ms. Torres is not here, so

079I'm going to give that report. Yes, Ms. Mrs. Torres is not feeling well, so she's not here, so I'll sit in for her to give the student services. We also met last night. Um and the first thing we talked about was the development disabilities week that is going to be coming up [clears throat] on March 23rd through the 27th. Um in speaking with Mrs. Granger, we are really revamping how we're going to do development disabilities week. Um I think we are are still going to be doing uh like the spirit wear that's going to be happening every single day throughout the week, but then also trying to get more of the community involved and also really talk about disabilities within the school and really, you know, stress, I think, more inclusion. And so, some of

080the other ideas that Mrs. Granger had was to have specific read-alouds. I think she has uh an entire list of certain books based on the elementary, middle, and high school levels um that I think teachers are going to be uh reading aloud and then perhaps asking uh maybe community members to come in and also read-alouds to the class as well, which really celebrate both um the differences of of all the different children and then also strengthening and really promoting inclusion. And then I believe, if I remember correctly, in the different high schools, there's also going to be poster contests, I believe. That's what she had talked about, right? Right, and getting the students more involved uh at the high school level as well. So, really looking forward to something different um within the district this

081year. Uh last Thursday night was the unified basketball and cheer basketball game um that was held at High School South. I will say that I didn't get to actually see the game, but I was going into High School South for the negotiations. The parking lot was packed, and as soon as I walked in the door, all I heard was a lot of enthusiastic cheering. I heard the pep band. It sounded like they were having an amazing time. Um and hearing from Mrs. Granger and those that were able to make it last Thursday, uh the reports were absolutely glowing. The students had an amazing time. Um, I think the students that were there also, you know, being mentors um to the children as well, really loved it. It just seemed like everybody was really excited. And

082Mrs. Granger is, you know, really trying very hard. I know unfortunately the weather did not uh work in our favor last June to be able to do a unified kickball game, but she is really really uh looking forward to being able to make that happen for the district this year. And I believe uh we already know that we'll be playing brick. So, hopefully we'll have a date uh to give to all of you soon. Uh the other good news that we found out is the high school South Brew Crew is back. Um they had their grand reopening on Friday, February 13th. And they're providing coffee and breakfast treats breakfast treats, sorry, to the entire school community. Um so, this was really great. Obviously, this is an extremely important program to our students because it's a

083really great learning experience for them, you know, in terms of vocational skills, you know, both during their conference and just really I think being able to spread positivity uh throughout the school. Um I believe that we have a new uh This was a new publication to the teachers. Is that right, Mr. Colin? Do you want to do that one? I just want to make sure that I described this one correctly. >> our our specialized supervisors have created an ICC newsletter uh that they share with the teachers just to give them some technology ideas, uh some instructional strategies just to keep supporting our students with specialized instruction. Great. And my uh other really favorite one, this is now a couple months now uh going and I really love to see this is that we had absolutely

084no current special education litigation to discuss. So, I think that's a really great and positive thing for the district. And I believe uh that we also are going to be uh the recipients of a monetary donation for New Monmouth Elementary School from one of the families in our district, which uh their child is, you know, enrolled there, really uh excited and and very thankful for the progress that their child has been making. And so, it sounds like there's discussions now to have a donation to New Monmouth from that family. Yes, that's actually going to be on the agenda. >> Oh, it will be on the agenda? >> Yes. Okay, great. John and I went to the unified basketball game and I just want to say that that was one of the coolest It was so

085much fun to watch. >> It it sounded amazing. I said it was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. They were doing trick shots and They were so proud of themselves. It was really great. One kid really did, he made a three-pointer from almost the other end of the court. We were all like, "Wow!" Yeah, it was really good. That's it, Mrs. Granger? That's it. Okay, thank you. Uh technology is Weinstein. >> [laughter] >> Um the technology Excuse my voice, I'm sorry. The technology committee met uh last week as well. Um first and foremost, we don't have any um voting agenda items for February. We did have a couple of quick updates though. So, in high school North, they did roll out the classroom turnstiles. Um the kiosks have been installed in every classroom in high school

086North. Uh basically, the idea here is to help track student movement outside of the classroom. So, they sign in um they sign out of the classroom when leaving during class times they're going to use the restroom um and then sign back in when they return. And then this way uh the student location can be viewed in real time in Genesis. It's just helping with tracking with time out of class. Um [snorts] there was also a phishing simulation campaign that was run. Um the new smart phishing simulation campaign runs all year along and it refreshes every month with randomized emails being sent out to keep users vigilant. So, rather than just sending one phishing email where people could discuss it and then everybody on the staff would be aware of what type of phishing email was

087sent out. This is changing different types so that the staff is more aware of the different types of phishing emails they might receive and are more able to avoid them. Um [snorts] and then last but not least, the district data center UPS replacement. Um excuse me. The district replaced uh the batteries for the 24K W UPS that powers the district data center in the event of a power outage. Um the latest annual maintenance reported that the current batteries could not hold a sufficient charge. Um so, they ensured that those were adjust uh replaced. Um the UPS is also responsible for conditioning street electricity to remove fluctuations before it enters the data center. So, we are all set there and good to go with our um >> [snorts] >> And that's it for technology. Thank you,

088Mrs. Weinstein. Uh shared services report, we have a meeting uh 25th. >> [snorts] >> 20 26th? I thought it was going to be the 26th. 26th. Thursday next Thursday. And we'll report on it uh out on that end. Food service committee, uh I did see a report >> Cashier I'll take it. I'll take it, yeah. Okay. So, on February 3rd, the food service committee met. Um Mrs. already went over the role of the food service management company. Uh the district engages in the food service management company to manage the food service program for the district. The district operates the program, it collects revenue, pays the expenses, and pays a management fee to the company for its services. The district owns all equipment and is responsible for the space in which the program operates. Um then

