001today I'm going to get started the first thing I want to do is call to the order and just not that the meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meeting act and is open to the media and Public Notices have been duly posted and the meeting was advertised in Star Ledger and career news formal action may be taken can we have a v closer M Cassie here M Fury Mr loes here M mener Mrs borski here m rad here M ryano here Mr Rizza here okay [Music] stand flaged States the next item is the super report which is mainly going to be before I get started I just want to thank everyone that was involved I know the administration the board members the staff there's a lot of action taken over the
002few last few months and it was a great effort by everybody which you'll see in our presentation so on beh of the board thank you for your effort done over the last few months good evening everyone uh Welcome to our February 25th Board of Education meeting as Mr Rizza said tonight's meeting is focused primarily on a bond referendum um and we'll go through several slides about our referendum um but to mirror Mr Mrs comments um this is and has been uh a true collaborative and Community effort um up to this point our uh work toward a referendum has been um not only months in the making of this past school year but it has been years of discussion um on and off um with preparations for this evening and for uh the proposals to come
003forward uh to the community shortly uh so this is a really exciting time for our school district it's a time for us to reflect on the work that's been done but it's also a really exciting time to look look forward to the work that we can do uh to improve the educational experience for our students and to improve our infrastructure in the building as well uh so with that excitement we were so excited U that we decided that we could do this presentation in no less than 91 slides so there are 91 slides for the projects um included in this Bond referendum and there are a team of folks here to present those slides because I can't do them all by myself um of course I'm here Mr home our business administrator administrator is going
004to present any of the slides Mr race our facilities managers here for any questions that anyone may have in regard to any of our equipment our infrastructure age repair cost of Maintenance of material of some of our equipment if need be Mr race is Here For Those Questions uh Robbie and Kora is from our bond advisor our bond Council couldn't be with us tonight so Robbie's from Phoenix advisers she's the woman that crunches all the numbers when we our architect puts together the numbers Robbie takes those numbers and converts them into what a bond would look like for um for the taxpayer and our Architects ke Kevin and Rita s rer will be joining us shortly um so those are everyone who's going to present tonight um so a bond referendum is a public vote
005a public vote that goes out to the taxpayer the community members of Readington to approve the issuance of the bonds for the Board of Education to go into debt to finance certain capital projects when you own your own home you and your spouse or your partner significant others make a decision we want to go into more debt we have to go find someone that will issue that debt to us they run a credit report and they do those kinds of things for individuals well when a board of education wants to incur some debt to do projects around our house our buildings we need to ask for tax payer first and say we have this opportunity uh we want to issue some debt and that debt will allow us to go out for a bond and
006that Bond issu will allow projects um why would a school district want to do this kind of like owning your own home sometimes you want to get maybe a home equity line of credit uh or maybe you take a second morgage out on your phone um because you want to do some things you want to renovate your kitchen you need a new roof you need a new boiler in your home and sometimes that project doesn't fit within your household operating budget and you might want to take out some debt in order to make that project fit a bond is pretty much the same thing for school district there's no shortage of projects here within the district and sometimes it's best to go out and borrow money so that we can accomplish more uh than we
007would if we just build things into our local budget in addition uh State a is available for certain eligible projects if a roof costs $1 million to put on holl Brook School uh the state could pay for up to 30 to 40% of that project so it's like a reimbursement kind of credit from the state that you can get you got from Bond referendum if we build that roof project into the budget the taxpayer and the Board of Education would pay the full Freight of $1 million rather than getting some subsidy from the state um the bond and principal interests are outside the cap payment and it provides the the board the ability to major capital projects over the useful life projects Mr race Mr B will tell you that some of our equipment is
008coming up to um end of life we need to refurbish some of our equipment some of our hbac units uh some of our air handlers some of the roofing areas of part of our buildings um we need to do these projects and we need to do them soon and ifre will allow us to do it sooner rather than later when can we go out for a vote the Board of Education choose from these five dates uh to ask the taxpayer about a bom referendum um there are four times during the school year September uh December and January would be special elections uh November would be in March would be a special election November will be the general election that's aligned uh with um State local and national elections as well and things that uh have
009been considered for a bond referendum the existing school debt the status of our facilities proposed costs and escalation of those costs given um inflation capital and other Reserve balances uh the future growth and the needs of the district the impact to the taxpayer and our borrowing capacity basically the board of V has a credit rate and and we have borrowing capacity as well um as well as Market rates so these are all of the things that we thought about up until this point in making our proposal to the board tonight uh for to go out for a referendum uh so just this year let's back up to September 2024 um like Mr Ren mentioned like I mentioned the presentation this has been a really Community effort uh in September um Mr B and I went
010out to faculty meetings at each one of the school buildings and we told the um staff in the buildings we're going out we're considering the board of education is considering a f referendum we want your ideas we want the input of the teach The Faculty those that are in the schools every day those that are working with our children every day what are your thoughts and ideas for projects that we should consider and we got a lot of feedback which was great um we did that September we did that October um and I want to want to mention too that all of the feedback we received and I'm sure Mr B will mention this as well even if it's not in the referendum the nice thing about all the feedback that we received from the
011community is the fact that we've now put it on a list called our long facility plan and if we don't achieve a project in our referendum we have plans to do it with our Capital orance reserves as well um in October we also have meetings with critical stakeholder groups like our HSA our RTA members of the township of Readington um and any other groups that we felt that we needed to reach out to in order to get their feedback the idea was what are the projects that are important to those that are in our district that use our facilities every day our students our parents our teachers um in November there were architect walkthroughs uh that helped us prioritize projects our Architects have joined us tonight with their engineer did the walkthroughs as well we
012held an open public forum December 3rd before we even decided on any of the projects that you'll see tonight and the purpose of that public forum was to gather more ideas for projects to be included in the referendum and then we had both our bond Council and our Architects talk about the process with the board of education on December 10th again another opportunity to add in some ideas for a non referendum um in January uh we had some committee meetings about the referendum um in February we did some walkthroughs and we had another finance committee meeting and which brings us tonight which is uh the business in front of the board this evening is um a vote on the finance portion of the agenda to move forward with the referendum and it includes the listle
