001important got e good evening everybody Welcome to the wisler attach Board of Education regular meeting on tonight uh Wednesday March 12th public notice of this meeting was given to all board members and Associates and a notice dated January 9th 20125 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 in all schools the administration office the municipal building the library Bud duable Center Edwood acres elmtown and the Winslow Township Post Offices the mission statement the mission of the Winslow Township School District a large diverse and growing Community is to educate all students to become independent lifelong Learners critical thinkers and caring and confident members of their community this District in partnership with the
002community 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 roll call please Mr Clark here miss dreaden she will be absent tonight miss CLA present Miss Martin present Mr mcmanis N Miss Peterson present Miss Pitts Miss Pitts will be absent tonight as well thank you Mr Thomas yes and Mr sha present we have a quum can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America to the for stands one nation God indivisible andice for all Mr McManus will you please read the district goals yes sir uh 2425 District goals
003number one student achievement continue to implement best practices for delivering instruction to students and this shall include conduct weekly administrative walkthroughs to monitor teaching and learning uh two consistently review student assessment data to guide and redirect teaching three continue to provide supplemental activities for example tutoring ma is creating POS learning environment for students and sta a strictly enforce stent distri student code of conduct B focus on Upper Elementary School students to modify student behavior in early grades C reinforce positive behavior in a specific and genuine Way D approach discipline with care respect and the desire to see the good in all students three increase parent caregiver and Community engagement and education by a provide opportunities for two-way communication with districts stakeholders B continue with communication Consortium C focus on refining our communication method for the
00425 26 school year Mrs Bo and Mrs Chico will be making that presentation this evening Miss Chico you my name is you will have two items you will have the presentation as um posted up there and you also have the um advertised budget um with all um that would be advertised um after been submitted um and approved um at the end of the presentation at the OR at tonight we need I get that that packet back um because it's not supposed to be published and public so okay so forting uh this slide shows the 2425 U State versus 2526 2425 got a total of7 consera in 2526 we have a total of 59.9 million which also operating budget went up around 3.2 million however preschool aid went down around 660,000 for a total increase of
005$2.5 million ferally this is semi semi is a special education medic initiative this is um funding from the federal that is calculated by the state and this number is an estimated calculation as you can see there is a decreases $253,000 this this number is not our generation like I said by St we have no control over the funding local contribution this is comparison comparing 26 the tax L6 is% over the previous year for toal of 55.8 million or an increase of 1, 94,000 fund balance is a statutory number that we have to budget in this year's um and it's 6.7 million which is actually a decrease from the prior year of around $2.1 million the withdrawal from capital reserve of $4.5 million is for our for our Middle School hbac anticipated project the 2425 included
006um the high school balance of the high school funding and school 5 hbac projects and this year we are withdrawing $830,000 for our require bar maintenance for a total for 2526 of 78 million an increase of 955 local tax state I went over the tax levy and the state aid already the extraordinary Aid is uh money that we apply for at the end of the year for special ed costs um again I went over PL and balance the tuition of 3.1 million is our tuition revenue from chiselhurst and some other miscellaneous tuition that we get from other schools the 8,600 is miscellaneous revenue for interest that we facilities system M school and the original the school so um this is all of our budgeted operations summarized in a hand categories of construction student support transerve
007schol the instruction of 44 million includes regular Ed special in co-curricular and athletic um funding the tuition includes um tuitions that we pay for all of our district students to go to private schools um uh can um locational schools and other um elates student transport uh stud student support of 12.6 million includes um categories such as nursing speech otpt on the child study team guidance and extraordinary Services Administration and information technology of 8 million includes um the general Administration C Central administration business office and it operation and maintenance includes all of our um air mark contracts and any and any information um any cost related to the buildings and other um grounds areas our student transportation is our um cost for our transportation costs of bus of bus drivers um out of District PL uh
008routes um to other schools and other private schools for the disabled benefits that includes all of our benefits for the for all stamp that includes medical prescription dental vision and then other employee other employe benefits such as um waivers uh retirement and insurance interest on maintenance Reserve is an estimated number Capital outlay that includes includes our withdrawal from H Reserve our withdrawal from for the um middle school projects additional equipment that we might budget um for buses or any other equipment that we might plan on doing throughout the year and then the transfer to Charter Schools includes the tuition to our charter schools that we sent for the students presentation I have noted um letters next to um each number and if we go to the advertised budget um packet four categories and then some
009of the other categories are just a single amount and so they're legal on the um next slide is our current expense budget um over the last three years it shows 23 24 actual 2425 revised and 256 rep post6 expensive instruction and as it relates instruction is actually category which is instruction and tuition and um all the other ones are related to the other budget um slide that I did except for Capital maintenance which includes $500 plus the capital outlay and as you can see the revenues agreed to the expenditures we both revenues and expenses the same amount so for a total of 1477 million in budget in total budget 91.6 and anticipated revenues and again8 the 94,000 is a transfer that preschool students and because um it's included in revenue and in [Laughter] general1 million
