001So. >> [laughter] >> Welcome one and all. To our Winslow Township Board of Education meeting. Being held here at the Winslow Township Middle School Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, 7:00 p.m. Public notice of this meeting was given to all board members and associates in a notice dated January 8th, 2026. Adequate and electronic notice of this public meeting has been provided specifying the time, place, and manner in which this meeting is being conducted. It was advertised in the Courier Post, posted on all schools, and the administration office, the municipal building, the library, the Dove Google Center, Edgewood Acres, Elm Town, and the Winslow Township post office. Mission statement? Ms. Pitts. The mission of the Winslow Township School District, large, diverse, and growing community, is to educate all students to become independent, lifelong learners, critical thinkers, caring, and
002confident members of their community. District, in partnership with the community, and in a climate of cooperation and mutual respect, will provide an academic environment which values excellence and diversity, encourages students to strive for personal excellence, and assist them in acquiring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to contribute positively to a rapidly changing world. Thank you, Ms. Ball. Roll call. Mr. Clark. Here. Ms. Dredden. Ms. Glaud. Present. Ms. Martin. Present. Mr. Matthews. Present. Ms. Nieves. Present. Mr. Shaw. Present. Ms. Pitts. Present. And Mr. Thomas. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. 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. Mr. Clark. District goals. 2025-2026 District Goals. Number one, student achievement.
003Continue to implement research-based best practices for delivering instruction and accelerating learning for all students, including all subgroups. This shall include conduct weekly administrative walk-throughs to monitor teaching and learning. Utilize the district diagnostic assessment platform to analyze student data to inform and guide instruction. To monitor and track measurable growth in ELA and mathematics in grades 1 through 9, and to implement creative ways to accelerate student learning by providing additional supports throughout and beyond the school day. Number two, promote a positive environment for students and staff. Enforce the code of conduct to ensure safety for students and staff and compliance with district policies. Incorporate social-emotional learning opportunities for students to celebrate positive behaviors. Develop strategies for students with significant behaviors to reduce the interruption of instructional time, decrease negative actions, and improve school attendance. Number three, increase
004stakeholder engagement. Explore and expand innovative opportunities to increase parent communication. Create parent learning opportunities with a focus on how to support their child's learning, and continue to share the accomplishments of Winslow students in all students' activities. Thank you, Mr. Clark. Would there be any awards and presentations tonight? Yes. So, we have food challenge tonight. >> Oh. So, we would like to thank everyone for coming out tonight, and we would like to thank our partner, Sodexo, for hosting the Future Chefs Challenge. So, tonight you are sampling food made by our wonderful students, our student chefs. And we have some judges, and our host for this evening will be Dr. Carter. Dr. Carter, the mic is yours. Let's give Dr. Carter a round of applause. Right. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. All right. So, welcome everyone to
005this year's Future Chefs event. I am Dr. Carter. I'm the principal of School Number Five. I also will be presenting for this event this evening. The whole concept of this competition is to help educate the students in healthy eating habits. Too often we hear about obesity in kids, and kids not making the right choices in terms of their eating habits. This year, the students submitted their favorite home or family recipe. This year's theme is Passport to Flavor. Final judging was based on taste, originality, ease of preparation, healthy attributes, and plate presentation. And just a bit about the timeline in preparation for this event, students from schools five and six filled out recipe cards. The food service office narrowed down the recipes to two students per school. The four finalists were formally invited to a culinary
006competition cook-off today, March 25th, which started at 5:00 p.m. And just to note, all finalists will receive a prize package, with the champion also receiving the grand prize. So now, let me introduce the judges for today's event. Winslow Township Police Chief Don Lemons. >> [applause] >> Winslow Township Fire Chief Mark Rigberg. EMS Chief Joyce Medori. Winslow Township Deputy Mayor Darius Peoples. Representing the Village of Camden County Incorporated, a non-profit organization here in Winslow Township, Abena McClendon. The Winslow Township School District's 2025 Teacher of the Year, Norman Ingram. And we also have a special guest or special judge from Sodexo, Senior District Manager Joelle Hernandez. So, the finalists had the competition earlier this evening and we are here to announce the winner. But before doing so, I would like to introduce the finalists. From school number
007six, Abdul Bell. Abdul prepared stir-fried fettuccine. >> [applause] >> One more round of applause for Abdul. From school number six, there we go. All right, also from school number six, we have Gotham Armstrong who prepared chicken tortilla soup. There you go. >> [laughter] >> There he is. All right, great job, Gotham. All right, so let we'll move on having some uh technology difficulties here. Oh, there we go. All right, thank you, Gotham. So now, from school number five, we have Kira Rose. >> [music] [music] >> All right, as you can see, Kira presented or cooked spicy creamy Cajun chicken pasta. And our last finalist is from school number five, we have Reagan Rothenback. >> [laughter] >> All right, so Reagan prepared lemon >> [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] >> All right, great job, Reagan, who
008prepared lemon chicken with asparagus and potatoes. So, great job and congratulations to all of our students. Let me just say thank you to the Winslow Township School District for hosting tonight's event. Thank you to all judges and students for your participation. And a special thank you to Sodexo's Colleen Lillict, Ray Watkins, Peggy Clark and staff for having this competition. And now, I will announce the winners. Our two runners-up are Abdul Bell and Kira Rose. Let's give them a round of applause. All right, and now I will announce our second place winner. Our second place winner is Reagan Rothenback. And ladies and gentlemen, our 2026 Future Chefs Challenge winner is Gotham Armstrong. Once again, congratulations to all of our finalists and winners. You guys all did a wonderful job. Thank you again to our judges and
009that concludes our program this evening. Thank you. Congratulations to all of our chefs. Thank you to our guest judges. Thank you to our partner again, Sodexo, for hosting this event and thank you, Mr. Dr. Carter, for hosting our event and MCing. So now, we're going to have Ms. McBride from school two introduce her students who are presenting tonight. So, board members, if you would like, you all can move out there to the crowd so you can get a better view of the presentation. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Again, I'm Crystal McBride. I'm the principal of Winslow School number two and I'm honored to be here tonight to introduce to you my students who will give you a snapshot of a full performance that we're actually going to have on April 20th at Winslow
010School number two. So, we were fortunate enough to continue our Perfecting Chords program this school year. Perfecting Chords is brought to us by Loving Our Cities, which is the community engagement arm of the Perfecting Church under the ministry of Pastor Kevin Brown and Minister Angela Brown. The Perfecting Chords program is a free after school music program. It's offered weekly from September to April and um it's it is just designed to develop a love of music and a greater sense of connectedness among the students and our volunteers. I'd like to absolutely acknowledge the seven Perfecting Chords volunteers who join us every single Thursday from 3:30 to 5:00. I'd like to thank the parents for picking up every every week at 5:00, rain or shine, you all were there and I appreciate you letting um my babies
011do that. I really do appreciate it and you are in for a treat. So again, they're going to give a snapshot of what the program will be on April 20th. I do invite all of you to come and without further ado, I will hand it over to the Perfecting Chords program. Hello, everybody. Just saying hello to everybody. I would just ask that we just lower a little bit so we can make sure we can hear our talented kids speak and do their speech. Thank you. I'm glad to be me. No one else can be. I look in the mirror. What do I see? I see the me no one else [singing] can be. I am precious, so glad to be me. My hair and my face, my personality, my size and my shape, the color
