Everybody's ready? Yes. Hi, good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. Mr. Schimp, can you please call the roll? Here. Dr. Braddock? Here. Mr. Fain. Miss Cummings. Here. Mr. Greenbaum? Here. Ms. Manzano. Here. Ms. Palmer? Here. Ms. Stern? Here. Ms. Winters? Here. Thank you. Public notice of this meeting pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act has been given by the Board Secretary on April 9, 2026, in the following manner. Posted notice on the school bulletin board at the administration building, posted on the Board's official website, transmitted to the clerk of Cherry Hill Township. Please be advised this meeting is being recorded and live streamed.
All rise and please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I would like to thank everybody here in the room and online for their patience while we work through a few technical difficulties. I don't know if you're aware, but we have some celebrities in the room from Suffs. High School West and they are going to be, I assure you, the very best part of the meeting as they give us a preview of their spring musical. Take it away Suffs.
Ms. Messias, if you could just go to the microphone, that way all the people at home can hear you. I'm the director of stuff. Is it on? Oh, now it's on. So we opened last week. We were given a grant. We're one of 12 schools in the country to perform self the musical. We have three performances this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And I have two numbers we're performing. Our first number is the, uh.
song finish the fight by, um, from Alice Paul, and then we're doing If We Were Married with Dora Stevens and Dudley Moore. Malone. Okay. I'm just going to hold it up. Yes. Let Mother vote! Just hold your fury in.
Baby Carrie's right, that's the only way we win. She sounds just like my father. Please, Alice, have some sense. Don't you know that no one likes a girl who's too intense? Don't get so defensive, Alice, don't be so aggressive. Settle down, you're too obsessive. I've heard it many times before. I don't wanna hear it any more. I don't want to have to compromise. I don't want to have to beg for crumbs from a country that doesn't care what I say.
I don't want to follow in old footsteps. I don't want to be a meek little pawn. In games they play I wanna march in the streets. I wanna hold up a sign with millions of women, with. passion like mine! I wanna shout it out loud! In the wide open light to our generation has made things right. Yes, I wanna know how it feels.
Well, we finally finished the fight. Should I try to take the lead alone? But it's probably impossible. My ideas just dwindle and die. Try to remember what your mother taught you. When you dip your pen and ink, you can't quit till it runs dry. You gotta kick down the doors of the mightiest man till they never dare to deny.
Yes again! You gotta disrupt their days, make a fire ignite! No, our generation will play for light. Just picture the look in their eyes. Well, we finally finished the fight! Oh, say goodbye to the world, my mother. Grandmother's new. Will I truly be able to change it?
Well, it's not me, then who? So make my own. And I'll raise up my hand. rewriting the law of. They'll unfurl our fine purple gold and white centuries of silence. There's this incessant unbressed crumbling deep in my chest And I'll never be free or complete, not unless.
Well, we finally finished the flow! Hi! I am Mary! the day! We finally finished the fight. They sing very loud, so you can switch over there.
Okay. Yes. If we were married, I promise to cherish you just as a gentleman should. If you are married, I promise to forfeit my legal autonomy for good. If we were married, we'd buy our own acre of land for our own little house. If we were married, our possessions and property would solely belong to the.
masculine spouse. If we were mad. If we were mad… If we were married, we'd fill out our family and life would be simply sublime. We were married, I'd churn out your children, cause contraceptions a federal crime. If we were married, we'd save up a nest egg To cushion us later in life. If we were married, my Ernies would be in your name, and I couldn't control my own spending or open a bank account or sign a contract or hire a liar because, economically speaking, I died by.
becoming your wife. If we were. To God admire the unias with fish men can squeeze us into such a rigid role. You do? Daughters are taught to aspire to assist them expressly designed to keep them under control. For instance, if we were married and you physically beat me, that wouldn't be illegal to do.
