MTPS Board of Education Workshop/Voting Meeting (3.18.25)

001e what good evening everyone adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press the Middletown patch and the Middletown Township Public School District website and the posting of such notice at the August team minor administrative offices in each elementary middle and secondary school and District Rollo M here Mr s here mral here here Mr here tobacco here here and here I now need a motion for exec session to discuss hi and Personnel matters so move discussion all in favor oppose exstension see you a little bit e e e one good evening everyone please stand for the pledge okayy good evening everyone we're going to start tonight with our High School North speaker PHP good evening my name is Paige Payne and I'm a junior at Middletown High School

002North praise rep portals were submitted for Michael Diamond sophomore and Lacy marot sophomore congratulations TOA competitor sophomore Santiago beram medu for his placing first in the state of New Jersey in the finance competition in Atlantic City he competed against 200 plus students in the category of business finance making this a remarkable achievement since Miss Susan Peters started Deca in Middletown 17 years ago North has never won a first place winner Santiago earned the chance to represent Middletown in the state of New Jersey at the DECA International competition in Orlando in April congratulations also go out to Franchesca times Julie sickler Chris Healey and Damon shelvin for their top placement among the comp the competitors taking the 100 question business exam congratulations to Junior Mark Conway who has been selected to participate in the Hispanic scholarship

003funds 2025 youth leadership Institute yli is a college empowerment program for high high achieving Latino High School juniors designed to give young leaders practical tools to achieve academic and career successes Mark is among 440 students selected out of a 4600 National applicant pool the 5-day conference will be held June 25th to 29th at Lola maramont University the north mini winter Film Festival took place February 25th in the TV studio for our TV film student presented some of their best work to a student audience throughout Black History Month we recognized and celebrated the achievements culture and contributions of black Americans throughout history NJ GPA testing a high school graduation requirement took place March 10 to 13th for juniors congratulations to Brody tonker who was honored at the super 100 All State football banquet Middletown North wrestling

004Thomas BR became Middletown's North 24th region Champion the first weekend in mark this was the first championship for blow as he entered the state tournament with a 41-1 record also punching their ticket to Atlantic City for the state tournament where Nikki wall and D Danny Benbrook by finishing fourth milon North finished at the top Public School in Region 5 a huge con congratulations to our Griffin's competition team for yet again an incredible performance at impact they finished first in their division at their final competition of the Season midton High School North Spring sports are officially underway both teams have finished their tries and are eagerly waiting scrimmages and games to begin this weekend March 21st to 22nd performances will take place for our spring musical pment Friday at 7: p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.

005and 7: p.m. midleton High School North Junior selected to attend boy State include Kevin bery Dominic Nagel and Jack Viola move on to our committee reports for curriculum instruction Mr T thank you Mr compone yes curriculum committee met on March 11th um a lot of good announcements Mr cullin shared with us uh I'll share a few of the highlights um first just a couple notes on things for uh college and sat preparation that the district is offering um there'll be an opportunity on Saturday April 12th for students at North and South to take a digital SAT practice test for free and uh the Princeton Review will provide a score report comprehensively detailing uh areas strength areas uh where strength and I'm sorry where growth uh could be developed um to help get prepared for the

006actual test um similarly there will be a advanced placement AP exam review sessions offered by the district on Saturday April 5th um so all high school students taking any of the AP classes can uh attend these their two-hour sessions uh where they'll be able to work with uh uh teachers and students uh in the same classes to go over the tests and practice and prepare um to make sure they're they're all set for their actual AP exams um also continuation from the last meeting we reported on this that the morphology pilot uh program which is a literacy program for the Upper Elementary grades um has been pilot piloted at a couple schools the last uh year or so and uh the teachers involved in that met with Administration to report you know the the the

007findings they've had the things they like about it the things that could be improved um to make sure that the district's overall literacy program is aligning with uh for example the Orton Gillingham program we put in for the lower grades last year um to make sure we're doing all we can to follow a science of reading based uh approach to literacy um and similarly we heard some more updates on the different pilot programs being explored for elementary math programs um so their curriculum team is meeting with a couple different vendors to to to identify the best option to improve our um math program as well um and uh also in a response to some reports we were getting about inconsistent approaches to the academic opportunity program in the middle schools um there was just some

008clarification and Direction given to staff uh to ensure ensure consistency across the district on that that those programs are being used for what each individual kid actually needs to use that time for um so that was kind of advised districtwide as well for consistency um that's highlights of curriculum thanks for thank you Mr T moving on to Student Services Mrs W yes so student Serv Services also met on March 11th uh we had a good discussion hearing about more of the work that Mrs Granger is doing throughout the district along with special education and different programs and improvements there that she is making uh we also talked about the mock interviews at Bell works for our transition program students that was held on Tuesday March 11th as well um in cooperation with Central reach our

009students were able to go to Bell works and participate in workshops s that really taught them skills around interviewing and then they had basically the chance to do a mock interview right there which was really great um to hear about and I hope to hear about more opportunities from them as they go out and seek some jobs um also just remind everybody that we are still doing the parent University the next program will be held on Tuesday April 8th sorry I just trying to read this for a second um and that will be on the topics of differentiation and inclusion uh to remind everybody next week will be the first I believe districtwide developmental disabilities Awareness Week where all schools will participate with the same programming to raise awareness um about disabilities and everybody will

010have the same themes across the entire week and we also had a meeting with the administration for the Middletown friends of diverse Learners on March 10th we have a good first meeting with Mrs Granger um also want to share the exciting news that Harmony has now put in I think with help actually of some of the parents in the district a new sensory and communication board at their playground at Harmony School which is really great to see and hope to see that spread across the district thank you m r moving on to finance and Facilities Miss Dy the finance committee met on March 7th the committee meeting was focused on Dr alone's overview of the tenative 2526 budg reviewing that with the committee and that budget is on the agenda for 20 uh that was

011the finance meeting the facilities committee met on March 12th and the committee reviewed a couple of the items that are on to the evening under facilities for uh bids that are being awarded and the acceptance of a proposal uh we also talked about the progression of the port mm property sale and that is moving along and the fact that we had issued an engineering firm our P responses for due back March 10th and the next steps will be for the uh committee and the administration to evaluate the proposals uh looking to make an appointment at our reorganization meeting in May and we also are pursuing some uh proposals with our Architects for some work as well thank you Miss Dary okay and now we're going to open the microphone up a public comment on agenda

012items only uh please state your name for the record like this is just to so everyone knows this is for agenda items only that the boards voting on tonight the school issue there'll be a second public comment afterwards and this part of the meeting goes relatively quickly so we will get to the time for the general public comment you the copies are in the back you're sorry that's you can't just yell out questions from the audience raising your hand you can come up and have this is on agenda items only I have children one at Leonardo and LL confined CL with multiple disabilities you talk about education and you talk about spirit week and everyone's going to have the same theme what are you actually doing to teach the students about autism ADHD apraxia any

013of the actual disabilities besides oh let's wear blue on Monday let's Wear Yellow on Tuesday what are you act planning on teaching the children nothing response to that and so the public knows this is not a back and forth question and answer this is public comment so thank you for your comment okay see anyone else coming qu to the microphone we should close a public comment on agenda item and move on to a couple of proclamations we have Proclamation one nationalism Awareness Month therefore be it resolved the Middletown board of education do hereby recognize April 25th April 2025 at Autism Awareness Month in Middletown Township Public Schools and urge all employees and students to participate in Autism Awareness Month activities in order to become a better educator on the subject of autistic Spectrum disorders we

014also have a proclamation for Child Abuse Prevention therefore be it resolved the Middletown Township Board education do hereby recognize April 2025 as National Child Abuse Prevention month in Middletown Township Public School district schools national Prof power professional Appreciation Day therefore be a resolved the Middletown Township board of education do hereby recognize Wednesday April 2nd 2025 as National Power professional Appreciation Day in Middletown Township Public Schools and lastly we have Administrative Professionals Day therefore be it resolved the Middletown Township board of education do I recognize April 23rd 2025 as Administrative Professionals Day and expresses deep appreciation to the Administrative Professionals for their unselfish service to schools students departments and communities thank you all now moving to report Dr alone with her superintendent the presentation soan can is it moov yes good so thank you you know

015I certainly as a parent myself appreciate all you coming out and being interested in what we're going to present tonight um first I want to preface this by saying as Educators we never take decisions like this lightly um tonight is a proposal um that I'm technically presenting to the board um tonight they're voting on a tenative agenda or tentative budget which is the numerical figure um and how we choose to utilize that operating budget is what this proposal is moving towards um I'm going to share with you tonight a little bit of context which I think is really important that you understand because the finances of the situation um are kind of The Perfect Storm of things coming together so all I ask is that you be respectful be open-minded and know that this is

016not a final vote on any school closure tonight but it is my responsibility as it is my administrative team's responsibility and the board's responsibility to think about all 8,500 kids in this District your children are as valuable as each and every one of the other ones here but sometimes we have I have to look at the big picture and certainly make recommendations that Ser service you know every single student that comes through our doors each day so I appreciate you being open-minded and listening so the goals of this budget have been as challenging as they have ever been um I I'm sure that most of you have at some point seen some type of publication or news article about the challenges that school districts in New Jersey are facing because of the funding at the

017state and federal level so when we looked at this budget this year we knew that there was going to be certain an uphill climb um because year over year the challenges become greater and greater so our goals in this year's budget are to certainly to continue to advance the educational experience for our students through a lens of modern education because education has changed greatly over the last 20 to 30 years and I'm not gonna and I I can't continue if so I would ask that someone I know but there's nothing I can do about the space limitation right have play practice I I can't continue if you're not going to I hear you that's fine and they've also been told that there's a there's a live stream that they can join on to so we're

018providing access we record and live stream all the video yeah we have a YouTube channel that's published on our website so I would like to continue because I think the information if you care about the impact to your children you would probably care to listen so I will continue our second goal is operating with the greatest amount of efficiency is possible certainly to be responsible and maximize the taxpayer investment because you're all paying taxes into the system yep I pay them too um and the last goal is to begin a five to sevene plan where we start to correct some of the situations that exist that are largely out of our control so here are some of the things that are happening around the state and similar situations where these districts are underwater in the

019sense of not being able to meet their operating budget costs based on state aid and taxpayer dollar alone and so they have been turning stop please stop yelling out in the middle of the presentation every every board meeting is live stream what is please stop yelling out and let the superintendent continue you will be removed you don't stop YouTube ma'am it's the district's YouTube channel m go tell them to Google comem so I can't continue if on YouTube so I'd like to continue in the interest of everybody's time so I would continue with the fact that this is a very challenging time in public education please stop yelling not and they're on their way outside to inform them they're on their way [Music] outside just for everybody's information these are recorded and also posted so

020people have access to the replay as well and there will just a preface there are going to be additional opportunities for parent for forums following this meeting so tonight is not the only chance that you're going to get to hear this message see this and articulate your concerns it's a proposal but it's a me the message as well is the is the information related to the financial pieces which we all can't ignore that is a reality of Middletown's District in total which all of your children are a part of if all of them are failing yeah and how long has that been happening how I'm going to stick with the content of the presentation and certainly if you have additional questions you can email me we can talk you can ask them at our follow-up

021forums absolutely but tonight is about getting you accurate information so that way you have something to frame um you know your thinking in regards to the proposal so I think that's important that you listen to that information because that's what the point of tonight is live how can you believe what you're saying here so some of the realities that we can't ignore in our budget we have lost state aid significantly over the course of the last 10 years and when you look at where we started in 2009 to the present day it's a differential of about 7 million but compound it's over 60 million and that that's a reality when the state talks about fully funding anything and I'll show you some kind of eye openening information is that they fully fund fund nothing they

022do not even come close to funding what they consider is the dollar amount to educate a single pupil in our district or in the state of New Jersey for that matter so as we lose state aid we lose ground in regards to covering the cost of educating a student so when they say fully funding I please encourage you to just be aware that does that does not mean they fund dollar for dooll the educational cost of funding a student and I'm going to share with you tonight what we currently pay to educate a student in Middletown and the differential between reality what the state funds and what we do you can reference all this information on the MJ doe website this is where I pulled that information so our enrollment decline I I would like

023we're not doing a Q&A now respectfully because I want to get through the presentation so we have had our enrollment decline drastically um you know in in school based kind of terminology over the last several years particularly starting way back in 2010 when we also had that steep decline in state aid over the course of that same time frame we've lost over we've lost 1500 students um we have had a recent demographic study done this year where we expect little population growth over the next 5 to 10 years um that was done by a demographer and solidifies the fact fact that our population is pretty much remaining stagnant we that all of those properties are taken into consideration in that study so we rely on statisticians to that work in demography to do that work

024for us avilable so we also have only in that time span taken one 200 student School building offline so when you look at our operational efficiency we are still operating at a capacity and a footprint meant for over 10,000 kids because that's where we were back in 2009 at about 10,200 students in the district right now we're sitting at about 8,500 so this is important because it is what the state deems to be the adequacy number for determining how much you should be spending per pupil it is weighted um they start with the Baseline of what it cost to educate an elementary student it's about $114,000 and then they wait it because they consider a Middle School a high school student and a vocational student more expensive to educate they also consider atrisk populations like

025special education economically disadvantaged ESL Learners and all this comes into a waiting where there's an average so our when you look at that average it R it runs about 15 in change is what the state deems to be adequate in in spending for schools to provide a thorough and Effective Education and that's the terminology they utilize back one so if you take a look our state aid and I pulled a couple of the more drastic statistical years I pulled 20 2009 which we received about 21,000 21 million rather dollars in state age which if you boil that down to how much of that $155,000 they want they said as thorough and effective and efficient to educate a student is they only provided 2,000 of those dollars in that year and as you can see over

026time it has gotten less and less I mean certainly we bounced back a little bit because we had a little bit of a bump last year um with some of with some of the aid that they built back in but we've never reced to the spot of 20 million and even at 20 million they were only funding 20 ,000 of that $115,000 expectation per student so that's important to understand the other piece is what we pay in Middletown to educate a student if you take a look at our budget this is our cost per student based on last year's operating budget so the state says 15 is thorough and efficient Middletown pays currently about 21,000 per student so if you look at the differential between 21,000 and 15,000 you're looking at a $6,000 gap between