012[singing] of my skin, all make up me outside and in. I'm glad to be me. No one else can be. I'm glad to be me. I'm glad [singing and music] to be me. I'm glad to be me. No one else can be. >> [crying and screaming] >> Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A, B, C. When you sing, you begin with do, re, mi. Do, re, mi. Do, re, mi. The first three notes just happen to be do, re, mi. Do, re, mi. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. Do, a deer, a female deer. Re, a drop of golden sun. [singing] Mi, a name I call myself. Fa, a long, long way to run. So, a needle pulling thread. La, a note
013to follow [singing] so. Ti, a drink with jam and bread. That will bring us back to [screaming] do. Do, a deer, a female deer. Re, a drop of golden sun. >> [singing] >> Mi, a name I call myself. Fa, a long, long way [singing] to run. So, a needle pulling thread. >> [screaming] >> La, a note to follow so. Ti, a drink with jam and bread. That will bring us back to do. >> [screaming] >> Booking.com ads. >> [music] [music] >> Climb [singing] every mountain, search high and low. Follow every byway, every path you know. [singing] Climb every mountain, [singing] ford every stream. Follow every rainbow >> [singing] >> till you find your dream. A dream that will need all the love you can every day of your life, >> [screaming] >> for as long
014as you live. >> [screaming] >> Climb every mountain, ford every stream. Follow every rainbow till you find your dream. >> [music] >> A dream that will need all the >> [screaming] >> love you can give every day of your life, for as long as you live. >> [music] >> Climb every mountain, >> [music] >> Thank you so very much. That again was just a snippet of our whole program April 20th. I think that they did a fabulous job with patience and flexibility something we character traits we teach so they did a wonderful job. Another round of applause, please. Thank you so very much. As the board comes up, I'd like to thank Ms. McBride and her team for that wonderful performance. Uh thank you to all your all the parents that came out to support
015their children tonight. And without you none of this is possible. So thank you for all that you do and I want to thank the uh choir director and our teachers for all their hard work making sure that our young people are prepared for moments like this. So thank you and have a great night. And I would like to take this moment to thank TPC for coming and sharing and collaborating with the Winslow School District with such a phenomenal program. I know. >> [laughter] >> No, thank you. Yeah. Spicy pasta was good. Was it? Oh. Oh, I had I ate half of it. And awesome. Oh, good. You just should package us up and send us some back here, too. We have an executive session today? What did you say? Do we have an executive session
016today? Mhm. We do? I think so. Oh, yeah. What's back there to eat today? Uh the hot roast beef. Oh, man. They should have just made Huh? had us fix up our some food to go back there. That was tasty. Wasn't it? But the um and the news They're they're like when you never They have no So at this time we would like to have our business administrator Ms. Boyle present the tentative budget. Okay. So anybody in the audience, I'm going to apologize because you do not have numbers in front of you. Um Ms. Chico and I love our numbers. So um I'm going to share them with my uh passion and love. Um the Can you hear me? Okay. Uh the purpose of this presentation is to present the budget to the board members
017and uh we're seeking approval to send it up to the to the DOE uh who will then look at it and uh report back to us tell us if there's any changes or anything that need to be made. Um so I'm going to go over some of the information with that's in the budget with you tonight. It is very cursory. Uh we're not allowed to release the um advertised budget until after it has been approved by the county. So you know, I'm trying to give you enough so that you you have something to base your decision on. So for state aid and uh what I always do is I like to compare prior year to current year. So in our operating budget, we had 56.7 million in support um in 2526 and 2627 uh it
018went up to 600 million 2206 uh 693. That was an [clears throat] increase of 3.4 million dollars in state aid to support this year's budget. The preschool It's 660. Pardon me? It's 600 million. It's 60 60 60 million 206 693. Thank you, Ms. Claude. Um but that is an increase of 3.4 million dollars over the prior year. Preschool aid also received an increase of 675,933 dollars um over the prior year. However, that is in a separate fund. We're just that's in fund 20. I'm um bringing it up because it is part of our state aid package. So the overall increase in support of the district's budget is 4,083,859. If we flip over to the next page in 202526, this is um federal funding. Federal aid is the semi program. We actually had a decrease of
01926,677. So instead of getting 46,000, we're getting 19. All right. So the next thing I wanted to share is our um our local contribution. In the prior year uh our tax levy was uh 55.8 million. We utilized fund balance of 6.7 million. We made a withdrawal from capital reserve of 15.2 and uh portion of that was to be used for the HBA system at the middle school. And we also made a withdrawal during the course of the year from um maintenance reserve of 1.1 million. In 202627, we are anticipating support of 62.2 million um in the tax levy, fund balance 5.5 million. No withdrawal from capital reserves. And for maintenance reserve, 817,000. So overall, if you look at the uh support, it's gone down by 10.4 million dollars. Okay. Now, I also wanted to address
020the tax levy. You'll notice that between the 55.8 and the 62.2, that is an increase of 6.4 million dollars. So if we flip over, I wanted to give you an an an analysis of what that's comprised of. Um it's the 2% tax levy increase which we always or historically we have raised. However, we are also um having to use the health care adjustment which is 4.2 million. We also have to use uh cap bank of 1.1 million. And those numbers added together are adjusting the tax levy by 6.4 million. The next um page shows revenues from the general fund. So the overall, if we see uh the local tax levy is 6. uh 62.2 million, state aid 60.2 extraordinary aid 1,500,000, fund balance 5.5 million, tuition 4.1 million, miscellaneous uh receipts and interest 980,000, the
021semi at 19963, and our withdrawal from maintenance reserves of 817,000. So our overall budget will be 135,522 19. So that's the um those are the revenues. Now we're going to look at how we're going to spend them and So the next we're going to talk about our budgeted appropriations. Um Some of our lines are collapsed because the document is teeny tiny print and very very long. So they collapsed it into categories. For instruction of we're going to allocate 44.5 million. Tuition 17.2 million, student support services 14.6 million administration and info technology 8.4 million, operations and maintenance 11.3 million student transportation 12.9 million benefits 23.9 million interest earned 500 capital outlay 1 million eight and transfer to charter schools 638 thousand 921 for an overall operating budget again 135 million 522 019. So what we bring
022in we spend so it's a balanced budget. The next slide gives us a a uh comparison of what we actually spent in 24 25 in this year 25 26 where we were in this year's budget as of February 1 and then what we're proposing for 26 27. I want you to note in 25 26 in in the top part of the column like the middle of the page you'll see a 2.7 million 2.7 58 059 those are prior year encumbrances. So those were purchase orders that we had issued in 24 25 and they hadn't been completed yet. So we hadn't dispersed it just like when you're reconciling your checkbook you have to make sure if you have outstanding checks you just don't drop them because if you do you will be in the deficit real
023soon. So that money carries over. So the numbers that we see here in 25 26 when you look at the expenditure the bottom part that 2.7 million dollars is included in those numbers. So it's a little artificially inflated but we're going to take a comparison. If you take a look at um instruction for instance in 25 26 we were 59.4 million next year we're going up to 61.7 million which is an increase of 2.2 million dollars. For student support we went from 12.6 we're going to go 14.6 increase of 1.9 million um administrative information technology we're going from 8.9 million down to 8.4 so we're reducing some of our administrative costs operation and maintenance 12 million and we're coming down to 11.3 now under that's 633,000 reduction but um more than likely some of those