089we also spoke about uh offerings by level, elementary, middle, and high school. Um then we also went into compliance requirements. The committee discussed the requirements that the district must comply with as a participant in the National School Lunch Program. Um the participation The committee also discussed the current level of participation across the district, which is approximately 27%. The district has also been working with the food service management company and its consultant and its consultant to find ways to increase participation. Um we also discussed about getting the word out there about free and reduced meals for the uh certain families. Um giving out advanced notification at the end of the school year, during the school year, and also at the beginning of the school year to make sure that everyone receives lunch. Um but no one

090is ever turned away. Um then we also addressed some questions and concerns about topics that are served um and items um and then we also spoke about account restrictions for students. Um the committee also discussed the possibilities of partnering with more local providers. Then we also further went into food service program financials. Uh we discussed review of the food service fund, which is a separate fund from the general budget and is required to be self-sustaining. The food service program is an approximately $3 million operation that is funded by federal and state reimbursement sales. Um then we also learned about We also spoke about outstanding student meal balances and policy regulation. Um outstanding student meal balances are covered under policy 3542.2, Whitsons and administrative team are working on ways to make parents more aware of their

091student balances. Um we recently heard back from Whitsons and rolling out next year, they are going to put out a new beef burger, um which is a lot more healthier. Um and the texture Um the funds to this product for the next year, we are waiting on clarification um and if they can get the funds transferred this year, the price difference is about 3 cents per burger. The fat content on all beef is no more than 20%. Um we're also look We're also going to be using a new beef taco for elementary and middle schools. Um with cleaner products, no soy, and no other allergens. Um this new product can also use the commodity funds. Um they're also going to look into getting uh a better brand of chicken for the students. Um They are

092uh speaking Whitsons is speaking with Sysco and their current supply chain department. Um the amount of saturated fat in a chicken fillet white meat is 1.5. Chicken tenders is 2.5 saturated fat. Chicken nuggets, white meat 2.5. And boneless chicken wings um white meat 1.5. We're also looking into getting uh nitrate-free hot dogs and baking um sorry, bacon um with correct pricing information um and looking for other alternatives other than Tyson. Um and also Whitsons rolled out a homemade applesauce and it was a huge hit at Middletown Village Elementary kids. They absolutely loved it. And that's it. Excellent. The other thing I just wanted to add, and we had talked about this in committee, and um you know, we do we we had a few years ago a a district wellness committee and with the uh

093with the pandemic and everything that disrupted schools, that that kind of, you know, got put on pause, but we want to go back and get that restarted. I know uh a member of the community had reached out to Ms. Weinstein and she forwarded it to me. So, I talked to Mrs. Weinstein about uh we were going to get that initiative restarted again, which would start with a core group of uh organizers, which would be some members of administration, a couple of board members, and get it organized. And then we would talk about how we're going to roll this out across the district, but um we will, you know, we're going to be moving forward on that in the next few months. Can you just uh outline the next the best next steps to get that

094going as far as getting community volunteers and board members on it. >> I think that was what we were going to decide. The core committee was going to make, you know, figure out how they were going to go about that process. So, you know, after we meet, we can we can then, you know, work on the next steps. I think that's, you know, that would be the first thing I would do is get the organizational meeting together and and make a plan to get this moving. Okay. All right, I'll connect with you on that. Thank you. >> Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burns. And sorry. Calendar committee? Yes. Um the calendar committee met on February 3rd to vet out what the proposed school calendar for the 26-27 school year would look like. Um

095Labor Day is extremely late this year, so we will be bringing students back um before Labor Day. Um as you will see on the proposed calendar, um another couple of highlights, and again, this is all determined by committee, is the um reinstatement of the November break. So, we won't have that chopped up week for next year. Um it will be a full 5 days consecutive break. Um you know, the committee felt that it was not ideal given the um election day is is there and we are polling locations. Um and as much as we um love to not have that be a factor, it is, and it's um something that we have to contend with every year. Um you'll see um this year's calendar's proposal also only has one emergency day built in versus two

096that we had this year, although we may, in fact, who knows what's going to happen with this weather coming this weekend, but um there will only be one weather day built in for next school year. Um and really those are the highlights. Um again, we are students must have 180 school days. Um that's by state mandate. So, um you know, the only two major changes were the um earlier start before Labor Day, and then the November break being reinstated. Everything else is pretty much status quo. Did we get to discuss at that meeting what day we're going to take away for the snow day? Um it was proposed that it would be um May 28th, the one before um the Memorial Day weekend. That would be the one. Thank you, ma'am. Uh we just reviewed

097a draft board agenda. Uh any old business? Any new new business? I have some new business. Um I received an email about a student at High School South. Um Future Medical Professionals of America is the name of the group. And Drew Thompson organized a successful blood drive. They collected 32 units of blood, which may have helped to save the lives of up to 96 patients. Congratulations to Drew and everyone who took part in in this group. It's a new group and they're really um the kids are really excited about being a part of it. I think it was good. And I'm sure maybe we'll hear about it next week. But being I got the email, I thought I would put it in. I also want to update the community on our school plays that are

098coming up. You don't want to miss them. Our kids are fantastic. Make sure you get out there. There there's a whole bunch in a row, so it'll probably keep you busy for a few nights. The only play I didn't get information on was Thompson, but I have the Thorne play is The Descendants, and it's from March 14th to the 18th. They even have a Saturday afternoon performance. Bayshore is April 30th and May 1st, Grease Junior. North play, Once Upon a Mattress, is March 13th, 14th uh at 7:00, and on the 14th, they have a 1:00 p.m. and a 7:00 show. South play is Guys and Dolls, March 12th, 13th, and 14th at 7:00. Um I think that's all the plays. And then there was also a PTA fundraiser for anyone in the community that's interested

099in getting your students' portraits taken, it'll be held at the Navesink Library on March 14th, and any information you need can go through the Navesink PTA. So, that's the upcoming for the student performances. I hope everyone gets to attend. Thank you, ma'am. Anybody else for new business? Okay, this time I'd like to open up the mic public portion for 30 minutes. Uh just please keep in mind we have a lot of people, so >> [cough and clears throat] >> we like to keep it to 3 minutes. And the Mr. Burns, the board attorney, will be timing you, so when you're coming up on your 3 minutes, he'll let you know. Thank you. My name is Katie Littlepage. I live in Middletown. I have a child enrolled in our district and a younger child as well.

