MTPS Board of Education Workshop/Voting Meeting (Final Budget) (4.30.25)

001one. Good evening everyone. adequate notice that this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury pop press the Middletown badge Middletown township school and the posting of such notice that minor administrative offices in each elementary middle and secondary school district Mr. Fitzgerald here Mrs. Mc here Mrs. Gasi here Mr. Sarowski here Mrs. Wright here Mrs. here. Mr. Here, Mr. Here I need a motion for exam sessions to express matters and personal second. All in favor? See you. one. Good evening everyone. Please stand [Applause] [Music] alsisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all. Hey, good evening everyone. We'll start tonight off with our student speakers. First up from High School North, Paige. Paige if she comes in her next. Uh from High School South is Miss Sophia Pasco here. Moving on. Tonight we have

002our public hearing adoption of the 2025 26 district budget. We're now going to hand to the starting presentation of the final 2526 school year. [Music] Good evening everyone. I'm Amy Dary. I'm the business administrator for the district. For those of you who don't know me, uh tonight is our public hearing on our 2526 proposed budget and we're just going to go through some information on that so that everybody is familiar with what is being proposed this evening. We presented our tenative budget back in March. Uh we've made some changes to the budget uh that are being presented here at the public hearing. Uh there has been discussion, but for those of you who aren't familiar, uh we were approved for the submission of an application to the NJB for the tax levy incentive program. And

003that program uh allows the district to increase its tax levy above what's allowed in the budget law, which will be 2% regular increase and then any adjustments that would be made. Uh in addition, the NJPL was allocating additional state aid uh for those districts who chose to apply for this incentive and incorporate into their budget uh to an incentive obviously to get some additional revenue along the tax levy. The reason why this was qualified for this program is that our budget was determined to be under adequacy based upon the NJ deal formula for afficion. Thank [Applause] [Music] you. Maybe we need to close it. I mean I I guess I'll continue and talk through it and if anybody wants to go back this will be posted online after the meeting as well. So you need

004to refer to it. [Applause] So, moving on, our final budget proposed includes a an additional tax levy of [Music] 8,372,956 and $418,648 in additional state aid that the the state aid portion to match our tax levy that we are increasing. The utilization of the additional funds includes replacing savings from the proposed school closures and consolidations that were included in our tenative budget. Uh also maintains current class size caps of 25 for elementary, 28 for secondary. Uh maintaining some interventionist positions that were slated to be eliminated to support student instruction. uh maintain some of the maintenance positions that we are going to have to cut. Uh also restore some of the technology replacements that we were planning on previously eliminating. Uh we also are accounting for the replenishment of our fund balance to 2% that the

005NADO required us to include in our budget plan for next year since we are below the 2% recommended fund balance for a district our size and the fact that we virtually have no reserves. They were making that mandatory in order to even approve our tenative budget. Uh it also include it also includes a deposit of the $418,000 that would be receiving the state aid to replenish our maintenance reserve to some extent. We really are recommending to have more but since this is a non-recurring revenue we didn't build that in as operating expense because we would not be getting that again for tomorrow. So the tax levy increase in the additional state aid totals was 8,791,64 and that is the amount that we are under accuracy approved from state calculations. The next couple of slides lay

006out the proposed revenue and the items that are highlighted in yellow are the items that change since our 10 budget. So going through these, our tax levy reflects the increase that's included with the tax levy incentive program. The state aid includes the additional state aid. Uh we also have um a new operating revenue total that would total 17,300 I'm sorry 1995, million747,650 and our increase in our operating revenue would be 9.73% for this year. Our remaining projected revenue uh we would be the same because we're as you can see last year we did utilize fund balance capital reserve maintenance reserve sale property in addition to our operating revenues to support our budget this year we would not be doing so. So although the increase in the operating revenue is 9.73% the actual overall increase in

007revenue is 6.8%. because of the loss of those others. The next few slides detail out uh the expenses that have changed since the tenative budget and it includes the appax for the elimination of the consolidations and the positions that we are looking to preserve these funds. So going down to the total uh well first of all just point out that we do have the mandatory punishment of the fund balance in there and our total operating expenses again all equal revenues of 195,750 for 6.8% increase for this year. I just wanted to point out some operating budget changes over time. Taking a look at our uh 2011 and 2012 operating budget uh exclusive of capital expense just to give you and that that's the point in time where we were we started with a 2% cap

008on our tax levy and at that time our operating budget exclusive of capital expense because that will vary from year to year was $142 million. uh this year's proposed capital budget exclusive of capital spends and our fund balance replenishment is a little over $100 million3 million. So the increase over the 14 year year period is 50 50,659,000. So looking at that that equates to an operating budget increase of 35.5% over that period for an average of 2.5% a year. doing some research on the CPI for the same period uh CPI increased 39% for an average of 2.79%. So you can see that our spending has been actually lower than what the CPI increase has been which in real balance means that our budget has actually shown this landing for you to see but I'll walk

009through it. I'm sorry about that. Uh non-recurring revenue we wanted to give everybody a picture. We've talked about it for our current budget compared to last year, but the financial picture of the past four years includes a variety of funds that are not available to us going forward and particularly for next year's budget. Um items in such as the sale of vomit which we included in our budget for this year. Uh we've had multiple years where we've used fund balance maintenance reserve. We've had some state funding that we no longer get. uh the SDA emergent means that was for capital items that when the state had funds they were giving us additional money for that. Uh we also were receiving the acers aid which is reimbursement of expenses special ed expenses for our students who

010are between 18 and 21. We didn't even receive that for a few years. That program has been discontinued. We've had other pandemic funding. We had a year where we had liquidated our legal reserve. Uh we also utilize state well we received stabilization aid one year 2.2 million which were wonderful except that we'll we'll continue to get that so that that funded things for that year uh but we couldn't count on that going forward. So the total of all these things that I just pulled out over the past four years is nearing $20 million. So it's a significant amount and it's really a lot of the explanation of why they're facing these challenges right now. If you take that over four years, it averages approximately 4.8 million per year. Um, additionally, it's anticipated that we will

011be needing to use we have a reserve for our self insurance fund. Do we need to use a piece of that for this year to cover our claim expenses? So again, that would be something that would be not considered an operating revenue that you would keep supporting our budget in the future. We updated our slide of our tax levy increases over time from 2011 2012 to 202526. This includes the 10.1% uh year-over-year increase in our tax levy that's being proposed for tonight. uh even with this uh this current year factored in our average tax lending increase since the implementation of the 2% cap uh is 2.5%. So again that just shows that over time you know we have really been pretty close to that 2% cap overall. the components of our tax levy. Uh, as

012we went over with our tenant budget presentation, we have our 2% which is the base amount. We have an adjustment for health care costs that we're eligible for based upon increases in the state plan compared to how much our plan is going up 1.7% of the tax is for that. Uh, we are utilizing some bank bank uh tax levy cap in 324 1.18%. And then the tax levy incentive program increase would be 5.22%. This will leave the district with no remaining bank have to use in the future budget. So taking this new tax le into account, we recalculated the impact on an average assessed home of $728,537. Uh this is again we're going to stress the school tax only and it's also not the official tax assessment calculation. We do ours based upon our levy

013and what the ratables are that we're given and then assessed valuation and we calculate that way. I know there's some other adjustments that are made at the township for assessments but uh we we can only do it with the information that we have. So taking this into account uh the the annual change for our operating tax impact would be $664 or $55 a month. Our debt service impact is 95 cents for the year uh 8 cents a month and our total would be $66559 or 5547. Our tax rate for the school tax is actually going down because of the increase in the readables. So even with the increase, our tax rate uh just bumps down slightly. This is a chart of the state aid that we received from 20101 through what will be given for

014next year. You know, I know a lot of you have seen this slide multiple times. You know, it does show that we did take that hit back in 2010, 2011 of those initial large state aid cuts. You know, we did gain some ground back over time, but with the information of implementation of S2, we did see decreases for the past seven years or so. And actually for the last two years, we've received slightly more stating. Uh and we did talk about for next year uh one of the reasons for our increase is that the state calculated our state this year and they they ran the formula and didn't cast special education need and a set percentage for every district of percentage of your population your student population and instead random numbers. So we did see

015a benefit for that. Unfortunately, all the districts that receiving an increase would happen with a 6% increase for next year and we would have been entitled to another roughly $2 million that had been happen 6%. So although we're happy that they changed the calculation, we would like to actually receive the funds that were entitled to that calculation, but we did get 6%. This slide runs through the reductions that were made as a result of S2 over the seven years. As you can see 2425, we actually received an increase in state aid based in some changes in our situation. So the total if you look at that 7 year period of the amount of state aid that we reduced uh year-over-year was $3.5 million and S2 is now fully implemented and now going forward forward state

016calculations they'll be running the formula and then essentially deciding how much the state fund and then how much money we would actually receive based on. We did have a handful of proposed capital projects uh that we that this remains unchanged from when we did our intended budget totaling a little over five a little under $500,000. Uh these are things that are primarily focused on safety items and things like that. So, this has a we also have some proposed equipment purchases totaling $649,000 of extra things for facilities to replace some equipment that is is needed. uh some allowance for HBAC equipment and server upgrades for our middle and high school security cameras because we are running out of uh storage space on those because the elementary rooms this year as they are this year. I just

017wanted to recap what we do have in our capital maintenance reserve at the end of June the June 30th 2024 year. We did have some funds that were allocated for the 2425 budget. So after those funds were allocated. Our remaining balance in capital reserve is about $40,000. Our maintenance reserves about $34,000 total about $76,000. The allowable reserves in these in capital maintenance at the bottom are capital reserve. That would be equal to what's in our long range facilities plan. And that's about $719 million. And The maintenance reserve is based upon maintenance costs that we need to 4% of maintenance costs that would be needed for an average of the years that they calculated for. So it would be $7.7 million. So you can see that we are well below what the allowable amounts of these

018reserves are. Now I wouldn't expect that this district or any district will have these fully funded but we we really this is a very well our size. This is our debt service uh status right now. Our outstanding debt at the end of this current year will be a little over $21 million. Uh we have three outstanding bond issues. They will be paid off as you can see. Two of them will be paid off by August of 27 and the other one will be paid off in August of 29. That these are the bonds that are paid off in that debt service portion of our tax le. Uh so since those are more maturing that is why we've been having discussions about looking at doing a large scale project because we will completely pay off our

019debt service in the short term. So our budget timeline the board approved our tenative budget on March 18th. Uh we did submit the tenant budget to the county office for review. Uh they approved it on April 23rd. Uh we did advertise our budget in the ice park press on April 26th. Uh the public hearing must be done between April 24th and May 7th. We are holding ours tonight and the budget is on the agenda. Uh the one thing that we will also share with the everyone is that tax levy incentive aid we do we are going to put in our resolution that is pending DOD resolution because the uh state or the NJO is apparently delayed in issuing these letters but we were instructed today by the DOE to go ahead and have our public

020hearing and proceed as we have presented everything and we just have you know once we get the letter then everything so I'm going to take it over from here because while this is all important and very informative then the the next question is where do we go from here right because obviously there is a larger situation here that you know we've talked about over the course of the last probably six weeks. Um and and we're all, I think, at this point of recognition that we have to be doing a multitude of things in order to write the ship and get us back on track to um financial health so that way we can preserve the quality of education that we've come to know in Middletown. Um the first thing I want to go over and

021review are the reductions that occur in this budget. Um because any iteration that we've talked about, whether it be school consolidation, tax increases at any price point, we were consolidating or we were reducing $6 million approximately worth of costs. That has not changed. We are still dedicated to finding efficiencies with our budget and have really worked hard to do that over the course of the last few years. But we're also combating some of the things that Mrs. Stardy did show you this evening. So, I want to talk to you generally first about where those reductions occur. I can't share specifics because a lot of this stuff is personnel driven, but I at least want you to know the monetary values and what parts of the budget they come from. So, I've given you just a

022snapshot of the variety of areas. Um, and when we crafted this budget and looked at where we were going to reduce things, our goal was to number one have no impact to the actual classroom experience of our students. That was primary goal number one. Um and then knowing that every area, every department would have to experience some type of reduction in some way, shape or form. So we do have administrative cuts. We will be reducing our administrative footprint. And I just want to remind or inform people that often times when we streamline administration, they have rights to other positions within the district. So you don't necessarily gain the salary of the administrator, you gain the salary of the person that they're bumping out because there are all kinds of rights that people have to employment

023um within the district. And we do have a lot of people in our administrative ranks that have worked for the district for many years in a multitude of capacities. So that comes into play when we look at a final figure for what are those administrative costs. So um we are reducing the footprint. We are dedicated to doing that um because we are a part of this equation as well. Um you'll see there are also um support staff salaries and certificated staff salaries. Now certificated staff does not just mean teachers and classrooms. So I want to make sure I clarify that because lots of our staff members have certificates and most of this reduction which is 2.4 million simply comes from efficiencies and scheduling. We are always every year at this point looking for the greatest

024efficiency within our schedules um and not maintaining positions that we can't give that individual a full schedule. That's a process we undertake every year because it's just good practice. Um, fortunately for us, we're big enough that we can absorb most of these things through attrition. Um, so, you know, that's the that's the the um important thing about being a big district is you do have mobility. You do have people that hold multiple certifications. um and we look to find um and maintain the best teaching staff that are certificated to do those jobs and have potentially positions come offline but not people, right? Because we want to employ the best and we want to maintain the best. Um so this 2.4 you know that that is really the majority of that comes from just efficiency. um

025our ESS contract, which is effective school solutions, um we are going to be modifying our contract with them to realize a half a million dollar savings. We do want to maintain them for some things because we feel that there are features of that contract that would be too expensive to mimic on our own or prohibitive in the sense that we want kids to be in school as much as possible. We don't want delays in having students be screened um to return to school when in crisis. Um so we have found success with partnering them for those things. Um we will also not be losing a level of service actually we will be gaining because our ESS contract they limit the number of students that um the clinicians can actually work with. So we will be

026able to expand that by employing some of our own clinicians within the district. So we will save half a million dollars by not partnering in the same manner that we have with ESS before. We have supplies and materials. Most of these are digital tools that are either underutilized or not priorities at this point. Um and there are a variety of them. I shared a list with the board of the digital tools we currently use and we've really scrubbed that down. um and have done an audit of that over the last several years. When I was in my former position as the assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum, we really took a hard look at usage and whether or not the amount of money we were paying for some of these tools was being used um

027districtwide and by uh many teachers and students and there were just some that were not. So, we've taken them offline already and we review that information every year. our out of district professional development. This was a topic that was brought up um by some community members at many of our boards and absolutely we do have a skill set within our district where many of our teachers are talented and skilled out of as are our administrative team. Um so internally providing professional development, we also reap the benefits of federal money in title 2 funds that can be used if we do want to send teachers out of district. We do also fund a position with that title two money for class size reduction. So we do have a minimal amount, but we can carve that out

028if if we do have a need to send teachers outside of the district. So we can extract this additional monies that we've built into our budget. our infrastructure projects. We have certainly um tabled many of them um because as Mrs. D already showed in her slideshow, we are work we are focused primarily on safety things, things that are urgent need and safety concerns within the district. So that number reflects those that we took out of the budget that are not high on the priority list. um summer programming, our not our ESY program, but our summer score program, which is um primarily um focused on our intervention students. We would be um temporarily suspending that until a time where we um potentially could add it back in the future, maybe our school budget reduction. So to

029clarify that, every year our buildings get an allocation in the budget um to provide classroom teachers with supplies, paper, all of those other things that um the building needs to operate effectively on the day-to-day related supplies and materials. Last year we reduced that by 10%. This year we're going to reduce it by 10% more. And you'll see the total of those reductions there. Um equipment for maintenance. Again, Mrs. already showed you some of the equipment we are still going to purchase because we needed to perform the basic functions within the district but things that are not a priority we have taken out. Um technology replenishment this is the remaining amount that um you know or this is the amount that we would be taking out of our line item that we have for replenishment. We

030have moved away from a onetoone initiative for our younger students K to 2. They have parts with technology available now which minimizes the replenishment. Um but I will say if you've ever seen a middle schooler with a Chromebook, um there's a need for replenishment in some way, shape, or form. It's amazing how they get all those keys out. But um so we do have to have some kind of money available to be able to um replace and repair things that are in a state of disrepair. and our um CLB contract which was our legislative um lobbyist contract that you know just right now in this time we we just can't afford to do that. So all of those things together as you can see total that $6 million which I will say is was in

031any iteration there were always going to be reductions. Um, and we've dedicated ourselves administratively to really looking at each and every line of the budget to ensure that what we're spending our dollars on gives us the the maximum bang for our buck, so to speak, and drives us towards the greatest efficiency. We did a massive schedule overhaul last year that served us well and we're continuing to reap those benefits this year um in in that certificated staff item that I that I shared. So I wanted you to have perspective of those reductions. What I want to talk about now next or next steps because whatever gets approved this evening, there are still things that need to be done and that the hard work is just beginning. So I'm hoping um that everybody sticks around because

032this is where it's going to get harder in the sense of work, but it's also going to in my opinion get exciting, right? because all of you sitting here tonight obviously have a vested interest in some way, shape or form and care about this district a great deal as do I and the board members. So, we need to be strategic. Um, and so I want to share with you the steps that we're going to take to do that. So, first we're going to continue which we already started with our strategic planning. We are going to partner with New Jersey school boards. they will be a neutral party that will facilitate stakeholder engagement across the board. Um, and those three dates we worked out with them because it's because it's based on their availability. I will

033have a flyer that will be going out to the school community on Friday. I wanted to present here first. Um, there is a link to a form for interest. It's just for planning purposes. It's not a commitment. It's just so school boards has an idea of how many people to plan for because you do do a lot of things in small group. Um these will all be held here at High School North just because it's the biggest venue with common space. Um and information when you get the flyer will be in there. Um, we will also coupling with that and I've already sent out an email to our principles and the uh heads the presidents of our parent organizations a steering committee who we would like to have representation from all 16 of our school

