Shall I call this meeting to order? 6:09 p.m. This is a special meeting of the Hutton Township Board of Education held for a board training workshop followed by a discussion in Rockaway Valley Schools facilities and educational needs, including consideration of a
potential referendum and any other business that may come before the board. In compliance with chapter 231, Laws 1975, the notice of this meeting was advertised in Mars County Daily Record. Copies of the agenda of this meeting were appropriately posted and made
available to the public. >> Mrs. Bardock >> here. >> Mr. Brandon >> here. Mrs. Cabana. >> Mr. Chen here. >> Mr. Hittinger here. >> Mr. Johnson >> here. Mr. McBride >> here. >> Mr. Mills >> here. Mr. Rosenberg >> here.
>> Also present. And Mr. Matini, superintendent principal. We have a quorum. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, liberty, justice for all. >> All right, we're going to start with a presentation from Dr. Paul Panero prep. Okay. So, um, as people move a little bit, thank you. Um, I'd like to thank
Lauren and Barry for inviting me to come here. I'd like to thank the whole board for, uh, having ready to go have your snacks and start learning about effective board communication. Also, it's a pleasure.
>> Yeah. and um and also John Mur. So uh I'll just tell you a little bit about how I like to approach it. Since we have a little bit of time, I'm approaching a little bit more like a workshop. I'm a high school teacher. So I I thought my students never like just sitting there for, you know, 60 to 90
minutes. So we'll have some moments for some discussion. Uh but at the same time, I'm going to keep an eye box right there because I know you start at 7:30, 7:20, whatever you want to break and feel free to wave at me. So it's built in so that we can continue discussion as much as we want or we can pull back a
little. So we'll keep an eye on the clock. So it's technically two presentations but they're both very related. I can paste them together because then there's four messages. So there'll be a moment where we all catch our breath and just click a different button and we have a new presentation coming up. The first one is
more general about effective communication on the board. It might reference committees but I won't do a deep dive into it. Um the second presentation is a deeper dive into what effective committees look like and we'll chat a little bit about that. Um you know how whether or not you feel your
committees are running like 10 out of 10 or you know is there room for improvement. There's always room for something. So we'll talk about characteristics of a good committee um and uh you know reflect on them a little bit. Okay. So let's jump in. Okay. So
tonight we're going to learn to foster a culture of trust within the board team. We'll learn that communication is sort of like the fulcrum of trust and effectiveness and also um identify some strategies for enhancing relationships among board
members. I feel like you're a very tight board, but I it can't hurt to talk about the bar, right? And talk about ideally what's what are best practices and all. Um but certainly, you know, take with a grain of salt that you're functioning at a very high level. We're putting into context that works
for you. So, uh, we like this guy with the bullhorn. I think his eyes have been enhanced. I sure hope so because that'd be a fun one. Off into the living room, I guess. Oh, wait. This is uh So, the point of the slide though is
every interaction matters. Uh, whether it's public comment, a meeting exchange, uh, communityf facing message. Um, but they're all opportunities to reinforce professionalism, uh, highlight accomplishments, and keep the focus on students. Um, I like what it says in the
bottom there. The consistent, thoughtful communication supports collaboration and leads to stronger, more effective uh, board action. Okay, here's the fishbowl one. Boards are in a fishbowl. So, um, everything
that, uh, you know, everything that you actually, that's the next slide. everything that you participate in is public uh for the most part once you're in close sessions. So that's one aspect of being on the board and that's a challenge. We'll talk a little bit about that. But also that there are opportunities uh to communicate, to
learn, to grow together and that the more effective and efficient boards are, the more they can take advantage of the time they have together. So maximizing the moments together. Okay. So this is the whole fishbowl that um everything can be seen and heard even
what you write and uh on the dis I learned that at one point especially if you're texting that's normal too because that's so all communication is important uh planning how to communicate is crucial and then there's the whole line u people
like to talk about today about telling your own story rather than letting someone else talk about it. So, um, yeah, what are some behaviors that you think the public would rather not witness? And then I'll share with you,
um, what I've identified as as some of those things, but maybe, uh, just just to get started a little bit, we can talk about that. So, what behaviors do you think the public would not want to see like right now or ever going on during the board meeting at the table?
>> Unprofessional conduct. >> Unprofessional conduct, right? What does that look like? Not here, but in general. What might that look like? Shouting at each other. Shouting at each other. Never seen that before. >> What else? >> Inappropriate language.
>> Inappropriate language. Okay. >> Shooting down. Not allowing communication. >> Very good. Shooting down ideas. Um not Yeah. Not keeping communication open so that people are one another get on the
same page. >> Absolutely. Yes, personal attacks. Personal attacks. Unfortunately, we've seen a rise in that over the years. Again, I'm not talking to general. Uh I I didn't mention at the onset, but I was uh in education for 31 years, and I
retired. So, 18 of those years, I was an assistant superintendent to the district. So, I've sat through a lot of board meetings. I've seen a lot of dynamics. I can say that for the most part, over those years, because I retired right when things got a little bit crazy. Uh but over those years I was always um you know so pleased that the
people I had to work with they went through some growing pains every time the door turned over a little bit. Um but everybody's heart seemed to always be in the right place. But I was fortunate like that. I know it's not always like that. Okay. So those are some of the behaviors that we think the public might not uh want to witness. So
here are some of the ones that I put on the slide. Getting bogged down in minutia. Showing little engagement in agenda items. behaving discouragedly to one another and the public, not student focused and not fluent on business issues. So that's something that
right this is a little bit back to that story idea of how to improve your story. Uh another way to look at it is just um you know to to communicate in a way that continues the trust that the people have put in you and the confidence they have in you and again that's professionalism
that kind of thing. Um so here are some concrete ways to shift to or maintain the desired parent and none of them require new policies just a mindfulness. So reading agendas in advance of uh and asking questions summarizing information publicly on
certain agenda items understanding committee role sharing committee agenda before meeting with the team and sharing committee reports with team and community. So little later on we're going to talk about why that's so important, but um you function in a committee system. So uh know that some
of those nuances really come into play as far as people feeling informed because when it comes up at a board meeting that there's some kind of questions, you know, maybe people are a little defensive. It's much better to have some of those questions answered beforehand. That's part of uh the story that you're telling to your community
when you're conveying maybe what's going on in the case. Um, oh, I read the wrong one. Yeah, meeting agendas in advance. Summarize, sorry about that. Summarize information publicly and all that. And then there was, yeah, how to improve the story. Attend board meetings, uh, committee
meetings, trust committee members, and the superintendent, EDA, uh, be a team, not individual mindset, and keep all three members in the loop. engaged. Oh, no. I see. Um, so, uh, how to improve the story
appear engaged versus disinterested. Um, I noticed, yeah, so you have you have laptops. It's important for, I guess, saving money, of course. It's just an efficient way to have your information. Uh but I do mention to board members at times it's a good idea to be engaged as
you all are. Um even if you are engaged in listening I've seen board members who are you know listening but they still might be looking at their their laptops the public more the public than each other that can seem like you're disengaged. So um that's I guess worth mentioning also responding to each other
in a timely manner not to don't operate in a dosh kind of situation. uh that doesn't work for anybody whether it's um you know members of the board or you know when it comes to school attending or anybody um be cheerleaders for the positive things in the district
understand that you are not pretty tall information so so don't let them this is where I thought we're at okay so we often say a lot of I've seen FSRS I'm a field service rep and say you know mention this you don't all have to like
each other um I don't even like highlight that you want to point each other. I think another way to say it is that the more you you might not know each other that well, maybe you don't necessarily trust each other all that well for you or if there's some dynamic going on, but ultimately if you are
treating one another professionally and uh working well and doing your best on behalf of students instead of you know whatever else you know might be on your radar uh then then the rest comes. So to me, trust is as good as liking one another. And frankly, I like most of the
people that I trust that trust me. So I feel like that can still go hand in hand. Uh so what causes conflict going in the other direction and is it always bad? So there could be philosophical conflict when there are differences among uh members about what they believe. There
may be competition about who gets what resources, especially in times when resources are scarce. Uh there can be good oldfashioned interpersonal conflicts. Uh territory, who's responsible for what, who controls what information, and we're just seeing things differently. Um but the good news
is conflict isn't always a bad thing. It depends how it's handled. So um it's not necessarily that conflict is the problem. It's unmanaged conflict. It can fight you. Uh you don't want to be afraid of conflict per se, but avoiding it can let issues simmer and boil over. So if there's a constructive way to
manage the conflict that's you know that's the way to go. So what happens when we manage conflict and focus on productive interactions? Uh we develop positive working relationships. Uh we see increased collaboration and teamwork. Uh we're
more effective decision-m uh enhanced community trust and stakeholder engagement. Greater satisfaction among the board members. I do always like to underline the idea about how the community trusts the board. Um when they when they see the board functioning
well, it it makes so much difference over how they feel about every day of their you know their children's lives. So it's really important that they feel that uh you understand how important your role is and how uh how much you can impact positively upon the students.
When they see that, they feel really great about every day of working at school. Okay. So, strong communication really comes down to three things. Listening, clarity, and respect. We listen to understand, not just to respond. We're open and honest about our thinking and
decisions. And even when we disagree, we keep it professional and respectful. So, I think respect respectful. So, when I asked earlier about, you know, what people would want to see, I think we touched on just about, um, all of this. Okay. So, um, let's break this down.
What is being an active listener? Uh, how about we maybe offer a couple. What does active look like? What what does it um mean to you to be an activist? >> Okay. or speaking would be community.
>> Yeah. People uh when they're speaking acknowledging certain points you may not agree with it but say I'm hearing you say this. >> Yeah. That's that's almost literally George.
anything else that I listen >> jumping over over to talking >> and I can see how that might happen more in board meetings than anywhere because you're trying to cover a lot of ground. Um some of the information uh you know it shouldn't be new to people at the
table but the conversation might be so it's challenging. Absolutely. Well, let's see what we have. um fully focus, understand, respond and remember that's what active listening looks like. So that's sort of the eye contact and then being able to um restate that kind of
said something about that. There's the eye contact with cues. Uh avoid interruptions, right? Allow others to finish speaking and summarize and understand. Right? So, our next one, I sort of like the dog. I didn't put that one, but um
so now we're going to talk about clarity and open expressions. How do we maintain clarity in our communication? That that one's a little bit more vague, I think, or a little bit more esoteric, but uh let's take a shot at it. Skip one because these are clear.
I I thinkation is one of the hardest things and like people spend a lot of time to do it. I think it just requires the way I think about it a lot of work
and understand what you want. >> I'm sorry redundant but again it's just mirroring what someone else has said but at the end say am I correct in thinking this way? I'm hearing you say and say
your interpretation of what it is or what you receive from them and say is this correct and if they say yes then maybe you're not on the right track right I do there's another presentation where you zero in on that quite a bit more and the idea of asking your
question also the same first stating what you think you were to say and then asking the question is a good way for someone not to feel like you're coming at them. So let's say a community a committee report is being provided and um a board member has a question by stating what they're hearing first as
you say and then asking the question it sort of keeps being defensive. So it's a great strategy jargon uh be concise but thorough in presenting thoughts that can be very helpful at particular and then encourage questions
for priority. one more of of these. What do you think that I'll share? Respectful dialogue. I think that one's a little less, you know, either. So, what is respectful communication? touch on a little bit, but it's better.
>> Maybe giving everyone an opportunity to speak some people calm dialogue. Um, understanding that even though you may have different viewpoints that are that all coming together for the benefit of
the school or the students, you're not putting down somebody else's uh thoughts. >> Yeah. And even just socially in the world these days, it seems like people are quick to pull out something to beat
someone uh at at the point they might be trying to make or to you know pull the rug out from under it or just turn it into a you know opposite step. You think this I think that so um these are some things that these are ways to respect the dialogue is uh about this technology
and different perspectives I statements. Um, I think that's sort of what I was alluding to before when I was saying how could you restate saying and then say, but I I feel this or I still have questions about that kind of thing. Um, I think that's a better way. It's a good
way to approach dialogue. Um, attacking issues, not people. That's what we touched on. and then agreeing to disagree constructively because ultimately you might have to vote and often it's good to vote you know um
together you know but it's still important that uh you know minority minority opinions are still expressed but if it's respectful uh I think the community appreciates that they don't necessarily want to see you all just shaking their heads all the time in agreement
it's it's perfectly fine once in a while you It's perfectly fine whenever you feel you need to disagree. It's just an arch, but I suppose. Okay. So, trust grows when we're willing to be open with one another, assuming the best intentions to start. That's one
way you can do that. Support transparency and about how decisions are made. Uh sharing perspectives when it's helpful and acknowledging mistakes. Being willing to say I or we got this wrong. That's the case. Hold errors. Focus on the solutions.
