Sayreville Board of Education Meeting - 04/28/2026

001meeting of the Board of Education. In accordance with chapter 231, Public Law 1975, this public meeting of the Sayreville Board of Education has been posted by sending a copy of the public meeting notice to the Home News and Tribune and to the Star-Ledger. In addition, copies of the announcement of this meeting have been sent to the bureau clerk and a copy of the notice of the meeting has also been sent and posted on the bulletin board outside the office of the secretary of the board. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Ms. Bloom. >>

002Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to recognize I would like to recognize the passing of Barbara Anderson, who previously served as a board member, president, and vice president of the Sayreville Board of Education. She is also the former chairperson of the Sayreville Hall of Fame Committee. Barbara passed last week and we would like to remember her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. >> Thank you, Ms. Bloom, for that. Ms. Pishotta, roll call. >> Mrs. Bloom. Here. Mr. Callahan. >> Here. >> Mrs. Fernandez. >> Here. >> Mrs. Maldonado. She's absent. Mrs. Napolitano. >> Here. >> Mr. Mr. Mrs. Pabón. Here. Mr. Smith. >> Here. >> Mr. Walsh. >> Here. >> Mr. Fernandez. >> Here. >> Can you summarize the executive session? >> The board met in executive I have no correspondence, just a thank

003you notes on your table by the fifth graders who ran the meeting last month. We appreciate that. >> Thank you, Ms. Pishotta. Those were very lovely notes and thank you to all the kids and the parents. Now, I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes of both the regular and executive sessions of the special meeting of April 9th, 2026, as well as the regular and executive session of the April 14th, 2026 meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Pavone and Mr. Callahan. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Roll call. Roll call. >> Aye. This is Bloom. >> Yes. >> Mr. Callahan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Napolitano. Mrs. Napolitano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pavone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith. >> Yes. >> Mr. Walsh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fernandez. >>

004Yes. >> And now onto the best part of the evening, our student council representatives. Ms. Coons. >> Good evening, Board of Education members and administrators. My name is Morgan Coons, SWMHS student council Board of Education representative. I would like to begin with clubs and activities. Students in advanced placement art history and art capstone classes traveled to New York City for a day of enrichment at the Thomas Art Conservation. Congratulations to all members of the SWMHS Health Occupation Students of America Club who competed at the New Jersey Leadership Conference on April 11th and 12th. Furthermore, five groups earned a place to compete at the International Leadership Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana from June 16th to June 21st. Congratulations to student athletes Karina Cardoso and Sam Jones for being named the Sayreville Greater Middlesex Conference Sportsmanship recipients. Students

005in the American Sign Language two classes traveled to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. where they learned about the history of deaf education and made friends with many people in the deaf community. Students in Mr. Cano's history class and the student council organized and executed a voter registration drive for all students 17 years of age and older to recognize the NJDOE's high school voter registration week. Moving on to sports. The softball team recorded an impressive win over South Brunswick High School to improve their record to 9-1 on the season. The baseball team defeated Spotswood and Perth Amboy High Schools to improve their season record to 4-5. The boys volleyball team beat Timothy Christian and South River High Schools to earn their third and fourth consecutive wins and improve their season record to 7-1. The boys tennis

006team was victorious over Highland Park High School to register their third match win of the season. The boys golf team defeated North Brunswick, Spotswood, and Colonia High Schools last week in match play to improve their record on the season to 12-2. The girls golf team beat Mother Seton High School to record their third match victory of the year. The flag football team improved their record to 7-1 after defeating South Brunswick and Scotch Plains High Schools. The boys lacrosse team beat Nottingham and North Brunswick High Schools to improve their record to 6-3. The girls lacrosse team defeated J.P. Stevens and Edison High Schools to earn their fourth and fifth wins of the season. Thank you for your time and support. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Ms. Coons, for another presentation. >> Did you happen to participate

007in the voter registration? >> I'm not 17. >> Oh, well. >> May 19th, I'll be 17. >> That was great that Mr. Cano did that, as well as our student council high school. That's wonderful. It's very important week, voter registration. And to all of our seniors, hopefully they took the time to register to vote. It's by far their most most important responsibility as a citizen of our our nation. Um now, I I heard rumors that someone has been running. >> Yes, I'm back, finally. >> You're back. We love it. We're so happy. >> I'm done with the elliptical. No more. >> Fantastic. So, how are you easing back into it? How How's that >> off with like easy runs first, cuz I went Like I was injured, and then I went back a week later,

008and I messed it up again. So, now I learned that I have to ease back into it and not just go hard the first day back. >> And what is our race going to be this year? I think the 400, you said? >> 800. >> The 800. >> Yes. >> It's like death running that. >> Yeah, that's why >> You run out of gas after the 400. >> Yes, the second lap is like just pray. >> That's amazing. I can't wait to get out there and see you run. >> Yes. >> Great job, Morgan. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. And now, Waldi Miscallahan. >> Good evening, Board of Education members and administrators. My name is Samantha Callahan, Servewell Middle School Student Council Board of Education represent. Going into the eighth month of the

0092025 to 2026 school year, we have many events going on throughout Servewell Middle School. The PTO will be inviting the SUES parents of fifth graders to the next PTO meeting on May 12th. Tickets to the eighth grade semi-formal went on sale today. The PTO is also planning a beautification day for the week of May 18th. The Student Council had a meeting today after school. They worked alongside the PTO to recognize the teachers of SMS. They will be preparing for the Anything Goes Assembly, which will take place on May 18th. Additionally, they are excited to attend the NJASC Spring Awards, which will be held at Six Flags on June 1st. Eco started indoor planting to prepare the pollinator garden in the spring. The club continues to work on initiatives to inform their peers and their community

010members about climate change, such as a proposal for painting a climate change awareness mural at SMS, starting a fiddler's program, and presenting at the SMS Earth Day Summit. The National Junior Honor Society will have their induction on May 13th at 6:30 p.m. at Churchill Middle School. On Friday, May 29th, the SMS Music Department will host its biggest night of the year in the Jump On Jovi Performing Arts Center at 7:00 p.m. The highly successful and widely popular SMS Talent Competition is going to be a night to remember. The teachers and students have been collaborating and rehearsing to create truly memorable performances. Make sure to put May 29th on your calendars now. This is a night you will not want to miss. The Community Service Club hosted Take Your Child to Work Day on April 23rd.

011Kids enjoyed making slime, playing games, making bracelets, and more. Now, onto the Churchill Middle School Athletics. The boys volleyball team is currently two to four. The girls lacrosse team has a record of two wins, two losses, and one tie game. Their next game is on the 5th against Crossroads Middle School. The track and field team has been working hard. They've had three meets, and they will have their fourth meet on Wednesday the 28th. The softball team's record is two to six. They have two upcoming games. One is for tomorrow, April 29th, for the gray team at Middlesex Middle School. On April 30th, the blue team has a game against South Plainfield. The SMS baseball team is having a great season. The blue team has a record of five to one, and the gray team has

012a record of six to zero. Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the students at Churchill Middle School. >> Yay! >> [applause] >> Thank you, Ms. Coons. Dr. Libby? >> I have questions. Okay. what's what is this anything goes assembly? What could one expect to see at the anything goes assembly? >> So, we have one in fall and the spring and basically it's like students versus teachers. So, they play different types of games and it's like a challenge. So, either the students win or the teachers win, but mostly the teachers win. >> Do you Do you Do you happen to know if Mr. Nürnberger's going to be playing in this one? >> I don't know. >> Cuz the rumor is he hurt his ribs. So, just let your your classmates

013know that. Just >> I definitely will. >> Do it for the ribs. Okay, good. Earth Day summit, were you part of that? >> Uh no. >> I saw the pictures and stuff. That was great. >> Yeah. >> Looks like everybody had a great time and very enriching informative learning experience for our our students. >> Definitely. >> Um any rumors about who's going to be competing in duets? Like who's matched up? Are there any favorites that you've heard of through the grapevine? >> I know a lot of my past teachers are, but I don't know about like favorites. >> Really? Do you happen to know what they're singing? Will you share with us or is there like a privacy agreement? >> like a like surprise. So, no one knows. Yeah. >> Okay. And finally, how's lacrosse

014season going? >> It's going good. We have like some games next week, but just now it's just for practice. This week >> What's our Oh, you haven't had a game yet? >> No, we have. But like this week's just like practice. >> What's our current record? >> It's we have two wins, two losses, and one tie game. >> Okay. All right. Any goals or assists? >> Um I've gotten a goal and then some assists. >> You got a one goal? All right, congratulations. That's awesome. Excellent job, Sam. All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I love the look. I love how she just stares at >> I'm more excited than she was. >> Thank you. >> The evil eye. >> She's going to tell her dad, "Tell Labby to stop it." >> [laughter]

015>> Like, "What are you doing to me?" >> Great job, Morgan. Great job, Sam. >> Thank you. >> Board president comments. As always, I'd like to begin with the Bomber Cafe. I'm proud to share that the members of our Brew Crew recently completed their classes at Middlesex College with eight students graduating from the culinary program and three more graduating from the Skills program. This is a tremendous accomplishment and a reflection of their hard work, dedication, and the outstanding support they received from our district, our staff, and our community, especially our VIPs who are always there to cheer them on and encourage them. In addition, the community crew today volunteered at the Rutgers Basic Needs Center, continuing their commitment to service and giving back. These experiences not only build skills, but also reinforce the importance of

016community and compassion. In recognition of Teacher Appreciation, the Brew Crew will be delivering coffee and treats to all our schools every day next week. A small but meaningful gesture to say thank you. I'd also like to highlight an upcoming event. The Sayreville South Amboy Rotary Club will be hosting a car show to benefit our veterans on May 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the at the VFW on Road. There'll be live music and from what I understand, there's going to be a very special guest singer. Maybe the best singer or at least in the top two that ever came out of Sayreville, Mr. John Walsh, will be joining us. >> That's true. >> [laughter] >> Who was it, John? >> Listen, outside of Sayreville, Springsteen may be the boss, but in Sayreville, you're