034communities as well as the board, the community, anyone that resides in Middletown can be a stakeholder and be a participant and we would like to have representation on the steering committee. Um once we have that group, we will be meeting as a steering committee because they will be more intimately involved with the actual analysis of the information that's gathered at the strategic planning sessions in addition to the survey that we were able to send out because that had a lot of good information in it in addition to working with what I'll talk about next, our efficiency study data that we're going to be gaining from partnering with another consultant. So, our district efficiency study, we're going to partner with Ross Haber Associates and it's two prompts. The first piece is they will do a facilities

035utilization analysis. The second part is a boundary analysis. They're going to start their work with us on June 1st. They will spend the month of June really focusing on the buildings and engaging with building leadership to get kind of a lay of the land, see building usage, talk to principles about needs in the building uh and actually look at the actual buildings and how those things are being utilized. Um the other piece um is the boundary analysis which they will do mostly over the summer because really they just need to get information from us. They need to be able to get into our systems, find out where res students are residing, etc. because they will do a mapping of all that. and they will present with us in their report which we anticipate getting in

036mid to late September of recommendations for the district in how our boundaries could be redesigned, how our buildings could be best utilized, things that may be aging and we should take offline, any recommendations for potential upgrades or construction projects that we may need to do. Um, and this report will be instrumental. Now, this is only one piece of the strategic plan because a strategic plan is really comprehensive, but this report will be a real big driver of the piece that has to do with finance, facilities, and programming in the future. And it is the I I believe the steering committee can be instrumental in looking at that information and also helping to craft the action plan that we will eventually have to employ within the strategic plan. So this is on the fast track. I

037mean this is all going to happen between now and September because whatever the landscape looks like in the long run, I think we all know that something has to change in order for us to be put back on the right track. So I share with you the multiple things that are important in this this bigger picture for us as a district. Number one, partnering with the school community through the strategic planning process and the steering committee to plan for the future of the district. Supporting the district budget through a tax levy increase. And I'll remind you any iteration of any plan we have put forward had an increase within it. So I say this generally, this action grows the district's revenue at whatever point it is. um and it favorably favorably compounds in the future

038because 2% of more is just more, right? So, I think that's important to remember. Um we want to utilize the results from the efficiency study to make decisions such as downsizing the district footprint and or reszoning schools that will enable the district to operate in the most efficient manner possible. Being more efficient helps to realize cost savings. When your footprint shrinks, you need less people to cover that landscape, whether it be administratively or staff member-wise. And when we get to a place of financial help to provide more resources for our students and our families, because now you have the ability to do so. We want to continue to seek methods for reducing expenses within the operating budget without sacrificing the student experience. I'm a public educator. My heart lies with students and not touching the

039student experience in a negative way is really really important to me as I know it is to all of you. And finally, using data from the efficiency study to plan for long range facilities upgrades across the district. It is no secret that our facilities need to be upgraded. They are um aging or aged, right? They're not on the young side. And especially at our elementary schools, we lack large common spaces. I was an elementary principal here for for a few years. I've been in every elementary school obviously in this district and I see it in action firsthand. You know, we need to do something about our facilities in addition to all of these other things that I'm talking about tonight. So, you know, I wanted you to know that this is not the end of

040the road. In fact, it's it's really just the beginning. Um, I'm excited. I think as Mrs. Ruby said at our last meeting, silver linings, right? The silver lining of of all this is that we're engaged in a conversation that's really important and we have a communitywide captive audience and a lot of really smart people that really care about the kids and this community. So, I I encourage you to participate um in this. I encourage you to be a part of it. um you know and I thank you for listening and for um you know going through this process because I feel like it was even if it was hard at times in a lot of ways I feel like it was valuable and important. So with that I thank you. Um and I guess we're

041going to open the mic to public comment on the uh uh budget because that's the next piece there. Thank you, [Music] Dr. mention the microphone comment on our budget. Anybody wish state already didn't say anything else? I I I know um first of all want to address the board. Uh I told a couple of you some time ago that nobody goes unpunished and your service I understand what you're going through. I used to serve on the board of the board of M University uh but I used to be a commissioner New Jersey sports and exposition authority. Uh, and I can say I've been in some live meetings. This is not a live meeting. It's not what we I really expected to see here today. I mean, I saw buses of people coming in and cursing

042at the at the commissioners and personally attacking them. Um, and this is not what we have. We have a bunch of volunteers in my home who are trying to do the best they can. And they see things differently and I get that. I see things differently. but they're servants. They're not getting paid for this. There's really nothing that they do. So, based on what I've been reading in the newspapers and so forth, I don't have any children or grandchildren here. Uh, but it's hard to avoid what's going on. I love Middletown. I've been in Middletown for 25 years and I've done a lot. I think I've done a lot for the community. Uh, uh, I uh, for those of you who may or may not have seen Grant's victim, I want to thank the board.

043Once again, uh, I rented the court at school. It was our home base. Um, and I think we did a brilliant film and I would say you, those of you who don't know his victims belt around here and you should go out and rent it tonight or buy it tonight cuz I need um I just going to give a little bit more background about me. Uh, is that you know I am on the board of university. I was for the University of District of Columbia. Uh I was very much involved in a program called Jump Start, which is a program to help uh inner city kids get a jump start on reading. Uh I was also part of Oakill Academy. Um I ran public companies. Actually, I turned around a lot of companies. We had

044public companies. American Eagle Outfitters, Retail Ventures. You may know that the PSW shoe warehouse a lot of you especially those shoe warehouse shop of America may even know that. All right. Yeah. Well, I'm going to tell you now. I am going to tell you now because I know all of you are really excited. But but here it is. We have to make business decisions all the time. Business decisions are hard. It's not easy. It's not easy to do the right thing. When we make business decisions, we have to take a look at the greater good. We have to take a look the benefit to everybody. We have to take a look at the benefit to the stakeholders, to the shareholders. Um, doing the right thing is often difficult. So, when I started looking at all

045of the things that are going on, I'll tell you, I only get what I read in the newspaper. Maybe it's not right. Although I did see some stuff mentioned on New Jersey 12. It says that we we need to raise $17 million dollar in taxes largely so we do not have to close two schools 550 people. All right. Let me finish and then if somebody here wants to correct me please. It's supposed to be limited to three minutes. I'm sorry. Well, I wasn't called that when I walked in. So, I I'll be quick. What I will say now, my name is George Culver. Uh, I live in Middletown for 25 years. All right. 884 out of Sing River Road, Locust, New Jersey. Okay. Um, so one of the things I do want to say is

046$17 million for about 650 students equates to about $30,000 a student. If you add that to the 20,000, we're educating students for $50,000 a year. We're going to still educate. All right? But we're designating $50,000 a year for students and $17 million. That's 6% $17 million could be better used in my mind for all the students, for 93% of the students. It's sad that you have to close. We've lost I don't know what 15% of the student population. And I'm going to lay one more thing. Uh I've taught ethics and I've taught responsibility. I've taught uh uh I teach at Columbia Pro Columbia University School of Business and and and respective please. I get it. All right. Uh I will just say this much. When I was a commissioner in New Jersey, they went well

047out of their way to ensure that I learned that if I had a conflict of interest that I was to abstain, not even engage in the conversations. I don't know if any of you do have a conflict for or against, but if you have a conflict, you should address it. Listen, I'm thrilled. I'm sorry I taken more than 3 minutes. I didn't know the rules. Uh but uh I thank you for your time on this. [Applause] [Music] Hi, I'm Diana Paris. I live 4237th Avenue. Technically in Atlantic Highlands, but I do live in Middletown. It's not hard to do the right thing. I don't know what any of that was all about. It's not hard to do the right thing. The right thing to preserve our children's education and our property values because that does

048the most good for the most people. I'm not really interested in a conversation about how much we're saving and how much lower the reserves are when in 2021 we had capital reserves of 4 million. The last time I was here I was the one who stood up and said don't give me a whole lot of who shot John. That's what we got. I have the same questions today as when I spoke here last time. What happened to our money? What happened to the $4 million? I know it is where some of it went because as last time I said we had a 40% increase year-over-year in legal fees and by then we had a projected deficit of 7.6 million in 2023 24. So, I don't know where all of these new savings came from, but

049I don't know why they weren't available in prior years, so that we didn't get ourselves into the hole that we are in now. I also have a question where we heard the court say tonight that they didn't get a copy of the presentation before this evening. Why was it able to be published in the Asbury Park Press on the 26th and our board members still have not seen it tonight? I'm sorry. I did not grow up in a school district as wonderful as this. I grew up in a literal crap neighborhood in Brooklyn. I know what my children have and I'm not giving it away to anyone to, and I'm going to be honest now, stare at adoringly at your political heroes and use our children as stepping stones for your political ambitions. I was

050not forthright with this before the election last fall. Why were we asked to vote two times on open space initiatives when this was on the horizon and you said nothing about it? Why? I know buckets of money and you can never mix the two. Why are we spending so much money on a town wall? Why did we spend so much money on a veteran's building? Now, if anyone wants to question my votifies as the daughter of a veteran, I will have that conversation with you. Why are we doing this if we're out of cash? Why are we purchasing space for matter day if we're out of cash? Why are we having the sewer authority disclaim for our sewers if there's a problem? If we're on money, why are we constantly putting these things back on

051the taxpayer in Middletown without accounting for the funds of where they've already been spent? I also noticed that tonight in these savings you don't include anything about afterare when it seems like this afterare program was chosen because it delivers extra revenue to the district but does not do anything extra for our kids and is about twice as much as it would be. Oh my god. It's going to go up though, right? It's going to go up. It's not. So, we need to be truly transparent and accountable to the taxpayers, to the parents, and to the citizens of this town because whatever ethics discussion we want to have, we're not having that one. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Deon. My children and Thompson Elementary. I want to thank the previous woman for me to

052step off. Good evening. I'm here to speak about the fact that you did decide to change the afterare beforeare provider without speaking yet again. Oh, better. Okay. I'm here because you chose to change the born African program without speaking to parents yet again. I remember a few years ago when you chose you were going to switch companies then and the reason why you stopped was because you realized that it was going to cost more for the parents and significantly more. Well, here we are again. Now, the new company KC Champions currently services a few districts in the area. I've done my research. I called them today and spoke with them myself. They told me that they do not currently offer in any school district a pror-rated amount depending on the amount of time you use.

053So there are no hourly rates but a flat day rate for all of the school districts they currently serve. And since you have yet again not provided us with the rates, we will have to go off the 2526 rates for Kingsburg that I currently obtain by speaking with them today. I spoke with Casey Champions because I highly doubt that the company would take on Middletown public schools to make less money, especially since you plan on making money for the school's district through this program. It was on the agenda. Currently, the YMCA charges a fee to parents based on their usage. You can drop off at 7 or 7:45. You can pick up by 4:00, 5, or 6. Your rate is then based on when you drop off and pick up. For example, I have one

054child attending before and after care 3 days a week. I drop off at 7:45 and pick up by 5. I pay $220 a month for this service. Casey Champions gave me the rate of $45 per week per week for one to three days of a of poor care and told me that it does not matter whether or you not you use 3 days or one day, you must pay the $45. They also charge for 3 days of active care $65 per week. So, a parent such as me, based on those rates, because like I said, every district they service does not have an hourly rate. They they already told me that my rate would go up to $420 per month from $220. That would equate to $2,200 for the year. $2,200. I also spoke with

055another mother today who has two children attending before and afterare, not one. She calculated the same rate and hers would go up by $4,000. And she told me she would probably have to stop working her extra hours if that was the case. The amount of money that we that that would break a working family. How can it be okay for the tax living to increase by 10%. And then also tell parents that the child care child care will go up by not hundreds but thousands. The only thing I have to say is that I'm disgusted. The way I see it, one of two scenarios occurred. You either did not do your due diligence when getting the quotes from these country these these companies and the actual cost to the parents. Or worse, you did know

056and you just didn't care. I implore you to please do not switch before and after care before you've actually given us the rates and we can see for ourselves because after speaking with the company today it sounds like our rates are going to double. Please do not switch companies that will cost working families thousands. You cannot balance the budget on the backs of the working parents. Either way, anyone else considering boarding for a board of ed in the future, that will be a great platform to run on. Saving parents thousands. Sincerely, a fed up [Applause] parent that I left. This is about the public comment on our budget only at this point. And then again, right after just a heads up. Okay. Hi, Catherine. Um, I want to talk about the fact So, first of

057all, thank you so much because you're not from Leonardo or Nixon or Beijard and we we need your voice in the room. Secondly, I really am frustrated with the framing that this is a tax increase to save three schools. It is a tax increase to make one small step in a very dysfunctional budget. [Applause] for years. This has been this exact deficit has been predicted by your own consultants that you hired years ago and you knew exactly what it was coming and you said nothing. You did nothing. We talked a little bit about doing the right thing is sometimes hard. Tell me what doing the right thing looks like when you refuse state money because a quote doesn't have enough of a carrot for us to accept. What's the right paradise? I agree that strategic

058planning is needed. It was needed for years and we're doing it years ago. And so, while I love the slide and the excitement about the next steps, I have little to no faith that it's going to be done properly and on the other because it just hasn't been historically. Many people here have been on a steering committee and they know what strategic planning looks like. You're talking about the mission statement and the values and not having curriculum that's too woke. You did nothing of substance in that strategic plan. But I could have asked you to make today. So what we really need here is actual engagement. I don't see after hearing from parents that are in the other schools that my kids are not going to and how overcrowded they are. I don't think that

059the silver bullet here is reducing the footprint and shoving everybody together. There is nothing about what it's going to mean for kids in Nutswamp and Thompson. And I'll tell you what it's going to mean. It's going to mean that they're going to take all of our kids, bust them across town, and shove them in the overcrowded halls with your kids. That's what it means. So, what do you get out of not closing our schools? At least you're staying at the level of overcrowded already. are at and it's not getting worse. It is not a tax increase to save three schools. It's a tax increase to make a very small step in a long slew of steps that need to be made to get back in financial health. That's all [Applause] I leave. Mhammed. I'm here

060as an educator of 27 years and I know this is happening all across the state. However, a tax increase is not going to solve the problem. Um, and in Port Mamemed, they closed the school and it happened and it was not good, but it happened and um, it's inevitable. The schools are going to close. So, increasing the taxes is not the best idea. And I have to relieve my babysitter. So, I just want to say the YMCA, I see one of them here. Fantastic organization. My kids love it. Most of the workers do not make a lot of money. How's working for their second uh as their second job and my my boys love them. They do a great job. Thank you. Hi, my name is Derek. Can you not hear me? I just I

061appreciate everyone's interest here and everything. I don't have any critical I just wanted to say quickly um to the gentleman who spoke about being an ethics professor. I think that we'd all agree it's unethically get up and spout misinformation. We know everyone This is certainly not about spending this whole tax increase in order to save the these schools. Other people have said it. I just want to say it again. I also want to say I didn't grow up in New Jersey. I grew up someplace that funds their schools in in kind of a normal way like other places would with a percentage tax on the value of your house. Everyone up here talks about a tax increase. There's not been a tax increase. Mrs. Dor, Miss Dory said it in her presentation. There's been a

062tax decrease. There have been tax decreases continuously as a percentage of the value of your house. Right? We are increasing taxes. We're keeping up with inflation. And if you look at the value of your house and the percentage of the value that you pay now compared to a few years ago, but it'll be next year compared to this year, it's going down. These aren't tax increases. It's just maintaining the tax rate. Why do we call them tax increases? It's nuts. So that's it. Hi, my name is Lauren. Um, I reside in 18 Southern Place in Middletown Swamp. Um, I was raised here in Middletown and I've been arrived here back in 2019. I came back here because I want to raise my kids here and I'm disgusted with what's happened in the past couple weeks.