100I attend Board of Education meetings to be proactive in my children's educational experience. At the last Board of Education meeting on January 27th, during public comment, I asked Board President Chris Aveta a question about policy and procedure. He and the board's attorney, William Burns, attempted to respond, but their response did not answer my question. So, I rephrased my question and asked again. It became apparent that Mr. Burns and Mr. Aveta were frustrated that I was asking them to answer with a yes or no. While I was standing at the podium with 15 minutes remaining in the public's comment time, Mr. Aveta interrupted me and said, "Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?" Board member Jacqueline Tobacco quickly seconded the motion, and board members Frank Capone, Katerina Skolaski, and Sarah Weinstein voted with them

101to pass the motion. Notably, board members Joan Minue, Mark Szymanski, Deborah Wright, and Aaron Torres voted against the motion to prematurely end the meeting during public comment. Middletown Township Policy 112.5 Civility states, quote, "It is the intent of the board to promote mutual respect, civility, and orderly conduct among board members, district employees, parents, students, and the public. It is not the intent of the board to deprive any person of his or her right of freedom of expression." Mr. Aveta, you have previously served on this board. Mr. Mr. Toba- Mr. Capone and Ms. Tobacco, Ms. Skolaski, you have been serving on this board for years, and Ms. Weinstein, this is your second candidacy for this board. Your experience implies that you are aware of this policy and therefore knowingly chose to violate it. By doing so,

102you did a profound disservice to the Middletown residents and parents in that room and to their children. Serving on this board is an unpaid volunteer position. Because you are not being financially compensated, one could infer that you accepted this position because you have a passion for children's public education. It therefore does not make sense that you would motion to silence a student's mother and other members of the public with 15 minutes remaining in the public's comment time. If you are not interested in hearing from the public, why are you serving on a public Board of Education? If you did not accept this position to put Middletown's children first, please reconsider completing your term on this board. My hope, however, is that from this point forward, you will abide by your policy and be collaborative with

103the parents and residents who make the effort to speak at these meetings. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Kristen Rooney, Middletown, New Jersey. Um given the state of the budget last year, and we've been through this before, um sounds like we're about to go through it again. Um I just have a few specific questions about what has been done in committees and by the administration to ensure that we bring in more revenue and that we bring down costs, so that we can get to a healthy financial future. Um specifically, has anyone explored bringing in before or after care or looked at other districts that do that, running it in-house, because that's other districts do it, and it's very lucrative, and I feel like it's been raised here before. Has anybody Has that been brought up at

104any point? I can follow up with email. Uh it's a longer response than We have examined >> Okay. I'll I will send you these, but Thank you. Um Have you investigated pre-K, expanding the pre-K program? Uh can we get more grant money if if we expand it, because that's another We have >> hot topic. a lot of challenges with that. Okay. Um because there are restrictions in getting the state's money, and certain things you have to do. Okay. So. Thank you. Um Have you tried to seek out more revenue to pay for the scoreboards, because it looks like we've now covered maybe 1% of the, I guess, approximately $900,000 that was spent. I don't know if we've have any more advertisers since we last spoke. Okay. I mean, we have the bill, so we're trying

105to go by that, and it doesn't look like it, but if I'm wrong, I'd love to be wrong. Um Have you I think you covered this earlier, and you're having a shared services meeting, but I we know that the shared services, the police, are costing us $1.3 million a year, and last year we talked about at least splitting it. I do think that when it initially happened, the mayor mentioned paying for it all, so I don't know. I feel like if we need the money and we're trying to not hurt our kids and keep them safe, that the mayor would definitely be the one to listen to that because he's a good guy and has his own kids. Um have you looked into more opportunities to rent out school facilities, stages, fields? Um is that

106something that we're pursuing? And I know that we've said like some of these things are nickel-and-dime things, but you know, to to make a healthy budget, you nickel-and-dime. You don't slash and burn and amputate. Um given that I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong, you now have the approval to sell land that's owned by the Board of Education. And I believe that we own approximately a dozen properties and that that was something that was on the table last year was the sale of a piece of property. But those properties were not um appraised. Have the properties been appraised and is that something that's being considered cuz there's a lot of property that's worth a good amount of money. We have appraisals and permission from the state to sell some of those properties. Okay. And

107is that something that's considered in in your budget planning process? Well, it's something that is up for discussion knowing that we have the ability to sell them. Um there haven't been any active conversations internally administratively, yes, but you know, that's where it has sat right now. Okay. But there's approval Correct. and there are appraisals. Correct. Okay. That's good. Um That's 3 minutes. Can you please stop? Okay. I I have one more. Um just looking at what's in the news, the Holmdel Board of Education um recently they're trying to broker a deal with their township to get a portion of their pilot program tax revenue. And I know that we have a lot of new building going on and there's a lot of pilot pilots that are being offered to builders. So, I am curious if

108I would think this is I don't know who would do this and what committee, if this is something that you would consider um and I'm sure you could speak to the Holmdel Board of Education to see how they're going about it, but they're looking for 30% of the pilots for builders because builders putting kids in schools should fund schools. Amen. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Ashley Studd. I'm a resident of Middletown. I want to clear up a few um confusion. Number one, shared services meetings can be requested by the board. It does not need to be by the town. The fact that we haven't had a meeting in a year is pretty sad. Um number two, it's not the board's job to come up with strategies for the budget. So, can

