Oh my god. I didn't even know who she was. All right, call the meeting to order. Please stand for the flag salute. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for its one nation
with liberty and justice for all. >> The New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this
act, the Cedar Grove Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be advertised by having the date, time, and place thereof posted on bulletin boards in the district, published, andor transmitted to the Verona Cedar Grove Times newspaper, tap into online news,
filed with the township clerk, and posted on the district website. We have a roll call, please. >> Here. Mr. here. >> Miss Keegan >> here. >> Miss Dora >> here.
>> Good evening everybody. >> All right. At this point, I open the meeting for to the public for comments on agenda items only. Seeing that nobody is interested in speaking, I move to close that portion of the meeting and
we'll move on to committee reports. We will start with our student representatives today. Good evening ladies. >> Okay. >> Okay. So, what's going on at South I'm gonna stand over here. Um, what's been going on at Southounn recently? Um, the
Southounn Gymnasium was filled with cheers and big smiles. This past Wednesday, March 18th, the students got a special surprise visit from the New Jerseys Devils and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield who stopped by to share their healthy hat trick program with our school community. The day was all about
teamwork and healthy habits. The students were thrilled to meet the N New Jersey Devil mascot and former Devil Devils player Colin White, who spent time talking about how to be a champion on and off the ice. Together, they focus on three simple goals for the kids to
take home. Be educated, be healthy, and be active. The highlight for many was the chance to pick up a stick and try to score a goal. To make sure fun continues, the Devils and Horizon generously donated new hockey nets and new sticks for our PE classes. We can't
wait to see students using them in class for years to come. We want to send a huge thank you to our wonderful fourth grade teachers, Lauren Reed and Brooke Reynolds, for their hard work and organizing this program. It was a day to remember, and it is safe to say we all
it is safe to say we have a whole school full of new hockey fans who are ready to stay healthy and active. And for the past month, the third graders have been learning all about geography and social studies. They learned about lines of longitude and latitude, their exact location in the
world and continents and oceans. They also discussed the difference between the difference between maps and globes and even made their own maps. They were tasked to create a map of their dream town and used cardinal directions to read their map to others. We will be ending geography within the next few
weeks with an exciting research project. And there's two pictures. Um, I got to do North End. So, over here, um, Mulligan and Mrs. Tierney visited second graders again, and they're very excited to see the dog again and learn about how dogs can be
trained and used to support others and provide them comfort. So, that was really nice. And then there's also a leprechaun causing a lot of mischief on St. Patrick's Day. He left a lot of trinkets and little gifts for the students as to wish them a happy day.
And this was all compliments of the FSA. And the FSA also had a very busy few weeks. They had the glow dance on February 28th which looks really like really fun. Um and then they had a meeting too and they also they had a very busy week. They kicked off the
reading rainbow readathon where students are encouraged to read daily all while raising funds for North End. And the glow dance was also really well attended and it was a big success this year. and the FSA just did really really well this week.
Um, Northn also celebrated ReadAcross America and there were many dressup days too and guest readers and special activities and students were also invited to go to an a game show assembly where all of their efforts in reading were recognized and they were given some
fun rewards and had fun. That's right over here. It looks really cool. And this week helped build a lot of enthusiasm about reading. Spring forecast. It's raining books. Definitely raining a lot. And big brother and big sisters also held. And the older
students took a lot of pride in just showing the younger kids how to act in school, making positive relationships, showing leadership, and just making North End a really great place as always. >> So in the middle school, we have an
upcoming chef. Congratulations to participant Maya Circus who has been selected as the grand prize winner for a Pmptonian food healthy school lunch challenge. Maya won the challenge out of all the other entries from all the Pmptonian food service districts. And our seventh grade students took part in
our annual career day. The event featured 12 parents and community members who spoke with small groups of students about the careers educational paths and the interests or or motivations that led them to their current professions. This year's speakers represented a wide range of
fields, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, a physical therapist, and a dentist. Through these presentations, students learned that it is okay to change direction and pursue their passions. A key takeaway from the day was gaining an understanding of the various specialty areas within career fields, as well as
recognizing the importance of communication and strong relationships in achieving personal and professional success. And then at the high school we have the lip sync performance. Um, congratulations to all the students who participated. It was a blast. It was a
night filled with fun, laughter, and good music. Um, we had the best host here and pretty good a pretty good host act. And as you could see, there's um it was super funny. And congratulations to the sophomores who
placed first. Sadly, the seniors who play second and the juniors who plays third and the freshman who plays last. Um, it's the seniors are still a little salty about it, but it was a great night for all who participated. Um, also at at our high school, the AP
chemistry students put their skills to work and perform titrations with a strong base of nitrogen. oxygen or I don't even know um they use their knowledge of concentration of Na O to
react with unknown concentration HC I don't know um so they did some sort of experiment as you could see here um um the color changed clear to a slight pink color signifi signifi signified the
end point of their reaction the end point represents the experiment environmental equivalence point where the moles of their acid should theoretically be equal to the moles of their base. Um, reaching the end point is a challenging challenge for many students and went past the end point for
producing a bright magenta color. After a few trials, students were able to successfully titrate and produce a soft pink color. >> Yeah. So, there's them doing their experiment. Looks fun. >> Um, is that it?