What? Can you believe it is 1916? And all of these things are still actually true. I suppose I never stop to think about how it would be for you. We were young. If we were mad…
Thank you so much. You guys are fantastic. Like, she was really improv. We really appreciate you being here. We know that you're… you've done your first week of shows. This is the next week of shows, everybody's last chance to see Supps. is coming up this weekend. I will be there with my daughter. to cheer you on. And everybody should go see it. Tickets are going fast. run over to West. Thank you so much for taking time out of your night to be here for us. We really do appreciate it.
and that, my friends, was the best part of the meeting. I see student representatives to the board on my agenda, but I don't think that's true. It's not student rep week, right, Dr. Braddock? I don't know. It's a first, but I don't know. They're shaking their heads no at me, so that's probably my fault, and I apologize. You guys are next time. Um, so we are going to go to the next agenda item, which is 6.1 projects update by Mr. Shimp.
Okay, thank you. Not a whole lot to update, but there are. A couple exciting things, including the East Auditorium we'll get into. I have a few pictures of that. So we'll just dive in again. I'm just going to update you briefly on the Rosa Carusi and Beck interior renovations, as well as our upcoming security vestibule work we'll be doing at Barton Kingston. Johnson and Sharp. East Auditorium renovation. Also, I'll get into briefly. They actually mobilized last Monday, so that work has actually commenced.
West lower level renovations upcoming for this summer, and then the site improvement projects we have. at 6 of our sites. So first, just real quick with Rosa, you can see we finally got the. the full name and lettering installed came out great. So everything looks good over. Rosa, um, the only other thing to add to the site workout here is they will be doing a couple repairs on some cracks in the sidewalking that's occurred. during construction. Most importantly, you can see that the cafeteria addition has really come to life in the last couple of weeks.
So all the masonry on the exterior walls of the new cafeteria addition are complete. You can see the metal wall paneling as well at the top is complete downspouts will be going in shortly. Obviously, all the windows and exterior doors are installed. Uh, in the lower picture there, you can see the interior has begun painting. The ceiling grids are in lighting is in. The rooftop units have been set on the roof curbs. And again, the painting is ongoing. And this picture is actually almost two weeks old now, so there's been… some progress on the painting, but it's really, uh, you can see it in its form now.
And that that space should be completed within the next four weeks or so. So over at Rosa again for this summer, this is the work that'll commence, uh, beginning when the students let out. Just keep in mind that this is the the final remainder of the interior renovations to be done over. at Rosa, so this, uh, Rosa will be complete, minus the site work, uh, as far as the parking lots go. Uh, before school opens in September. Right now we have a remaining allowance of almost $175,000 and 65% of the total base contract is complete. So we are in good shape.
Over at Rosa. Karusi, I think this was a great picture that was shared actually on the Monday meeting. We had, you can really see the difference in the hallway. Here with the new lighting over at Krusi. So this obviously is the B wing. B wing is pretty much now complete. Again, I think I mentioned this at the last meeting, we're going to keep those spaces, obviously, offline for the remainder of the school year. Um, but phase 2 is is wrapping up and will be entering phase 3. Just pictures here at the bottom. You can see a classroom completed and then the new lockers and doors.
on the bottom right. So the next phase again at Carusu will be hitting phase 3 of 4. So there's actually still 2 full calendar years left. There are two school years left of work to be done, so the green and and pink areas will be starting as the students let out, and the the purple area there, that'll be under construction during the school year, so we'll still be making use, obviously, of the temporary classroom units. out back. So, uh, Karusi, remaining allowance is about $53,000. We did start with a $400,000 balance, so 87% of the allowance has been utilized, and about 65% of the work is complete.
Again, keep in mind those allowances are there for unforeseen conditions. A lot of those arose in the very beginning of construction at Karusi. Um, but again, no major concerns, so we're on time and on budget at Carusi as well. So East Auditorium. These are some of the first pictures that we've grabbed. Like I said, Tn Ward, the general contractor on the job, mobilized last Monday. So there were about eight days into their work, and you can see all of the auditorium seating has been removed.
the areas, you know, behind the actual stage area have already begun. You've probably seen the lay down area out front in the front of East there. So a lot of work going on there and the East Auditorium, as of right now is projected to be online at the beginning of January. Everything is moving… moving smoothly over at East. So upcoming projects. Uh, again, so we have the Beck Interior Renovations set to begin. You know, as soon as students let out. We actually did do some planned work over the spring break.