109we stop saying that? It's what we pay you guys to do. Um I think a lot of us in here are completely miffed because at at least three meetings I can recall in the last six months we've heard we're in good shape financially. I'm just looking a lot better. Um you know, we don't need to worry about this. We keep asking, "Hey, when are we going to start these financial decisions so we're not blindsided like last year?" It feels like we learned nothing. >> [applause] >> While school closings are being discussed behind closed doors, last February reckless spending continued including a scoreboard for the football field that has been spent $900,000 this year. So, the fact that we can't nickel-and-dime our way out of stuff is wrong. We have sold $10,000 in ads for this

110so-called investment that was going to pay for itself. That's 1%. You guys, I can't help but feel like there are other motivations behind this. This blindsiding, it's got to stop. I'm sorry that you have contributions from people that like wanting to invest in construction, but that's not our town's problem. We need to start making better decisions. This doesn't feel like it was well planned out. It doesn't feel like all options were considered. And I What have What have you done to learn from last year? >> [applause] >> I you kept communicating community schools also. We know that like 2 weeks ago you emailed Hayber to tell him to do another one with closed schools. So, the fact that like this is news to the board also is very concerning. This just does not feel like

111anything's well communicated. Starting to feel like a lot of things are not being transparent. And it's really hurtful to the people that have trusted you that you said made all these promises. We're going to prioritize community schools. We're going to do better. We're going to start the financial discussion earlier. And here we are in February. Like maybe 2 weeks before where we were last year. I don't That's it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, Heather Gober in Middletown. So, a couple things. Just at the last meeting, Dr. Alfano, one, you said we're not in the same financial position. Correct, we're not. We're not 19 million in the hole. Okay, [clears throat] great. Do you know when you said that the implications were made that some of these things were off the table. We I I

112never said that school closings were off the table. You never said that last year. Yes, you did. I said we believe in community schools and listen, if we could keep them all open, it would be great, but that's just not the real That's not how you shrink operating costs. So, please don't put words in my mouth. The presentation that was brand new to you, again. >> [clears throat] >> Which presentation that was brand new to me? At the last meeting. Yeah. Hayber presentation. >> Yeah, it was brand new to us. Okay. That's interesting because your emails say otherwise. Hayber himself said otherwise. We had preliminary We didn't see a final version till days before. We didn't see the information from him in We saw drafts, of course. Okay. So, you you saw other things that

113didn't probably didn't present the case that you wanted, so you kept going at it and having No. No, we didn't. We didn't see any iterations until That's not what that man said, so is he the liar or are you the liar? iterations He did all those iterations. >> [applause] >> He did not share those iterations with us. Well, that's not what he said. Everything's on Well, that is that is And you also got the emails where Please stop accusing cuz he misspoke. Okay. So, he's saying you're a liar. No, I know you're talking. Okay. So, what I want to say to the board now is because we're talking about this again, closing these middle schools. We sat for 11 months waiting for this Hayber report to tell us about school usage. Where are schools at

114capacity? All he addresses the elementary schools. There are hundreds of kids in these middle schools that we're not talking about. You have kids' lives. We have the special ed kids. No one is saying anything about them. They matter. They matter as much as the elementary schools. All these kids matter. I want you to tell me how many kids are going to be in each class when you shove Bayshore into Thorne and Thompson. There was actually going to be 17 staff we were going to be able to repurpose last year to lower class sizes at the middle schools, but we never got that far in the conversation. So, we were considering lowering class sizes cuz I do believe that 27 and 28 kids is too many. But without any wiggle room and without having people that

115are willing to listen openly and get to those next steps, we we can never even have those conversations. >> were going to add 17. Listen, we didn't know schools were in a hole, 19 million, 3 million, but oh, I was going to add 17. No, we weren't adding anything. We weren't adding anything. We were going to repurpose teachers through the through the Bayshore disbursement to the other two buildings to be able to lower class sizes and that is a fact. But we never got to that point. You know, I'm I'm really really disheartened by the fact that people come up here and they speak and we we want to hear you, but you're accusatory and you also don't work behind the scenes in a school. So, it is really hard for you to make judgments

116on things without knowing the facts. I'm giving you a fact, but when I give you a fact, you say, "I don't believe you." That's 3 minutes. Can you please stop? She gets my time. She lied that she spoke at me. It's 3 minutes. That's all you get. She gets my two minutes cuz she lied that she was interrupted. Okay, you have another 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Let me speak. Wow. Thank you, Dr. Alfano. You get your 30 seconds. Why? So, you can just shrug it off? Okay. So, board, please, before we vote on this and we say, "Okay, we're going to close Bayshore and putting these children into Thorne and Thompson." Get facts. Get facts that aren't coming from Dr. Alfano. If we want We spent 11 months waiting for this report that told us

117about elementary schools. Get an outside report. Tell us what's going to happen to these middle schools. Don't just vote blindly. Thank you for my 30 seconds. You're welcome. >> [applause] >> Hi, good evening. Um my name is Aditi Shah, a resident of Middletown. Um I think it's been made clear clearer than ever in today's meeting that there the there's like another rush um to make a decision, but it's half-baked at best. I think there's a lot of incomplete information. I think there's a lot of miscommunication or non-communication and I certainly hope that that whatever decision is made will not be rushed for the sake of rush and be made soundly. With that said, um my one specific comment is that if the board does vote to redistrict based on the version of the Hayber report

118that was posted um up until this week, that I at the very very least that you allow the children who are already well established in their middle in their elementary schools to remain there. To to yank out a third or fourth or fifth grader from their school where they have established a sense of community, established their sense of, you know, confidence and friendship. And in the case of I'll speak on behalf of Lincroft to move four third graders and three fourth graders only, I can hardly imagine that that will benefit the district in any way, but it will be detrimental to these kids who have really, you know, kind of earned their way to the fourth and fifth grade. And that's the situation we're in. So, in that case, I believe that the harm to