017you're the boss. No, seriously, John, you always uh give back and you and you're always there for our community and when you were called upon again, as always, you you stood up and were there. So, thank you. >> I'm a ham, that's all. >> I said it'll be a great event. There'll be food, uh vendors, and lots of great cars. Finally, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Teacher Appreciation Week. Our teachers do far more than educate. They inspire, guide, support, and shape the future of every student who walks through our doors. They are often the steady presence in a child's life, the ones who see potential before it's fully realized, and who push our students to become the very best versions of themselves. Their impacts go far beyond the classroom, and it lives

018on in the confidence they build, the values they instill, and the futures they help create. To all our teachers and our staff who support them, including our powers, cafeteria staff, custodians, maintenance, counselors, guidance department, bus drivers, bus aids, security and our IT IT department. And as well as our administrators, I want to thank you. Your dedication does not go unnoticed, and your work makes a lasting difference every single day. Thank you for everything you do. And filling in for Ms. Maldonado today with our vice president comments, Ms. Hernandez. >> Congratulations to our student across the district for their continued excellence and achievements. Our Samuel W. Memorial High School HOSA Future Health Professionals student earned top placement at the state leadership conference and qualified for international competitions. We also celebrated student accomplishment in the art and

019leadership, including Kate Burns, award-winning documentary at the Garden State Film Festival, recognition of our unsung heroes, and a strong performance in Model Congress. We are equally proud of our student athletes and competitions team for earning honors in sportsmanship, cheerleading, and gymnastics. Lastly, we want to recognize our SUA students who participate in the Let the Children Lead meeting on April 14th. Joanna Hiptune. Savannah Rio, Delilah Covington, Elik Meel, Reed Sagu, Antonina Slupska, Josiah Worthington, Cosette Cote, Sahira Pradhan, Advaith Sridhar, Bika Karnik, Amy Enzeia, Rylan Patel, Charles Collier, Brooke Ondeko, Asia Bate, Zoe Liburd, Ela Jabur, Arabelle Appadoo. I'm sorry if I didn't pronounce your name. I I tried. All the students did an amazing job and we are incredibly proud of each of you and definitely our favorite night in the whole year. >> Thank you,

020Mr. Hernandez. That was an excellent presentation. And now I believe we have some presentations, Dr. Lobby. >> Uh yes, Mr. Hernandez. We have a litany of presentations. I'm very proud to say that we are first and foremost going to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of some of our students at the high school and the middle school this evening. We always take great pride in the work that our students do in the classroom, but we also try to recognize their amazing efforts outside of the classroom. And we're going to recognize and celebrate um several state championship groups and individuals this evening. But before we do, I did want to I would be remiss if I didn't say you mentioned um teacher appreciation week coming up. I do want to recognize all of our administrative assistants uh in

021the district. Last week we had uh administrative assistant week, so uh we can't thank all of our secretaries and administrative assistants, as well as our clerks, for their tireless work and everything they do to help us enhance instruction and promote student learning. Likewise, another very special group who we are celebrating this week is all of our bus drivers, including our bus aides and everybody works in our transportation department, because it's bus driver appreciation week. So, we can't thank enough all of our bus drivers, our bus aides, our administrative assistants in the transportation department for their tireless work in helping us do probably one of the most important things for all of us, and that's to transport our students to and from school on a daily basis very safely. So, we can't thank both groups enough

022for all that they do for our students and our staff. All right. So, we are after we celebrate our students, Mr. Glock-Malloy, and please in the audience, don't leave. You want to see this riveting presentation he's going to have on our 2024-2025 harassment, intimidation, and bullying grades. Don't you want to see that? I think that's why they're all here, right? And then And then finally, we are going to have our 2026-2027 um school district budget hearing uh after Mr. Glock-Malloy's presentation. But, first, let's get to the best part of the meeting. That would be celebrating our incredible students. So, I would like to ask um Mrs. Hernandez to join Mrs. McCabe at the podium so that we can introduce, recognize, and celebrate all of our Health Occupations Students of America state champions. Oh, Mrs. McCabe's

023not here? Okay. So, then I will assist you. As was mentioned earlier, I think as part of Ms. Hernandez's highlights as well as Morgan's highlights, um these exceptional students won state championships and they will be going on to the international championships later on in the year. So, uh please give a big hand for DEV SHAH. >> [applause] [applause] >> COME ON. AND SHERLY SHAH. >> [applause] >> YASH SHAH. >> [applause] >> AND SHREYA TADEPALLI. >> [applause] [applause] >> AND NOW I WILL ASSIST MRS. Napolitano in recognizing our Odyssey of the Mind state champions. As was mentioned at a previous meeting, um several members of our audience Odyssey of the Mind teams um were state champions and will be going on to I think it's Memories Unlimited Iowa. Is it Iowa State? They'll be going on

024to Iowa State University for the International Championship. And by the way, this is quite the tradition in Sayreville. We were just at the Hall of Fame um induction banquet and Carlos Sutherland, long-time teacher in Sayreville, as well as assistant superintendent, I think she had a string of seven straight years uh where the students in the Odyssey of the Mind won state championships. And how I think we're doing pretty well, too, in that regard. our guys, right? How many straight years have we won a championship? Two straight years. That's remarkable. Is there an- Is there a Is there another coach from the Odyssey of the Mind here tonight? You here? We want to do this? Come on. Do you mind saying something on their behalf? >> Our team started working in the end of August. They

025came up with an idea, and they've been working every weekend after school ever since. This isn't a one- or two-month program. This is a year-long. And this year they had a perfect score at state finals and are going on to world finals where they will proudly represent Sayreville. >> YAY! >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT. SO, WHEN YOUR NAME IS READ, COME ON UP, GET A CERTIFICATE, and we'll take a picture of everyone together. >> Okay, Shayla Zukor. >> [applause] >> DANIEL ADONALI. >> [applause] >> SABRINA BROWN. >> [applause] >> Yulin Zeng. >> [applause] [applause] >> Okay, so at this time now, I'd like to ask Mrs. Pabone to approach the podium with Mr. Rice from our GMC White Division swim champions. Boys swimming champions. >> [applause] >> Uh good evening, everybody. Uh I just want

026to thank uh my coaches, uh Coach Gassman, Coach Gulick, Coach Goldstein, and Coach Little for all their effort the last few years. Uh and thank you to the administration and Board of Education for your continued support with our program. Uh just 4 years ago uh this team fell only four points short from winning a a division title. Uh since then, these boys have delivered four straight years of strong, determined performances, and this season they both broke through in historic fashion. The boys team captured the White Division championship with a dominant 4-0-1 division record and an impressive 6-1-1 overall conference mark, earning the first division title in school history. They didn't stop there, finishing fourth overall at the county championships out of 18 teams, their highest GMC finish in recent history. A remarkable journey, a historic

027season, and a team that truly raised the bar. Uh Nathan Oliver, Sebastian Velez, Justin Fryer, and Michael Wazenko went on to break the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay records. Michael Wazenko also continued to change the record boards. Michael now holds eight out of the 11 school records. Nathan Oliver, Sebastian Velez, Justin Fryer, Alex Margol, and Michael Wazenko also went on to qualify for the Meet of Champions wild card meet, where they fell just over 1 second shy of qualifying to race at the Meet of Champions. Michael Usenko advanced to the Meet of Champions, where he finished eighth and ninth overall in the state in his events. >> [applause] >> We'd also like to congratulate all of this year's all division selections. We had eight athletes selected for all division honors. Justin, Cooper, Damien, Nathan,

028Adam, Adam, Sebastian, and Michael uh for earning all division honors. Michael Usenko also earned all conference honors. Congratulations on a GREAT SEASON, BOYS. >> [applause] >> I'D LIKE TO CALL UP UH RYAN BRILL. >> [applause] >> ANDREW SERIGIANO. >> [applause] >> PETER DEMAGIANAGI. >> [applause] [laughter] >> JACOB DELOUGOS. HE'S >> [applause] >> JUSTIN FRYER. >> [applause] >> SURE. OKAY. THAT'S OKAY. THANK YOU. >> [laughter] >> OH, THANKS. OKAY, YEAH, YEAH. OH, there it is. ROHIT GAMAGE >> [applause] >> STEPHEN HEIDELBERG >> [applause] >> GABRIEL HERNANDEZ FAMILIA >> [applause] >> JOHN HERNANDEZ FAMILIA >> [applause] >> ALEX MARGOL >> [applause] >> JACK MARTIN DYLAN MASON >> [applause] >> DAMIEN OLIVER >> [applause] >> NATHAN OLIVER >> [applause] >> ADAM SALAMA >> [applause] >> ADHAM SALAMA >> [applause] >> RYAN SHAW >> [applause] >> LUCAS SIMOES >>

029[applause] >> SEBASTIAN VELEZ >> [applause] >> MICHAEL WASENKO >> [applause] >> GAVIN ZAZZARINO >> [applause] >> AND OUR TEAM MANAGER SAVANNAH PARS >> [applause] >> ALLISON BARRON >> [applause] >> ARENA LIZINCHI >> [applause] >> AND DANIELA OLIVIERA >> [applause] >> COACH GASMAN >> [applause] >> COACH GULLICK >> [applause] >> COACH GODSEY AND coach Leo And me >> All right, everybody say "Rice." >> Rice. >> One more time, "Rice." >> Rice. >> And by the way, we'd like to give a special congratulations to Coach Rice, who was the Greater Middlesex Conference Swim Coach OF THE YEAR. >> [cheering] [applause] >> LET'S GIVE A BIG HAND FOR OUR WINNING COMMITTEE. >> [applause] [cheering] >> OKAY, AND THE SUCCESS of students did not end in the pool. It extended to the court where our Sayreville War Memorial High

030School girls basketball team was simply extraordinary. And they were, I believe, co- or you're co-white division champions this year. AND TO >> YEAH. >> [applause] >> AND TO RECOGNIZE AND celebrate their amazing accomplishments, I'm going to ask Mrs. Cook as well as Mr. Smith to join each other at the podium. >> [applause] >> Okay. Okay. Good evening, everyone. I would like to thank the administration, Ms. Badami, and the Board of Education for their support of our program. I also want to thank Coach Vasquez, Coach Enahoro, and Coach Burns for all your help and dedication to our program. We couldn't have done this without you. This season, the Sayreville girls basketball team proved what can happen when a group truly buys into a system and commits to getting better every single day. Their division title isn't