024encumbrances are having inflated this number transportation we are going from 11.5 to 12.9 that is an increase of 1.3 million dollars um benefits we're going from 19.4 to 23.9 that is a 4.4 million dollar increase over the prior year. So our health benefit costs have really skyrocketed. Our transfer to charter schools we're going to 593,000 to 638 that's only a I don't know why I said only but it's a 45,000 295. Now if you offered me a check for 45,000 295 I wouldn't say only so that's why I I changed that. uh capital and maintenance those are funds that we withdraw to have to complete projects. We were had projects and equipment 18.8 million in this year's budget. um Next year we're only going to 1 million. uh 1 million eight so we're doing a
025it's a decrease but in this year's budget we have an HVAC project that we're going to um for the middle school so we can get the HVAC upgraded. We have district vehicles and I also believe that the prior year vehicles we had ordered rolled into this year and both were you know both of those um uh purchases were paid out in the current year so it's a little inflated. So historically we try to get um budget 700,000 dollars to buy buses at one point that would buy us seven buses at this point it's four so um we must have gotten eight in during the course or they're coming in so it's budgeted um next year 700,000 and we're going to try to keep up with the vehicle rotation schedule and satisfy the needs in the
026transportation department. Now what I want you also to do is again take a look I've gone through some of these variances but you don't see any wild swings with the exception of some of these key increases. All right. So for the proposed 2026 2027 budget for the general fund we're going to have 135.5 million dollars special revenue 11.4 million for a total budget of 146 million point nine we take out 98 034 because we are paying the special revenue fund for certain kids that are in um in preschool and they're they're district children [clears throat] that we have to place in the preschool program. So we pay for those students to the preschool grant. So we're taking it out of our pocket and then while it's shown in their budget as well we're taking it
027out of there so it's adjusted. um So if we go back to the general fund 135.5 million where our anticipated revenues are 73.2 million and our tax levy will be 62.2 million to support it. um if we come down for the special revenue fund um everything that's there is supported from grants and awards from the state federal government or local donations so um So that's there and I'll say that about 7 million of that 11 million is the preschool aid grant for this year and there's no support from the from the tax levy. So the overall again is going to be 146 million 901 800 and six dollars for the operating budget we're going to have 84 million 601 974 and anticipated revenues and that leaves the tax levy at 62 million 299 832 and
028I'm going to flip to the next slide that says do you have any questions if you're still awake? I have a question. I I don't see a category that says actual salaries. What where would that fall in line with with the budget? So they are aligned with the function that they're serving. So you'll see some in instruction you'll see some will be allocated to transportation. So if I'm a bus driver if I'm the director of transportation my salary will be in transportation. Our technology will be in information technology and administration. Those of us Mr. P's myself Sharissa we would be categorized in administration as well. Teachers are in instruction. And there's also support function. Thank you. Anyone else anyone anyone else any questions? I have one question Ms. Boyle. So with the decrease in the
029capital reserve I assume the high school project was in last year's budget and not this year's budget. >> Actually the high school HVAC project has been here almost as long as I have. It was pre-COVID and we have been supporting it. So no we did not we had withdrawn money from it initially. We added more to it because it started out at 3.3 it's now at 17.45. We had to add more to it. um And so it's sitting there and we are trying to get that horse out the gate. um So no we didn't withdraw last year for it. Our withdrawal last year when you say last year I'm in a time warp. I'm talking about this year we did um the project for the middle school and in the prior year I think we
030did a the prior year we did five or did we do five? And the year before that we did six and they are just they just went out to bid more awarded. Hopefully we'll start and be completed five and six will be completed this summer um and then we're still trying to get that 17 million dollar project out the gate. So and not only because of the funding we don't And the the funding constraint. We also have approved projects that we just need to get them done. So, we weren't including anything major. The only thing that we are um including in this year's budget, it's to repave a couple of the parking lots um at some of the schools. And then we'll we'll try to make other repairs cuz the the money is uh tight.
031Money's Also, um could you just explain what the process going forward from this point on? I know there was a 4-day winner window to get this uh I believe tentative budget over to the county, but but there's still time for questions or if someone wants to come in and get a better explanation one-on-one with you. Is that possible and is that possible? Um uh of course, Mr. Thomas, especially a board member. Um to the public again, I'm kind of limited in terms of what I can share until they approve the um um the advertised budget. At that point, once that's approved, you know, it's no holds barred. Everybody can see. But of course, we will absolutely share with the board members if anybody has questions and I do encourage you to ask. I don't want
032you to vote on something you're not sure of. So, my other thing that I wanted to make clear is when we withdraw from capital reserve or maintenance reserve, we are taking our money out of the bank and putting it to use. These other cap banks, that's not that's not something we've set aside. That will impact the tax levy. So, I just wanted to make that clear and that's why uh I presented those numbers to you. So, we're not going off I included the normal 2% tax levy increase, but these are additional costs that will um that are not like a reserve. A reserve, we set the money aside um at the end of the year, historically, we asked the board to approve to put some money in capital reserve or put some money in maintenance
033reserve. Good thing we have done that um because with that middle school, when we had the the the break in the water main, not all costs were covered by the insurance carriers. So, any floors that had popped up that had asbestos in it, our coverage is 25,000. Anything above that, we had to go into uh maintenance reserve in order to get those funds to um make those repairs. Okay. I just have I just have a simple question. So, the vote tonight that we're voting on is just a tentative vote for this to go to the um county superintendent. Absolutely. And then when that gets once that goes to the county superintendent, it's going to come back again to us as the board to look at the more detailed report and then at that point we
034can ask for different uh we can ask ask questions in regards to how everything is being allocated. Absolutely. Okay. I have a Mhm. From this an opposite way. A couple weeks ago when I did I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? Yeah, just move up to the mic. I'm sorry. Um when I did go over to the uh early childhood educational center, um I did notice that their um parking lot very very muddy and I spoke to the principal and she had said that they had put I believe she said they had put it out to bid uh in order to get that um parking lot paved. Is Is that are we going to be in any way financially obligated to contribute anything towards the paving of that um parking lot at the early childhood
035center? Um no, Madam Vice President. Since we do not own that building, the only thing that can be um support that is the preschool education grant. However, since we don't own the building, it's up to the landlord, I'll say, to make any uh needed repairs. So, Chiselhurst would have to budget those repairs and I think that um Miss Clement and uh Miss Ortiz and Miss Coleman meet to make sure that her uh I'll say Miss their priorities are in line. So, there's several things I'm sure that they they want to have accomplished at that building. So, we can't do it. They have to do it. They don't have you know, the funds aren't always there. So, they have you know, they can't do large um large fixes, I'll say. Um but they prioritize the needs.