119the kids will will greatly outweigh any benefits to the district. And so, if you were to pursue the redistricting, which again, I'm not in favor of, but if you go that route, I would ask that you at the very least grandfather the kids in who are already at their schools and, you know, consider starting for the new incoming I said it back. I [applause] said it back. I do because they don't want to be out of the the other programs that they don't want to be out of it, okay? I agree to that. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Jonathan Etter. I'm a Middletown resident. I'm not very happy that I have to be here again tonight discussing the same thing that we've been discussing for the last year. Um I'll second what she

120said. I think the [clears throat] Ross Haber report that was presented talked about moving 120 students. That's if we change things tomorrow. There's no reason that a process like that couldn't be grandfathered in over time for not just new students, but new families. Um if we're thinking about truly a long-term plan, which is what the goal of this board was supposedly trying to accomplish. What we heard tonight and what was represented sounded like a scope that was very limited and directed by this board to support a foregone decision that uh you're trying to continue to shove down our throats. Um the Ross Haber talked repeatedly about two school closures, when in fact there was an obvious third of Bay Shore Middle School. To ignore that entirely is disrespectful to all of us as an audience

121who have been spending our time showing up here, who didn't run to be on a board, but are just showing up because we care about our kids' future and education. And my kids aren't even in the school district yet. The Ross Haber report also said they based their findings off of uh births attributed to Middletown. Does anyone in this room have a kid who wasn't born in Middletown, but is going to enter a Middletown school? Cuz I know I do. So, that data is incomplete. Um I know we didn't look at middle schools at all in the Ross Haber report, because why would we? It doesn't lend to the story you were trying to accomplish. But currently, there are 1,963 middle school kids. That's not a projection. That's how many kids are in that or

122in the those three middle schools. If you divide that exactly by two, you end up with 981 kids per school without any of your projections for growth over the next 5 years. So, where does that put us in terms of the overcrowding? When you issued your MTPS survey in the fall, the number one concern about school closures and redistricting was overcrowding with 80% of respondents saying that that was their number one concern. So, where is the community in your plan? You're clearly not thinking of the students. You're clearly ignoring the community's feedback. And you're painting a picture with incomplete data to try and make us stomach everything. And you sit here and roll your eyes and laugh as we speak. And it's disrespectful. If you don't want to be here, leave. I have to be

123here because I'm interested in my kids' future. >> [applause] >> I am Heather Safford and I'm a Middletown resident. And I'm here on behalf of Middletown Friends of Diverse Learners to express our concerns and to call on our community to work together to create a clear, viable strategic plan and budget that supports all of our students. We know from experience when there is no plan, decisions often become reactive, resulting in service reductions and the redistricting of special education classes and students. We also know that thoughtful, collaborative planning leads to better outcomes. We are concerned that the Haber report did not provide an analysis of special education classes and related services location to ensure stability and consistent school pathways. It also assumed the status quo instead of the prior planned increase in inclusion. Despite both So,

124despite both federal and state underfunding, our district has supported a higher than average classification rate, just over 20%. That means over one in five students receive special education services in addition to many others that have 504 plans. These students are significant and vital part of our community. We are grateful for the strong community support for our students and inclusion. Yet, we remain concerned. Some students' families have difficulty obtaining or maintaining an IEP that provides special ed. Some students are still inadequately supported or isolated. There is a also a lack of clear communication and shared understanding about the challenges facing both special needs families and the district. In the last 5 years strategic plan, inclusion was prioritized. Since then, the district has done important work, including several multi-year all-in grant initiatives and consultations. It's important to

125recognize the professional development efforts by our educators and progress that has been made to increase access to general education. However, following the grant period, reassessment showed that none of our schools were fully inclusive and some continued to demonstrate low levels of inclusive practice. Questions remain regarding what systematic changes have occurred post grants. More funding as well as structural and cultural change are needed. We need a forward-looking, transparent strategic plan grounded in research and collaboration. Planning needs to ensure Title One funding. We need access to the updated master facility plan. We must be willing to have open and honest communication and conversations about what tradeoffs are being made. We must plan to ensure that we're not continuing to marginalize or repeatedly redistrict our most vulnerable students. Our students deserve a system designed with intention, not by

126default. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hello, my name is Jody Truitt and I reside in Lincroft. I'm speaking this evening on behalf of the Middletown Friends of Diverse Learners and members of our special education community. I would like to speak about the meaningful inclusion of students who receive special education services within our general education classrooms. Inclusion defines not only our schools, but also our values as a community. Every child deserves an opportunity to be an active member of their school community and to access education alongside their peers. Education is about more than legal compliance. It's about dignity, opportunity, and belonging. Inclusive classrooms benefit all students, not only those that receive special education services. Students with disabilities gain access to grade level curriculum, peer role models, and meaningful um social interactions that help build confidence, independence,

127and communication skills. At the same time, inclusion enhances the educational experience of students without disabilities by fostering empathy, collaboration, respect for individual differences. Learning alongside peers of diverse abilities prepares students for real-world workplaces and communities. Effective inclusion requires thoughtful collaboration between general and special education staff, differentiated instruction, and appropriate supports and modifications. When implemented effectively, inclusion rises expectations for all learners and strengthens the school's culture by promoting strong peer relationships and a greater sense of belonging. However, many students still lack full access to full-day support within general education settings. At the elementary level, self-contained classes are often not aligned with their grade level peers for specials and for lunch, limiting their opportunities for consistent peer relationships. Continuity and community are essential for students to thrive. We are a model district in our inclusive pre-K program,

128and we hope to see this inclusion initiative progress lead into kindergarten and beyond. As budget and strategic planning efforts move forward, I hope to see collaborative discussions that meaningfully address the needs of our special education population, which represents greater than 20% of our district. When we choose inclusion, we choose a future where no child is left out and where outcomes are improved by all students. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Uh good evening Good evening. Eric Dowal I'm a Middletown resident. Um it's a shame that the public was not allowed to ask Mr. Mr. Haber questions uh because I had several. Uh but I think the board should also consider these questions. Uh first, the optics. Uh you had a plan proposed last year entitled Middletown Reimagined. Uh we took chose a better course. What are

