001we do not all right we will move right into superintendent comments Dr JY uh I just I want to comment on two uh Tim events right now one is that our spring Sports season has begun and we have our new flag football team that has started practicing so opening night might be next might be next week I think um is it the 26th or 2 so um come one come all but it's what's really nice too is our a number of our fall football coaches are actually volunteering along with the paid coaches who all I believe are are uh football Co are members of our fall football coaching staff so that's really nice um so that's exciting and then we had another little event this past weekend at the high school we had our annual
002School Musical which Sophie was involved in she did uh helped with the sound for the show it was amazing I know a number of board members availed themselves of the performance uh and because it was a family friendly friendly performance I came to the Saturday MAA with my son uh as did a number of teachers came with their kids and the the characters came out to decorate cookies with the kids before the show and um I think a lot of the kids while they like watching The Adams Family on TV to see the characters dressed up that close to them it took them a little while to then uh talk to them and uh and warm up to them but the cast was phenomenal the show was phenomenal we also had a pretty cool addition
003to our Saturday performance we had ALS interpreters uh in during that performance we had a family in the Community Reach Out that has deaf members of their family and asked if we were going to have a a show that had ALS interpreters and I'm actually surprised we've never gotten that request before so we looked into it and we were able to find an organization that provides that um so we are actually going to look to budget to have hopefully a a fall per one of our performances of our fall play and one of our performances of our spring music will include that each year because it just makes it a more inclusive show um and it's likely that we do have other families in the community that could take advantage of that so U that
004was kind of a nice addition to that so anyway the the show was phenomenal if anyone else wants to make comments later when uh Mr bernberg uh you know asked for additional comments but the show was outstanding we have such talented students and staff um everyone who worked on the show did a really really nice job and it was a really nice Community event and we've already actually talked about I was talking to U Miss Lee before about how we can get word out to even more of the community so that they're aware that this is going on and and how they can get so that's all thank you thank you I too had the opportunity to see the musical they let me come to see the dress rehearsal which was uh excellent and I
005truly appreciate them allowing me to join I just have one other comment uh we got word that the biliteracy test is in June and I know we've had success with respect to the biliteracy test and the only reason why bring it up is that I know the state is continuing to make a huge push to lit and I think we've had great success in by literacy uh gives us they double the credit almost on literacy and I just hope that the state takes notice of that and appreciates the work that we're doing to fulfill their goals that's all I have Mr sty business thank you Mr President I uh the only thing I have is I'm gonna be talking about budget tonight again so I figured i' rather then expand on that we'll wait till
006that comes up okay we are fortunate to have our student Representatives tonight uh Miss Sophie lamb and jul Miss s Juliana Santos not sure who's going to speak first but take it away okay so this month's student achievements are as followed the model un Club traveled to Philadelphia for the Phil model un conference hosted by ID they demonstrated exceptional skill in diplomacy public speaking and Leadership competing against students from across the region Aaron harat and author of Gupta received the best position paper award and roxan nazrin and Leah Sarah Fogle were recognized as best delegates in the respective committees this remarkable success is a testament to the hard work of our students the outstanding leadership of Club President Aaron harat and the unwavering dedication of our chaperon Miss bow the results for Math League contest
007number four are in and we are currently fourth in the county 11th overall our last meet is coming up and final results will be available soon a big thank you to coach cardi for working with the students these past weeks Aaron Lennox Nico melus Alex key and Zachary Rubin were accepted into one of the two New Jersey All State bands this year this is a tremendous honor representing the culmination of a great deal of hard work and dedication these students are among the finest young musicians in the entire State and we are incredibly proud to have them represent wung Hills Wong Hills students made a strong showing at the Peter Val Peters Valley art show with numerous participants displaying their incredible talents among the many impressive Works Ella pruskowski ceramic sculpture stood out and earned
008the honorable mention the piece was a stunning example of realistic sculpting in clay to create a sea turtle congratulations to Ella and Nina duza Julia Goldberg Natalia Rodriguez Ava provincal Anna avenil Elise provincal yma folk Alex Andra Rivera and Lea Pier Louie who participated in this fantastic event congratulations Caitlyn Johnstone who has worked tremendously hard over the last four years balancing academics along with Athletics Caitlyn was selected to the National field hockey coaches association 2024 High School National academic Squad now continuing on with our student achievements senior student David Woo was selected as a 2025 car scholar David was chosen because he demonstrates the highest standards of academic achievement integrity and Civic and social responsibility Christine Lee 11th grade applied and was accepted to the big future ambassadors program for spring 2025 big future ambassadors
009are a community of students who volunteer because they want to help their friends and share free career and college resources on social media at school or in conversations with friends congratulations to Antonio Luca for being named watchong Hills regionals 2025 unsung hero Antonio was presented with the award on March 3rd at Somerset County votek Antonio was honored for his hard work positive attitude and kindness towards others moving on to our school events Mr Ken Carnes and Mr sha new ran the St baldrick's fundraiser to raise money to prevent Childhood Cancer Mr cares Mr new Mr O'Reilly Mr dman and Dr laera had their head shaved into funny Style chosen by the sophomores who raised the most money on March 8th they shaved their heads as part of the fundraiser wh chess was able to raise
010almost $22,000 cultural celebrity chef was held on February 20th in jym 78 students made a variety of foods that were specific to their culture religion or ethnic group several hundred students came and participated and tried the food during lunch and finally for our athletic update spring Sports started on March 10th everyone is up and running without a glitch and the weather has been spectacular all of our winter teams have concluded their Seasons several individuals in wrestling and fencing did very well in their respective individual championships Sarah Zang won the individual saber state championship in fencing Gabby gacon made history by being the first Medal winner in watchong Hills history and placing seventh in the individual girls wrestling championship and Anthony Deandrea finished third in the indidual boys wrestling championship and that is all for our