013projects and that's what have tonight ter our timeline so we had stakeholder collaboration I mentioned the HSA District staff the public and the township our architect uh came through and did walkthroughs with his engineer but something that we did a little bit differently this year was board walkthroughs um the staff will will recall that a couple weeks ago the board along with myself Mr B Mr race did walk through to the to the buildings to look at some of the recommendations the architect was making to look at of recommendations that Mr race was making the recommendations I was making in terms of the facility upgrade that was needed um which was a real commitment and a unique commitment from the Board of Education to want to come out and see with their own eyes and
014feel the experience that teachers have every day and our students have every day to really understand why these projects were in the referendum so for that the board should be commended for just taking the time to walk all four buildings uh and have a meeting as soon as we ended our um one of our offers we had a finance committee meeting where we sat prioritize projects and it was it was really important work um our finance committee uh worked to help work with Jason and I to prioritize these projects and U the projects that you will see tonight um in this presentation uh only 81 slides left to go uh in this presentation the projects that you will see uh are the projects that made a priority list um the priority list include projects that
015are major facilities upgrades you'll hear about fire alarm systems PA systems building management systems we also have many priority projects that are maintenance infrastructure related new roofs caving uh in certain buildings hbac Replacements boiler Replacements new doors new door locks uh Safety and Security is clearly a priority and we're going to look to enhance Safety and Security measures within the school as well and then of course the student experience there are projects in the referendum that are directly related to a student experience every day in the classroom upgrading our smartboards ensuring that we have the the safest but upgraded uh playgrounds for use of all children children that um may have disabilities and children without so that they have accessible so that students can access the playgrounds as easy as easily as any other child
016uh enhan to Furniture to be more comfortable for our students um and other student experiences so the board the administration really tried to balance the facilities and maintenance leads of the district with the student experience needs we priority length projects one through five um one was the highest priority project um those were projects that were needed for critical infrastructure but they they were also projects that School principles and other administrators said are really important to the student experience here in work and rington as mentioned before any projects not making the referendum are going to be in the Long Reach facilities planned we'll talk about this a little bit later so don't worry if the feedback that you feel like you gave to the board and the administration doesn't appear on this presentation know that we
017still have those projects and we've included them and we'll achieve them in another way um the costs that we've come up with include construction contingency contingencies excuse me for Val wages escalations as well as the 34% state aid eligibility and then time frame uh we talk about in the presentation how quickly we want to do some of these repairs to achieve some of these projects um all schools will be impacted by the referendum um I mentioned this in one of our public forums um all schools were created equal so all schools will not get equal funding for the refer the referendum however will not create any inequities keep equity in buildings but we have buildings that are larger we have buildings that are older those are the buildings that you may see may get more
018funding um buildings that are newer or buildings that have just received a new roof let's say in the past three years uh may not have as many projects in the referendum but there are definitely projects in every building so the referendum will touch every building as far as the projects and I'll introduce Mr home I'll this through the next 75 slides thank you everyone um so we're going to go one school by one school um so that way everyone knows exactly what's in the referendum uh there was about 83 projects that made the referendum and in addition there's about a dozen or so projects that we're GNA actually do with this current Year's funding um through our general budget to accomplish now anything that doesn't make it Dr mentioned is going to one fa so
019first we're starting with our Middle School um and we're going to work our way down to the elementary buildings uh Readington Middle School was built in 1962 so about 60 years old and uh the total referendum projects that are in The Proposal are $13 million now you'll see we categorized um each building into two main areas one was infrastructure and maintenance that talked about and the other is the student experience we're starting with infrastructure and maintenance because there our needs that our buildings have to get done um and with $750,000 in capital reserves without a referendum we might not be a do these projects first and I'm not going to go into detail on all of these but first is our electric F panel that powers half the building as well as supplies power to
020our internet um is over 60 years old and um it could if failed uh prevent uh cause power outage to have building and loss of internet for the entire District um so that has made the referendum as the first item for school uh you'll see a recurring theme Here fire alarm systems uh our fire alarm systems are significantly updated um each building needs uh to be updated and it's a Safety and Security matter uh roof replacement so one of the great things about the board and District years is we've been able to replace Roots using Capital reserves without impacting the taxpayers um the building that we are currently in h Brook School uh we did $4 million of roof Replacements without any referendum over the past four years uh We've also replaced a good portion
021of RMS grof um this past year and the year before um including the front office and the back gym and the art room so we've been able to accomplish all that without a referendum but the other parts of the building uh need roof placements and you'll see that as a common theme what we've done is included a slide for each of the buildings based on the age of the roof public city and how urgent the repair of the um roof is required um a lot of the buildings have leaks in them from aging groups and the groups that are in the referendum are not in warranty anymore which basically means that the district has to pay for those repairs when we get a new roof it usually is warrantied between 25 and 30 years between
022repairs are free because they're included in the base contract that they have to come back out and repair things um in case it's a leak so halber school is a great example for the next 25 years or so um we will have that vendor come back out and repair weeks we're hoping to do that at the other buildings um so that way safety and air quality is the best possible boilers um so boilers can last a long time um and we could keep going along with boilers but when they need replacement they're close to a million dollar um so our current reserves of $750,000 we couldn't even replace the boiler um one of the two boilers that exist at an RMS um so you'll see a recurring theme years boiler replacement which provide heat for
023our buildings a lot of HB back so this is air conditioning and heat for the building um some of the air rails in particular are nearing um complete failure um so we have to um repair those pretty um quickly and significantly throughout the course of the year um there's actually a part that if it needs repair has to be custom built by a machine shop now because the parts are not available so to put in perspective that's how old our HVAC systems are are integrated building management system so this is what controls the eight TR systems and the boilers in our buildings um this is nearing end of life and support uh from Microsoft and this is actually the controls that optimize our buildings to save energy districtwide so before optimization our district was paying