031just about wins. It's about trust, discipline, and hard work. More importantly, they didn't just build a great team. They built strong, respectful, and resilient young women of character. That's the real victory. This year's girls basketball team [applause] KARINA CARDOSO. >> [applause] [cheering] >> GIANA SALTO. >> [applause] >> NICOLE GARLACH. >> [applause] >> NATALIA GLAZEWSKI. >> [applause] >> VERONICA GLAZEWSKI >> [applause] >> JULIANA GLORIA >> [applause] >> MADDY KATSOULIS >> [applause] >> ALEAH MCCOMBS >> [applause] >> AVERY MCGRATH SABRINA NIEDER HOPPMANN >> [applause] >> ANAISHA >> [applause] >> DIANA SHARP >> [applause] >> DANIELLE VERLINGO >> [applause] >> AND OUR MANAGERS, ALANA COLELLO >> [applause] >> DEANNA CAFARO MIA ROSE TURCHETTI >> [applause] >> LAMISE MANAFA MEGAN PALOOZI >> [applause] >> AND OUR COACHES, COACH BURNS >> [applause] >> COACH VASQUEZ >> [applause] >> AND OUR

032AMAZING VOLUNTEER COACH, COACH ANNA HORRELL >> [applause and cheering] [cheering] [applause] >> AND WE'RE GOING TO MOVE SLIGHTLY FROM THE court now to the mat on the court. And we're going to celebrate our state champion Sayreville Middle School competition cheer team. So, if Mrs. Lynch could join Mr. Callahan and Mrs. Bloom at the podium. >> OH, HELLO. >> [applause] >> UM, THANK YOU BOARD OF ED MEMBERS and administration for inviting us here tonight to recognize the Sayreville Middle School All Music competition team on their seventh NJCDCA state title. This team was hungry from the start of the season. On Friday, February 20th, a call came through that states would be postponed due to the due to the incoming storm. Athletes, coaches, and parents came together to make the new date of March 6th happen. This

033group of athletes and parents were determined to bring home another state title to Sayre Middle School. Between laughs, talks, and tears on my end, this group of dedicated and determined athletes were successful once again. Shout out to Buck Larry, our dance for our dance, and bringing such positive energy to our practice. Thank you, Coach Weil, for your creative choreography. I would like to thank our amazing, supportive parents who drove three times a week to the All-Star gym to pick up their children. We truly appreciate everything you do for our program. This year, our Bomber Crowd took home the Best Crowd Award from the Battle on the Mat competition February. And yes, they are the best. Thank you to our biggest cheerleaders, Jennifer Bedami and the middle school administration. It takes a village, and we are

034grateful for our SMS Bomber Village over the many years. That's it. >> [applause] >> I learned after the first one, you need to come prepared with something to say. And not do it out in the hallway real quick. Okay, so first athlete, um I would just like to recognize too, we only have half the people here because they are preparing for another huge competition with their own gyms. Um but we're very grateful for the athletes that were able to make it tonight. So, Madison Asang. >> [applause] >> Haley Asterita. >> [applause] >> Carly Barbosa. Amelia Bloom. >> [applause] >> I'll say you're holding on to hers. Samantha Yes, you are. That's what I was told. Uh Samantha Callahan. >> [applause] >> SAVANNAH CROWLEY >> [applause] >> VICTORIA MARITOLI >> [applause] >> GIA Melvin >> [applause]

035>> Vanessa Miller Miller Gia Oberoi Julia Plecia Rielle Perry LEANNE RUSSER >> [applause and cheering] >> CHLOE SULLIVAN CAITLIN TOJOURN MARIAH VARGAS >> [applause] >> AND JULIANA ZAPATA >> [applause] >> UM THEY'RE NOT. I'LL JUST take them back. Yes. We'll just take the pictures. Oh boy, let's hear you go, boy. Okay, we're good. >> All right, everybody say lunch. >> Lunch. >> How much time do I have? >> Lunch. >> [applause and cheering] >> Dr. Lobby, I'd like to just set some ground rules before Eric gives his presentation. We're not going to doing pictures with you afterwards, okay? Just >> Certainly works for me. >> Okay, Mr. Glock Malloy. Without any further delay, everybody knows that every year we have to go ahead and assess ourselves with regard to how we are effectively in implementing

036the anti-bullying statute. Um and then the Department of Education goes ahead and scores us as well. So, Mr. Glock Malloy is going to present very briefly on that. >> So, well, I have the full presentation from October in your packets and it's available online. There's really not much to report here um beyond the data that you've seen twice already uh as we've moved through this in summer and in fall as we've processed our data and presented our data to you. Um so, the NJDOE returned our official HIB grade reports for the 2024-2025 school year uh a few weeks ago and the full report is posted to our HIB website off the district's page. Um we had no corrections or recommendations. Um so, beyond the fact that we've seen the data before, um the DOE has

037approved the data that we submitted, and that really is the end of the presentation. Any questions? >> [laughter] >> Unfortunately, I've already presented this one several times, so he may not want to present his several times. We'll do it in the fall, and then in the spring, and summer. But, um I figured I I would save us the time tonight as we have no recommendations. The data's been presented already. So, if we have questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Otherwise, it is on our website, the full report, and we had no recommendations. >> So, in fairness, uh Mr. Malloy, so you don't feel left out, just like all the other presentations, I want to give you an applause. >> Pictures, please. >> Well, and and to that point, um >> And Mr. Smith, I

038do recognize that I do need a lot of help with brevity. >> Um we are going to have a little Aaron here joining us. So, I don't know if we're ready to go with that yet. I think we'll queue up our presentation for the budget now. Oh, we That voice from behind the the curtain said in a second. Um but yes, uh this is the time of year where we're asking you to approve and adopt the next year's budget. Obviously, it's the 2026-2027 budget. I'd like to begin by first recognizing and thanking our incredible members of our administrative team who took the time to come out this evening. Um please know how much I greatly appreciate all of your support and collegiality. It means the world to me that you are here tonight. Moreover, I

039think it's important that you are here because many of you made an impact on all of us, particularly me, with regard to your presentations and the things that we unfortunately had to cut, but have thus reinstated into the budget. So, your presentations really helped us form the decisions that we needed to make to ensure that this is the the best budget that we can provide the school district for the next school year. So, I think we're set to go. Do we have Aaron on? >> I'm here. >> Okay, but I don't see little Aaron. Is can we have little Aaron on or no? We're just going to go with the audio? There she is. >> Hi Aaron. >> Can we >> Hello. >> Oh, I don't know if we're going to be able to do

040it like we did, Mr. Block Malloy. You are Okay, then let's we'll we'll go with the PowerPoint. Aaron, you can hear everything, right? >> Yep, I hear you loud and clear. >> All right, perfect. So, Board of Education members, obviously when I'm finished with the presentation, if you have questions for me, I'll be happy to answer them, but I'll also be happy to pass the baton off to Aaron for any questions that you might want her to answer instead of me or I might actually ask her your question because I feel that she'll provide a better answer for you. Okay? So, I'm just going to briefly go through this. I know that brevity is something I'm working on, so I will briskly go through the presentation, but obviously we'll take as much time as we

041all need to discuss all of the information on all of the slides. So, obviously this is our 2026-2027 budget. Oh. And how come we're not moving? Oh. Now we are. This one? Okay. So, we'll go through this. We all know it's a collaborative process, and again, I thank um the administrators that are here today for being a part of that process. Here's our um our budget calendar. It's our next slide. I'm not going to go through this. We lived it. Um so, that is that. Here's our enrollment. If you look at our enrollment, we're projecting our enrollment to decrease slightly. Um our enrollment this year um was uh 6,299 students. Um we're we're projecting about 6,293 students. Now, this is never an exact science. We could have um you know, more students move into the

042district. More students who are being educated outside, maybe in a private school, come into the district or home-schooled come back to the district. So, we're we're projecting about 6,300 students. Um obviously, this is our mission. It's been our mission for many, many years, at least since I've been here. Who can believe that Vision 2030 when we started Vision 2030, it was actually before I got here. Um and it was intended for the 2014-15 kindergarten students. And they are now 12th graders, which is amazing. So, um uh it's incredible. So, in terms of our vision, our vision was to prepare them for when they graduate in the year 2030. So, those students are graduating this year from high school and will be graduating from college in 2030. However, I think it's important that we continue the

043momentum of Vision 2030 at least through the next couple of years. And if you are a part of that group, which many of you in this room were, I know some people are not happy about the pictures um that that is at that bottom of that slide, but these are all the incredible people that were part of the last strategic action plan that we developed in 2023, including many of our administrators that are here tonight. Um you're all in that picture, so we can't thank all of you enough for taking the time to be a part of our last strategic action plan for Vision 2030. Next are 2025-2026 goals. I'm going to briskly go through these. Hopefully, you had the chance I sent you the PowerPoint presentation over the weekend. Um those of you, the

044millions that are following at home, uh it is on the website now, so you can go through that at your leisure and look at our goals. Um we will be going over the results of our goals. I know Board of Education members, I recently sent you um my evaluation, which includes the accomplishments of those goals. So, this is the period where in which we're really going to be analyzing the results of those goals all the way up into our state of the schools address this upcoming October. So, much of the information we have, some of it like state testing results, we do not have yet. Um but I'll briskly click through these. We have facilities, our information and technology and operations goals, our student achievement goals, and our culture and climate goals. Again, we'll be

045going over the results of these the next several months up until our state of the schools address. So, getting to our the big part of our presentation tonight, and that would be our budget challenges. Um every year presents its challenges when it comes to um, developing a school district budget. This year, one of the obvious problems or challenges was record high inflation. I drove by a gas station today and already regular gas is over $5 a gallon. Regular gas. Um, that's not diesel and our buses operate primarily on diesel. Um, that's close to Patrick, seven or eight dollars a gallon? Yeah, so it's it's high. Impending debt services burden. We recognize that the taxpayers vote on referendum projects. Okay, but it's still a burden on taxpayers. Currently, we have four referendum projects that we're still