063This is horrendous. Just the roll out of all these policies. It's been disgusting. I My kids go to Nutswamp and they theoretically would be impacted by the theoretical closure of these schools. But I feel for all my friends that are uh attending Nutswamp or attending Leonardo or attending uh Navy School. It's horrible. Why would you break up these communities and and change them? So, here we are as Middletown residents and seeing the roll out of these potential closures. Now, we're just on high alert for everything. So, this week I get an email from the YMCA. My kids go to afford and they say, "Hey, if you care about your kids getting YMCA care, you better go to the meeting on Thursday because they they fire us." And I'm in the same boat as you where

064I use the tiered schedule and I drop off at 7:45 and I have one sign that goes at a current rate. Next year I'm going to have two and in four years I'm going to have three. And so my my prices won't double. They'll triple over the next couple of years. And this isn't a decision that you made overnight without notifying us. It wasn't even addressed tonight in this meeting. At least getting to it. It's only supposed to be budget. Okay. But I just think it's ridiculous that you're here. Just to clarify, there's a process that we have to go through that we're required to um by law in order to um secure contracts and we were due for an RFP on our afterare program. Like that's a process that we have to engage in

065and it's an internal process where we have to vet providers. Um and there is a lot of information that I'm going to correct tonight because as much as there are people saying it, there is not a rate increase. We have a side-by-side comparison. We are a large district. We negotiate our own rate. Yes, they do have standard rates for other smaller districts, but that is not our rate. We are saving money in this. We're generating more revenue and we will have more flexibility and availability for our parents. The bottom line is the program is also better. So that you but we have evaluated the program based on the measures that were required to and and parents are not involved in the RFP process. I support the RFP process. I think that's very very smart. I

066really do. But the information that I saw before this meeting was similar to what you saw which just showed kickbacks. It showed kickbacks that were greater. X that is part of the proposal and that is why about it tonight. I know and listen we have no control over what the YMCA sends out to parents. We have legal timelines in which to notify and post those proposals and also our outcomes and so we really are required to do things in a certain timeline and fashion when it comes to the RFP process. So tonight, actually, as part of my superintendent report, this is part of what I'm speaking about because I would think that we would all want to save money and programmatically when we go to a site and visit and actually see a program in

067action that provides heightened engagement and support for our students. Um, and also more flexibility for our parent community, drop in availability, holiday care. Um, it really checked many more boxes than the YMCA does. And we value our relationship with the YMCA, but it it these this was far too great of an opportunity for us to not entertain pursuing it. So, please give us a chance to explain it and share it with you. And again, I will reiterate our our goal is not to hide anything. Our goal was to speak about it tonight. And it is we are the host for this program. We are not the vendor of the program. We partner we we partner with them as a service to our families. But there is a process that we have to undertake that we

068are bound by and we we use a committee to evaluate this. Did you even read your reviews online? I only put so much stock into reviews that anybody can write on social media. I tend to listen to other educators that are involved with their programming. [Music] So, we're going to continue with public comment on the agenda for the uh budget. Thank you for doing my comment. The last thing I'll say is the drop in rate that I researched was excessive. It was much higher than what would be normal. So, if you're pro if you if you think the drop in is an advantage, it's not such an advantage compared to what we have right now. That's all I have to say. Thank you. State your name. Uh my name is Megan Merardo. Good evening. I

069am not here to try and sway you one way or the other with voting tonight. I'm here as a parent and a deeply concerned member of this community and I'm outraged. I have two amazing daughters at Leonardo, one in third and one in fifth. Any changes this year or the years after will deeply impact my children just like it will impact so many others. The past month and a half has been nothing short of devastating. What we've witnessed is not leadership. The decisions or lack thereof by this board have not been made with our children in mind. They have been made for political convenience, self-preservation, and optics. Instead of Instead of coming together as a group that we elected, this board has turned on each other. And it is disgraceful. There was never a real

070full plan, just reactionary decisions thrown together without real foresight or structure. The idea that Bashier that beh could simply be absorbed into two middle schools without preparation is unrealistic and irresponsible. Thompson parents were already raising concerns about their class sizes and Thorne isn't prepared to absorb the current number of students. And the notion of shifting elementary students into a middle school building without necessary adjustments physically or emotionally is a disservice to our students and our teachers. Let me be very clear. This is not just about the so-called 5% of complaining parents that this is not about the fact elementary schools. This is about a community that is rightfully demanding better. Better for their children, better for their future. We are not just emotional. We are informed. We see the numbers and we see the failure

071of leadership that has gotten us here. We are not okay with overcrowded schools. We are not okay with being told there's no other way when absolutely nothing had been done. We are not okay with the board acting like they did not see this coming. Yes, many are upset about this proposed tax increase. I am too. Who would not be? This is all ridiculous. But let's not forget many of the voices that are now being forcefully pitted against parents to divide us have already had the privilege of sending their children through a better funded, better supported system. I ask you, wouldn't you try to find a way to fight for the same opportunities if it were your child? And even if these closures happen, your taxes, they were still going up. That was always in the

072plan. Always. And so many ideas were brought f forward by the public. Ideas this administration and board weren't capable of producing for years. We've heard about land sales and the town stepping in to help cover the cost of class 3 officers. Deals were made at shared service meetings and then public announcements uh were followed up with nothing to come of it. So I asked, where did it all go? What happened to the collaboration? Why wasn't any of it pursued? And it all came off the table for what reasons? Mr. Mr. Capone, in your recent patch commentary, you call closures inevitable. But I ask you, where was your effort to stop it for years? Where was the responsibility to prepare us if it was inevitable? What I've seen are press releases and political studies carefully tying

073for personal promotion and self-preservation. And now you want to play the savior to the taxpayers with your no vote. The truth is you and others here have put us here. When communic when a communication breaks down and fingers are getting pointed in the press the night before voting, this becomes clear. This is not about our children. This is about politics. Our children seem to be the very last concern right now. I'm I am a mother who refuses to let her children's future be decided by people who are more focused on the headlines than the hallways. I promise my children to stand up for what's right. So, I am here. And nothing this administration or board has done is right. So, tonight I am calling for accountability. We've been using that word a lot. I am

074calling for the resignation of any board member who has failed our children through silence completion of political resation board members who met when action was needed. I follow the resation of members who have spent years looking away from this problem years. I call especially for the resignation of Mr. Pole and Mr. You have time and time again that your priorities are not aligned with what you know in action to get you out of this position whether you resign vote you out recalls however it gets done. We are awake now. We see who is who and you need to be held accountable. Thank you. [Applause] Hi Roberts in North Middletown. Um so I'm a lifelong Middletown resident. I'm a North graduate. I am a Middletown homeschool mom. Um, I've been a medical freedom advocate in our

075state for nearly the last 12 years and um, a local law enforcement family. So, I would like to start by reading a post from yesterday from Jackie Tobacco's Facebook. I would love to share a screenshot of it, but I had to have this printed out because she actually blocked me four years ago on Facebook, so I can't check her Facebook. So, somebody had to send this to me. You got blocked, too. There's a couple of those. Yeah. To It's almost like it's just he's and it sounds just wildly unethical to block constituents. [Applause] So, I think she picked a fight with me online before she knew who I am and that I have a big mouth, but she knows me now, so it's good. And if she's still confused, you'll know damn well who I

076am after this. So, I was absolutely tingled with excitement to read this yesterday um to have to hear that Jackie actually has the taxpayers backs now. So, I'll read it to you just for those of you who didn't catch it on Facebook. If you're not blocked, you probably saw it. So, I'm standing with our taxpayers. I cannot support a budget that imposes a 10.1% tax hike, 500% above previous increases that provides no increase in educational benefits and nearly delays the inevitable school closures. Well, So, in 2023, a group of local homeschool moms struggled to have their voices heard in front of this board. As taxpayers, they wanted the local homesooled community to have access have an option in access to participating in sports and clubs as some towns allow. Okay. This idea was shot down

077by Jackie and some of the board. So, while Jackie definitely did not support taxpayers in 2023 when she turned her back on the taxpaying homeschool community of Middletown, I'm very excited to hear that she's had a change of heart and will now be supporting taxpayers. I look forward to revisiting that issue. So, I want to be very clear. I do not support a tax hike. I do not support closing schools. But what I do support is the truth. There are things that are true and then there is also the truth. True. The board is proposing a ridiculous tax hike that I think anyone should be outraged over. The truth is that Jackie and Frank, this is their mess. This is their mess. They have And the best part is that they're leaving it to the

078rest of the board to clean up that mess. So, as your board of ed president and vice president of the last five years, as well as both being on the finance committee, both of them, they have ran our school district into the ground. So, this board basically is left with two choices to remedy this $10 million deficit. Those choices are basically bad and worse. Pick one. Pretty simple, right? You have bad, which is closing schools, which is a short-term solution and does not solve the budget problem. Um, maybe for the next year or two, it will, but that's about it. And then you have worse, which is raising taxes on everyone when we already pay enough. So, there's no good option here. Something else I would also like to point out is that the proposed

079tax raise is for the school portion of your taxes. This is not a raising your annual tax bill. Again, I am not in favor of raising any tax, but let's be clear here on the facts as you see a lot of people who think that this is their annual tax bill is raising by 10.09% or whatever. So, people like Frank and Jackie pray on the people of this town who are not informed, who are not sitting here today, who are at home, who are not at home watching, and they pray on people who will only catch a patch article headline and go about their day. Do not allow yourselves to be gas lit by the members of this board who caused this mess. Do not fall into the trap they set to pin this on

080the rest of the board. This is their mess. So yes, is this tax hike true? It is. But the truth behind it is that years of failed leadership, corruption, bathroom handshakes behind closed doors, fiscal irresponsibility, and cushy jobs being handed to the board to some board family members. It's all a result of incompetent leadership of the board of ed president and and vice president. So they have failed our they have failed your schools. They have failed your students. They have failed your teachers. They have definitely failed taxpayers. And they have failed our town. I would however like to thank Jackie Tobacco and Frank Capone for setting a standard for all other districts in our state. The standard and blueprint for how to effectively run your school district into the ground. Instead of getting good and

081moral public servants, we got two horrendous wannabe politicians in Jackie and Frank. In closing, I would like to respectfully ask for both Frank Capone and Jackie Tobacco to resign in disgrace so that we can have responsible and ethical people in the seats that you sit in. To the other board members who are left holding the bag in this mess, I do not envy your positions. You are left with an absolute disaster because of the destructive and selfserving leadership of this board. I truly hope this situation has opened your eyes and it will embolden all of you to do better, to work together, to be forthcoming, and most of all to have the utmost integrity in everything that you do. Thank you. Hi, I'm Aaron. Um, I'm at 170 Grand and this is the first time

082I've actually prepared remarks ahead of time. So, please bear with me as I read I'm not very good at doing it. Um, what I've seen here in the last 6 weeks are board members that take their role seriously and those that take their position for their own benefit. Seven members of this board have watched, listened, made difficult decisions that could very well make people angry enough to vote them out of office. That shows courage, conviction, and the kind of people that I want representing my family when difficult decisions are made. I am not looking for you to agree with me or the issues that I support at every turn. But I am looking for a board that fulfills their role as board members and works for the common good. So what is that? You've heard

083it a few times already tonight. According to the New Jersey school boards, the school board has a dual role to represent the concerns of the citizens, taxpayers, and parents of the school administrators and to represent the needs of the students and the school district to the citizens, taxpayers, and the parents of the community. The school board does not operate the district on a day-to-day basis. That's the job of the superintendent who is the district's chief executive. Rather, the school board sets the policies, goals, and objectives of the district and holds the superintendent responsible for implementing the policies and achieving the goals. We say that one part again to represent the concerns of the citizens, taxpayers and parents to the school administrators and to represent the needs of the students and school district to the citizens,

084taxpayers and parents of the community. As a seasoned board member, Mr. Tone and Miss Tobacco, you should know what is expected of you in this role. Instead, you're representing your own political aspirations and forgetting the fact that you represent the needs of the school and students to the citizens and taxpayers. You had no problem standing up to the state government when it suits you and your political future to get on TV to make a statement, but you seem to have an issue with communicating the needs of the district when it comes to the money that you allow to be misspent and misappropriated for the past five, six, I don't know, however many years. Instead of being leaders on this board and doing what is best for the district and in the long term the taxpayers

085and citizens of this town, you're taking the short-term lead of being the opposition in fighting for the taxpayers and allowing your fellow members to do the hard work. You're throwing your colleagues under the bus and allowing misinformation to get out there as talking points instead of working together as a board of education to advise and create policy for the district for the administration to be able to do their jobs. Absolutely. You should be using their voice to amplify the reason the 5.88% 88% presented by the mayor wouldn't be approved and advocate for the town to help in taking the financial burden of keeping our children in school safe with the officers. Or you could explain how it is physically impossible to have the original consolidation plan in place by September instead of allowing Facebook pages

086one-sided patch articles that you frequent to be breeding grounds division and misinformation. [Applause] This would also be way to share that although enrollment has changed, so has education. Policies, procedures, and overall teaching has changed and so has the way that educators are expected to physically use space in their classrooms. Classrooms have become more inclusive and children have more space in a school to get all sorts of services to support their education, not just reading and writing and math at one depth when it was when these buildings were built. If we have so much space in our schools due to lack of enrollment, for example, why are art, music, and library experiences brought to classrooms out of car? Shouldn't we have lots of other space for all these things to happen? We will not forget your

087leadership here and go support the other board members as they have supported the children and citizens of Middletowns. It brings us to common good, the concept of basic civic education. You'll have to forgive me, the teacher's going to come out a little here, but due to the civics mandate that was put in place by the state a couple years ago, we were tasked with teaching civics to sixth graders for a full semester. So, I'm pretty versed. And to be fair, it's tied to my favorite thing to talk about. We start with a lesson on the common good as the foundation for government in society. There are two definitions of the common good. One says they are actions that governments take that are either shared for or the benefit of the whole community. This includes like

088things like building and maintaining schools, municipal buildings, parks, fixing roads, picking up garbage. You get the idea. All the things that are infrastructure for any community. We as individuals don't all use these services all the time, but when we need them, they are there and they are functioning. The second definition of the common good is that there are actions that individuals take for the benefit of the community rather than simply their own self-interests. We the citizens decides to represent us and put our trust in and pressure on these representatives to enact and carry out the laws to improve society for us all. In this case, we vote for you to set the policies and guidelines for the district to follow and support our children in schools. The common good or general welfare for our friends

089that love to quote the constitution does not mean that every policy is good for every person. That isn't possible. That is where the hard decisions come and where you have to have the courage of your convictions, not future political aspirations, at the forefront of your mind when making these decisions. There are many people that may not directly benefit from this budget. However, it is for the common good and long-term financial health of our district, and it's important that it passes. Then the hard work of continuing to work toward that common good of our students and the town comes to play. As Dr. Alo mentioned in her presentation earlier, this is where the individuals together work toward the betterment of our town and schools. It's a place where the needs of our community come above those

090of the individual. Our democracy depends on all people, not just the elected leaders, to recognize and support this common good. And we have had a great jump in the last six weeks where our community has come together. They've worked tirelessly to present all the suggestions and ideas that have been flushed out. There are more and I look forward to seeing what we will do when we continue to come together. Since the start of our country, two things have been at the center of all communities. Town meetings and a schoolhouse. It's important. It was important for them that all children learn to read the Bible. While most of our reasons have changed, this idea that all kids get a free and appropriate public education is still the center of our community and one that we all

091care deeply about. For all this, I am hopeful because believe it or not, I've seen across Middletown people that really do care about our community and the best way forward. We count on you to support the district in achieving these goals and to do so in a transparent way. To the citizens of Middletown, we're here. We're ready to work and we hope that you'll come and join us. There's a lot to do and while we have many different ideas on how to get it done, we do have the common good of our community as the central goal and we will elect board members that do the [Music] [Applause] same. Tough tough job with a quiet baby. My name is Eric Dow. I live in Navy Inc. Um and a couple thank yous for as an

092initial matter. Uh thank you very much to the administration in particular superintendent and particular authority. Um this has been an interesting 6 weeks. Um and it takes a lot to put forth a plan and then whisk the people who are opposed to that plan and then engage. That's exactly what we did. We listen to the community. interacted with the board or at least close to the board. Um, and you ultimately work hard to put together a a budget that that makes sense given the difficult circumstances in which they find themselves. Um, and as a reminder to everyone watching, yes, the or volunteers, they they have day jobs. The administration, this is their job. These are the professionals. They they do this for a living. So, thank you again and many of us look forward to

093working closely with you in the future. Moving on, thank you to the majority. We hope it's unanimous. It should be unanimous of the board that is here tonight to make a difficult vote and nonetheless to vote yes on this budget. That's a vote that will reflect courage, conviction, and common sense. You listen to community members. You listen to the administration. You talk to each other or at least most of you talk to each other. uh and you know you don't agree on everything and you took time to review the numbers, the data and everything that everybody wanted to talk to you about and you too ultimately agreed that this budget in difficult circumstances makes sense. Uh so you're prepared to make a responsible vote by notwithstanding a petty petty political game that's being played out

094in real time especially in the last couple days. That's what good public servants do and we thank you. Uh, next I'd like to address recent statements made in connection with that petty political um, in no particular word. Uh, first I've heard that this is a quote unconscionable tax increase uh, really. Uh, the folks saying this were in wild support of a 6% tax increase just weeks ago. Um but apparently things have changed and as we've heard our average tax increase since 2011 is 2.5%. That's under inflation. Um that that's that's a good deal for Middletown residents. Um next that voting no is quote standing with taxpayers. Got two responses here. It it's an attempt to divide. It's old. We're tired of it. With which taxpayers are you standing? I'm a taxpayer. Exactly. [Applause] Does anyone

095honestly believe the majority of taxpayers in this district are in favor of destroying our schools? I don't think so. That's certainly not what we've heard. Um and then the second point on that is that this board's primary fiduciary responsibility is to the student experience. Um and that includes the the schools, the teachers, the staff, the communities in which those schools reside. If all you're interested in keep is it in keeping taxes as low as possible, do something else. But if you're [Applause] wrong, that this budget is supposedly a one-year band-aid. I I hope that numbers are the last refuge of truth. We we've seen, we've heard the benefit of this difficult choice is that it sets us on a multi-year runway towards financial help. It gives us the time to engage in meaningful, thoughtful, deliberative

096uh deliberative strategic planning, which is the way it's supposed to work. Um, and and as we heard, this is not it's not it's not gim gimmicks. It's not relying on tricks. It's relying on recurring savings and and recurring uh revenue that we're going to keep realizing those benefit benefits in the future. best that school closings supposedly are inevitable. Really, just a few weeks ago, when that 5.88% plan was announced, the leadership on this board proudly declared at town hall that school closings should be avoided at all costs because they destroy communities. [Applause] next that this district favors allowed 5% at the expense of the 100% of taxpayers. And I'll get to who wrote those words. Plan A didn't involve 5% of students. It would have impacted every student except current high school students. After you

097closed at least four elementary schools, after you consolidated middle schools that are already overcrowded, it would have impacted all of Middletown. And we're glad that plan A is no longer a plan. And finally, a a couple of questions. Why is our unelected township administrator writing opeds about the the budget for the board of education? the superintendent phone writing an op-ed about the budget for the township community. I I have an idea why it might be because anybody who's wants to vote no wants political cover. They don't want to explain that difficult choices are part of what serving means. And so they're leaving it to an unelected official to say things like school closings are inevitable. Uh it's just it's a bad outlook and it's also bad arguments. The greater good is advanced by having great

098schools in a a good community supported by a broad [Music] parent. And then finally, my question is is what a no vote at this point will represent. If if this budget fails, Trenton takes over as I understand it. I cannot imagine that anybody up on this this dis wants that to happen. The the community certainly doesn't want it to happen. Um so a no vote is is for show and it's for future election positioning. We we all know it. And if there was any doubt, my has a certain reporter at the patch's been busy the last couple days. [Applause] We we hope it stops. We hope the nine of you all work together. Um we're tired of the petty cynical political games. Honestly, we Please stop. Um stop trying to pit residents against one another.