010and again million in tax like I said special Revenue fund includes local grants state grants and federal grants the local grants are um school um any anybody who wants to locally donate to the to the school districts state grants are preschool Aid and school-based youth and our federal funding includes the title grants Ida grants ands and presentation I questions the federal grants was that anticipated of receiving based on previous years or it's actual so we um we budgeted 75% of the current year grants for across the board so you took it a 25% ruction yeah except for preschool a because we were given the totals of how much we're allowed to based on um the state um carryover and any um local that we're going to get from either to or or general so federal
011grants 25% reduction yes state grants state grants like I said preschool is they give it gave us all the funding so that's um funded as actual for the 25 26 grade school-based youth is uh 25% reduction of current year and then um local which is do next activities we estimate U am based on what we've got in the previous thank you we're still subject to the 2% Bud cap right yes because of our changing to November election and also not having to put the budget up as long as we stay under 2% or under yes and so this being 2% or yes yes correct thank you um sorry Mr Thomas yes a couple questions um the could you explain to me the the HVAC project I know that's a project that's been on our budget
012every for three years what have already been completed what schools have already been completed and tell me what school is just just about to be I true um schools five and six have been budgeted the high school has been budgeted um drti came back we met with both Architects so we're dealing with two separate architect teams uh schools five and six they're they're uh big went out today so we're waiting for bids to pick up and show interest in um doing that work uh the high school is back on track as well we had a meeting with the architect he had a little issue with fees we came to a meeting of the mind and it's you know as we know that that one has a long history and uh their fees are based on
013um the size of the project so if we it went it was at one point we got out the bid bids came in and just bids were twice as much as our whole budget so we it died then we got Federal money we brought that in the budget went up we adjusted the fee and then it's gone up again so like I said I will be discussing that with the operations committee that'll be prior to our next agenda to get their fees and we'll move from there in this budget we're anticipating that 14 million to do the middle school and I was going to why I'm raising my hand is that it's a it's partial we had already replaced some of the units at the middle school because they were the pipes were bursting they
014flood and the floors within start buckling if they were fous we have to have themed so we took those and I believe they were Mar a we took them out and we replaced them the ones that we're looking at now are the ones that are originally to the building so that project we have the funding for and we'd like to get that moving as well um Rich Chico And I do what we do we you know we sock away the money find out what's the the priority and needs I think the uh schools with the second stories can be unbearable in the summer so we have the funding for five six and the high school um unfortunately between Co and The Architects and the work we're trying to get these horses out the gate so
015it it appears as though we will be in a situation where three projects could be going and they're designing the four yeah so that one that sounds good like live through SP a heck of a project us at this point we can say servicing three to four buildings would upgrade ofac and tun of the upper $15 million worth of capital Improvement and I just want to thank you for the pioneering this this project it's been here since I've been here I get to see it see so back to the middle school project that's just the existing so it's not actually air conditioning the middle school it's entirely just what's already in place this the ones that we replaced earlier had AC so we replaced them with AC the original did not so that's what we're
016getting ready to tackle and they will be and and the whole gist of it is for clean air clean air but if you throw a couple dollars more and you get to hit the switch and they get AC you know but we're all going AC clean there I'll take the Clean Air with the season we had and one other question I had and again I'm not a numbers person so looking at the tuition for 24 25 Revis I see it at 1.8 million and proposed for 2526 that's up to 31 it was a big jump I was just wondering what that was so in the prior year we had a large prior year tuition adjustment in Che so I believe that their tuitional loans um would have been about 2.7 million but at the end
017of the year we go back and we say how much did we charge you oh we charged you too much and for too many we had to give them back $800,000 so their decision was we can either we have one year to make that payment their decision was also set it with our tuition so that's why that number is artificially low and last question promise with the dismantling of the Department of Education does that have any ramifications on our school budget well if you it would be only from what I heard from you at this point um historically we were able to budget 85% of our prior year projects or awards that they gave the title F Ida basic which is for our special a students the most V vulnerable in so this year when
018we were budgeting we were told to budget 75% I do not have those numbers yet and I hope we don't see something like we did with s did you see it was in 299 down to 46 right now we just don't know um so I'm waiting to to get those numbers we're going to proceed with exactly what we've been told uh if by chance they do um reduce it significantly some of that stuff may have to get moved into the general fund some some programs have to have or let's say I doubt I really doubt they're going to do anything with ID but if they do those tuition cost come back into and I know at so right now we're in a holding PN I've lost too much sleep and and just to add I
019do try to keep up on the the news and it does say that they do think that even though they're dismantling the department of it it might just be the the federal workers and not necessarily the funding but like I said every day it's different you hear something and then next day it's different so I we really don't know and we don't know if it's because of the way the federal government is on a different fiscal year we don't know what year they're actually going to effect it could be like you said we just don't know and it's a holding P although I do recall having to schedule a special meeting in July we only one and because they took our a back remember that any other questions okay great thank you very much and
020remember um turn back the advertised budget you can keep the presentation just the adver and those were only provided to the board members so when Chico was talking about the letter and she was shown we wanted to give you enough detail and what you need to do to look at it is compare so that there's no W swings there so we try to keep it consistent so if you saw a w swing you might want to ask this and we do forensit yes ma'am you were under a lot of stress I was going to offer you one of those cream pakes has one more question when will New Jersy numbers federal and state will be in federal isn't in but you have a state definite they're not going to go back and cut it well