027what the state deems to be thorough and efficient and what we pay based on our overall operating costs to educate each and every student so there is definitely a gap there that we can't ignore couple of other important pieces that play into the state funding formula and how schools get funded I mean certainly S2 which started seven years ago with this phase in of a reduction in state aid um to try to balance the equities in the state which is a completely broken system in my opinion is a reality and it is also based on these two concepts of over adequacy and under local fair share so the state says that we are over adequacy by about $10 million meaning we are operating at too expensive of an overall operating budget and moving too far

028away from what they consider to be that thorough and effective number which is a big number when you couple that would they also consider us to be under our local fair share and what local fair share is is what the state has determined the taxpayers should be paying to provide that thorough and Effective Education so what the state says is that we are $59 million under what taxpayers should be paying to putot the bill for education in Middletown so when you look at the over adequacy of 10 million and the under um local fair share by 60 million you're looking at a differential of $70 million that's a lot of money and we've done a good job of trying to accommodate those facts but we are at the end of the road in regards to

029not having to do something extreme to start a course correction to Greater Financial Health it is the reality so some additional factors that are kind of playing into this is the average age of our District's buildings is about 76 years some older some younger some have parts that are younger versus older but the bottom line is there are a significant number of our buildings particularly at the elementary level that need a tremendous amount of repair and we are at the point in time where we have to determine is it worth it to rehab buildings is it what kind of construction projects are we going to undertake potentially in the future because number one our old buildings just cannot support what modern education is putting money into them will most likely not get them to a

030place that can fully support modern education um and it we have to start to think about that ticket as a district we had a facilities cost estimate last year to get an idea of what it would cost to rehabilitate 16 buildings and it was 34 of a of a million of a billion $759 million to rehab this District of 16 buildings and certainly that is an enormous amount of money we will have to eventually put some cost into that in order to upgrade some of the things that are just at end of life but I am pretty confident that 759 million is just insurmountable a as a as a as a as a community the other thing is capacity so we ran capacity numbers for our current buildings with our current populations and our last

031column is the amount of capacity used in some of in in all of our schools and you can see there are a significant number of our buildings in total across the district that are under capacity so this mentality of overcrowding um it it's not based on capacity numbers so I think it's important to pay attention to the fact that we have buildings in this District that have space so class size is a whole different thing because that has to do with Staffing capacity is room to put more kids so when you look at those two things they're two very different things so we also have immediate infrastructure needs in the district immediate right HVAC Replacements we have lots of end of life units and I'm not talking about rooftop units I'm talking about in classroom

032what's producing either heat or Cooling in those classrooms um certainly we've had some situations where we can't get parts for things anymore because they don't make them the units are that old um parking lot improvements for safety window replacements for Energy Efficiency bathroom Renovations security and alarm systems um just across the district interior and exterior door Replacements and you know Elementary kitchen and cafeteria improvements the list is bigger than this but these were some of the larger items that I thought were important to share so what is our projected budget include and why are our op operating cost so high so last year we went out with a budget of 183 million um and this year we're going out with a projected budget of 10 almost 97 and you may say well wow that's a

033lot more but we have to factor in inflation and when you extract all of the things that account for that differential you can see that they are things we cannot control salary increases benefits we can't control those they're negotiated Transportation increase out of District tuition costs because we get charged back on those bills server upgrades because in order for Safety and Security we need to be able to Archive video to a certain extent Property and Casualty Insurance urgent maintenance projects that are in the name of student safety um we have curriculum training to continue our Initiative for morphology um we certainly have an imbalance of find and performance Arts across the district that we want to dedicate funds to utilities costs utilities we just got messaging I know privately I have as well 20% of

034an increase you know we're floating that bill across the districts and schools aren't immune to those energy costs increase and vendor contracts all of our vendors that we use for all of you know our our services outside of what we provide internally those costs have gone up so inflation is passing that bill on to us as well so when we take a look at what is causing that 7.4 increase between years it really is inflation at the driver there are not additional things layered into this budget correct correct correct correct and I did say that's a negotiated item but I we can't control it no there's a turn to contract so our budget numbers so this year our operating budget meaning the amount of money that we can raise as Revenue if we go to

035a full tax increase and utilize every ounce of available Revenue that we have which includes a 1.7 Healthcare adjust Health Care adjustment waiver in addition to utilizing a little over a percentage point of Bank cap even exhausting all of those things and going out with a 4.8 increase we can only raise 186 million almost 187 million that translates into a yearly increase for a home at an average assess value of about $728,000 and a monthly cost at about $27.85 to be short $10 million in our operating budget because if you recall there's still a $10 million gap due to all of those costs that are increasing for the current year for the for the next school year rather so that's the deficit it's about 10 million as I said so we're at we're at a

036fork in the road in the district and our basic operating costs at this point outpace our ability to raise revenue so we're going to have to do something in order to rectify that because once we say we can't rectify the budget the state will come in and tell us what to do if you're following any of these news stories that's what's going to happen and the first thing they're going to say to us is you are operating over adequacy and they're going to force us to close things that it will 100% happening it's happening all around the state so I'm a Believer in there's opportunity in things and I'm going to show you and listen you cannot be on board you can have an opinion but the numbers don't lie in the sense of there's

037an alternative to this but I will tell you that it is definitely more extreme it impacts every single kid in this district and it really it really it really does a disservice to every single student that is here so so what we what this plan what this proposal does is it moves us towards greater long-term Financial Health it starts to improve our educational facilities it 100% will move us towards greater operational efficiency we'll have the opportunity to balance resources across the district particularly in special education so that we don't have special education students zigzagging across the district for programs um it will craft logical sending zones because there are some geographically illogical things um that really impact our transportation costs and and things like that and we'll hopefully move towards gaining spaces that support modern

038education so phase one of this plan this proposal and remember it's a proposal it's my proposal presented to the board tonight because I have a responsibility to all the students so our goal is to shrink the district footprint and create log geographically logical sending zones um as you heard through my letter or read through my letter um bashore middle school students would be rezoned for thorn and Thompson um this would be dependent upon Elementary School attendance and the majority of students would go to Thorne because that's where the capacity is Leonardo grade school and Navas Inc would combine and be zoned to attend what we known as bore Middle School which would be the current bore Elementary which would be the current bore middle school facility um two Leonardo and ning so we're not we're

039not it's not a Q&A so I just want to get through the information um two elementary schools would get the benefit of an of an immediate upgrade to their facility that boasts multiple gyms a cafeteria and lots of instructional space um which is definitely a difference from what exists now um I know I was an elementary principal here I know how hard it is in those small spaces because everybody visys for the allpurpose room and for instructional space we have specials in closets so um it is it is it is a better more updated spacious facility to support education so what we will what we would be moving to is a two Middle School two high school and tell 10 Elementary School footprint as part of phase one but that that would not be the

040only consolidation and we'd be looking to eventually get to even fewer elementary schools in the future um to try to reduce that fpr even further so what this what this does for us is it it presents a $4 million reoccurring Savings in our budget because that's how much operationally we estimate in savings by reducing the footprint in this way um it also eliminates the $300 million in renovation cost and that's a lower-end estimate because that was last year's estimate and those cost $30 million those are definitely higher at this point um we don't own naving so we'd be putting money into a school we don't own that's a consideration and certainly um Leonardo the property could become an asset when it's unoccupied so when we look at South and North sending zones these would be

041the established reestablish sending relationships and students who are currently in fifth sixth and seventh grade and are having their High School trajectory change would have an option to go to their originally intended high school so like I said this is not a Q&A there is also more information that will be shared at we get farther down the road with this um if the board does pursue the proposal phase two would be infrastructure upgrades to secondary schools first including additional space added to both remaining middle schools and upgrades to the two high schools in the sense of you know just typical upgrades Windows Doors HVAC systems Etc that um this is time to coincide with our district debt falling off the district will be paying off um their their um Debt Service and therefore it is

042a timely opportunity to potentially examine and pursue um larger construction projects in the district because they're necessary would they be necessary so phase three and Beyond so further consolidation of the district foot print and continuation of building upgrades this is where we start to examine the remaining elementary schools to see if we can condense down to eight but that would require us to put additional space onto our remaining elementary schools um which would include the addition of large spaces like allpurpose rooms gyms cafeterias things that are current elementary schools for the most part do not have the luxury arm Elementary School right now we're not we're not up at that point in examining this take students on the other side of town to get Improvement we can get our school taken away the houses that

043we bought in school districts for the school districts you uproot all of that so what are some of the things if we don't do this and I want to articulate to everybody the fact that there is an alternative there is a plan B and for some reason my side of this is not coming out so I want to I want to re I want to I want to share with you listen I have it memorized by this point there would be a staff reduction of 120 plus staff members Across The District class sizes class sizes across the district in all elementary schools would increase to 28 and secondary schools would increase to 30 we would lose all supplemental Services other than things that are legally required we would be looking at cutting co-curriculars across the

044board athletic Transportation freshman Sports Elementary band and the list goes on all of it all of it listen these are widespread staff reductions that in order to make up that1 million that is the reality so like I said there is no there is no we have not gotten to the point where we're sitting where we're talking about Staffing right now we are certainly trying to maintain as many staff members as possible and we staff to student needs so what our plan would be would be to look at those populations when combined and staff based on those needs so we would be not we're not at that point our rehire meeting is in May and right now this is a proposal we know we know we have an idea where we're going to realize savings but

045we have not dialed into who those people are because a lot of things come into play certification tenure status position staff reduction Plan B which you are not proposing and you will not tell us the staff reduction for plan a which you are proposing the staff reduction for plan a is they're we're trying to avoid reducing sta not zero NE every plan will include some reduction of sta but not impact classroom so if you so if you want to impact the teacher student ratio across the district then we do nothing we we roll into this budget but we still have the reality of a $10 million gap and no one's individual salary is going to correct that I've heard you talk about money and how in other meetings and how you've discussed verbage and how

046you can allocate funds based on that where is our funds being spent why don't we have any visuals into that how much were the legal fees in the last so listen our budget is public information and is accessible to the public like that's the re like you can go and look on the budget and you can see what that budget is comprised of and if you look at the itemized list that I shared with you of those increases you can see what those drivers of increases are because we did things that were geographically logical based on where there was space in the Middle School people put a lot of time into thinking this through I just want to let people know there is a public comment session and we will allow people to come to

047the mic but this is not a Q&A right now it is the number and we've seen you showed us 8 million is salary and benefit increases you said be renegotiated we know everything can be renegotiated you just said under both plans that there will be staff reductions it seems like very obvious starting place would be no staff reduction we renegotiate and and no salary and benefit increases $8 million that we have we we can't control benefits that that item is negotiated by the board of so let's look at the advantages so let's look at the advantages there are there are distinct advantages to moving in the direction of a consolidation in a attached to a larger plan um first of all I will say that at our strategic planning sessions the number one identified concern

048was infrastructure age of buildings and also inefficiency and inequitable services so those are parents just like yourselves that have come together to brainstorm and analyze what exists in our district so when so these are the themes that came through the analysis of the information that the small groups in strategic planning developed um so we can begin to move towards greater operational efficiency by reducing our overall operating expenses um creating a geographically logical and streamlined sending zones in the district and avoid costly facilities upgrades to two of our buildings um and maximize the capacity of larger newer buildings in the district um you know we will begin much needed facilities upgrades to all buildings to support education increase equity and resources in services for um each of the sending zones because right now we are inequitable

049in those Services um gain property to potentially be used as an asset and what we can do immediately for the students at um the potential bore Elementary School is keep class sizes between 21 to 23 with the intention but not all buildings do have that so but being more efficient we can lower class sizes and try to do that across the district in the future um it also affords us the opportunity to create an alternative Le learning environment for some of our behaviorally challenged students um it is extremely costly to send students outside of District tuition costs are one of the drivers of our budget and our belief is that our children should be educated here but we certainly need certain service levels in order to be able to do that appropriately so this gives

050us a little bit of an opportunity to address some of those concerns and challenges that we've been facing over the last several years so our next steps um tonight certainly as I had mentioned is the board voting on can you back one slide yeah I don't know why thank you um tonight is simply the board voting on the actual numerical value um our plan is to now have follow-up sessions which e each of the communities where we will you know be having that Q&A session and also give people the opportunity to um be inside those spaces so they can take a look around and just get a feel for what the building looks like um again there is no vote to close schools tonight that would happen if it were to happen at our finalized

051budget meeting which is at the end of April because you have to vote specifically on school closure opening of their oh so we can adjust it we can definitely adjust it based on that absolutely absolutely we were just trying to do these as quickly as possible before this spring break so we can adjust that that's easy and republish it but we also have a frequently asked questions document that we link tonight this is not an exhaustive list it's a start for some of the more pressing questions that you might have um as we start to you know work through this this um this proposal things like Transportation class sizes um things that you know would be on the Forefront of your mind as a parent and certainly if you have anything that's not on there

052either email the question ask the question at one of the forums because we want to continue the conversation of getting you as accurate information as we can so tonight is really just about the financial aspects and are you know we're kind of we're at a crossroad and you know there aren't there aren't there aren't lots of options in the grand team the staff reduction by school for plan want to see what it looks like when the entire District contributes to these Cs and not just us we are absolutely 100% that and that's that that's not something we're going to get into tonight but so the board and our finance committee does have access to that and they are the elected officials that that vote on that that information so I thank you all and certainly

053I know that they're going to have public comments for some of you to come up and express your opinion so thank you they can't hear you on the live stream without the mic someone text me that they can't hear us without the mic can't read anything either really no they said they it sounds we're now gonna pull up Jake debowski from High School South to give in a South update like to congratulate Jake on his acceptance to West hey good evening everyone I would like to start off by congratulating Michael Puma Ethan Castro Colin Chad board Ben DeMarco B Warner boach H Creator G GG Mariana Hayden alen and Alex Miller five of their films were selected as finalists to be screened at this year's count basy Center breakthrough filmmaker Festival on March 22nd in