036So, if um Thank you, Miss Boyle. Mhm. Are there any other questions for Miss Boyle and the presentation? Hearing none, we'll move on to correspondence. Oh, I'm sorry um I'm [clears throat] sorry, Mr. President. >> Miss Boyle. Um I am going to ask um that we table section C of my section when we get to it and place it we place the new section C on the addendum. Pink sheet. The pink sheet. Oh, the pink sheet. So, when when you go over my section, we can table section C. Okay. Your page number there? In the addendum. Can you remind us when you when we get there? Absolutely. Before we make the motion, just remind us and then we'll we'll make it then. It's on page 14. Thank you. Mhm. Is that all, Miss Boyle? Yes,
037Mr. President. >> Moving on to correspondence, will there be anything under correspondence? We have nothing this evening, sir. Moving on to our regular board meeting minutes. I'm looking for a motion to approve our regular board meeting minutes, Wednesday, March 11, 2026 open session and Wednesday, March 11, 2026 closed session. Can I get a motion? >> [clears throat] >> I make a motion that we approve uh our regular meeting from Wednesday, March 11, 2026 uh open and closed session. Yeah, I have a second. Any questions? Roll call. Mr. Clark? Yes. Miss Dredden? Miss Glaude? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Mr. Matthews? Miss Nieves? Yes. Mr. Shaw? Yes. Miss Pitts? Yes. And Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. The motion has carried. [clears throat] Moving right along to our board committee reports, uh will we have any board committee report
038out of athletics and arts committee? Miss Glaude? No, not at this not at this time. I just got one report I want to do out of that if I can. Our flags and uh drum major line, they was in Cinnaminson and they came in first place this last past week in the tournament that they had this last past week. Moving along to citizens advisory committee, would there be anything out out of our citizens advisory committee, Miss Martin? No, not at this time. We have a meeting scheduled, I believe, for April 9th. Thank you so much. How about our education committee, Miss Nieves? Anything coming out of our education committee? Uh yes. Mr. P, should I not steal your thunder for that then or No, you can talk about the reveal. No, that's fine. No, you
039can talk about it. No, I'll I'll let you do the reveal. I'll just I'll I'll talk about the leading up to cuz that was very very tense. So, in lieu of the education committee meeting, uh myself, Miss Martin, uh Mr. Matthews, and a couple other board members as well, Mr. Thomas, Miss Pitts, uh attended the grand ELA pilot program reveal. Uh we had 88 teachers from our elementary schools and middle schools attending. Uh it was tense. I will say I uh I commend Mrs. Clement and her staff for putting on a very exciting reveal. There was balloons. They made us board members open the balloons. Thankfully, you put the fruit and the cupcakes somewhere else, so it didn't get thrown at us cuz teachers were very very uh very excited about which program was going
040to be revealed. I did not realize that the teachers have been piloting this in September of 2024. This was a very very long endeavor and I just want to say kudos to the staff that did this. I mean, that was that was really so And we were piloting five programs, so that's a lot. Um they met monthly to champion in their programs and discuss how the implementation went, visiting other schools, um participating in coaching, virtual training. Um we selected the program based on a rubric of 46 questions, which was the short survey that Mrs. Clement's referenced. Um so, it's voted on by staff, data analysis on student scores, and the teachers voted. I um will not say what the winners are cuz I'll let Mr. Pease do that. And I think that was everything. Also,
041Mrs. Clements, board members, I passed this out to you prior to the meeting. Uh this is a breakdown on the uh tutoring numbers um from the 24-25 25-26 school years broken down by school um and tutoring program as well. Um there is a decrease in numbers of those participating this year as opposed to last year, but that is broken down there. And that concludes my report for now. Thank you so much. Great reporting. Going out to our marketing committee. President Yeah, the marketing that was scheduled to meet Carl sir, cannot meet um because uh we are waiting for the the Paint in the Park fence schedule. Township's for that week. Sir, that schedule the schedule that though we have to meet the food eating team will take place on Saturday of June 13th. Um just
042a just a thought to have a little uh competition that day because Chesilhurst having their family day that day. Um and we know that we are going to prepare and participate in the July 4th celebration and the um family day celebration August 22nd. So, I need to be able to prepare dates for our cuz as I reported out last that the mayor indicated that when um 2025 when you have the Paint in the Park event that there was several questions that to that actually been directed to So, we're going to make sure I assured her that this year that at the Paint in the Park >> [clears throat] >> that the school board would have a have a presence. Thank you so much. Would there be any questions for the marketing committee? If hearing none,
043we're moving on to the negotiation committee. How we doing on that? All still we're still all even? Good stuff. Thank you. Now, we're going on to the operations committee. Anything out of coming out of the operation? Thank you. How about the policy committee? Anything coming out of the policy committee? Um right now, we're still waiting for um Strauss Esmay to bring bring bring back all the um updateds on the policies that needed to be updated from the audit. Once they get back, then I'll schedule I do have a meeting scheduled for 4/8/26 and I'll send that email out to all of the committee members. All right, thank you so much. Technology committee, anything coming out of technology? Not right now. No, sir. Thank you so much. Going out to the township economic development council, there
044has not been a meeting as of yet not the second meeting. How about the township municipal drug alliance? Uh we didn't have a quorum at our recent meeting, so nothing to report at this time. Our next meeting will be on June 22nd. Thank you so much. Township planning board meeting, anything Mr. Shaw? Um there was nothing that took place um other than a couple people came out to preemptively ask about the 108 unit apartment complex that was that's being talked about um across from Drexel Gate, but that's too early for the planning board, so we we answered some questions and referred them back to the government. Excellent. Thanks thanks a lot for the reporting there, Mr. Shaw. How about adopt a school representative reports? Anybody got anything they want to say about their school? Mr.
045President, I do. What And what school is that? >> Uh school number six. I had the opportunity to um visit their math night where they had about 14 different activities for the students to participate in. It was interesting to see them involved in the activities, very engaged um and they had a sheet where they had to check things off so that they could get prizes. So, it was a great night. Um Miss Dr. Brown and her vice principal did an awesome job. Great reporting. Love to hear it. Any questions for Ms. Martin in her report? Is there anyone else? Yes. Wait, Mr. Shaw. School two? Yep. >> School two. I received actually a pretty comprehensive report from Ms. McBride, so I appreciate Ms. McBride for doing so. Uh I'm going to focus in on their
046recent spirit week, but that's School two. Uh they've also received a $2,000 sustainable uh New Jersey grant, which is awesome news. Uh From March 2nd to March 6th, School two transformed into a vibrant celebration of reading filled with fun and creativity. Uh they had their spirit week where each day students embraced a new theme showcasing their creativity and love for reading. Uh they They're local from the youth reading and engaging uh with the younger students on the day of that spirit week. Uh the School five student council members brought their enthusiasm to their School help Staff dressed as various animal characters uh read portions of the book The Magical Yet. Uh joined their classes and which staff member on that Friday. So, again, thank you McBride for this wonderful report. And thank for everything you're
047doing. Excellent report, Mr. Matthew. Thank you very much. That's the stuff we like to hear. Anyone else about their school? Uh I have a report for School five. >> Let's go School five. All right. So, School five um I was excited to be invited to be a guest reader on March 20th as part of their month-long uh read-a-thon celebration along with other Winslow dignitaries. I had the honor of reading to Mrs. Taylor's fourth grade class and Mrs. Yell's fifth grade class. Um it was a little bit different than previous years cuz I I read the story and once they figured out that I was a board member, those children grilled me on policy. It was [laughter] They had the right one, though. They did. They did. And um I mean, it was great. I mean,
048for fourth and fifth graders, um they had a lot of questions obviously about the cell phone policy, why they can't wear hoods over their heads, safety drills. It was it was a really good conversation. I was very surprised that they had that and they they kept me there the whole half hour I was allotted to their classes. Um and School five staff as always, they they treat us great when they're there. They had refreshments and everything, so it was really cool. Uh they also had their sixth grade dance that evening as well. Uh School five has a read-a-thon all month long, so their students can compete, fundraise for minutes raised um and it's a thing. There's prizes up for grabs, there's a game truck involved. If they raise a certain amount of money, pizza party.