024over a million dollars per year uh in utility cost with optimization through the building management system uh we are below $600,000 so we're saving about $400 to $500,000 per year because of these controls um and we've been doing that for over a decade Paving um so you guys are all know that Paving is critically important uh for safety and there's two main buildings that need ping desperately ver is the middle school and then we'll get to Three Bridges later on um the upper parking lot of the middle school which is where our parent pick up a drop off are um are nearing end of life and are turning to gravel in certain parts um so when we repave the school not only are we going to repay but we're going to add paring spots we're
025going to add um more spots so that way for night activities and parent visits and concerts um parents can come and community members can come but also for teaching staff uh teaching staff some of them have to park very far away and walk um during snow and ice and our hope is to create a lot more parking spots very close to the building the PA system so this is um if there's a security lockdown um or drill uh this is the system that announces it um this is ending nearing end of life um and integrating this into it is becoming incredibly challenging uh to put in perspective um that picture of the middle right there um that is a non-operational speaker so I'm actually showing you a speaker that doesn't work anymore um we have
026our it department has done a great job troubleshooting um to put in wireless speakers throughout the building for safety reasons currently but this is decades old it needs to be replaced um sooner rather than later recing lock sets so you'll see a lot of lock sets are original to the building uh so are the doors and to optimize Safety and Security our plan is to replace Hardware uh districtwide so that'll be a recurring theme and to enhance the Safety and Security of lockdown drills um to keep staff and students safe and one of the biggest things in hiring county is losing power um so we've had to call uh school canceled because of power losses and we've also had to move kids entirely out of one building to another building uh for a school day
027to um to not be impacted when we lose power we lose water when we lose water we lose bathrooms so um that is something that you know the general public really doesn't know about um we have other systems that keep operation for Safety and Security for about three to four hours um including internet um but one of the things that were're including the referendum is full building backup generators so that way the whole building can be operated and continue operations when we lose power um and this is in each of the buildings um at the cost that you are see in screen moving on uh education and Student Center project at the middle school so first uh renovating recess Fields um so this was a direct request from principles and the staff each student at
028the middle school which is close to 400 students use this every single day um and the goal is to renovate this um repave the basketball courts which have cracks in them uh get new basketball hoops um more outdoor areas to sit um and better areas to play um kids you know from elementary to the high school um they sometimes use the ability to go out and play during recess and have that informal uh relationship building so this was a priority that the Middle School wanted to have included in the referendum um there's been a lot of ideas thrown around on how to enhance this area um but ideas have included things like pickall courts um basketball courts Gaga pit um other things like that of that nature so that way not only can our staff
029use them but also Club or sport could use them and potentially the public could use them after 2:30 or on weekends for free so I know the pickle ball courts are very popular at summer Road Park um this and essentially would probably double the amount of Pi courts in the township new athletic track so over a hundred students use the athletic track annually um in addition our staff walk track um as part of you know their ability to get outside and deep break we also have members of the community that walk dogs and um have their children come and use our uh facilities after hours um and the track is basic gravel it was donated for free to us and maintenance is incredibly challenging on it because it is literally uh stone dust on dirt
030so you can imagine when it rains uh vivids and hazards that are presented so the goal in the referendum would be to make this rubberized um we're not talking about a tur field um what we're talking about is just a rubberization of a track for clubs and sports and for the community to use uh renovation of the media center which is also the library um has been proposed as part of the referendum uh this would allow us to completely redo the entire space um flooring carpet um Furniture um modernize it for uh the children for the learning environment um have different aspects built into it uh that include anything from um you know media to um books and relaxation areas um and one of the big focuses of the board and the district is Ela
031um English language arts so um this has been a priority because of that window treatments um so something that you would say why is this in a referendum um cost of window treatments is significant um we have been trying to redo window treatments at a lower cost for years and have not been able to find a cost effective way to do it within our reserves um so this is in the referendum primarily for security reasons um a lot of our window treatments are handmade and um not ideal you can see once you Rift on the screen and this is done for security purposes when during lockdown drills uh to block view of site into the classrooms um so this is part of the referendum and you will see that as part of um P building
032as well and new furniture Dr har mentioned this and talked about this um particularly at RMS um some of the students of you know that use these um furniture on a daily basis it's different in every classroom so if you look at furniture uh some are metal some are plastic the rift um so we're hoping that as part of refer we can replace that and make it more ideal for student as well as the teaching St so I'm take a break for five seconds catch my breath and then we're going to move on to H Brook School um I'm G try to get through the rest I can do H Brook go back and forth I'll do hbr you do the next one sure yeah I think Dr AR take hook because it's the shortest
033one I will appreciate his thinking over for me it is the shortest one uh H school was built in 1999 actually this year just to mention to the board of the community I know Dr Moss um and the staff are planning a 25 year anniversary for um holw school so a celebration to come this spring um and the total referendum proposals for holwood is about6 and5 million uh so we'll start with our infrastructure and maintenance projects at school um Mr bow mentioned replacing systems this is going to be another theme throughout the district remember I mentioned earlier um all buildings weren't made equal but we're also not looking to create an so fire alarm systems are out of date um and they're becoming more challenging to maintain we're going to include them in the referendum
034so this is one of those projects that's equal and has some parity across the district um because there is this is 25y old equipment um it's important to update and upgrade at this point um and it is a priority for home uh replacing all of the uh rooftop units the air air conditioning hbac units Air Conditioning and Heating units that are on top of the building this is the largest portion of the project here at H school um it's over $3 million $3.7 million these HB units are 25 years old all of them um they're nearing their end of their useful life they resulting in failures um Mr R will tell you that parts of repairs are becoming more challenging and more prevalent um and we want to ensure that our aack equipment provides the