099We we all put our children first and what we need is effective nonpartisan good management of our school district. So let's start here. Again, this is not a choice. We understand that nobody loves taxes, but in light of the circumstances, start here. We urge you all to vote yes in favor of this budget. Scott McFersonson 32 to the gentleman that spoke here first tonight. Our children are not business decisions. We are not pawns. Our children are not pawns. Our residents are not pawns. Our senior citizens are not pawns. This is not a game. Some of our elected officials from both the town council and the board of education are using all of us as pawns to play their political game of chess. They want to pick resident versus parent and resident versus child. What they

100forget is that we are all residents. The board of ed is supposed to be nonpartisan. When you do a search on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission database, you'll see under the political party heading, it says nonpartisan. However, when you dig a little deeper, Mr. Capone and Mr. Bako are the only two board of ed members up here that have contributions from politically elected officials. [Applause] Did you know that there's a state law that governs schoolboard members code of ethics? One of the things that it says in part sub paragraph B is quote, I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children. Did you notice the key word? It's children. That's what the school

101board bud budget vote is about tonight. our children. Mr. Capone and Mr. Tobacco seem to forget that they're on the board of education and not the township committee. All they want to focus on is the levy increase. Children, which by law they have an ethical duty to be damned. I stood up at Thompson Middle School and proposed selling board of ed property. 3 days later, 3 days later, the mayor is calling a press conference saying the town's going to come to the rescue. They're going to purchase property and they're going to partially pay for the class 3 police officers. What happened to that part of the plan, Mr. Cabone and Mr. Backup? Did you actually bring that proposal to the board or did they learn about it at the press conference or shortly there? shortly

102before. Based on what the mayor said at the township committee meeting on Monday, it doesn't sound like it brought it to the board. What it sounds like is you're glad that there's a levy increase so you can use it for your political advantage. Moving forward, let's take politics out of our school board. Let's stop using as pawns. Let's follow the law and do what's best for our children and not what's best for ourselves. Hi Kate. Hi everybody. Nice to see you all again. Um, first I just wanted to briefly say that um, I really appreciate everything you guys are doing. I think I probably pretty uniquely understand like the position that you're in and how difficult it is to be in a position, especially board members who are volunteering and as someone else mentioned have

103jobs and families and other responsibilities and really good reasons to be enjoying some of the things you endured the last few weeks. So thank you so that and the administrators as well thankless job all around. So I think clearly this whole situation was handled pretty poorly. Communication pretty poor, transparency pretty poor. It's kind of why we're here. Community felt blindsided, a lot of anger, board of education infighting. So it's understandable that the community kind of devolved into this anger which then detracted from the real issue right which is the budget crisis, the facilities issues, the fact that we haven't really kept up with what's happening in the town and you know the realities of the situation in our districts. Um, so I think because of that, the shock and frustration that many of us in

104the town understood a higher tax burden would be needed, it made sense to keep the steps low going into next year in order to give the district more time to roll out and adjust to the change that comes with this kind of a plan, the kind of plan that we need. I think expecting people to just be okay with shoving kindergarteners into Beayshore on two months notice is never going to go. So, I think everybody agrees we need more time to figure this out. What I'm confused about and just kind of can't believe we didn't discuss it all or hasn't been discussed at all is the whole up to 10% thing that was voted on last time. A lot of you I see Joe, you're nodding said something Dr. Along said that a lot of

105you guys in the audience were yelling at the board about that that it's only up to 10%. We're not voting on 10%. But here we are voting on 10%. no explanation as to why or how we got to that number. What other numbers were considered? Was 7 and a half% considered 8% considered? Because here's the thing, Mr. Fitzgerald, you made a comment in the past that you know this kind of decision will set it'll sound up for I think you said decades to come. That's not your job actually here today. This decision that you're making for this year's budget in light of the tremendous issues that we have going on that now we're all really painfully aware of. your job is to maintain the status quo to give us more time to promote. So if

106that can be done at 7 and a half% 7.7% whatever it needs to be my understanding is the last time the 5.88% plus the money the town was going to contribute. The only reason it wasn't going to get the job done was because the NJ DOE came in kind of the night before and said we need to replenish the reserves $750,000 that's not $8 million. So, I'm really not understanding how we got to 10%. And why? So, that's really where I'm at. I understand the tax increase is necessary. I don't think we should close these schools this upcoming year. I think the whole thing was really just bumbled and I understand why we're here, but I don't understand why we're just suddenly talking about 10% and there was no presentation of here's why seven and

107a half would work, here's why 8% wouldn't work. I don't need the budget to sustain Middletown for decades to come. I need the budget to get us through so that our children's education is not disrupted. We continue giving them the services that they need. We continue everything in the status quo while we figure the rest of this out. That's all I have to say. Thank you. [Applause] Hello everybody. My name is Rob Torres. Hello Dav earlier. Proud for doing that. Um I just had a couple of things that I just want to talk about. First of all to Dr. Thank you for putting together that presentation. uh it's been a lot of work to get up to this point and moving forward when we first started when first announced and I think ideally in retrospect

108that's probably this is what you probably want me to present would have led to consensus something closer to this product there which would have probably eased some of these concerns and how politics got it was not that so thank you for the work that you did from then to now that is what you do um in my the Main thing that I want to talk about up here all right is the leadership of this board and my concern here is when I look at the leadership of this board the main thing that is missing and I speak as a leader I've been an executive I chair steering committees as a leader one of the main features of being great leader in a good leader is council And there has been zero accountability from the leaders

109as the decisions that you made since being in service, since being in leadership. Okay? There's been zero accountability for how we got to this situation where we are. All I've seen from you, from attending these meetings, from Mr. Capone and Mr. tobacco are excuses as to why we're here, excuses about the state budgets, excuses about monies being taken away from uh you know the budget that can be used for schools. But I've not seen any explanation about expenditures or any of the questions that people ask for accountability and accounting on where the funds went. Zero from there zero response. been asked multiple times and there have been no responses from from you. Okay, that is poor leadership. That is a failing as leaders. What else is a failing is your stubbornness and indemnation to any

110idea other than what you believe. Okay? And your political aspirations or your political beliefs. There is zero movement in your decision based on the facts that have been presented over time since this tenative budget was presented. You know real leadership is and courage the rest of the board that spoke up and pushed us to get to this point. Okay. Now my daughter goes to Naples Elementary School and my other kids will go to Nink Elementary School because I will be [Applause] that and I don't know Mr. Sarowski or Mr. Fitzgerald. I didn't vote for either of them. Okay, I have a pretty good idea that we are not politically aligned. But what I will tell you is I am furious over the attacks from the patch and the so-called reporter from the patch on Mr.

111Sapparowski and that article that came out was disgusting. Do you know why? You know why? Because Mr. Sarasi displayed there, okay, was leadership, okay? He had a thought in mind based on what was presented to him at the time. And since that time, additional facts have been presented to him. And he made a decision based off of those facts, based off of the numbers, based off of what became available that you as a leader failed to look up and find these additional sources of revenues, the additional monies that you could have gotten from the state, all these things that you've taken now and put in place at this point that you failed to do before any of this happened. And then based on that decision, he changed his mind. Isn't why is that bad? Isn't

112that a good thing? bring you to a different conclusion is going to be so stubborn and so indignant that you will not listen to anything other than your ego. That's a that's a we should be commended for making that decision. and the other board members who had come to their senses when the facts presented that you as leaders never presented because you only care about yourselves. No transparency, no accountability. And when when the annual reward comes up for when new leadership should be elected, shouldn't be you guys. Hi everybody, Kristen Rooney. Um, I just have to get up and say a heartfelt thank you because this has been a lot for all of us and I know it's been a lot for all of you and um, we've been through a lot together. Um, and

113I've said silver linings a lot of times during this and I can tell you that um, having this kind of we're getting towards the end of this process and we're ready to move forward. I'm seeing the silver linings and I'm seeing the future. And it's become very clear to me who is here in the best interest of our children. And it's become very clear to me that we have no interest in politics at all in this arena. And we have also no interest in this being a political starting point or for status quo. I'm not interested in anybody sitting up here who is looking to uh keep us at status quo and you know let's see how it works out next year. I'm looking for somebody who's a leader who has a vision for Middletown

114because I talked about don't reimagine my middle town. Let's do it together. Those are the leaders I want. I want the leaders with a vision. I want the leaders looking for the future. And I see some of them and I see some that are not. So, I want to thank you for opening our eyes and I want to thank you for working with us cuz I really look forward to many years of working together towards the best possible schools we can have for our children. Thank you. My name is Carrie McDaniels from Little Section. I have three children who have gone through schools. Um, still having one at the high school and two that graduated. So, I just want to say when my in the past 20 years as a parent in this town, I

115used to come to board meetings all the time, I used to look through the agenda every day, but the day before the meeting came out. So I knew what I was looking for, what I was going to be expecting when I came to the meeting. My friends were some of the on committee, they come back to the PTA. Some of them, you know, we always knew what was going on. And I want to say after my one daughter was graduating in 2020, I became pretty close. I wasn't coming to meetings. I wasn't looking at pages because some of the important things I needed for her. I didn't even move my not. So, I will take some of the responsibility for not knowing how we got here. Um but a little while ago, right before um

116the first plan A came out, I was with my daughter at the high school and she's in marching band and I guess we picked our old school up and we were driving past the football field and she said something about the news that we're going to be getting and I'm like, "What news?" She's like, "Yeah, it's like $750,000 each." I'm like, "Are you kidding?" And she's like, "It's going to be all interactive." And she's like, "Cool high school stuff." So, I couldn't figure out $750 each. So, 150 1.5 million was spent on scoreboards and I was like, that can't. So, that was one structure. And then I hear that now we're in the negative. So it was very I feel bad that I was not aware of how bad this district has gotten. And I

117think you know for 20 years we were always saying class is going to close. Every year we knew very oh my class will be closed this year or what class will be closed this year and then so I feel for the parents of the schools where they are given such short not like oh it's going to be closed by this time and so I'm just hope you know I will be waiting a chance to see what's going and how and that's actually what brought me again tonight we got a chance to speak through the budget but some of the other things that we're going to be spending money on. And I hope that the parents here, even this budget passed, they will continue to come and voice your opinions of what's going on. As far

118as the people on the board, I hope and she's always bigger and supports to work together great, which was awesome. And I appreciate all the volunteers and your support and working for us. But just know Everyone is watching and we do not want surprises anymore and really shame on us for spending more than 500. Thank [Music] you. therap 22 Middle Town. I first of all I just want to um as others have said before commend the seven members of the board that have take a second look have made hard decisions and show leadership and are going to do uh what is financially right for the district and not make a politically expedient uh decision. Um but I I uh also just wanted to follow up specifically on the issue of the class officers. Uh this

119is about 3 million a year. It was originally reported by Simon, our favorite past reporter. Uh that and perhaps misquing you. This is back, but this is several years ago that the township was going to pay for them 100%. That never happened. Instead, the district has been putting the bill over million a year. Now when we faced this financial uh catastrophe uh back uh in March 18th, the parents scrambled to find ways to find an alternative uh to shut schools. And some parents proposed that our township could, like many other townships, what we have to build. and the mayor uh Michelle Doug Banwag and had a press conference where he raised this idea and said yes we will be willing to pay cap that was about $650,000 a year to share this burden because after

120all it isn't education this is protection and you can say well there schools but also say well this is our town s you can see why it should at best a shared responsibility or possibly the entire responsibility of the town. In any case, uh then I heard yesterday that uh that was shel mayor apparently said and I was not at that meeting um so if I'm wrong but he said that the uh court didn't reach out. Now the shared services committee I believe that's Mr. Um, I would like if you could address us tonight and answer that. Did you reach out? Did you follow up with that offer that the mayor made that they would pay the township? That's $650,000. Now, we're still facing 6 million cuts. Excuse me. $6 million in cuts. And I'm

121sure some of that is fat and some of that is waste and some of that is savings and there's just a better use of resources. But but some of that is really important services. There are kids who are going to lose and a good I don't know what that is about a ninth of that would be that $650,000 we wouldn't have to cut if that if that initiative had to pursue. So I would really like if you could just clarify that for us. That's pretty much all I said. Thank you. [Applause] comment on that. You can direct your comment back to the mayor. I believe there is a comment and this board have turned down. Anyone else like to make it public comment? No. [Music] Melissa [Music] Mer. Um, so I'm trying to go through

122agenda tonight and I know that several parents had started talking about the um afterare decision. Um, I am I understand that this portion of the agenda, the public speaking is dispute with respect to budget. I just want to make sure that we all have the opportunity to speak about that other issue because the way I'm looking at it is there hasn't been transparency in that and we just had huge talk about you guys being transparent and I feel like this is also another one spot. So whether it's now or whether it's another point in time, we would like to talk about that. [Applause] There's a comment section on agenda. Oh, that's Thank you for the effort that [Applause] you seen a few times on I'm also in a budget data group. So, I spent a

123lot of time digging through what information I could find both online in any budget or any um user friendly budgets the CFRs to figure out how we got here. And first to dispel some of the the information that I've seen posted in articles is 5% of us parents, there is actually 63% of the student population impacted by phase one of the plan A. And that doesn't even include the two additional schools that were going to be closed this phase two. So whoever wanted to say 5% open your eyes. It's not [Applause] 5% would have been impacted in the first phase. Get your numbers right. The second one is there's a lot of questions about could we have had a a 4.88 at a sustainable increase. As part of this, I've done an offer request and

124I've got back some of the local fair share calculations from the state. Back in 2018 to 2019, we were about a 99% accuracy or local fair share population. Looking forward 23 to 24, we were drifting away. We were at an 89 to 90%. And that was year-over-year for a few years where we had started to drift away. If I look at the budget as it was proposed with this 10.1%. From the numbers that I got, we're at a 77% local fair share after. So 4.8 wouldn't gotten us anywhere near. If you can imagine how is that sustainable if we're at 10.1 and we're still only 3/4 of where the state expects us to be. This is the start of trying to correct underfunding of schools for the last seven years. This is just the start.

125Far from that. So if there isn't a longer plan that's built into this, we're going to see this again next year. So part of this, as Dr. Alone said, is the hard work. How do we continue to work together as a community to get back on track? It's going to be a lot of a lot of hard work from everyone, from the board. And I think now that we see the community's engaged, we're we're definitely aware of what's going on and we will be here participating and helping push the necessary changes. And I think another point that I want to bring up is is if you look at the way the levies are increased, as Dr. Gone also said, is they build on each other year over year. Starting next year, we're also going to

126have an additional $8 million as our base. If you take that back seven years, and this is a theoretical because I know that we're capped at 2%, but we are given certain allowances to increase above that. If you were able to get to a steady 3%. We would have had an additional $28 million over seven years to fund the school district. But the other part that is very important to see is that's a 21% increase over 7 years in our taxes. Where we're at today by saving taxes in the short term and having to catch up ends up being almost a 23 12% increase over the same period. So you are only causing more pain for yourself by trying to sell low taxes year-over-year. You need to understand what your budget is against inflation and

127stay the course. Don't sell the the headlines of tax savings or or budget savings. We can't get to that point again. Thank you. See, I wish to move to now need a motion to approve 5C adoption of file 2526 school year budget tax just with the added wording of pending. So this is not approved yet, but it's pending. Is there a motion? Motion didn't second. Uh discussion. Thank you everybody for comments all about this process. Um from my perspective since this whole war didn't begin in the six weeks for so the timing of it the notice of it like probably everybody didn't sit well with me um it obviously came across unfair and too drastic. Um my goal ever since that time and I've expressed this to you is to avoid the draft um to

128find the least horrible alternative option at the time um call it bridge, right? bridge, something that gets us the money to get through the next school year and more importantly the time to develop a workable goal strategic plan with the fair timing and the fair notice and the involvement of everybody that had been lacking before. but also recognizing that enrollment issues, aging buildings, skyrocketing costs, those are all objective facts that we'll have to reckon with under any um leading up to the April 18, the last time we were here, it appeared to me that we were on a path, but something like that um like that bridge uh like you wasn't a fan of exactly how that was rolled out either to us that didn't really matter to me. You know what that actually mattered

129to me was when we went after our phone told us that the township committee offered to split costs for the officers and purchasing some open space to bridge that gap for us again without the drastic school closures uh as proposed no mass layoffs like and without it and we were told that would also involve a tax increase but not as drastic as we had uh you know feared was coming at that time. we were hearing numbers in the seven eight something%. Um unfortunately right before that April 8th meeting we got word that the department of education would not that that budget that included at the time 5.88 and the reason we was because it left our fund balance underfunded by about $76,000. Now to me the logical next step in response to that was to

130modify the app to address that specific shortfall which is again without the drastic with as little pain as possible to all people again avoid that drastic situation. Now, it's important to recall what was actually voted on that motion that eventually came to us that we voted on and it had been emphasized over and over again that night by administrators, board members, the public, everybody here that we were voting on was to file the paperwork that would give us the flexibility to identify that number between the original 4.88 88 budget and the 10.1% that the state is now authorized us to do more for again over and over again it's emphasized up to up to this consider every time somebody mentioned it being a 10% tax increase everyone correctly correct no it's not to vote on

131a 10% tax increase it's to discuss a number up to I went back to the video charge correct um fast forward to today now April 30th up two is no longer conversation at all. Instead, I think we're being presented with what might be the most drastic option yet, which is to raise the school tax%. Um, with all the other drastic stuff still very much on the table and by all accounts, from all the conversations I've had with everybody involved, the consultancy reports we're going to get in the next four months or so, they're likely going to recommend closing at least two schools, possibly more, and probably as soon as September of 2026, there about um not many many years afterward, but not after the process of referendum once we're able to do that again. And