021oh no we never know about that's what I'm asking I just wanted it's what they promised us right now but it could change as things move forward so I wanted to make sure everyone on the board and the um in this room knew that New Jersey can go back because we had a couple of years that they did yeah yeah there was two years in a row and it was back in like 1617 15 16 16 17 around there where they took one you know they took a small amount from us and then they took a big amount from us but yeah thank and they defer their last two state aid payments till July thank you Mrs Bo yes sir would you also explain to the board that this is a tenative budget and we
022are on a tight timeline which means that you know we have to get this tenative budget approved and sent to the county and U once it's approved by the county then we'll be able to do a budget we had can I have mine away with it there's one more here I think um Mr Davis and thank you but I'm sure they won't be put no thank you double check Miss Martin turn mine in that concludes our presentations for this evening thank you Dr Co thank you Miss Chico and Miss Bo as well um moving on to correspondence do you have any correspondence tonight uh no correspondence this evening um Mr President however I I did want to say that on the addendum all of the budget questions are there so we'll get to uh vote
023on the budget and this is just to send it up to the county office so they can start their process thank [Music] you can I have a moving on to the minutes can I have a motion to approve the following meeting minutes from our regular meeting of a regular Board of Education meeting from February 26 2025 open session and regular meeting February 26 close session Peters to move for approval of the regular meeting February 26 2025 open and close session second Miss Martin any questions roll call please Mr Clark abstain Miss GL yes Miss Marson yes Mr mcmanis yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr Shaw yes motion has carried moving on to for committee reports um do we Mr Thomas do we have a athletic committee report no report at this time
024but I do say our our our spring sports are gearing up to take the field and bring home some more championships there we go Miss Martin do we have anything from the citizens that do we have anything for the Cen advisory committee no we do not um I do have the report I apologize I just did not email it to you but I can read that out if oh okay okay sorry sorry but I will make sure that I email that to you Miss Martin so you can disseminate that to the board thank you so my apologies um the citizens advisory committee met uh March 6 2025 um it was held Thursday beginning at 6:35 PM in attendance were Rosie Hoffman Jerry lamola myself Marcy Thomas Lisa and Greg wake H board Li Rita Martin
025were present absent were Robert chuster M Ortiz B Crooks Melinda Harman Mike Hogan Jennifer Moss Diane McKenzie and Chris zor um at the meeting I gave an update on the board's responses to our last recommendations so I thank the board for taking those under consideration and currently looking at those um we discuss how Miss gl's motion which was adopted by the Boe to look into purchasing of Chromebooks for students in grade seven who 12 for the next school year was discussed um we also had discussions on school security teacher team building teacher retention and high school JC program the following recommendations are being made to the Board of Education as a result of these discussions I did forget to add that we are still working ongoing on the HSA handbook so that way there's a
026uniform kind of handbook for each of the schools hsas to follow as well so I have the three recommendations from the CAC um number one kind of falls under school security uh the CAC is recommending that students who record while in school this is again separate from the cell phone policy I want to make that very clear that any recording done on school premises becomes a student misconduct issue under incitement whether it's the recording of a fight but just a separate student misconduct issue um I know we've had previous issues where fights were being recorded uploaded onto social media that sort of thing and under our current cell phone policy I think it's more geared towards you know if a student is taking their phone out to scroll social media cheating on a test that
027sort of thing I think when we get to the level of recording a fight um you know teachers in the classroom or even other students that's a different level and I think it's above and beyond the scope of what the policy covers um and even to kind of play a little bit of Devil's Advocate you know we do have it so that you know as a parent I know I have to sign that the school's able to record and use photographs of my children correct um so if there's another student recording my child in school I'm I'm gonna have problem with it so I would ask that the board or the CAC would ask that the board take that under advisement as well uh the second re recommendation falls under teach teacher team building um
028it was brought to the CAC perhaps that teachers on their own time with their own funding want to kind of get together to have team building exercises um you know they would fund it they would organize it it would be no um you know anything on the on the district except being able to utilize uh school buses for there so you know an example Friday Night of the Dave and Busters per se it's outside of school outl you know outside of their General duties just having access to school buses and I think that would go a long way and teach them morale for sure and then the third recommendation was to look into reinstating the JROTC program at the high school um ideas for the next meeting to include security and public Rel relations the
029meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. and I want to thank Rosie Hoffman for being our substitute repor at that meeting and if the board has any questions I'm happy to entertain those right now um Mrs Nez I don't have any questions but I could possibly uh respond to a couple of those recording the fights that is something we are going to revisit as a part of our student code of conduct um teachers using school buses for after hours weekend type of functions um they would just pretty much have to follow the same use of facilities use like everyone else does any other organization um as long as it's not doing school time would be my concern but other than that we could um the ROTC program for those of you whove been around um it's
030not necessarily choice of the school district to have a jrtc program um theart Department of Defense normally provides 50% of the salary uh but one of the issues that we had was U the number of students who participated in the RC program um you must have at least 10% of your student population so for example we have 1500 students we should have 150 students in the jrtc program we have not been close to those numbers up until I would say the last five cl to eight years we've never come close to those numbers um because of those the shortage of numbers we were placed on probation for many years uh our program was not appealing to those officers who may be looking for OTC program because it wasn't stable and because it was on probation