035most optimal um and healthy environment for the kids and staff so this is another priority project um the integrating building management system was mentioned with RMS as well um and this is nearing end of life is not supported by Microsoft this is our ability to manage all of our H systems uh remotely through the computer so race has one building management system um repaving the playground areas um black top areas the basketball courts they have major crafts uh so for student safety we want to do some uh repaving as well um and then and uh reeing our lock sets for our interior doors again this is one of those um Quality things among the buildings if we're going to keep consistency among all buildings on how we respond to a lock down drill and how
036we lock our doors we want to make sure it's consistent throughout the buildings um so all buildings are getting um new locks um that are easier and would hopefully eliminate the need to have the magnet it would just be simple to hit a button flip a switch and your door is locked teachers would know that their is locked with um a notice on the door so they wouldn't have to worry about removing magnets or whether the door is really locked or not in an emergency situation it will tell them from the interior um installing a new backup generator again so when we lose power we can still operate our buildings um an education student centered projects uh replacing the interactive whiteboards in all classrooms um to the newly updated um Epson boards or something similar
037that we have in the Middle School these are also um nearing end of life um when they get past um software support and manufacturer support that are not optimal so it's best to upgrade them when you can um we are going to add a life skills Suite um for our life skills students so the students at the middle school who are in life life skills program have a classroom of their own that includes functional living skills like a ho um washer and dryer a dishwasher a Stow a refrigerator so that they can learn like skills and we have a suite like that at the middle school that's in a classroom we don't have that col BR but we have a life skills program we have a great um integrated program where they use uh The
038Faculty lounge and they you know do the dishes and clean up and put them back for the teachers um the teacher has developed a really nice program for the students to learn about all of this about just these B basic um how you operate at home skill and we'd like to be able to provide that for the teacher in her classroom so that she can doesn't have to move down to the the Teachers Lounge I don't know who's going to do the teachers dishes um we provide the life still Suite but um we will provide this for our students with special needs because it's an area of Need for these students and it's an important skill that they need to know before going to middle school and Beyond um we built in funding to renovate
039the media center not as extensive as a renovation um at the middle school but certainly a redesign of the library would like it some new furniture as well as removing the carpet um and making sure that um uh the librarian has all of the materials and furniture that she needs and maybe new shelving or different shelving um should she requested I'll turn it over Jason for Three Bridges School uh say that was quick was I right was um look Three Bridges there you go I'll take White House that's a long that is yeah um Three Bridges school so this is one of our oldest buildings Dr will have yeld this building uh this building was built in 1950 uh so it's over 70 years old and you will see Three Bridges and White House owns
040have identical referendum proposals which makes sense not only because they're similar ages um but they're also K3 buildings or pre3 three buildings so having them be equal consistent is important so infrastructure projects uh fire alarm system you see we current theme Here replacing that uh as well as roof replacement so we have solar panels on our roofs but there's also uh we're not talking about replacing the roofs that have solar panels on them we're talking about roofs that are no longer under warranty um that are over 20 years old hbac recurring theme Here this in particular I like to just highlight the airdale systems at Three Bridges which um fail frequently and are directly in the classrooms so those are the ones that are big focus at um Three Bridges to be replaced for the
041um teachers and students and a lot of those are in the kindergarten and first grade Wing uh which is our youngest students integrated building management system we talked about that uh so we're being consistent building building as as well as we paving so Three Bridges School actually probably has the worst Paving need at all the districts um there is actually a an actual spring underneath it uh that we actually used Reserve money to cap um because it was freezing water um where staff had to enter the building so um it was a safety hazard uh we were able to address that about four or five years ago um but you can imagine how much damage that natural occurring spring created um as well as um Paving issues there's also a need to redesign that back
042parking lot because it is angled to have water rush towards the building which is not optimal particularly when it freezes or snows so the goal there would be to completely redesign um the parking lot back provide more or parking um but also get the water away from the building um for safety reasons um exterior doors so we have graciously from the township a partnership that allows us to have four police officers in each of our building uh that are trained with the police department um and they go around and assess exterior doors every single day uh they make sure that they're locked and as part of their protocols they also report doors that need replacement um we have been able to do repairs on certain doors but there are doors that need to be fully
043replaced um so in the referendum our goal is to replace exterior doors that need replacement um so that way Safety and Security is Paramount and obviously Corridor doors this is again not only Hardware but some of the older doors here uh need replacement uh as well as some other security enhancements so you'll see that common one of the unique things to Three Bridges is Windows so the windows there actually do need replacement um some of them are actually uh embedded outwards in the building um and that causes the rain to fall directly onto the window itself it's not on the side of the building and those windows have water penetration right now so the goal would be to completely redo those buildings remove them um and have windows replaced entirely um so our main scheme
044has done a great job uh troubleshooting those problems to date um but for air quality purposes um the goal is and security purposes go is to replace those windows as well as the window shet which you'll see in the next slide another unique thing is a renovation of the toilet so we were able to through reserves uh renovate most of the toilets districtwide um we did that when I started here in 2017 uh through 2020 at most of the schools and there are some toilets that have not been included as part of that renovation so one of those is listed here um and there's some pictures that show the age um of those bathroom facilities um exterior lighting so we have exterior lighting at two of our buildings and minimal lighting at 3 and wouse
045so current inequity that we're trying to fix um we would install exterior lights that are on timer for both White House and Three Bridges and those will allow for night functions if you have an event that say the HSA needs or trunk or treatment or night activities so that way the teachers who leave during the winter also are not walking in dark when there's ice to their cars um so it's a safety matter as well so our goal is to install lights that have timers on them and are optimized so not to disrupt the neighbors but also provide that safety um and ability to have night functions if we so desire and then we talked about the backup generator ready we're making sure each building has that and just so you know the the photos
046on there those are uh generators just for our Walkin refrigerator and some other critical things they're not full backup generators we do not have that currently education projects have three Bridges uh Dr Hart mentioned whiteboard so we're going to be consistent them there this is one of the most important things for student instruction so replacing those and making sure that they are not end of life with Microsoft is important so we're including those at all elementaries um so we're good for another 10 years uh Dr Hart mentioned um playgrounds earlier in the presentation and this uh dollar Mount represents an entirely new playground design from scratch so it includes um ripping out the existing playgrounds um and building them so they're more accessible and uh safe because a lot of them are also um have