132so and certainly not after shiny new additions or buildings or facilities are ready for students into consumer. Um so I don't think it's fair to pass the most drastic possible tax increase ever today. I do think a tax increase is necessary um a tax increase than we've done historically. But then to do that only to tell the same community of all these taxpayers 4 months from now that the same enrollment issues, aging issues, skyrocketing cost issues, health, all that stuff is still going to be much less school closure than any of us. um if we expect to get the whole community's buy in um very soon to a strategic plan that will need to be implemented then I think we should treat the whole community fairly right now by exercising some kind of restraint returning

133to that up to up to mindset that we had the last time we left this this building this stage so my goal remains the same it's avoid the drastic that's kind of been my guiding principle throughout the last six years um you know I don't have all But I'm not mess with the calculations, but I think something in that 7% 7 range, 7 and a half range, something certainly gets us across where we thought the shortfall was the last time we were here. Um, and get us what we need for the last meeting last time. Um, and I understand like I stressed at the last meeting that number is going to be even smaller if township is on the table. I don't really care who gets the turn. I just I'm willing to reiter So,

134as always, I'm always here to listen to all sides. I'm not in favor of those possible drastic kinds of stuff. Well, it's a decent talk. Thank you. Would anybody else like to make a uh comment? I'd like to say something. First, I'd like to say I'm one of the people that been on board. And I thought, I always thought I was doing the right thing by keeping it under 2%. When they went to 2% and the tax payers and everything. So, I appreciate listening because I listen to everything you guys say. So, I thought I was doing great, but apparently I wasn't. I will be voting for this, but I will be voting yes. And I'm hoping and I want you to know I listened just now to what you said cuz I was on

135the phone today about going to different percentages because the 10 is very hard to swallow. I understand more why we're going to the tin. I'm holding my fellow board amendments. I'm holding the phone. You'll tell them why. Well, Amy, you tell them why. Because you know the numbers much better than I do. But when I hear it and I answer questions, it makes sense. Really does. The only other thing that I want from this when I start doing that I'm going to be my vote you over and over feel that we need to did not do nothing. I'm that's my and I might vote I'm voting yes now we still got people in front of us. I will vote no vote and I and I know the staff is going to be listening to this

136and hearing it but there's requirements. We need more cuts. I'm just doing your math here. We had $6 million cuts up there. If you did a 5% tax increase to bring in $8 million is 14 million. I'm sorry. 5 and a half% is possibly eight 8 and a2k. You would also have the opportunity to get that land reappraised. That's what everybody wants to do. Sell that land and you would come up with $17 million for this year's budget. Wait a minute. I got to say something. Yes. Okay. I learned something this whole project. I understand what you're saying about that's a one hit wonder again. How will you not know? Because 10.1. So next year when they start doing the 2% it has a [Applause] 10.1% I want to hear right now that we will

137not have this discussion about closing school in the next two years. That's a different story. That's the story I'm telling you. I'm just testing that question. So when a budget has I know I do my household budget you're forgetting something hold on you're forgetting something here you're getting through this year because we have already initiated a strategic planning process that's going to happen by September and there recommendation. So by you initiating that 10.1% now you took that money from the taxpayers already compound time over time. So, like I'm telling you, at 5 12% reappraising the land, selling the land, and that $6 million that was shown to us from the administration, it'll be enough money to close this budget gap. Excuse me. Let's talk. I think what we're trying to get across is we don't

138want to close the budget gap for this year. We want to look at the future and next year raise our budget for next year that's automatically without what I saw is 8 million% is it 8 million I'm sorry and what I saw was Could you please please I don't interrupt anybody else could you please tell me what the dollar amount is that We're going to increase next year in our budget automatically from the 10%. From the 10% if we go up 10.1% go up to million. It's 16 million extra budget for every for every our 1.65 65 million would have 16 million and then also one time you know Miami is looking up. The other thing I wanted to say about that too is that we have no prey. If we truly strategic plan, we

139had a hard time getting bonding for the scoreboard, right? Because we don't have a lot of credit. Our fund balance is down to [Applause] maybe I get it. But wait, I'm just saying everybody. I am not the finance person on this board and I'll explain that again later. I try to understand I am not the person that extends the number. I'm more the community person. I am under the impression that when we go to 10.1 next year when the budget comes up we will have more backing so that we are not doing a one-year bandaid that this is not a bandaid that this is going to help us to create funding so that we can continue in the future to improve our schools. [Applause] I'm just going to say 2% on more is just more.

140Like that's just what numbers are. I mean, what threshold is up to the board to decide, but when you have more in your base, that 2% is always going to calculate more. So, your comment is this is a band-aid. No, my comment is not a band. I'm saying going to 10% to me is not a bandaid. go in and hey, listen. I blame Mayor Perry for the 5.88 because I was all there until the state came in and said it wasn't enough. We had no meetings as a board to discuss what the next step would be. We should have, but we didn't. We haven't discussed this budget. Zero. I'm not pointing. I'm just saying we're all responsible for that. We all should have been up here screaming, "Fred and Jackie, put a meeting together for

141us. Why are we not together? if this is going to help us to gain money so that we can start fixing our schools. And what I need to say about that is I am the longest member on this board and I've known for 20 years that we need to fix our schools. What we do and you can raise because you on here too. Um what we what we have been doing for the last few years is we have been trying to keep our buildings open and running. We have not put money toward improvements. We didn't have the money. We lost it from the state. Correct. Now we have an opportunity to take the 10% and try to build our base back up. There's going to be a rough run somewhere down the line, but this

14210% isn't going to get us there. What this 10% is going to do is to help us survive for a few years until we can properly plan how to do this. And Dr. said there will be school closings. There will be um building repairs. We're going to put two middle schools together and we know they're not going to fit. That's my problem with this. We had no discussions. It hit us like a buck of lightning. I didn't like the fact that we were not allowed to tell the public until after we were going to vote on that completely off 23 years is that you need the public engaged to succeed. Number four, it isn't just about two schools. It's about four schools. And if we're going to close them into plants, what are we doing

143to link who has 25 kids in a class? Is there a plan to reduce that class size because there's no more room in that building? So, we're not looking at the whole picture. We're just taking, okay, we can close these schools and put them down. We can take these kids and shove them in overcrowded middle schools. But what are we doing for the kids? It's a disservice. [Applause] retired. I can't afford 10% either, but I ran for the board for the kids. I am visible. I support everything that every school does. It doesn't matter who it is. I cannot consciously not vote for this. And if you want to unelect me, go right ahead because I have 23 great years and I will go up knowing that I do not make a vote that's going

144to hurt our [Applause] kids. I was told that this is still maybe I was informed. I don't know, but I hate [Applause] That's correct. And I'm going to say it again. I was informed this is a band-aid still. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I think the term I would use would be a bridge. It's a bridge. And any tax increase is going to help us cuz it's going to support our base revenue. Like that's without a doubt. And I will remind the community again in any iteration of this we were raising taxes because in order to get to financial health, we have to raise more revenue. That's just the reality. Um I wouldn't say this is a band-aid because a band-aid to me presents as temporary and a tax increase is lasting regardless of what point it

145comes at. So you know that's temporary. So, I think band-aid is a little misleading. Uh, bridge is more the term that I would I would tend to use. It gives us time and the ability to get to the next place we need to be. Um, and listen, we talked about lots of iterations of that, right? We started in a place we didn't want to be, born out of crisis. Um, and I think we've come a long way since then. Um, and we talked about a lot of different iterations, whether it be land sales or tax increases at different thresholds. But regardless, it's all about generating revenue, right? And lasting revenue is better than temporary revenue as Amy has showed in her slides tonight. So, you know, I'm just going to leave it generally as that.

146One more thing, just go ahead. I'm sorry. with the increase that we would be doing and if we carry it to next year plus the increase on that you know you would be looking at having a tax base that would be between8 million more even the following year then we would have right so it's 26 27 school year we have problem extrapate if [Applause] tax 89 million more than what you would have had if you how are we going to be the 26 27th school year if you that's what if you traveling out in 10% years [Applause] I was told this is a day [Applause] start starting administration last year starting from last year we had a $5 million you carry that forward we're carrying over that $5 million verdo every year right so last

147year was5 million this year product 10, next year it's going to be 15. The cuts have to happen, right? We know that 6 million is going to get cut. Now, now the through the six through the through the 10.1 get up to 16.1, right, on on the tax, right? That's going to cover up until next year. And you know, we're we're trying to catch up on $15 million deficit from starting into next year. We're then going to do the cuts for the safe money that that we have, but we're also putting together a strategic plan. So the band-aid that we talked about is it's not a band-aid. This is this is an ultimate fix to Yeah. It's not just a temporary fix though because we're we're set to a trajectory for a a healthy financial

148setting. That's that's not [Applause] [Music] [Applause] From there, we're going to put a strategic plan. From that strategic plan, we will we will build build back a better school. We will do expansions to our schools, possibly build back new schools. We don't know what's going to happen through the strategic plan, but that's what needs to happen. without getting that extra money in, we don't have financial help. And the biggest problem with this whole thing is we're not just trying to play catchup anymore. When we get when we get down to a referendum, we have to have money in the bank, right? We have zero funds in our reserves, right? We have to cover the health funds, right? It's it's just it's it's a trajectory downhill. And what we talked about with the mayor's, you know,

149proposal is it was 5.8 that gave us 8.6 6 million. Right? So 5.8 gave us 8.6 million. We wanted to put another 2.8 on top of that. Right? And that got us to our deficit from this year, but we're right back into the clip because next year we're going to have to catch up to the funds that the 2.8 and the rest of the money that we have before that we're going to get into a deficit with the extra 5 million. So we're going to be right back into it all over again. And it's going to be even compounded even worse because then we have to catch up that 5 million. And then we're going to have to cut down more schools. And no one can tell me on this board. I I don't care

150how many re reiterations of cutting down this, you know, cutting down our footprint. Where are we saving the money? We we we're not cutting down teachers, right? Maybe we're we're getting rid of principles and making some interventions, but overall, we're not saving boatloads of money. So, no one on this board can tell me, right? So don't [Music] ask anything that's why I'm asking this board strategic plan comes back by September and recommends closing the school. What are we going to do then? September. Oh yes. Oh yes it will. Oh yes it will. [Applause] The other the other problem with this is we we have our our board members are only here for three years, right? And then this is this is the habitual problem that we're running into. So they put together a strategic plan

151in 2020, even before that. New board members come in and it gets dropped, right? This board has to finish this this year. They have to they have to go all the way through and get this thing done. And we're we're at a point right now where we have no other options. And I'm sorry, but 10.1 is the only option at this point. Selling property that put it this way. The township won't even let us sell property. They won't let us sell property. We've already I talked to them personally and they told me they wouldn't let me. We're not even to sell. We would be right now. That's why they said no, we're not approved by the D to sell. Are we improving? Not for the sale of city, but it's in process. It's in process.

152We couldn't. So, we're going to go out. We're going to get a close and then we're going to try to sell this property and it's going to get because we can't. That's it. That's what the mayor said to me personally. He said, but I'm No, I'm speaking I'm speak I'm speaking at this point with that public. He doesn't want us to put out the public bid because he said he doesn't want to put out to a developer. Well, I I can't speak for that. You're speaking for him. It's your money, dude. So, so that that's the point that that's where we're at right now. So, we can't we can't raise taxes, right? We can't sell property and we're not gonna we're not going to get any savings. But we had a saying we can't sell

153property. Well, I want to do appraisal. Wouldn't that have made sense if everybody was and I and I think I asked the student. So, Leonor, did I did I recommend a new appraisal? Thank you. The mayor the mayor said if I put this out to bid, he would sue the board of education. So what would be the broccoli? [Applause] But I I think we got a contention out of this right now. And Let's talk about this. Yes, we're going to that here. I I think it's the wrong platform. No, I I understand. I understand that. But the problem is is we're we're in the situation right now where we can't sell property. We can't sell property because we were talking. No, I think you're incorrect by saying that. That's why I just asked if you

154want to do this problem. I I think I think we're [Applause] already for me. I've lived here my whole life. I love I think that, you know, our our town committee does some really great things for us. I love living here. I love our school. I think that what's happening to us is a disaster. Everybody's being schools apart. That shouldn't be. We need to do the right thing to keep our community intact. We know there's going to be changes. I'm not saying, "Hey, I was the biggest one that is against not closing schools, and everybody knows that." But I'm not naive to think that we don't have to do something. But I think we're hurting our community. The community I love, I love to be in. My kids grow up. My grandkids are growing up.

155All their kids, a lot of your kids are here. We have to pull this together and act as a group and do the right thing. 1500 less students and 65% more administrator. We need to have more administration. I am not doubling you. Do we have 1500 less students and 65% more administrators? We do, but that's not the um capacity. I believe he Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I I'm not all I know is that I'm in those buildings, not all the time, but when I'm invited, and I know they're partying, even as the smallest pools, because the numbers are wrong. The problem is we've always tried to redist and everybody's good with that. As long as it's not in their backyard. So that's why we're where we are today. And I get it

156because I didn't like it. Going to build it. I didn't want to re resend something. The parents say, "Okay, the poor kids can say we can. But we actually have an opportunity where we should have redistrict and we could have taken some of the luck to everybody. There's going to be no good plan unless everyone feels the pain. Everybody's going to feel the [Applause] pain. And let's face it, people want living in Middletown. It's a safe town, but the schools are a part of people moving to Middletown. [Applause] You know, my family is that, you know, my children go to school. Yes. And they get a great education and they are of the only district, the only school in this district that is over. And they're still getting a great deal. Exactly. But we have

157this contingent plan. Aren't we supposed to find out how we're going to utilize our building in the best possible way? Right. That's what we have going on right now. September to come back and dance for us. It's just my opinion. I respect your opinion and I process my opinion. I'm a middle person. I care about our schools as much as I care about our community. And I want you I'm going to make a motion for my uh idea that I just put out 5 and a half% $2 million sales for better $6 million in savings and raising taxes 5.5 motion to amend that. [Music] If everyone recalls, this is what we did at the last meeting when it was proposed budget and I think to amend it. So that this is now a secondary motion

158that the board will debate and discuss amendment. I'd like to make a comment. So we have $6 million in savings from the Where's your [Applause] $9 million.5? That's $15 million. $2 million plus for the sailing at $17 million. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Well, it's the same thing we're doing. [Applause] Asking you the oldest member here, obviously. So, I'm asking you the $6 million savings are recovering, right? $6 million savings. I'm not dis disagreeing. the 10.1 million that I'm trying to make [Music] understand what I wanted to say. I'm putting that out there as a motion that you guys are amending out there. Can I say something? But you can't include something in the budget that the board has. [Applause] All you all you voted on was an application to the DOE to get approval to sell

159it. You didn't vote to sell property. I want to just say something. After the sale, you learn different sale of Port. After the sale of what happened, the only way I to sell property is if that property is going to go that sale to go into the reserve fund, not into my budget. The reserve fund has fund in 2019. No, I really don't know. I don't know what I can't figure out. You know how much we have a surplus fund in 2019. What surplus fund? The general fund of reserves, correct? And capital reserves as well. No, you had zero surplus in 2019. Correct. before [Music] 2019 $9,500 [Music] and [Applause] maybe where we got our money everybody [Applause] [Music] our money was something when happened [Music] money yelling about it. They kept taking the money

160put the money on the side. So, how far went down that bridge? I'm sorry. We had money in the reserve. Why did you sell that money? I think that's how we carried ourselves to get [Music] So, we stop smoking mirrors now. Please. [Applause] I want to make a comment. Yes. So, listen. This 10.1% tax increase would affect me probably more than anybody up here cuz I commercial property tax in Middletown and a B3 business zone, which is probably one of the top rates for business taxes. Um, but I also see having spent many hours over the last several weeks with with NGAR and Dr. phone and having them kind of teach me in the process that I think leadership probably should have. But this part is really and walking me through it and educating me

161about it. This is a no-brainer that we have to do this. Yes, it is absolutely approaching because we cannot come up here next year and the year after that, the year after that be talking about how many more millions of dollars we are in debt. If this had been raised every year, I I'm just doing some calculations. It's almost $9 million worth of reserves have been used over the last four years in that calculation that Mr. D put up. That's a big number of reserves. If we have a major infrastructure issue in the district, we don't have the money to pay for that. That's really shortsighted and doesn't benefit the taxpayers at all because then when you're up to this year, we're I think this you say we're $3 million over on the health insurance.