We did some asbestos abatement there in some of the bathrooms that we've taken offline. So D'Andrea, our general contractor, is ready to go as soon as the students let out security vestibule installations. Again, we'll be doing Barton and Kingston. And Johnson and Sharp, all four of those projects, they were actually bid two each, so two separate bids. Both were awarded also to D'Andrea, so we have the same general contractor. on, uh, at Beck, as well as the security vestibule work being done. The West lower level locker room, team room and weight room work that is the bid is scheduled to open on April 23rd, so we'll be looking to make hopefully an award.
That is within budget at the April 28th meeting. And again, that work will commence when the students let out that project will actually extend into October. So we've made. arrangements, um, for the students to utilize other areas for the beginning of school. Um, and keep in mind, this is actually, you know, during the budget presentation, I shared that a vast majority of this is bond work, but a couple of these areas were outside of the bond, and that's where we'll be making that capital reserve contribution. to complete that area in its entirety. So we'll be doing site improvements and accessibility improvements over at Kilmer and Knight and Johnson and Mann. So that includes full parking lot.
reclamation as well as accessibility and sidewalk improvements at both of the or all 4 of those areas. Kilmer and Knight were awarded to Wyndham Construction, Johnson and Mann were Landberg. And this evening, there is a resolution for your approval for the East admin parking lot. And that the low bidder on that was asphalt paving systems. So we're looking to award that. And with the east, as you recall, this is going to be a multi-year endeavor, uh, as far as the site improvements go. So this is just contained to that administrative parking lot area, which is.
gonna be right next to the lay down area, uh, for TN Ward, as far as the auditorium improvements go. And the remaining work will be 2 playgrounds. So we'll be finishing the the existing playground over at man. As you recall, we had a new one that was built last summer in place of the one that was moved due to the Apr. and Stockton will also have its playground. upgraded, so… A lot of projects this summer, this will be by far the most aggressive undertaking of bond work during one summer, but, um… you know, I think we're confident in getting it done due to past successes here and looking forward to ramping up and getting going.
Thank you. Do board members have any questions about the bond projects, the summer work? I felt like the last few summers were pretty aggressive. So this will be interesting. Can I just ask one question? I know you said this, and I didn't fully understand. So at Rosa, the parking lot is still to come, right? That's not included in the work that's happening this summer. That's correct. Okay. Yep. There was a parking lot is one of the big boogeymen of the district, along with the east parking lot. On the list of things people complain to us a lot about. Those are both on there. We have our priority list. Rosa is certainly on it, and we'll be looking, hopefully, to take care of that in 2027.
Wonderful. Thank you. Any other board member questions about bond projects and summer work. Just check. Mr. Fain, I see you there. I'm just going to remind you that if I don't see you, please shoot me an email. Because that'll pop up on my screen so I don't miss if you have a question. All right. We have made it to first public comment. So because we have a lot of individuals in the room and online who are not frequent attenders of our meeting, first public comment is for action items only. That means items that we are voting on this evening. If you are here to speak about anything that is not an action item tonight.
That's in second public comment, which is near the end of the meeting. However, if you are a student in the district, you may speak at any on any topic at first public comment. So the way to do that, I don't think I see any students in the room, although there may be. Um, I'm looking through the audience. If you're online and you're a student, if you put an S after your name that will identify you as a student, and I will note a call on you first, so please do that. That way you get your comment heard, and you can go back to doing your homework, which I'm sure you're all doing very diligently.
this evening on this beautiful night. You're all inside studying and not outside. So now I will read my statement. There are 2 opportunities for public comment this evening. The first public comment session is for board special action items only. That is number 19 through 22 on the agenda. If you wish to speak on any other topic other than what appears on the agenda, you may speak during second public comment. Speakers must provide their name, municipality, and the action item on which they are speaking.
Students may comment on any topic by identifying themselves as a student. We alternate between speakers in the room and those wishing to comment online. Each speaker has 3 min to speak, and the timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time remaining. All statements, questions, and comments will be addressed to the chair, and your inquiry may or may not be addressed by district administration at the close of the session. So with that, I will open first public comment. through custom and practice, we always start in the room. Is there anyone who would like to make first public comment this evening? Please approach the microphone.