All right. So, what can uh what can the board do? Certainly snacks, but what can the board do to uh develop themselves as a team? And uh some of the suggestions we have here are regular informal gatherings, coffee chats, retreats. I mentioned earlier that can be
challenging because your time together is is regulated. So that's a challenge. Um workshops on communicating skills and team building. That's kind of what tonight is. So for us, uh kickoff meetings for projects and initiatives. Uh that goes with board and uh
understanding and uh reports, committee agendas and reports. Um so communication protocol. So some boards will do have like a communication um
about that protocol but communication plan that even touches on or maybe um draws off of your bylaws or have ever come together and said how do you want to communicate? So in other words making this presentation into something of a document. Um I don't know if we have
anything like that but so that that's um yeah we do not >> I think it would piggy back nicely on the board norms document that we talked about in the leadership conference and creating that together as a group. >> So that sounds like a good retreat type
of topic too and that can include everything communicating with the public communicating with one another uh communicating about um committee meetings. Uh I I might be overstating how challenging it is for committee members to get the information they need from other committee members um and
having that being smooth because you know you have to avoid forum conversations of course uh in emails. So that's tricky even in texts. So communication protocols important you know defining those out maybe even uh
cleaning more that could be a good idea something you might want to do in the future even. Um, so the who, what, why, and when part of that, um, if everybody knows everybody's role and their why and all of that, that can release confusion,
uh, the gotcha moments, build trust, uh, sported teams first kind of approach. >> Well, can I ask a question? >> Yes, please. >> Actually, something um, won't be written. Um give an example
of how we would do a pickoff meeting or a project or initiative. Is that an item on the agenda? How then? >> Yeah. >> That happened. >> I you know I also trying to come up with
examples not specific to you all but um so referendums we are correct. So, I don't know if that would be an opportunity um for you to have like a special meeting and talk about, you know, you're doing reports on it a regular basis at your
meetings too, I'm sure, but if there was maybe some kind of a less kind of formal launch, maybe maybe even be like a celebration um so that it's like a little bit more than the business of the board, but more like a celebration like the excitement for something. So, maybe
something like that. So like if infant passes >> Oh, that especially. >> Yeah, that especially that might be a good opportunity to assuming it does have to kick off and kind of all the next steps that we come. That be a good
example. >> That's a better example than I gave. >> What were you thinking to think about that when we kick off? Let's say we finally vote when we got this package. Should that be the kickoff celebrity start?
Yeah. >> Um I'm not saying we're not telling you. We're saying, "Hey, >> there are steps in that. We're all in some of the steps of that process." So when you get to the point where you actually prove to go to referendum, that's a time where you can communicate, "This is what the board did. We worked
hard to get here. Here it is. Here's the plan." >> Because then you're solid. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's what I meant. It's not like you should help yes or no. >> I do. >> It's a milestone. It's a milestone informational interview. >> Yeah. >> So, John, if I want to use that example
that was provided, uh, that's all copathetic, right? Because when I do this presentation, I might say someone will ask that. I'll say, "Here's a great example." I know a great team. >> Just don't use my name. No, >> I can specifically advise council >> once the board votes to go to referendum
because we're we're we're kind of in the process now. We haven't made that final step. >> Yeah. >> Now you're celebrating that >> it's information. Here's what happened. >> That'll be the one tonight. So >> once you get all the letters back from the state, you know what your state
aid's going to be. Then you that's where all the presentations come to the public. Here's you know here's what you're going to vote. talk about that a little bit. Uh so how do we leverage communication for continuous improvement?
Uh conduct surveys of board members. So this was which is almost internal. It's like a board self evaluation. I I meant to check do you do the typical I'm sorry. Do you do you use the tool the self-evaluation tool that we have at school boards? >> We have the last year or two, right?
>> So um yeah. So, let me know if you're going to be doing that again. Um, we can even set up time to do the reporting out on that. If you've done it a few times, you might not need the support of an orientation on how to do it. Um, but coming in and going over it with you is
a great way to you can use you can do it to to create goals, but at the same time, you can just do it as a great reflection. So, we can do that, too. I like the way that's one of my favorite things that once once it's all lined, she came back and the results here.
>> Yeah. And we have like metrics that are >> nice and I'm sorry. Um, so yeah, it's cool. And we have a metric that uh, so there's a room for >> and I'm sure but I'm the new Charlene. Is that the question? >> No, no, we get hours for training for
that. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> So, not for the Good question. Not necessarily for doing it, but for me to come. >> Yeah. For you to come. Yeah. To help us facilitate the the feedback. you spend hours.
>> Yeah, that absolutely. Um, and sometimes if you if you tack on the goal setting with it, that can be a longer retreat style type of thing. So, they could go two hours or something. Uh, so yeah, I mean reflecting that's what all that is.
So, it's how do you continually improve? you reflect for the most part and then um from that reflection you'll come up with whether it's goals or just discussion about how you might approach things a little differently or enhance how you do things just the act of
reflection I think builds more trust and uh you know a sense of team okay so um for this part of the presentation I'm listing the takeaways for now so our goal tonight was to take away uh these three themes and I'm
understand them. That was effective communication is the foundation of a board team relationship. Active listening, clear expression, and respectful dialogue are vital. So, we broke those down. You guys shared some thoughts on that. And building trusting relationships takes time and intent
intentionality. I was an English major and English teacher, but sometimes a word will get to me. Um, yeah. So hoping that these things feel like you can conceptualize those in a little bit
and then um I like to say that an outside observer can predict I guess the effectiveness, efficiency, productivity of a board based on what they see. I mean I I try not to do that but sometimes I just because I'm new to a lot of the to all the districts, right?
Charlene was here for many years working in Morris County and so I can't help but sit there and go oh this is going to be a good one you know a board that is okay or sometimes it's like uh oh I have to do I have to support them and getting on the same page so one of the ways whether I like it or not because I don't want to
be biased about anything especially if it's the first time I'm interacting with the board but you get a feel from it and it's typically the feel that like anybody would get from viewing one of your meetings coming to one of your meetings so um hopefully you know, that's that's sort of the endg
game for all that we were discussing so far. Um, so yeah, I I I have a note to ask, you know, how does your um that it's good to ask yourselves periodically, how does our public see us and how we're demonstrating meetings that we understand that we understand our mission and that we're focused on
students and all of that good stuff. So, what we can do for here is, you know, reflect a little bit on on what we've discussed before going on to the next one. Next one has some discussion opportunities too and it's drilling a little bit deeper into committees. I think we're okay on time. I'm anticipating another 30 to 40 minutes or
the second one depending on, you know, there's a little bit more participation opportunity in it. Um, but did anything jump out at you while we were chatting through this one that you might want to extend a little bit further? I think we've extended some of the conversation. Anything else?
>> I really like the looking at it through public size. I don't think we do that. It takes some time to be when we have discussions, they can go round and round and u maybe we need to be myself included better at eliciting piece and letting everybody have their peace. If
we keep it concise and have I think we can have a more effective communication in the public setting. I think sometimes we don't do ourselves justice. That's my opinion. I'll put myself back at it. But I think we we can be even more um thoughtful about how we communicate all
session. Chris, are you suggesting that fellow board members are not >> insight anymore you actually triggered for me a really important point and I don't think it was baked into your point but
boards can become very efficient and you know uh especially Robert's rules you parliamentary procedure and they could get through an agenda, you know, smoothly and without any conflict, but sometimes it's robotic and you become like automatons. And so when you said,
"How does the um how do the public see us?" I thought to myself, what do you know? I was thinking, what do efficient books look like? Like I always do. And um that's efficient, efficient. >> But yeah, >> so >> I think we we fall into both. I think we've had meetings where we're we're all
in agreement. It may be a very straightforward agenda and it's just we're in and out and there's almost no discussion. And then we've had ones lately where we've had a lot of discussion going around it almost too much where it's just kind of circling and scrolling the same concepts over and over. >> Yeah. >> Doesn't sound concise or um
I don't know. I think that I the word I'm looking for is escaping me, but I think we could portray ourselves a little more organized. Yeah. You're still human, but yeah. Yeah. >> Yes. >> The one thing that's important in how the public perceives you also our board
members come to the board meeting there. >> So, a lot of things are done in committee. You know, they they vet a lot of those things and and post their supposedly post all of their committee meetings and then there's a spot on the agenda for each committee to report at. So, at every meeting, if you had a
committee meeting, you report out. So, they they kind of the public never sees that you do a lot of work behind the scenes in committees and they think you're just rubber stamping. something. So there is some discussion a lot of times out of order. >> You're right. And but since we started reading out the committee uh you know
not not every detail in there but what can be displayed in public or personnel that's been much better. >> Yeah. I just being a little self-critical but I think we're doing a very good job. I think there's that was a really good uh thought for me to kind
of uh you know just be more cautious of thoughts. Do you ever think of um so if there's if someone on the board asks reach outs to the committee chair uh but someone's not on the committee they reach out to you and they say and they ask you a question um do chairs ever say
you know that's a great question ask it in public too so that you know because maybe the public would want to hear that um or it's just a great question I know that um when I do the e ethics presentation um so the school ethics commission when an advis uh when someone
asks a question to the advisory asks for an advisory. Um if the commission thinks it's a great question, they actually publish it out there. They push it out. They said this is a great advisory response to a great question and something that many board members would benefit from knowing. So, I mean, I'm stealing that sort of concept and
applying it to when you're reporting out on committees. if you could almost highlight some questions that uh that the the public might be thinking about uh that that came to light during the conversation and I'm yeah so does it
sometimes it can be a challenging question I suppose but yeah just um putting out there so again so I don't know what John mentioned the rubber stamp kind of thing somebody did but this idea that you know there's a lot of thought going into it because sometimes that smoothness
>> uh I I attended meetings for three or so years that went like that all the time and it wasn't really public there and you kind of get into that habit of just getting through it and then everybody was like wow I remember
we're okay right so I remember one of our administrators used to do an overunder used to say we look at the agenda we go through our agenda um we'd be central staff yeah and um he'd go okay that agenda I'm going to say hour
and 20 and then we would kind of joke about that. But then when things got around co time, you know how bad things got. We were like going till midnight and so we just didn't even bother doing that anymore. Um so but yeah, and then the other thing I want to highlight before going ahead was that we talked
about um you know being really efficient but also trying to be human I guess. So, do you all like celebrate? You have students come in and they'll like, you know, read read a poem that was written and they won an award for it or, you know, I know this is a
little group. It's not like you're going to have the high school come out and do jazz band type stuff, but um do you have opportunities to do that? Cuz that kind of breaks it up too. >> We have lots of >> I think we should honestly do sports, >> but I think we could do more to do some
of the art. Uh yeah, performance artists. >> I mean, Ken does a great job with accommodations, >> but I I think we could probably I think we both want respect and trust for the community if we
expressed what we do. We're very proud of >> we populated just a few things that can get rolling on that. >> Um trying we'd love to do something once a month, but we just like I said that's hasn't been the culture here. uh we've
done STEM so far, sports, music so and you know the RTI thing you know as far as administration is concerned but >> and we're also acknowledging teachers who are tenured >> uh having a little celebration for them and recognizing them
>> but having students here is is the best to me that's the uh the gold standard. >> Yeah. The challenge of course though is you still have to get to an agenda. So, you know, you have to keep that in mind because those things take time and there, you know, and often times you might need an adviser or, you know, a
school official to come with them, a teacher, but it, you know, so it doesn't, it's hard to do it all the time. Um, but, you know, when you can, that's good, too. Okay. All right. So
for 10 seconds, >> I will say I've never perceived Chris to be that way. Honestly, I'm just joking. >> This is very You've been very good. I think I honestly I feel like more is better. Like >> No, it is. But sometimes more productive more.
>> I just I think the more we we talk about the more we think and how to approach things. I I think you have to be I don't think we're dangerous. >> Also, the system is set up so that no, the whole board can't talk to each other except at a public meeting. So, it's
inevitable if you have to deliberate. >> Sometimes you get into the weeds. >> Yeah. I didn't want it to be like you should in any way. I think it's been very good, especially if the referendum discussions have been. It's just every so often we spiral at the end. And I think that's where I think we just need
to like nip it and move on. bringing up the same top. >> Exactly. >> Not need to typically >> That's right. >> That's when I get start to get a little grumpy.
>> I would agree with that. >> I've had to let the custodians go at least three or four times already. >> It's good stuff. This is really what I like to see. I mean, I'm just kind of hoping to to poke things around with some slides so that you have that kind of conversation. So, it's not about me,
but I already feel successful because you're interacting and and you know, uh, building some team here and everything. So, thank you. Um, awesome. So, we'll turn our attention a little bit more specifically to committees. Um, and uh, yeah, so there'll be some more
opportunities to chat, which I think is the best part of of being able to have these kinds of workshops where, you know, you have the time and and you're not like worrying because there's people out there waiting to come in be in a half hour or so. So, uh, I think we're in good shape, by the way, as far as
time is concerned. >> All right. So, this is, um, yeah, this is about committee meetings and then we historically Yeah. So, no part of this document. Okay. That would be a quarter. >> Yeah. >> Well, it might have staff members
>> from now on. I have to make a note. That's it. >> When I show this and say, "What's wrong with this picture?" >> That's right. >> Unless there's a lot of like nine perfect nine. >> I love it.