054Red Bank starting at 10: a.m. congratulations to Patrick Dempsey he is a National Merit finer I would like to take this opportunity to thank president Capone principal Lawson my guidance counselor Mr Georgio and all my teachers for their support to help me obtain my exception into West Point we just want our kids to have the same chance yeah the Middletown South mock Tri Club competed in this year's Mammoth County mock tral competition they made it to the final four losing a close trial in their final match this experience was enriching for the students it demonstrated the very best of what our students are capable of the club members were excellent ambassadors of Middletown throughout the competition exhibiting professional M respect integrity and impeccable preparation congratulations to mids South film students for taking home the following

055awards at the bright side Film Festival on March 8th in Jersey City best experimental film Gian gavick for her film the color blue best horror Thriller Alex Miller and Hayden allent talk for their film delusion best animation Michael puma and Ethan Castro for their film you're going to win some best documentary B Warner Ella crater giigi Mariano for their film bit night Madden and best edit Anthony DeMarco Chris ctis Elias ctis and Robert dorki for their film bitter betrayal five films from Middletown High School South will be screened at the vocal theater this Saturday March 22nd as part of the 2025 basy breakthrough filmmaker Bel Festival the event will showcase the talents of both high school and college filmmakers from around the state with workshops and a panel featuring Sony picture classic co-president Tom Bernard

056the event is sponsored in part by Netflix and it is open to the public as long as you register four films from Middletown High School South will be screened at Asbury Lanes on Saturday March 29th as part of the 23rd annual Garden State Film Festival the event is open to the public and tickets can be purchased on the Garden State films CL Film Festival website thank you thank you and I need a motion to approve meeting minutes 9 a through D second discussion all in favor I oppose extensions and a motion to approve 10 Board of Education Ave discussion all in favor oppose extensions any a motion to approve 11 business consent agender a through F discussion all in favor oppose extensions I need a motion to approve 12 B through J B through J

057all in favor oppose on founded and I'm yes on the UN I opposed uned and yes on the unfounded Amy I'm a yes on 1 180 and 355 a no on the rest need a motion to approve 12a second discussion yeah i' speak so this um these are my people here yeah you're used to be hope not can we please let him speak please this has been this has been a really emotional um topic for because I understand all the families that are affected in this my family would be affected in this Joe's family would be affected in this all of you would be affected in this and I want to say this this is for this this came out of the finance committee okay you all elected me some of you did I got

058a big number and I was excluded from the finance committee for political purposes I want to make that purpose clear I was presented this after it came out of the finance committee so I have nothing no nothing to contribute to this for political purposes so what I was presented was was a final project so now wait I would like to finish because because I put a lot of thought into this I've lost sleep over this for the last month and I'm not kidding them please let him finish everyone cannot yell out please let Mr sarosi finish all right I went to a this is deeply personal for everybody it's deeply personal for me nebis sync is a community we're a family we go I'm at pick up every day I'm a drop off every day

059Leonardo is the same thing and I'm not undercutting that at all it's the same thing bayar everybody is a family everybody's got their PTA their Community their play groups their I I get it and I'm torn on this because I was completely excluded from the finance committee which you guys elected me to part to be a part of and I can't control that that's controlled by the leadership of the board and I'm I'm sorry about that elected let's not forget that Rivera that's the what where are the rating my my business is in nnc I'm I'm a part of navyn we walk to navyn school I'm there with you guys I also know that the Alternatives and you have to look at the alternative to the plan because I've also seen the alternative we haven't

060and I think that that should be presented I think the alternative plan should be presented because the alternative plan would real challenges for our hey is there anyone else who wants a discussion yes I'll go next um first I want to say just like Mark you know this affects me dearly um and I have two kids that go to napn elementary I also have one that goes to Leonardo um as a board member and as a parent you know this hurts me extremely um I've been on this board for two years um and this is the first time I'm hearing we in any Financial danger to be H okay that's it's the first time and it's never came out of the the finance meeting to us that we were ever in danger ever so that

061I want you guys all to know um I've heard only good things about the budget and how great we were doing right so I've hear the same thing that you guys do um I want to say also that I don't understand how we're in this dire situation um you know I I know I know S2 is an issue and they talk about the state funding I understand that I understand the back Bank cap as well that we're not raising taxes as we should but I really can't fathom that we're figuring this out now and this wasn't you know figured out I feel like we could have made gradual you know changes you know to change instead doing so today I'll be voting no on this I would like to start looking at our Administration everybody

062is complaining about this they've been complaining about this for for years right that we are way top heavy right and as you I see today 50 to 60% of our you know of our budgeted salary right so let's cut the that first let's let's I have a different perspective than a lot of people sitting up here children in here yes I District please let her speak to hear what I I have a different perspective than a lot of people sitting up here I was born and raised here I am a true Community School believer M gr my heart I thought it was wrong the building's still sitting there empty I would like the I met with um Mr Capone and Dr alone about this and they listen to my opinion and I ask them to

063respect it and I hope everyone else up here does because I know recently my opinion doesn't matter to some people and if you're watching up here you could see it's not there we have to we have to we have to come up with a budget because we need to operate our kids need to learn this might not be the best budget I am hoping that with these meetings we can get some input from the parents I am not happy and I did Express this I am not happy about how this came down and when I heard of all the running around that went today and all the letters that went out I want to know I would have preferred it to have happened weeks ago where so I will vote for this budget because we

064need a budget but what I'm hoping you need to listen this is a tenative budget it has to go to the state if we don't pass a budget the state will take it over we need we you're not Ling we have from now until April to work on this plan and it's a plan we have from now to April to meet with you guys hear your input and hopefully be heard that this is not the way to keep Middletown together and I'm sorry if you disagree but I am a true Middletown person I go to events for all your kids whether you think I have kids or not I do have grandkids in the school and I do care and guess what I have a grandson in Leonardo maybe all of you don't know that

065okay but and I understand it might not be a difference for him to walk next door to go to school I understand it might be a better opportunity some people think but I'm not convinced right now that that's the right thing so please you know be patient with everybody's opinion and I I respect everyone up here's opinion whether they vote against what I say or not I just want to hear the Public's input and I'm hoping that we could come up with a solution to keep our community together because as I said to Mr Capone and Dr alone I feel like the whole north side of town just got dissected because I offer no school closing I love seeing schools no matter where they are I'm a Middletown person not in north south I never

066believed in the north south issues I want us to be Middletown and I want our kids to get a great education and I truly do love our community schools would anyone else like to make a comment so I just want to say starting off I am also an affective parent my son is currently going to Bayshore and you want to talk about someone else on this Ford who was born and raised here that's me along with my brothers we went through all the schools here and not only that so did my parents okay my parents were part of the first graduating class out of high school North they actually went to Leonardo it was a high school while this high school was being built okay so we I understand the feelings of everybody unfortunately I

067was also on this board when we were faced with the same decision of having to close Port M that was not a decision that I took lightly nor am I taking this decision lightly tonight but I will say that there are things that I think that are being said that aren't exactly true the one thing I want to say is when people sit up here and say we don't know how we got here I've been for six years now I know how we got here because past boards before I got on here and other boards have refused to tackle strategic planning in a real meaningful way yeah for our district it was never a question of if we were going to hit the fiscal cliff it was always a question of when and because we

068refused as a community and a district to deal with that and to try and figure out how even at the time when we had 17 schools to continue operating and thinking that we were never going to get to this point right was dangerous if you remember because I remember sitting on the board in 2020 we tried to take on a strategic planning process when Dr George was here and we were going to go out and we were going to do two forums with the community he got angry with me at that time because I pushed him to do more and I think at the end we wound up with eight in December of 2020 when we hired a demographer to actually look at the studies including the new projected developments that we now have in

069the town it was even stated then that because people are having fewer and fewer children our student enrollment totals were going to continue to decline despite the building they were coming to us with projected plans not not the plans but projected plans to go back to all of you and start a discussion about what that could look like that was December of 2020 in January of 2021 leadership of the board changed and suddenly the Strategic PL planning process was stopped and we never heard anything else about it yeah so when we say we're not sure how we got here we could have done a meaningful process several years ago that we may have all come to the same conclusion that unfortunately schools that we love okayy I went to Harmony my husband who I met

070my senior year here at North went to Bay you our son is now following in his Father's Footsteps okay we all love these schools maybe we could have actually come to that realization that unfortunately hard decisions had to be made and we could have had several years to plan for it when I disagree with things on this board it's usually coming down to process that the process isn't there okay but we can't sit here and say we don't know how we got here we know how we got here and I will say unfortunately well maybe you know how we got here so you've been youve also been sitting on this board for two years two years last year to your credit we were able to close that budget still cutting services but putting Band-Aids everywhere

071with money that we can no longer roll over into future budgets you were here for that too we were never at a point where anybody said to us that we were falling off I I hear over and over coming out that Finance meeting that we've gotten grants and we've gotten all these things and we're doing great always the alternative though and this is where I think it really does need to be stated several times if we don't come up with some kind of tenative budget tonight we then say to the county superintendent tomorrow we don't have a budget to give you and that does mean the state does come in and start to look at things you may disagree with what the proposed budget is and the plans now right but at least some thought

072is going into how to actually make this work for everybody the state's not going to why did you only us the other alternative is to then look at massive layoffs and you talk about going back to the unions now and renegotiating contracts it's not that easy to do coming from labor coming from labor for 24 years it is not that easy to do those were negotiated those were negotiated salaries and benefits for them if we reopen up those contracts not saying that we can or that we should let me finish let me finish you then run the risk of actually losing Talent even more talented staff who will flee from the district so but that's the other alternative that's the other alternative then is to have massive layoffs right throughout the which doesn't help our

073entire School anybody else you can look you can look at what's happening with the other the other districts that have gone to the state and S up their hands it's problem show us option you've been recognized thank you I I have a question mainly I know Dron I know you you mentioned what the Alternatives could be for us I know you you said you had a slide for you I know I believe you I know you did I also know a lot I know I know you're familiar about this and I don't that it it was a focus of the conversation with the slide could you elaborate more on what the alternative looks like yeah the alternative and it would look like a cutting of 120 staff members which is inclusive of a minimum of

07418 Elementary classroom teachers 20 secondary classroom teachers supplemental service including interventionists guidance counselors please I'm to share it um administrative cuts across all areas um we're talking high impact so anything that's not legally required as a supplemental service would be reduced if not eliminated fully um we would also be putting a um app pause on some of our larger initiatives uh particularly like our elementary Initiative for our morphology um which is the third through fifth grade pton Gillingham which we have has known this year to pay off significantly in early childhood education and certainly recoup some of the learning loss that we've that we've had over time we're also trying to investigate a new math program to do something similar because we are recognizing that you know we have to do some things differently and

075our and our math program is up for reevaluation not that we this is all this all in combination are things that would be extracted from the budget but as as many people have echoed you know a large driver of our budget our salaries across the board that's everybody's salary and please know that no area is going untouched in this but to me the bigger picture for all of our students is I don't want any of our kids sitting in a classroom with 20 30 kids scenario 21 to 23 our elementary our Elementary class sizes are not right now kids in the classroom day to day we have our enrollments at 25 that's actually a practice within the district we're talking three kids versus the quality education out of community we don't care show us a

076plan where all of Middletown sacrifices and not just us Al phone I think you've been recognized everyone else is out of order that's just speaking out of term do you have anything else to say anyone just Dron you're in the middle of the the details of the alternative what what's the effect on like extracurricular things so we would have a decrease we would have an elimination of Elementary co-curriculars across the board so no Elementary in any Elementary School would have any of those s in after school activity positions we would be looking at a reduction of co-curriculars at the middle and the high school level probably having what we put out as an offering as well as a reduction in athletic Transportation freshman Sports and elimination of element but as I said this would widespread

077impact to all Transportation not just now anybody else have anything to add I'm gon yeah I'm going to share this with Chad because it's just we're gonna we're gonna post something right now the other option I believe have can we make a motion I want to make a motion let them talk before we take the vote not after we Le I'm gonna open it up for 30 minutes if you're okay with that okay the motion you wanted was to allow that public comment ahead of V right everybody it's three minutes and please state your name and address for the record and it's 30 minutes total just everyone sorry 30 minutes total and then there will be another chance for everyone to my name is Ella Hilton I'm in 7th grade at bashore middle school I'm

078here to talk about how you want to make my middle school into an elementary school I don't want my school to trans in elementary school because of the great opportunities and memories I've made the past two years in bore I hope to continue to make these memories two weeks ago I got an email saying you've been nominated by a teacher to be a peer leader and bore if you shut down bore from being a middle school I will not get this opportunity to be a leader for bore bayor makes me feel safe and at home the teachers do amazing things for us they make sure we're safe understanding the work that we're doing and offer help when we need it these teachers push us to our limits for us to succeed in the future if

079you take away this from us and bring us to a different school this will affect our friendships and learning I have an IEP and I need help in some of my classes I get best help in small groups if you shut down Basher from being a middle school and bring us into Thompson and Thorn this will affect my small small group learning and will make it bigger which will not help me in the future this will affect the bore kids but also the thorn and Thompson kids from learning too I love my teachers and what they do Mr Curtis that B sure is the best you can get for a principal he will make you family in school which is what I love about bore now you're threatening to take away my school family and

080bore Community please please don't take bore away next year I'll be in e8th grade and school and the school will be looking up to us for what to do in the bashore community I hope to grow within the Basher community and with the best of the best teacher and principal you can get all I'm trying to say is don't take my school away I just said my name is Lauren Cali and I have a daughter in seventh grade um and I feel that it took two years for her to get what she needs out of the school and as much as she may not love everything that's going on personally in the school I feel taking her and moving her with 300 other students to a into a school that already has enough children as