046paying for in debt services. Two of them are going to drop off in the next couple years and then another one will drop off at in 2030 and we'll be just left with the bond with a recent referendum that we just passed in 2023. Um, but that is a burden. Next big problem is we have a $2.65 million deficit in self-insured medical benefits um, in our program necessitating a 31% increase instead of the standard increases in medical and prescription benefits based upon market trends and experience. Um, we all know that it's it's a problem. I think we mentioned it at our March 17th meeting. It's it's a it's it's a statewide problem. It's not a Sayreville problem. It's probably even a national problem. The extremely high cost of of health care um, is a huge

047issue that we're tackling not only in Sayreville, but I would I would bet across the nation. But, in Sayreville, we actually have a deficit that we have to overcome because we are self-insured. Employee wages were are about are an average of 3.5, but I would say it's probably slightly above 3.5. And the the the biggest thing that you have to remember when you're when you're looking at a budget is that 90% of a budget is personnel costs. It's either wages or it's health care. And when your wages are going above 3 and 1/2% and your health care is going far above that, creating a budget that is only going to increase by 2% is very, very difficult. And in doing that, you're going to have to cut a lot of things in order to be

048able to make it all work with just a 2% increase. So, that's why the state of New Jersey allows school districts to increase their local tax levies by using what's called the health benefits premiums increase waiver. And because the state health benefits plan is increasing by 31%, we are now exercising that increase within our tax levy in our budget. Um electricity, we all know electricity's going up. Um estimated around 20%, and yes, um we do have solar to offset the increases in electricity. However, for the first time ever, and we're all very proud of it, I can feel it right now, we have air conditioning in all of our schools. So, when you look at the air conditioning, the solar is just basically offsetting the cost of the air conditioning, which was what we planned,

049by the way, but it's not really taking into consideration those huge increases um that our utilities are imposing on us. We have great technology in the district, but our infrastructure needs constant maintenance. Every how many years do we have to replace a server? >> Uh it varies depending on the server, but somewhere between 5 and 8 usually. >> So, every 5 and 8 years we have to replace a server. It's time to replace our server. And at what cost, Mr. Glock Malloy? >> Sir, that's a very good question based on imports and the rising cost of memory and everything else. Uh probably far more than we even anticipated budgeting for because the prices of those servers have gone up six times since we did our budgets in the fall. >> So, what would you give

050in a ballpark? >> Over 500,000 for the full setup. >> Which is an extraordinary cost. We also We're also in a rotation to replace devices. Um I believe we have a 5-year rotational basis rotation for our devices. >> Currently, we're actually um potentially pushing that out starting next year because of the increased cost there as well. >> So, that cost quite a bit of money, and I believe that's about $300,000. >> For students, correct? And about another 120 or so for staff. >> Another Another challenge is, you know, we we we do have our own bus fleet, and we all recognize how incredible it is to have our own um bus fleet. I mean, I can count on one hand how many complaints I've received this year on bussing. Um it's because of Mr. Sinigallia,

051Ms. Padea, and our amazing bus drivers who we again gave thanks to for bus driver appreciation week. But, we have to replace buses. Some of our buses age out after 15 years where it doesn't matter we have to replace them, but we recently ran into a problem our mini buses. Some of them didn't age out, but they were so they're the the under part of the bus was so corroded that they weren't useful anymore to us. We have to replace them. So, this budget includes that, but that's at a cost. And there was a time when I started where and Mr. Sniger, you can check you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think about 10 years ago a bus cost a mini bus probably cost somewhere around $30,000 10 years ago? Now we're talking

052$75,000 for a mini bus. Oh, more? What? And then 100 and say what's 175 for a big bus? 160,000 for a big bus. So, that is a challenge. That it part of this budget and we have to replace four of them. One's a wheelchair access mini bus. And then there's just the ongoing maintenance and refurbishment of our facilities. And then finally, it's worth noting that in in Sayreville, we take great care of our students. And I think that's important for us. And we know that we have this incredible program called Effective School Solutions that that helps us care for our students with our most critical social, emotional and psychiatric needs. But it comes at a cost, a cost of about $1.3 million a year. So, these are all challenges that we had with this budget

053and some of them the same challenges as we've had with previous budgets. So, just a little bit more on the health benefits problem. This next slide kind of tells you where the health benefits problems began. Um it began shortly after we became self-insured. At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, we had a deficit of $593,000. And and primarily it was due to experience. And when I say experience, I mean that we had some members of our school community that were very sick or members of their family. I remember at some point Aaron and I talking and you know, when you have an insurance a self-insured program, you have to have what's called stop loss insurance. And Aaron, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think the threshold for stop loss is $250,000. >>

054No, it's now at 300. It was 200 when we started, but we had so many people hit stop loss that the increase they were projecting was really astronomical cuz we made out very well. I I want to say it was the 23-24 school year, which obviously the insurance company didn't love. So, we changed it to $300,000 to keep the increase reasonable. >> I think in one year we had at least nine nine members >> I think the highest was 11 that hit stop loss. Yeah. >> That that paints the portrait of where we are. And if you look at the chart, and I won't go through it together with you, we didn't start to see a reduction of that until after the 2024-2025 school year because we had to raise premiums to 17% just to

055take a chip of that. But it was only taking a little bit of that. We we we were able to you know, reduce the deficit by $500,000, but we had increased premiums to that point. And then the next slide shows our prescription self-insured prescription not quite in the dire straight as our medical, but still in the potential for being in deficit. When it comes to debt services, here is an analysis of our debt services from this year taking you through to 2031-32. Again, the greatest challenge in this budget is addressing debt services. We all know again that the voters voted for these things, but it's our responsibility to help offset that by doing whatever we can to ameliorate or reduce the debt services tax levy. So, you can see, for example, in 25-26 last year,

056our we had four we're paying for four payments, four bonds, okay? At in excess of $10 million uh dollars um and we used 1.4 million of in of the interest from the bond referendum to offset that. And you all recall that that's what we used to bring down the the total tax levy to about 2%, okay? This year, our our plan is to use 4 million of that to go ahead and bring that total down to 5 million dollars, which would it's our our bond payment again is at 10.6 million, so by using 4.6 million of interest, we'll bring that payment down to 5 million, which will help offset the burden on the taxpayer. 27-28, we're going to now use a combination of interest and fund balance. And we're going to do the same thing

057for 28-29, 20 and then in 29-30, it will will just be using fund balance to offset debt services all the way through to 2031-32, where finally we'll only have one bond payment. And that is at a reasonable level. So, again, to highlight what I just said in terms of challenges, our two greatest challenges within this budget are by far the health premiums deficit that we're in. And the bond tax levy. Our debt services tax levy. And they have to be addressed. And you'll see that we are addressing them with this budget. So, here's some of our budget highlights. I won't go through them. I'll try to get through them quick. But let's begin with finance. Um we are increasing the general fund. There's two parts to your tax levy. There's a general fund tax levy,

058and then there's the debt services tax levy. I just explained the debt services tax levy analysis for the next several years. The general fund tax levy increase in this budget is 11%. Um it's a two 2% increase in the regular tax levy, a 9% increase due to the health benefits increase that we referenced earlier. We did get a 6% state aid increase. We are about 94% away from what's called adequacy in accordance with the state funding formula. And the reason why we keep getting more state aid, believe it or not, and it may not make sense to you, is the fact that we ask the local taxpayer to pay more. It's called the local fair share. More than any time that I can recall in education, school districts are now facing deficits. In fact, I

059read a recent article that said at least 100 school districts are in financial crisis. About 10 of them are in enormous deficits where in which they have to either ask taxpayers to pay astronomical increases or they're cutting teachers or doing both. The last thing we want as a school district to be in a situation like that. However, because we keep increasing the local fair share, the state recognizes that. And they continue to fund us at an adequate level with the state funding formula. We project hopefully after this budget that we're going to probably get one more state aid increase next year because we're at 94% now. But it's all because we're increasing the local fair share, too. Because what the state does is they say this, "If we're going to give you more money in

060adequacy, but you're not going to ask the local fair You're not going to raise the local fair share, then we're just going to drop the amount of state aid we give you. But if you're increasing the local fair share, we'll increase your state aid to adequacy." The rest is there for you to take a look at and see. When it comes to facilities, I mentioned the four replacement mini buses including the world the wheelchair mini bus. These were mostly cuts. You know, in January we provided you a budget. We pared it down. We cut many, many things that we needed to progress as a district to enhance instruction, improve learning, and improve the efficiency of our operation as well as to improve the environment in which our our staff and our students work in. But

061we had to cut many of these things. With the additional state aid we received, we restored these cuts. And here are some of those major things. Um the four mini buses, new special education bus routes. And what I mean by that is sometimes some of our students have to be sent to private schools or other schools outside of Sayreville. We go ahead and contract with a vendor to send those students. Currently, we are over budget by close to $100,000 in that one particular area. So, that's an area that we cut and we restored based upon the presentation that we heard from Mr. Snigelia earlier. The refurbishment of student bathrooms at the Truman School. This These are bathrooms that have never been refurbished before. They need it. We've been going around to all of our schools.