031they would tend to look somewhere else because they didn't want to come for just one year they want to have a number of years so at this point uh and the lack of Interest I think at the last year we had ROTC we may have had 10 kids so with the lack of interest um being on a probationary status for a number of years the Department of Defense decided that they would no longer fund 50% there was no interest coming from the Department of Education so at this point I just want to let the board and the community know that there's no chance in us getting the ROTC program at this point so and I didn't want to mislead anyone to think well that's a possibility there's no possibility for that to happen that makes
032total sense I just want to go back for the the teachers being able to UTI utilize the school buses so as the policy currently sits I do believe that any community group who wants to use the school buses are in charge of the insurance Rider correct absolutely so is that something something that we can consider comping for the teachers as a Act of kind good work well I my initial thought would be no because it's a liability attached to all of the use of facilities use of our buses and U if the board make that possible then therefore the board accepts all liability in the event there's an accident the other thing is um people love the sewers and uh they will not be exempt from that so um in doing so I want the
033board to know that not only would they be accepting the liability they would be accepting everything that goes with that so before I would say just move on I think we need to take a real close look at that and make sure because everyone else is expected to have a certificate of insurance that would be my only concern the liability that's attached to it all right any other questions before I thank you moving on to moving on to the education committee M Martin I'm sorry uh educ we have no report uh we have a meeting the fourth Tuesday of this month okay Mr Manis the marketing committee uh I do have a report Mr President uh we had a chance to meet uh the marketing committee convened March 8 2025 at 4M and attendants were
034uh one Mr John Shaw uh Wanda GL Joe Winslow Joe to Thomas and yours truly Jared mcmas discussion of the committee centered around the topic of the development of the social media club uh which was we talked about that before in session uh I have my notes attached uh purpose uh social media Club affectionately referred to as the uh Breakfast Club purpose is to drive District engagement by communicating upcoming events District successes as well as other newsworthy items throughout the entire Community as well as staff parents uh and students composition inspired somewhat from the movie from the the 1980s The Breakfast Club the goal is to assemble a group of students and this we at our school definitely do a good job promoting diversity uh but it would be a student from each the middle
035school and the high school that represent a cross-section of the student body uh suggested uh one athlete one performing art one advanced placement class student and one uh successful I put the term down as at risk uh I wasn't really sure but kids who have excelled in personal be uh the source of these students and uh students to use can and should come from the students themselves recommendations can be submitted to a single point of contact with that individual to screen the willingness of the students to participate um this secondary goal is kids in this club secondary goal kids in this club would be able to learn draft edit and produce quality shorten medium-term videos for consumption uh these videos would then be distributed through the existing te technological uh infrastructure that we have supervision
036we currently have a person on retainer for Tech purposes and I'm and forgive me if I'm not referring to that correctly um this individual will be able to supervise and and the entire production process and would include the development of ideas for content and content storage uh this content would become a library in a lot of these cases it can be used reused during the year for example a reusable content uh coming out of the winter we had the dreaded one hour late two hours late things of that nature so that would be stuff that we could text out to the district with a face of the children uh some some of the kids that were on that schools canceled time changes for example spring ahead and fall back Andor holiday announcements uh examples of
037one-time content the hire and retirement notice of uh teachers administrators uh sports events announcements scholarship announcements both Sports and academic and other clubs for example stem stem Performing Arts Etc uh and then the again the dreaded school board meetings which would be great to see more Community involvement uh again the distribution of this content uh would be easily facilitated through the existing text messaging system advancing uh the advantage to using video versus text only is an increased open rate uh uh there's been a number of studies that are done on that I can actually provide that that's if interested but it would definitely be able to increase Community engagement um so that's that's the uh the proposal and then uh so we adjourned we adjourn the meeting approximately 5:12 p.m. and the next meeting tened
038be more 19 7 p.m. at the uh mcmanis castle with sweets provided of course thank you Mr MCM yes sir um well Mr Ed's not here miss Bo anything from the operations committee uh no we have not met we will meet the Tuesday before the last board meeting of the month the 25th okay Mr I'm going to ask you for the policy committee sure um the policy committee did meet this evening right prior to the meeting at six o'clock in attendance was Miss laa Mr Clark and Miss Peterson we will have first reading policies to present at the March 26 okay thank you Mr Thomas The Economic and Development and Municipal Drug Act nothing at this time since the last February 3D meeting our next meeting I believe is in a April 5th okay and
039there's there hasn't been a planning board meeting since our last board meeting so there's nothing to report out that we'll move on to the superintendent report starting on page three to the bottom of page five can I get a motion to approve the superintendent report as it's been recommended for approval Peterson move for approval of the superintendent report recommended approval of the following items A and B found on page three through five can I get a second second Miss Martin any questions um roll call please Mr Clark yes m g yes m Miss Martin yes Mr mcis yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr sha yes the motion has carried moving on to the business administrator board secretary's report starting on the top of page six to the bottom of page 10 can
040I get a motion to approve the business administrative board secretary's report as it as it as it as it as it's recommended for approval Peterson move for approval of the board administrative business administrative board secretary's report as recommended for approval of the items found on A and B page six through 10 second Miss Martin any questions yes I do I have a question for page seven use of facilities number nine have school school five Tall Pines and high school Winslow elake track what can someone tell me in in our stakeholders what's that about sure um at school five The Tall Pines Camp um that's a local organization that provides summer camp for many the young people in our um in our school district or our community uh and their pickup is in the parking lot