047issues with rust and we have taken entire Parts off of the playground um and remove structures because of the age um these structures are decades old um and need replacement in the next uh five or 10 years even without the refer and then we talked about cubbies in the first grade preschool so this was requested by the principals and staff one of the things you'll see on this pictures here is that students um in some cases can't put their book bags in the Cubbies because they're too small um so they're really used for other purposes when it would be more optimal to have um Cubbies that work for purpose and function for the students and staff um so we've included that in referendum and I'll I'll turn over Dr to finish up with white house
048school um White House school was built in 1960 um the original part of the building celebrated their 100y year anniversary actually not not too long ago um and the total referendum proposal here is almost $99 million um again replacing the fire alarm system um again a theme all fire alarm systems are going to be replaced throughout the district um to you know maintain the safety of our students and our staff uh replacing interior fire doors so this is slightly different there are fire doors that are required um between certain sections of the building to block off um sections of the building from one another so prevents fire from spreading uh we would replace these interior fire doors um uh to ensure that we have the most updated equipment materials to prevent fire spread um we're
049placing the roof over the gym uh classrooms at Media Center so there's very there's areas of the building um you can see closer to the the front or the bottom of the slide the front of the building um where it's uh there's a classroom wing and there's gy roof that will be replaced um replacing the HVAC units um and airdale so there are airdale units at uh White House as well um and various rooftop units that can be replacing uh again this is a large dollar amount because it's um various U pack units as well as multiple airds primarily in that first grade hallway at weding school uh the integrated building management system as well uh will be replaced again this is uniform districtwide um we're Paving the playground area um ensuring that our blacktop
050is safe this is out near the um outdoor map area in the sensory garden um we want to make sure that we fill the cracks um that we repaved for the safety of our students and we want to make sure that we keep the paving maintained so that doesn't you know continue crack or collapse um we're placing exterior doors as well similar to White House school there are some exterior doors uh that are two decades old um when staff or parents enter the building because the doors automatically closed behind them there's this assumption that the do St shut um and sometimes if there's a catch or there's a problem with the casing or the latch that's not always the case we have to pull the door shut we want to make sure that all of
051the door shut as optimally as possible and as safely as possible without having to worry about you know reaching behind us and closing up um replacing the corridor doors so various doors for building that are not fire rated doors um but their uh existing wood doors would be replaced as well uh new window treatments uh another theme Here White House and Three Bridges have um their first grade preschool wings were built around the same time um and they all have window treatments that look like that that are probably from when they were built back in the these um and have it been replaced um this is something that's been requested by the principles and staff to include in the referendum and as Jason mention does have a cost to it trying to achieve what we
052buil the excuse me upgrading parking lot lights um again for evening events or just you know in in the winter months when staff leave White House in Three Bridges it's going to begin to get dark because it's 4:00 or um some staff stay till 5 6:00 at night we want to make sure that we have proper Lighting in the proper Lots this would also allow the HSA to have evening events with some lighting although I know that they often borrow the township big big big light for for those events um there's some painting that needs to be done and concrete repair that needs to be done at White House school for safety purposes the most of the black top is in pretty good shape but we want to make sure that we repair any conr
053concrete areas or walkways for the students and for the staff uh the backup generators as well so that if we lose power we can still operate our buildings um and education Student Center projects um the whiteboards at both White House and three bridges are around the same age and it's important to update those um to ensure that they stay with uh within our um infrastructure and our support our software support uh another uh playground and when we say um special needs playground um what we mean is not just a specialized program for students with special needs needs we mean a playground that is accessible for all students so it would be a complete replacement of the playground but it would be inclusive playground equipment for students with special needs as well um new classroom Cubbies
054um this again is in the first grade Wing um there are outdated in Old cubby areas um that are to all sometimes for student use um and they have been their wood and they just need to be replaced um so what if a project did not make the referendum so this is our first Public Presentation of everything that's included in the referendum um but as I mentioned earlier in the presentation there's a lot of idea generating went on behind the scenes and with the public back in September through uh December we have a really great list of projects for the district if it didn't um we have several options uh we have capital and maintenance reserves I think around three4 of a million dollars as of as of now with the referendum moving forward um
055we anticipate that we can rebuild our capital and maintenance reserves over the next several years um and begin to accomplish some projects through our Capital maintenance reserves um there are things like flooring water he Replacements um gym mats bleacher repairs um some of them are low dollar amounts and some can be achieved through capital andmaintenance reserve some might even be able to be included in a future operating budget as well we know of those projects we've made them a priority and we're going to include them you'll notice that there's limited um technology projects included in the referendum some of our technology projects like wireless access points and network switches um are eligible for erate funding which is 40% from the federal government uh We've included projects like that to be uh part of either future
056operating budgets or Capital maintenance reserves we've also achieved uh grants from the state of New Jersey called broad grants regular operating District grants and therefore for districts to make improvements for certain purposes we've received grants to improve bathrooms or increase bathrooms at um three Bridge of school with a state aid grant 40% of the cost of those projects and all of the projects will be included in our our fiveyear facilities plan so the tax impact I'm going to give this turn it over to Jason and um Bob Bobby is here if you have any questions about um the tax impact of all of these projects on the taxpayer um so the par amount of bonds so our bonds are expiring in 2027 existing bonds so what we're talking about with referendum is issu new bonds
057that coincide with the expiration so that way there's no tax impact locally uh the duration would be 20 years which is identical to the current one uh the borrowing rate is 4% in this example uh could be lower than that in reality um but right now uh the taxpayers are paying U more than what we're putting forward in this referendum so on an average house 452,000 in uh the district currently uh the taxpayer is paying $278 per year so right now every single person in the township is if you had the average home is paying $278 on Deb uh that ends in 2027 so with the referendum we're hoping to replace that uh with new debt that will be $261 per year uh which is basically savings uh to the taxpayers of $17 per year