062We just did Eisenhower last year. We did Arleth the year before. We did the middle school the year before. And if you even recall that we did the high school the year before that. These bathrooms need to be refurbished. The Truman School is over 50 years old. Those bathrooms have to be refurbished. Um The Performing Arts Center, the Jon Bon Jovi Performing Arts Center. You've gone into the Jon Bon Jovi Performing Arts Center. Sometimes, I know I do, I have a there's a I smell it smells funny. And it smells funny because the carpet in there needs to be replaced. So, that's in this budget. Um we've heard some feedback. We have a wonderful theater program. We're very proud of our theater program. But the stage lighting needs to be improved. If we want to

063keep providing the best resources for these kids to shine and continue to win awards, well, we've got to make sure that the play lay the playing field is equal for them with the other districts across the the the county and the state. So, we'd need those additional stage lightings. Um we just recently installed, and by the way, they look great, the four signs that we have installed, electronic signs. Um it really elevates the look of the district. You see those signs particularly in those major roadways, but if we did it for some of the schools, it's fair that we do it for for all the schools. So, we still have three more electronic signs to purchase and install. I have the them there. At the Arla school, um Mr. Preston, you know, didn't talk about

064it at length about his presentation at his presentation, but if you're familiar with the Arla school, when it's inclement weather, obviously the kids don't go outside, but if the grounds, the grass is wet, the kids can't go out to recess in the grass area. So, what they end up doing is they have to use the parking lot in front of the main office at the at the Arla Elementary School. And that when they do that, they have to reduce staff parking spots. So, in this budget, we're going to expand the recess pad that's outside where the playground is, so that when we have inclement weather and the kids have to remain off the grass, it's a big enough space for them, so they don't have to use that parking lot, and more more of our

065staff can park in that area. Um we we just had a beautiful playground. We know that we approved it last year. A child a graduating senior for his Eagle Scout project pitched in with us and we built a $40,000 playground. Well, it's already there we're already getting reports of vandalism. So, we need to get a fence to go around it. This is going to pay for that fence. And then speaking of that, Arla has a beautiful playground, but there are repairs that need to be made there, or we're going to have to not allow the kids to use that beautiful playground. So, that's in this budget, too. When it comes to technology, we already talked about the technology infrastructure server. Um we are in the process of either building or purchasing, and it's on this

066agenda, by the way, a new transportation complex. But, whether we build one or whether we purchase one, we need to have a technology infrastructure within it. That's cost about $200,000 to $300,000. That's in this budget. The replacement of the one-to-one devices. Um all of our students now have interactive boards, smart boards, and projectors, just as we have here. But, those break down just like laptops do. Just like iPads do. Just like Chromebooks do. They have a shelf life. What is our shelf life for our boards? >> Boards are a little bit better than devices. Um typically, a board that doesn't receive any unusual damage will get us 8 to 10 years. >> But, even that said, we still have to replace boards every year. >> We're still cycling through boards that predate uh your 10

067year here in the district. >> One of our one of our priorities that's listed as our goals is the securing of rooms and closet areas where we have technology infrastructure. You know, for for for some strange reason, when school districts began increasing their electrical infrastructure, they put the wiring and the servers in the oddest places. Well, Sayreville wasn't any different than other places. And we have technology infrastructure that is in places that need to be secured. Because anybody could go in there if they don't not secured and tamper with our infrastructure. That's one of our goals. We our goal this past year was to secure all the MDF rooms. Now, this will help us begin securing our smaller rooms, which we call our IDF class uh secure security closets. And then when it comes to

068security, if we're buying new buses and Patrick mentioned this during his presentation, you need new video surveillance for those buses. So, the new replacement mini buses, we need the camera the cameras and the video surveillance for those. Um we also we're constantly replacing cameras at our schools that may be malfunctioning or just broken over time. Um we rely on our cameras for a lot of things, especially our new Zero Eyes weapon detection software. So, those have to be replaced. That's in this budget. And then finally, that bag weapon detection scanner system that we've been talking about, that's a part of this as well. So, that's all part of this budget that that, you know, we need. When it comes to student achievement, our two biggest pieces that we need are our new K-12 math program.

069Ms. Grossman did a great presentation on that. We all know what our math scores are. We all understand that our focus for the past several years has been improving our mathematics results of our students. And we've scrutinized our current program. We established the pilot committee to look at many, many different programs, and I believe we have a great program in mind to purchase, but it comes at a cost. $500,000. Thank you. Right. Also, we know from our results that our students that speak English as a second language struggle. They They struggle in English language arts. More importantly, they struggle in mathematics. And we recognize that this is one area that we need to improve on as a district. We need to provide the resources that our English language um English as a second language teachers

070need to improve the performance of our English language learners. Um so that's also in this budget. Our our our students with disabilities um our students with pervasive developmental and intellectual disabilities I you know, part of the complement or sometimes burden of having a incredible special services department that Mr. Naster has developed. I'm I'm moving along, Eileen. I'm I'm I'm I got it. Um is the fact that when when they when you build it, they will come. So, we have a lot of students in our multiple disabilities program, particularly at our middle school, and it requires us to hire or budget for an additional teacher. And here's the important thing to remember with regard to that. Because these are required, whether you budget it or not, and we need it, we're going to do it. But

071it would be better to budget it. Because if we don't budget it, we're going to have to take that money from some place else. Because doing it is not an if, it's a has to. I if if we need that, and we do. We're going to expand our our American Sign Language classes. We're going to expand math 180, which is our alternative math program for our students with disabilities. Many of you during Mr. Naster's presentation really liked that autism helper software for our MD classes, that's going to be a part of it. And then we're going to continue providing that district-wide effective school solutions tier three and tier two um clinical services, as well as the continuation of teacher coaching, which we think is very necessary. Um we all know that if you want great

072schools, simple, you have to have great teachers. The most important factor in learning is the effectiveness of the teacher. So, we have to continue to do everything we can to enhance the proficiency and the competency of all of our teachers who are working with our students. And then for the next one, there there are more things that I won't go through that are standard parts of our budget for student achievement. So, if you go into our personnel highlights one thing that we are staying away from and I think many school districts that have run into this financial peril are facing is creating more and more recurring costs. So, as you can see with this budget what we're what we're doing is presenting very little new reoccurring costs. And by far the most reoccurring costs are

073personnel. So, this budget only includes one additional teacher and three additional stipends. And stipends that I think are very needed. Ms. Bedami gave a presentation recently on wrestling and how difficult it's become cuz we have many many girls now that are interested in wrestling. In fact, we just had a meeting with a young lady who is a part of the middle school wrestling team and it's paramount to this young lady. And she expressed that to us how important wrestling was to her. But, right now our girls wrestle with our boys on the boys team. And that in the future can become problematic on many different levels including a Title IX level. So, in this budget we're asking for a middle school girls wrestling coach so that they can have their separate team and a high

074school girls wrestling coach. And we just celebrated our swim team. You may not be aware, but Mr. Rice is the head coach for both the boys and the girls. We feel that the girls need their team, too, a separate team, and then their separate coach, and that's what's in this budget, too. And for the non-certificated um if we're going to have a new MD teacher, we have to have another para to go with with that teacher in that class. And then Mr. Sinigallia did a great job, and I think all of you were impacted by what he said with regard to the need for a full-time support secretary in transportation based upon the volume of buses we now have, the volume of drivers, and the amount of work that hopefully is going to get done

075soon by our mechanics in our new complex, whether it's purchased or built. I mentioned health insurance. We've gone over the health insurance. Just in case you wanted to know, we're budgeting a 10% increase in liability, property, and workers' compensation insurance. Dental's probably going to be about a 5%. We're only budgeting 5% increase there. The next couple of charts um just break down everything for you in terms of charting the costs and so forth. I'll let you go go through that at your leisure. And then the big page that everybody looks at, um what's this going to cost? Um this proposed budget results in a tax increase of 6.84% of the average home assessed at 146 um $146,556 with an annual increase about $350. And the last slide that I'll present to you is looking at

076our nine-year analysis of the tax levy. So, if you look at this, let me go ahead so you can see it here. This is the past nine years and you can see within those past 9 years you as a board of education and our administration I think have done an exceptional job of providing for the needs of our students and our staff but keeping that tax levy increase very modest. Um there's only been one year where it's been above 3% and and and and one year where two years where it was close to 3% as well as three years where it was below 2% and of course if you're looking at the 2023-2024 school year that is because that was the first year of the bond referendum. So that was our highest payment for that

077new bond referendum. And that's why that increase was 11.4. But outside of that we've done a great job in terms of maintaining very modest increases. And I will say this this budget because this budget will address the two greatest issues that we have. The health benefits deficit and the debt services tax levy burden. Aaron and I feel strongly that with this budget we'll be able to increase the number of years moving forward that we only have to increase the budget by 2% or a little bit more. Because of this budget, because of what we're asking you to do in this budget, and we realize that a 6.8% increase is going to be hard on the community but it's going to pay major dividend dividends for the next 9 years if we were to do that.

078So that is my presentation. I'm sorry if I was a little long-winded, but it's the norm for me. Um at this point I will entertain any questions from the board before we then open up to the public. >> Do any board members have any questions or comments? >> I have questions. Um I would like to know what the board is doing to combat the health insurance insurance premium uh issue. >> The board is if you adopt this budget, you are going to be paying that deficit off. >> But the deficit is going to continue to to happen. It's not like it's going away. >> Well, I respectfully disagree with that and and so does Aaron. I think that the reason why we've had much higher premium costs is because of the fact that we are

079going beyond the market trend and experience to increase premiums so that we can reduce that deficit. And as you can see after the 2024-2025 school year, despite our 17% increase, we only were able to reduce it by $500,000. And by the way, and and we've mentioned this before, and Aaron, feel free to jump in. If we are to pay off this debt, we can then make decisions as a Board of Education as if we want to remain in our self-insured current program. Correct, Aaron? >> Chris, can you unmute Aaron? >> Aaron, can you hear me? >> Oh, I guess we lost Aaron. >> Go ahead, Eileen. I know you have more questions. >> Um I just think that hitting the taxpayer with such a high increase even though you might not think it is. I

080mean, I'm a taxpayer Sayville, it's high to me. And I know it's going to be high to many of the citizens without fixing the insurance problem is not going to resolve it. So, it's putting a band-aid on a reoccurring problem. I know you think that it's going to go away. I don't agree. I'm an insurance broker licensed for 30 years. Not based upon the way the state has the program set up. Unfortunately, it's not a Sayville problem. You're right. Okay? This is not a Sayville problem. It's not an Old Bridge problem. It's not a Woodbridge problem. This is a state problem. And until I don't understand why the BOEs are not banding together to force the state to fix the program. I have multiple um and I'm not going to go through them all right