>> See, that makes it more interactive. What's wrong with this picture? >> How many are there? split vote. >> No more than seven in a committee. >> Okay, let us start with a quote. Effective
committees unify, represent, motivate, coordinate, consolidate and communicate. They function best when the members are selected appropriately and when a clearly defined mission exists. Strong leadership is key as well. Um I've run into
I get phone calls sometimes from anybody can call me. So there are protocols in any district but any of you can call me. So, um I I'll leave my cards because I have um and every now and then the one that seems to get to people the most and maybe we can chat about this but you
know not to air any kind of frustrations necessarily but um I get board members calling me and saying I want to be on a committee but I wasn't picked for one or something. Now, I've seen that firsthand. As I told you, I was an administrator for a long time, curriculum committee, right? I was the
assistant student for curriculum and a lot of people wanted to be on that committee. They tended to work it out. Um, but that's why when they function best when members are selected appropriately, I I feel like someone could ask me, "What does that mean?" So, um, Barry,
you were president for a long time. Lauren, what do you think that means? Put me on the spot a little bit. I'm just How do you use my name for my book? >> You have a process. >> Yeah, I just tried to come up with a process. I mean there's different thoughts about how to put people on
committees but I tried desperately to put everyone on the committees they wanted to be on where they thought their expertise would be where they could contribute the most rather than like even though you you wanted to be on this committee you thought you know your expertise is there but I'm going to stick you over there because you know just for some reason I I always tried to
put people where they wanted to be and I had a crazy spreadsheet where I asked people to rank the committees from one to six or whatever however many committees you're doing rank them one to six then I would just have like committees board members and put their the numbers in there and then I would try to if I
got all ones in one thing perfect, you know, and the same with the twos and threes and I tried my best and then sometimes, you know, you you'd have a conflict and you have to resolve the conflict and um and that that was always the problem. You know, you have to figure it out. All right, you know, do
you do seniority? you know, it usually was a phone call like it's you know, even if someone was on the board a long time like hey so and so you I know you want to be on this on the board longer what do you think as I put that person on? So I try to communicate with the the individuals behind the scenes to see
>> you know to get buy in and to just you know make make it you know you know everything everyone to be happy where they ended up. So I tried desperately. Hopefully I did okay but I don't know. >> I imagine it's a challenge. >> Yes. So far no one complained this year. So
thanks guys. >> I I did it similarly but I also have a mindset that we do need to rotate particularly like having been a new member 3 four years ago. I felt it was important to be on as many as possible to get an understanding of areas maybe
I'm not as competent or knowledgeable in. And I think it's an important skill because all of these committees are interdependent on one another. So >> that's a great segue. Um because they are you all depend on these committees
for your how you vote, right? So um and the transparency of it and that's a challenge too because if if some people and that's where trust is so important. So if a board member starts thinking that the the committee is not being upfront, they're not being transparent and that gets in someone's head, you
know, that then then it's a problem. even if it's maybe not even a problem. But um so you know >> add something too. >> Yeah, please. >> Um I think it's also important too for those committees that might not really have active work every year like negotiations >> that and I think we've done a really
good job of it here. Some of the newer board members who might not have had that experience before >> are on that. >> Some people who've been here longer think, okay, I've done that. This doesn't come up every year. It's important for I think a new board member
just to experience that if they want to, it doesn't mean they have to. >> But to the extent that they want to, I think it's important to have some kind of like I found that people over the years just like you said, like if the board member was on there a while and they were on a committee they wanted to be
on, they started ranking. Yeah. to accomplish that they would rank, you know, the ones and twos now be a four or five or a six. >> And it would just by natural progression like, okay, I've been there, done that, I want to experience another committee. They would rank another one higher >> and the ones they were on lower, you
know, and that would sometimes sometimes, you know, get to where Laura wants to be like to, you know, that rotation would happen almost naturally because someone would say, "I want to try that other committee. I've never been on it before." >> And it was it seemed to seem to work out.
And there is some natural rotation when we're up for when we have negotiations or referendum, right? Like those are new committees. There's ad hoc. So I do feel like we get like a crosspollining committees. >> Good stuff. I'm learning. Thank you. All
right, let's see what else we can learn. Oh, lots of question marks. This this slide is so overwhelm here. I'll cheat. Ready? That's all right. So it's overwhelming to like and to read that at you without having thought about it first. So, >> we have to guess all those. >> Yeah, we're I'm looking for like one or
two or maybe three, but what are things that effective committees have? What do they do? So, let's share a couple of those and then I'll show you the whole list and I'll probably read them at you because they're all pretty good. But at any rate, um before we get to those, what do effective committees have and what do they do?
>> Agendas. >> Enthusiasm. >> Enthusiasm. Engage. >> Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm. Ralph understood. >> Attend the committee. >> Engage committee.
>> Attend engaged. So first you have to get them there and then they should be engaged, right? >> Secretary and not speaker, >> right? That's so important. um because that seems to be where I don't know if it's disputes is the right word but accurately capturing what happened at
the meeting and sharing it with transparency that's a challenge. So someone has to be responsible for for all that. Yeah, there are different ways to do that. I don't want to get into the weeds on that now. Just heard someone recently talk to me about how they have a committee that uses a Google sheet and
while the committee is working, people will add the notes to it and then at the end they can all say, "Yeah, this captures it well." Um, so that would be another good thing to add to this slshop or maybe another one. But just how to do that communication specifically from the
minutes capturing the meetings. Um maybe one or two more >> moderation like mediation in a sense >> not just the leader but a moderator >> what would uh so >> in the sense of just kind of taking
everybody's feedback and similarly when you're you're writing the notes but just taking everyone's feedback and listening recapping that could actually you know sort of short circuit any kinds of concerns or
things where the you know, you don't like the committee chair is running too much or the committee chair. So, I guess it makes it a little bit more uh where it's more like a I don't know, democracy or something, but also so it doesn't feel like, you know, it's a oneperson show maybe. So,
>> just a quick question as far as uh committees and note takingaking is concerned. Let's just say we we have our meeting and uh Jeff is the committee chair and during the board meeting that report is shared out. Is there um like
what happens between the committee and the board meeting? Is it disseminated to typically is it disseminated to the other board members of the the summary or is it just at the board meeting or both? >> Right. So the answer is all boards can be different but in my experience and
somebody who been a president a very long time can add it if it's gone through different uh machinations or different approaches. But um so the minutes are provided with enough time to the board before the meeting it's going to be reported out on so that if people have questions they can ask them in
advance so that any kind of concerns someone might have a board member can happen doesn't have to happen at the table they can have it resolved. That might be a good example of where someone has their concern resolved and then it's brought up at the meeting because they might be thinking well the public might
have a similar response to that information. So you know that so that's a good way to work at it together. Um I don't know did I did that answer your question for the most part? >> Yeah. structure is in place though, right? When the when the meeting takes
place, the committee chairs usually report and post it on a board board folder that anybody can go and look at for our meeting. Correct. >> I think we could do better in having a board norm on that in terms of maybe creating like 48 hours after a committee meeting we post the notes and andor I
think I learned in the workshop that you conducted as well like BCC everyone that I put the notes up >> so you can go and look for it. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So that way it's just a little bit more efficient. Just food for thought. Things that I've been thinking about >> and having a protocol too for so you
might have questions for uh the superintendent. Maybe even a question that um well yeah that would be a regular agenda item maybe. But superintendents are also they're on every committee, right? Exicia. >> Exicia. Yeah. So um at any rate there
might be a scenario where you want to ask the superintendent a question that is connected to the committee agenda. So h having those you know having opportunities to do that in advance of the meeting is always great. Um I know some board members might be
uncomfortable people who are super transparent and I respect them immensely but um they might be concerned that anything you know that the minutes must capture every thought and every and all of that. So that's a little bit tricky too. So the norms that we've been talking about, I appreciate that. Yeah,
that's a good idea just to make sure everybody gets it is on the same page. Half the time there's a conflict, it's because people are just living their lives and it's hard to get on the same page. So all right, so here they are. I think it's worth just reading through real quickly. Meet clearly defined needs, are established in an appropriate
manner. Effective committees operate under clearly defined bylaws. They lessen the total work of board members. So there's an efficiency of effective committees. Explore issues related to board goals and objectives in depth. Effective committees develop and
investigate as requested by the full board either options or recommendations. So some of this is getting pretty specific. So that's why I do like to have this and I'll share this so that you can have this pre both presentations um and refer to them. Effective committees meet in a timely fashion.
They have an effective chairperson. They have a clearly defined reporting process. So we talk about that and maybe even be able to be clearer about that. Include appropriate administrators and staff. So the liaison like I was the guy on the curriculum committee and sometimes I was on the policy committee and those were tough years because those
were long nights when people thought they had to word smith everything. Um but I can go on provide for minority opinions. That's important too because we really don't want to necessarily we we want all the opinions that people feel strongly about um you know for them
to be able to share those. So committees have an opportunity to do that to talk through things that way. And then lastly, make recommendations to the full board. So that's typ of often what committees are doing. So they can make recommendations to the board. Okay. So we got through that little
game. See that? Uh okay. So do you have these do you have these committees? Right. Curriculum and instruction >> by they're called different same role.
>> Okay, great. And then ad hoc committees when you need them. >> Y >> um and policies are over. So yeah, I mean you can have I believe there was a policy a specific policy committee for a while. It might still have a separate
>> we have a government. >> Okay. Those that's yeah we always we seem to like uh present on these three and that's what we'll do tonight. But those seem super important to me too. Uh I don't know that I think a you have to
have an oversight of policy like a policy committee for all policies that are farmed out where unnecessary to the other committees. So I think that makes sense and governance of course New Jersey school board is going to say hey governance. Excellent. Okay. Uh wow. So
this is how I'm just going to generalize it. Maybe read the underlying parts. This is how committees actually operate. Who calls the meetings? How administration supports the work? how information flows to all board members and how recommendations are brought back to the full board for action. Um, so they should be called by the
chairperson. Meetings are that's another tricky one. We don't have to get into that now. But I I did have people concerned about who who gets to decide when the meeting happens because that might exclude someone from being able to attend that committee. I would, you know, that stuff's tricky. I remember doing scheduling when I was a principal.
You couldn't make everybody happy, but yeah, it wasn't a conspiracy. um advised of all committee meetings and receive agenda. So that the president, the superintendent, the BA, and all members of the board are advised of committee meetings and receive the agenda. Um again, knowing what everybody's up to,
the president refers items uh to various committees for review, discussion. So yeah, that kind of gets farmed out that way when board members have um when I've seen it work well. I in my personal experience, a board member would have a question and that would be
uh redirected or rather than jump to the person that they think have the answer, I had the superintendent say, well that would be good for the blank committee, right? So let's send that to the the so- and so committee, but also that the president typically is sort of the
person who arms that stuff out. CSA selects administrative leaison for each committee. Um that's I think pretty standard usually. Um CSA or administrative leaison reviews items for the agenda. Committee uh brings recommendations to the entire board for
review for action. All board members receive committee agenda and minutes. Committees report to the board with one month within one month following each committee meeting. Um that's to the full board I suppose as opposed to maybe having the minutes together shorter time than that. Lauren mentioned it, you
know, 48 hours or something. Um, it's good to do it while it's fresh. I think committees recommend yay nay or no opinions. Could >> you go back? >> Yeah. Oh, of course. Sorry. >> Uh, could you speak on the CSA selects administrative for each committee? >> Mhm.
>> Yeah. So, I you know, in your case, because we're KAK, um, >> well, curriculum, I'm sure you don't have an assistant superintendent, I don't think. So you're really the guy on all of those committees. >> Okay. So now who's the
>> leazison? I'm selecting myself. >> You may have curriculum director that is as a leazison to a committee. >> So you're you're Here we go. Right. You're the human resources liaison kind of you're the curriculum liaison and uh yeah you wrote it all. You do it all.
>> Wear many hats. >> Absolutely. >> The only one like terminology. I had a board please attorney many years ago because minutes the word minutes has a connotation that it's approved approves it generally meeting notes. >> Oh
>> yeah. You may want to check the legal meeting notes. They're on minutes. They're >> You're right. I actually >> some are operable. Some are like Yeah, it's the norm. >> That was the norm in a prior district of mine and I got the Supreme Courts but they tend to use the word minutes. Okay. I like that board. I mean, you know,
yeah, I don't know about you all, but we also had like a very like a template and we all used the exactly the same and all that. It does help. You know, >> did school boards have a template you guys use?
>> Yeah, I guess they did. They did have some >> Yeah, I I kind of just curious. >> Yeah. Well, I I didn't introduce myself in the sense of when I started school boards, but it was only last fall. So, I'm still I feel like I've gotten a good grasp of it, but I'm still learning that
there there are thousands of pages of resources that school boards has. So, as soon as I said I don't think so, I thought probably actually. Um so, a lot of resources. Yeah, it it's overwhelming to me. Um okay, so this is typical of
the education committee. Um so the administrative liaison so that's kind of generally the administrator overseas during and then um so those are the areas that typically the curriculum committee is involved with. So if there are questions that bubble up whether it's in the context of oh the committee's meeting but sometimes it's
just in general a board member has a question um they talk to either Lauren or Kenneth gets into the picture with Lauren says you know that would be a good question for the blank committee. Whenever you can push something, you know, not push it out, but bring it to a committee that's got an expertise in that and is focused on that, that's a
good idea. That's just efficient. So that's the education committee, typically the operations committee. Some also call it FNF, I think, and it's also um yeah, finance and physical plant. So yeah, facilities and finance. So that's
what those look like. Um >> can I ask a question? It seems like uh school board has so we actually have separate findings, right? But it sounds like there's a combination of a ton all in this one and then some
of the other ones. Question being should we think about consolidating? We we kind of have that discussion a little bit. Maybe this is not the right barriers committee. They're not saying it's one. >> Actually, that's great clarification. So, um
>> it's just saying that I get involved. Yeah. So the implicate it's implied here that there are three committees and that's what you should have. But it really always comes back down to whatever works for certain boards. So having the conversation is great. I don't want to
suggest though that um school boards thinks three is is the max that you should have uh because so many do have five because they cover the other two that you say because there's a lot of work involved there. Um, so maybe going to John's point that those can be, you
know, that the indicators for each of those can be divided up differently than what you see here, if that makes any sense. Uh, and then of course there's HR and again Kenneth is the for that uh in at least here. So um yeah, and
those are the responsibilities of that committee. So, somebody's going to be doing that work. And again, you can take um they can take they can take any form based on what works best for your board and your communities. All right. So,
going to um just try a couple at a time so we can make sure and save some time at the end for general discussion, but um anybody want to toss out a benefit or two from the committee system? Probably some catch. you can get a lot of work done in a committee without having to do
a public meeting with all the advertising, all the things that go along with it. And you can vet a lot of things as a committee, then bring it back to the board. You know, you probably don't have it when when boards are not functioning when there's a lot of distrust. The vote comes up to make
the committee the whole it never works because districts that do that eventually go back to the committee structure. There's a lot of things you can't do that you have to do in public. I >> I don't know if I'm sorry. Thank you. That's great. That's illegal to have to >> I actually well because I knew you didn't have a committee of the whole
>> there are like five slides here on the committee of the whole but I took them out sorry I took them out for a couple of different reasons one you know just with regard to time but also because it it's a whole different world and you know I I tend to agree I don't know if we're supposed to put one in front of
the other but um yeah committees in the hall are really complicated I feel like you you would almost have to go to school and get a master's degree in before you could actually make it fly really well. >> I think my point is that when when a board functions well and a high performing board committee structure works very well. >> Mhm.