011student report thank you very much certainly appreciate that um back to the budget presentation it's your chance get another opportunity okay welcome everybody um not to bore you I I really don't want to bore you but um we are going to repeat some some of the information you've the board has already heard um because literally the numbers are kind they're really the same they haven't really changed um we're going to add a few slides in that kind of show some of the items that we have done over the past couple years actually even longer and some of the things we're doing now um and Liz will talk about some of the programs we have for the students um already mentioned the play which was was awesome I sat next to Juliana and her mom that
012was awesome um but anyway so as every yeah we we always thank the board of education for all the work that they do to help us out uh through the board meetings and obviously through the Committees we do have our committees and the board is very engaged and we do a lot of work through the year the budget is a a year-long project every year um and the board is very helpful so we thank them um our budget timeline where we are obviously tonight is the Board needs to vote on the preliminary budget which is submitted to the county office tomorrow that is the due date the statutory due date and then the county has about a month to approve the budget uh we will have an advertisement in the paper once they do and
013the public hearing on the budget is April 29th that's when the public has an opportunity to uh budet discuss the budget and as uh Dr Jud always mentions the the the Strategic plan which we are in the midst of working on getting a consultant as we speak um this is a big part of our budget it it does Drive what we spend money on all our discussions with our supervisors it's it's a very critical thing because it leads us and it focuses us in a direction which is a good thing I mentioned that the last meeting our enrollment is almost flat we're down about 20 students a little less that's something we all know and have talked about um on the new front the things that we have included in the budget since our budget
014is so technology intensive um it is absolutely critical that we maintain uh the latest Technologies obviously the Chromebooks that was a big deal during covid but it still is it's a huge deal and it helps us actually eliminate a lot of viruses and things like that um because we have control over the devices uh we replace laptops every four to five years and then a TV studio upgrade is a big piece of it um again that's something that's been long overdue and something we did not want to take out of the budget uh technology infrastructure that that is basically adding more um access points for our internet and then we have marching band instruments um new always we always add security cameras when they when they come um P due and then the um uh
015the office phones that's that's a phase one it's going to be a two-phase project he knows how technology how technologically intensive that piece of the budget is uh in terms of capital costs we we I would say we have more but these are the ones that are the most critical ones we have some more security improvements and I don't get into details here um for obvious reasons and then the HVAC we have a condensate tank that needs to be replaced and that is in the south building uh in the maintenance Arena we have some significant fum Hood repairs for our science rooms um they were just asking about that two days ago I said guys it's in next year's budget so hold on um door Replacements we have a lot of door Replacements each year
016and we try to do as much as we can they're very expensive and the IT data rooms um as we get more uh intense with technology it's kind of critical to keep those data rooms cool um because if they're not they can overheat and it can damage the equipment um one of our strategies to help us um get down to cap and and reduce the costs were was the use of reserves we're fortunate enough to have significant reserves um where we can use them at time to time and I don't like to use them all the time but we use them in in a pinch and this is one of those years in a pinch so those last items that we talked about these capital and maintenance items they're purely funded by cap Capital uh
017reserve and maintenance Reserve so the net tax levy impact for those projects is is zero because of the use of reserves um we also had to take we had to make some very difficult budget cuts and this is something we talked about at the last meeting 3.2 full-time positions about $350,000 um some key items in our curriculum uh we have a 5% across the board cut in supplies U so we're going to have to tighten a belt on our supply ordering uh uniforms we pushed out another year so we told the ad make it a four-year process as opposed to a three and we had a parchment a digital program that we wanted to put into the budget that we had to take out it's something we we sely need we have old students Rec
018records we want to put them on a digital platform uh but obviously there are more important things in the budget so we pulled that out and uh uh things that we talked about last meeting in terms of Transportation limiting late buses and reducing some of the athletic field trips maybe doubling up on a maybe instead of having three buses we have to squeeze a little tighter and have two buses on a trip fewer trips th those kind of things and finally we added uh an estimate of $100,000 to extraordinary Aid Revenue which is a state aid um to typically I I don't like to go too high because the state can always cut that out so whatever I add on to that any any any Revenue that we don't get is essentially a budget shortfall
019so it's always a risk however I can tell you in 32 years we've always gotten it so it's it's something I don't see them taking but you never know so it's always a little risky um in terms of the overall numbers uh we talked about it last time uh the overall budget the operating budget not the overall budget it's 3.7% increase um couple of items just to point out the tuition is almost flat and that's mainly and I spoke about at the last meeting that's because we have fewer Greenbrook students coming our way um because the rate went up but the number of students actually went down um and the tax levy is at 41 4.1% because we are using a couple of waivers that we talked about at the last meeting one of those
020is the healthc care waiver and the other one is Bank cap essentially from Health Care a healthcare wave we didn't use in the past on the expenditure side same thing 3.7% um the numbers I talked about last time the special ed tuition was the number that I brought up that's year toe um I gave you a two-year look which is was roughly a million dollars um and then the other thing that kind of jumps out the salary and benefits but a large part of that increase is the health benefits the salaries went up about a little less than 2% when you cut when you took those we took those three positions out and the health care was up about around 12% originally uh budgeted at 14% but we dropped three people so that was that