041of school five every morning they pick the young people up the parents bring them to that location then they drop them off at that same location they've been using that as a pickup and drop off for quite some time okay uh as far as the Winslow Elite Track and Field uh those are the little ones in our community as you know um Coach Brown has been coaching in uh WIS Elite Track and Field program long before she became a coach at wo Township High School so these are our little people uh who use the facility after ours meaning after we use it and they also have been um using that facility for a number of thank you [Music] sir any any other questions call please Mr Clark yes Miss BL yes Miss Martin yes Mr
042mcmanis yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr Shaw yes but I have to abstain on page six letter B on the vendor bills list for PO number [Music] 6380 motion is carried moving on to the Personnel report um from starting on the top of page 11 moving all the way through to the bottom of page 14 can I get a motion to approve those Personnel report as the superintendent uh recommends for approval Peterson move for approval of the Personnel report as recommended by our superintendent number a 1-10 found on page 11-4 second Miss Martin any questions Dr FY can I just ask one question sure um for number eight on page seven okay can you just explain that real quick yes uh the board approved that tutoring program um I I think yes
043the the board approved this program in March I'm sorry it was approved at the last right okay where we at page 14 the board approved the two program these are the teachers who will be teaching in that in that program it's on here again because it was a change account number that's why you see the aster wrong account number was listed last time I just wanted to make sure did you want to add something yeah the board approved two different tutoring services and one was Varsity tutoring that was the online tutoring okay these teachers are regular teachers that are teaching during the day and they are the ones who have decided to utilize their prep period or their lunch to provide tutoring services and and I just like to make a comment about that because
044I know there was some talk in the community about tutting Ser tutoring service is there's any way we could send out an extra maybe a robo call letting parents know that these Tut in service are available so our stakeholders and our communities can know for sure that these are some of the things that we're doing to bridge the gap so Mr Thomas I can tell you that um the principles have communicated with parents regarding the tutoring services and we did announce it here here so um I'm sure that the principles can do it however there's a problem with doing that um when we do that then it makes um I think there's perception that it's open to everyone and we can't do that because we're limited based on the funding and the number of students
045we can service okay thank you um any more questions roll call please Mr yes Miss GL yes Miss Mar yes Mr mcmanis yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr sha yes motion has carried moving on to our agendum everybody take a couple seconds to uh read over their agendum before start moving on to that if everybody's looked over their addendum if I can have a motion on the superintendent report as the superintend superintendent recommends it for approval um on page one and I have a motion Peterson move for approval of the superintendent report as recommended for Action 1 a through 1 through six found on page one can I have a second second Miss Martin any questions yes I do okay um the number three on page one the Summer music program can
046someone explain that to me sure the Summer music program is GL again has been a program in place in the district for over 10 years these are the young people in our orchestra band um we realize of course that many of our parents cannot afford uh individ ual practice or lessons for our children so we as a school district we provide that opportunity for our young people to come in and continue with their music lessons during the course of the summer so when they return sort of never miss a beat and as you all know we have one of the best yes Upper Elementary bands and orchestras anywhere in the state these young people do a tremendous job so it's just a matter of providing them with that opportunity to add those lessons during the
047summer months and is it a cost to the to the also thank you so much that we're changing the location because of the projects that are taking place in five and six right and that's why it's at the middle school this year okay thank you D car Dr yes sir the gr from the Ripken Foundation um can you explain that one yes um this is an opportunity for for um the foundation that come into the middle school at no cost to us and set up a stem program pretty much want to interwin what we already have in place um so uh they've reached out to us and we had uh pretty much stated that yes we are interested so the foundation is going to come in they're G to set up everything and our young
048people will benefit from it very very very good any other questions call please Mr Clark yes Miss GLA yes Miss Martin yes Mr McMan yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr Shaw yes motion has carried moving on to the board secretary's report uh part of our addendum can I get a motion to approve the board secretary's of report as it recommended for approval Peterson move forward approval of the board admin uh business administrative board secretary's report as indicated a one through eight found on page two and three second Miss Martin any questions roll call please Mr Clark yes Miss GL yes Miss Martin yes Mr McMan yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes sh yes motion has carried moving on to the proposed District budget um as a part of the business administrator
049board secretary um recommendation for approval can I get a motion to approve the attended the proposed school budget he is to move for approval uh the business administrative board secretary's approval of the proposed School District tenative budget for the 2026 uh year item one through five page found on page four and five second Miss Martin any questions roll call please Mr Clark no Miss GL yes Miss Martin yes Mr McMahon no no Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr Shaw yes motion has carried any comments Mr loan I have any comments no I'm just making sure I have the signific yeah we got where was the final number you're there you have many how many perative votes did you have one two 3 four five you're just B yeah you're good and you're just