>> Agreed. Okay. So these are some these are the benefits uh that I've included on the slide. >> I wasn't reading but you guys all can read. I know. Okay. Oh, actually sure. >> Yeah. Hard to say.
>> Yeah. >> I didn't mean to be leading the witness. >> Yes. Uh, one of the things that I found that that's beneficial to me is having the uh people who are in the field like for instance spin. We have some parents who are in that field and obviously
that's not my field. So their expertise in that area has really helped me. And conversely, if I'm if I'm in education for a long time and some parents are on the board and we're talking about curriculum or programs, I find that they're benefiting from my assistant
principal's expertise or my expertise. So it's kind of like a give and take. It makes us better as a whole. >> So do they get So you're saying like someone in the public can be invited to a meeting? >> No, I'm saying in our committees. >> On your committees? >> Yes. to the our our board members who are involved in finance or in
government. They're contributing a great deal in our committee and I'm learning a lot from them because of their expertise in their profession and they're also learning a lot from me and my vice principal as far as curriculum programs are concerned. >> Great. So, if I'm hearing you correctly, you're not suggesting necessarily that
you put a public person on the committee. What you're saying is inviting other board members with an expertise to a committee that they might not be on. Well, the way that Barry and Lauren have set up the committees, they kind of like choose, you know, allow the board members to choose their first,
second, third picks. And if they have an expertise in finance, for example, and they choose to be on finance, that's a win for us because they have that expertise, they have a lot of experience, and that's a benefit to me learning, you know, in that field. Um, and also if if I'm running the program
and curriculum committee with my vice principal who is our curriculum director, then those parents are asking questions and they're learning a lot and getting a better view of what's happening inside the school from a curriculum perspective. So I think the expertise of the board members and the
educational professionals on those committees having that dialogue helps make each other better. >> Absolutely. >> Thanks for clarifying. I appreciate So the committee chairs, they coordinate the work of the committee. Uh what work is coordinated by the committee chair?
Let me just add a couple of >> what is the work that's setting the meeting? >> Setting the meeting. Yeah. >> Agendas. >> Yes. Workflow. >> Workflow. What do you mean by that?
>> Prioritization of of um things that need to happen in the in the order that it need. >> Yeah. So, we got to keep it moving, right? >> Do you have uh do your committees have target like it's a 60-minute meeting kind of thing and all that.
>> They typically are an hour. Yeah, >> they can exceed Okay. So, more committee chair uh coordinates the work committee. We said agenda. All right. We said the workflow. Um anything else before I flip it over? Can you get the results back? >> Right. Okay. So, some things that we've
touched on works closely with the administrative liaison assigned to the committee. Develops the agenda and calendar. Yeah. Like you said, leads the discussion workflow. Yeah. Works with you guys are good. works with leazison to arrange the meeting dates, times, keeps committee
and board fully informed of the actual meetings. But yeah, uh organizes the work of the group and work club and facilitates the the process chairs and meetings. All right. And then there's the role of committee chair with regard to communication. What needs to be
communicated by the committee chair? Um, see if I can I'm going to check my notes so I can restate that in a way that helps you. Yeah, that's what I thought. Right. So,
what happens in the committee has to be communicated. So, how does the committee chair do that? Well, they start by communicating what is appropriate for certain items. Can't be communicating that. filtering, making sure the right
message. >> Yeah, kind of like we've been talking about quite a bit. Let's see if there are any other items on here that we haven't touched on yet. Arranges for committee report. Yep. Form. See, that suggests that there's a committee report form. And see, that doesn't say minutes. So, good. I'm just going to start
curving the word minutes. >> Sure. Right. This is >> committee report. Committee. Yeah. >> Committee notice. >> Uh ensures distribution of meeting notices and committee report communicates anticipates uh problems or concerns to the board president and CSA.
Very good. That's important. Um any anything on that? Arranges through the CSA for other administrators to work with the committee. So yeah, there might be a time when in fact so K was talking before about this curriculum invites a principal who does curriculum. There
might be a time when maybe you're in finance and you're talking about the budget with regard to curriculum and you might invite that person to that meeting. Does that sound like something? All right. and sets target dates for completing committee tasks in um
I'll throw in another best practice from a superintendent that uh I feel is super highly effective but um when he said to me when he first started our district and he asked me said I want you to make up your committee meetings agendas for
the year it was August I used to do them monthto month and I was like yeah well I questioned my brand new superintendent so I said okay and then past in my office for quite a while and figured I don't know how to do that. I'm going to give it a lot of thought. Um, and the bones of it can be done and it
keeps you on task especially like in curriculum. Well, what curriculum has to be revised this year? Well, now you've just made sure that you're bringing you're going to get them all through just like a policy, let's say. And then it also opened up the door for me to think about who could be a guest speaker or guest expert to come to a meeting. Um
so there would be regularly the month where I had the special ed the assistant super special ed come in just to talk about instruction. So um yeah that was a really great practice and we weren't doing anything like that. Um so kind of goes along with that sets target dates
for completing the tasks. U what are some things committee members can do to assist in having effective meetings? I'm keeping an eye on the clock now. So, I think I'm just going to jump to that one. Um, because I want to leave some discussion at the end because you guys are great when I just let you loose. Um, so committee members can
assist in making committee meetings more effective by doing these things. Reviewing the agenda prior to the meeting. You know, we've covered a lot of these. Arrive on time and prepared. That's important. Um, contact the committee chairperson prior to the meeting with any questions you have after reviewing the agenda. So, yeah, I
guess you get the agenda in advance of the meeting. That that's a bit ambitious. Sometimes the meeting, you know, the agenda for a committee meeting might be there that day. Do you all are you able to pull that off? Do you all share the committee meeting agenda ahead of schedule?
>> Yeah, it's their own Google. It's a Google doc. Okay. >> And as things come up, I throw them on there and everybody has access to it all the time. So, >> right, >> they can just log in anytime they want see it. >> Am I right? Am I Am I dreaming this
right? Is that that's correct? >> Facilities could be getting all the agenda. >> Yeah, he talking very long. >> And then the rest there you go. And of course it's sometimes it's good just to refresh on but sticking to the agenda. Of course you already all brought that
up. Refraining from sidebar conversations. I don't know if that came up explicitly but that's important too. Asking questions at the proper time. Yeah. Okay. I was wondering if you know who dictates to somebody when their question is appropriately timed,
but if it's on the agenda, you might wait till then, right? Uh making comments that are on point. So sticking to it, engaging in active listening. We talked about that in the last presentation and requesting additional information if needed. That comes over and over again because uh that's what
makes the meetings be productive, your your board meetings, your regular board meetings productive. and also courteous and um you know no no gotchas, no surprises. We like to avoid those. Okay. So um yeah, the rec so I I see it sort
of as a recursive process. Um meaning so an idea might surface. I think this is more along the lines of when something comes up as opposed to setting you know in August setting your agenda for the year. But when things come up and someone says, well, you know, whether it's Kenneet or it's Lauren, um,
somebody might say, well, that'd be a great conversation or agenda item for that committee. So, an idea surfaces, um, it's circulated to the appropriate committee. It's discussed by that committee. Then the next page, uh, where it makes sense, the uh, can be brought
by the committee to the full board for discussion and action. board either approves the committee recommendation or denies it, maybe asks for uh more information, the committee can discuss it again. So, it's it's that's like the life cycle, I guess, of um something
that might come up that can be handled through committee rather than just be one of those kinds of questions that lingers and and is kicked around by different people formed out. Oh, okay. So, this is the part that I think is a good winding down.
Yeah, let's try it. I like this. I want to see what you think of it. Um, to what extent do our committees have a clearly defined purpose, charge, and scope that are understood by members in the full board? So, picture like a liyker scale. I'm not going to say give me a number one to five, five being the most in
this, but do do you think so? I have like three three or four of these. Um, so it's going to be clear purpose, effective, quality. So to what extent do you clearly define purpose, charge and scope? So that might mean saying I think
we do it well and then a few people might say where we might be able to do a little better kind of thing. I guess I would say um we probably will understand what the committees do but it would but I think even many years ago we
also thought it would be a good idea to put it in writing as well which we not but you know and we looked at some other districts like I know has like a list of the committees on their website and they have what their committees do. So I think we all understand what they do but
it it's probably it would be a good idea to put it in writing to clarify because even some of your fire slides had other level description of what those committees did. >> Very good. Thanks. >> Have a sense.
>> Um for like a committee structure resources do I same thing I said before. Um, yeah, not that. You know, Lauren, while I make a quick note of that, um, do you have a hard start at 7:30? I want to give you a chance if you have to take
a break, take a breath, and use the rest or something. >> Fire attendance isn't going to kill >> the coming for next one. He's He's not here yet. Oh, actually I think he's looking >> and while you're here and everybody's here, could we coordinate another
training date so it's easier than me blasting emails? >> Let's actually you have you have homework. The homework is when I send this to you, I want you all to reflect on the idea to what extent do our committee chairs effectively coordinate work. So you know
um to what extent do our committees communicate timely, clear and all that. So want you to reflect on that as homework. Um to what extent does our committee system improve the efficiency and quality reflect on that as well. And then what's one thing our committees can do tomorrow to become even more
efficient to develop ongoing trust and clear communication. We've we've said a few so why don't we pick one and that'll be like our exit ticket for today. Um, what's something that you like that came up that you want to make sure becomes standard practice?
>> So, if I can, I would actually suggest we spend a couple minutes actually doing this. I think it's probably most important training. >> Oh, sure. >> Uh, like just to wrap up, I think I want to build a fair. I think um clear roles and responsibility for what the committees do. Just so that it's clear
and I would just say this as a new board member four years ago, I had no idea what committees were. this was helpful and I had to figure it out on my own. I think kind kind of already like it took me a while to figure it out but when you first come on board you're not sure what committees are what they do and then
specific to us we don't know exactly what the committees are responsible for so to your point be I think it's good to say hey facilities does this like for me like cuz I share finances across all of them and I'm like oh shoot like it took me a little bit to realize and that's why some of my question was a little bit
like should it be combined with some because it is so reliant on facilities but there's a personal aspect personnel aspect to it but a lot of the finance stuff that is related to facility, right? Uh so there's a there's one about roles of like how the committees are and I think it's helpful for the new board
members if whoever comes in with this board turns ah I know what that committee does, what it reviews, what it's responsible for and then I want to be on that committee or I don't want to be on that committee. Um rather than you board members having to basically kind of figure it out over time what what
they do. Uh I I will also agree with some of the comments about I think we can be better about communicating out what's happening across committees and again I will say this again as a new board member nobody kind of explained the clear roles of committee to say how much do committees whether they're
chairs or or else h how we should be communicating it sounds like it should be much more than I think was done historically. I think we've done better. Yes. >> But I think for new board members as well, it's like I think putting that in action and saying like, hey, the committee is not just doing work there. It's a lot of it communicated across.
And it's like that wasn't made clear to me either. Um so there's kind of a duel around that of us just taking action and being more communicative amongst the committees, but then also again for the board members that is how the committee structure of governance actually works.