129the optics of an outgoing superintendent spending the last 10 months telling the community that we were good to engage in robust strategic planning that the Haber work was going to assist us in that strategic planning in terms of being an open-ended uh data-based study and then finding ourselves back here once again on short notice having wasted the entire year with what appears to be a scope of work that was just supposed to back up Middletown Reimagined as the superintendent heads out the door. I would next ask Mr. Haber about financial analysis even though he admitted that he did not. Because that's curious given the notion is that closing elementary schools somehow saves millions of dollars per year. It does not. Keeping a small elementary school open, the building, costs somewhere between 200 and 250,000 dollars

130per year. This is Al Phone admitted it. The biggest driver of operating expense is not buildings, it's it's people, it's staffing. So, if we're talking about millions and millions and millions of dollars per year, we're not talking about closing schools. We're talking about firing dozens and dozens and dozens of classroom teachers. So, let's admit that. Uh next, I would have asked Mr. Haber about the impact on student experience cuz he didn't look at that either. We're talking about closing two elementary schools, both of them excellent by the way, one middle school, excellent by the way, and we all know and remember that plan A doesn't stop there. There's two more elementary schools that need to be closed to get to the finish line. Uh but he didn't bother to address what we all know is

131that that would be horrible for many hundreds of children in Middletown. If that's what we're really concerned is the kids, the educational experience in Middletown, that's what we should be focused on. Next, you did not consider and and to go to your point, Mr. Abetta, whether we should do this now, next year, 5 years from now. I I know that all three new members on the board, Mrs. Weinstein, Mr. Abetta, Mrs. Torres, all three of you, one of the common themes you ran on was transparency. The look of trying to do this on very short notice would be the opposite of transparency. This community has rolled up its sleeves and said we are ready to engage in real strategic planning. He d- also didn't address what happens if we don't get new financing. Eventually, we

132need to pass a referendum. And what happens if the community doesn't support a referendum? And finally, he didn't address community input. That's what we were seeking all of this last year. We had a record-breaking survey where the only takeaways was that the community loves its community schools and the community doesn't want them to close. So, as we go forward over these next couple months, I hope the board keep all those things in mind because Mr. Haber certainly did not. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I'm trying to avoid leaning over into this thing like I usually do. I don't know. Uh so, uh first, I I just wanted to thank you for finally addressing >> sorry, could you please state your name for the record? Apologies. Uh Dan Jewel, I live in Atlantic Highlands.

133Um so, first, thank you for addressing one of the main things that was grating on me with the the uh the Ross Haber report, which is the counterfactual of what happens if we do nothing. The report didn't seem to address that at all, and finally, we heard from Mr. that we have a real deficit on our hands that continues to exist and we have to do something about it. So, thank you for finally addressing that. Um so, to me, that's that brings up the question of do we have any good data as to whether this deficit is primarily due to a spending issue that we need to cut back on or is it an income issue that we just are not given enough money to support the school system that we a a school system

134of for a town of our stature. Uh for for me, I mean, I don't know if anybody has the answer off the top of their heads, but the way that I thought about analyzing this is just amongst our peers, say in our county, where do we rank with how much money we take in as a school district versus the total tax levy. And it's granted I didn't come here with the most current numbers. I did this last year. Uh we were kind of in the bottom 20% of our peers in the town or in the county. I mean, 80% of the towns in our county spend more on their schools than we do um for the same tax uh levy that they have. So, to me, I kind of suggest that and I I fully

135understand that a tax increase, which is one of the obvious ways of getting more money, isn't third, probably beyond the third rail in politics. It's the But uh the big question for me, if I could just wrap up, is You you That That was 30 minutes, so go ahead, continue. I'm in the closing Yeah, I'm I'm in the closing yes, actually. >> you're good. >> My question >> You're fine. Uh to me, the big question is why are our taxes already so high and yet our school spending is so low? I'm sure there's a pig in this budget somewhere, but I kind of doubt that it's on the school side. To me, it seems like it's more on the municipal side. I'd rather not pay any more taxes, but why are we paying so much

136so significantly? That's the way. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Before I get cut off, I thought I'd go. Um hi, I'm Kristen Coons, Middletown resident. Um Oh, I'll hold that. That works better. Um I would like to say um I've been to I think every Board of Ed meeting that I could make. All the others I watched online. I've been to the strategic planning meetings. I've been to meetings with Kevin Cullen um I moved to this town. I researched just about every town in New Jer- New Jersey. And what did I look at? I looked at the school reports. I looked at the grades. I looked at all the ratings of all the schools. And I will fundamentally say that Middletown was I not the first town on my list. It was not, but when

137I started to look at the schools, it came to the top. And I was super impressed with the schools and the education. So, thank you for that. And I will say everybody here, we are all participators in our children's education. Everyone I see here, we're PTA members, we're volunteers, we're here for our kids. And we value public education. And so, I think what my question and what I'm feeling from you guys is what is your value on public education? Like how much I feel like maybe uh philosophically, do you really believe in it? Do you really want it to be the best? Because I look at this town and I say we could be the best school district in New Jersey. Is that we we have the affluence, we have the resource, we have the

138talent, we have the talented kids to be that school district, but again and again, we come to these meetings and information is presented last minute. I don't need to get into the data points. Everyone else does a really great job presenting those, but I feel like these we deserve data that stands up to scrutiny. We deserve data that stands up to common sense, that stands up to desire for excellence in schools. Like isn't that why you got into education? Isn't that why you're here? Why don't we strive for the best? I It It Like [applause] uh my my son watches these meetings, too. He is a uh thriving student at Bay Shore, but I am partial. And >> [laughter] >> his teachers might think otherwise. But, you know, we we come and we're like and