050basically sending it this is authorization to send it to the cting suit so moving on to the Personnel report on the back of our agendum on page six can I get a motion for approval of the Su the Personnel report as a superintendent recommends it for approval Peterson move for approval of the Personnel report as recommended by superintendent number a one two and three found on page six second Miss Martin any questions one this is u a little bit of Mr President I was uh surprised to see uh Dr Coro on the list of of retiring I just want to congratulate her for a long illustrious career and thank you very much for being a part of the Winslow Township for a great many years thank you very much Mr McMan my retirement home and
051Marilyn is ready and waiting congratulations Dr congratulations any other questions or comments roll call please Mr Clark yes Miss GLA yes Mr MC oh Excuse Me Miss Martin yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Mr Shaw yes motion has [Music] carried moving on to the open public records act uh requests Miss Bo do we have any this meeting no no Mr pre uh President we did not okay um Dr do we have any information or yes uh the information items that I have is the Mr President members of the board and community are pretty much follow-ups to a lot of the information that I was directed or approved to proceed at our last board meeting first um I'd ask that uh we have the opportunity to pursue uh the district to
052become a choice district and uh we reached out to the state and unfortunately that request is placed on hold if not basically saying to us it will not be able to happen let me just re brief briefly to what they had stated the department is required to manage Choice student enrollment based on the funding approved by the New Jersey legislature in the annual Appropriations act the fiscal year 26 Choice funding in the governor's budget does not allow for Choice enrollment growth therefore the department must limit the number of available Choice seats and a consistent fair and transparent manner by not increasing with some exceptions the number of choic seats in participating Choice districts and prohibiting new school districts from joining the choice program basically what they're saying is um the funding is a consideration those
053Choice programs that are presently existing uh that will not be able to extend or increase their enrollment and those programs that are requesting applications to become Choice district is pretty much on hold the letter goes on to state if these chances and new Choice District applications will be accepted information will be posted on the Choice website no later than March 2026 well we already in March 2026 so I'm gonna hold out until the end of the month to see if there's a change if there is no change basically again what they're saying is uh Choice student enrollment for newly approved choice districts would occur in the 2728 school year we talking about at least three years so at this point um um the chance of it occurring for us to become Choice district is very
054slim and then on the other hand if it does occur we're looking at at least three years for our application to be submitted so at this point um becoming a Cho district is on all right um one of the other uh requests that was made was to give me the opportunity and permission to pursue a technology audit um we are gathering information uh with the idea that the district want a thorough and detailed audit and with the information we've got so far we've also been trying to get cost estimates based on what I'm understanding and hearing from the members of the board we're looking at anywhere between 150 ,000 to 200,000 now it could be less it could be more but I don't think we'll exceed 250,000 let me just give you some of the
055things that have to be considered we have um eight schools and then all of the other buildings in the district including administration building uh our barn um The Early Childhood Center which is included the bus garage the maintenance building the Food Service module all those buildings have to be considered so we looking at 13 different locations um and again based on the information I've gathered from several sources we're looking at around about that amount and um I I know I'm correct in stating that you want a thorough audit into our system and at this point that's where we are uh I'll continue we're looking into uh companies who provide that service and hopefully um I I would like to be able to say by the next meeting where we are I can put somebody out
056there for you to consider but at this point I'm still Gathering the information but that's where we are so far um you also we also talked about Chromebooks for students seventh uh through 12th grades uh we conducted A needs assessment in the past few days and right now what we have at the middle school we're going to need at least 526 um Chromebooks and at the high school we're going to need 925 of course that would include some additional ones in the event we have to replace uh we're looking at around about $450,000 uh to replace and upgrade but we're looking at replacement uh Chromebooks and that's pretty much what we're looking at in terms of costs um as far as the Chromebook looks a concern uh Mr President we had this discussion several times
057um that's pretty much where we are but the board have to tell me whether or not there something you want to move forward now we haven't budgeted for it at this point because that's we're moving forward with our present budget for 20 526 we're finishing up where we are now but that's not budgeted for plus the audit which is a onetime uh cost uh but based on what I'm understanding need a company would probably have to put a team of people in our district because of the volume of the work uh so at this point we're gonna try to bring some closure to that as soon as possible but the board would have to approve in which direction you want me to go with that all right last but not least Mr President the plaques
058for former board members are in The District uh you have to set a date if you want to do next board meeting or whatever board meeting You' like to schedule uh but we do have the plats and if you set a date for us to honor those board members we're prepared to provide you with those okay that concludes my information I can I ask a question sure um Dr potit uh regarding the uh technology audit yes a as you have gone through there and you saw and you're you're right it's a a pretty big scope especially the number of buildings right it seems that the number of complaints that have come in about uh interconnectivity to the internet centered more around schools do you think it would be wise in an effort to to save
059some money that maybe we can look at that particular problem in those particular buildings just the schools itself yeah okay well we are all interconnected so if you're going to do the schools and not do the other buildings because the administration building we are also connected with the schools that sort of thing um our our transportation department we have to do the transportation department if you g do other because again they are the organization or the department that go out there get our children bring them to school when you do a school district every component that keeps us operating even the Food Service modular that's what make us run so to miss one component and then if they go down and we've done all the others so my recommendation why you doing it do it