021made a big difference um per pupil cost bu comparisons this is something that we do in with certain Regional districts like ours similar areas and you can see we're the lowest one on the totem pole which is a good thing um in terms of cost uh some of those are Regional though some you got to remember where they are Essex County Burg so some of those counties the costs are a little higher it's kind of a weird thing that New Jersey has like this like like North Jersey is more expensive than middle than Central Jersey which I don't even know if it exists but South Jersey is always a little bit lower I don't get it but it is what it is if you live up there you know but again we're the lowest on
022that grouping and just wanted to talk real briefly about a couple of financial things that I always talk about um but I wanted to throw numbers so you can see what we were talking about so in between 2016 and now we did three referendum projects that were unique in that we did not um add any money to The Debt Service to the debt for the school essentially what we did was we used our own Capital reserves our own Surplus and we were able to get state aid through Debt Service Aid we took out loans or basically uh short-term notes of one year or two years and paid them off with our capital reserve and estate Aid so that almost $13 million of capital projects that didn't add anything to the tax levy again that's something
023I think that's something that the board should be proud of um and it goes into that item that I think when when spel was here they talked about 21 or 22 million were the projects that we did over certain period time well this is a big piece of it right here again it was funded through our own capital reserve and State a um this was an EIP project this was another piece of that $21 million so the EA project um total cost was $6.7 Million uh the there's a lease within our budget that covers some of these costs included 14 new high efficiency rooftop units um which was great because they were sorely needed um and some of the other energy it items including internal lighting we we made it all LEDs and some of
024the results and this is you know threeyear look so 2223 and this is from July to February and the reason I did that is because obviously I don't have the numbers for this year yet for March but from July 22 to February 23 you could see our usage take a look at the electric usage kilowatt per hour you know 2.8 million um and it cost about 355,000 for that period of time in the current year that's dropped down to a million 344 and a cost of 168,000 and I think Mr Gall mentioned that at the last meeting it's something that we we did and you could see the results um and on top of that I did mention in one of the bullet points uh we over those three years we've received and I got
025one more coming but it's $500,000 of utility rebates that we're getting that helps helps us with our budget so that was a significant project but it obviously it's it's paying some dividends as we speak so that that's a good thing and with that I'm going to pass the uh mic over to Dr JT she can talk about some of our student accomplishments very briefly this is mostly the Mr sty show tonight um but last meeting some of the board members had asked if we could talk about since we were talking you know about some very serious cuts talk about some of the amazing things that our budget provides for um and just like Tim said you should all be very proud of what we've accomplished in terms of the major construction projects that have not
026only just improved our our building structure and and the safety and and the environment that we're providing for our students but they've allowed us to offer new programs um this space is outstanding we have our Design Lab uh we have our upgraded ceramic studio all that was part of the the slide that uh Tim just talked about with the construction projects what I just wanted to highlight were some of the accomplishments that are a result of the board's support for the budget this board does an outstanding job of providing exceptional opportunities for our students and doing it in a very responsible way to the taxpayers and that's no small feat so these are just some of our for our Seasons that we've had thus far this year um our competition cheer team earned conference County
027and state titles our girls fencing Epi earned uh the county Championship recognition volleyball were also County Champions and our wrestling team were also Somerset County Champions and the students in their report just included an update on how our wrestlers did down in Atlantic City as well um and this year I believe we had eight female members of our wrestling team uh which is is pretty cool as well and then on our next slide this is just some highlights from what some of our social media postings on our accomplishments um this year is still underway so a lot of this is is from last year but we have semi-finalists named every year uh in the uh National Merit Scholarship program uh we always are very competitive in math New Jersey Math League and amtnj um we
028have students earn spots in the New Jersey Congressional Arts competition we have therapy Dogs visit during lunch uh we have obviously our musical performances uh our environmental Club plants a tree every year uh on Arbor Day we have all of our Arts performances our honor societies this was actually last year's musical Pippen we were recognized by cyber start America we have our Hills hacks program our career day program which will be upcoming for this year cultural celebrity chef which was just mentioned our uh baldrick's Foundation St baldrick's Foundation event that has become recurring our speech and debate team that earns U State and National recognition uh our uh students earned spots in the All State Orchestra and the vocal and other instrumental ensembles so these are just you know a smattering of a very small
029sampling of what we offer our students and the achievements that they earn um as a result of that so just a reminder that you know we end up focusing on what we are having to remove from the budget um because of the budgetary constraints but what we were able to provide for the students here um is is really unique and outstanding and you know I'm gushing about the musical at the beginning of the meeting because it's such an amazing opportunity for our students in the show and for our community who get to come and experience the show um so it's things like that that make me so proud to be a part of the district and I just want to thank the board and I want to thank Mr sty um I'm going to try
030and not thank him every meeting from now until he retires but he really does a nice job with all of this um you know and and this is how far we've come because when we were going through dividing up the slides and in the beginning was the Strategic plan side he's like no I can do that one so he has now become a strategic plan devote and and can speak to that and all of the curricular goals related to the budget so I'll turn it back over to Mr sty now thank you Dr jid uh okay so um how do we pay for it so um each year this always kind of confuses people um but the numbers didn't change too much this year uh we've received from the state of New Jersey Department of