081an a grader is just going to make everybody feel unwelcomed when they get there we're going to end up in a school where the kids that are already there and the teachers that are already there are going to have this influx of all of us that they're not going to want us there they're not going to open up their arms and be like we're so excited to get 300 additional students our children are going to feel w whether or not our children might be excited oh I have friends in the other school maybe it won't be so bad they don't understand my daughter with excit oh maybe I can go to this school maybe I can go to that school she doesn't Gress the magnitude of what's going to happen when they end up in

082a school that is overcrowded without a seat to sit in with teachers that don't know them they're just going to be a number it took time to get to learn the guidance counselors they got time to know the teachers they got time for those people to say you know I know Fe I know what she needs I know what this one needs I know what that one needs they're going to go there they're going to be lost they're going to be the only children that aren't going to have any attention from anybody unless you're telling us that all the teachers are going to be moving to the school with them and that they are actual classroom set aside for these students to stay together I just don't see how this is going to work this

083is just not okay I feel terrible for all the uh children in the elementary schools I was fortunate enough to have my daughter at Fair viiew a small community it was very nice we all loved it was a big family and I feel sorry for those kids it's not just about my child my child would have one year of enduring not such a great experience but what about all the younger kids that literally walk be this big that we were all terrified two years ago to walk into and you know what after two years I'll are surviving there okay they are making it happen whether they're happy or not they are at the tail end and to just riip that away from them it's not okay it's not okay you guys have to do better

084this is we pay taxes we all live here on purpose because of this cool nothing wrong with the town but I needed to move I needed a house and I picked the T I picked it in here and I just feel like now we're living in a place that just like is completely I could have lived anywhere 50 kids have the smallest house on my because I want to be a part of this district and you know what I'm just I'm disappointed I'm disappointed for the children forget me I have a son who's older he's already done he's in college like I get it but you know what I the kids that are younger like they didn't even get here yet and they're going to go to fure at their first school for elementary combines

085it's not okay it's not okay Kristen Rooney I'm part of navyn elementary school I have an um I have a 10-year-old and I have a 16-year-old I need to be all business because this I can't get emotionally into this right now but I I've been here in the district for a while my my older one started at nasen and we were just so happy that you know in a town like Middletown we could end up in this amazing magical place um but I've noticed over the past years um just some things that I started getting on comfortable with and some red flags that started being raised for me and I can tell you that they've all been on display up here at this meeting so my number one thing is the lack of transparency is

086growing um I I am a person who no matter what I do I like to be involved and I've been involved from every step of the way I like to attend whatever meeting there is um I think one of the greatest things we used to do was have pick meetings where a constituency of parents from every school would attend a meeting where I feel like this budget would have been presented to us and input would have been you know there would have been healthy conversations like we used to have and now we don't have that anymore so there's a lot of pushing down of information and there's not a lot of when will a Q&A happened there is no Q&A because when we get a newsletter that's kind of dumb and it's we had no

087say so I would ask for you to all think about transparency because I'm not the only one who thinks this way people talk to me um my second thing is that there's a major lack of communication going on here major you all sat here and it's obvious to me that it seems the navasink constituency on your board had no idea what you guys were doing so you are lacking in communication amongst your board and to come here in a professional meeting like this where you're going to vote on a budget for a school district that's large largeest Middletown and these people didn't know about it and it seemed to me that you scrambled when we all found out about that this was happening today so we could all get an email at 4 o'clock and

088read that our kids were going here here here here and then we're going to come here and you're going to present plan a and maybe Plan B but and so there's a lack of communication with us and if you are not communicating with each other then nothing else is going to work that's number one in any relationship so I think you all might need a little bit of a like team building experience because I get that you're not all you all don't agree you all are not supposed to agree you all are not from the same political background we shouldn't know that you should all be here for the well-being of our students number one that's it so when you said let's go away and let's talk about this I think you owe that to

089us because we love this town I love these schools I am proud to be here I was always proud that my kids were here and I can tell you that the last couple years I've started to get this like Eerie feeling and I don't like it because I want to love this and I want everybody to just want the same thing and I think you're saying you do but I don't hear it so I would ask for the transparency and the communication please and I would also say that I know you can include your remarks your three minutes yeah sorry I would just also say that I know you cut off strategic planning but you started it up again and that this should be happening there and it didn't because the people who were in

090those meetings it didn't and my one last thing is I would really ask that you don't reimagine our town for us because we have our own imagination and got it thank You' one second um just so that you know the Ning gentleman Frank and Joe I'm sorry Mark and Joe they were here for that they were here for that meeting no it's okay but I'm just letting you know that Mark and Joel was here that not that [Applause] meeting my points what you're doing right now is completely the problem no it doesn't no it doesn't you don't need to argue him I got back up here there's a line I don't know who parents my 16-year-old son was texting me asking when I was going to be home your name I everybody you have the

091microphone I for the record I have not rolled my eyes at all the time when when Miss 170 Grand Avenue um my children go to nank elementary school I have a kindergartener a preschooler and this child what I do not want is them to go through what I went through not in this town in another town where we have had redistricting from the time I was in kindergarten until after I left high school and that's exactly what this lack of a plan does I'm going to go to my remarks now I was on the strategic planning committee um communication was addressed a lot never once was it mentioned at the Strategic plan that part of the plan might be to close schools yes we talked about facilities we also talked about the love for our

092community schools and what was pointed out is how Middletown is unique in that we have Community Schools for our elementary and the benefits of a large high school and large District to get the services and things we need for our children secondly staff was notified last night and at a meeting at 5:00 pm today so there's no way to negotiate anything when you're not transparent with the people that work for you and for us in this community have you tapped into their expertise to see what might be able to be done to be help because I'm telling you right now look around there's an awful lot of people that are good problem solvers and are here for our kids and would be willing to help you third how do you logistically expect to move two

093elementary schools and three middle schools in two months how are you going to have my kindergarten and a science lab for middle schoolers I work in a middle school are you hiring more nurses are you hiring more lawyers for the lawsuit when they fall off those chairs this is a phase plan as a teacher a lot of things look really good on paper but when you add people and Logistics it does not work I have seen nothing but a broad plan to show that this works tonight is a proposal we would have been absolutely respectful in and out if you are transparent with us speaking of communication why were so many different letters sent out to different schools and different communities it is a necessary step and you need us on board to help you

094get this done in just a few months this community here is people that have done an exponential amount for my family and I and I look forward to keep working with them through all of this I did want to point out when we looked at Tom zerver and Jackson's headlines Tom's River when I was in high school had a superintendent that stole from them that's why they still don't have a budget that they can follow Jackson is having the same issues that Lake would have where they have a lawyer that is robbing them blind and closing schol don't their out and when those are not our issues those are valid issues but they are not ours or are they which brings us to State a from 2010 that was under Chris Christie have you as

095a board advocated to our state senator deinos scanland and the assembly members to get back that funding Mr ful I hear that you're pretty connected with him and you press as the president in VPR why don't you get them on board to get us some money from the state why don't you get them on board to work for our community are you too busy worried about Phil Murphy he's on his way out we're not dealing with him anymore this is where we are this is what we need we need our local senators and our local to help us my last part was about facilities and I already talked about that but what are we going to do to bring our kids across leonardville Road what is the other staff we going to hire to get

096them outside safely for gym class this is absurd if you were this transparent with each other and with us instead of spending this time trying to fight each other and us this would not be an [Applause] issue white proud proud parent of a navn student DAV still um this is my first one of these meetings and I gotta say I'm very unimpressed um Mark Jeff you guys were heartfelt and thank you for your comments most of you were pretty silent that's embarrassing Bruce I would strongly suggest you sit in on an neyns class and learn some empathy kids really help you out I earlier about the pretty obvious ways to reduce our costs I would like to know what you've actually done have you even tried to have those conversations have you tried to talk

097to the state as well to make up for some of the revenue I mean to me this seems like there are easy short-term fixes rather than a drastic step that we're doing right now but to Echo what everyone said this came out of nowhere Jeff even mentioned how he Joe ohry it's okay um Joe sorry um how it came out of nowhere if this was a real problem I think everyone would understand that we have to have fixes and we should have known this for a long time and been working towards it but ultimately this comes down to you guys your transparency your lack of leadership your lack of strategic planning and your lack of ability to communicate to us that changes need to occur and they should occur over time we just heard a

098terrible story about an opportunity that this girl might not be able to have next year but if we were planning properly we could be a B to adjust these expectations so ultimately what I'm trying to get to is I think we can fix this without these drastic fixes but it seems very evident to me that you guys are not doing your job and so I would like this community to really consider all the op that we have to us whether there's recall committees to trigger certain petition numbers to have a special election this Board needs to be shaken up you guys are not doing your job is most obvious thing [Applause] I Gary brazma I'm a parent of student at school um speak everyone here I'm sorry if I'm not as well spoken step close

099the mic I'm sorry if I'm not as well spoken as well prepared as I like to be like all of you I was blindsided by this plan it was clearly discussed behind closed doors with no transparency and no Community involvement I'm not going to try to represent everyone here but I think it's fair to say that none of us feel our students are going to be best off everyone raise your hand you think your students is going to be worse off every one of these hands represents a family and maybe one two three four kids you owe all of them to come up with a better plan and you owe us to have Community involvement in that plan we expect transparency on all the Alternatives we expect input in that you guys are failing these

100communities it's not just about kids people moved here to create communities create friends right you are changing communities and coming up with solutions that are worse off for our kids that's all I have to say like I said I didn't have the time to prepare like you all did behind closed [Music] doors ow all of us you owe it to our kids Emos from sherland terce in Middletown I have a student at Thor I have one at North but I have a little girl at Thor and again I'm just going to clarify some things or that I felt like saying again it's the way that this happened I think that if this had happened differently you or was announced to us differently you would would have a different outcome here tonight I feel like most

101things it just was not it was not presented properly and blindsided of getting an email at 5:00 at night is just not acceptable it's we it wouldn't be okay for anybody to do that it's just not how it's done or shouldn't be how it's done and just because schools aren't at capacity doesn't mean they should be at capacity doesn't a better program to be at capacity we have kids who are slipping through the crafts nowor under service where the teachers are overwhelmed with class sizes and being able to service the kids that are in the classrooms by adding more kids or more students even if you're not adding more kids to each class you're adding more students to two schools and again I'm talking about Middle School I I agree with the elementaries too but

102I'm just talking for the Middle School by adding more kids to the Middle School these kids are not they're at they're 10 11 and 12 years old they can't be in a school of 1,000 children they're not high schoolers they don't have the mental capacity to be around a thousand students all day long for 6 hours it's just not smart combination it's just it's just not it's not good for the wellbeing and I I might have been outside when you spoke about the special needs population but there's a huge special needs population at basore where where are they going are they going to be mixed into the the population at where they don't population that they have services and Facilities there that I know are not available at Thorn that are not the equipment is

103not there the room is not there for them at Thorn and unless you're doing major Remodeling and re re moving things around I feel like it's not going to be successful for those students either so I'm just as again I agree we do not want the state to take over our schools let me just put that out there this has to pass tonight because we don't we do not not want the state to take over our schools that is the last thing that you want is to have Murphy or anybody from the state to look at anything in the school so please this does have to pass tonight but this does not have to be the long-term solution this needs to be rethought about and resolve and thought about and come up with a as

104a if this is one if you have one and two options that I'm hearing tonight again I was outside for some of it there needs to be a third option this cannot be the only option thank you Genie I on the other hand I'm not happy I'm very pissed off this morning I posted this all over Facebook this is probably I have a feeling that you did not want anybody to know this is's going your letter about transparency is there's no you are not listening I just had a mom back there her daughter's in special needs and goes to Thorn they have gym class in the hallway cuz there's no room so let's pack those schools with more kids that's a that's a smart idea but let's cut staff we don't have enough staff either

105it is a joke you know where you need to look for money Administration [Applause] [Music] your your planning did you I was I was locked outside which is another thing you had all day yes all day you could have used these other rooms used a gym used a different facility to get all these people in this building they deserve to be in here [Applause] I'll tell you right now there's three seats up in November you better you better think about what you're [Applause] doing hi every everyone Amanda Roberts uh from Middletown um so I'm currently um representing the 200 plus people that were outside lined literally down the sidewalk at the door sh so I was tapped in thankfully un able to come in so I actually do not have a child in District I

106homeschool my child um and try to avoid um you know a lot of situations like this but it gets to a point where even for myself as a homeschool mom who has lived in town K to 12 went to Middletown North went all through Middletown for school where it's just wrong like when something is just so wrong that I'm here talk to you guys like you know you did something right so um earlier this afternoon I watched SpaceX safely rescue nine astronauts from uh space station and successfully landed back on Earth so I have a lot of confidence that you guys can figure out another option for this bud so I want to speak tonight specifically to the board members um and just remind you um that each one of you has been elected into

107your seats because we put you there you are elected right and I think that's really powerful and everyone really needs to remember that because these people are sitting in their seats because we put them there like that's a powerful thing right so if they need to do right by the families of Middletown that's necess that's necessary you have to so the taxpayers parents the kids the families in Middletown they all deserve better than this they deserve better than a few hours notice because of leaked information about a tentative budget meeting um or vote tonight that may cause multiple schools to close and displace thousands of students and families I mean it's just slimy it's not transparent and it's not okay and that's why I'm here tonight as a homeschool mom okay um it may be

108shocking news that the Middletown board of education is not a monarchy you are not a queen you are not a king um and you cannot rule over the people of Middletown and just do whatever you want because that's what you said that's not how this works right so um you know I think that it is really important as elected people to be an extension of the people who have elected you right that's why you're there so you need to be our voice essentially right you see how this works is everybody driving okay so maybe this is a lesson to the Middletown residents to really think about who you are voting for in the coming elections pay attention to who's been fiscally irresponsible for five years okay not naming names but people been a little fiscally

109irresponsible we're at this point right so you know it's just a reminder November there's a there's a big election November a lot of seats are up as she said so we elect these people you sit here in front of us because we put you there so listen to every parent every person in this room you sit in your seats because we put you there not because you're king queen nothing like that okay and that's something that really needs to be pointed out specifically to this board that needs a complete overhaul [Applause] thank I'm Katherine Eder I live in naing and my kids are set to go to naving school starting next year I am here tonight because I want to focus a little bit less on believe me I'm sentimental I love nbnc we bought