That's all. Thank you guys. >> Know what? >> Take care. Good job. Thank you. >> Enjoy the evening. >> Oh, boy. Okay. I don't know how we're
going to top that. >> All right. So, it was a busy week with committees. Um Mr. Pock and myself attended several of the committees, so he's going to report on them today. Tonight we also had um some FSA meetings
that um I think Mr. Along can report on as well. All right. So Mr. Pik, why don't you start? >> Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. On Friday, March 20th, Mr. Dor, myself and Dr. T and uh we we covered three
committees and that will report on our personal committee and all of the items you will the agenda that these recommended by the superintendent were part of our discussions for that day. We reviewed the agenda items in the area of personnel.
The the second area that we covered was our education committee and we had in-depth discussions and over sounds people. Um, we also discussed how it's important the FSA members to support the referendum and to talk it up
and not just people at the school but their neighbors and other people they know in town to try to gain movement for the referendum. We talked about the driveway access from Panther Park to LRP that's was proposed.
We discussed the new varsity field that was uh opened up and the launching of the new PLA curriculum in September and I was very impressed by the South End FSA. It's a wonderful group of parents
and I enjoy working with them. >> Thank you. Thank you gentlemen. Any questions or discussions, comments? >> Dr. T. >> Pass over to you. >> Okay, Madam President. Thank you. And good evening, Cedar Grove School
Community. Um, this evening, my uh superintendent report is going to focus on the preliminary budget that is on tonight's agenda to be approved and submitted to the county office. Um before I begin uh sharing uh some key
points about the preliminary budget for 2627 school year, I do want to begin with some words of appreciation and gratitude. Uh first uh to Mr. Alto to my right here for someone who's come into a business office and has very quickly
made a very deep impact that's being felt across our district. a deep sincere thank you and appreciation for her leadership and all the work in the business office and their team to help get us to a balanced budget for this preliminary budget to the full leadership team in our district. Um
preparing school for September 1st and a smooth opening begins now and our leadership team has been engaged in the building uh of this budget for several months. uh their collaboration um has been of the utmost professional nature
and they've brought a lot of expertise and intelligence helping us build what I would deter I would characterize this evening as a strategic budget for the 2627 school year and then to our full board a sincere appreciation and thank
you uh and building this budget in a collaborative way takes a lot of time and there's really no shortcuts a lot of meetings a lot of collaborations a lot of questions Um, and that process that our board members engaged in set us up to really build what I think is a very smart
strategic budget. So, I wanted to begin by first uh sharing that sincere appreciation uh to all those who helped us get to where we are tonight. Now, you've all heard uh throughout the state in many ways it's some very challenging economic times. However, the
challenge for the 2627 school year budget can really be summed up in one area. Our benefits increase. This budget had to absorb a 35% increase in health benefits. Um, and that's very very
significant and was a huge challenge for us to do. To do that, we first start on the revenue side. Um, where we want to also be very mindful of tax burden and be conservative in our approach. We have our 2% increase to the cap and then
because our enrollment continues to increase, we had access to both an enrollment waiver and a health benefits waiver. Even in doing so, we took a conservative approach in coming up to the number of 4.5% of an increase, which
still allows us to keep bank cap um for future years if it's needed. We didn't take the full amount of that healthcare waiver. We tried to stay as close um to conservative as we could in identifying our approach to revenues.