139I watched this you know, I watched the debates nationwide. I don't look at schools at a micro level or macro. I look at it across the board. We've got on New Jersey is consistently the top of Is New Jersey and Massachusetts have the best school districts in the country. Um you know, I've read reports that say Florida and Arizona you know, might know what report I'm talking about, but um I obviously they're not. Um But why, you know, like >> That's 30 minutes, please. I wish I could talk for 30 minutes, but no, I cannot. Um but you know, on the contrary, like every school district is going back to small schools, going back to small community schools. You see it time and time again because it works. It's effective and we see it in

140our kids. And as board members that got into this for education, I plead with you, like let's work on our rollout of delivery of information because we have board members here attacking public We have We have board members attacking >> me, actually 3 minutes. We're over 30, so >> You can wait. We Yes. But you can We've got We've got board members that attack the public on social media for um >> And we're there so the next person can speak. It's been 3 minutes. Thank >> He doesn't mind waiting another minute. Um He's fine. >> We're trying to keep an orderly meeting here, so I would ask you again to please Your 3 minutes is up. To please Oh, you know, I've come to every meeting for the last year. I haven't said anything. Let

141me take my time. >> you can come back again the next meeting and you'll get another 3 minutes. I'll get back up. All right. >> No, your 3 minutes is up, so we're going to have a couple more and that'll be the end of that public portion. Hey guys. You might remember me. My name is >> Please Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah. My name is Rowan Young. Um yeah, I I was born in New York and I came to Middletown for all the schools here. >> [clears throat] >> As my mom said. Yeah. And yeah, Leonard is amazing. Very fun. Also going to Bay Shore. Yes, Bay Shore. There's like so many clubs there. STEM club math club and yeah. Fun. And there's Yeah. Very fun. And yeah, it's kind of being forgotten, which

142isn't very nice. I was here last time. You might remember me. Hello. Yes, I am. So, yeah. Very fun. Hi. Bye-bye. Thank you. Amara Lespinasse, Middletown. So, I I kind of just want to mirror what's been said in just another way. We were here last week or 2 weeks ago, whatever the last meeting was, and Heber made a presentation. I came up and asked why he did not consider the middle schools in his presentation, and he said that he was not asked to do that. 2 weeks later, we come back and he has a proposal that will affect middle schools. Um he kept saying Bay Shore, he kept saying two two schools closing. Obviously, if you move two schools into Bay Shore, Bay Shore students have to have to move. Um he kept saying special

143education was going to get moved. It Are we seriously talking about moving all of special education into one building and taking them out of We're not. No, that's not viable. I You couldn't do that. I I understand that, but that is what he was making it seem to sound like by saying special education can move. He meant Um let me clarify. So, when he did his original study he did not take into consideration that we have district-wide programs. Pre-K is one. Some of our um special class programs are as well. We can locate them anywhere. Part of our overall goal is to create logical sending pathways for special education students in those special class programs on both sides of town, so kids don't have to zigzag. So, in his latest iteration he was able to

144be more mobile with those classrooms that are currently designated for pre-K and self-contained special ed special class programs, knowing that we were going to be relocating them anyway to create those logical pathways. When he When he gave his first presentation, he was showing I'll use Harmony, easiest example. He was showing that building at capacity because he was only looking at the classrooms that house general ed students. They have, I believe, 15 classrooms that are dedicated to pre-K and special ed that I'm not saying they shouldn't be there or we shouldn't have some of them there, and but they're mobile. So, he was able to look at that factor in his his latest analysis. And was it just the elementary special ed that he was looking at for that analysis? Yeah, and most I mean, these

145analyses start with elementary because certainly that's going to feed into your to your other grade levels, right? Cuz you're um and and even the elementary iteration would include some kind of changes in the feeder patterns to middle school because we do have some illogical lines, and we do also have to even out the populations in the middle schools if we're going to retain three of them. And there are ways to do that. Cuz my my my fear is is that the decision's made and we're just unaware of that. And Okay. Because and I [clears throat] hope I pray that that's true. I pray that we don't come back here next in 2 weeks and that or next week and that there's a motion to vote. >> Right. And here's and I think the proof in

146the fact that there is no decision made is that we're kind of like in this suspended state with the budget right now because we don't have a a consensus on how we're closing that gap right now. And so I just want to take into account again that we are in the same position that we are we were we were last year where I don't want to be the one to make the hard decision. I don't envy you at all at all. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be the one that has to stand up here and say that the the footprint is that Wright said has to change. Ultimately, I think we probably all know somewhere down the line it has to change. We I think we understand that as

147a community. The overall consensus is the way that it keeps going about it, and that is the problem that we're all having every repeatedly now for the second year in a row is the way the information is being brought out to us. And there's been strategic planning meetings um that were supposed to take all of this into into account. I have not heard anything about what happened at those strategic planning meetings, like the the ultimate outcome of those meetings. I don't know if that has been discussed or not, and I dismissed it, and or how that's playing into the decision of what happened. >> The strategic plan is more about broad goals of the district. Obviously, facilities and finance come into play in that. Um we are meeting next week in subcommittees to start setting

148goals for each of those broader areas, but the Let me just make something clear. The strategic planning process are that doesn't decide if schools are closing or not, right? Like there are recommendations, and certainly we hear feedback, but that is not the purpose of strategic planning to decide are we going to close or are we not. It's to create broad goals for the district to move forward in a variety of areas, facilities finance being one of those areas. Um so, next week um we are starting that process again um now that we have some more information from the Heber report, from feedback from the community um to start um setting those goals, and we have um each committee has a community liaison that's going to be leading that charge. So, that's where we are with

149that. >> Okay. So, I guess my last question is and just pure honesty in the best of your ability will there be Could there possibly be a a vote on closing schools as an option for the coming in September? Just so that we're aware. Whether it happens or it doesn't happen, but is that an option that we should all be prepared for and understanding of, and just in the of transparency, is it an option? If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't happen, great, we'll keep going on. But I think that we as a public deserve to know just just tell us if there is an option that we could walk in here at some point between now and June that there would be on the table that schools would be closing in September. I