162Yeah. of the year, but we are trending. So, we're trending up. Yes. So, that was under budgeted last year and from what I was told recommendation last year, I wasn't on the board, but the recommendation last year is that the insurance should have been funded more. It was underfunded. But then I've also come to learn going into meetings that um certain uh contracts were negotiated without our business present. And to me, I I don't know the exact contracts that that was held on, but that's troubling because I think that we should have our CFO in the negotiations with those contracts, not just the board president negotiating them. So, [Applause] it's hard saying that I negotiate a contract that you I believe I guess Mr. Sabr talk about the fact that I didn't participate in any

163of I wasn't asked to participate in any of the interviews or decision process. You [Music] have you not have the I received them on behalf of the board. Why did you not privy to the information? You're the you're the business. I received them. So Mark, let me let me back up for a second. The reason why we had a new insurance broker this year, you might or might not know this, but our old insurance broker had us in a prescription plan that was charging us 30% of our cost of prescription to manage it, which equated to approximately $2.5 million per year. So if you want to know where the money went for the last couple years of reserve, you can go ask Brown and Brown why $2.5 million every year was given to somebody like

164Ethna to manage our prescription plan. Well, you could have done it from a third party or actually [Applause] his explan also told me that she recommended last year that we fully fund the health insurance and he said no. Can you explain why you fully health insurance last year? Okay. Can you explain why the one that brought us to Can you tell me why you couldn't function insurance this year to the levels that they recommend? Professionals. Like I just told you, Mark, I don't hold a pen or a computer. Okay. The same budget, the same budget that was approved was unanimously approved by this board. Mark, will you be here? I think we're just ready to vote. [Applause] Do you know I haven't seen that one? I don't know. White who donated $500. [Applause] But thank

165you. But thank but thank you Mr. Fitzgerald for helping me and I appreciate that. But we should go through your campaign donations. I'd like to call a question please. [Music] Motion's on the table. Yes. This is the amended because it's a number. But the problem is but my understanding is because the sale of the land is you put enough money. All right. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] We don't even have we don't even have the now take the 10.1% [Applause] because I have a question. [Applause] last meeting. 5.8 was contingent on the mayor's uh deal. The ten of the tenative budget was a 4.88 increase. We never voted on by the end of the question. And we also had the conversation that we would have to vote on the 30th to have the land sale incorporated within

166because the land sale would have to be a separate vote with as with the class 3 officer contract because it's a contract amendment. So those two items would have have to have been separate items on the agenda. Okay. So the landset would have been on this agenda this time, right? And I reached out to the township to see about getting an amended agreement for the class 3s and I was told the township was not interested. Wow. [Applause] [Music] And I also reached out to the mayor. I received a letter tonight that he wrote back and told me that nobody reached out to me. So [Music] he just waited till send it back to me tonight. vote on his motion. Go ahead. Okay, we'll make it better. We throw that into a [Applause] 6.95%. So, you're

167going to be pouring your food. Can we make a motion to go over a [Applause] plan with [Applause] our meeting made a motion for 6.95. Is there a second? Is there a second price? What is it? 6.9. [Music] So I don't see any second. So that's motion. I [Music] So now we're back to the discussion of the original budget as introduced in voting on the original motion to approve a 10.1% budget recommended original [Music] JD Ro. [Music] Yes. Woo. Mr. Sarasi. Yes. Mr. [Applause] Yes. Mr. Yeah. [Applause] [Music] Guys, don't give him the satisfaction. Stay. You have to stay in these meetings. Don't give him the satisfaction. Stay on. They can do business. Guys, can we please can we just keep this for a moment? Thank you. [Applause] Okay. 60. [Music] [Applause] Okay, we're not

168going to go on committee reports. I'm going to do instruction. [Music] There will be. Yes, there will be something uh sixth through sixth [Music] grade report instruction. Yes, thank you. We met on Friday the 25th curriculum instruction committee. Great things to report that we're pretty excited about. One um Mr. Colin reported just some of the results of those colleges our students got into very impressive list including Yale Princa, UCLA, USA also including [Applause] West an announcement. Typically the honor society applications timeline is a pretty intense period where the applications are released and kids students only have about 10 days to get it, fill it out, submit it and and put it under review. Um that opens the obvious state of being pretty unnecessarily condensed and stressful. So now it's going to be extended to be

169a 3 week or 21 day period. Um, something I've been excited about all along I put on every month is the investigations of the new K5 math program. Um, they the curriculum departments have at least seven different programs to to kind of recalibrate our math. A lot of those are being considered topics on [Music] that related related to the the elementary math uh situation. I want to thank Mr. There's been a big emphasis on and getting ahead of whatever program we end up getting. Sort of re recalibrating how we go about structuring math class day led by the teachers and sort of a return to um emphasis on skills and fluency as opposed to kind of the wonder exploration models that get used to. Um so it's going to be a focus more on fluency

170skill explicit instruction by the teachers instruction day guided practice that's very very exciting and then lastly I want to thank Mrs. The last she has something very unique about um trying to maybe figure out an improved way on the lower elevation to three partnership included not much structured regular frequency. on student services is free. Yes, thank you. So, we also went on Friday, uh, April 25th, and one of the things that Kate discussed was the ongoing parent university series, uh, that he had been doing, um, all year on different subjects. And this past one that was just held was on our differentiated instruction and inclusion. And so, Mrs. Stranger uh went over our district's inclusive practices, the progress of manual teacher training uh that has been happening throughout the district. Uh just want to remind

171everybody um you know I was able to see and some of the community members the slides that Mrs. Ranger went through uh these uh sessions, our recordings are available on the district website under curriculum instruction. I just encourage everybody to go look because we've actually made a lot of great strides over the past few years towards more inclusive practices with our students. So, it was really great to see the presentation. Um we also talked about the uh professional development and special education that Mrs. screen and did for our special education teachers on Wednesday, April 2nd. And the thing I think that the committee was most excited to hear about was based on the success of the unified basketball game that we had here in the district. We are now exploring other options and we believe

172that we are going to be announcing the date of a unified kickball game coming up very soon which will feature students from high school north and south. I believe efforts are being made to have a pet band and also have the cheerleading squad come out for those districtwide events. And moving forward, we're looking to have more of these types of unified sports. And we're hope we're hopeful that we're going to be able to actually schedule unified pickball games against schools such as um Central Point Pleasant and also Toms River who currently have teams. So, it's really great to hear that. Thank you. Moving on to finance and facilities. Mr. D finance committee met discuss the budget and application. They also talked about sale of date. On the agenda tonight is an identification [Music] soft issue

173since we operated the land all these years as part of the school But I'd also love to be reimbursed for [Music] transgender and the recommendation of our broker policies. It's the [Music] [Applause] [Music] microphone. So I lost a little time. We had to catch up. I've also have on the agenda a new voluntary business plan carrier. This is a plan that's completely paid by the employees [Music] that offers [Music] benefits. Uh we also have on the website [Music] contract for next% increase and we also have on [Music] the board as contract process that's on And we also talked about the daily organization meeting. That's the time that we do a host of things professional services appointments. So I was asking and [Music] asking again talk about facilities Uh we also unfortunately had some not great

174news. We did not receive the recreation grant from the platform for the new playground. Very disappointed about that. We did receive the the grant award the last two years. So they don't tell you what factors in the decision but we did apply for playground and we will need to apply again next round. Uh we also talked about the progress on board installations and it's moving along for your timeline that is protected and public or gender And there's only a question about the following bus that your teacher being trained in. And I was wondering why that was chosen and also what I was looking at it is 1250 is that per teacher what is that train it's per teacher inclusive of all the materials for the programology is the followup to our Gillingham K2 it's a

175science-based reading program we've seen extreme benefits for that in our K2 population um in moving towards a more science-based approach to literacy instruction um this is the three and five um companions to that um really based in word study. And it happened that was switched away because uh about 11 years ago you had so many teachers trained in Wilson and at that time not was there was so many training you got trained over years it was never full so Wilson is usually an intervention based program. It's not something you implement with your entire student population whereas Gillingham is a program that is for the entire student population. Um Wilson is used a lot of times in our special education classrooms. Um teachers utilize skills um for um multiensory approaches to literacy instruction in intervention settings,

176special ed settings. So while Wilson is one program, it's more about multiensory approach. Um and Wilson is really reserved for um you know intervention and special education whereas Gillingham is a program that's for um all of our students and all of our learners. really just words from words their way. Um we have found that to not be an ideal companion to our gilling camp program um particularly in the development of student vocabulary which is the focus at grades three or five through the dissection of words. Yes. But is is Wilson still being used as an intervention? It can be if the teacher is trained. Absolutely. We do have still have teachers that are trained in Wilson. um you do not specify in an IEP or an intervention plan what program we utilize because it is

177more about a multiensory approach. Wilson is one approach and one tool. So um for the children who are dyslexic in the district are they the ones who are getting that intervention? The reason I'm asking this is because I had two children who were dyslexic going through the through the district who when you had Wilson was not apply to them like there was no separate take out it was always like hodge podge of this we're going to use this we're going to use that we're going to use this infidelity so when I saw this coming out I just want to make sure that things are going to be used in fidelity when you're putting out such Absolutely absolutely we have a lot of benefit to to providing that program to our students with fidelity in that

178we are seeing kids not coming through at our early elementary levels with gaps in their learning um and we are seeing more success again we're just in the first few years of this but um we are encouraged by the fact that not only does dealing with the training train teachers on the programmata aspects it trains them to be better teachers of reading in general which is really important when you're dealing with students who have um disabilities that involve reading or even just students that may struggle and need a little more time or direct intervention and support. So um we are really encouraged um by the research number one because that's how we selected the program and certainly by the outcomes of the students that have already had the program. So yes, we isn't losing it

179with fidelity. It is a program that is seen to address students that have dyslexia. Um so we are um really really happy that we were able to launch this and get it off the ground. K to 2 and certainly three to five was our next step for those reasons. Um and I believe that all of our K to2 teachers who have all had the training at this point are and are utilizing this on a regular basis with fidelity are better teachers of reading for all of our students. So I'm confident in that. Okay. The and the last just the last thing um I don't know first would be someone is retiring this year and they're listed as being one of the state trainings. So I don't know maybe we'll we'll take a look at that.

180Thank you. Thank you. Uh again I'm going to ask the same thing. Can you please give us the numbers because it's really hard to comment on something that we don't have numbers for. And so before you close comments, we would like to actually see those numbers to the comment if you need to. No, I I and I do have the numbers. I didn't bring them because I wanted to share them. This is not not something that was supposed to be secretive. Again, this is not against you. This is this is this is I appreciate you bringing the numbers. It is this is this is anger from the community because the last six weeks have been secretive and and this is us on guard. No, I understand that completely, which is why I brought the numbers

181because I wanted to have information to share with you. Okay. Um, so we did do an analysis um, in our due diligence in comparing the weekly and you know monthly cost of champions versus YMCA. And I'll say it as I said it before when every company has a standard rate that they that they propose to charge people. But when you are bigger, you have more leverage because you are going to generate more business from them. So we have the ability because of our size to negotiate those fees down. Um when you look at um and we you know they they also have a first first entry point and a second entry point similar to how the YMCA structures it like if you drop off before this time and that time how much it will be.

182Um so uh for one I'll just use an example. I'll use the 5 day a week example because it's probably easiest. So for the YMCA at 5 days a week at if you're dropping off as early as possible, it costs for one student $200. That is what we currently currently our contract is with Champions. If you are a 5 day a week and coming in at that first wave, 7 a.m. right when they open, it's $188. That's a that's an applesto apples comparison. Um the PM session, I'll go with the same thing. If you are um the latest pickup possible, so 6 p.m. on both ends, the YMCA for all five days is 3:07 and Champions is 284. These are actual figures that are that are given to us by champions in our contract. They

183cannot they have to abide by that. So those are the numericics. Um our goal is to certainly publish the company has to also publish them out to parents too because again we are the host, they are the vendor. Um, and as I said earlier, and I'll I'll I'll just highlight again some of the features that we deem to be superior. And not that we haven't had a great relationship with the YMCA, because we're not saying that we didn't, but because we are required to go out to um the competitive contracting process. It gave us an opportunity to explore other options. Um and we went into it saying look it if it's not superior in a lot of ways that it's not we we probably won't make that move this year. However um from a programmatic

184standpoint what I observed and the feedback I received firsthand and I'm not taking this from other people. I went there with the group. Um it was above what we see class or school to school across the district. Um it also has greater flexibility for dropins even if there is an upcharge. most places would have an upcharge, I would think, because they're going to have to staff that potentially differently on any given day or have people on call, whatever it might be. Um, we do have the ability in our title one schools where there will be food provided for our students. Um, breakfast, a hot meal at dinnertime. Um, we have a schoolwide program in our district currently. And, um, the ability of holiday care. YMC does not offer holiday care on site. um champions would.

185Whereas when we're closed for spring break or winter recess um there would be care available um in addition to the potential for a summer program for our students in absence and especially with our summer programming that we had you know provided academically being something that we're going to have to reduce over time. So um when we do this we do it by committee. It's not me or any one person making that decision. Um and there is a rubric that we use to score it and certainly a process for how we have to post that information and when and how we share that with both the vendors that were involved and the school community. So this is like step one. All right. So my question is like you just gave generals not specifics and parents as

186parents we want specifics like my like I said I gave you data. I gave you a perfect example of you know before you vote on it. I give you a perfect example of when I called them and they gave me the current rates of Kingsburg, they specifically said also things like you have to pay for 1 to 3 days. That is not our contract, right? But again, we haven't seen that. So before you vote on something, we're asking to say yes, we're switching companies. I think as parents, we deserve to see a program that was that was a disadvantage. few years you were going the I that number was not you you were not there but a few years they were going to right no and and I I am telling you the numbers I

187brought them purposely to share because I knew there were to be questions and I didn't want the community to feel they were uninformed but again I'll go back to the fact that this is how the competitive contracting process works and I here's the rock and the hard place we need an on-ramp to be able to give this company time to be able to on board our community and any employees that want to come come to from YMCA potentially to champions because they will entertain people from YMCA applying if they so choose. So there would be consistency potentially with some of the staff members. That is always a given when we when we have these changes in programs um for the most part. So if we table this to have champions provide extensive information, we're we're

188we're bumping up against a timeline that I don't know that champions can accommodate. Okay. So, I ask a personal question that I want to know what my rate's going to be. If you want to keep it that way, that's fine. But I want to know what my rate's going to be. Yes. I drop off at I do three days a week. I drop off at 7:45 and I pick up at 5. Well, I would have to do I could get that to you. I I want to be able to three days a week. Dropping off at 7:45. 7:45. Mhm. You would be paying $68 for the morning. Per week. Per week. Okay. And then what time do you pick up? 5:00. 3 days a week. You're paying 120 per week for that pickup. No, that's

189a these are monthly. Monthly. I'm sorry. Monthly. All right. So, these rates are monthly or weekly? Monthly. Monthly. Amy? Monthly. The YMCA rates. I just want to clarify the YMCA rates that we're using are the ones that they submitted with their proposal for next year. Yeah. The YCA rates are lower next year. Yes. So they they actually be higher than what you're paying this year. But right, not by much, but yes. But what I'm asking is is $68 per week or $68 per month? Per month. Per month. Where the right the YMCA for 3 days was proposing $85 for 7.45 drop off and Champions was proposing $68 for 3 days for 745. Can we clarify with champions to make sure because every 100% less I'm looking at and they said monthly because on their website

190everything for every other district they say they build per week they proposed us with a weekly rate which we then multiplied to a monthly rate. We extrapolated monthly you did. Okay. So this is the information that is based on the information that was submitted in their contract to us. So it's exactly what they have to abide by with us. So they will say offer us the prorated amount depending on your usage as opposed to a flat rate. Yes. And when can we expect changes? Um no charge for no penalty for schedule changes. No charge for vacation weeks if you're on vacation. You know you don't have Okay. But then you just said right there no charge for vacation. You don't want to participate. Not everybody uses the vacation care. Oh, you're talking about the extra.

191No, that's why I'm at the break. I'm saying if you if you were away for a week when school was in session, but you also don't have to use the holiday weeks either. You're not obliged to pay in person. When will we have access to the exact rates? As soon as we can get the contract approved and we can get Champions to start publishing information to our school community. But we know what's in the contract, which is why we're sharing this tonight, the the actual numbers. We know that it's less expensive, right? If you guys know what's in the contract, why can't we know what's in the contract? We're going to share that. But we also have to get the contract approved in order to be able to move forward. So, you have to not

192tell us what the contract is. I'm telling you what the contract is, but we don't have a copy of that that but so we don't actually know. Champions will publish that out and on ramp our parents. I'm sorry that you don't trust the fact that we're telling the truth, but this these are the numbers. These are the numbers. So, my name is Lauren. I'm 20 years old and I have lived in Belfford my entire life. I went to Bay View. I went to Bay Shore and I went to North. I have I only know Mr. Colin up here. He was my assistant principal at Bay and my principal here. And I'm going to try and say this without crying. I have spent the last year of my life giving to the YMCA to make my

193kids safer and happier at my school. And you people took that away from me for what? There's no rhyme or reason. Now I'm out of job and my kids are going to be asking your KC champions where the heck's Miss and that's not fair to them. You're all about the children yet you have no care in the world what they're going to think about this. They're not old enough to speak for themselves and that's the hell why I'm here. It is unfair of them and none of you give a damn. And it's obvious. It's obvious with everybody who's fought with you tonight. It's obvious with every board meeting that I've watched via your live streams. You don't give a damn about these children. I do. And you're taking that away from them. The YMCA is

194an amazing program. They changed me for the better in the last year. After college, I was after high school, I was going to go into the Air Force National Guard. I had surgery on my tailbone. They deferred me for 24 months. That's two years. I'm in that two-year process right now. I've struggled through different jobs. And the YMCA is the only place where I felt comfortable to be myself. And you guys are just taking that away. These kids, they feel comfortable with us. I spent the last 8 months giving my worst days being their superheroes. And that's going to be gone because I I don't know. I don't know why. I don't know what possessed you to not continue your contract with YMCA. I just want to clarify that we were required to go out

195for a competitive bid. This was not the process was not a choice. We didn't choose to say we are we are unhappy with the YMCA, but it's part of our due diligence to take that competitive process and investigate all options. I'm just letting you know and I appreciate what you're saying. I'm just letting you know right now, I know plenty of parents and plenty of workers that are loyal to the YMCA. And if they're leaving, so is your profit. So is all the money you plan on making with this company. And I'm going to leave it at that before I cross the line. The YMCA is amazing organization. The kids are happy. They are safe. Their program is amazing. And I don't recall any of you being in my building watching what I do with

196my children every day cuz I make a damn difference in their lives. Every supervisor for baby for every elementary school in Middletown makes a difference in their kids' lives. [Applause] Hi K with the Leonardo School District. Couple things. One on the budget conversation but finance. Um, I don't know what's going on with this monument playground, but is there something that we can put into the funds that if we do the 10.1, which we're doing that helps move the new Monmouth playground or build a new one? I keep hearing that it costs more money to move an existing playground down the road than it does to build a new one. And they were upset that they didn't get a $65,000 grant, which to me to move a playground for $65,000 and that was the grant that

197they wanted is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure if we knew what the requirements were around moving this playground and how to do it that this group of parents in conjunction with all of Middletown could help with this playground. So, if we can't put it in the budget, let us know what needs to be done so this group of people can help get that done. [Applause] I don't even know which one. We brought this up in facilities. We were trying to see if that was feasible to be done. I believe the consensus was it couldn't be done. We didn't bring this up to see why we import mom to the Can we get some of the information on why it can't be again? I myself waiting for that based upon the based upon the equipment and does

198you know the cost to dismantle it, transport it, re reassemble it. You know, comparing that to how old the equipment is and how how much more life it would have in it. take it. It is deemed to be better to purchase the equipment that is sold right at the moment. Okay. Are those numbers that we could look at take a take an idea on how to make that go forward and or just can we plan for that in this 10.1? I think it would probably fit now, right? I mean, I know New has a a co, you know, a group of parents and coalitions working on this as a bigger project. I mean, the grant that they that we were trying to get for them was a piece of a larger project that they're doing.