049I mean, it's it it's a big deal. >> It's a big thing at School five and they they generally do raise a lot of money and that goes back into books for for School five. Um on March 31st, they are having a art and talent show. They're having their color run on April 17th as well and I think that's a first for School five. Uh they also held a book drive where they were asking students to bring in books and that got competitive as well. Our teachers are very competitive, I will say that. Um so, I know the teachers were kind of asking, "Bring in the books." They had their own tally of how many >> [clears throat] >> teachers had so many books in. Um so, that was really fun to see, too. So,
050School five always doing amazing things. Um and Mr. Pease, I didn't want to steal your thunder also, but I do have report on the high school, the the Rowan virtual visit. If you're not going to mention it, I can talk about it. Sure. Okay. >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry, hold on. Let me pull that one up. >> Take your time. We love to hear this. I was going to print it out, but So, I did attend as a a parent. Um so, Rowan did a virtual presentation, you know, for all high school parents. I believe we just approved it on the agenda for them to come out to the middle school and do the same presentation. So, now our students have the opportunity to take Rowan you know, college classes at a significant discount. It's
051$80 a credit. Um I mean, you can graduate with an associate's degree or more or just take college courses, see what interests you. So, it was you know, a true dual enrollment. You are a college student if you take those credits starting as a freshman. So, you have the opportunity to continue to build credits all the way through your uh your high school career. Um or you could just take, you know, here or there, dabble in and see what you want to do. So, they have gen ed, they have major specific courses, uh the foundational courses as well. Maybe they want to get something out of the way so they don't have to take it when they transition. Um and it's a cost save. We know how um expensive college is. So, actually it was
052$85 a credit. Um most of their courses are three credit courses. Um So, if you look at it this way, a uh a fully matriculated Rowan University student would be paying $2,000 for a course as opposed to that $85 credit that is being offered to our high school students as well. Um And they're also eligible Oh, no, they are not eligible for standard student aid because of the discounted thing. Um they would also have access to student life and support services just as a regular Rowan student would as well. Uh you can apply [clears throat] on their website, submit test scores, and you even have access to advisors and all of those things. So, it was very comprehensive um presentation. And before, you know, dual credit for our high school students was mainly through our
053AP courses. Now, everybody has an opportunity to gain these courses without being an AP student. So, I was very excited about that and it's a huge opportunity. Outstanding. Outstanding. Any questions? Just to add to that, I'd like to thank Ms. Clement and the curriculum team for programs like this that we're introducing to the district just to fortify some of the great things that we're doing, adding different pathways for our students to be successful. So, it's a great program and Ms. Clement and her team did a great job making sure that it was a program that was a good fit for our Winslow Township students. Sounds like an excellent excellent program. Any questions for anyone on the program? Great job there. Anyone else want to talk about their school? I have something coming out of school
054four. Um Ms. Melina Bowie and her first grade students celebrated achieving 100% on 1,000 I-Ready lessons. I'm going to ask Mr. P to give a quick description on what that means. This is a test for the super- superintendent to know uh what's going on in our curriculum department. So, I'll do my best. Got the curriculum team over there looking at me. You better get it right. >> [laughter] >> So, our students uh have I-Ready I-Ready program that they use to supplement the curriculum that we're using currently in math and ELA. And it's a way for our students to and our teachers to kind of see where our students are in regard to state testing. So, we look at uh the students' performance with I-Ready and their effort and their commitment to it to help gauge
055some of our instruction to help them uh be successful in our state assessments. State assessment is the test that, you know, we're measured by, but we use these other diagnostics to help kind of guide our instruction and to really support students where they are you know, they need the most help. So, some of the students really get into it and, you know, the student you just mentioned had some success and you tell that they are excited about I-Ready. And then some need a little bit more encourage- couragement. So, we have to make sure that we monitor how they use the program, but it's a great program to help give us that data that we need to help make informed decisions for our students. How did you do curriculum team? Pretty good? Thank you so much.
056Really appreciate >> Mr. Amino. Good to meet Mr. P. It's a great job. All right, we're moving on to the page number three, the superintendent's report. We're looking for a motion to approve the superintendent's report that begins on the page top of page three and go all the way through the 3/4 of page six. Can I get a motion? Motion to Um Top of page >> report. From the top of page three to the bottom of page six as it's recommended for approval by the superintendent. Give me a second. Any questions? We have a quick clarification for that. What's it means? We'd just like to add that the conversation earlier from Ms. Nieves in regard to the pilot and the work behind that, you are approving the official uh pilot that was selected by our
057teachers. And we'll get into it the the curriculum team is here to really do on my report or my update to provide you some some of the background behind it, but you are approving Benchmark Advance for our K to 6 students and you will be approving Savvas for our middle school students, 7th and 8th grade. So, we're excited about this. We're looking for a dramatic dramatic change in the direction of how we handle ELA in our district and our teachers are excited about it. So, we're going to ride this momentum on your approval to get started right away. Thank you so much. Any other questions on that topic? Roll call. Ms. Boyle. Mr. Clark. Yes. Ms. Dredden. Ms. Galload. Yes. Ms. Martin. Yes. Mr. Matthews. Ms. Nieves. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Ms. Pitts. Yes. And Mr.
058Thomas. Yes. The motion has carried. All right, we're going on the page seven. Ms. Boyle, is this where you have your insertion at? Uh yes, it's at the bottom of page I think it's it's at the end and it's on page um 14. >> 14? Yes, that's section C. I'd like to we can go through A and B. I'd like the table um section C. >> And we'll bring it back up on the addendum. Okay, thank you. All right, I'm looking for a motion to approve the business administration board secretary's report starts at page seven. We're going to go all the way through A and B until we get to page 14, which page 13, which we'll table. Can I get a motion? Make a motion to business administrator board secretary's report as it's recommended
059for approval from the top of page seven to the bottom of to to the 13. the bottom of page 13. And then we table and table section C. We will do that separately, Mr. Shaw. >> Okay. Okay. I want to make sure. We got a motion. Can I get a second? Give me a second. Any questions? Roll call. Mr. Clark. Yes. Ms. Dredden. Ms. Galload. Yes. Ms. Martin. Yes. >> Mr. Matthews. Ms. Nieves. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes, but I'm going to abstain from number six letter A item 6380 PO number 604419 and item number M730 PO number 603992. >> [laughter] >> I already sent it to her, so she knows she don't have to write it down. Thank you. All right. >> Ms. Pitts. Yes. And Mr. Thomas. Yes. Motion has carried. All right, now
060we're going to skip all the way to page 17. President of the >> Yes. can we table um item C from page 14 up as it runs through 2/3 of the way down on page eight. Yes. >> all in favor? Yes, we're looking to table at the top of page 14 letter C all the way over to page 17. Can I get a motion? Uh can I uh make a motion to page item number C on the business administrator board secretary's report um from page 14 to 16. Give me a second. Any questions? Can I get a voice vote? All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right, moving on to page 17, the personnel report. We're looking for a motion to approve the personnel report that begins at the top of page 17 and goes over
061to the top of page 19. Can I get a motion? Motion to approve the personnel report as it's recommended for approval from the top of page 17 to the top of page 19. Give me a second. Any questions? Roll call. Mr. Clark. Yes. Ms. Dredden. Ms. Galload. Yes. Ms. Martin. Yes. Mr. Matthews. Ms. Nieves. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes. Ms. Pitts. Yes. And Mr. Thomas. Yes. The motion has carried. All right, folks, guess what? We have an addendum. I haven't had one of them in a while. We're looking for a motion to approve the addendum. That's addendum C that will be inserted in what we just alleviated and that'll be on that pink page at the top from C all the way going to letter Are we including the personnel report with that? Yes, sir. Okay,
062so we're going to the bottom of of the back page number two. Looking for a nomination motion to approve that report. Question, Mr. Shaw. Since we tabled this to move it to the addendum, do we have to untable this first? >> No, it did cuz I think this is an Well, um yeah, there are. The chart has has changed. Essentially, that will remain untabled. This is this is in lieu of that. Um it's not the same matter. Ms. Boyle. Yes, it is. So, there's no need to move to to untable because what was tabled is staying there and this is replacing So, we can vote directly on this item page one and two of the addendum. All right. I make a motion to approve the board secretary's report item number C as it's recommended for
063approval from on pages one and two. Give me a second. Any questions? I I do I do I think Oh, can you talk into the mic, Ms. Boyle? >> I'm sorry. I thought my mouth was dialed in now. So, because we tabled what was on the original agenda meeting addendum, there is number changes. Um can you just explain those two number changes, please? Yeah, the number changes were the the budget amounts. So, if you look at um and and we were changing it up till today because we were on the phone with the county executive executive business administrator who had given us instructions as to how I'm sorry as how to handle a certain matter and then we we followed up today said I'll have to get right back to you got back to us
064and changed. So we had to readjust. So if you look on page 14 and you look at the numbers in that chart you'll see that the the general fund budget was 136 million. Now it's 135. The anticipated or less anticipated revenues were it was 74.1. It's now 73.222. Okay, and the tax levy amount remains the same. So it was more of a and if you look down tax levy still remains the same. It was what do you include in this? This is how you handle this? No, don't handle it that way handle it this way. So we're going to get it to him tomorrow or at the the deadline is Friday and we'll let him decide. Okay, thank you. All right. Any more [clears throat] questions? Roll call. I'm sorry. Mr. Clark. Ms. Dredden. Ms.