110the house despite the ridiculous price so that we could go to this amazing school that people have been talking about forever and ever and I'm really pissed about it and I have a lot of feelings but tonight I want to talk about brass tax okay you showed us a budget that was incomplete this board has been involved in a number of very high-profile lawsuits over the course of The Last 5 Years number one number one for offering and enacting anti-trans legislation that did not comport with the the state guidelines at law so we had to go pay people like Bruce padulla a lot of money to defend us through a number of lawsuits another one was about anti a bullying lawsuits L and we lost them all by the way so I don't know what

111his hourly rate is but maybe you need to up it a little bit look a new lawyer he's not an elected official he's not an elected offal official he was donating money to Karina while he had the contract for this entire board and then they unanimously voted to keep him in his seat despite the fact they looked at no other options the reason they just didn't have time to get another lawyer up to speed so when we sit here and we say things like I can't conceive of how we're in this giant hole of debt I can't quite either but I have some guesses and what we'd like to request is an independent audit of this there no reason that we should be and I'll be frank I didn't vote for any of you I

112actually voted for debah so I will say that your relegation of the nebis sync the people who are elected to represent nabin to be excluded from your Finance meetings is not only unethical it's pretty concerning why can't they look at the same numbers that you are all talking about now the second piece talking about brass tax is that Jessica alone spent a lot of time talking about how many Cuts there might be in a worst case scenario where we don't combine these schools I have yet to hear asking multiple times how many staff will be cut with your current proposal don't act like that as a pro of a plan B that we never got to see but you don't tell us approximately 40 approximately 40 so save our schools and spare 80 more so

113I'd like to Echo what the person before me said in that these people were elected not by me I didn't vote for any of them that said think about who you're voting for some of them have been sitting in these seats for year after year after year so they were at the Helm of the strategic planning and the budgeting that got us here okay think about it thank you [Applause] this would be the last person in the 30 [Applause] minutes minutes and you're are you kidding me that's that's not true if you that's not true I can tell time not 30 minutes for this for the discussion before before the board voted it was 30 minutes for discussion before the board vot do you think there is a a further public comment after the board

114votes I'd like to make a motion to extend [Applause] public who's going second I'll second it the bottom line is if they we vote they still going to speak at the end so let them speak I'm just tell I'm just tell what if you want to continue you can but we have to vote before they have to understand we must vote before we are [Applause] under time need people to call go ahead ma'am we're extending the time my name is Kyle Dar now and I am a PTA board member at Leonardo grade school this is not where I wanted to be tonight um I uh I don't talk I can't claim to talk for all of Leonardo grade school parents but I can talk for myself and for the few parents around me that I

115have gotten notes from first thing I'd like to discuss is the strategic planning committee that Dr alone put together I believe that there are two parents from my school who are on that committee with you and at no time do I believe you discussed with them rezoning or canceling or closing our school and you said this was a community thing that you did um it is it's come to our attention today through social media through rumors that this was happening you personally had a conversation with a woman at our school today and said I'm just going over the budget tonight not a big deal okay I I paraphrase that and it's a very misqu okay I paraphrase that but my intention of discussing that with her was to give her the respect in that there

116was a rumor circulating just so everybody is aware rumor there tonight was about giving you the information and the intention is to use the next six weeks to listen if anybody has you're voting on a budget number I saw your email you're not voting you're not voting on a plan to close you're voting on a budget to there are going to be Community sessions where you will have the opper listen if someone has a better idea [Applause] someone just got up here and said there are lots of smart people here that would be more than willing to help huge Sale Project there is no Enterprise world that would give a large scale project like this a five we time try to back us into a corner we don't know our C may I finish I

117believe that Leonardo gets at least a little a little shot so you say that this was here so that you could let us know well we only all knew once you once it got leaked out and we got these emails our teachers the women and men in our school that we value did not find out about this technically until 4:30 today do you think that that's fair to them they deserve an apology this is their livelihood this is their job personally PTA secretary for Leonardo how is this stuff not presented to the people we are here to represent our schools we cannot represent our schools if we do not have the information that is supposedly out there I appreciate that you say that you know this was a you know spur of the moment or

118something uh but not spur of the moment but oh you know we've been coming to this Mark said it's been out there for a month how did we not know about this we have all had things planned for after school for the end of school we have things planned for the end of school we have things planned for next year how are we supposed to finish this out without any of this information or going forward we have spent money into next school year as a PTA and now and now you are doing this and bringing this on this if we had known this maybe we have table some of those ideas brought us into the conversation it's about as everybody else said about being transparent and working as a community you tell us as a

119community this is not working as a community we deserve to know what's going on we deserve to know how our money is being spent we deserve an audit like the woman before me said so we can understand what is happening it's I don't know I don't know a better word to say like it's just not fair and it's not [Applause] [Music] [Applause] right 238 MTH Avenue I just have a few questions um are you asking us to accept these closures as inevitable or are you actually open to finding ways to preserve these vital Community Schools as you you can see we have a very engaged and willing collaborative community that would be willing to sit with you but we've never been asked to questions that I will email you after the fact um what specific

120data is driving the consideration of school closures or gurges and how recent is it can we see this data not just slides but actually the data that is making up these decisions how will the board ensure Equity so closures don't disappropriate affect certain student groups what funding options such as Grant or state aid are being pursued to avoid closures due to budget shortfalls how are parents teachers and students being included in decision making before any final plans are made I saw a slide that's one step there should be more what impact Studies have been done on how closures or merges might affect student performance transportation and family Logistics how will board measures success if how will board measure success if closures or mergers happen and will they plan if they don't deliver on these expected

121savings or benefits navisync I can only speak to because that's where my daughters go to has the highest elementary test scores in the district how will the board ensure it proven model isn't disrupted by these Clos emergers Ruckers University partnered with the doe to improve K through2 learning outcomes nisn was asked participate While most schools experience a decline in proficiency rates NV experienced a 15% increase can the district use these strategies to improve schools instead of consolidating how will the board weigh academic Excellence against raw enrollment numbers and any closure decisions how do you justify prioritizing size over quality of Education as a parent I am worried about my kids ability can we get a commitment from the board to involve not only navisync but all the schools represented families in an early planning process

122this is very late in the planning process closing I am you know I have the Rucker study here um nisn you know was included and it was a success and it was studied for a reason why are we risk losing this yeah 16 um I just wanted to give the perspective from a non-nav Leonardo parent I have child child in nut swamp a child in Thompson and to say that I'm disappointed is doesn't even touch doesn't even touch it the lack of transparency for the communication of this to the district this is affecting every child in this District almost 10,000 stents all over to not just Nas and Leonardo and bashore are disappointed and upset and I want to make that clear that this is not just a North Side issue this is a Middletown

123issue and I'm sorry but I find it very I don't know odd that at 10:36 this morning I sent an email to this asking tell basically saying there's all these rumors going around like can you provide some clarity because there's rumors flying schools are closing this is happening this is happening you responded to me I responded back at 11:01 and then at 11:30 an email went out to the entire district there was no intent by any of you to want us to know what was going on [Music] tonight 100 for one second I don't believe it for one second this has been an ongoing and I'm sorry you knew there were going to be hundreds of parents for tonight it should have been made arrangements to have this meeting where everyone could have been [Applause]

124like Optics means a lot and this is it not right my children are not being affected in the way that everyone else is here are but I am so disappointed you guys did not want this out and that is completely unacceptable I've been behind this board for 6 years and to tell you that how disappointed I am as what has been going on it is extremely extremely disappointing we need to do we need to do better for our kids the transparency you didn't want us to know guys didn't want us to [Applause] know so first of all I'm a hot okay forgive it sorry I didn't have time to digest this information it was disseminated to us at 5:00 at night and I truly believe that only happened because we were talking about it at

125baseball you tried to come out ahead of it with those repeated emails the emails Clearly say this is a decision that was hard to come by decision you're stating you stated in your email it's a decision you should be ashamed um and it's a slap in the face to all of us okay first of all the kids are more than money okay they're not just $133,000 okay I'm representing the bore kids if they throwaways in this the sixth and seventh graders who cares what happens to them have you started Middle School it's hell now and no cares and right no one's thinking about them okay you're all right okay I understand some some changes might need to happen I understand budgets I understand it but it needs to be done in a different order phases

126phase one add on to Thor and Thompson make them larger make them don't take away from bore in your email you said it's such a great facility it's so huge these elementary schools will enjoy it so much you know who does enjoy it the six and seventh gr I heard and set out of trailers at Thompson which I heard of the plan no one's talked about that so build of structures don't riip these kids out of the school and throw them into another like there's no repercussions you are the mental health what you're causing here this damage is irreversible it will go on for life you don't have a social um you know group in Middle School what happens you know we know suicide is a thing we know bullying is a thing we know

127that these fights happen in these schools now you're ripping these schools out of a middle school they know throwing them in another one no regard for them yes okay so this budget is on the table you're saying hey we have to vote it in or the state takes over it's a threat you gave us no time to get this information [Applause] no it's it is it's it's it's not acceptable like like these kids are just numbers like this is a corporation these are people you're you're messing with their lives here I don't know if you understand that do okay I'm get I'm going to tag out and maybe someone else can come in because the other thing is you chose to hold this meeting in here you knew what the response would be the board

128has done this before when they couldn't move the meeting in there but they chose not to because they wanted to keep it closed you wanted to control the atmosphere they're cowards it's not fair so I'm going to walk out let someone else come in but all of you when you go to sleep tonight think about I I I've been crying because my daughter had a panic attack when I told her what is it going to be like when she go to walk into that school right do any of you care I don't think you do I don't think you give zero thoughts about that all these middle schoolers throw away six scared they're just thrown thrown away my name is har CH I'm I have two children at nising elementary as everyone else in this

129room has expressed I I am completely horrified by the lack of transparency by everyone up on that table um but more importantly I am horrified by your lack of responsibility to Spring this on us with one month for the board to vote is completely disgusting you have not taken any responsibility in your own mispro misappropriation of the fund and what f I hope in looking back at how this board has handled things in the past in 2021 for some of you who may not know members of this board including president Capone voted to not apply for funding from the state I've heard a lot about State funds being an impact of this I'm grateful and thankful in 20121 there were enough people up at that table to go against President Capone and that side and

130take that funding because I cannot imagine where we would be today had we been $4 million short of what we already are the amount of money that has been spent on lawsuits the lack of everything is just completely horrifying that you think the right answer is to shut down one of your highest performing schools shut down another Elementary School shut down a middle school and further crowd our district even more without giving any public knowledge or input into this you talk about parent forums Dr alone it would have been helpful to have started these when debor Wright brings up the strategic planning that many on this board put a hold on perhaps if we continued the discussions then we would not be in this position and I just want to address that because our original

131strategic planning meeting was March 6th and we moved it purposely so that we could share this information and then have conversation that is% tell because it's important to have information [Applause] to if you just have one other question considering your timing all of us in addition to talking about State funding going down I'd like to know why Middletown actually has a 6% increase in state funding this year so I'm not quite sure where that disconnect is because you cannot come here and tell all of us this is happening because State funding it's not it is happening because of the lack of responsibility from many of you on that table and I want everyone in this room and everyone watching to remember we voted them there we not all I voted de right she's the only

132one on that table I voted for we have the opportunity if they do not make this right we do not need to vote them again we can find people to replace them and to fix the mess that they are putting our children in my name's Eric Dow we have a two Max and Avenue I have a daughter at bore Mr and a first grader at n um I'm not going to reiterate points that have been already made um and they're very good points uh I will note that the letter that was sent out at 5:00 referred to a new adventure I don't think people are enjoying it referred to a sense of enthusiasm pride and anticipation I'm not getting that feel here tonight um my first point it's Middletown as a concept it's it's a

133strange municipality uh people don't move here for the quank downtown there is no downtown they don't move here for the low taxes uh the website in Middletown explains why people know here it's it's a collection of villages many of them historic uh with with neighborhoods that have grown in between and that that that word that Miss menu was used Community that's that's why people move to Middletown that's why they stay that's why their kids come back that's why their grandparents come back um what's being proposed and there's time to fix it would fundamentally destroy the very nature of middle people people don't move here so they can send their kindergart and their first graders to an elementary school with thousand kids there are plenty of other towns that have at Le sensible school systems that

134you were competing with uh the second point I heard a lot references to quote modern education let's talk about good education I can only speak to to n i i i want to stop by Leonardo too good education many of us walk our children to school we're on firstname bases with the teachers and the staff if we need to talk to them after hours we reach out to them uh the community looks out for each other's kids it is no mistake that NAB is the highest performing School in this District year after year after year we was just recently ranked I know we like the US news reports on this board the number 27 Elementary School in the entire State this is the one you're proposing to close sense they're dumb I want to talk

135about what happens next um this we know this is a provisional budget we we are short on time there is time to fix things if any version of this plan that's been proposed passes it will hang around your necks not just for the rest of your very short political career for the rest of your time in Middletown because it [Applause] fund my last point the community forums come armed with your data not with a PowerPoint presentation with your data again I can only speak to my community bring your data we have some very smart people who can help you figure it out thank good evening Emily Donahue of pan Avenue with two children at sing before I kind of start what I want to say I'm the head of HR I'm happy to negotiate your

136contracts if you guys need help um do it it is negotiable benefit specifically so just want to make that note I stand before you not just concerned parent um but as a community member and someone who refuses to accept that closing schools is the only way forward and do and I so I ask you or specifically and you Dr alone did you do enough did you exhaust every option before proposing to school close the schools or change the locks on hundreds of students education did you fight for them the way that we deserve to be fought for and that we elected Bo the way that the people um because you've made a decision like this you're not just shutting down buildings you're shutting down communities you're forcing children to say goodbye to their teachers their