031Ed the tax allocation that allocation formula is based on valuations of the houses of three towns and also enrollment numbers um so if there's a change in in elementary enrollment if it goes up or down it's going to influence the amount of the tax allocation that each town is going to get meaning I think of as a pie your slice of p is going to be a little bigger or smaller depending on the the enrollment numbers and the values of the homes um the values of home numbers are a year old just so you understand that because the state always operates a year behind um so what you're seeing is you see Warren's valuation went up the the highest but uh long Hill's not too far behind there uh I think Wang in the current
032year went up a little bit more but in the last year was 2% and then on the elementary students side you see that the um Warren was almost flat whereas wung actually dropped in their Elementary uh number of students that means that um there was a greater number of regional students so that would drive that number up a little bit um and Long Hill actually their enrollment Elementary enrollment um went much higher say much higher 1.77% but high enough to affect this Fula and you could see the results on on the right so essentially Warren Gets 08 more of our allocation watch Young about 35 and Long Hill actually goes down a percent how that shakes out and this is a two-year thing don't forget because this allocation is for 25 and then you had
033to take in into account what happened in 24 so it's always kind of confusing but anyway for Warren um the average home went from 891 to 969 that's this is current numbers um 8.75% increase the tax rate actually drops 6.28% um and the regional tax for just our school now goes up for an average home to compared to last year's average home $66 which is about 2% in the burough of wung the houses average home values are up above 900,000 936 up 9% the tax rate is actually down 4% and the regional tax up 4.72% average home to average home $148 difference and for Long Hill uh the average home went up about 4% and the tax rate is just about flat went down just a little bit and the regional tax went up about
034$100 or $13 per home and that is the tax impact situation so thank you for your time we'll take uh questions I anything about there um we had some extra allocation of schedule def funds are they rolled into our general accounting or can we allocate them to something like a late bus or something so we so we budget all all of the um positions in the scheduled day which is the curricular and the um Sports for the school um yeah we we allocate them and um if we don't fill those positions the board can allocate it toward uh something else is is is I know there's some positions not filled there are they is that are those funds already reallocated in this budget or they is that a budgetary decision for the board the so
035the funds that are in this budget are allocated toward all of the positions right so if we do not fill those positions we can we can pivot and okay move to other things so that's a discussion I moving forward correct okay great thank can be if the board wishes he can when uh when you looked at the savings on the energy usage and you talked about the credits was it was that included in those bottom line numbers the credits were they included no th those numbers are are not including the the rebates rebates yeah that's great that's in addition to those yeah is it true that there were some Doge Representatives here helping with the right is it too soon sorry uh I know solar when you looked at the chart what do maybe I
036misread the chart the what would our expenses would have been versus what we paid or or got credit for in fact what's our savings each year it's hard hard figure out ballpark it th those numbers that you saw were based on what we're paying and what we're using right it did not take into effect what the rates are and what they were because the rates are have been going up I think we all know it and feel it so that's that's part of it so what I'm trying to get at so we spent 6 and a half million to put the panels up are we net saving well I mean based on that chart so we had spent I think it was about 355 I got all thises there's a lot of these so this
037was as of February 355 was the number right and right now we're at 168 that's correct yeah so it's it's hard to gauge because you got to look at the actual rates because the rates obviously have changed and clearly like like you I think Dan's right we would be up above four so well the question I have all right so if we look at the 355 so you put down cost is it costing us 355 so we have so we have a 15-year lease that we're paying off in a s so we're paying 355 for leasing the panels is that what I mean no no no you okay so you have a we have a 15-year lease not just the panels it's for all those other things that we included into this project okay now
038what happens is and what the thrust of the project was during that 15-year period those lease payments will be offset by the savings you're getting on electric and I don't have gas here gas um water bill um and you know and um adding the rebates into that so that that was the thrust of how that worked and I'm just trying to understand and quantify we don't have the full Years yet though sorry you really need the full years before you like you need like this is a good start but you need a full July to June to analyze this better because right now like you're missing we're going to miss May and June which you're going to get more it's going to be a little more electric intensified so we really need that period and
0392223 is our base year so it's kind of hard like this is just a snapshot of July to Fe February no I get that so in the future what I'd like to see is for what a fiscal year 19 fiscal year 20 what we spent in 19 what we spent in 20 what we spent in 21 and then guess what we saved in 22 including the utility rebates and see what our Delta is so to speak and then look at what the cost of the panels you know just solely that to see if we actually Ben benefit because we outlaid Capital which were reserved dollars versus operating costs and to see if they offset that's all I'm no you understand that we probably have but I'm not seeing the numbers no and and then the
040other piece of it too is there was a cost avoidance piece and when you're and again you may do it in your house if you have LED lighting as opposed to the the old the old lighting the old U fluorescent lighting you're not changing those bulbs nearly the same amount I I don't disagree we we studied uh a company years ago who has offered free light bulbs and they said they didn't want the free light bulbs because the cost of replacing the free light bulbs were so offset by paying for a more expensive light bulb that you didn't have to change I get that yeah and that's that's going to be a piece of that that number too again I want to thank you for your hard work and and just thank everyone on the