058so passing the referendum will have a lowering of existing taxes so what are the next steps if say that again Jason one more time back I paused on purpose if the if the taxpayers pass the referendum it will lower taxes compared to what you currently pay um so the hope is that um our goal the board's goal um we even heard it when we went around to the teaching staff um to stay below the current existing debt so we made sure we uh stayed at that number below and we wanted to make sure that the taxpayers come save the money so our hope is to pass this because we have a significant amount of projects to quook the architect one of the most most amount of projects ever in a referendum that he has seen
059um so the goal is to get a lot of bank for our buck um and do things that are really needed I mean talking about aack and security for the most part so um lowering taxes and accomplishing all of that is wonderful thing so what are some next steps um board of education has to vote this evening um to send it to the state for our ability to do a referendum um our architect has to do a variety of papw for each project submitted to the state along with cost estimates so drawings and cost estimates for over 80 projects so they have their work uh cut out for them and they have to do that by the end of March so a very short window of time frame for them in order for us to
060do a allall vote so the public vote um to pass the referendum will be in the fall um so the board has been targeting a fall vote the timelines are the same whether it's September special elections or November um the only difference really between those two items are um the cost and referendum in November is fre and a referendum at a special election is at Cost um somewhere between 23,000 and 40,000 depending on the time available ATS once if uh the referend passes uh Robbie certainly will have her work cut out for her because she will have to work on um issuing that debt to the public market um and secure financing uh we've talked to our bond attorney Tony salamini who was here for previous presentations and the goal was to make sure that
061there's no impact on taxpayers so the issuance of bonds will be strategic to allow us to get funding when we need it and that allows us to do projects not this coming summer but potentially next summer and not make a debt payment until 2028 um further because Dr har mentioned the state aid basically the state pees for our interest so the bonding is a great mechanism with the state aid because um we will get money to finance these projects but the state in essence will be giving us money to offset the interest we have to pay um over those 20 years which also allows us to have the money sitting in the bank and earn interest on it so it's kind of this weird mechanism where um we're borrowing money but we're not really paying
062interest um and we're collecting some interest on money in the bank so it's kind of a weird situation um but it's it's it's a good mechanism that the state allows to work once we have money get start construction um and we would obvious start construction based on Priority One items first um and things we can get done quickest the longest lead time is HVAC and things of that nature so Paving HVAC will take a little bit longer than some other projects which can be done immediately which is like um blinds and windows things like that if you want to learn more we have a referend website on the homepage um so I encourage you to check it out and if you have questions Friday ways you can reach out and come see us at the
063board office you can email call website do that I'll turn um so thank you all I I know that this was probably 58 minutes at this point of a presentation but it's an important presentation um I remember remember when we were here over the summer and we had our board retreat um we were in the back of the room and at one point we were talking with our Retreat facilitator about um the fact that we had debt expiring and we might consider going out for another referendum and I remember because she was a former superintendent she I remember her taking a step back and I'll never forget it and she went that's opportunity for you folks this is opportunity for us we have expiring debt and then we can reissue new debt for bonds for
064an opportunity to take all of these projects and create a fantastic experience for our students here in riton so it's really a nice opportunity we have it's striking at the perfect time that we have debt expiring and we can reissue extra debt or not extra new debt um and as Jason said save the taxpayer so much um so just think of this as opportunity this is an opportunity for the kids of Readington and truthfully in going out for referendum Vote many of these projects are El um eligible for that 34% state aid why shouldn't the community of of Readington get their hands on some of that money right we all pay state taxes it's there it's available let's make sure that the children of rington take advantage of that so I think that the most
065important thing we'd like to leave you with today is this is opportunity and it's opportunity that comes with extra funding from the state and let's give the kids that opportunity to get that so um we are all here for questions so we have our our Architects um our bond with our bond Council from Phoenix advisers Robbie's here and Don's here as well so what what questions do you have as a car um so the it's a 20y year commitment of debt so is there a timeline for the projects to be done over that 20e time frame or is it all front-loaded as far as how quickly do we start I'll have I'll have um Jason and John answer the question too and I think that a lot of it's front loaded but I'll let them
066talk in more detail it it really depends on a variety of things so we we want to do projects probably in the first um three years and the reason for that is uh prevailing wage so we are required to have Union uh labor and that rate is significantly more than what you would be paying at home which is why the cost that's reflective on the slides is so high um because we have to pay that rate for all the trades person that work on the facility so our goal would be to do it sooner rather than later not over 20 years but maybe over the next three four years and prioritize projects that we can get done sooner rather than later but potentially also spread out a few of the eack system so that way
067not everything is coming end of life at 20 years so hope that helps okay uh got this question actually from my government stream past weekend but uh are we considering using any local contractors or businesses to perform any of these repairs and Replacements I I'll actually turn over Don uh because Don oversees almost all the maintenance ands we do use a variety of local vendors contractors uh we go through co-ops local local co-ops or state contracts that that are vetted these companies are vetted to be you know to be good and then their pricing is is great so we try to use them over any other and a lot of them are local guys our local plumbers are here in hillsb you know roofers are here in New Jersey you know so we do use
068those local those local vendors who are set up to work in schools you have to be set up and bonded to work in schools you know I'm not we can't just hire anybody to to come in and work at school they need to be licensed and Jersey to work in schools so we do use a lot of local local vendors we did such a great job with 91 slides that you don't have any questions um there may be questions that come um from the public Mr Visa if it's okay with you Jason i v take a seat but we also have any member from our team here that can answer questions from the public in case there are any if that's all right okay right well thank you Jason thank you Dr Hart for your
069presentation the next item on the agenda is open to the public for items that are on the agenda which includes the referendum or any other items that you'll see that we talk about such as the committee reports so if you would like to speak please come to the podium write your name State your town and let us know your thoughts wow either nothing online okay so we'll go to the next item okay we did receive one correspondence um that we did respond to um the next item after for that is the approval of the administrative reports um so can I get a motion to adopt 1.01 and then also a second second okay thank you any comments M Cassie yes Mr loes yes M mener yes M borski yes M rat yes Mrs Ryan yes