060all you know just do a thorough and for a penny for a pound pretty much because if not then we have to come back and say well we missed this one now you have to do it over so my recommendation do it right the first time so we won't have to do it over so Dr Co are you looking for approval I'm not looking for any approval today uh at this time but I I do want to caution the fact that none of this has been budgeted for right and I have to rely on Mrs bll to tell me what we can and cannot do okay um and then you have to give me some timelines for example the Chromebooks are you looking at September uh the audit I'm looking at immediate because that's something
061I figure as a priority and um at this point you know give me some Direction but right now speaking with Mrs Bo she is saying we may be able to squeeze out the audit within our existing budget okay but for as the Chromebooks are concerned we have not budgeted for that okay so yes the only other thing I wanted to said is um once we implement the Chromebooks that's not a one and done because next year you know they break we have to replace them a new grade comes in um to me that's like hiring staff once you implement that you're going to have those costs going forward I'm I'm hesitant until we find out what our federal a is coming in the Federal Aid comes in nice we're good you know yeah oh give
062us Direction it's a federal aid if they Lop us and there's programs that we have to absorb I we need to do that first and then um yeah and then we can investigate going forward so um and like I said a one and done when you say 200,000 we do the audit however they're going to find something we have to gear up to I mean knowing that or rep yeah it's like you're not plugged in I'm not plugged in okay and then I don't get the money together so I can go plug it inore it so I know what my problem is but I have to be able to resolve that problem so that's all because we will assume that whatever company comes in they GNA make recommendations oh yeah recommendations may come with the
063cost of course so you want to upgrade this or change this and that's the purpose of the audit to enhance what we have or improve what we have so that all issues that we're hearing eventually are resolved right all right now Mrs Bo's pretty much saying um if we don't get the federal funding then we have to decide for example if we don't get the federal funding for Ida right that's a priority those special education students so if you're asking me what are you GNA do we G to absorb that Federal money for these children as opposes Chromebooks which means we have to put that on side however you still have a Chromebook cost because of like every three years we try to upgrade so we're always going to have at least a minimal cost
064to keep them upgraded and updated uh but we are always costes when we're moving in the direction particularly doing budget time right right so we so do we want to come up with a timeline or a recommendation for Dr Fati tonight or do we want I don't need anything at this point okay I don't have enough concrete information in front of me to ask you to tell me okay thank you moving on to Old business yes uh Mr President I would like to um find out the status of the committee that was to review the two applications we had for renaming our track Mr Thomas do you know yes um last year somewhere around I guess in November we had two applications and renaming our uh our track and field uh after two applicants it
065was proposed we we formed a committee the committee was at that time was myself Miss Peterson miss pitch and I believe it might have been someone else that we was going work in with collaboration with the township committee and the mayor and her staff to see the fruition of doing that I know one of the applicants name was a Dennis Mitchell which was a Gold Medal winner um he has three of the most prolific track runners uh women track runners to this point and we just want to know what's the status of that so we can come to a conclusion either way whether we gonna move forward with it or we're not going to move forward so we would like to get that back up on the table because as things evolve and things go
066forward we want to celebrate every chance we get for not just our students but our staff and anyone else that we feel is doing great things not just in our community but throughout this country uh if I'm yeah I need to the other person I think was Mr Bates yeah was that the other name yes I know it was submitted by so those were the two names that were submitted and um the committee whenever um make a recommendation to the board and then the board can act on either one of those individuals at this point um I'm not sure how much progress has been made on that with your permission Mr President I'd like to if we can if I can contact the committee that's in place to see what their recommendation is and see
067where that status is and possibly have some type of conclusion for you in the next month or so of of how what their recommendation is that way the board can vote on it either way on what what we're going to do you yes sir Mr Thomason thank you I have a question in regards to that um because I wasn't on the board when that was brought up I like to know what was the criteria of the people who we wanted to name this track after because once you name it it becomes permanent and um part of one of the things I did hear you say is that they were active in our community um and not I I give kudos to anyone and everyone who works in our community but when we name something after
068someone in our track field and you call their name and no one knows who they are today that's not good for me me so I want us to make sure that we really think seriously about before we put a permanent name on our track of a person yes um Dennis Mitchell was an icon um he did win a gold medal and he do have three people that went to the Olympics but none of them were from wissow Township and so I would like to see someone if we're going to give that honor to here at our school that they are actually here back giv to our school and giv to our community even if it's just a vis our presence so um when we think about this I would like us to think hard and
069making sure that if we go if we move forward we're moving forward for the right reasons um and not negating anyone from their accolades that they're welld deserving of but making sure that when we put a permanent fixture in our winow Township school we are making sure where it's it's a person that has you can go to one of these children that are in our school right now call their name and they know who they are and right now many of our kids don't know who these people are so they need to be Legends in our school complete Legends that's just my input thank you U Mr President there is a process in place okay and there's a policy in place um you have the recommendations but you have to have Community input and you