199So, we're going to have to have continued conversations with them on how that's going to move forward. Okay. I just want to say probably for everybody in here, I think we'd all be willing to help with that if it needs to be helped and those kids deserve a nice playground. Um, my second point is that the YMCA, I don't know the details of the deals and the RFPs. I think what's really being asked from this group is when will the information be published? Will there be time for us to take a look at that? I know that there's a lot of people in this room, myself included, my kids use the app why Afterare um we loved it and my kids are begging to go why kids half the time when I'm sending them home

200on the bus. Um we want to know what we can do. Is there an opportunity for the Y to match the RFP? Is there an opportunity for the Y to discuss having, you know, what are these better programs or better processes that the champions is offering? And is there a chance for the Y maybe to come up and meet that if it truly is a better program? I will say I'm happy with the Y kids. I think you guys have done a great job and you know, I'm all for it. So, I know hard decisions have to be made and we all are looking at money, right? So RFPs have to happen, but maybe there's an opportunity to work with a group that has been steady and consistent and a not for profit and it's

201just out for the good of the [Applause] children at Drive Middletown. Um in reference to the personnel section, I just wanted to um thank two retirees. Um Mr. Brennan, one of my son's favorite teachers. He is a fixture at High School South and um he will be greatly missed um at Thompson. Um Mrs. Salot, who um is probably one of the most phenomenal co-teers I've ever run into in this district. Um um started in the high school, came to the middle school, not sure if it would be a fit, and she blew it away. Um so she will be missed incredibly. Um, also, um, item 11 I I'm glad to see we're finalizing a POMO. I couldn't really hear Amy that well about the reimbursement agreement with the township. I don't know how much they're

202expecting to be reimbursed, but I would hope that they would remember that when they went wanted to rent out Corman Hall to Trinity Hall, we gave them the Lancra annex for a dollar a month and we incurred thousands and thousands of dollars to remove oil tanks so that they could inhabit that space for a thou about a dollar a month um as rent I believe or was it a dollar a year? So, I hope the township is not nickel and dimming us on something so that we can finalize this sale on home. So, I apologize. I couldn't hear how much it was, but I just want to remember the kindness of what we did for them. It's a cap of $10,000 on the song cost. Okay. All right. Just just saying. Um, also I I

203I don't know what can be done, but I just want to talk about decorum. Um, I I have plenty of arguments. I've debated with Jackie. I've debated with Frank. I think I've debated with probably everybody on this board, but I I don't understand why we have to get so nasty and and we allow it. We allow the heckling. I look at the children in the audience and I cringe. So, I don't know if there's something that we can do, but also some of the things that are thrown around make me very twitchy when I hear about a cushy job in the district. They are referring to a young man that interned for four years of his high school years, overcame challenges to get a part-time job at our district, and then earned a full-time job

204even beyond o getting over whatever special needs and challenges he has. Shame on them. We should be hiring more children like that. And and I think the slingming has to stop. Has to stop. So I hope I don't I and and we've argued, Jackie, we argue, but you know, we have differences. We can be with you anytime. Yeah. But you can do it in a constructive manner and um I don't know if security or somebody I mean the heckling you can't hear back there. It's it's just not appropriate. Thank you. Sarah Jeran at 34 James Street, Loftraftoft. Um I'm a parent of two children who are in kindergarten in third grade at Loft Elementary and my children uh attend the YARE program in the morning and in the afternoon. Um my son started in kindergarten

205and we've had nothing but very good experiences with the teachers and administrative staff at the YMCA. Yesterday, we along with the teachers of the program very abruptly learned that the care of our children was being turned over to a for-profit company. There was no formal notice except from the Y themselves who also seemed to be blindsided. If any of you have children that attended the Y program or at some point daycare, you might understand how difficult it is to entrust someone else with your child's care. My husband and I both work outside of the home and I have a very lengthy commute. My six and nine-year-olds are at school before many of their peers are even awake. This isn't something anyone in our home is excited about. However, it is a necessity in order for

206us to be at work on time. The mom guilt weighs very heavily. That being said, my mind was immediately put at ease on day one when I met Miss Linda. She, Miss Lynn, Miss Barbara, and the other teachers know every single child in their care. They're attentive, experienced, structured, kind, and have a relationship with school. They genuinely care about my children. So much so that my kids sometimes tell us that we pick them up too early. Likewise, I have found the administrative staff at the White to be extremely responsive and flexible. I'm not a mom that just drops her kids and leaves for the day without a second thought. I have high standards for those I entrust the care of my children to. I do not trust a new company to take over the care

207of my children when they have been with people whom I know have their best interests at heart. I was previously it was previously mentioned that the new program has been deemed better after a facility visit. How many times have you visited the ware programs? How many children have you spoken to that are now devastated at the thought of losing their teachers? How many parents have you asked for feedback? The parents who send their children every day need to decide what's the best option. I also need to address once again the lack of transparency of parents, the lack of empathy for the children this will impact and the lack of respect shown to the teachers and other staff at the YMCA who have dedicated so much of their time and energy to our children. A lack

208of foresight as to how this will also impact the additional services the Y contributes to our schools, such as counseling. We're all people. We're not numbers on a chart or spreadsheet. My children are not faceless components to a business model. decisions impact real human beings. When I called the board office yesterday to express my concerns, I was told there probably wasn't a lack of transparency as this was probably published in a newspaper since there was an RFP. I was then transferred to a voicemail box and have yet to receive a response. I try to make myself as informed as possible when it comes to my children. I will be watching more closely from now on. In fact, I now have several questions about the reduction in support staff that was on screen earlier. I also

209question how much these outside consultants are being paid when we're talking about harnessing the talents of our teachers for self professional development. So now we find ourselves in a room full of many people who are feeling strong emotions because they're hurting. Parents and students who are panicked at the idea of losing their neighborhood schools, teachers concerned about losing their jobs, and now a group of working parents who might need to make a difficult decision as to who will care for their children before and after school. not to mention flip the bill for the increased revenue promised from this company over the next few years. I have no doubt that prices will increase while the quality of care decreases. I know many factors brought us here. I strongly suspect that mismanagement and misplaced priorities were some

210of those contributing factors. So, please put the children first this time by reconsidering the replacement of the YMCA and forming a committee of actual stakeholders involved. Not paid consultants, but the actual people being impacted. Are children losing their ware teachers and parents lose their peace of mind is not the answer. [Applause] Thanks. Hello everyone. My name is Casey Tumblee and I'm a current assistant site supervisor for Leonardo Grade School, who by the way is a is a proud man with autism who is more than capable of writing a poem, can drive, can go on dates, and all that good stuff. unlike a certain [Music] [Applause] politician. Oh, anyway, I I better get cutting cut to the chase. As as much as I really don't want to make this a war on words or anything like

211that, everyone's opinions are valued, but my time during the Y for the last six years, it's not just about the fact that the Y trusted me to take care of the kids for the last five and a half years. Well, for my supervisors up there, they would understand. It's not just it's not just about employment or emotions, but does anyone see this? This is an actual kids drawing when we found out about how crucial this vote is today. It just comes to show you that none of us are blapping out of our rear ends. Anyway, after listening to all the all the strong opinions and such, and again, no disrespect to KC champions or anything. I'm sure they have some bright ideas, but unfortunately, I hate to say it, but I'm not really buying it

212because there's a couple of things. Like for example, I researched it and according to the data, guess how many how many minutes some KC champions allows their kids to go out? 15 minutes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as much as education is very important and we want everyone to be literate, shouldn't there be a balance between education and [Music] imagination? Shouldn't shouldn't the kids be empowered to become what they're not? In other words, my question to you is aside from saving revenue, what is your solution to the imbalance of education versus imagination? Whatever happens tonight, we will move on. Do our best to move with dignity. And think about the children. for all the children. Thank you very much for listening and making a [Music] [Applause] sideway. Uh, hi. My name is David Bober.

213Stand up. Um, I live at 31 Green Grove Court in Lraftoft. Um, I came to speak in support of the lie. Um, if I had known this was going to last five hours, I had a hamburger or something. Um, uh, my new friend Sarah said everything that I wanted to say, but much more eloquently, so I defer to her, but I just want to say as a parent and as somebody that comes from a family of two working parents who both have long commutes, I work in a similar scenario. Um, I've come to rely on the Y. Um uh I trust my child my child's been in Dubai for the last 3 years. Um Miss Linda and Miss uh young employees of Dubai um have just been nothing short of wonderful. Um I find them

214uh I trust them with my children. I trust people with my children. Um I was dismayed uh to learn uh that you're planning to switch. Um I'm a little it's tough for me to give comment. um you know the the the four page or fivepage attachment that you that you gave us says uh there were two components to the proposal uh tuition and revenue sharing and then you told us how much revenue is going to be shared but you didn't tell us what the tuition is going to be uh super I take your word for it that you have some numbers in front of you that are lower I I it's tough for me to give comments without being able to sit down and compare my family situation Um, but I do look at the

215numbers and I see that uh this company, which by the way, you know, I looked it up a little bit, you know, you're you're reporting to transfer of the care of the children from a not local not for-p profofit to a not global a ginormous the largest child care provider in the United States and operates in 40 states. It's based in Oregon. It has $2,500 child care centers, 1,000 after care facilities with $2.6 billion in in annual revenue. You know, when I call the Y, when I email Y, Lisa answers and she answers my calls. Uh, I I am a little afraid that you're going to put me in touch with the company that makes me talk to a robot in Morgan on Pacific time zone time or something like that. Um, but I just

216don't know. I don't know. I don't have enough information to really give a comment um on any of those things. But the other thing that I would like to suggest is that lowest tuition or maximization of revenue should not be the driving factor in this decision. Even if you get 500,000 versus 200,000 in revenue. Um, we just listened to uh uh three hours about talking about a $180 million budget. So I think we're talking about a point one% difference. Um, so to me the quality of care provided to the children um and the enrichment programs they have to me should be much more important than the tuition rates or um the maximization of revenue. I for one would rather even if it is cheaper I I'm skeptical that a giant publicly traded corporation uh that

217operates for the benefit of it shareholders is really going to maximize be cheaper and you know maximize enrichment for my kids. Um uh and um you know I just it just seems clear to me that what was uh the most important factor here was the uh the amount of revenue sharing and I know that's the case because when you put your selection criteria the factor that you gave the most weight the heaviest factor was tuition rates and compensation and revenue share. And that's 30% of the weight. A lower factor was student safety. So, you're on record saying that you valued the amount of revenue you would receive more heavily than student safety, academic assistance, and enrichment opportunities, plans for communication with school officials and parents, options for enrollment, and ability to meet diverse student needs.

218All of those things were less important than the amount of revenue you're going to get. That's what you put on the website. So, RFP process entails us to do to to put revenue in over student. Those are the waitings. What? Those are the waitings for an RFP for an afterare program. We develop we develop the rubric for the RFP. But when you go through a process, the competitive contracting process like this um and it is subject to the rules of the local public contracts law. Um this is actually a replacement for just putting something out for straight out pay. If we if we didn't do this process the other the other options well but I understand there's an RFP at but the way you do these finish can I finish what I was going to

219say. So this process does allow us to not only look at the financial piece of it but also to look at the other metrics and not just go on the financial proposal. So that is the advantage of doing it in this way. Anybody understand that? Another lock. I don't I don't understand. I can further examine. Otherwise, if you do a bid, you're just strictly locked into um you know, when you put something at the bid, you have to take the lowest cost. You know, it doesn't matter what the what the product is. So, this allows us to evaluate it on multiple metrics and not just look at the financial. I'm not I'm not criticizing looking at multiple metrics. What I'm saying is that the weight you assign the metrics you you assign revenue sharing over

220student safety. Right. Well, the the law does say that the emphasis should be given to that. So, you know, we although we gave it more weight than other factors, there are still four other factors besides the the financial piece. So, overall, it's not the majority of the metrics. Just the most important. Well, it's 30% out of 100. Yeah, [Applause] that's okay. Um, hello. My name is Luca. I currently reside in Middletown. Um, one of the perks, my husband grew up in this area. One of the perks that we moved here was for the school system. Um, we have two children. One who's graduating from high school Earth. We have one in Debut. and I'm here in support of the YMCA at um I apologize I'm exhausted may not be as relevant as I planned and

221my phone is in my bedroom so all my detail so I'm just going to speak from her um as a mother and as an educator in almost 15 years of experience we always take as a priority relationships and not just relationships as an educator with our students but also So, the relationships that we have with parents and one thing that I can speak and testify to is that the YMCA staff and the students and everyone that you come into um the league with, they take pride in not only building their relationships up with the students that they know by the name, their food, their appetites, their schedules, what is going to take them off and what's going to calm them down, but also the relationships that they have parents and I can testify that without

222a doubt that my youngest one who's going into second grade who needs a high structured environment who does need to know what's coming right after with a structured routine and runs on just a routine of expectancy for his comfort level and his anxiety that I know that he's going to be okay. And for me the change of going from one situation to another it makes me nervous and anxious. And for them they are scared and vulnerable. And for us to put ourselves in that situation it makes me wonder and as an educator I know that there's policies and protocols that you have to follow. authenticity is before. But as an educator and as a parent, the relationships is what's key. And the YMCA is feeling first. And I also know that the DC champion had

223talked to former um employees there. and they have pros and cons, but they have always said that the YMCA um was incomparable, was better in they were focused on making sure that the children had everything that they need. And as a parent, that's my biggest concern is I don't know if I would feel safe handing my child over to someone that I don't know my child who is vulnerable and who does not know how to speak up for himself even with navigator. So that makes me do question um and I know at some point the crisis and that would all be exposed and we all have that to see down the road when it's available. But for me as a parent, it makes me wonder, do I send my child back? Do I send my

224child even back into that school? Who do I take him with me to my school? Because I know that that's where he would be safe and I would have his best interest that. So I would encourage you and I would hopefully as a parent and I know I'm sure you have all have children either young or old and you know in school as well that you would take that into consideration not just look at the numbers but then look at the relationships that our children have with the staff and with their parents. [Applause] Hi, Melissa Mag here again. Um, I'm exhausted as well. So, um, I just wanted to collect a few things. Um, in terms of the um, Casey offender, you know, when I heard this morning that there was a change, I actually

225looked them up um, because I went doing research and there were a couple things that I think were concerning to me. Um, one thing that is definitely one of, like somebody mentioned, one of the largest forprofits and there is a huge push as we know in privatizing a lot of services that are provided for school children. Um, you know, I usually don't pay attention to Yelp and whatever, but the predatory nature of the billing is a reoccurring theme uh in a lot of the feedback, you know. Um so that was a little bit concerning to me and I think looking at your numbers you know clearly there is over doubling over the next five years in terms of the expected revenue 10%. That's what they proposed in their in their budget. Okay. Um, so from

226a contractual perspective, I would definitely urge that we look at maybe extending those rates that you talked about being advantageous over a 5year period. We renegotiate that rate every year. So we because they're year-to-year contracts, well, that's my concern, right? So this year it's advantageous. Next year a little less and in five years we're going to be doubling. So what I'm seeing here is that the revenue is doubling. The benefit revenue for the district. Yes. But who's going to pass that cost is going to get passed on to us. They have assured us that they are committed to staying in line. We've even talked about a rate freeze over the course of the first three years if we were to keep them. So they're they're this happens with the Y every year where we negotiate

227the rate with the YMCA too. So it it's a year-to-year contract that we have the opportunity to extend out for four successive years after that initial contract is approved. And in that process, we do negotiate the rate. And and again, you know, asurances are great. Uh I'm an attorney by background, so unless it's in writing, I really don't care. We do we do have we do have those things in writing because they did submit a proposal. So they have to abide by that proposal. So I'm I'm sorry. I'm a little confused. They submitted a proposal and you said that they provided asurances that those rates are not going to go up. They they project out the rates what they anticipate them to be, but they also put in there that those rates are agreed upon

228yeartoear. Um, and Mrs. has had conversations with, you know, the provider to ensure that those things are part of their competitive their competitive proposal. So we're comfortable and that's the same exact process we follow with the YMCA every year as well. Um there are not you know rate lockins. So every year we talk about um you know what that rate will be and how it stays affordable for our families. Um and and that negotion negotiation has to happen every year because the contract's only for one year. Thank you for that. Um, I also called them cuz like I said, I like doing research and I had a nice conversation with the woman. She was actually very helpful. And um some of the things that I think you know I was not aware of that I

229think as a difference in terms of their pricing structure is for example they indicated that if you have a weektoe contract or a week-to-eek agreement you actually as a parent have the collective responsibility of providing the schedule for the following week by Wednesday because that's when they make their schedule and if you're not actually are taking that proactive step if you forget as a parent or something changes you will actually be charged an ad hoc drop any rate so again I would you know as you're having these discussions I would definitely information and you know certainly we can look into that that was not something that I was aware of but you know that's not a question that necessarily may come to mind at first at first pass absolutely sharing that thank you Um one

230of the other things that they had indicated as I said what what would be some additional charges extra fees um they indicated actually that if it's a half a day the charge will be more so currently when we have a half a day obviously the you know the Y is there and instead of dropping our kids up at 3:00 we drop them off at 1 and it's the same price I was was told again speaking to the the woman today that that would be an additional charge because it would be more hours. So again something as we were discussing to please you know make sure you look at and again these are all negotiated items too. So sure absolutely but again trying to flag it. Yeah. Um the last thing that I just wanted to

231flag was when I spoke with her I asked her what was the ratio of provider or caregiver to child. She did not have that information. She said she's not aware. I said, "Well, you know, it's a larger company. Uh, you know, I'm just trying to understand what the firmware policy is on that." She did not know. She took the time to actually call the aerial provider, I think, who was sort of responsible now for our moment. Um, which, you know, I guess she left the message. And what again, you know, it was a little surprising that she would not have that information. I kind of looked it up again looking kind of more broadly and according to Google which obviously is not 100% correct but Casey Champions does not publicly disclose it specific child to

232teacher ratios um however some examples were being provided here for um mixed age group is a 27-2 ratio um and then for older children that would be 17 to two. So again, a little bit different than what we're expecting and what we would and we have not received and listen, we not only do the RFP process, but we pursue the references as well because there are other local school districts using this program. Um, and the feedback that we've received from those other school districts utilizing has been extremely positive. Um, we were able to meet with the regional manager um for the area as well. Um and we had a really uh real real positive feedback from that experience as well as the site visit to the actual program where there was a balance of activities.