065Glaud. Yes. Ms. Martin. Yes. Mr. Matthews. Ms. Nieves. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes. Ms. Pitts. Yes. And Mr. Thomas. Yes. The motion has carried. Thank you. Are there any open public records act requests Ms. Boyle? Mr. Thomas, there is a personnel report on the agenda as well. >> Oh, missed it. My fault. Okay, we're back to the pink agenda. I'm looking for a nomination on I believe it's page three of the personnel reports. I make a motion to uh uh to approve the personnel report as is recommended. Give a second. Any questions? Roll call. Mr. Clark. Yes. Ms. Dredden. Ms. Glaud. Ms. Martin. Yes. Mr. Matthews. Ms. Nieves. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes. Ms. Pitts. Yes. And Mr. Thomas. Yes. The motion has carried. I will abstain. You're welcome. Moving down back to our regular open public
066records act. Are there anything for that today Ms. Boyle? I'm I'm I'm flipping over to it. So I I don't see anything. So I'm going to say no Mr. Mr. Thomas. All right, thank you so much. Informational item. Mr. Pease, do we have any informational items today? I do. Thank you. So March is a great month. It's the start of spring a time of the year that reminds us of growth and rebirth. Couple that with the recognition of women's history month and we are reminded and thankful for all the great women past and present. Thank you. Preschool and kindergarten registration. Want to make sure our families understand that this is in process now. From March 23rd to March 27th you have an opportunity to go to your home school's website click the parent tab, select
067student registration complete the 26-27 online pre-registration call your home school to schedule an appointment for the week of March 23rd to March 27th between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 2:45 to complete the registration process. The process is not complete unless you have all of your documents and that is for pre-K 3, pre-K 4 and kindergarten. I had an opportunity to attend the Winslow Community Partners breakfast past Saturday. It was an awesome event. Had an opportunity to meet some of the community leaders and organizations that support Winslow Township. I look forward to partnering with some of the organizations that were present. Thank you for the invite Ms. Glaud. I also like to uh inform you of my attendance at a career day with Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis and myself attended the uh Monmouth University career
068day and this was the career day for educators and we were pleasantly surprised with some of the candidates and we look forward to bringing those individuals down for interviews to fill our vacancies. So Mr. Davis and Ms. Clement will be attending Rowan's career day coming up. So we're looking forward to bringing new talent to Winslow Township School District. Did you know Mr. Thomas? >> No, I didn't. That we have a merit scholarship winner. Did not know. Oh. We have a merit scholarship finalist senior Crystal Anwubulet. Phenomenal student. She is a finalist. The National Merit Merit Scholarship Program is a prestigious highly competitive academic competition for US high school students running since 1955 that recognizes top performers on the PSAT. Around 1.5 million students enter annually with roughly 7,500 winners receiving scholarships totaling over 30 million
069dollars. Winners are chosen based on academic skills, extracurricular achievements and potential for success in college. So congratulations to Winslow's own Crystal Anwubulet. So also have the curriculum team here to do a quick presentation on the process of choosing our ELA program that we're so excited about. So if I can have Ms. Clement come up with her team or Ms. Clement rolling solo today. >> [laughter] >> It's behind you. Presentation. It's behind. You don't have to move it. If you'd like to you can. So good evening board members, Mr. Pease, Ms. Boyle, Mr. Long, Mr. Davis, colleagues and community members. So as Ms. Nieves alluded to yesterday we celebrated our ELA HQIM selection. So our English language arts highly high quality instructional material selection and we had a reveal. So because our work has been so
070laborious we thought it was appropriate to have a a celebration in that matter. So the curriculum office and I we would just like to thank the board members who came out to join us yesterday for this momentous occasion as well as the great 88. So here is a quick recap. Which button Mike? You get it for me. So this is the color code for the whole project of the reveal. Each of our programs Ms. Schwartz assigned a color. Amplify was green, Benchmark Advance was purple, Curriculum Associates was blue, HMH was yellow and Savvas My Perspectives was pink. And this is how the curriculum office referred to all five of the programs that we piloted. So when we celebrated yesterday we just reminded the teachers or we told them that they may not have known but
071they were always a color. So these are the corresponding colors. Mike you can go ahead. So we also went over the key points of of the pilot. As Ms. Nieves said the journey began in September of 2024. We researched various programs. You see the programs up there. We lovingly refer to our teachers as the great 88. There were 88 teachers who piloted these five programs from kindergarten through eighth grade. We had general education teachers, special education teachers, ESL. So a culmination of all of the points of instruction across our district. We talked about our trainings that have gone on and our implementation trainings. We talked about our monthly meetings where as Ms. Nieves said the teachers got to talk about their programs. They got to try to convince one another which program was better than
072another to collaborate, to discuss, to articulate. Throughout the time that we've done this we've also had embedded professional development from the company. So we told our teachers that they are the customer. It is up to the company to make you happy with the projects that we are looking at. So we had training sessions, we had coaching sessions, we had on-site visits, virtual meetings. We also went to other districts who piloted some of the programs that we were doing. Impact grant is there because trying to be a good steward of our district's funds and stay on Ms. Boyle's good side, we apply for and were awarded $200,000 for from the impact grant and that will help us when we turn around and say we've got a program, Ms. Boyle, can we can we have some money,
073please? So. These are just some pictures of the teachers in action over the meetings that we had. And then we talked about our next steps. So, our teachers who are piloting the programs will continue with the programs that they have for the rest of the year. You all approved our selections tonight. We will then order materials and then we'll talk about the nitty-gritty. So, we will do a schedule adjustments um to just to make sure that we have enough time in the day to deliver the instruction the way that it needs to be done. We will establish teacher ambassadors. As as Ms. Nieves alluded to, everyone was really entrenched in their own program and so once we made the selections, we knew that we would have some cheers and some tears and we would have
074folks that needed to just come around and we want the teachers who have been a part of this journey to be ambassadors for the folks that they have to bring along on this journey with them and and they're ready to do that. So, then we'll begin implementation training, embedded training and coaching starting the process all over again. So, this trust the process sign is actually a replica of what Dr. Ferguson gave to my office and what we said to the teachers all along this time. Folks started loving programs, they started hating programs and then one vice versa. Every time we had a meeting, we didn't know how it was going to go. As Ms. Nieves said also, we had a short rubric of 46 questions for our teachers to go over and these questions were
075endorsed and supported by the New Jersey Department of Education and the Reading League's curriculum evaluation guidelines. So, they spanned five categories, program philosophy, materials, assessment, foundational skills and writing. So, the teachers really worked hard and then really had also some some soul searching and digging to do to really evaluate their programs. It wasn't based on feel, it was based on criteria. So, the big reveal and with the help of our board members who attended, they came over as Ms. Nieves said, they opened the box, two balloons came out. The colors were, if you remember from the beginning, Benchmark was purple and Savvas was pink. So, we had the two colors of the balloons come out. Some teachers yayed and some groaned um but but we got there. Ms. Cheryl Schwartz made cupcakes and the cupcakes