041board as well just more for the how we're really dedicated to the infrastructure and other things outside the actual classroom and we're certainly committed to that we keep saying that and I think that's important that the Public's aware of that thank you okay great oh no it's the first public comment period which will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second public comment period will be open to any topic all comments are limited to five minutes do we have any public comments five minutes that's all got if you have a public comment please uh come up to the podium state your name where you're from and more than welcome do we have anybody this evening okay seeing none we will move on to board discussion feel unheard do we have any board
042discussion this evening yes yes please goad the right time I want to make a motion to resend policy 5756 second it's one that's not mandatory 5756 could we have time to think about it and read about it and no anybody else have any an answer to my question I well it's not mandatory anymore okay right but I I'm not prepared to talk about it tonight I don't you're talking M I thought we had um advice to wait until more guidance was provided by the state that is the advice our attorney advised us of is to not take any action because it's still in litigation so um our attorney did advise us to sit tight and not take any action with regard to it because it could provide cause exposure for the district so what's the
043rush I think there's a a fundamental issue with this particular policy that is underlying a distrust or a break down in relationship between the parents and the teachers and the students students and the administration and this further exasperates that particular situation in so much as this policy allows certain um members of the school staff not to not to notify parents of actions or decisions that their kids are made that affect their mental well-being in a major way so I can only speak as a parent if one of my kids was going through a tough time I'd want to know about it and while there is some and understandably some situations that require uh a little bit more finesse this policy doesn't allow that this policy uh allows the hiding of that kind of information from
044the parents and I just think it's inappropriate and that's it's really come that simple it's really that simple well I understand that that's your opinion but if we've been advised by our attorney to hold off and if resending this polic exposes us what is the rush and I I do understand I appreciate your opinion but it is your opinion and we're getting a legal opinion to hold off so what is the rush as a parent I'm a parent that's pretty of a student in the school two students in the school so I I do know Mr Morrison you know has brought this up as well and this is this came up and we did talk about it in committee and so the one thing I would ask the board is that we could actually talk
045about this further because the I understand if the board doesn't want a policy that the I know Mr Morrison has talked about his issue with it is the state made it seem like it was mandated and it's not and so that's his issue with the policy the policy does not it's very it's been misconvey and misconstrued in terms of what the policy says and I blame the state for that I've been very vocal about that because when the policy was first came out I actually called our attorney for clarification because the way it was presented to schools was that you were actually prohibited from informing parents of certain things the policy does not say that anywhere in it it was the way that it was explained to schools by different representatives of the state it's
046not what the policy says the policy is in line with everything else that we follow in our counseling department our counselors have confidential conversations with students all the time if a student shares anything with a counselor that is a danger to their mental or physical health or well-being then that is something that we certainly would share with a parent or share with a medical professional we don't hide information from parents this policy does not say that at all it's been very misinterpreted um and just want everyone to know that that you'd be going against the board attorney's advice but I also you know I would also appreciate the time to talk more about some of the misperceptions that people seem to have about what the policy says well it's not it's it's not mandated and
047so I just don't want to take it off when the next policy comes in that is mandated then we'll vote on that but right now this is not mandated and so we voted on it under the impression that it was mandated that's how come we voted on it so as a point of order uh we have a custom or practice of having a first and a second read with regard to enacting policies do we have to follow that same practice with regard to uh voiding a policy so to speak I have to look back at our board agendas when we abolish them I I don't know yeah I'm not sure I don't know what our board practice is for that because we have abolished policies before and I think we've done a first and a
048second read for the abolishing but I'm I don't quote me on that I don't think that's my my memory is that that's not policy that's um no it's neither of those things it's um go it's state rules whether you have to have two readings on certain laws and ordinances Dan probably knows no it's our board it's our because the board if we wanted to um the reason I'm I we've looked into this before when the state has given us a ridiculous deadline to put a policy in place and the board can actually just um put our our board policy that requires two readings in abeyance to approve a policy on one reading so that's that's board um purview I understand what you're saying if if you're correct um then one reading would do it if
049it's correct that you can um I do have to say though when we've wanted to do things in one read before the board has said why would we put our you know why would we put our policy in OB bance when we don't for other things I'm just saying there's a board member not here this is an issue that's come up before so that's up to you guys but generally when that's the case and we know it's a contested issue the board usually you know Waits but that's what we've done in the past yeah I don't I think it's fair that we should have a full board for this motion to table I'd like to call the vote second no just yes would be we're tabling no me means we're not okay are going too
050fast sorry yeah what's the vote what are we voting on all right um so this is a this was a motion and a second to table the previous motion okay uh Mr maio no don't table it Mr Gall no Miss Lee no Mr Mar no sober yes Potter yes CA no TR yes and Mr Burber yes okay it's it's 59 not it's defeated so not take like to call the vote ask what what's what was the original motion Catherine because I to resend okay got it uh before can I comment again the bo discussion before the vote again as a parent there's a grandparent still of a current student uh you just have to kind of of uh remove yourself from all of the um non- layman terms and legal statutes and mandated not mandated
051and when you're a parent doing your forms in Genesis and I have to give permission for the nurses to give my kid Advil but then that we have this policy that says they can withhold significant medical emotional mental spiritual things from me about about my daughter that's concerning and I as a parent that's my perspective coming from it it seems um it's hard to make um it's just it's just difficult to to to kind of defend and to kind of it just kind of seems ridiculous that I have to check boxes for you know Pepto bismo but other stuff they don't have to tell me I would like clarification though if if Liz is saying we I believe we have a bylaw that says we it's us it's two readings to abolish ad or so