137friends and some the safest place they've ever known okay did you truly explore every Financial alternative did you cut the top before cutting the foundation did you advocate for more funding reach out to state and federal sources or invite the public to be a part of a solution before presenting us with a decision based on the lack of transparency about this very meeting I think we all as the public are going to know the answer extremely disappointing have you thought about the ripple effect the overburdened classrooms the students who will get lost in larger schools the families will now struggle with longer commutes disruptive routines have you considered the children with specific needs who thrive in smaller familiar environments what happens to them Dr alone I'm asking you not as officials but as people if

138this was your children's school which I know it is for some would you be satisfied with this proposal really only one right that you've given us are you truly proud of The Proposal Dr alone we all know what this represents and it's negligence right the decisions you've made over the years it's negligent this proposal okay if the answer is no to any of you any of you pause rethink it okay find another way because all of our kids deserve leaders to fight for them and you failed them all of you okay we don't want you to give up on our kids so Bor I ask you to reject Dr alone's negligent plans and yes to a plan that our community not wants but needs because this is an itend so I ask you again ask

139yourself tonight and for every night when you go to bed did you do enough okay and if you can't answer that with certainty with a sliver of doubt it crosses your mind before you go to bed then this fight and it's going to be a fight is far from over we collectively as a community are begging you asking you to be more transparent not just now but always because this impacts people the most here and in the community that you won't let in the doors please do better it's what we voted for good evening my name is Laura Bard um I have two children at uh B currently that are seventh graders and one child at mayn thank you to um the teachers and Community from mayn and Leonardo that showed up to support um

140the community also want to say I know from your perspective that that you have a thankless job many of you are not getting PA to stand up here um so I appreciate your time um I work as trade as a behavior analyst which means that I professionally analyze behavior and I just want to think about um some of the things that have happened tonight Dr alone did ask for all of us to have an open mind about what she was presenting I'm asking what I'm seeing here is not everyone's having an open mind about the perspective of the parent in this I can look at your behavior and I can tell which ones of you are going to vote which way and which ones of you already made that decision your behavior this was already

141done before you the public chance to have this conversation work closely with Mr Cullen I have two children with 504 plans for um OCD and anxiety disorders um they require extra support this is not the time to do that right so if you're going to position where we have people transitioning from fifth grade to Middle School from middle school to high school we do that over the course of a gear right they start going to the next school they start wearing the gear they start having meetings over there they do the trivia and all that the the novel instruction all of that happens over the course of a year it's the end of March it's too late to transition these kids this year because I can tell you having two kids with anxiety disorders that

142they are on live streaming texting me constantly fearing for it's not worth telling what their fears are because this didn't start in September if if we were going to do this we wanted to have this conversation it should be for 2 years from now when you had I understand budgeting constraints and I respect it that things have to be done I totally get that that piece of it but March end of March early April is not the time to put this on kids we know we have a mental health crisis you know what my daughter said to me one of my twins said to me she said said I don't want to go to North because somebody died by Suicide there recently Mom okay so think about the mental health impact because we are in

143a mental health crisis not in Middletown but in a society think about the mental health impact that it will have on our students because I'm not saying that it will it never needs to happen but the timeliness of this is really unprofessional unethical and inappropriate know is September that that would be the last year that they step foot in those doors and that you transition them systematically with thought and care to their social and emotional well-being we have social emotional goals in in our curriculum and these things should be honored too because this is part of their social emotional development and it's going to cause some trauma [Applause] I have a loud booming voice I lecture for a living so my name is Deon rafy I'm a proud father of two children at Leonardo grade

144school and I'm the [Applause] chair I'm also the chair of the economics and finance department at St Peters University and I think the character of this plan has been covered because man if I was going to ram something through the faculty Senate at St Peters especially a 5 to sevene plan I would send it out at 4:30 right before the meeting um however I can also speak to the fact that the plan reeks of corporate restructuring and exactly what an MBA student would come up with in their first semester um I teach at The Graduate and undergraduate levels um and I would encourage we bring data because I would like to look at how you control for heteroscedasticity autocorrelation other things your array of independent dependent variables in the econometric model that I'm sure you

145ran because superintendent alone said optimize and that is a word with a very specific meaning especially efficiency too but I digress because in my professional stature I want to bring up the fact that the plan is a Ponzi yeah I understand there's a defic I also understand that this District receives a disproportional amount of its funding from local funding sources that's the revenue if we overcrowd our schools that's going to lower property values which will lower your intake of tax revenue which will then create a bigger deficit which you will then counter by having to cut more which will lower your property taxes which will then create a bigger budget deficit which will then create more more cutting of costs and you can see where that landed Greece in the Euro Zone however I also

146happen to know quite a bit about financial crisis and the only thing that ever solves budget deficits and financial crises this gentleman to where you get the interest in stakeholders if you in a room you pause like when the market is collapsing and you figure out an Amal an amicable solution for all of the parties involved you don't steamroll through a corporate restructuring treating students as if they by the way the whole presentation was talking about cost they're talking about your children and that is what needs to be done I would like to close with this don't bu into fear I beg you when somebody comes up to you and says there's no alternative we need to do this or else somebody else is going to take over this is the way it's going to

147be guess what there's an alternative and they're trying to get you to go along with something because [Music] what I would like to with this this is clearly a solution what necessarily was the problem because this is not going to solve the finance problem it will exacerbate it over a 10 to 15 to 20 year period thank you not tell you guys how to do your jobs or what I think you should be doing or any of those things I am born and raised in Lardo New Jersey I born on the Wet Side transitioned to the dark side which I call the dry side um and we have only stay in Middletown and Leonardo because we wanted the same thing for our kids you're talking about a historic School Leonardo grade school where I have

148three boys one is in freshman in South right now um and one is in kindergarten at Leonardo grade school and the other is in the program here um with the high school Buddies the preschool program here so I told my freshman my son about this possibility occurring tonight um and he was extremely upset let's just say that transitioning from bore which was the only school to divide and again I'm went to leardo gr school I went to bore and I went to South so did my husband so did a lot of people in this room and we all chose to stay here and raise our kids the same ways my street alone we have about four or five neighbors that are raising their kids here because we all grew up here and our kids go

149to school together I mean you're overpopulated already we're going to knock more stuff down we're going to move kids around so guys can keep building I mean it's just greed at this point and we're paying for it all so it doesn't make much sense um my neighbor actually who couldn't be here tonight he couldn't get a sitter he has a son with special needs he has Down syndrome and he recently went through this situation already with portl school now you're talking about taking another child and there are tons of children that have gone through enough already and overpopulating and then removing them again I don't know how many of you are from Middletown I don't know how many of you live here or don't live here or who your kids are or where they go

150and honestly you guys don't really seem to care much about this so I really don't care much about that um and I'm not a tick rat human being I am the sh off your back kind human being and that is everybody that I can speak for that I know from Lardo we are a community community would not have already come together if you guys would have given us an opportunity to make our kids money ourselves something in that form to build more I mean our volunteer work it's constant we're always doing stuff the PT they don't they live breathe this stuff and it's con they their whole lives revolve around helping each other and a community based line that's what we do here you guys we deserve that opportunity from you to have been given

151that shot and I don't even think you control half the you're going through to be truthful with you it all comes down from somebody else so that being said I don't know why this has to be done tonight right now at the fire drill when you guys have known about this sh since 2020 2019 even we should have been given an opportunity to either help make a difference do something I mean I don't know but there has to be more that can be done and you need to listen to us this is this is our place not [Applause] yours hi everyone my name is Drew train I live onen I'm a fourth grader sixth grader eth grador um but just on a practical level I'm not a professional educator it seems like they sure is

152not going to be a good Elementary School my kids are the biggest kids in their grad bullies they're not afraid of big spaces but their friends are half the kids on my son's fourth grade basketball team can't reach the urle there's no playground they got to go across the street the science like it's not a facility designed and I can't imagine what it would be like as a 5-year-old to walk into a building where you can easily get lost kids get lost in it's not a practical plan also like just in my own situation with a fourth grader sixth grader eighth grader iire three kids on three different tracks through the district three totally different experiences it breaks them apart from all their friends Sports col orats it doesn't just doesn't make any practical sense

153for a family to put their kids through a district and have go this way and further on a just a practical level I don't believe that the lack of transparency was accidental that the idea that that those two weren't allowed in the meeting that you had access to this information for a long time that the information came out at 5:00 that we weren't even going to be allowed to speak before you took the vote and that you have a sort of D Cas hanging over this conversation from the state it's clearly an administrative tactic to disenfranchise yes [Music] creating two very linear paths north and south and breaking this community apart and if you all are going to live here you're going to see it for Generations it's a terrible mistake and the idea that

154there are only one plan where it's lay off 120 teachers and another plan where it's close two schools dissolve another one and lay off 40 is a stunning lack of creativity and Imagination [Applause] probably only in this room that's thank you I'm why because I have a boxing studio and you have made so many people mad so you guys want to punch me I hold cats I have like bags you guys can come to me because you're going to need so much therapy thank you for the second point that I would like you to think of that I'm not going to repeat anything that everybody has already said because so many good points have been made what I want you to do is put yourself in the place of the very first person that you

155heard of today which was that seventh reader because 5 years ago 5 years ago I have three boys one of them is her age two boys in F sure one of them name the okay 5 years ago she was in second grade she was ripped out of her school this exact same month and she was taken away from her friends she was taken away from socialization she was taken away from her teachers and she was put a mask on her face and Co happened this is the exact same equivalent to those Co kids what you're doing right now they are going to go through the same Mental Health social issues that you are on you're choosing to do it you're choosing to do the same thing that we couldn't avoid 5 years ago those poor

156Co kids have been through so much they have been through so much their learning issues have slowed or their learning disabilities have increased they they have finally started to feel normal again they are playing sports they have friends if you take these kids in middle school and you move them from their middle school like my sixth grader into a brand new Middle School do you know how hard that is going to be for those kids after they've just now finally started to feel normal again after Co so what I'm asking you as Grandparents or moms or dads sitting up there can you honestly go to sleep tonight and tomorrow and whenever you vote on this and tell me that you think this is an okay idea to put the co kids through put them in

157new schools with all the new things they're going to have to deal with and then those little kindergarteners and those second graders and the third grader that I also have put in Bay Shore because I know Bay Shore looks like and to the person before me that spoke it's not meant for little kids there is nothing the don't just think about the budget don't just think about all the other things that I know I get it it's a big deal I understand that but what's a really big deal is these kids went through Co 5 years ago this month and you're about to put them through Co number two in a different way and nobody thought of that or said that I'm saying Studio I'll go in my basement my name my name is Su

158already I have three girls in new MMO that will be going to th next year two of them have IEPs um I moved here 11 years ago because this was supposed to be a really good district and at first it was and the last couple years it sucks sorry to say that um this reminds me of the part moment all over again same thing we got emails that day and then I mean you guys already made your decision and you made us all come in here we want to speak and even us hope right but in reality you guys don't care yeah yes yeah so um I definitely think this is a and you guys could always say that you guys care about your kids you want the best for our kids all you guys

159care about is your high paying jobs and your paychecks you guys don't care about your kids or this would not be happening hi I'm um I'm April Rose Ramirez hold I'm just gonna pull out my um I actually want you all to stand up could you cuz I feel like you've all been sitting could you do that for me yeah we've been stand up m I feel like you all are kind of like you [Applause] know disrespect youe stand [Applause] [Music] thank you I you know what your face your facial expresses the same and I feel like all these stories are kind of like the same to you so um anyway again AEL Ramirez I live on Florence Avenue and Leonardo is that what you guys um the names and stuff um I have five

160kid and one just graduated from North last year and he he is now in college and he's on the Spectrum um I have one in South she's a senior and she's graduating with high honor and she will be attending Keen University next June um I also have one in South who is a freshman sorry when you have a lot of kids the lose trap um he is uh he's also on the Spectrum and we've actually had you know some he's Al you know we've had some it took me about three years to get him in IEP with Middletown three years to in into the I um then I have bro who is aure he's an eighth grade and this is when we've had some conversation this is called cuz he wanted to go to North

161so that he could be not always with um his other brother you know it was always always with his other brother right so he wanted to have his own identity and attend North and then I have my little one who second grade at Leonardo I told her this evening and she was in tears and I know she's in second grade she doesn't really understand everything but at the end of the day she was just really really upset and she was sad so my question to you to the board is that I'm not from Middletown you can probably tell my accent sorry my I've been here I need something to drink but anyway um I'm not from Middletown I came here I'm in real estate I sell a lot of real estate I talk to people

162they like oh I only want to buy a house is own for this is is own for this you buy here for a certain reason right people come here you will say I don't want to I don't want to live in petburg I don't want to live here I want to live over here I want to live here right people will buy for this school district I'm going to tell you this people like Middletown for a reason we've kind of been in the news a lot lately we're kind of a joke thank you so much even in the new a lot we're kind of a joke this is a joke I'm sorry it kind of is and you know what we as a community not only get audited but we also as a community we

163can also um higher forensic accountant to audit you guys honestly because where're is it we if you know where the money is going then you we can you know we can also as a community hire someone to figure it out hon um but you know it is not the best idea you know it's not the best idea not only for all of the children but also mentally emotionally we need to be stable for them I've spoken to many of you for my kid for uh the community and we think about all of the children and think about them emotionally mentally academically and just come together and not make the wrong decision but I would like to know this when is the budget due before you have to hand it to the state because I really

164really I'll be honest with you I do real estate all the time okay and there's contracts and there's addenda to the contract and then things are due but then you can also push them back and you can do an extension like we did today right you're extending for all to hear all of us right so my question is this what is it due by cuz do you really need to make a decision by tonight I'm the tentative budget guest no that's not right so when is it do end of day for M and who's the DU or can you request an extension to the agendum of the original contract can you do that because I think honestly in every single contract there's always an agenda I truly believe that you guys should probably request that

165extension before you guys get audited or the community requests an audit on whatever okay honestly because we really need to evaluate especially as you guys sprung this on not only one school but two three schools the entire town being affected the entire town being affected so again so everyone knows every single contract can be a there can be an inden to every contract get to work job I aent so I'm going to change things up a little bit because my child was going my first J was going into kindergarten year of Co right 2020 and on March I believe it was 7even a final vote came down with Dr George at that point in time Dr George looked many of us in the eye crier to this vote and said nothing set in stone nothing