081here. I have multiple printouts, newsletters about this recent um They They're The past 2 years that state health program has been It's has a $333,000 deficit. That's just in the last 2 years. This program was set up to be actually a I don't know who created this plan thinking that it was going to be a money-saving thing cuz the way it was designed from day one was definitely going to lead to deficits. So, why aren't all the boards like why don't we ban up with other boards of education to get the state to revise this program? Because it The taxpayer and I mean it if you were if we were private business and we were making money by being a business, this would not be allowed. No private business would allow themselves to go into

082a $3 million deficit. You can't control it, though. So, it's not like, "Oh, it's your fault." The average I mean, thank God you guys are good with the money cuz we'd be in a worse position. My position, though, is we need to gather We need to band together to get the state to change these formulas. And until we do it, and we just keep up, taxpayer, keep paying. That's If If we were paying for this ourselves without taxpayer-funded money, this would not happen. But, because the taxpayer in Sayreville, Old Bridge, everywhere you look is paying this bill, not the Board of Ed, the taxpayers are paying for it, it it's allowed to happen. And I'm not saying on our level, talking about the state level. So, we need to band together to get this fixed

083because I've read the law, chapter 44 replaced chapter 73, and that's when these deficits begin. It didn't begin because of anything but that. You had drop-off of your legacy plan, people moved out of it, went into the state plan, and that started causing a deficit because the money is no longer being collected in the legacy plan, right? >> That's the That's the major issue here as well as I think in the state health benefit program. State health benefit program, obviously, at one point was the largest and it still is, but they have lost countless people. So, now you've got a smaller pool of people paying for major experiences in in healthcare. We have a similar problem here in Sayreville. Our New Jersey Educators Plan and our Garden State plans, we have We run three programs.

084They are actually running pretty well. >> They are. >> It's our legacy plan that's not running well due to the high experience levels that I spoke about earlier with Aaron, and the fact that more and more of our staff are moving from the legacy plan over to the New Jersey Educators and Garden State plan. But, Aaron, can you hear me? >> I can. Can you hear me now? >> Yeah, we can hear you now. So, I made a comment earlier, if we were to pay off the health benefits deficit that we have, we are then free to move on to a different plan, correct? >> Absolutely, yeah. So, we could, um, you know, go to fully insured or something along those lines. >> So that's part of the issue here is we can't do that

085now if we have this deficit. So in order for us to be able to do that we need to pay off this deficit. But Eileen, I'm not I don't argue with you at all about what you said about this is a this is a state problem. This is a national problem that we have. Um and we are I know that my association has is lobbying pretty hard in Trenton for changes. However, my association is about 600 strong compared to the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, which is about 6,000 strong and I don't even know how big NJEA is in terms of it's in the millions in terms of their members. Um but we are doing and I know that there is legislation that's in committee at both the Assembly and the Senate for municipalities

086that spend over 9% in a two-year period to get state aid relief for health benefits increases. It's right now in committees. I think I shared that with our governance committee a couple of meetings ago this bill. If if a school district pays 9% for two year 9% increase over two year period, they are good potentially according to this bill eligible for state aid relief in that area. So I'm not sure if that's going to get passed, but it it to me it's recognition that legislators are beginning to hear more and more that this is a prevalent problem. So again, I don't disagree with you on what you said with regard to the prevalence of this problem. >> I just think that whatever boards and I mean even the teachers, okay, they should be getting against

087this too because every penny that's wasted on a deficit comes out of comes out of money that's available for their increases, for their benefits, for their salaries, and to hire more teachers, and have better things for the school. So, this is not just a little thing. This has to change. And, you know, if it I guess we have to do it on a grassroots level. Somebody from the public, like me, who I will speak as a public person, okay, will have to take something like this on and get people to support it because the state legislators have had years to fix this problem. Obviously, to fix it that they gave with Aon as their actuary, Aon is the one who planned all this out. Um, you know, they probably had restraints as well cuz the

088state contract says nothing could change until um, December 31st, 2027. So, that's a long way to wait. This should not have had such an extended period for revision, you know. I would have argued against such a long period of time without knowing how it's going to go, you know, so this is just ridiculous. But, I personally, um, feel like the taxpayer bailout is not the the fix for this problem, and we need to do more before we start hitting them with increases for this uh, deficit. >> Dr. Lavin, can I ask and maybe it's better suited for Aaron than this because I I clearly hear what Aaron um, Eileen is saying, and she's been in the insurance industry for a long time. And, I hear what you've you've explained, and you do a really good

089job explaining it, but I I would like to understand it better almost from Aaron. Is the benefits program that we have as self-insured right now is not part of the New Jersey State Benefits Plan in Trenton, nor do we follow the rules of that. Isn't this the rules set up in our contracts with our teachers and our administrators for insurance? How does our insurance plan work and differ from the state plan? >> Sure. So, it's a combination of things. We have our legacy plans, which we've had for a very long time. Um and Sayreville actually had done something very good years ago. Our top plan, um as of 2012, no new employees were eligible to enroll in that high-cost plan. So, everybody had to enroll in one of the two lower-cost plans. Um and with

090that, we also had built into the contract a different fee structure in addition to chapter 78. So, chapter 78, employees paid a contribution based on their salary, but also based on their cost of their benefits. Chapter 44 is different because that made us introduce the MJHCP and Garden State Health Plan health plans. Um and we're required to follow what the state set up in terms of how they operate, but they are still self-insured and are they still are our plan. But, now the caveat to that is employees only pay a contribution based on their salary. It's a much smaller percentage. So, it has nothing to do with the premium. So, every time the premium goes up, the employee's portion pretty much stays the same. It goes up very minimally every year based on their salary

091increase, and that's it. So, the burden of that is also falling to the district and the taxpayers. >> And so, it it means that we have to with our current structure, if the state has a very broad plan that covers lots of different things fully, maybe that a private insurance, like I have in business, doesn't cover maybe prescriptions that are only covered at the generic level where the state will cover a certain we're obligated to go with that bigger broader plan than what a corporation would be obligated to do for its employees where they can shop a more restrictive plan. >> So, only for NJEHP and Garden State Health Plan, those two plan designs were restricted to what the state has set up, but they are more restrictive than our existing plans. The The problem

092that we've encountered is basically adverse selection. So, the people who are needing higher benefits are staying in the higher cost plans, and you know, the newer employees and the employees who hardly ever go to the doctor, they're going into the lower cost plans. So, we no longer have higher premiums going in for all of our employees. So, now we have lower premium coming in, but our expenses on those legacy plans keep going up. So, the Our legacy plans have nothing to do with the state design. That's based on what's been in district for a long time, and the only way to change that is to negotiate it with the SEA. Um because we always have to do the same or better than whereas unless the state tells you you can do something else, which is

093where NJEHP came in. Um and if you know, if the state had done Chapter 44 differently, and instead of making it an option for people to enroll, and they said, "Okay, you can't have these old legacy plans anymore. You have to do these plan designs." We might be having a completely different conversation, but they didn't do that. So, it's an option for people who were hired prior to I think it was 2021. And you know, if you expect that you need higher benefits, you might stay in the existing higher cost plan. And that is a much broader plan that covers a lot more. >> And if you had your ear in the wall of the legislature and the governor's office, that's what they did. To appease everybody, they split it down the middle. They said,

094"Only first year people in your district have to go to this, but people that are remaining in your district don't have to." So, it was their way of kind of being King Solomon and trying to please everybody. >> So, it really goes back to what Eileen was saying. It really all lies with Trenton and how they define these plans. >> And and who the members are, who goes into those plans. That's the most important thing because if you look at the state level, and Aaron can confirm this, at the state level as well as our district level, the New Jersey Educators Plan and the Garden State Plan are running well. It's the legacy plans in our in school districts that are not. >> And isn't that what pro- prohibits us from once we pay off

095this deficit of shopping our plans to private insurance or to full insurance? Is that legacy plan? Doesn't that kind of put >> No, once you Again, Aaron Aaron confirmed >> inherit that kind of plan? >> Aaron confirmed it. No, we would we would never be able to leave the legacy plan as it is right now with that deficit. But if we pay off that deficit, we can leave that legacy plan. >> Well, you have to create a new >> So, we can. However, Go ahead, Aaron. >> Oh. Sorry. >> Um I think what Jeff is saying, if we were to shop these plans, we could certainly get them from a carrier. They're just going to be expensive. You know, if you're doing fully insured, they're going to look at your experience from the past, and

096they're going to base the rates on that. So, if we might be able to shop it, it doesn't mean we're going to get something better than what we're doing in district at self-insured. >> Well, also, too, when you look at these plans with the the legacy plan, the people are the the If you're enrolled as a single, you're barely paying I don't I think it's like $300 a year. That's why I wouldn't leave that plan. Like it's so cheap. >> I'm not sure that Erin that accurate $300 a year. >> In a legacy plan definitely not cuz that's based on chapter 78. So that's a percentage of the premium based on your salary. Um I'm not sure what people are paying if they have single I it's really it's 1 and 1/2% of your salary.

097So it all depends, right? So if you take single benefits and you make $35,000 a year, you're only paying 1% of that or 1.5%. >> Any more questions? >> If you take the cuz there's NJEHP and then Garden State which runs through the in-state providers. >> Any more questions for Erin or me? Okay, hearing none. >> You say none? >> Thank you Dr. Lobby and thank you Erin for that clarification and thank you Mr. Boland for your time. >> Thank you Erin. Give the baby a hug and a kiss for us. Thank you. >> Will do. Have a good night. >> Good night. Okay. And I'll open the floor to public participation on budget items only. >> Whatever What do we call this? >> Okay, so >> My Do I have to speak in here?