070is depto yes Mr Rizo yes passes okay the next item is the approval of the minutes so we're going to get a motion in then second to adopt 2.01 and 2.02 second okay any discussion okay this city yes Mr Lopes yes m venser m borski yes is right yes Mrs Brian yes M the V yes Mr yes next we're going to be move into committee reports the first one is the finance and Facilities we also have quite a few items to approve the big one is the referendum which is three pages long so when we get to it so you could get to that it's 3.03 so before we go in action of items yes I have the committee report so the finance committee met on Thursday February 13th um there were the main topic
071was the referendum and expiring debt um we met and reviewed the prioritized project lists from all board members across all four schools taking into account adjustments from non-finance committee members made after the tours of the schools were completed projects that would be included in the proposed referendum and projects that were unable unable to be considered at this time were reviewed in detail in addition to considering board priorities and administrated input on critical projects adjustments were also made when other funding sources could potentially fund projects such as eray Rod brants and capital reserves in order to fully utilize referendum funds to supports the committee agreed to review offline a summary of the proposed project list in preparation for the board meeting tonight we plan to communicate with the community on selected projects for the referendum was
072discussed including the potential to engage with the rtea and the HSA the next meetings are planned for March 4th and April 2 thank you okay so can we get a motion and second for 31 and 3.04 jusa second any discussion on any items Mrs Cassie yes Mr Los yes M mener yes M borski yes M rad yes Mrs Ryan Yes M dto Yes except I obain from check number 0 65029 on the bill list Mr Rizo yes okay the next one is the education technology report we're going to have four items so I know yes there's a committee report the edtech committee met on February 21st um at 8:30 a.m. the first thing we discussed was student achievement data presentation with comparison data and midyear Diagnostics Dr Brown and Mrs pouch presented the district's njsla
073comparison data and midyear I ready diagnostic reports when in years past we were only able to see our district and jsla scores compared to the state average we are now we are now able to compare our results with neighboring districts when looking at the latest assessment Readington students are either on par or outperforming surrounding districts on the I midyear Diagnostics just about every grade level has achieved 50% growth or more which is what the district expects to see Midway through the year these reports will be shared with building principles for them to identify goals for short-term action plans in any areas that need continued short-term growth the spring teacher Academy was um discussed Mrs cyle gave a report on the um spring teacher Academy which is currently underway teacher Academy is an in-house after school
074professional program that began in 2010 the spring session runs through miday there are 18 different sessions running and they are open to all staff members and even to teachers in surrounding districts if there are seats available uh the next item we reviewed was the parent Academy um The Parent Academy will be on March 26th at 6m at Hollen Brook School Mrs cryle shared information about The Parent Academy night which is a fairly new initiative to invite parents to participate in a night of learning there will be four different sessions this year a half hour each on topics relating to Student Wellness planning is underway and more details will be shared at our next meeting Mrs cryle also shared the March inservice draft agenda um which takes place on March 14th the day will begin with
075a keynote speaker regarding dyslexia breakout section breakout sessions will be a mix of mandatory training department meetings and subject area specific topics there will be food vendors cookie Maven and several local food trucks providing food for the staff to enjoy then we went on to review the Temple University Middle School study Mrs pouch reported that the district was asked to participate in a research study in math regarding relationship between fractions and algebra opposed to covid-19 this study is optional for teachers and students to participate in letters will be sent home to parents with all pertinent information and a permission slip to participate we then discussed the YMCA clubs for Readington Dr Hart shared that the club listings that the YMCA could provide to students in grades K through five after school on campus the sessions
076that were chosen the spring include Minecraft Club at Holland Brook School and dream through Steam and Y chefs at White House school and Brie Bridges sessions would begin March 10th there's a fee to participate this year since the district does not have funds from Esser to cover the cost and the agenda the agenda items are field trips fundraisers YMCA clubs and the temple study next meeting is scheduled for March 28th at 8:30 a.m. thank you so we have four item five items 4.01 to 4.05 can I please get a motion in a second I just have a quick question though the Temple University study what grade level is up for uh it's going to be optional for grades six seven and eight so any Middle School teacher and or student um that participates it will
077be optional for them make a motion second okay any other discussion items okay Mr B M C yes Mr yes M mener yes M yes m r yes M Ryan Yes M the pendo yes Mr Riz yes all right the next committee report is personel I have a um committee report from the Met um here about a week ago um and we discussed Staffing updates both for the current school year 2024 to 2025 and next school year 2025 to 2026 we discussed uh special education programs enrollment and Staffing we also talked about the director of people Services search then Staffing projections for 2025 2026 year preschool enrollment for 25 2026 here and various Personnel matters agenda items include substitutes new hirers leaves retirements and other leave and schedule the next meeting for March 21st at
0788:30 than so we have nine items in Personnel 5.01 to 5.09 can I get a motion in a second second any discussion on the okay thank you next one is policy Cass yes Mr yes M mener yes M borski yes m r yes m r yes M defendo yes Mr R yes thank you all right now the next item is communication think yeah we met yesterday um the minut will be right out at the next meeting okay um we just have one motion to adopt 6.01 can I get a motion in a second I'll second okay perfect any discussion all right let's have a roll group Cassidy yes yes M yes yes is rad yes R yeso yes Mr G yes okay the next item on the agenda is unfinished business is there any unfinished
079business from the board members okay all right so let's move to new business from the board I know we have a green committee meeting right out that right I'll take it uh the green committee met on Thursday February 20th at 3:30 p.m. we welcome to new members Pamela Cassidy David rzza and Robert Becker Mrs FY open the meeting and welcome new committee members board members Mrs Cassidy Mr Rizza introduced themselves Mr Becker the township committee's environmental commission chair and facilitator of the municipality sustainable Jersey program since 2010 introduced himself and said that the township is also recertifying this year for St Jersey we started with the Strategic Focus for the 2425 School scho year U Mr bone shared the Strategic focus and action plan tracking documents with committee and invited members of the committee to
080come to the April meeting with ideas for strategic goals for next year Mr Riza presented slides about the green committee's accomplishments over the years and current major initiatives he also showed the cost savings to the district since the Inception of the gream committee one of the committee's Strategic Focus areas is communication and this presentation is a great tool to share the history and success of the district's green initiatives with the public Mr Ging thank Mr Rizza for the presentation fantastic everyone you look at it Mrs Fury presented a draft of a climate action plan that was mentioned last meeting based off of discussions with Prince George's County School District's climate action plan this plan shows what actions the district has already taken and potential goals for the future committee members are invited to provide feedback