Um and I think that leads into the action. let's do that descriptions and then how do we communicate better >> that would help me greatly too >> because as a new superintendent that's one of the things I was like all right what are we doing here in committee I was never on a committee I was not on a
board of ed I wasn't in central office I was in uh principal role I was doing district level stuff but I was never running a committee never on a committee uh you know a board committee so having kind of like a quasi job description for it would be would have been beneficial
to me >> I stuff for it might be for the liaison too because you know right now you get appointed or voted on as liaison you know what it does right there. >> Yeah. >> Well we tie this all all back up into
you know board norms. Could we consider something I had suggested a few weeks ago, which is having the committee chairs meet every four to six weeks as well or whatever duration, not necessarily timestamping it, but just so that way information is disseminated
more amongst the leaders too because of that to your point. Finance is dependent on facilities which is dependent on personnel. Um so some more work happens behind the scenes collaboratively with the chairs and then it can be disseminated to other
members. >> Well also to Jeff's point I know there was a discussion I think it was last year where I wait to see that I've had it both ways. I've had finance, I've had facilities, I have finance and facilities. A lot of times they are interactive because you bring something of the facilities, you know, let me talk
about in finance, but you might want to think about next time they come around that combining those because they do work so closely together and it's not another meeting out. Yeah, it was nice to meet because honestly the finance committee but singularly we might have agenda items to review and then we do
the budget which is probably the big one for the year but the rest of it is really connected to facilities, right? personnel we a lot of it is is confidential anyway so we have to pay for the need of personnel it depends anyways from a finance perspective there's really not independent finance
stuff outside of maybe the budget but the whole board gets that almost the whole right and the board has been very good you know if there's ever a question on the agenda finance item or or anything related to superintendent they either email or call so it's nice that our
board we can get an answer if there's a question before a board meeting and not getting put on the spot and this board hasn't hasn't done that since I've been here which is certainly appreciated but you know they go communicating with either of us on an agenda item >> I would agree with Jeff financing
facilities for the most part would make sense like you know for many many years you know not much happens in facilities and they would be absolutely great together I'd have to say during a referendum 20 years it's actually been good to have it separate for we need >> because we have different exper you have different people on each committee and
and you get you know you get different a lot of different perspective by running through a poll. So in this particular instance it's good that they're separate but if we're not doing a referendum for 20 years we can have it together. >> Yeah. So I think the the takeaways that I heard were
you know uh the clear goals and what's the >> yeah roles and responsibilities with committee which what I think Barry's point was great about putting it in writing and we've come a long way like we've never had ever we never had committee
notes we never had reporting meetings over the years we you know had presentations and taken And then Lauren's suggestion about having the Canadian chairs meet month or every other month. We can figure out
>> I said every other month. >> Do you agree with like a 48 hour policy for notes? >> He said 30 days presentation. No, wait. 30 days to get to the board to the meeting. Really, >> you can have a conversation about
>> I like the idea of just I think most of us already do this when we live the notes on the Google doc, right? >> I think the goal is to read them before the next meeting by the weekend of that meeting. >> Makes it Want to get the clean notes out there.
Finally, we also need a work in undiagnosed adult. >> Yeah. >> Uh so before you but I do I just do want to acknowledge. >> Thank you so much.
>> Let's see. So, you want me to look at my calendar? I suppose I'm a little scared. It's busy. >> That's okay. I think if it's months out, we should get on the calendar, right? >> Yeah. >> Why don't we do the uh >> uh Well, that and then
the board um it's going to be in June anyway, right? >> You also have the superintendent evaluation meetings where they Charlie was coming. I can't remember when that Yeah. >> Self evaluation. >> When do we we do that? Like
>> June. >> Yeah. >> So I don't have your meetings open at the moment. Do you have >> such a great idea that a lot of folks have me signed up for those in June? But let's uh Yeah. Unless Well, tonight did
you um >> our June meeting is the 17th. >> Are you looking at June? You looking at May is the 21st. >> Wait a minute. >> I have on the 17th. Boooo retreat. So >> we talked about that >> township or >> it was us. Oh, okay.
>> Because like the boot in my system the difference between township and town because that's the peak. >> So for a while I was going to the wrong place. That's the only thing. So in my big database >> well the state the state I've gotten their debt service.
>> Yeah you were saying. >> All right. So you're actually in the book if you want to do that. >> Okay. That 17 June 18th is the >> June 17. >> June 17. >> That's the wrong That's the wrong year. >> Yeah.
>> Of what? June. >> June. >> Okay. >> June 17. >> And that's for all right. You guys are doing a great job maximizing your PD opportunities, if I can say that. >> So, we have our architects here to do a
presentation on the potential reference. So, I'm going to turn it over to Greg and Dan. >> Good evening, everyone. My name is Greg Samjen and we've been here now several times and this is the culmination of
many many months of work that the board has been doing. Um we have presented on the infrastructure projects over the past several months. We've explored a variety of educational options that have been narrowed down to what we are now
calling concept B1 and B2, which is what we will present this evening. And as agreed, we're just going to recap how we got here very quickly for anyone who is seeing this presentation for the first time or anyone at home and trying to catch up. Um
the building itself um was originally built in the 1950s and has had additions over the course of decades. It is split up into three basic sections. The prek kindergarten wing, the elementary school section, and then the middle school
grades on the far right. The referendum in 2024 covered a variety of infrastructure projects that ranged from asbestous abatement to the boiler and to some roofs and also took into consideration
an art room renovation and at the time an addition to accommodate much needed storage. That referendum totaled just over $15 million. It was receiving debt service aid from the state about $4.7 million,
leaving the local share to the local taxpayer at about $10.3 million. And ultimately, as we know, that referendum failed. After the failed referendum, the board was focused on a superintendent search. Ken Fatini was brought on board
and had a chance to evaluate the needs both infrastructure and educationally firsthand. And then since coming on board, he has had discussions with the board of education, met with administrators, teachers, and student reps with us, and also had community
connection meetings from August through today, and ultimately identified some needs that was presented to the board. Those needs fell into two basic buckets. The first one was infrastructure which we've talked about several times and
we'll just touch on the total dollar amount but again they are very similar to what was contemplated in 2024 with some exceptions like the storage room has been eliminated and some of the other things uh that are more smaller in nature. And then the one we're going to focus on this evening is the educational
bucket. Just as a point of information, the district does have a strategic plan with three goals and those goals vary, but many of those pieces align with the planning that has gone on for the
educational portion and the infrastructure portion of this referendum that is being considered. So, the educational needs that were identified were to eliminate shared spaces. Many of the spaces in the building are currently being used by two
and three teachers simultaneously. There are many spaces that were formally storage that over the decades became converted to actual educational use and so they are windowless and not ideal and also long-term enrollment increases that may ultimately occur. There are some
specialized instructional spaces that similar to the storage rooms here were converted. So, the area across from the gym was formally storage and is now a music space. The art room is uh old and has issues relating to not being
properly sized for the youngest kids, not being properly sized for the older kids. So, falling somewhere in between. And then ultimately, there is a classroom space that was converted to science STEM, but it's really just a general classroom.
So the considerations that uh that we used for going into the design was to address all of those things that were lacking education. The existing site uh is has some
limitations environmentally. The aerial is not something that people are accustomed to seeing, but this is what the property looks like. There are wetlands on the property and there are what are called repairarian zones having to do with the stream and the water courses. The red dotted lines represent
setbacks that need to be maintained from those areas. And so one of the things that we looked at very early on was how can we accommodate these needs because the existing school does not have the square footage to accommodate some of
the things that are being explored based on the shared spaces. So the concept that falls into the B category which is the middle of the range category. We looked at something bigger, 10,000 square foot and
maximizing what we could build and then a smaller version which was about 5,000 ft² which was the minimal amount of uh components that could be addressed and ultimately in the last several meetings the board felt like the middle of the road was a reasonable approach. So the
first concept that was presented on this um in this middle section was a 7200 foot edition. It consists of classrooms being extended down towards the softball field on the seventh and eighth grade wing as well as one music space off of
the upper gym. Uh those spaces are ideal because music is a louder acoustical issue. So putting it next to a gym is very appropriate and obviously the classrooms and extending the seventh and eighth grade wing is also appropriate. And then you can see the shaded blue
areas which are interior renovations. Ultimately, this project, this proposal addresses many, if not all of the educational program elements that were identified. Everyone has their own space. We are removing people from
former storage spaces that are windowless and ultimately allowing uh the general classrooms to act as general classrooms rather than being used for other types of spaces. This proposal is approximately $10.1
billion. We are not expecting any debt service aid on the additions, but we do believe we might be able to get some debt service aid for the interior renovations. So ultimately what the next steps are is after approval and after submission to the Department of
Education, we will get what's called a preliminary eligible cost letter and that will tell us exactly what the state subsidy will be. And then after our last meeting, we were asked to develop a second concept within this mid-range. And so we're calling
that concept B2. It increases the square footage to 9,100 square ft by adding a second music space. So currently the music spaces are one for band and one for coral, but they're undersized. They're inappropriate from a learning
perspective because there are former storage rooms. The ceilings are lower. The acoustics are not great. And so while we did add one music room in concept B1, the discussion about adding a second one to see what it did to the budget was contemplated and it is being
shown here. So that now we have a properly sized coral room and a properly sized band room. The other proposals are similar if not the same to B1 in so much as we have general classrooms, small group instructional spaces that are being accommodated so that people are
out of windowless spaces and appropriate educational spaces are being proposed. And this one comes in a little bit higher at 11.9. Um the debt service aid discussion is the same. We don't expect any for the addition, but we do expect some for the interior renovations and we
will only know that once we get those preliminary eligible cost letters. So, uh, I believe this evening the board will have a discussion and decide on one of these two concepts. And what that will ultimately do is there will be
applications submitted to the state if option one is chosen, meaning the infrastructure projects which are totaling just over $16 million with 5.7 in debt service aid. Uh if concept B1 is uh chosen, then we will have a total
referendum presented to community of $26.7 million. Um how many questions that will be represented in has not yet been decided. And then option two, if selected, would be the same 16.6 million infrastructure and 11.9 for the
educational bringing the total presented to the community of 28.57. Just to recap some of the frequently asked questions. How does this impact my taxes? Once we get the preliminary eligible cost letter of the debt service aid from the state, the financial adviser will be able to more accurately
calculate what uh the average home will be impacted and then that will be presented well before any voter goes into the voting booth. Why do these projects cost so much? Um the prevailing wage requirements in New Jersey and the other state mandates are
what drive the cost of public sector work. We have gone through a benchmarking exercise with everyone to show that the current market conditions do reflect our budgets. Why do I have to vote? In order for a board of education to borrow money longterm, the community has to vote on it. Uh borrowing money
longterm for something like this is very appropriate. Not only are you getting to finance something with a life expectancy of 20 or 30 years over that 20 25 years, but it also allows future uh residents that are moving into the community to
participate in the paying off of that debt because they too are benefiting from the improvements. And then why don't we just keep using capital reserve to fund these things? And the answer is that capital reserve is limited. It's like a savings account. Only so much can be put away based on the annual expenditures. Debt service aid is not
available if you use capital reserve and capital reserve is paid in one year rather than over the life expectancy of the materials which is 20 years. I tried to do it quickly because I know we've seen this many many times. So if I went too fast please pull me back to
wherever you'd like to ask a question. Always beside it. Yeah. >> Can I just add one thing just to add on to that? So the previous presentation we record our meeting so somebody from the public can refer back to that and just see the last one. They'll be able to see
this one will be posted tomorrow and also the presentations are going to be on the website under the referendum page. So anybody who has missed the meeting who wants to come up to speed, they can look at both of those areas and try to come up to speed. And just a note on the presentation is
we do have the referendum tab that has the previous presentation already posted on there. Uh and once we get this presentation that will post it on the referendum tab as well. >> Now's the time for board discussion. >> Yeah. We can I guess do to clarify for
maybe folks um the steps that we're going through now like the next steps would be for the board to decide on what it thinks is best for the district based on all the inputs we've gotten for the infrastructure and one of the educational concepts B1 or B2. But the
next step would be first to submit an application, get the board to decide to submit an application to the state of New Jersey with those concepts, get it back with the numbers that they will absolutely provide and then at that point the board would decide are we going to referendum like when that comes
back months later. >> That is correct. >> Just one question between the concept one concept the the fan and the coral um how much is that taking over the current playground? So you can see over so you can see on
Oops. You can see on the aerial you can see on the aerial it's taking over what are we calling it the physical >> the project fit area. >> The project fit area which based on the conversations we've had seems to be more of a hangout area than a project fit
area. So I think there is there are discussions about how we can accommodate a place for the kids to socialize and congregate whether that's maybe at the end where the baseball or the softball field is or but but it takes up most of that project fit area when you have the
two classrooms because each classroom uh has a footprint of about 1,200 ft. So that's 2400 ft plus the storage in between and plus an extension of the hallway a little bit to get us access. >> Thank you Ken. Uh, just want to point out that where it says music right there, that's currently where three
containers are with storage. So >> that's not taking >> Yeah. It won't be taking away any space from the kids or anything. >> Yeah. And those those containers have things stored inside of them. But again, the beauty of this is that we gain back those closets. I know that John
mentioned maybe making one of them a conference room just so you have a little bit of flexibility, but it also takes the old music space, which was storage, and could recover that back to storage. So there are options. The storage need just to be clear did not go away. This is a different approach to
accommodating educational needs while also addressing some of the storage needs. >> So the difference between B1 and B2 is it is the only difference the addition of the coral room B2. >> Okay. So then follow-up question um
noticing that B there's a difference of 1.8 million between the two proposals. What goes into the construction of the coral room that makes it 1.8 million? >> So the 1,200 square ft
>> times the cost per construction and then proportionally everything else goes up. The contingency because it's a contingency on the hard cost goes up. The market escalation goes up. So the beauty is that the and remember there's also a hallway extension which adds a
little bit of square footage to get to that end as well. But basically, most of that is the hard costs and then a lot of the contingencies that relate to it because those are tied in as percentages. And the goal here is if we submit to the state, we get 34 cents on
the dollar for whatever we submit on the interior renovations. For the exterior, we're not going to get money. But if we have the money there and something changes in the market, which is always changing, we can still execute on the project. If we don't need that money
contingency specifically, then we don't use it and it can go back to the community members. So our numbers are based on what we're seeing in the market and based on benchmarking and the the primary driver is the hard costs and then the associated
soft costs that go into permit fees because educational projects have educational reviews that you have to pay for. So most of it is just the hard cost of the construction and then the related contingencies that are associated with it. >> Mr. Patine question. Um if we don't do
the coral room music the music room double as a coral room. Maybe that's a question for you as well. I don't >> that's why this was I don't want to I'll let Ken answer the question for sure. >> The the music room and the band or let's call it instrument musical instrument is
being utilized all day long for both. Yeah. I told instructors. So there's never an opportunity for one to use the other's room. >> Yeah. >> That's why we were considering it. >> Look, just to put things in perspective, if you look in the middle of the
building, you're familiar with where the existing music room is. So arguably either this is a coral or instrumental >> and then this one is acting as the music space. So you can see it's it's woefully underdesigned and with the sound of instruments in there, I can only imagine
what it sounds like. So the goal was to accommodate both those spaces and then be able to recover them because otherwise one of them might have to stay in there >> from a Yeah. So I guess that's my followup question. The scheduling perspective that I would assume that B the chorus will stay in the old storage
room what is now the music room that would happen. Is that >> correct? >> And there's no other place that's feasible in the renovations where the chorus room could move to. Correct. Not that we saw. Most of the spaces are general classrooms that are 800 square f
feet or less. The the current music room is probably the biggest footprint, but all of them have ceiling heights that were designed for a general classroom, which is typically 9 ft plus or minus. That's the today's code. you're going to
see in the coral and music spaces, you're going to see a 12 or a 15t ceiling height um with acoustical panels and things like that because that helps for the space to be more educationally centered. >> This is what what if you did an interior
renovation like this stored without it to make it into a >> So that's a possibility. Um I believe it's a roof that we just replaced. So, you know, we are actually working on a music room where you can raise the ceiling um to accommodate that, but that
requires a lot of structural work. So, the realities are it'll be so disruptive. I'm I'm Will it be a little less expensive? Probably, but in the grand scheme of things, if you're already building on the end there, in my professional opinion, you know, you're going to build two boxes instead of one
and and get a much more suitable space. >> Yeah. Plus, you're picking up a space for storage, which is also much needed. John has shared many stories about, you know, these storage containers. They're not weathertight. There are a whole host of issues there. So, bringing those stuff inside, >> then you're getting two days. If you're
getting a coal room, you're getting storage here. >> Well, that was my question, too. My understanding was the music room now is the old gym. >> It's the only storage off the hall. And if you remember from the presentation last meeting, when they put the risers in there, the taller students are up at
the ceiling. So it's not it's not really conducive to coral music. >> You can't no you can't really use it. But my my point is that if you did the other option with both music and coral you now get the gym storage cuz I think we're using part of a bathroom somewhere >> like the boys bathroom is being used as storage
>> every possible we're using storage >> if the locker rooms locker room >> and so I guess the following question is that one is the cost question that we can debate. I'm more uh for now concerned about maybe the programmatic
uh needs of the school. I'll defer to Mr. Patini more. >> I assume this addresses the original list of what we were doing more than the other one >> more than right. Yes. I'm just going to make that. >> You mean B2 versus B1?