098>> All right, it's a little unorthodox but please state your name and and your address and please be advised you'll be recognized for >> I live at 155 Norton Street, South Amboy, New Jersey. Um what I want to say is this I'm not going to take up 5 minutes or 3 minutes, whatever it is, but I do want to say something and there's not one I cannot believe that not one single taxpayer is here. Everybody's complaining about the municipal budget then you then concern yourself with the school board budget. So, I'm very surprised nobody's here, but because nobody's here, I am going to speak up on behalf of all the taxpayers of Sayville. While we love the school, we think Dr. Labbe is doing a great job, and we certainly don't blame Dr. Labbe or

099Erin or any of the administrators for the deficit that we're in, but we do have to blame the state of New Jersey. And as taxpayers of every district in this in the state, we need as taxpayers we need to step up to the plate and stop this nonsense. So, please I know that you have to vote for your budget, and you can't be in a deficit, but the deficit will not go away until Trenton wakes up, and this governor, the new governor, takes action to fix this problem. It's not a legislation, oh let's fix it, we'll give you some money back. This is let's fix the problem. So, thank you very much. Have a great day. >> Thank you, Ms. Pabone, for your participation. Any other members of the public wish to speak? Seeing none,

100I close public session. I'll now entertain >> [laughter] >> Yeah, yeah, I was about to do that. >> Ms. Pabone, be quiet. >> I'll now entertain a motion to adopt the budget. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Callahan and Mr. Walsh. Roll call, Ms. Prashad. >> Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Mr. Callahan. >> Yes. >> Fernandez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Napolitano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pabone. >> Now, what are we voting on this time? >> The whole budget. >> The budget the budget >> The budget. >> Unfortunately, I am going to have to vote no because of the reasons I've already stated. Not because I don't believe we do a good job here in Sayreville, but because I think I think the state of New Jersey has to fix this problem, and until they do, I cannot

101vote for a band-aid. Sorry. >> Mr. Smith. >> I will vote yes. >> Mr. Walsh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fernandez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Carries. >> Now we move on to board discussions. Personnel Committee. >> Good evening. The Personnel Committee met earlier this evening to review the current and projected staffing needs for the district. We continue to monitor openings for both this year and next year as part of our ongoing planning. We also discussed recruitment efforts including recent job fairs at Kean University and our upcoming district career fair on May 2nd. In addition, we reviewed substitute requirements and the importance of maintaining a strong pool of qualified substitutes to support daily operations. And finally, any new hires and retirements are all on the agenda for approval later tonight. Thank you. >> And I'm sure those

102will be very briefly reviewed. >> I Eric Stovering? Yes. >> Thank Thank you for that, Mr. Callahan. Now on to Governance, Mr. Palatano. >> So the Governance Committee met and during the meeting we provided an update on the use of internet and April devices for the 2026-2027 school year. We also reviewed a policy 5514 about student use of vehicles on school grounds. And it was signed by the governor which will go into effect on July 1st to restrict children under the age of 15 from operating an e-bike. And then we did minor revisions to policy 5514 which I forgot what which will be presented um tonight for the first reading. And then we shared additional legal updates along with information on potential other legislation and that was it. >> Thank you, Mr. Palatona. >> it

103was, right? Okay. >> Any questions for Mr. Palatona? Seeing none, moving on to student achievement, Ms. Bloom. >> Okay. I I will not do this as well as Kim does. I'm just going to condense a little bit. >> Does anybody [clears throat] do anything as good as Kim does? >> Well, we got a state We got a state testing update from Kim. Um every letter in the alphabet is used in naming these tests, so I won't bore you with that. But July testing uh will be available for those who need it. Then the current juniors are being offered the opportunity to take the Accuplacer after they take the uh testing and if they need that as a graduation pathway. She also listed all of the opportunities that our students will have if they need them

104over the summer. Um Camp XL, which is for our students with disabilities uh learning acceleration, ESL small group tutoring, AP boot camp, credit completion for middle school, credit recovery for high school. So there are plenty of opportunities if anyone is faltering to get this fixed over the summer and um get their diploma if that is what they need to do or come back and move on to the next level of their education. Project Before updates from Audrey, uh literacy initiative with Dr. Kuntz who visited the classrooms. And there is also uh piloting Tools of the Mind in two classrooms in each building. And then Ms. Burke spoke about the professional development June staff development update. The new teachers workshops uh have wrapped up for the year. Summer learning series dates are confirmed, four days, 12

105sessions. Consultant coaching updates, K through 3 with Dr. Coons working on these as well as at the UES. Climate change grant update, the fifth graders went to Liberty Science Center, so that's a wonderful outcome of one of our grants. And the new focus competitive grant, which is a two-year grant, and we will be filing for that. If we get it, it will be $14,000. And that's it for student achievement. >> Thank you, Ms. Bloom. Since you did such a great job on it, how about you also give us an update on the Middlesex County School Board? >> I thought you'd never ask. Middlesex County School Board Association, didn't do it at the last meeting because the kids were here, but I do want to acknowledge that Sayreville hosted the Unsung Heroes on March 26th, and

106this is sponsored by Middlesex County School Boards Association. I want to thank the ROTC for presenting the colors, Colonel Tomasi and Master Sergeant Sang. I want to thank Afterburner for providing the music, and that is our faculty music group. I also want to thank the Leos under the advisership of Dawn Kaszubowski for helping with setup, serving, and cleanup. We had over 350 guests. It was a delightful evening. Dr. Labbe spoke briefly. And I helped present awards, we take turns. So, it was our first endeavor, but it was successful. We had a a little head butting, but otherwise everything worked out well. I also want to mention that the next meeting is at The Pines on May 20th at 6:00 p.m., and our own Kate Burns film will be shown as they honor her for receiving

107that award from the state. And last but not least, we had the Hall of Fame 20th anniversary banquet on Saturday. I want to thank Dr. Labby, Mr. Glahosky, Mr. Salem, and John Wisniewski for being our speakers. Again, the ROTC afterburn, the chorus, the jazz band for all helping to make that evening a success. And if you don't know, the inductees were Justin Iacuzzi, Matt McIver, Kim Moltag, Ashish Mohalcar, and Eric Morel. >> And I just want to point out that during the Unsung Heroes, it was not my head that she was butting. >> [laughter] >> I butt heads with everyone. >> Well, thank you for that update, Ms. Bone. I now open the floor to participation for agenda items only. >> [snorts] >> Seeing since there's not a mad rush to the podium, we'll close

108public. Any comments from the board or questions on the agenda items? Seeing none, entertain a motion to to approve the agenda. What What are you doing, Ms.? >> You want to do the You don't want to do the superintendent's report? >> I really do I want to? No, not really. >> [laughter] >> All right, please go ahead. >> I got to read the retirements. Okay, so I'll go I'll go I'll go briskly. Um so, let's go finance. Um number 15, pages four and five. Just want to give a special shout-out to Mr. Eric Cutts and family. Um they they went ahead and proposed if if they could go ahead and restore and repair the pitcher's mound at the the middle school on the softball field at about $500 in expenses. So, we can't thank them

109enough for that very generous donation, Eric Cutts and family. Um number 16, which you can find on page five, we're asking you to approve the submission of the funding for optimal comprehension universal screeners grant application. It's for an award of about a $14,152. The purpose of it is to support the district in purchasing and implementing high-quality universal literacy screening tools that it will enhance literacy identify early literacy identification and instruction in kindergarten through third grade. Number 20, which you can find on page five, we're asking you to approve an extension of the lease. Big one here um for the Bombers Beyond Cafe. So, we want to extend the lease. Mr. Naster negotiated this. We can't thank him enough for that. Um it now brings the lease through June 30th, 2000 30. So, that's awesome. We'll

110have a Bombers Beyond Cafe at 132 Main Street, thanks to Mr. Naster, through 2020-30. Um number 21, you can find on page six. Um I mentioned this earlier. We're asking you to approve the submission of the land and building acquisition to be used for the district's bus transportation complex um to the New Jersey Department of Education for review and department approval of an other capital project. Um and we're asking you to allow the Spiezle Group to do this. This is obviously what we've been talking about. Um so, this is an important part um to purchasing that property. Number 22, which you can find on page six, we're asking you to approve a contract with CDW Government. And that's basically part of a cooperative purchasing agreement that we have with the Educational Services Commission of New

111Jersey. And it's for technology supplies and services regarding print management. Mr. Glock Maloy has been hard at work on that. Number three, which you can find on page six, um we all know that we have to all we have to pay down a surplus that we have in our food services enterprise account. This is going to go a long way toward doing that. Um we're asking you to approve a a contract with Spiezle, our architect, for the the services needed to go ahead and replace a kitchen hood at the Searles Middle School that's in uh desperate need of replacement. And that's for the cost of $20,960. Again, it's being paid for out of the food services enterprise account. Um number 29, big one here, too. Um we're asking you to approve, and thank you to

112Ms. Grossman, um Mr. Howard, Mr. Glauski, and Dr. um uh Caruso for this. Um our band has not had a new uniform since I started as superintendent 12 years ago. And we're asking you to approve um the purchase of their new uniforms at a cost of $74,521. Number 49, which you can find in the addendum, we do need you to approve a change order with Shorelands Construction. That's the company that's doing our solar completion project at the high school. Um as they were doing some work, they noticed some bolts that were not as secure as they should be. Obviously, that is a safety condition that we don't want to have. So, we're going to pay them now to all the existing work that the previous vendor did, they're going to go through and make sure

113everything on on um those solar carports are secure. So, that's at a cost of $4,290. And that will still leave us with $35,710 um if we need to do more change orders. All right? Any questions on those or other items in finance and infrastructure? Yes. >> Uh number 19 on page five is about the lawn maintenance service. >> Yes. >> And I noticed that when you're facing the school, okay, the right side where that secondary field is, between our school >> Which school? >> The high school. >> Okay. Between our high school and the library, that front lawn section, there's a massive tree that's split. And the half of the tree has been down for months. It's all jagged-looking, and I'm just afraid that some little middle schooler's going to walk that way and get

114hurt. >> So >> I don't know if the lawn service >> on the agenda, though. So I think lawn services wouldn't do that. >> They wouldn't remove debris on the lawn? They just work around it? >> Uh oh, there's I I didn't know that there's debris on there, but they really probably wouldn't >> Okay. >> Yeah, I I'm I just >> our lawn service wouldn't do that. That Our grounds department actually cuts that grass. >> Okay. Okay. >> Our grounds. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions on finance and infrastructure? All right. So let's go on to governance. Uh Mrs. Napolitano addressed some of these. Um number three, we are asking you to approve the 2026 summer hours for the for the dates um that are listed there for you, and