233There was a relationship with um staff and students similar to the wise relationship. Um I know change is hard. Um but you know these aren't decisions we take lightly but certainly the competitive process exists for this reason to explore other things and you know this all goes into the equation of you know when is the right time to do something like this and we didn't go into this thinking let's switch from the Y. We went into this saying we're going to go through the process and see what exists and we're going to look at all the components and try to make the best decision on a multitude of factors for our district and of course our students and our families. I can totally appreciate that. I think what my concern was when I saw this

234on the agenda was that I think speaking with you just now, those are some of the things that weren't even on on everybody's radar. So, how what exactly are we voting on today if we still have so many unknowns with respect to this new vendor, right? And I think that's my concern that we're just going to lock ourselves in and then we're going to be like, oh, this is not what we expected, right? So, I'm just really, you know, trying to make sure that you have all the information I was able to get in one day. Um, you know, and the information that we have, we were comfortable moving forward because we felt that even with some of the things that you mentioned, um, and and I not knowing the class student to staff ratio.

235Um, I I'm not I'm comfortable with that because we've seen it on site. I talked to the regional manager. we we felt really comfortable with the quality of the program and the caliber of of the staff that they were hiring. Um and they will even hire our some of the people that are working in the Y if they so choose. Um you know there are some advantages to that for the transition into um you know employment with them if they so choose. They don't have to. Um but we felt there were enough pieces that we felt were um superior to what we were receiving at this point um in structure and programming for our students and certainly the benefit of a lower price point for our parents and a higher revenue generation. You know, those

236are all things that went into this equation. I hope you're right. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. Uh, as part of my job, I have the privilege of of listening to public comments. I'm sorry, sir. Can you just uh Jeff War? Sorry. Uh, Jeff War along with that same. Uh, so as part of my job, I have the privilege of listening to um public comment. Uh, so I appreciate this opportunity. Um, and I appreciate everyone who comes to advocate for what's important for them. Uh before I get into my prepared remarks, I just want to also quickly comment on uh what Mr. Tol said previously on uh the lesser evil um perspective and you know generally I very much agree with what you had to say. Um I was not expecting to come to this meeting

237um and not have a a compromise in place that everyone was going to vote on. But I think if and if we've learned anything over the last 6 weeks is that we can't be passive participants in this, right? So we have to be active in the process. We can't expect for things to come to us and if there are things that are missing, we have to go and we have to ask questions. We have to ask the president what's going on. So I hope you take that as inspiration going forward. Um so let me leave here by saying thank you. Thank you for choosing uh not to close schools next year uh in a manner that I thought was wildly rushed and illconceived. Um I know we will face many hard decisions ahead and I'm

238confident that the research and analysis strategic planning uh undertakes will continue to support the position that closing schools rem will remain the worst of many uncomfortable choices faced by future Middletown boards of education. I am an eternal optimist. Uh after witnessing some positive developments that we have collectively made over the past six weeks. I would like to list off a few items I hope we will continue to make progress on in the very near term. Uh for tonight, let me simply focus on good governance. Uh it's a very sleepy topic, so for 11:30 at night, I guess it's appropriate. Uh when it comes to good board governance, there are things we take for granted or just assume are in place for everyone's benefit. A couple quick items with respect to this current board of education

239come to mind. Today there is a high concentration of power when it comes to the current board president. Power vacuums generally lead to the improper functioning of a board and negative outcomes on matters of board oversight. It is not far-fetched to say that many of these recent board issues could be the result of a lack of board independence. Good governance dictates that the president should never be the chair of the finance committee. Mr. Capone is both board president and finance chair. So please let's fix that. This board has many committees and it is not clear to many including myself what these committees do. Let's fix this by drafting some simple committee charters so everyone including the board members themselves understand their responsibilities. Current president Mr. opponent is also on the shared services committee which apparently

240is the critically important arm of the Middletown Board of Education in dealing with the town. In addition to adding a charter so we understand the remit of sheriff's services, it is probably makes sense to expand the committee beyond its two current members due to the significance. Further, the board does not currently have a legal and audit committee whose responsibility among many is generally the management of risk. The board should create this committee at a minimum or designate these oversight responsibilities to an existing committee which would be made explicit in a committee charter. These are just some of the lowhanging fruit things the public like myself assumed were in place but upon review find that they are not and given the recent tunnel are probably not surprised by this fact. To this end, members of the

241Save Our Schools are compiling some best practices to pass along to the board to consider implementing. It is my hope that some of these simple first steps will help ensure we do not repeat past mistakes. We look forward to continue working with you for the benefit of our schools and communities. [Applause] Sorry, I really want to just have the Y and say stuff in the afterare. Um, most of it's been covered. Um, but I'm going to speak up for the recommendation letter. I shared the revenue details. I'm sorry, ma'am. Can you just please your name? Any Florence Road around the corner. My daughter's a baby. Um, so you've covered my first thing which was is it affordable for us? It was not shared. Most of us here will coming up to speak to you about

242it. There's no transparency. You can't bring this to us. We're not sharing the information. You're happy to tell us how much driven you'll make but not what it's going to be a cost to the second thing on the evaluation method. The financial component was 30% which I think one of the gentlemen said made up of tution rates and the district revenue sharing. The procurement method said that the district shall award the contract to the contractor whose proposal is determined to be the most advantageous based on the evaluation criteria. So within that 30% is there a 3050 of tution to um the district sharing because from what we can tell the district's not going to make a million in 5 years but we don't yet know we don't have a contract signed. She said, "You're still

243negotiating what our fees are going to be on top of that. I know you want to leave it as is with DIY, but we have to trust you, but you already know what your revenue is going to be." The third thing doesn't seem to have any consideration for community feedback in the evaluation method. Um, you explain to us what triggers RFPs, but most of us have no complaints about what the why offer. Um, my daughter is loves the program. She loves the staff. Miss Lauren's one of them. Um, so thing three, you know, you've gone ahead, you want to thank this proposal, you want to vote for it today, but there was no transparency for us, the parents, the community. We shared the news 48 hours ago and then you shared the rib your what

244it's going to cost us at 10:45 tonight when we finally got to that agenda item. So, the last couple of weeks it's clear that I understand we're looking for options to increase revenue. Um, but it was a cost to our school community, our local organization, and I did say our family budget because nothing's set in stone. I'm here to ask voting members to revisit the proposal, look for more information, investigate what has been messaged and said today, and reject the recommendation. It's not advocating for the families. It's showing low loyalty to the provider that has stood with our community for 16 years. I'm guessing that the income generated from this program not only helps the Y care but the bigger Y community. They have many programs from new parents, seniors, health, safety, access for all

245veterans, whatever you go there for us. And on a side note, they've been serving one down communities for 150 years and now we've decided to go and support support. So # support local. [Applause] Good evening. Um planning to speak tonight. So what's your name and address for the record? Oh, sorry. My name is Valinda Bra and I'm on on Veil Street. Um, and my son goes to Harmony Elementary School. Um, I moved to Middletown in 2021 and I have loved it thus far. I have wonderful neighbors. The school district is wonderful. Um though I did not have to um deal with what some of the parents that were here today had to deal with, I understood their frustration and I'm grateful that it went into their favor. Um I came with you tonight to advocate

246for the Y. Um I understand your role. I am a healthcare provider. I am I sit on wards. I am also a a nursing educator. So, I can understand how it feels to have um to put protocols in place, have policies and regulations that you have to follow, but I think we all can um agree that when it comes to our kids, um all bets are off. Um money um doesn't always matter because we want the best for our children. Um being at the Y, my son loves it. It's actually one of the best ways to wake him up is like, "Do you want to go to Y today?" And he's wide awake. Makes my life easier. I do have the option of working from home some days. Um, and even on those days, he's

247out the house early because he likes going to the Y. Um, the choice of putting him at the Y was not something that came easy because they're long days. Um, and you feel guilty as a mom that you have him at that long. But when he's happy to be there from day one and the Y literally feels like you're literally dropping your kid to someone you trust. Um someone who has become an extended family, people who have become an extended family, you feel much better. I drop off my son um about 7:30 in the morning and I pick him up at 5. Um and I have no complaints. The staff have has made him feel very very safe. He has been happy. Um I came here to tonight to absorb information about you know this

248new company. Um I did not have much time to really do my own research. So that was my point of coming tonight um to get some information which um sadly to say I don't feel like I got that much information. Um, I kind of wanted to hopefully gain the information and see if we was going to um, be able to compare as parents the two options that we had. Um, I think one of the things that we're struggling in Middletown right now is um, we have a little bit of we're struggling with trust um, and transparency um, which makes every option kind of difficult when we're just taking it from word of mouth. We want to see it. We want to compare it. We want to make sure that we're making the right choice for

249our kids regardless of what the price is. Um, in the past few years that I've been able to use the Y, I have been very content and I really hope that we do get the chance to actually see it on paper. um really get the research that we want and need and um that you guys make a decision that works for all of us as a whole. Um thank you so much for your time. Thank you for all that you guys are doing. It has been a very very long day and I'm sure for all of us. Um but I hope that um um can benefit from this. Thank you. Hello. Um, my name is Steve Griffin and I live on Holland Road Middletown. Want to first off thank you all. I know this has

250not been an easy thing. Um, thank you for your service. It's it's a difficult job at best. Um, in light of everything that's happened here, um, I' I'd like to know if you at all considered possibly separating from the 2% cap and moving the election. um so that the public can vote on the budget in the future. It is necessary to go above 50%. Um I think we've seen that in this this particular year specifically that was a lot of other things. Um secondly in the future um especially since we're losing our lobbyists this year um possibly working with New Jersey school boards legislative committee fellow school boards across the state delegates assembly um school funding in the state is not just a middle town issue. This is a statewide issue. We really need to

251dig in and work together across the state. We're not people. This is this is a deep measure that needs to be with our fellow constituents across the state. And yet the my last and it's just something that I just I'm a policy girl. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a policy girl. Um something that somebody had said just kind of I think um by policy the board president is an executive member of all committ so he has the right to go to any meeting at any time. Um so I just want to bring that thank you very much. [Applause] Hi Lisa Williams. I live on drive in Leonardo and I know it's late. I'm tired. But speaking more emotionally out of this, um my son is at Leonardo kindergarten. Um tonight, um he loves it.

252He also, like you're saying, begs to go. He wakes up early. We've been kind of here for 6 years. Never. We're in there now. They They're fine. Like my daughter is safe. She's taken care of. She has her best friend there, which is why she's there. But I'm very excited to get her out and to bring her to Leonardo and the thought of why just brings them joy. And the thought of having to put her back into that corporate world where just stifles creativity. They they'd have to follow the certain steps. It's just really it's sad to watch what happens there. And then just the the relationships that my son did in less than a year and a half to the wife is more than they had in my six years. So love the life.

253Thank you. [Applause] Anyone else? No. No. breaking off. Sorry, Tom Zer. My son's in New Elementary. I have a question about domestic provider. How are they going to be staffing up for all the new positions? Are they going to be hiring? Are they going to be bringing people from other uh programs that they have? They would be hiring a full complement of staff for just us. Um and also providing the option for anybody employed with the Y that may potentially want to become employed by them. So potentially they want people from other programs or people well they would be hiring new new people to work in newly established programs. They're not going to take people from other programs because they're already working there and bring them here. We're not going to be sharing staff. They

254will be hiring staff for just our program. day one in September when I got my kid off. the people there are they going to will that be their first day ever of a repeating program be in that program maybe be with us but not in the program in general I mean there could be a mixture of things but they go through extensive training in order to be employed by the company that we'd be partnering as a vendor like they don't just throw them in and say here you go right right back yes there is an onboarding process that they have some of them might be people that they redistribute to other places because of certain I've worked with a lot of afterare programs over time. Um, often they reorganize year to year depending on the

255need because you never know what your enrollments will be from one school year to the next. Um, dependent upon district need, etc. Um, so they would probably have a mixture of people that they may be newly onboarded, brought over from another school district or potentially hired from the YMCA, so they're familiar with our students. Um, so it's it's would be a combination, I would assume. Right. So they will give the option to uh to existing YMCA uh staff members to to hire on potentially and day one programs where there will be a mix of possibly green people who have done that before but also people that have experience having Yeah. Yeah. I think it would be a combination. Thank you. Anyone else wish to make public comment? See no one else. Sorry. Is the vote

256for the contract or the vendor? The contract for the vendor. So, we don't know what the contract is though because we haven't negotiated this. No, we we know the rates for year one of the contract. The successive years of the contract, the successive years, we negotiate a new contract with new rates. It's a singular contract every year with the option after year one of the contract to extend without going out for a competitive bid for four years. So it's we could use the vendor collectively for 5 years if we so chose without going out for a competitive bid again. Uh, I just don't think there's any world where a private company is going to offer better care than a nonprofit. And I think it's really naive to assume that's going to be the case. And

257I appreciate and respect your comment. We have lots of experience um in dealing with the dayto-day with situations that evolve out of our care program. So many of us administratively speak from experience. And these people here are fine examples of strong employees that do a great job, but that has not always been our experience. And I'll just leave it at that. Okay, closing the public comment. We'll move on to we have a couple of proclamations. School principles day. Um therefore be resolved Miltown public education do hereby proclaim Thursday May 1st 2025 as national school principal day township public schools. We have teachers appreciation day. Therefore be a resolve township board of education due hereby proclaim Tuesday May 6th 2025 as national teacher appreciation day in the Middletown township public schools. We have school nurse appreciation

258day. Therefore, be resolved. The Middletown Township School District will hereby proclaim Wednesday, May 7th, as school members appreciation day. Middletown public schools. Lastly, we have uh Special Education Week in New Jersey. Therefore, be resolved Middletown Public Education May 11 through 17, 2025. Special education week, Middletown School. I'm now going to turn over to Dr. Alone for our superintendent. It's antilromatic right now, but I will say um we had our staff recognition program. So, congratulations to all those staff members that were recognized. Um our strategic planning date flyer will come out on Friday. Um and our graduation date reminder, our middle school graduations will be on June 17th. Um Thompson is at 1:30, Thorn is at 4:00, Beayshore is at 6:30. Um our high school graduations are on June 18th with the rain on the 19th.

259High School South will be at 1:30 and High School North will be at 4. And thank you everybody for staying the course tonight and coming out and sitting here and, you know, spending hours with us. Um, we look forward to the partnership. Um, and we've already done some great conversation. So, like I said, the hard but in my opinion, exciting work is just beginning. So, thank you. I need a motion to approve 10 A through C. So, second discussion. All in favor? I oppose. Extensions. Motion to approve 11 A through K. All in favor? [Music] These are A through K, which is the business W's consent agenda. Discussion or Yeah, discussion. I I'm going to be voting no on the legal bill. I'm going to be voting no on I want Okay. Motion to approve.

260All in favor? I I oppose. Opposed. I abstensions. Motion to approve 12 A through N. Recommen recommendation of superintendent school consent agend. All in favor? I I I oppose. I am opposed on the foundation and yes on your as well. The number one is old business. Anybody have any old business? New business. Anybody have any new business? I would like to do a RFP for services. You want to do a motion? You said motion. I'm sorry. An RFP for legal services. Legal services. Second. Is that a local This is Kevin. Yes, Mr. Cero. Yes, Mrs. Minions. Yes, Mrs. Scholast. Yes, Mr. Sakarowski. Yes, Mr. Tull. So, is this for all legal services for all different legal services? Actually, that is a good application attorney, labor attorney, and special education attorney. general counsel. So attorney now

261Mr. I'm in favor of Mrs. Ray. Yes. Mrs. Mr. Yes. I'd also like to make a motion that the entire board be a part of that RFP process. We do that. We have to be [Music] Is there a second? Second. Who was the second? I was do an RFP for the uh make a motion motion for an RFP for the Wait, do we want to go on this grass? [Music] Why the proposal? I can't hear you. I guess the board would like you to explain what your motion is. My motion is to have the whole entire board sit in on the process of which is the interviewing of the candidate in the exact session of public session. Whatever it has to be, I'm sure our lawyer will tell us our special meeting to do it.

262However, it has to be done. But I think we should all be included. All in favor? I I opposed. Another motion. Yes. Property. Seconded. Discussion. All in favor? Yeah. uh we talked about right I said that it wasn't urgent to do if you wanted to do it I mean you know the renewal is almost done in the next few years talked about the health benefits broker saying that we should hold that that that should take Please any discussion? All in favor? I oppose abstensions motions. When we do property, we do the whole second. I think that was covered in the original. I think that was to do all of the RFPs together. Oh, okay. Okay, good. Any other motion? Um, there's now other comment on non-aggenda items. Anybody like Okay, motion to adjourn the meeting.

263All in favor? I have a great day.