>> Yes. That B2 is a better educational uh result for the kids than B1 precisely. >> Yeah. Okay. So, Does anybody else have a question? I was just going to give my >> Can you explain the uh
So what's the current utilization secret of the music? So it sounds like the entire day there's either instrumental music or music happening in there's two spaces. >> Three spaces.
>> Three. >> They're in the gym as well and they shuffle. >> They move. They move music around just to make it happen between gym classes. >> I guess if we go with option B2, is it correct that throughout the entire
day both utilized both select time? >> Yes. Did you say being utilized all day long? >> Yeah. Well, so but in other words, if we do that B2, both those bands be utilized at the same time and not.
>> Yes. >> Now, mind you, teachers have preps and lunches and things like that, you know, that there may be a period or two where they're not being utilized. Um, >> but there's not large gaps like >> classrooms too. This happens in a classroom when there's a prep
>> or a large period. I think what Ben was asking I think a similar question I was asking like can they swap? >> Can you shuffle? >> But it sounds like you need space >> at best >> one would be able to use the classroom one period. >> That's it. Yeah. And then you'd still
have to shuffle in five. That would >> music also happens to be a zero period. So it's used before school too. >> Yeah. >> When when they have to do whole band practices they go into the small gym or the large gym.
So you're you're actually shortening the the amount of time that the kids are actually practicing because they're hauling all the equipment >> from one room over to the gym and then back. They do the setup and the breakdown themselves. We we've made it work. There's a lot of juggling, but
especially when like the the play is going on, >> there are times where they can't even get in. They're moving things around. And here you would typical instrumental music room is set up. You're not dragging the kettle drums out. You're not bringing them back. bring it up
education. So >> I believe I just want to say I believe Mrs. coworker presented about that last week >> and her presentation has neither true instruction >> because of the moving around >> my my thought was I was originally
leaning towards B1 I'm trying to be costconcious but I realized the the headache not even headache that disruption creates right not having that dedicated space I feel very strongly about music the arts we need to have that again it's not all just about math
alth those are incredibly important and I I think having those dedicated spaces is needed for the for the children. The cost relative to the overall cost is not that much more. And I think we've done a really good job on the infrastructure side of squeezing pushing making sure we've got that as small as possible to
devote as much to the the children and the students as possible, which I think is open. So I mean I I this is just me. I'm just throwing my I I'm you know leaning towards B2. >> Yeah. Well, maybe I'm going to build on B2. Like look, I think the relative cost
of 18 bonded over 20 years. >> Like we what we talking about? We're talking about $90,000 a year over 20 years. The last thing I want to happen is 5 years from now we we or whoever the board is sitting here saying, "Geez, I really wish we bonded an extra 90,000 a
year for 20 years so that we could have separate banning coral." It just seems >> Yeah. >> It seems pennywise pound foolish to not, right? Like if if you were telling me it was $5 million to do it, I'd say, "Okay, let's let's talk about that." But to bond it over 20 years and that of people in the community share that expense for
what's going to be a better student experience, I think issues to it. >> It sounds like is there consensus for B2? >> I I don't know that thating out my my opinion. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> I'm aligned with B2 as well.
>> I don't know. I I am too. I was thinking like at first I see the need for the children's education. We have such a good music program here. That's the strength of our district. >> I think I, you know, want to make just a strong
pitch to to us, the board, the community that we see cost rising all over the place very rapidly. And I think it's important. That's what also has drawn me to B2 is to get what we need now. It's only going to get much more expensive.
It's going to be I think it's going to grow exponentially especially over the next two to three years. Um I really do think we need to go with what we need for a strong because I I will say for the public too who's listening whatever the fact that
we are sitting and I have to compliment because there's a lot of work that went into this and to committees and the public the fact that we're sitting here 3 years later with inflation being 20 or 30% higher. the fact that the infrastructure projects are nearly the same because we took >> after dropping
>> line item by line item to try to keep that almost the same. >> Yeah. >> Is almost I have the board that's like remarkable that we're going to be able to try to get the infrastructure with 3 years of inflation. Uh almost the same. So, just so the public knows too that
this board has really taken like the financial part very seriously and considerations like to to the line items um to get here. But you're also going to see in my budget presentation later on the board is the board has always been conscious and they are conscious in this budget of looking at the cost. So, you
know, it's played out in this scenario, but also has been playing out in the budget year after year. >> Can I make just one more point? Okay. So I know that there's talk about us investing in the arts and what we believe and things of that nature and
these are great wants but there's really a need because as far as space is concerned if we have chorus here and music instrumental uh instruction going on in this small space the music instructional the music in instrumental instruction has to go in here and we
have students that are on the stage here and during their practice we had kids fall off the stage. It's not an appropriate space for them to be practicing. And since this storage area was taken over, and again, I've been here for a year and a half. These are things I'm seeing every every day for the past year. This hallway here has
chairs and tables and risers and things like that. So, it's from a safety perspective, like this needs to be done. If we have six classrooms here, and the middle school typically is six, seventh, and eighth grade, we have on average three sections per grade. That's nine
classes. There's only six classes here. That's not truly a middle school. So, you have kids going back and forth over here, smaller hallways. This hallway is actually a little bit wider because of the bigger kids and it's newer construction. So, we have a lot of traffic going over here. We have eighth graders going all the way down here for STEM class or computers. So, there's a
lot of traffic and from a safety perspective, again, that traffic causes problems. So, having this design is better overall, not only for the school from a programmatic standpoint, but from a safety standpoint. I I would even say I'm sorry to interrupt you like just having
volunteered here so much from a socioeotional standpoint too because there's a social piece of kids all in one school that are older being together. The intermixing they start around seventh and eighth grade complaining about being with the younger kids. They're they want that autonomy
making that transition to high school and that that transition from elementary to middle. You see it in in the interactions as well. >> Agreed. And I also like again point out this area right here, this coral area right here, this is already taken over
by containers for storage. So why build storage space over there to just put that stuff in there? Why not make instructional space, capture some of that closet space and storage space, take that and put it back in? Just makes sense.
>> Thank you. >> Any other questions? in your book. Do you want Ben and Paul and your >> I'm in total agreement. >> I can do a show of hands and Paul
>> I was >> initially I was leaning towards B1 just from a cost effective perspective but listening to everyone and hearing Mr. forini speak about the safe about safety. Um I'm in line with what you were talking about Chris. Um
I I'm I'm on board with moving forward with me too. If you heard me from the infrastructure I'm the last person spend the taxpayers dollar. Um but I think that this is the right use of it.
>> I hear you. But >> I mean I I do echo what everyone's does seem sort of phrase like why it's kind of foolish to try to you know slim down the voters by
shorting an entire segment of and I'm I really agree with I I do I think we should hear about student hear about this before we take any official action.
>> Anyone from the public have any questions or feedback? >> Um, I'll just say uh it kind of blows my mind that I moved here in the year 2000 when the last piece of money was spent here and since then I've raised two boys. they've gone on to college or in
grad school. It's quarter century. That's a long time not to invest. I mean, I'm 100% behind this. And um I but I am thinking of the questions you guys are going to get from people that might not be like, well, how come we didn't think about the uh the education
piece last time was all focused on infrastructure? People are going to say, oh, it's twice as much as it was. Well, it's not really. It's kind of what it was plus this other need that we really need. So, but again, I'm on board. But some of your your numbers, Greg, the um
I think the last time we were here, you flashed a number that said for the uh the infrastructure was whatever 156 million, but because we're getting the 34%, we were only financing 11 million, which for the average house, and this is top ahead memory. So, the average
$600,000 house might be a $500 increase >> roughly. So, so when you present this, you're going to be presenting if it's both to the taxpayer saying you're going to get a $1,000 increase. >> Yeah. So, the information >> I'm not complaining. I'm just saying I'm thinking as a salesman. I'm trying to help you sell.
>> I think the the we received some very high level information from the financial adviser last time that we wanted to at least share preliminarily. And I think it was phrased something along the lines of for every $5 million of borrowed money would be X dollars on
the average home. The decision was made, let's wait for the real numbers from the state because that will reduce the burden on the local taxpayer. The local taxpayer will know that information before they go into the booth. It'll just be a couple of months after we submit the application. Right now, if
everything goes based on the schedule we've discussed, the board should be providing us some direction on this these concepts this evening. We've already gotten the go ahead on the infrastructure application. So those are already started. So we'll be targeting May 1 as the application submission
which means in a couple of months after that 2 or 3 months we'll get the actual numbers from the state. The financial advisor can run their numbers and then we'll have real numbers to share with everyone. We don't want someone to look at a number and then >> be artificially inflated or artificially
low. So that's the plan. But but you're right, those were talked about at a very high level early on that big. It's a big number. >> Y >> but if we had done something, you know, if if every 10 years we did something that it would be a smaller number every 10 years, but you wait a quarter and you got to pay for it just like if you don't
replace your roof on your own house. >> Awesome. >> Um something else, and this is just >> not that you're going to do this, you could do this, but after the last meeting, I I laughed and you're talking about the lack of space. Uh this was also before the sending receiving um um
analysis came out. So I left that meeting saying well wouldn't an idea be to they kind of overbuilt the mountain lakes from what I hear. Could we send our eighth seventh and eighth graders there and you know make that part of the sending or receiving relationship and then that frees up the space here. That's a big idea that you can't decide
right now but and it's probably too late for that. But that was that was one thing I walked away from. And then I guess with the sending relig receiving relationship analysis that probably would all blown up. And anyhow, but I I'm I'm with it. I I might only be
living here another 5 or 10 years, but uh I want this to be a great community for Jenny. So, and I'm happy to help with my sales ability in a non nonpartisan way, but I don't know if that's possible because everyone knows what happened. As someone who is planning to live here
for the next few decades, I would say I I was in the B1 camp at first as well until you guys asked all the same questions I was thinking. The answers convinced me that B2 makes sense. Um, so I I get it. I think it's worth it. >> Nicole Kobart deserves
the person. She's awesome. >> Yeah. >> Uh, I have several questions. I don't know if they're appropriate for this meeting. Uh, this is the first time I've ever come to a a a planning a board of education meeting. Um if if you would
allow me to just ask them and if you want to come back at a different time if you think they're appropriate, but um has the architecture firm ever uh developed projects for other schools? >> Oh, certainly. Yes. So, we've been doing
this for 38 years, and this kind of project is something we've been doing for decades. Okay. Um, and did the school district, I'm assuming, doing analysis of future class size for the students for the next 5 to 10 years.