052the board would have to suspend that bylaw the other thing we're just looking to see is if we need a majority of the full board for a policy so that's what the other thing we're we're trying to find membership to discuss they fig yeah so I would say um while my kids are out of school at the high school at this point um thinking back to when they were in school and having children that I felt were very comfortable talking to me about any issue as they've grown older and stuff I recognized that in high school there was a time that maybe they're not as confident as we think and they're struggling when we don't realize it and to have the ability to talk to somebody who can talk them through how do you approach
053a very difficult topic with parents who are loving and caring and supportive no matter what but as a young child is scared because they see what happens around them to take that away from them I think is a disservice and while my children would would have I would think would have been fine coming to talk to me having that ability that they knew that they didn't have to work through how do I approach mom and dad with something that might be a lifechanging topic can you help me go through this and have somebody that is knowledgeable I think is is really what I'm looking at and knowing that not all children have that ability um and need more help to work through things to talk to their parents because they may not be as accepting
054100% agreed and I want the same thing whatever practices we have however I I want to make sure that if your child had had to have that conversation and we have the resources here that you would be notified and so would I but I don't just so you know we don't have a policy that says that so repealing this policy doesn't actually say that that's required I just want to explain that to everyone there's confidentiality rules for counseling and legal confidentiality rules that that determine that so by repealing this policy I'm just laying this out there for you this is certainly a board decision but it doesn't have that effect because the policy right now does not say parents will not be informed it just maintains confidentiality they you know they made a policy specifically
055for transgender issues there's all sorts of other policies that talk about confidentiality for all other issues um but this just essentially says that confidentiality for conversations related to that um you know still applies but not related to a student's medical decision a student um you know something that's going to affect their physical mental health you know or well-being that's not something we're keeping from a parent so just understand that you know and again this is and this is your intent you know that's then just understand that it it's kind of like when you have a book and you're going to remove it if you didn't have it in the first place it's different if you have a policy where we're saying we respect the rights of everyone encompassed under this policy and we're repealing it
056there it's going to have an impact on the students and staff in the district so just be aware of that because they are going to feel less safe so and I'm just stating a fact because people have talked about that in the building so I just want the board to be aware of that when if you take action on this Liz and I appreciate your input and we spoke about these things in the past and I do appreciate the fact that the policy doesn't specifically say that the parents are not to be notified but it does the policy does open up the idea that the parents would not be notified under somebody's judgment call um and then secondly you argue that uh removing this does not um necessarily U make it not private these conversations
057under other policies which would mean that this policy is really unneeded because it's already captured in the other policies that we have and I think in my discussions with you I think I did agree that there were times when um it would be imprudent perhaps to have a conversation with parents over some issues with uh their children for some reasons um but for the most part that is not the case that is the exception not the rule and I think this makes it more the rule not the exception and it makes it like my little secret as opposed to a substantial Mental Health decision and behavioral decision and physical decision of a child and and it gives them gives someone the right not to tell the parents for reasons but not specific ones so if
058it's already covered in other policies then we should just do away with this policy and let the other policies do what they need to do so you know that's just I I don't see any problem at all getting this and if someone feels unsafe because we get rid of this they're covered by every other one we don't need to call the only thing I am going to say just because I do feel the need to say this that generally when we're going to take an action this significant a person the board member would give us notice ahead of time so that we could actually prepare for the discussion so I have to say you do make it difficult for us when something like this is brought up as a surprise and we're not prepared to
059have the discussion um because I know that the board would not be okay with us doing that so I I do feel the need to say that that that makes our jobs a little bit harder to do um I would you know I wouldn't do that to the board um I think the board wouldn't expect any of us to do that to you so regardless of which way you're going to vote it would be nice to be able to actually be prepared for a discussion about it Liz I did send you emails about this a while ago okay so this isn't the first time I brought it to your attention that it's now not mandated we voted on it as that it was mandated and I did ask you and we've heard nothing all these
060weeks and it's been probably four meetings now since I had sent the first email to You So eventually it was going to come up I mean okay so uh it it's been brought up we've discussed it education committee and Bob brought it up publicly at a meeting and we talked about it so I absolutely did address it I addressed it in an email response so that I I'm that I'm confused by because we talked about it at a meeting no I'm just saying that I had brought it up to you in the past and and we've actually had on at committee agendas and I I invited Mr Sabino to actually speak about it as well so I don't want anyone thinking I've been ignoring the request for information oh no I wasn't saying that I
061was just saying you were saying that bringing it up out of the blue here but I had brought it up a while well I didn't for board action I think that's you know Ju Just unusual then people don't have a chance to review it and there's a board member not here so maybe had it been known that we were going to discuss it that board member might have been here but we Pro may not have ever even voted for it the policy if it was not told to us that was mandated so we may not even have been in this where we are now if it had come to us accurately as opposed to if not coming to us accurately and that's what it comes down to is how it was presented to us at