166has been decided yet we all knew we all knew he was lying to our faes we asked him about who was moving into those tow houses across from Target and he said families with children don't Mo toes they won't need Schools they're not going to need to go to schools don't worry about that lie to our faces okay so a lot of us are coming here with that many of you were not on the board then many of you got voted in because of that many of you got voted in because you said north s side matters and I want you to remember that when you're voting on this okay when he said north side matters you know what else he said he said when we consolidate for M into new into new M we're

167going to cap class sizes we're going to cap them 17 to 18 kids you know what we're at 24 25 want to make sure you all know that 24 25 kids CED we no longer get to have school dances our school's too big kindergarten and first grade eats in their classrooms cafeteria is overcrowded our kids and too loud and too loud especially for the sensory kids because inclusion and obviously those children are in the classrooms they cannot be in there additionally gym classes our children sit for the majority of gym classes they watch children play because there's four to five classes in each gym class so for the 40 minute period of gym class they sit for five they sit and they get to play for 5 to 10 minutes but they sit for about

16830 they watch during Co which let's be honest is not off the table again right yeah yeah not off the table I had to contact the superintendent of the county because at that Time Mary Ellen Walker was the superintendent and she told me that my child who's a beam hole who does not like to eat was not entitled to a mask break in order to eat her food if it was raining outside she couldn't have a sip of water she couldn't have a snack because it was raining and there wasn't enough space in their classrooms that was overcrowded with poor mom and new mom kids they said that capacity of the school oh we could fit 500 we were at 200 and something Fort momth came in we're at 503 503 and somebody had St

169it before just because that's the capacity does not mean that's what it's meant to be and while I do believe that Bay Shore is a beautiful School I've been there I've been there many times that's where my child my fourth grader play basketball it's not an elementary school it is a middle school okay and I look to the future I look to the kids a Port Mammoth and new Mammoth that have already been screwed over by not many of you but by this board of education and by their inability to learn in a classroom with maybe 16 17 kids we've got kids pulling down their pants in class in new M that teachers aren't aware of until the kids tell them because there's so many kids in the the classroom they can't see what's going

170on our kids aren't learning what they're supposed to be learning because there's so many children they're not getting the one-on-one time they need and that's not because of the teachers an ability it's because of an overcrowding so why I'm here is because of what's going to happen in two years when my child goes a thorn when you have a crowd Thorn is when I'm mad because you've already done it once maybe some of you didn't vote on it but I'm letting you know promises have been made promises of small class sizes have been made promises of a new playground or at least the one from Port mamath being brought over to new Mammoth have it made we didn't get that either okay that new M that Port mmth playground sitting on the port mammoth site

171hasn't been brought over it's too expensive so now we've been busting our butts trying to raise money for a new playground for new mamm because not only do we have two children in wheelchairs at new that have no equipment to play on we also have the autism program that do not thank you and I appreciate that yeah I don't think we have ada8 compliance there but nobody seems to care okay and apparently it's become the pta's responsibility to raise These funds and for these Reasons I'm here for these Reasons I'm furious and I look to you guys because I remember when you tobacco Capone we're running it wasn't just oh I'll Mas our children it was also North Side matters north side doesn't seem to matter today it doesn't because every of everything that's going

172to be overcrowded and affected you know where it's not affecting it's not affecting linkr it seems to be affecting it seems to be affecting thorn it seems to be affecting Port mamm it seems to be affecting new mam and I remember a few years ago in addition to Port MTH being on the table of this is not the ADA Compliant school this is the school that's losing a roof this is the school that's costing us money you know what the other school was it was River Plaza notice River Plaza is not in the budget today River Plaza wasn't here this was a whole surprise to all of us and it was Deja Vu of Dr George all over again trying to have a very simple budget meeting talking about oh what's it going to be

173next year and then all of a sudden he Springs in oh and by the way PT mom's closing and the teachers found out hours before and they all stormed in they were like what are you talking about had you told us about this maybe we could have come up with a solution but right now the solution that you've given us is plan a or we're going to fire all your teachers your schools are going to be overcrowded your classrooms are are going to over be overcrowded and screw you that is the options that we've been given where where's option b c and d what other options are there how is it that River Plaza was a non-compliance schol five years ago and this isn't to say River Plaza should be closing I'm just saying River

174Plaza it was either or 5 years ago and now River Plaza is not even consideration it's w Len now a say b s how some of us say it um understanding is nasy is on some sort of property that we're not even going to get money for so we can't get money for where's the money for Port M where did that go let's talk about the turf fields that were put on North where did that money come from what about the score oh yeah and the scoreboards oh and the cheerleader uniforms let's not forget about that but there was a number of number of monetary decisions made when this decision within your laps yeah and you chose chose not to have this discussion chose not to involve the community and chose not to little by

175little just take little chips off of it so to me this is a joke yeah we've been through this in Port Mammoth and new Mammoth when we were promised this decision had been made with all respect to M cell phone in your letter that was sent out later on in the day it did say this was I believe it said this was a hard decision so the you said decision like the decision was made like you youed it it was decision I know so I mean we're spelling hairs but you know words matter a lot of you are attorneys here you understand words matter okay and my question to you is how do you ask for people to vote on a budget when you're putting the cart before the horse how do we know what

176that budget is we don't know what we need to shut down we don't know what we need to knock off we have no idea what our budget really looks like what we're spending we don't know because we've been giving some graphs of some what other districts have been through what it might cost for each child but we been given one option and the the other option is fire and have no Athletics no after school activities and fire all your teachers and quite frankly the other option is overcrowd Thorne overcrowd Thompson and then once you have all of these kids in these schools and you have these sports that right now let's say there's how many kids 600 or so in Thorne for instance and you have a cheer team cheer squad that has 15 to

17720 girls allow or dance squad and now you add 400 in now what now I tell my kid you know what screw you you practice this entire you try you practice this entire time but you know what the kids on the North side they just got screwed again can you I think it's important oh are you going to cut me off I'm so sorry You' you've been more than 10 minutes oh I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm sorry what is your name Bruce pad on the board Are You The second contract are you the second attorney for the township or the second contract I'm just I'm going to be I'm going be filing over request tomorrow so I'm just curious who you work for I'd like to know what your contract States and how

178much you're actually getting paid go ahead brce my contract is public record I get yeah know and I'm going to oh and what you had worked for a company and now you went out on your own yes yes understood and I think we all understand this which is part of the reason why we're so aggravated because that was put in I believe a discussion on a Tuesday and voted in really be quick by Friday to get you your contract but you can shut off my mic now I think I've made my point I say thank you and I want let you know the people of Port Mammoth and new Mammoth have already had these promises made new playground small classrooms everything else guess what we don't have a band room we don't have a library

179we are not allowed to have dances we we are not allowed to have school or I'm sorry they need to know what their F looks like the last person the jacket my name is Cara board and my daughter is in autism program at bashore Middle School um I fought five years to get her in the autism program from the MD I fought to get her into the program where it suits her best um to take that away from her now I I feel like the classroom sizes are going to be absolutely crazy I saw Thorne I saw their NV class it was overpacked the cafeteria was crowded lowed um they they said that half of the kids do gym the special needs kids do gym in the hallway um at bashore she has so many

180more opportunities um she's actually going to be the manager of the softball team she does be her buddies there she has a small classroom and she is driving and to take that all away from her after she's been through Co lost two years of education which she desperately needed and I'm trying to catch up with that and then to remove all of that and push her back and no one has really spoken about where all these special needs kids are going to go they're going to get jammed pushed to the side in some classroom uh I fun so hard to get her where she is and to have that taken away and pushed into a classroom where they're they're basically forgotten and overcrowded is is definitely something that I don't want to hear happening and

181that's how I feel is what's going to happen um also they have um a PT room in BO that's shared with speech I think there's one class that's just showed with three different three different people doing OTP speech these kids are not getting one1 they're in rooms where other kids are getting services and they're not getting the attention that they need so I can't imagine when you're going to be shoving all these kids telling us that there's going to be more room there's not there's not enough room yet so I I'm not sure how you're figuring this out hi my name is Jennifer gy I have three children who go to navn my oldest is in fifth grade and does not know she will not be going to bayar she would be heartbroken to no

182so my middle is in second grade and my youngest is in kindergarten he was recently diagnosed with being completely deaf in one year it took us multiple months to finally get an IEP and a plan in place and that's at our amazing School so putting him into a more crowded school I'm sure would become more challenging my very real question tonight though is all the fifth graders who attend neas Inc are planed to show up at bore on Thursday night for their orientation to attend bore middle school as six these these children for the past year that they've been in fifth grade they had their new Bashar principal come in and introduce himself to every single one of them they've had the band from bore come in and play for them they have already been

183acclimated to who the bashore students will be and are excited about it we all attended the Middletown Alliance program our new bashore principal who we will all have attended that in celebration with all the kids who will be going to Bayshore we sat there the town sat there saying you will all sit together in bashore in a few months this is wonderful this is beautiful you're all together now so I want to know who up here at this table is going to tell every fifth grader who's supposed to be sitting in the bore Auditorium on Thursday that they will not be going to that orientation on Thursday because they're will be no bore Middle School to go to because instead their two little siblings will be going there they will not be able to choose

184the bathroom cuz they're too short my child who is deaf will be wandering around a very large school with multiple doors multiple stairways that were not built for a 5-year-old who is going to be there to help support him he recently had surgery a week ago every naving teacher showed up for this child of and I'm sure they would do the same thing but that sense of community and is lost as soon as you start combining schools almost every child in nasn elementary school made a card for my child every teacher checked in on us the day before surgery the day after surgery and the following week our nurse has routinely checked in with me our principal every person in that school has shown up for our family they made sure my fifth grader and

185second grader who work crying and who were upset all day that their little brother was having surgery on his head to ensure he had access they were there videoing with us so they could see their brother to make sure he was fine that is not happening in a larger school and not because our teachers don't want it to and not because our support staff don't want it to it is just impossible to do that at a large scale level and that is what you're taking away from these children you you're putting these tiny children we had a drrive f for sure to get here have you gone on those stairs do you know what is going to happen to a five and six-year-old I agree with whoever said it before I hope that you increase

186the lawyers at this table because there are going to be so many injuries within that school it is not set up for five and six year olds it is set up for my incoming sixth grader and it is a beautiful facility for a middle school which is as it should remain I am very content and happy at our beautiful small little school yes we don't have our individual music room but the love in community far [Applause] overshadows um we've talked a lot about the reasons why the parents are unhappy about this plan uh about how it was very much mishandled but I'm a Believer in tactical next steps and Hing people accountable so I want to talk about what you're going to do when you leave this room uh the schedule that you put up

187on your slide for the Community Information sessions is untenable the first one is two weeks from tonight and it sounds like we're up against a tight deadline we've got a plan that is not going to move forward so you guys have got to rework your schedule and figure out how you're going to make it work and I wanted know who on the board is responsible for revising that schedule and getting it out to all of us by tomorrow because you are very able to get out a series of emails today so I know you can do it who on the board who on the board will be schedu raise your hand raise your hand who's gonna do it who did it today guys the emperor has no clothes I also want to know we question

188about the data that went into this there's a lot of smart people who live in our communities who would be happy to help you analyze it we don't just want to look at what you put on a slide and try to fores speed us we want the actual data when will that be sent out it seems like it's readily available that you were able to put together your own opinion and point of view so where is that data is it already accessible if not when will it be accessible where are the links and where when will the information be coming and the communication be coming to the entire community so that we can self- review because I don't think any of us have a lot of trust in what you're telling us who's responsible for

189that on this board who is responsible do you do [Music] anything no one can do an action finance committee responsible put you in anybody do any work up there anybody nobody I believe the word negligent was used earlier and this is negligent not one person can tell me who can look at revising a schedule the board is not responsible for that it's not the board so who is it so tell us who it is share with us so that we can find the appropriate right now what I'm heing is that call out yes presentation at the community sessions we're going to lose two weeks before the first Community session we're against end of April deadline trying to get people time to be able to [Applause] Dr Dr alone this was your proposal so you've obviously

190been the closest to the data you mentioned a plan B we haven't seen any detail on that when will that be shared when will that beated and I'd like toor and thrown out as option C and D because you know what option A is not working for the people in this room and we deserve to see everything and the fact that no one will sit here and commit to working on a revised schedule is ridiculous you can't commit to more Community meetings you should be ashamed of yourselves and you should be embarrassed it's that negligence compet or corruption but we'll find out in the A and the fact that you won't answer these simple steps about revising a schedule or sharing data that you're supposedly basing this Earth shattering plan on this is what corruption

191looks like this is what corruption looks like if you've got nothing to hide show us the data give us the the schedule to have the proper conversations with us you say that you weren't trying to hide the plan from us by sending these emails last minute but now you're refusing to address even meeting with us again because you don't want us to have time to revise this plan you want the budget to pass tonight because there's a threat that the state will come in otherwise you want that to pass and then you want to push us to the side until the deadline runs out well I'm here to tell you that we notice and it's being held accountable and if there's any press in the room which I hope there is I hope that you

192will note that no on this board would commit to reworking schedules or relooking at options or giving the public a place where they could go to find the data that this is supposedly fixed on all of the state a data and all of the numerical figures that I reviewed in the state aid over the course of time and enrollment Figures it's all public information on the New Jersey Department of education's website that's where I pulled that information okay and who will disseminate that information there should be anybody has public access to that at any point in time why can't you just they don't want to make it easy for you to access the information but you know we have a lot of people in this room a lot of smart people people who I'm sure

193are familiar with some of this data and who will be on us everyone in this room to be sharing on social media on Facebook on Instagram all of the updates that they will not give us do not let them do this hold them accountable take the steps that they won't because they're not going to work on our behalf we've seen that tonight [Applause] hi my name is Emily kman uh I have a son that's in middle school now he was in Fort bth five years ago when the school was closed and we were made promises that it would be a smooth transition y that they would have everything that they need going into this new school that they wouldn't lose classrooms for music and for art and for all these extracurriculars this was supposed to