070have to make it known so that people can come in to board meetings excuse me and make comment one way or the other about the recommendations and then after you've given them several months of open public comment on that particular item then the board as a whole thanks based on the recommendation coming from uh the committee the recommendation from the committee comes first public interest comes after that for about three four five months I'm not sure but I know it's several months then after they've had an opportunity to uh have their opinions known then the full board have to have that discussion and then the scho board must vote on whether or not one or the other will be the individual that will be H it for that so there is a process already in
071place and that's the process I'm trying to resume right right any other old business moving on the new business yeah I have something um the VFW 30 um post 303 um would like to announce that they're having a movie day in commemoration of women's day on March the 31st and they're inviting everyone in the community who's off um and able to come at 1 pm on March 31st um to celebrate the last day of women's day month um Women's Day Women's month is it right am I saying it correctly yes to celebrate us women the strong powerful women of the world and hiden figures will will be the movie that they will presenting they will be offering um light Refreshments um to anyone who shows up and it's free to charge location at the VFW
072Post 303 on C Road any other new business yes uh Mr President I just wna I know one is here but as round aound resounding thanks to the performance that are choir did at Rowan University this is the second year second year and I will I have the videotape on my desk that our um radio TV film department did but they were fabulous under the direction of Mr deaney they would like to come and actually present our director with a plaque and do something for the students because they were outstanding so if they can stand up she can stand up just outand and this is I mean for our president of Rowan University said where did they come from and I was so proud to say this is Winslow so thank you once again for
073your performance for the second time Jo you add something yes I do have a comment I just want to publicly thank um our leadership team um through the years we we doored a lot um if it wasn't the hoodies or the cell phones or the culture climate survey survey you guys listened you learned and you adjust and I want to thank you publicly for that because sometimes we we we tend to forget where we come from we tend to forget who got us there and if I forget you can always nudge me I'm a big component of celebrating and finding reasons to elaborate on somebody so I just want to thank specifically you Dr car for your academic excellence and getting our curriculum together when you got here I want to thank you Mr Davis
074for your paralysis and trying to make sure that we're fully staffed and fully operational i' like to thank M Mr Chico and M Bole for putting on a budget every year that's comparable throughout the state with no problems and no no frequent uh uh encumbrance and I'd like to thank you Dr M poti for your leadership and steadfastness for standing tall even in times of turmoil and I also like to give a Kudos out to miss pittz for her wavering support through over the years to make sure we get to this point here we have a long ways to go but I will never forget who got us here and how we got here thank you Mr Thomas Mr President I had a um put a request to Mr Davis which he was kind enough
075to um get back to me with um I just I had one question about there was uh the list of reasons that you gave me were these each one or were they like there was I'll say dream job was the top of the list was were there a number of people that put that as reason it was more than one but so okay so there's yeah there's nine things so there could be more than one out of each of them correct okay all right if it's okay if I can touch base with you uh probably in the next day or two just about that thank you anybody else I just want to say thank you again Dr Caro for all your years of service to the district and all the students that come through walk
076our holes and you know for everything you've done for each and every one of them so congratulations again on your retirement may your home in Maryland be your utter enjoyment and your retirement I think will and thank you very much it's been a pleasure thank you um I know you're looking forward to reading public I am I'm very excited about it public comments the Winslow tallship Board of Education highly values the input of citizens and making important decisions that affect the children of our community we believe in the rights of citizens to observe board meetings to ensure that all of our citizens have the opportunity to attend Schoolboard meetings and offer comment and to ensure that the board can conduct the important business of the district we ask the speakers follow the guidelines for making
077public comment the board secretary will recognize those individuals in the audience who wish to make comment we' ask that you kindly respect the following procedures one all members of the public attending Schoolboard meetings must treat each other and the board with respect two please State your full name and town of residents three please limit your comments to four minutes I'll be keeping time uh F uh four please submit your questions in the event we're unable to answer them this evening to the Board of Education with your uh name address telephone number and email address if possible where you can be contacted and your questions will be answered within a reasonable time frame and lastly individuals offering citizen comment are not permitted to make personal attacks on any District employee board member other testifier or member
078of the public excuse me if I if I may just interject before we go to that I want to recognize Mr Darius peoples a committee person for I we didn't we didn't get a chance to recognize I just want I want to make sure we recognize him thanks for coming out thank you Mr Thomas um yep motion to open public comments pet and move uh for approval to open public comments second Miss Martin all in favor I miss Debbie Murphy good evening um I just wanted to give the board the update for the marching band and then I have beater update um we competed at Cumberland on the 1 of March and we both both the winds and the guards placed first wow the [Applause] the wins had a score of 68.9 five and the
079guard had a score of 73.92% the winds are scheduled to go on at 400 p.m. and the guard is scheduled to go at 6:45 and that is on 222 at Barn high school and then for the musical mom Mia is um opening night is two weeks um from tomorrow um I just wanted to give the community and the board members the dates it is opening night is Thursday the 27th at 7 p.m. there's going to be a show on Friday the 28th at 7 p.m. and then closing night is Saturday the 29 at 7M it would be great to have some that's March yes that's this month that again all right thank you thank you thank you thank you um Mr President that's all that have signed up this evening do we have anybody on
080the phone can I have a motion to adjourn public comments Peterson move for adjournment of public comments second Miss Martin all in favor do we have an executive session tonight uh I don't believe we do correct Dr Davis Dr par uh no executive session tonight sir right I get a motion to adjourn Peters move for adjourn of this meeting second Miss Martin all in favor wife