062the time we voted on it it was vot that it was mandated but it really wasn't do we have yeah just in accordance with this is our our policy um so BW and policiy I'm going to read it so bwm policies may be adopted amended and repealed and I think that's what you're trying to do repeal correct okay at any meeting of the board provided the proposed adoption Amendment or repeal has been proposed and approved at a previous meeting of the board which means two read two readings however the next paragraph The Only Exception would be and I don't understand the board May under emergency circumstances to suspend the operation of a bylaw or policy and adopt amend or repeal a bylaw or policy without prior notice I don't know what emergency this I don't
063know if this qualifies that I I would I would recommend that if you're getting into an emergency type of discussion to have a a removal of a policy you really should ask the board attorney before you do that because I don't know what emergency circumstances qualify in this particular case but that's what our policy call for just so you understand that what's the vote that's yeah let me just uh I I don't believe that this is an emergency if that's what the bylaws say let this be the first reading next one to take a vote the votes go down the same so that's my my two cents it's not an emergency sort of emergency but not enough it's not and it says that we can't vote on it tonight so no it doesn't say that
064it says you can have the first reading tonight you can the first vote it's not our first vote well the do the board can adopt to repeal or vote to repeal this policy at this meeting and then the next meeting you could so according to yeah so the board can vote to repeal this policy and it would have to take a second meeting to Absolut repal this would be like the first reading right right yeah that's the way the policy what's thec we didn't see anything other than simple majority so you don't need a full majority of the board yes okay where do we stand sorry so you have a motion on the floor you might just want to adjust it to say at first read that be fa yes you want to I I'll
065make a motion to amend the motion say first second you want a roll call on that you want to just say all in favor you mind a roll call no are we are we voting on the amendment are we voting on you're voting on the amendment first okay let's do that uh Mr maio can you just V can you just read the whole thing sure so the motion is to repeal policy 55 5756 at the first reading the motion is to repeal policy the amendment to the motion is to say I first read yeah voting on the amendment then you vote on the motion right so you're you're voting on whether it's allowed to be amend sorry to amend that's what we're voting on we're voting on the Amendment First Amendment first and then vote
066on is there any more discussion or will there be a part during the vote let's do the discussion now I just I have a question I know you keep talking about this policy isn't mandated do we have other policies that aren't mandated so are you equally as incensed on those policies because they're not mandated how do you is that the case we've never moted well in 20 this policy was added in 2019 I believe very it was when the policy was shared we were told it was mandated I can't speak for those board members nobody spoke out against it at that point issues with it so I don't Ved no but I'm I'm just I I don't really understand why we're repealing this particular policy if it's an issue of it being not mandated we
067have other not mandated mandated policies do you know that we've never voted on a policy before being told it was mandated besides this one I think the point is a controversial policy well I mean that's why look I I understand the issue with you know being told that something is man like so I think your issue is saying if and this is the issue that lot of the state is taking with it that it was presented as a mandated policy when in a fact in fact then the Attorney General I think was the one who came out and said it's not mandated um and so that sensed a lot of districts because the advice they got from their policy advisor is that it's a mandated policy um it doesn't change the content of what's in
068the policy because it's really all part of law but I understand that that caused you know and Bob was one of the first ones to express you know that that was fr ating because we're being pulled to vote on something and being mandated and it's not so and that's what a lot of people my other question was you were say I I I got confused when you were saying something and you were saying something but you were talking about people feeling they're in danger and I missed the the context that you were talking about so because we're familiar with policy because we're familiar with policy and the law and we know running a school that we're nothing we're doing will change if we do or don't have this policy but I we would need to
069be very clear about that message because if there's a headline that we abolished our transgender policy people will read that headline and they will think that we are not supporting a particular population of people um and so that's unfortunate as a school district for anyone to think that of us and that and you know that so that would be my fear with taking action I that's the intent though right what I believe that's the intent of repealing this policy correct me if I'm wrong yeah you're wrong oh really yeah the intent is that I know that I am not nothing about my daughter is is I thought it was an anti-trans motion oh it's about so you're all protrans and that's why you're so insense whatever you want to be I Am pro my daughter
070is a minor and I get to click off the box that says yes you can give her Advil because I'm her legal guardian not asking about Advil I my impr understand that and it's parent rights to know what is going on with their child at school this is a period so this has nothing to do with this being a trans policy absolutely not imagine Liz is it possible to work with the lawyer to kind of go through what our general policies are that also cover this issue uh what people are concerned about to kind of work through it to do more of an education of the community of the students of how the policies kind of all work together and there it sounds like that maybe there's duplication but to kind of work together so
071it's not leaving students and leaving teachers feeling vulnerable and allows us to get the legal opinions that we need to kind of go through that to make it so we're really are doing a policy that makes sense I can certainly you know talk to the attorney and and I'll also speak to um our our counseling director as well about everything that guides student confidentiality with regard to speaking to our our school psychologists our Student Assistance counselors our our you know our counselors and I I absolutely understand as a parent the fear that there's this information that is being hidden from you and I don't I don't know how to I don't necessarily know how to to quell that feeling other than you know we if it's something as I've said before that is going to