115that's for all of our 12-month employees, particularly administrators, secretaries, technicians, and technology engineers. Number four, um we're asking you to approve revisions to the secretary to the middle school uh principal job description. And number eight, Mrs. Napolitano I'm referencing this earlier, because of the change in the law uh with regard to e-bikes, you can now no longer um operate an e-bike under the age of 15. Um we needed to revise that policy so that it reflected that for the next school year. And I do want to make a comment about this. I As superintendent, I far too often see too many of either our students or or other children in Sayreville riding either an e-bike or a regular bicycle without a helmet. And please parents, if you're listening, please do not let your children ride

116a bicycle, particularly an e-bike, without a helmet. I know Mr. Smith, you you're you're you're you see too many cases where kids have had disastrous head injuries. >> Yeah, it's it's it's a law for it's a law, but just common sense. If you're riding a bike, you're riding a e-bike, riding a motorcycle, moped, whatever, wear a helmet. It'll save your life. >> So, we're going to be vigilant in the district making sure that if you are of age to drive take an e-bike to school, um or a bicycle to school, that you're going to be wearing a helmet or you're not going to be allowed to do so. Um I I think that's that important. >> Can I make a comment, too? >> Sure. >> I just want to tell the parents that um if

117you think your kids going to get away with it, think again. If they get caught riding an e-bike without registration, without insurance, >> and a helmet, they will not get their driver's license until they are 21 years old. >> Good point. >> a guy riding one of those e-bike, the scooter kind, young kid, no helmet, going like as fast as that bike could go on Route 9. >> Yeah, it's a disaster waiting to happen. >> So, parents, pay attention. Your kid will not get their license if they get caught. So, don't think you could be slick and get away with it. Your kid will be suffering, walking till they're 20 what? Sev- sev- No, till they're 21. You don't get your license till you're 21. Yeah, so >> And Sayreville police have Sayreville police have

118posted all over their social media that they will start enforcing the >> They got me for the snow. They better get these kids for them e-bikes. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Mrs. Babilonia and Mr. Smith. Okay. Any questions on those items on governance or student achievement? No. All right, and then let's move on to personnel. I'm going to skip over number one. Um but number eight, as well as 35 and 36, which you can find on page 24 in the addendum, obviously we're asking you to hire new personnel. This time it's certificated staff for next year and non-certificated staff for this school year. Number nine, which you can find on pages 24 and 25, we're asking you to approve the transfer of non-certificated staff for this school year. And numbers 12 and 13, we're asking

119you to approve of of coaches with their stipends for the 2027 20 26-27 school year, as well as volunteers um for this school year. And you can find all of that on pages 25 and 27. So, moving back up to number one, we are we do have that bittersweet moment where we have to say goodbye and wish all the best to beloved long-time employees. And why don't we begin with Mark Sikora, uh who is a science teacher at the high school. More importantly, I think Mr. Sikora is a physics uh science teacher at the high school and a remarkable one at that. After 25 years at Sayreville War Memorial High School, we celebrate the remarkable career and well-earned retirement of Mark Sikora, a beloved physics teacher and valued colleague. Mr. Sikora graduated from Cornell University

120earning his BS in uh in 1986 and a master's in science and mechanical engineering in 1987. From 1987 to 1992, he worked as an engineer for a submarine company applying his passion for science and problem-solving in a very highly technical field. Later, from 1994 to 2000, he took his expertise and adventurous into an adventurous direction working as a this is so cool a dive instructor in the British Virgin Islands. And if you know Mr. Sikora, this is right up his alley. He he's he's a very cool man. In 2001, Mr. Sacca brought his diverse experiences and deep knowledge of physics to Sayreville War Memorial High School. Throughout his tenure then, he inspired generations of students with his real-world perspective, definitely his humor, and his dedication to learning. His commitment to his students and his craft

121has left a lasting impact on the school community. Mr. Sacca has truly been a cornerstone of the Sayreville War Memorial High School Science Department, and he's going to be greatly missed. We congratulate him on his outstanding career, and wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement. And on a personal level, I did have the opportunity when I was at high school to work with Mr. Sacca. Very very quiet man. Um, you know, one of those guys that like wore a hard you you would picture, you know, just the consummate professional. Wearing a hard hat to work, you know, lunch pail, coming in every single day, doing his job, and doing it to the best of his ability. Um, kids loved him, teachers loved him. He's going to be greatly missed. Next, Kelly Petrone. Over

122the course of her career in Sayreville, Mrs. Petrone has served students and staff across four buildings. That would be Samsel Elementary School, Eisenhower, Truman, Wilson, and Project Before. Bringing her expertise, creativity, and compassion to each school community. Mrs. Petrone has supported a diverse population of learners, consisting uh uh consistently designing engaging, individualizing, and highly targeted lessons that address virtual acuity and tracking, as well as spatial processing, fine motor skills development, and visual motor integration. Her sessions are thoughtfully crafted to incorporate play, which ensures that students remain motivated, confident, and naturally very excited to learn. As a lifelong learner, Mrs. Petrone has always been enthusiastic about discovering new strategies and resources to best meet the needs of all of her students. She is a collaborative professional who values an interdisciplinary approach, working closely with the child

123study team, the teachers, administrators, physical and speech therapist, along with her fellow occupational therapist. She not only learns from others, but generously shares the tools and techniques that have contributed to her students' success over the many years. Mrs. [clears throat] Petrone loves to decorate and takes great pride in creating warm, welcoming therapy spaces. She has many interests that will keep her very busy during her retirement. You will be able to find her on the beach, kayaking, or in her garden. Among friends and colleagues, Mrs. Petrone is known for being an amazing chef, as well as an accomplished gardener. One of her co-workers once asked her for a macaroni and cheese recipe. She responded that she had it with lots of butter and even more love. Mrs. Petrone puts her heart into all that she does,

124as reflected in the consistent progress her students have made in reaching their goals. Mrs. Petrone will be sorely missed. And I too had the opportunity, when I first started in the district, um to work very closely with Mrs. Petrone. And she again, as with Mrs. Zaccari, is the consummate professional. Comes to work every day dedicated on one thing, and that's promoting the optimum learning outcomes for her students. So, she'll be surely missed, and we can't thank her enough for all that she's done for her students and our district. And Donna Pepore, it is with great pride and gratitude that we announce the upcoming retirement of Donna Prepora. Donna has been a passionate educator at the Truman School for the past 34 years. For over three decades, she has provided countless opportunities for her students to

125learn and grow. Her various positions have included ASI math, first grade teacher, and finally reading specialist. While in this final role, Ms. Prepora has also served as Truman's mentor coordinator, sharing her love for teaching and and those just beginning their careers. In addition to being a dedicated teacher of reading, Ms. Prepora volunteers her time to many committees, including but not limited to to the skip committee, the RTI committee, theater week, and being Truman's unofficial party planner. Donna began her time in Sayreville um in the Sayreville School District at 5 years old when she was a kindergarten student at the Arleth School, moving on to the Sayreville Junior High School and eventually graduating from Sayreville War Memorial High School, bringing truth to the words once a bomber, always a bomber. Donna has been the heart of

126the Truman School for many years, but clearly Sayreville is in her heart as always. We thank Ms. Prepora for making a difference in the lives of countless children in the Sayreville community over the very many years she has been here with us. While we are saddened to see her leave, we are excited for the new chapter that awaits her. Please join us all in thanking Ms. Prepora for her exceptional services to the Sayreville Public Schools. We wish her hap- her a happy, fulfilling, and well-deserved retirement. Thank you, Donna, for your years of dedication. You will be greatly missed by all those who have been fortunate enough to call you teacher, colleague, and of course friend. And on a personal level, while I have not had the of working closely with her um as superintendent. I

127will say in terms of a little nostalgia, um she was actually a teacher at the Arleth School when I did my student teaching there in 1993. So, uh we can't thank her enough for all that she's done for the many, many teachers that have been in Sayreville, including yours truly, um for the many, many years she's been with us. And we wish her all the best in her retirement. And Mr. Fernandez, again not being as brief as I would have liked to have been, I see that smile, Mr. Smith, um but that does conclude my report. >> Now everyone sees why I skipped over your presentation. Any comments from board? Now I'll entertain a >> B- B- Before you would Before you would join Oh, we Oh, you're going to vote on the agenda, right?

128>> [clears throat] >> Okay. Now I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda items. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Mr. Napolitano. Mr. Smith, Mr. Mr. Mr. Napolitano. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Bloom? >> Yes. >> Mr. Callahan? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hernandez? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Napolitano? >> Yes. >> Fabiano? >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walsh? >> Yes. >> Mr. Fernandez? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. And now open the floor to any participation from the public on any matters. Seeing none, we close pub- public participation. Any comments from the rest of our board? Mr. Bloom? >> I I do have one uh announcement here. Excuse me. >> Do we have to separate you? >> Yes. >> [laughter] >> The The Sayreville Veterans Alliance would like to know if

129any members of the Board of Education are planning on marching in the Memorial Day Parade. The parade is on Monday, May 25th, and will kick off at 10:00 a.m. If you are planning to attend, please be at Elizabeth Street and Washington Road by 9:30 to be lined up by the parade marshal. And if you go and uh we have a banner, feel free to bring it. Anybody who's interested in going, you can let me know and I'll pass it on. If not, thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Bloom. Any other comments? >> I If I may, I'd like to make a closing comment. And we mentioned earlier that um, you know, Aaron is going to be returning next week. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Arlene Reschada for all that she's done

130for our district um in Aaron's absence. Arlene, >> [applause] >> Thank you. I'll miss you all. >> Well, we can't thank you enough for your dependability, your reliability, and just for giving us the opportunity to get to know you and work with you. You've truly been a pleasure and a delight. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I'd like to echo uh Dr. Labi's comments. It has been a pleasure. And I know stepping into a role as you did so abruptly can can never be easy. So, thank you uh for for the excellent job that you did. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure working with you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next meetings are going to be Tuesday, May 19th, 2026, and Tuesday, June 16th, 20 uh 26. Motion to

131adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Aye. >> Ms. >> Aye. >> Ms. Bloom and Mr. Smith. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Eyes have it.