076were color coordinated. So, we got to have those to partake in as well. We did record this event. So, hopefully we'll get it together and we'll post it on the website so that you can see. Um I want to just reiterate that we knew that this was going to be a difficult decision because of all of the time and energy that the teachers put into this. They were dedicated and and I am I am extremely proud of them um and and their effort. So, I just want to read an email that I shared with Mr. Peas that came in from one of our teachers who was on the on the successful winning pilot team. This came from Ms. Matino. So, she says, "I hope this email finds you well. I just wanted to send out
077a little message to convey how absolutely elated I am that we're proceeding with Benchmark Advance as a district. I've been here since 2007 and this hands down is the best program I've worked with so far. I apologize for not being able to attend the reveal. I'm an after-school tutor, but my colleague kept me updated. I would like to thank you for organizing, creating a well-rounded process for authenticity and due diligence. It's been a really enjoyable experience. Naturally, I'm all in for any rollout in any way that you need to be." She says, "Thank you and I truly feel that the best program was chosen for the growth and development of our students." So, that was from the winner. But, what I also want to say is even more impressive and heartwarming than this email was
078the response of those who piloted and were the runner-up. So, Ms. Nieves was consoling some, Dr. Ferguson, Ms. Schwartz, we were as well. But again, after some cheers and tears, they put up their chins and their hands and they said, "Clement, we're here for whatever you need. We'll be there this summer for teacher academy training and we're ready to be ambassadors." And again, I am so proud of and thankful for the great 88 and all of the hard work and coordination done by the curriculum office, Cheryl Schwartz, Mr. Adair, Dr. Ferguson who stepped in and has been in lockstep with our goals to take our district into the future. And I want to make it very clear that this was these votes came from the teachers. No administrative votes at all. So, the teachers who
079are the boots on the ground in these classrooms chose the program that they want to use and we're going to support that and make sure that they have everything that they need to be successful. We told them just like George Stephanopoulos, your voice, your vote. So, it was up to them. So, Thank you. Thank you. I want to move right along. We have another informational item. Our past president had the opportunity to to have a meeting with the the legislators and dignitaries and he has some information that he wanted to share with us all. On March 14th, the NJSPA legislative committee met virtually. Um if anybody doesn't know, I'm the legislative board district NJSPA representative. Um during that meeting, we met with Chris Williams who's the new chief of staff for the New Jersey Department
080of Education. During that meeting, he engaged in a very robust conversation for nearly an hour with us discussing the modernization of school the school funding formula which will expand early learning programs addressing the state's teacher shortages. He also discussed literacy initiatives, [clears throat] high impact tutoring programs, mental health services in schools. Um He also acknowledged the challenges and said that the that they will consider the committee's input as NJDOE develops its policies alongside the new Department of Education Committee uh Commissioner Lilly Leal. Um Then we moved on to the updates with govern government relations. I'm going to You're going to have to give me a second because I'm going to flip through this because it discusses a lot about the governor's budget and the money she put towards education this year for her FY27 budget
081which saw a significant increase in the amount of money that she's putting forward in the state budget. This her proposed budget puts together 60.7 billion dollars which is a 1.6 increase percent increase in the fiscal budget. Um the proposed aid for schools is 22 and a half billion dollars which is a 37 and a percent total budget of the total budget, sorry. 12.4 billion is direct formula aid from K for K to 12 which is an increase of 3.1% which is total 372 million dollars over FY26. >> [clears throat] >> They uh they put a or they they put a 6% cap on the total aid year-over-year increases um which use a 3% average for income and property values over the local fair share. They also on the special education based it on special education
082enrollment instead of the census method. For the preschool education aid for her FY27 state budget, 1.38 billion dollars um is in that which is 118.1 million dollars, a 9.3% increase over FY26. So, that's a massive increase for preschool education aid. Um for facilities funding, there's the SDA construction projects. Um it follows the FY23 schedule which is 350 million. Um extraordinary special education aid, I'm skipped over that, sorry. There's 420 million dollars which is flat for the fifth straight year. Uh so, um the there's the one thing I really really wanted to hit on was there's a a new program which is taking over for the NJ NJ4S for mental health. It's called the um Spark program which is a school-based partnerships for access and resilience for kids. They budgeted $33 million for this program for
083K through 12 youth mental health statewide initiative. It's a statewide initiative. It's for to help students with complex and high acuity needs. It will shift services that currently provide that are provided through that old program. And it will reinvest those funds in the high acuity services through the DOA. They also created created a new youth online mental health safety awareness office. And they also they which they dedicated $125,000 for. And they also have a social media research center which they dedicated $500,000 for. Another thing they did they allocated another 7 and 1/2 million dollars in which increases the budget for high impact tutoring to $15 million. The literacy as I spoke before about the literacy. They're going to continue to advance other evidence-based programs through the Department of Education to improve third grade literacy and
084bring back kids bring the kids back up to speed. So they're trying to put more money into the and educational system. Um There's going to be some public hearings that are going on. One was today. So I'm sorry I'm a little late with this to everybody. But there's also going to be one where my where's my public hearings at? Okay. On tomorrow night online. Um for the Senate uh budget and appropriations committee for the for the state budget where you'll be able to listen in to hear what's going on if you have any questions for your assembly men or women and your state senators and even the Department of Education about what's going on. And also Monday, March 30th at MetLife Stadium. If you really want to travel up there and ask any questions in
085person. Um So that's uh Yeah. Those are some of the things that are going on. And board members I don't want to keep us too long but there's some governmental updates with things that are really happening in the state house. Um with some of the things that educational laws that are popping up uh at the state house. And Mr. President that's going to conclude my report cuz like I said I don't want to keep everybody here all night long cuz I can go on on and on. Thank you so much Mr. Shaw. We really appreciate your report. Any questions for Mr. Shaw on his report? Good. Just have Go ahead Madam Madam BP you have some questions? All right. Thank you. Just Anyone else? I have a question Go ahead. Go forward. Board could you
086speak in mic Her's isn't working. Not working. That was an event that was an event that I wish more people would have shown up what our girls in our community are doing. Um Rubies and Pearls is also going to be having like a little spring fling for the youth in our community. Um it's going to be in April and the next meeting on April 8th I'll give an update for when that is. But all kids are welcome. It's a $5 mission but they're going to be having all kinds of great funds and activities for the youth. Um the Village of Camden County is going to be having a young entrepreneur expo coming up this summer. I'll give more details on that but I'm just giving people updates on what's going to be happening with our
087youth in the community. And we did have a a meeting with our family circle and the Village of Camden County did have a meet your business owners in the community meeting on last Saturday. And it was just to introduce different nonprofits and different businesses in our local community so that we can start building together to collaborate a little bit more on how we can be better neighbors to each other and how we can build businesses in the community. And that actually turned out really well. Um and we're going to continue to have more. We get ready to have a real estate workshop for first first time owners. So when we get the information on a date is I believe it's going to be on April the 25th that we're going to have the real estate