>> So, typically a demographic study is only valid for 5 years because that's the life expectancy of it. And I know that there are demographic studies and they're actually considering another demographic study. But I think, and I don't want to misspeak, so can correct me if I'm wrong. I think this is in
response to the current circumstances and while we're trying to accommodate some growth, this is not a function of because we have a huge population coming, we already have spaces that are shared. The room behind us is shared by three teachers. Closets have been converted. So Ken may want to elaborate
on that. >> I could jump in. So our our last demographic study, Craig is right. They last about 5 years. We did one in 2022. The board approved a firm to do an update. So they're in the process now. There'll be a lot of feedback going back and forth that'll go out another 5
years, but the current one is showing that there's growth too within the next few years. So, we're we're going to get an updated one, but um you know, this project will accommodate some growth that we're expecting because it it did dip and now it's starting to come back up again. >> That presentation's available. I forget
which board meeting, but it was in 22, but >> yeah, there is the presentation up on the website >> that has the the the report from the the board. If you go to the board of education page, there's a demographic study, he'll show you the trends, but again, it's older data because a couple years old.
>> So then just as a followup of that question, do you um somehow leaison on with the the township committee as far as developmental plans in Bootin Township? I mean, are you taking into consideration perhaps more development
in the township? Is that how that study is done or or not? Uh the the we do work with the with the township, but the study does look at it looks at birth rates, it looks at housing starts, it looks at future building projects, and they've already
reported out that there isn't a lot of building unless somebody gives up farmland. It's not preserved. There hasn't been there haven't been plans. You know, you see the one that stalled up by that's the only one that has been in the works and we still don't know when that's going to when that's going
to commence again. But again, yes, to answer your question, we do look at the town. We do include that in the demographics study. >> If you don't mind me asking, are you asking if we do get a a influx of students, will this need to be expanded even more? Is that correct? Is this
going to accommodate? >> Well, that that's not what that was not. But that that's a good, you know, just something to think about also is if there was if there was any >> Yes. How how would it >> like if there's a 100 students that somehow appeared like uh >> from a townhouse kid?
>> You don't know. Those are the crystal ball. >> Yeah. I'm just wondering how the affordable housing uh component in Bin Township is taking how that's if if they've settled with the state yet and if that would bring in more children because they have to build x amount of
affordable housing units. And I don't I don't know that part of it. So that's why I'm asking >> this if we hypothetically received a 100 new students right now. They won't all be in second grade for example, they'll be dis distributed in
somewhat even fashion across all the grade levels. So we have uh prek, we'll just use kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade. That's nine grade levels. Three on average three per um three sections per grade level. So
that's 29 classrooms. So if we take 100 and we divide that by the 20 by 27, we can easily accept 100 students. So there's no concern as far as the population is concerned. But I might want to add on so that that older demographic study took into
consideration two scenarios. One was with that building and one was without. So there was still a growth in enrollment if they didn't do the building and there's one if it, you know, went opens up. It's all speculation, but we have a liaison to the township committee that's on the
board member and I think they just appointed one that's a liaison to our board. So there is communication between both both bodies. >> Okay. And then did I get did I hear this right for plan? So the difference between B1 and B2
financially is 1.8 million. Correct. And did I hear that the corral room was 1,200 square ft? >> Yes. >> So is it correct that if I divided $1,200
into 1.8 million that the cost for that building would be 15 $1,500 per square foot to build? >> So your math is correct. However, the way that the project is
budgeted, the 1,200 square foot is for the net square foot. So, there's the increase in gross square footage for the exterior walls and there's a slight hallway increase as well to get that other space. So, the square foot is a little bit bigger. Public sector work is
currently at $600 to $700 per square foot for hard costs. I was yeah just going to that was I was I just uh opened up my phone very quickly while everyone was talking and asked AI and uh in
high-cost areas they said it can be over 700 square ft >> dollar a square foot. >> Yeah. Per square foot. Thank you. But this is almost double that. So >> but what >> it is double that actually. >> Yeah. So, so what AI is not telling you
is that the $700 a square foot is hard cost. That's the actual cost of construction. And what I had mentioned when everyone asked was there are other line items that are part of that. We carry a contingency because there are going to be unforeseen conditions that we have to cover and if we don't use
them, it goes back. We have a market escalation because this vote doesn't go to the voters till the end of the year. Then we have 6 to9 months of drawings. So, we're not going to be out to bid for another year, year and a half. So, we have to anticipate what is construction going to go up in another year or two.
And then there are permit fees and there's a whole list of other things that tie into that which brings it to the total. We don't know that we're going to need all of those contingencies, but the state department of education requires we carry them and as a best practice, it's important to
carry them. And then there's also a little bit more of site work. The AI answer that you received is an accurate one, but that only speaks to what we call hard costs and the other pieces that bring it up that total amount is or these contingencies and other costs that
are not directly related to the hard cost. >> Okay. Um my I have about three more questions. What is um what does anyone know at present what the rate interest rate is for
bonding? >> Um I want to say for these kinds of projects it's in the 4% range for this type of work it's still somewhat competitive. It's not like the residential market that is in six 6 and
1 half 7 range. Um but we can certainly get that and certainly the financial adviser will will get that. And just so you understand, post referendum, just like the bids that are open through sealed envelopes, the board will go out
for competitive numbers from banks and financial institutions and they will open sealed envelopes to get the best rate. >> Understand? Um, and I think it was dis discussed uh while I was here tonight that is this
because my question is this is really the right time to bond considering the atmosphere that we are in right now uh both economically and politically on
the federal level. I do understand you said years down the line it you assume that the prices will go up and uh everything always does go up. They say the stock market always goes up although it's going down but I am concerned um of
the exact timing of this and I hate to say it under the current administration that we have in the federal government. I'm hoping that maybe in 2028 things may be a little bit different but right now with the war in Iraq in Iran etc. I know
this is above your guys pay grade but I am concerned about bonding about around this time. Um my one my second last question is I wasn't here ever to hear the discussions. Was there consideration of building a second story onto this
building um if it was possible and would that have been more cost effective? >> The answer is it was briefly discussed. It is not more cost effective because a you can't build over students while they're in the building and to do any kind of second floor addition. You'd
have to potentially reinforce the structure. We don't know if the foundation can support a second floor. And when you add a second floor, you immediately add plus or minus a million dollars worth of construction for an elevator and two means of egress. So if you said we were going to build a second floor over the whole building and shut
it down for a year, move the students elsewhere, that could be an economical uh consideration because then the elevator and the staircases for a large square footage increase would make sense. But if we were just going to build 5 to 10,000 square foot over one
of the wings and have to accommodate the code requirements, it it does make economical sense and it's not really um easy to do while the building is occupied and we're already at the building limits. So what you would do with the students? >> Yep. I understand. And this last
question, I don't want you to take it the wrong way. It's >> that's not a good setup to the question. It's a payforplay question which is has your company ever given donations to any political entity? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> We are anti-olitics. >> But to answer one of your questions about is this the right time? I would say yes and no. The right time was probably 5 years ago, right? And we're here now. >> Anecdotally, you know, I do work around my house. site would work and a sheet of
plywood before co was maybe depending on what kind of plate you like 50 bucks. It's now almost 80. It has not gone down. Things are going up. I waiting I think is a worse idea than going now. That's my personal opinion.
>> Yeah. And I mean everyone and they're all the same. >> You don't have a crystal ball. >> No. Right. But I mean everyone has concerns about and Waiting also has real costs to students
that are ability to kind of break their education. So to wait for the right time, I mean 10 years for the right conditions and you know you just you can't sort of continue to wait for the global you really have to to think what's right for our community now which
I think how I try to think about >> they're two different they're two different thoughts. They're both extremely important. through all. I think that's how I I >> Thank you. >> I appreciate the questions though because I think um noted I think you're asking them because they're good questions and I think the public will so
I think that's a at least for me reflected as a board I think as part of the FAQs doing this. Your questions are super valid to be forthright a lot of the those questions. I'm sure people have this exact same questions. >> I think thank you. >> Thank you. And and Terry, knowing how
you think, I'd encourage you to go to the whenever the the meeting was when Craig first presented. He got a lot of detail about where they came up with the numbers. He's he's Greg. Greg AI is better than your phone AI. So, >> I'm stealing that, not giving you just
>> I do it all the time. I'm the generous guy. >> Bad. Just having spent most of my career in band rooms and chorus rooms and concert halls and opera houses, you're making the absolutely right decision by building both rooms to a ceiling height that's acceptable to play music in and
sing music in. And also not having to shut that stuff in and out and in and out every day on the wear and tear on the instruments, on the time that's wasted doing it, etc., etc. You have my you have totally have my vote for the double room version. I didn't know you fought the dead.
>> We've had pinched fingers along the way, too, when they hit the door. >> Oh, yeah. And I'm sure kids fall instruments and break French horns and all sorts of stuff like that. So, >> thank you all for your feedback. Any other questions? >> Thank you, Greg. Thanks. Thank you.
>> So you know now going to this that you have your answer. >> Yeah. Well, what I'm going to do is John's going to give you the resolutions which we have to include in the application and what we'll do is we'll send these designs to Ken and John just to sign off to make sure we're all on the same page and what we're preparing for the application. The LRFP has
already been started. That's going to be done very soon. We're going to get that in advance just like we talked about and everything will be moving smoothly. So we're going to check all >> last quick question. How many questions is something we can do later? >> Yes. So you can wait until so we're submitting three applications. One for the infrastructure because we know we're
getting debt service aid. The second for the arbor nurses office because of educational and you will be incurring a educational fee from the state for the postreerendum second submission. But those two can be lumped together. And then the third application will be this
educational one. So you can I would not recommend creating a question within one application because if one question passes the other one fails dissecting the application apart is more difficult but the fact that we have three applications you could arguably do three
questions >> but that doesn't need to be decided. >> So you decide that after the PEC letter and before we have to notify the county clerk on which I think is 60 days out. Yeah. Okay.
All right. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We have a a budget presentation after the recess. >> You ready? >> Okay. Good. >> Yeah. Ready to go? >> All right. Here we go. >> Everybody's here. Okay. >> So,
>> we uh if you recall, we the finance committee met. We discussed the budget and um we also had a presentation in December kind of preliminarily. So, you've seen a lot of the same slides and so I'll just kind of go through the timelines. You know, basically that the
board is going to approve uh the submission um tonight and then it's due at the county office by the 27th. They have some time to review it and ask any questions to me and then public hearing would be on April 29th. That's the last
opportunity for any changes. Hopefully, the county doesn't have anything that they want to present. Again, the budgets are built on all the goals. You see them every meeting. They're on the uh the board agenda, district goals, budgetary goals. So, that's what we use and we follow to build our budget. Sensitive.
There we go. Okay. So, revenue source, if you look at the the limited sources that we do have, I list them up on top here. 92% of the budget is either state aid or tax levy. mostly as you can see 86% of our budget is funded through local tax levy then we
have some smaller ones tuition that we get from our prek program budget and fund balance and I'll get into a little more detail later and then a withdrawal from capital reserve to do our roof project for this summer so on the expenses side we've I kind of briefed you on this we affiliated uh and
non-affiliated um salaries and the mountain lakes uh tuitions and out of district placements that's about 89% of the budget transportation costs are about 6.2 and then I'll then the balance of the budget is around 11%.
So the budget assumptions we have an anticipated increase in RVs enrollment. You'll see that a little bit later. Um it's in concert with the demographic study. Um tuition is a little bit more for Mountain Lakes because we have we're budgeting a fewer fewer students going
up there. We have a small class that's rising up to the nth grade. We've got a little bit of a funding in state aid. get another 57,000 and we're at the 2% cap which is new money from the current year to next year is about $300,000. So with those
increases in in revenue we have to make the budget fit. So as you see see a little bit later we've had a lot of expenses that we're anticipating salary transportation and health benefits 23.5%. Now those districts that are in the
state plan are going up 30% plus. So, we're fortunate in that, but again, it's still a large increase. Cost containment measures, you know, just briefly through here, this is what we've done over the years, what we continue to do to try to save money, to leave more money on, you
know, on the table for uh educational purposes when we can quicker. So, enrollments again, slight increase on the enrollment. So, we're projecting 423. You can see how the sections play out um with those grades
moving up. out of district placements current and I'll show you you know without going through it all we have anticipated for our out of district placements um and here's a trend over the last 10 years for enrollment so you can see the 423
we're expecting at the RBS level and we're going from currently at 183 to 185 staffing um in the new budget 2627 we're not anticipating any increase staffing >> God I'm just curious Just real quick on
the uh back I don't know >> on the boat students how are you projecting that is just the like >> basically what we we get a notification that we have uh students who are actually apply and accept it but they
don't always go there. So the current students are in the lower grades. There's uh we only had one or two that are gra that graduated. Yeah. So, I'm using those same numbers. And then, um, again, we have maybe four or five that have enrolled and have accepted, but again, we don't know
>> if they'll actually go, right? >> If they're actually go here. So, so again, that's a number that we >> Yeah, >> it's close, but uh, >> yeah, we we know the ones who are already there. We assume they'll if they're not going, >> if they're 9th, 10th, 11th, >> they'll continue to go there next year. And then you're adding maybe 50 or 75%
of the kids who are currently enrolled that they'll actually end up going there. That's eight years. and anything changes. So we the way the way we pay tuition to Mount Lakes is we settle on both districts settle on the amount of students and the and we know what the tuition rate is. We pay them one10enth
every month. >> Yeah. >> So regardless and we recon we reconcile at the end. >> So if more children decide to go to you know one school or another then we still pay mountain legs and then we reconcile >> because we agree on the amount of students when we submit the budget. >> Correct. Correct.