150think we'll just say at this point we're evaluating all options. You know, I don't think anything's off the table um at this point. Obviously, we're hearing other iterations of things that could be done. Um I think the board has to decide what iteration is the best, number one, and also the timeline for that iteration to be implemented. No one's saying it's necessarily September, but again, I'll go back to the numbers that Mr. Revita presented in and Mrs. Doherty in the finance committee meeting. We are in a much better financial position. That is not a lie. I mean, 19 million and 3 million are much different numbers in in my book. Um but that doesn't mean we're out of the weeds, right? Like we still have a lot of work to do um whether or not

151we have another year of bought time, you know, that Yeah, could we scrub down that 3.2 million with other things, but it at the at the expense of what programs? I'll just say that because again, 3.2 million is not a small amount of money. So, that's where we are. And And with that that that We're going to get to the last two people. That's >> I understand. I just want to thank >> 3 minutes. everybody for their >> for their time. And Thank you. >> [applause] >> Hi, good evening. I'm going to speak very loudly because as anyone who's in the The audience knows, if you've ever watched from home, the audio is terrible at home. >> can you please just state your name? Jessica Smith, Middletown. So, the just so you know, the audio

152when you watch from your home, from your computer, is absolutely terrible. Um so, I just want to bring up the fact that I have looked into um with great detail the information that came out um back when your campaign was running, Mr. Raveda and Ms. Swanstrom. Um and first, let me actually state before I forget, I don't know if I look familiar, but I actually represent one of dozens of parents, possibly hundreds in this town, who were blocked on your campaign Facebook page for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I, a mother in this town, I represent one of those people, just so you know. So, when you were blocking people for making factual commentary, I am one of those people. I remain blocked. I don't know if you still actively use it, but I do remain

153blocked on that page before I continue. Secondly, my main point of why I'm here is because I, like so many parents in this town, I read all the information that came out during your campaign about the donations that were made to your campaign and where those were sourced from and who made those donations. I'd like to point out that one of the PACs that donated to you, most of those donations, if not all of them, came from people who benefit off of school closures, okay? >> [applause] >> And to make matters worse, [cheering] Mr. Raveda, Ms. Swanstrom, Mr. Cody, Mr. Cody, who I know is in the audience, to make it worse, not only, I believe I saw him in the audience, I could be mistaken, but not only did those donations come from people

154who benefit off of school closures, but those donations to the one PAC from which you accepted money from came were donated cash check to that PAC before the information was ever made public about the school closures last year in the early part of 2025. I'd also like to let you know that I have done my homework and I have talked to the New Jersey School Board Association. So, before anyone on this board tries to tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about or that this is not a good idea, I want to share with everybody, everyone here, an idea that no one here has thought of and that is this. Anyone who accepted donations from someone who is already um under contract in this district, I don't think I need to name names

155there. Anyone who accepted donations from people who benefit off of school closures, anyone who has a campaign who's has a treasurer who is also the treasurer of other PACs and other coalitions who benefit off of high-density housing being built in neighborhoods like ours, I am going to ask that you recuse yourself from voting for school closures. That is my request. >> [applause and cheering] >> You should recuse yourself from voting. You do not have a right to make a decision for my children, for any of the parents in this room. You do not have a right to make a decision on their future based on the people that you've taken money from. And that includes Mr. Tabacco, Mrs. Tabacco, and Mr. Capone, because if you helped set them up with any of these political people

156and you travel in the same circles for people who benefit off of school closures, you are in the same category. You are in the same category. And I I checked if you did this No, I will wrap it up when I'm done. No, you'll I would ask that the other board members, there should be a motion that if you accepted money from people that benefit off of school closures or anyone who's under contract in this district, you should be unable to vote on those matters. And I really believe in that in my heart, I do, because I'm someone who has a very strong moral compass, I'm someone of strong ethics, and I do not agree with what's going on here. I do not. >> [applause] >> Good night. Scott McPherson, Middletown resident. Dr. Alfone, you

157said in your community update, "Much more stable ground." That's what you said. Yep. We asked time and time again about this budget since last year, so that we didn't find ourselves in the same exact position we were on March 18th of last year, and here we are. Do better. I suggest that you have next Tuesday's meeting in the auditorium, and if they're using it for the play, have it in the cafeteria. Have space so that everyone who wants to say something can be here. Figure it out. Do better. Riverbank? He said Riverbank. It's River Plaza. Come on. This is who we hired? This is who we're taking direction from or advice from? How many times did he say that when you were in in private session, in executive session? Not at all? Well, that's because

158we stopped the executive session. Let's let's be clear about that, too. Right? So, yeah, one of the notes that I wrote down in one of the comments in the outside is, should he be speaking to you during executive session? Is that one of the exceptions to the executive session, Mr. Burns? I don't think so. He said he didn't do the study? Did he say that? Am I making that up? No, he said that, right? Then why is he presenting if he didn't do the study? Where's Mr. Ammon? Our kids are not just simple concepts. That's what he said, simple concept. It's a simple concept. You need to start with our kids, not end there. You have a real opportunity to do what's right for the children of this district. You know that closing three schools

159is not right. You know that overcrowding Thompson and Thorne is not right. You know that moving 121 students is not right. Be adults. Figure it out. Administration, that's why you get paid. Board members, that's why you ran. It's unfathomable that we're in the same exact position we were last year. I just I'm at a loss for words to how we wound up here again, especially when we asked time and time again, "What's going on with the budget?" Let's be more transparent. Let's communicate to the public what's going on. And again, just a total failure, just disappointment. Do better. Be better. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right, we'll call up the public portion, public portion of the meeting. Motion to adjourn. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Abstentions?