194be better and it wasn't it was a hard transition my son lost his community he is still struggling with school this board heartlessly closed the school and the kids went back one day one day because the pandemic closed the schools two days after the board voted so they never got to go back and say goodbye nobody nobody cared it was absolutely awful and I just want to know what is your plan to actually close these schools are they going to have buses or are these families going to have to fight like we did to get our schools our kids bused to school it's absolutely insane we live exactly 1.28 miles from New M we had to fight tooth and nail to get our kids bus to school over extremely dangerous roads and driving our kids

195to school in the morning is a nightmare drop drop off is a nightmare extracurricular things after school nightmare anytime the parents have to park in that parking lot they do not fit dropping my kid off at Thorn is already a nightmare drop off at Thompson is a nightmare so what are the actual logistical plans for how are you going to merge all these kids there is no do you actually have anything going forward past this boat and past what we're doing here like this year what what does it look like going forward that's that's all I want to know thank you right I think we've heard from the community now so it's funny I was running some numbers looking at the capacity of schools so right now if you were to transition basore students to

196Thompson and Thorne you would be at Max Capacity plus 129 students no not online she's using that this guy over here can we put you over here you've been here probably since 7:30 and you have a lot of figured out and this is nothing figured out yeah was my other thing oh did we have can we skip to phase three phase three what's phase three we're going to go down to eight elementary schools so we're going to close more did any know that sounds fun but you have may up there at Middle Town who's shoving all of this housing everywhere where do those kids go put oh you can't come here you it's not 55 and older they're not 55 and older I think you guys need to uh rethink your plan your budgeting No

197so at least look interested when people are talking like you Mr lawyer who doesn't look interested at all in 2023 the average we are over 175% with their salaries that is insane you can look this up to online top heavy okay we're going I just have one quick question sorry I have four kids in the school district quick question I'm sorry I you up on line Sor last one um Emily Celli from Leonardo I'm just wondering if we were in a dire financial situation whose decision was it to pay substitute teachers to cover the parent teacher convers $8,000 apparently who made that decision who did it it it doesn't seem fiscally responsible thank you thank you okay I need a motion to approve discussion first does anybody have any discussion yeah I I want to

198more discussion I really I I don't want to say I enjoyed listening to everybody but you're listening to everybody tonight I've been on the fence about this for think I said for quite a while and I've heard a lot about transparency and transparency is something that I agree with because even as a board member because of the position I'm in I'm not well liked so nobody's transparent with me Dr alone I want to give her credit because I call her and she picks up the phone and answers my questions for me and and Frank does too okay but but there's no transparency you have to you have I have to be an investigator to find anything out that's how I feel and you're and I'm on the board so I was not involved with the

199finance committee with that I was presented what the finance committee came up with when a month ago he said he at at the previouse it wasn't a month ago I'm sorry Mark s not that is not true this entire board excuse me the details of it were not this entire board was together with the exception of Mrs Min who was absent that night the entire board was together when M Dr alone presented this not one person and and Dev is in finance and Gary as well was told this at any different time this was presented and rolled out to the entire board at once so I just want to clarify that before what what was the date I don't before us ago I am clarifying I'm clarifying I'm I'm not disagreeing I'm I'm just trying

200to clarify I'm not disagreeing I'm not disagreeing I'm saying the entire board the entire board was presented this at the same time he said he didn't know because it came from Finance it didn't come from Finance I'm not disputing the month I am trying to clarify ify that this entire board was presented with this at the same exact time by Dr alone there was no secret there's you're not you're not hearing [Applause] me what will you do next okay I just have questions here I want to know for sure this tentative budget has to be voted on tonight cuz it does have to be handed in there's no way of adjourning what has to be handed in and that's why there is tenative budget vote and a final I where do we see that and

201wait excuse me now it's out time now it's out time I want to know when a budget a tentative it's a tentative budget correct so so the state doesn't come in on the tentative not they come that's why there is time does get but where do we see that you can so there's no time no there is a timeline between now and April 30th when the final mo better work quickly better work quickly me so whatever we decide today means nothing for the schools until we speak about the next month and the final bu you don't have to which at that point you will have a resolution if you're for or against closing the school that has nothing to do with this budget right now that we're voting on we're voting for the fiscal I'm

202going to say this again if we don't close the schools option b is what so that is so let me say this again there are top heavy positions in there from top down I don't get paid sir I'm I'm a volunteer just like you and I have five children okay I'm a dad also I'm a dad okay so I'm going to say this again there is enough time from now until our final budget to see what we can come up with and shrip it again and trust me when I tell everyone if you think that I myself or any board member takes this job not seriously you're dead wrong because because you're talking to me please I'm talking right now so just please speak to me I'm speaking about myself and I don't want to

203talk for the board members but I know there's a lot of passion that we all put in this as parents as volunteers as dads and as mothers and the last thing I ever want to do is to close a school on anybody so I'm going to say this again if everybody pays attention to what what what's taking place you get your final state aid approximately three weeks ago Amy two weeks ago we don't know where we're standing on our budget until the governor and Trenton and yes I lobbied every Senator Democrat and Republican for more money which I I did get every year but when you're getting 6% of nothing it's 6% of nothing when when excuse me when neworks getting $75 million of 6% that's something okay we have a $20 million budget of

204which we're allocated $14 million from the state that is disgusting we did not do this to any of your children the state did this to your children no no no no I'm going to disagree with every one of you okay disagree with you where is the money from the closing of Port M what M school was already allocated for last year's budget and where is it what did it go to it it filled last year's budget so last year let me let me give you some knowledge last year our operating budget we went up one just close about one one and a half% inflation that everybody is feeling myself included five children we have vendors that are getting more money now at this point that's where we have that $15 million budget Gap and by

205the way with the ordinal there's no problem we get audited every year from the state that goes back to the state state and not you guys this goes back to transparency you guys should have been telling us this for years for months telling us to go to you're missing my point you're missing my point we've been and and by the way the board excuse me please I'm be I'm trying to give you as much transparency right now as possible pleas to to late now speaking to you what answering your question okay year after year we've balanced the budget and I have news for everyone here if it wasn't for myself and a couple of the board members that been here that turned our insurance into Self insurance we would have been defunct years ago because

206we saved $10 million on that and we were trying our best as we went along to get more to get more funding into this District I'm sorry we've balanced our budget every year this year this year like I'm telling you our operating cost for next year is $197 million so overnight we losing new schools I'm sorry year one second I'm sorry so it's the first year that we're having this problem this is the first year that we have a gap that large because of like I'm saying to everybody inflation this is I'm sorry the salaries are the same every year you get so I'm going to explain this to you when you get 3% 3 and a qu% raises every year that goes up relatively the same every year but when inflation's kick in at

20720% and 30% a year that's when you have a problem we're not the only District out there that is working on this what do you mean renegotiate I the union here the unions here if you guys want to ask so I'm I'm going to say this again to you I reached out in L every Senator possible including the chair of Education we've had nice conversations on the phone and we were told that the way the funding formula is this year it's going to be sort of a Level Playing Field so but a onee why you have a 5year seven sevene plan that's that's called that's called a long range that's called a long range plan that nothing is taking place right now now if this is a oneye problem why is there a plan I

208think I'm a fairly smart person not following me so please it's a onee deficit that we haven't had for instead of just trying to figure out how to solve we never had a 15 or $16 million deficit that's correct that's correct usually predominant it's a couple of million dollars that we able to fill that Gap predominant due to the salary benefit incre number one by far all the time that's the same every time that's the can can I and I'm not I'm not I'm not arguing with you but that's a driving factor for every school every school that's not unique just to us right but we're one of the ones that are getting having this massive I just doesn't make any sense that we b b b we change everything because over the last last

209three years so so let me just put this in in perspective for everybody in 2010 on or about this District was receiving approximately $21 million in state aid I'm sorry 2012 13 2009 2009 21 million over the course of the 15 years now 16 years we're re receiving 1314 million that equates back to 2009 that we should be receiving $60 or $70 million today that the state is only giving us 1314 million that's disgusting and I'm going to say this one more time and then I'm going to turn this over to the board to make a decision and vote on this we do not want to close any school and if there is a way to figure this out on this board in the next month 30 days whatever we have we're going to do

210our best to try and figure that out you and like we're saying relax calm down and like we're saying I would encourage everyone to come to our forums that we have that you're going to get knowledge of obviously I do not send out the emails for the forums so I apologize to you all the administration will send out the emails for everyone to come and speak to these forums I will be there myself I want to hear you what you want to say I heard everybody in this room today and I understand exactly what each one of you is saying and I am passionate as well as you are but guess what I was elected by all of you to do a job and I'm trying to and I apologize if I wasn't like it

211by you that's fine but I'm here trying to represent you and I will always represent your children okay just this alone I'm just saying five years ago I shook Dr G's hand and he said to me I promise this isn't a done deal I promise we're going to listen I've watched all the forums I watched all the parents stand I watched all the parent flee and in the end that deal was done the day it was announced and I I'm going to stop right there I can't talk for Dr George I wasn't on this board when he was here we're dealing with this right now and we're going to try our best to figure it out I I just said I understand everybody's passionate here I'm a father of five trust me I get it's

212time for the the board's discussion and shut up Ruth I'm going to make a motion for 12a I had a few questions that I wanted to ask um first of all I want to make a clarification when people said that in 2021 strategic planning stopped it absolutely did because we were so worried about getting our kids back in school fulltime that that became our full priority from covid with 2020 2021 so just remember that it wasn't that people didn't care about a strategic plan priorities were our students their education and getting them back back into school that was four years ago exactly right and and just to Mr Capone's point I have watched him go after funding I have watched us get it we need more there's no doubt about it but I do want

213to give him the credit that he has done his due diligence in rallying and a lot of you people are right we need our community out there rallying a rally like this people listen to numbers not to to one or two people we needed to get Community out there and I think we've said that for many years going on you know our legislative committee needs to involve our community invite us and and we need we need the numbers to do that so with that said I would like to ask we can't cancel or put off the vote but I would like to have a commitment that we're going to look for plan C and DK that that's David PRI saying that the next month we're going to tear this apart and see what we can

214come up with the best if we you won't have an answer tomorrow but I think we deserve a timeline by tomorrow on when you plan on coming back because we don't want another one of these meeting tonight hope you don't notice this email we want a t we want a timeline that's let me understand what kind of timeline you want a meeting a timeline of when you're going to reconvene and come back to us with Milestones project Milestones that you commit to meet with the community the first might be as as simple as later this week we see what the plan B was that it sounds like it was already flushed out there's a slide that no one could find but sh can you please V the slide show us the data show us the

215information tapen to the community there are a lot of experts in this community it sounds like they're working with listen world is trying to do the best we can with what we have you know you can pain us to be terrible people terrible and I haven't gotten answer so you deserve give us the answer let's watch this look at this slide and I will get back to you I so those 120 staff members what's the outre by school right now we're talking examine enrollments but I will tell you it's top heavy on our larger building okay larer buildings meaning High School right no Elementary larg building nut L Harmony because when you have more classes you have more ability to put students together listen this was not a willy-nilly plan we put together you can

216really think what you want but I have to tell you and I'm going to be honest when I say this to you over the last three years I have scrutinized this budget line liled it while trying Tove [Applause] UC I just want to say I like I asked for the I would like to see plan C or D where there's no closing of school and the effect of it said I I agree with you I'd like to hear what the people have to say which is what I've said all along and see if you don't know you at least put some pressure on them to get their together going to try best this alternative doesn't say anything about reduction I'm sorry let please let the board just talk right now itation of this budget why

217is do you have anything else to say no just that well what they're saying they want to a lot of if you have anything else you want to say so we're going to now vote I'm going to take a motion for 12 a the second there's no discussion we just spoke already Amy Roo this CTI yes Mr fitzg no this is yes if we're going to look for another plan boo we need a budget I'm sorry no you don't need a budget tonight is in the middle of you don't need it tonight you said that the end of the month you needed it at least give us the time not if you pass it you're not [Applause] no yes [Music] carries okay I need a motion to adjourn all in favor did anybody have new

218business do you want to discuss anything actually actually I do why we have a big crowd here we have Excuse excuse me excuse me are you taking I would like to I I want to give new business great and it involves students should have voted no excuse me I'm not voting no for our kids ex you're excus you are you're excus so are you this weekend High School North is having their play I hope everybody comes to see it next weekend High School South is you cannot get to a better play even in New York our students are outstanding and I hope you come and support motion to adjourn motion to adjourn are we not going to have business to [Music] talk excuse me do we not have open mic for new business yes or

219no well is it is the Michel business is for board members not for public it used to sir sir sir would you like to say something it's not related to the budget going to change it absolutely 100 I'll reach out to you guys tomorrow I promise so these are just some recomendations you guys know my name is mik my kids have graduated from school district and I'm not trying to brag my daughter was the borian at High School South she's in medical school you guys put out a good job okay Middletown school district is a good district and I appreciate what everybody on previous boards and previous administrations have done and I know you guys are in a pitch I understand that but you need to understand please that it was insulting to the community

220the way this was handled today okay you just I'm not asking you to say a word or agree with me and I think you understand that but I just want to say that that it was insulting to all of us that we were not involved in the process Amy will tell you I've known Amy for years we used to have a budget ad hoc committee I was on it for years Dr George got rid of it we had a facilities committee I was on it they got rid of that too this if you want to consider doing that it's not going to help us today but if you want to consider that for the future maybe you can avoid some of this in the future where you get everybody out everybody's agitated everybody's upset and

221nothing gets accomplished so please we have accountants we have lawyers we have so many people I am so proud of everybody in this room that spoke tonight because they really did hold it in check and I feel so sorry that we're all in this situation but we have to understand that it is all of us that are in this situation okay so we want to help you you're trying to help us but we the public want to help you so please come to us with these things not the night before not 4:00 in the afternoon come to us the more transparency that you give us you will find the calmer the people will be when they come to board meetings thank you thank you sir anybody else have a comment before a motion to adjourn

222y motion to adjourn second all in favor I oppose exension have a good