081and new ideas to be included in the plan action items from sustainable Jersey can also be added M betterman suggested that the plan include initiatives that were on previous tracking documents such as the initiative to encourage outdor activities in the school such as outo classrooms field trips and recess Mrs or suggested that the e8th grade community service and field trip projects be added to the plan Mr bone mentioned the Township's natural resource inventory as a resource for items to be included in second we discussed pillar one to reduce environmental impact and costs uh there was a referendum Public Presentation Mr Bome invited members to attend the the February 25th board meeting where the referendum will be discussed he Mr race invited members of the green committee to contact them committee members have ideas about incorporating
082practices into the different running projects the solar array expansion Mr bone updated the committee on the progress of the solar Expansion Project the legal documents are in final stages completion with an anticipated groundbreaking date late June electric school buses Mr V updated the committee on the electric School Bus grants the district is awarded along with a list of other districts who have also received these grants We There is a Federal grant for one electric bus in charger this bus is currently in use there is a state state grant for two electric buses and Chargers these buses are currently being discussed in the finance committee uh safety and fire risk videos Mr Hils uh shared videos with the committee about fire risks to be aware of for electric school buses Mrs Cassidy offered some data to
083show that while all buses have res fire Diesel and gas are more likely to cat fire we then moved on to pillar two to improve the health and wellness of school students and staff uh related to communication Mr bone shared links to recent articles in District H which highlight green initiatives Dr har shared that he was selected he featured in the njsba school leader magazine feature for Sustainable New Jersey for school's 10th universary article with several other school districts who stand out for their sustainability programs moved on to pillar three provide Environmental Education stem Civic skills green career Pathways Pathways Etc uh for the Arbor Day shade tree commission plantings Dr Hart shared a letter he received from 100 County engineer Department of Public Works regarding shade tree plantings and school grounds White House school
084is planning to plant a tree for Arbor Day and through a partnership with the township environmental commission each third grader receives a saing to take home and plant colen Brook School will also receive trees uh for wellness District policy 8505 update Dr har shared a link for the wellness policy 8505 that was approved at the January 21st for bed meeting this policy helps with the district sustainable Jersey recertification and the final adopted version incorporated ideas January from the green committee like outdoor classrooms and field trips for sustainable Jersey recertification grants municipality Dr har reported that the district submitted the district's application in January during the first round stable Jersey will provide feedback and then the final application is still in June thanked all of the members of the team help with the application it is
085a huge undertaking and your work is certainly appreciated uh we finished up with unfinished a new business Mr Livingston expressed concern about potentially disbanding the green committee as a former Board of Education member and founded member of the green committee he touted a great success in C hasc of the years several other committee members expressed positive comments about the effectiveness and importance of the committee's work when their desire to continue our next Green committee Mee meeting will be Thursday April 3rd at 3:30 p.m. thank you very much and now I lost does anyone have any comments on that discussion I have two questions um for one recertifying for the sustainable Jersey does that mean um we would get like an additional Grant I think it was 10,000 with that could not necessarily um I believe
086you have to be certified through sustainable Jersey to even be eligible for the grants um so what our recertification application does is unlock an opportunity for Grants um through sustainable Jersey impact I was just looking at an email they sent us today with our first cycle um and we have you know some action items to revise but they also put in the email a whole list of grants that we may be eligible for should we choose to apply so the opportunity is there if we're recertified so it's like a twostep process it's two steps it's certification first grant second okay yeah um and then can that presentation be shared with I I don't know if that was shared to the entire board see it it was not we um we we emailed today yeah we
087did we talked about so we're going to share with the board after this call so everyone has it and then we're discussing the best way to share with the public as well so we're make it available both to the board and to the public thank you and just from timeline of certification with Dr when is the um the second review of applications is in March so uh we could submit more action items for review and then get feedback for the final review which I believe is in early June we may not know about our award status until late summer early fall that would be the timeline any other questions thoughts I don't know there any delegate reports I have one but I will be very brief uh the Garden State Coalition of schools met on
088February 19th they had a guest speaker Rosara baly an assembly woman uh who's a legislator and educator she mostly answered questions and spoke about uh the uncertainty of what's going on with Federal edicts um uncertainty around budgets and funding cuts and how that's going to impact classrooms um she said federal grants may be tied to other requirements uh which might fund private or Charter Schools school choice um over the public schools she talked about funding could be canceled for Teacher developments uh around student free and reduc lunches she discussed how a new governor next year um could significantly impact State funding as well she talked about the 3% reduction in state aid uh that's coming which may be discretionary not every district will be impacted and interestingly she discussed teacher certification reform which I hadn't
089really thought about before but apparently there was a push to increase the rigor of teacher certifications and the claims are that it's not necessarily improving our school performance but rather it's limiting the number of teachers that were were able to attract R team went into executive session and they talked about of the executive orders that were issued five were impacting school districts um they've talked a little bit about bills that are coming through around toxic shock syndrome uh warning training in health and PE curriculum around requirements for cursive instruction and around private businesses being able to donate to the public so they are taking positions on all of those be sharing one thing you mention about the 3% State I think that's up to 3% [Music] right add that no I just say that the
090governor had his address today uh state aid won't be known till Friday but the governor address increased overall K12 Aid as well as preschool ID so that's good overall news we won't know our direct impact till Friday perfect any other comments discussion perfect okay the next item on it is public comments once again if you have comments you would like to make please come to the podium state your name your town I was writing state your name in town and let us know your thoughts okay perfect now we'll just move on to adjournment so can I get a motion to in a second tojin the meeting motion second M Cassidy yes Mr Los yes M mener yes M borski yes m r yes M Ryan yes yes Mr yes thank you for coming to our
091meeting I don't go anywh because I have to take your picture for the