>> So that number is firm. So whatever h so say vote that deck goes up to 17 and then I'll we'll just keep it there. We just know we're >> we've agreed I've already we've already spoken to Mountain Lakes. We've agreed on the number. That's a number that we're both >> putting on the budget and then we just know we're going to get reconciled later. >> Got it.
>> I know what's happening. I'm getting my knuckle on the touch pan. Okay. So again the uh the personnel we anticipating any reductions or any increases um in the budget. We have uh some Chromebook replacements and that's a
schedule replacement we call the the tech plan textbooks. Each year we try to uh replace and renew some of the uh subscriptions and again the partial roof replacement. So if you remember we've done over the last few years 22 23 25 we've done roofs
in the amount of $2.4 million. We didn't do one in 24 because we included in the referendum that failed. So again look how much time has passed. We've got leaky rooms now in the continuing in the gym. Again, rather than putting in the referendum, as I said with the board earlier, we've got to do it now. We're
using capital reserve. You'll see that a little later. So, these are the areas of the roofs that are remaining as of today. Those are the roofs in white that have been done over the past few years. So, you can see the square footage. We have about 28% remaining. So, in this
summer's project, estimated cost is about 601,000. The board uh approved that at the last meeting. So you can see the areas. You have the upper gym, which is important, and then you have some of these lower gyms. So it didn't make sense to do small square footage, add a little bit more in there. So the
remaining roofs are really minimal, and those are in the referendum. >> Okay. But they're not critical right now. we can continue with our maintenance plan. But as you I should have shown you the pictures with the uh the 23 or 30 cans in the upper gym, but not only is it a safety thing, so you
want to make sure that you know your infrastructure is >> repair. So the blue shade is critical to the summer. >> Most critical right now is here. We're doing some more to increase the square footage. So it's about 9,300 ft.
Anything in the red is what's left. So that's why that number reduced in the referendum because those roofs came out. >> Y >> So currently we're proposing, you know, again showing you that we're at the 2% cap. That's the 303,000 I showed you
earlier. Now each year districts have can have an advantage of going above the 2%. So because of our health care costs from year to year and you saw that was you know 23.5%. The state is giving us 390,000
in an adjustment that we could use. We've chosen you'll see in the next slide over the last few years we've always had those available to us mainly for health benefits. So that totals $491,000 that we're not taking. If we did take that, we could increase the 303,000 by
those adjustments and instead of a 2% cap, we'd be at 5.23. So there's where you're looking at, you know, the board has been prudent over the years to live within that 2% cap and not go past it, even though we had the ability to. Some districts are really in a bad financial
situation where they have to use those adjustments. >> It's a one-year That's a one-year levy. >> Well, this is a one-year levy. If we didn't use that, it goes into what's called bank cap. Yeah. >> So, they allow to use it within the next couple years. Again, if if we had it were in a situation where we needed to do it
>> and that was the only out, >> you do a one-year levy and then it would go revert back to 2% because then you have to start rebating essentially, right? >> Right. So, each each year, so the the increase in in the 303 becomes your new norm, your new base. So, next year it's 2% on top of that. But if we were to go
if we were to use all 5%, that's our new base, right? 491 plus the 303 >> and then it would be 2% on top of that. >> Then it's 2% on top of that. >> I thought it went back like >> Oh, okay. >> That becomes that becomes your new base. >> So it almost compound. >> Got it. >> Yeah. Okay.
>> All right. So what's happening is if you're in a district that has huge increases and you can't manage in any other way. >> You're taking that one year, >> you know, >> you're almost reb you're getting a big levy. You're rebasing and then you're going >> we haven't been in a practice of chasing
chasing it year after year. Is the bank cap abuse or anything or is it certain? >> They give it to you for certain reasons. They have several different ones. The only ones we've been eligible for health benefits. They have them for pension. >> If you don't use any bank, >> you can use it to balance your budget.
>> The bank caps increasingly is the general >> general general fund. >> General fund. >> Okay. And you said it would be available to us for a few years that >> Yeah. So, yeah. So, it's three years and one one drops off. So, we have we're retiring some of it. is probably $50,000 that we didn't take
>> and it drops off. But we just generated the 290,000 this year that goes into our bank cap. >> Okay. >> So, so that number that I just showed you before >> is is the number that goes into our bank cap we could use next year or in two other subsequent years. >> But again, if health benefits or other
things keep climbing, then uh you know, again, you have the ability to use it. This just shows you that even though we had that ability, we have not chosen to do that. >> Yeah, >> we could live within. So there are other mechanisms I'll show you that to balance it. >> So this is just a trend of our state
aid. You can see over the last few years now off the charts we were much higher. Then it dipped now it's coming back up again. So you know again that that 57,000 I think we got was you know additional amount which is great. it helped a little bit helped mitigate some of the so you know in pie chart you know
format 86% is tax leage funded from taxpayers then you have some smaller ones that are state aid 5.7 and the rest but your expenditures again regular education tuition at tuition at 31% benefits at 12 special education so the
other areas are really much small piece of the budget but really the biggest part you know we focus on um regular regular instruction and then you you have your out of district placements and you have your Mount Lakes tuition and you have employee benefits. So really on the revenue side, these are
this is the year-to-year change. You see your 303 which is the increase in the tax levy, a little bit of a reduction and that's our prepaid tuition. So we're anticipating a couple of uh uh students less miscellaneous revenues are really our paytoplay fees for athletics and
whatever you know minimal interest we get. state aid. Um, basically we received a little bit of state a this year. That's why there's a decrease in one but an increase in the other. Um, we had some um state projects that are no longer available. It was only a one shot deal.
So, they gave us additional money for that project. Project is over and then u we're back down to $1 million for state aid. So, you see the budgeted fund balance. We took a little more of that rainy day fund to balance it out. Uh what that prevented is any reductions in
staff or some of the other areas. But I did before I did that I went through some of the areas that we could cut back on and I did um non-educational areas first and I I can tell you that I did not have to make any cuts in the educational area for this year. So we're
good for another year. uh and the capital reserve that you see last year we did uh a project for project using uh capital reserve and the anticipated budget gives us 781,000 from capital reserve if we have any
money left over and at the end of this year you know that's that's not excess we can put it back into capital reserve to try to replenish some of that. So overall, the budget is proposing a budget of $18 million. So it's a slight increase, $145,000
from year to year. On the expense side, again, the same 81%, but you can see the general fund is only increased by about little under a percent. >> Sure. >> Uh and I'll go through the through this as well.
>> The proposed roof is 601. 601, right? >> And then capital reserved with control, >> right? Other things included in there. We have the capital reserve. We also have some anticipated uh expenditures for the referendum. You have attorney
fees, other things, and also the salt cost are also in that for the architect, for the roof, and >> okay, so that that's what we needed to fund all those other projects. But again, in there, we have some pre-referendum costs. And again, if we don't use them,
then that reverts back to capital. >> Okay. The 781's an all in for capital. 601 is just for the roof just just for the actual construction cost. Now, if that comes in less and I and we don't use the 601, there's money left over that goes back to capital. Got it. >> So, those are some mechanisms in place
to to keep, you know, keep the rainy day fund still intact. >> Um, and again, the expenditures are are kind of mo um, you know, minimal over the years. You can see where the asterisk shows those in the years that we did a roof where we actually withdraw through from capital reserve and raised
up the expenditures. But again, no no cost to the taxpayer to do that. So you you hear a lot about administrative spending. Um this year you have to be below two things. What we're proposing in this budget is 2536
per pupil spending. you have to be below the regional limit which is 2900 or the adjusted current year of 2672. So we're well below that. There have been years where I've within a dollar $2, but because they change the regional limits
they raised that we were it actually helped us out because as enrollment tips down there's fewer students that divide among the administrative cost which drives your your cost up. Um and the last piece really is, you know, if you look at we're on a fiscal
year, our fiscal year is July through June and municipal uh fiscal year is January through December. So when we put our tax levy and we give it to the township, it's split half year, half year in your 26 taxes and half a year in
your 27 taxes. So all in, you know, the budget that we're presenting, um if you have the average home with 530, that went up a little bit. I think some of the assess assessments in the town went up a little bit so that helped. Um so overall the estimated is 171 for this
budget which accomplishes all your educational goals. Uh it accomplishes your so you're keeping up with your maintenance, your textbooks, your technology, all those things that are still in this budget. So average would be about 179. So that's it. So you have
I have your binders there. Um we went through with the finance committee. If you want to go through, we can go through. Basically, it's broken into a couple of parts and we'll just borrow Barry's. You have the enrollment, which you've seen on the slides. The presentation is in there as well. Enrollment just shows
what I showed you on the screen going to 423 for RBS. And then you see some of the other ones there. You'll see also a breakdown where they currently are for uh by each grade level, by each teacher. And then when you go to the personnel
section that shows you the same slide uh that we're not changing the full-time equivalents and then it gives you a breakdown. This is the chart that I would submit to the state with the budget county office with the budget which basically shows throughout the budget where all the salaries are. Then the last piece which is in there are the
stipens. So that's personnel. Other information if you have some things you want to put in there I always leave that open. And then the last piece is really the line by line budget in two ways. There's there's actually two staple pieces here. One is the sequence of accounts that that is submitted each
month to you as well as to the county office and the last piece just for you know your own edification they're broken down by the third the fourth set of digits. So all the salaries will be lumped together. So if you want to see how much all the salaries you can go through and you can add them up. You can
see that that uh I'm going to show down the one slide and a lot of our expenditures are going towards uh tuition and in benefits and salaries. So that's pretty much it. But uh again, you know, we're at cap, which is important. Um I still have a lot of work to do on
all the the background, the paperwork before it can get submitted. So I hope to have that all done by tomorrow so I can uh which is a good thing. Now they're allowing us to email it. Before you had to print out stacks of paper, run it down to the county office. >> Friday. >> Say again.
>> You're sub. >> Um I'm actually No, it's um I'm hopefully I can get it all done by tomorrow and then email it tomorrow. If not, I I have it until Friday cuz it's 27th. It's due. >> Yeah. >> So, you'll approve it tonight. All you're approving is the submission of
it. And once it comes back approved, then it becomes a proposed budget and then we have your public hearing and then you're fine. Uh the one thing that they did change in the legislation and there's a lot of debate about it is we used to have to pay to put in the paper and you know every district had to put
their big budget in the paper. Cost us about $250. They changed it so that our our publication requirements now are on our website. We have to send the county office the link so they can check it to make sure the budget's there. Uh one state mandate I guess where they
actually save us some money. Typically they now usually cost us when they have a mandate but it's a good thing. >> We're good. >> Thank you. >> See that was >> it wasn't the budget. It was the
business in the best way. >> There's one that would be bad. >> Thank you. All right. So, we're on to board business one and two. May I have a motion to approve? >> I'll second.
>> Okay. Any comments or discussion? Questions on the adoption of board business motions one and two and several. >> Mr. Bora, >> yes. >> Mr. Brandon, yes. >> Mr. Chen, >> yes. >> Mr. Hinger, >> yes. Mr. Johnson, >> yes. >> Mrs. McBride, >> yes. Mr.
>> Mills, yes. >> Rosenberg, stay. Okay, motion carries >> and we're on to open session. The public comment period will be limited to agenda items only. Please be mindful that public comment periods are available to
enable the public to give comments and feedback to the board. Personal matters and day-to-day operations are not appropriate subjects for board meetings. These can always be most effectively resolved with the appropriate staff members or administrators according to the chain of command concept. Questions
may be directed to the appropriate school personnel or board through email. Please state your name and address for the record. All comments are limited to 5 minutes. Nobody. >> All righty. >> I just want to add that this uh this presentation will be on the website tomorrow. >> Great. Thank you. So, we're on to
facilities number one. May I have a motion for facilities motion number one? I'll move. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any comments, questions, or discussion? Just be clear, this is the motion for correct submit
to the two. >> If not, the question is on the adoption of facilities motion number one. The roll call. >> Mr. Sparta, >> yes. >> Mr. Brandon, >> yes. >> Mr. Chan, >> yes. >> Mr. Hickinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Johnson, >> yes. >> Mrs. McCry,
>> yes. >> Mr. Mills, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosenberg. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Finance. May I have a motion to approve finance motions 1 through three? >> Is there a second?
>> Was that got a second over here? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments, or discussion? If not, the question is the adoption of finance motions one through three. This is also real. >> Mrs. Bott, >> yes. >> Mr. Brander, >> yes. >> Mr. Chen, >> yes.
>> Mr. Pinder. >> Yes. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. McBride. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mills. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosenberg. >> Yes. >> Mr. Par. >> That was on agenda items. >> We just ask one person second. >> Do you have any other general questions?
Sorry. No, I don't. No old business either, right? >> Okay. >> Like to make a motion to move. I second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> 856.
hours.