088workshop. And we're going to collaborate with the business owners that actually came out and start promoting their businesses and promoting the nonprofits that are for our youth in our community. And as we continue to pass this on we will give a a register to Mr. Peace to put it on the digital backpack to inform the parents of our community of all the things that are available for their kids outside of school to kind of help you know push the forward of the great curriculum team that we have to make sure that throughout the summer we keep our kids engaged and involved and making sure academically they continue to be successful. And that's it. Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Crawford? I I would just say that Village great things for what they're offering uh to
089the um to the community. So uh it's likely that we will be able to afford merit scholars. Great great comment. Anyone else with information items or questions for anyone that anyone had to say? I have one more informational item. I'll try to keep it brief. So the academic and arts Hall of Fame committee finally met this past Monday. Uh some key takeaways from this. We are going to combine the scope of our committee so it will be a combined academic and arts Hall of Fame acronym and name TBD. Um we are talking about moving forward in a phase launch kind of starting small and then gaining momentum. Uh just so we don't burden the the members of the community that did show up. Obviously there'll be an immediate funding need. We are looking at partnering
090with We Are Winslow to be our nonprofit to be able to fund raise and get sponsorships in that regard. Waiting on approval from that committee as well. Uh we're looking at an inaugural event sometime around November given that people will be traveling home more likely to be home to be able to attend. Um We talked about the the scope and the criteria to be admitted to the Hall of Fame. We didn't just want to honor the salutatorians and valedictorians. We wanted to really look at people who went out and did amazing things. We've got doctors, lawyers, people that have been on Broadway. Uh worked in TV production and all these things. There's a lot of really great alumni who've done some amazing things. So we're going to tighten the focus on that put an application
091out where people can nominate and and staff can nominate former students as well. Um Let's see. So that was fundraising and logistics. Uh we've got our next steps going and then we'll be meeting in 2 weeks again to continue to work on this project. Hopefully partner with We Are Winslow. And then there'll be a call out again for sponsorships and donations so that we can get this started and we will always welcome more volunteers to come and help us out cuz we do not want this initiative to die with this committee. We wanted to keep going and and continue to be a permanent uh place in our district. That's all. Any questions for Ms. DeWeese? I like to add something to it. Um I'm asking if would there be any objections for the academic and
092arts Hall of Fame to commemorate all our past valedictorians from Edgewood and Winslow on a ceremonial plaque and have it placed up in one of our corridors at the choosing of our administrators of where and how it should be placed. Do I have any objections or questions or about that process? Um President Yes. What [clears throat] frame I mean what span of time are we talking about? As as far back as we can go. We're we're going to employ if someone from the academic and arts Hall of Fame maybe could with the permission of our superintendent that we with Mr. Morello to check the yearbooks to see what's in there. And once we can get a list we'll have bring the list in front of the board and this will be a list that goes
093on a plaque that will go somewhere in our Hall of Fame section or our Hall of Fame corridor to show how our academics was throughout the year and our past and our valedictorians. All right. Thank you so much. Just a other for few few more items I just like to share. As you all know we did plan our Winslow board meeting with the township that's coming up in April. I believe the committee has been established for that. Also next month we will be making that high school move where this meeting here will continue to be over the high school until further notice. And that will be on April 15th and April 29th. All right. And also don't forget we have Chicago coming up this weekend. So if you haven't got a ticket you got time.
094I wouldn't want to miss that play. All right. Going on the old business. Will there be anything in old business? Nothing? New business. Anything in new business? New business Mr. Just wanted to kind of pick up on statement that um that Mr. Davis regards to this being women's month being a board member Lord and myself have traveled up to you on Friday March 20th to attend the women's conference was attended by 150 primarily women board members and it was a I felt that it was very informative and it was it was a great gathering as it relates to women stepping up stepping out taking leadership roles the person who opened it was a doctor Kimberly Marcus and it broke into several sessions one session in particular had to do with the board being reminded the
095members who were there being reminded that as a board that we are governing body versus operating body but they her name was a doctor Nelson she reminded us that as we are [clears throat] governing body that our focus is on the what and the why that is the strategies oversight and as an operational body focuses on the how which we doctor Mr. administration and so it was great information and it was very well attended and it was worth the money I think that we had to pay for that right well it was worth it did y'all ride together okay all right any >> three of us were there just okay any questions for Miss Pitts and the outing that the ladies enjoyed all right move thank you all right we're going out of public comments
096Mr. Long can you help us out >> yes sir the Winslow Township Board of Education highly values the input of citizens in making the important decisions that affect the children of our community we also believe in the rights of citizens to observe board meetings to ensure that all of our citizens have the opportunity to attend school board meetings and offer comment and to ensure that the board can conduct the important business of the district we ask that speakers follow the guidelines for making public comment the board secretary will recognize those individuals in the audience who wish to make comment please respect the following procedures all members of the public attending school board meetings must treat each other and the board with respect please state your full name and town of residence please limit your comments
097to 4 minutes if you have any questions which we can't answer please feel free to submit them in writing with your name address email address telephone number where you can be contacted and your questions will be answered within a reasonable time period lastly individuals offering citizen comment are not permitted to make personal attacks on any district employee board member other testify or member of the public thank you with that being said can I get a motion open up public comments motion to open public comments yeah that's second any questions voice vote all in favor I I Miss Boyle madam I'm sorry Mr. President nobody has signed up this evening to speak um for public comments do we have anybody no okay with that being said can I get a motion to close public comments motion
098to close public comments yeah that's second voice vote all in favor I I anything for executive [clears throat] session close yes first one yes we do have a a matter um advised by our interim superintendent so in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act we're entering into an executive session March 25th 2026 at 8:50 p.m. of the nine exceptions that we have that we can go into executive session this one will have to do with number eight matters affecting employment with regard to an employee in the transportation department I would anticipate approximately 25 minutes a motion and a second and a roll you guys with that being said I'd like to make a motion that we move into executive session yeah that's second do we get a motion did you make the
099motion you you already made it I did oh I'm calling for motion to close >> [laughter] >> I made the motion you second the way he framed it was a motion to close the session >> roll call Miss Boyle Mr. Clark yes Miss Drayton Miss Lloyd yes Miss Martin yes Mr. Matthews Miss Nieves yes Mr. Shaw yes Miss Pitts and Mr. Thomas >> yes the motion has carried >> all right thank you