When we began the planning for the 26 27 school year budget, we assumed a flat rate in terms of state aid. And while we did receive a bump, it really was not meant it will not have the intended impact we would have liked to have. In
total, we got an increase to state aid of $20 per student, roughly $36,000. So, we were correct and wise in building the budget with the assumption of flat state aid, but we were hoping there might be some good news there. That
really did not come to fruition. Once we have our revenue side built, we then really need to focus on what are the right sizing strategies. You don't just go in and cut. You have to be mindful of what you're doing to reduce things and and all we do keep the needs
of our students, the supports we need and resources for our teachers at top of mind in every decision. Uh preliminary budget this evening that's being adopted and submitted to the county does include the reduction of one FTE, one teaching position in the district. Uh it also uh
includes the a strategy of backfilling a retirement position and we have some reductions in our co-curricular that will run at both the high school and the middle school. We're also looking to overtime reductions in the district uh that will be in next year's budget that
we still believe through effective management and leadership will not have a dramatic impact on the overall services we provide our community. And then also on tonight's agenda, we are adopting three new job descriptions for part-time paraprofessional
positions. One of the par profofessional job descriptions is an academic par profofessional. The other is a special education par profofessional and the other is for ABA power professionals. By introducing part-time job descriptions into the par professional world, we're
working towards a plan where through mostly attrition, uh we'll begin to transition from full-time power positions that include benefits to part-time power positions. Now, it's important to know no final decisions
have been made uh about what this will look like and there will be commitments I make later on in my presentations this evening about what will be communicated and when it will be communicated uh to all of our stakeholders about the
budget. The next step uh for this budget is to get approval from the county office. Once we have our state approved uh budget, the April board meeting, ideally the April board meeting will include a budget presentation which will have even more details about where we
had to rightsize and reduce across our district to get to a balanced budget. Before I move to the timeline, I do want to highlight uh board member Pak mentioned in his update tonight the new curricular resources. Uh we are still making investments. So, we're not just
cutting. We're still making investments and new curriculum resources at the elementary level have been and will continue to be a priority going forward. We also continue to make investments in professional development to support our teachers at all levels. Those are protected in our preliminary budget. As
for a timeline mentioned the April budget meeting, ideally for a budget presentation. Um after the budget presentation, I will visit all four faculty meetings and present to all of our staff about the budget for next school year, what the impact is planned
to be and how we will continue to navigate these challenging times. uh keeping the needs of our students and families at forefront and being strategic in our decision- making. And lastly, I just want to say um to the
paraprofessional community in our district and our schools, uh we value you tremendously. We value e efforts tremendously. And once we have a better idea what our approach will be in terms of specific numbers, we will meet and we
will discuss uh what our approach will be going forward. So I just want to uh end by sharing a firm commitment to transparency and communication through these next couple months as we navigate these difficult uh times together. And
with that, I believe I've hit all of the main points I wanted to share regarding our preliminary budget that's on the agenda for this evening. So, unless there are any questions, I could turn it back over to you. >> Thank you, Dr. Anybody have any questions at this time?
>> Thank you very much for providing that >> overview at this point. >> 4.5% increase. Do we have a cost like per household what that impact is going to be? >> That will be so you as part of the April presentation when the budget's finalized
that will be out what that will be a data point we share as well as look back over three to five years and what those impacts have been as well. So that detail will all come with the final presentation. >> Okay. So moving on under the business administrators
report. Can I please have a motion for G1 through G16? >> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pal. Yes, >> Miss Kegan. >> Yes, >> Miss Dora. >> Yes. >> Approved. >> Thank you. Under general administration on page 11.
Can I have a motion for H1 through H6, please? Five, I'm sorry. H1 through H5. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please.
>> Yes. Mr. Marlo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pal. >> Yes. >> Miss Keegan. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Under human resources. A motion for I1 through I9.
>> Move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. Mr. >> Yes. Yes, >> Mr. Pal. >> Yes, >> yes,
>> yes. >> Approved. >> Thank you. >> And now under special services. And I have a motion for J1 and J2. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please.
>> M. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pal, >> yes. >> Miss Keegan, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. This time I open the meeting to public comment on any school related
items. Seeing there's nobody to speak tonight, I move to close that portion of the meeting. Announcement of future meetings. Our next meeting will be April 21st uh at the high school and then the following meeting after that will be May
5th also at the high school 7:30 public time 6:30 executive if necessary. I have a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> So move. >> All in favor? >> Meeting adjourned. Thank you very much.
Have a great evening everyone.