072impact the students health or well-being we would never hide that from a parent but I'm not going to say that we're not going to keep conversations with students confidential and not call the parent the minute the student comes into to confide in us about a conflict they're having at home about something they're trying to share with their parent it could be anything about a relationship that they have that they're trying to figure out you know how to talk to their parent about our goal is always to help the student work with their family and we are also not providing counseling to a student on medical decisions on their life outside of here our job is to provide a safe environment for them in school and to refer them to professional help if they need help
073outside of that so our the role of our counselors is to help them and help them feel they're in a safe environment in the school building so that that is our job it's not to help them make major life decisions that you know affect them fundamentally their their physical me and mental well-being it's to guide them you know to resources for that and if they come to us because they need help talking to their parent about something we may help them with that um you know this is obviously the conversation is different here as well I feel because we are a high school so our students are while they are still certainly developing it's very different by the time they get to be in ninth grade or in high school than if they're in elementary
074or middle school and dealing with some of these issues so it is very different in a high school context as well um I I completely understand everyone's differing perspectives on this which is why I think it's important that we do have some more time to talk about it and and also figure out the difference between just the the issue and I completely understand the issue of it's very frustrating that it was made to seem as if it was a mandated policy and it's not and so some people are you know that's the the issue that we're looking at repealing it other people are concerned about some of the content of the policy so it's it's you know there's a lot of things at play here so if we do end up taking action on the
075policy I think we need to have very clear messaging about the reason for that and what our ultimate goal is in doing that Liz what I would suggest is that if we make it past the first reading which seems like a May uh and again you've already mentioned and everyone's aware that Mark our attorney is looking into it I'm sorry that Mark is our attorney is looking into this policy and what the state I guess may be recommending with respect to it that uh he you notify Mark that at the next meeting there may be a second reading and that I think he should be here since this is an important uh discussion this way people who excuse me would have some questions that were not qualified or you're not qualified no disrespect but that
076Mark has a little more U input due to his uh you know his experience not necessar experience but his knowledge with respect to what other boards are doing and maybe what Communications he's having with the state and where it's at so I strongly recommend that he be at that meeting and um do we have another uh committee meeting between now and then that it could be further discussed and maybe had Mark at that as well so that people can have a little more in-depth conversation any further discussion before we uh have the motion to amend to vot can highlight maybe you can highlight for us um youa know later the all of the policies that can that really cover with student confidentiality and might fall in the realm so we can look at all the
077policies as a whole and have a really good understanding of what we're looking at and what we're trying to vote on I would just add if if he could just come with like what are the possible ramifications legally of getting rid of this policy and you know something to that a factor where it is if I'm not mistaken right now the motion on the table is the motion to amend to make this a first reading correct so that's all right we'll do a roll call on that okay uh Mr maio Mr Gall yes Miss Lee mayor Check Yes it's over so if I say yes this is just to make it to amend it to use yes okay Miss Potter yeah yes right yes Miss pra yes tror Mr Burber yes okay motion's amended okay
078so now motion right so going to call the vote on that roll call it is it's been moved it's already it's the original motion plus the amendment okay Mr maio Roberts rules Mr Gall yes Lee Mr manek yes sober no Potter no rasa yes trur no and Mr Burber on the advice of council no that that does uh pass okay just as a matter I a question just as a matter of reference um does it need to be heard at the next meeting it can be as many meetings in between you want right correct okay great okay is there any other board discussion no I'll second the no on that hold on we have wanted hold on one second we have wanted Dum item is there any discussion with respect to that none okay sorry
079Janine that's okay I'd like to move items A1 through A7 second any discussion roll call please just getting past the last part Mr maio Mr Gall yes Miss Lee mayor Che yes obber yes otter yes rasa yes fromour yes and Mr burmer yes Carri um I'd like to move item eight approval A8 I'm sorry A8 approval uh any discussion roll call Mr maio Gall yes Lee May yes M over yes r yes yes Mr bber yes Harries I'd like to move items C1 through C6 second see ran second any discussion I'm sorry roll call then Mr maio G yes mayor yes sober Potter yes rasa chour yes and M Burber yes carry I'd like to move items D1 through D D20 I want to thank uh the New York Jets for their uh donation with
080regard to the uh establishment of a unified flag football program thank you yeah I would also like to thank uh the Jets since my daughter's playing it's a a very welcome donation so thank you Jets that's the only time I'll ever say that did that come with nil payments nil pay nil name yes okay great that was her name um okay any other discussion with regard to D1 through D20 roll call please Mr masio Mr Gall yes Mr yes Mar yes M obber yes cter yes rasa chur yes and Mr Berber yes motions carry okay we now have thank you everybody we now have the second opportunity for public comment again public comment can be on anything it's not limited to the agenda items for this evening do we have any public comment as a
081as a state your name where you're from please Brandon MC from Lauren New Jersey as a parent of students who went here and as someone who sits in these meetings all the time this what just happened is unbelievably unfair no one was prepared for this including me who has to write about it now it should have been on the on the agenda it this this is ridiculous I've never had this in this particular meeting and that's it thank you is there any other business for this evening Lisa I just wanted to apologize last meeting on previous meeting got away from me I could not attend I apologize to Mr SC already for not telling him I would be absent and I believe thank you miss obber you read out the education minutes for me I
082sorry so my apologies and thank you for that that's [Laughter] it DEA is good okay great I was mentioning previously that my other board the board members wrote the minutes the staff or the administration did not write the minutes we had to write them all so I always think Liz I think Bill was really hoping he could write them for personnel committee right so again always let me know if you want to change that okay uh is there any other business I will entertain a motion to adjourn all those in favor we are adjourned thank you everybody