Rick Short, Cherry Hill. Madam President, I do have a technical question. Yes, sir. It says, I believe 19 items, 19 through. Isn't it technically 14 and up because you are voting for buses and other things tonight? So and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Go fill in, but like the board work session thing. So that's like 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Those are not things we're voting on tonight. Those are just discussion items for our board work session. The action agenda on items on which we vote begins at 19.
Okay. So the ones that are in board work session will most likely be up for vote at our next meeting in 2 weeks. Okay, thank you for the clarification. And also. Um, you just mentioned that you are voting for. The bond work tonight just did did… Mr. Shimp, just say that, or was I… did I hear it wrong? No. Mr. Schimp, is there an action item on the agenda for bond project work this evening? There is 20 dash 4.
Item 20.4, resolution for the award of bids. That's an action item. Yeah. Okay. Just for clarification, too, you just mentioned about Rosa as future. Paving projects. I believe Rosa was already paved. If I'm not mistaken. That's not an action item for tonight, but we can definitely discuss that in second public comment. Okay. All right. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you so much, Mr. Short. Moving to anyone who's online, is there anyone with their hand raised for first public comment this evening?
I don't see anyone online going back to the room. Is there anyone else for first public comment? We have a taker. Just give us your name, municipality, and the action item on which you are speaking. Michael Nussbaum, Cherry Hill. So the action items are under 20 and 21. Um, so I'm speaking tonight on the action items under business and facilities and human resources. Because these items reflect the district's actual budget priorities and how those priorities affect students in real classrooms. Tonight's agenda.
includes financial approvals under item 20 and staffing actions and under 21, including resignations, appointments, reassignments and additional class compensation. So my concern is that the district continues to talk about expansion facilities and long-term planning while families and staff are also hearing about larger class sizes and greater staffing strength. Those things do not go together. If we are building and expanding, then we should be talking about smaller classes, not larger ones. That space should be used to improve student conditions, not simply to absorb more students while stretching staff more thinly.
Um, that matters especially for inclusion. Larger class sizes make meaningful inclusion harder, even if code in co-taught classrooms, inclusion can be chaotic if the room is too large and the staffing ratio is too stretched. Yes. This is no longer on the agenda items on which we are voting. This is appropriate for second public comment if you want to talk about inclusion in class sizes. That is not on tonight's agenda. All right. So let me get to the… let me get down to the point. The point is, is that there's going to be all these cuts that are being made right? Some of them are unavoidable.
And we just need to consider how we want to calibrate this, and how we want to… I understand that, but the budget is not up for a vote tonight. The budget is on for a vote next week. Or in 2 weeks, I'm sorry, at our next meeting. What about human resources? Which action item under human resources? Which would you like to speak on? So it's 21… So, for example, the separation… um, of employment.
That's 1, that's 21 point… I'm not sure, 21.3. There's also 21. 21.3 is resignations. and that's the current budget year, not next year. Okay. Okay. All right, I'll just pick it up during a second. Yeah, I'm sorry, and I don't mean to be restrictive, but I'm just trying to make sure that everybody gets an equal opportunity to speak.
Okay. When they're speaking. Thank you. Alright, sure. All right. And looking back online. I do see a hand raised. It's a phone number ending in 7, 8, 8. Please unmute. Give us your name, municipality and the action item on which you are speaking. Yeah, hi, my name is Jeff Padowicz and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Just at 20.4, and I didn't really notice that before. I know that a lot of work has been done at Cherry Hill East. I remember it having to do with paving. I know that the… around the… a lot of paving was around the tennis courts or something.
It costs, like, a half a million dollars, and I know that other paving was done. Is this new paving, and where is this paving? Because it's for, like… it's, like, $1.1 million worth of paving. Is it the whole parking lot? I mean, what exactly… is this? I mean, I know, um, asphalt was… effortful paving, Inc. It says 1.8. But this says 1.1 is the base award. Is it 1 point… is it 1.8, or is it 1.1? So it says the… And high school site improvements be awarded based on the lowest responsive bid, $1.1 million. Asphalt paving.
But here's asphalt paving at 1.8. And this is 1.1. How come one thing says the bidder is base award is 1.1, but up on top it says 1. Oh, the base bid is 1 point… is 1.1. But then it's base plus alternate bid. So we're just getting the base bid, is that it? Is that what's going on? That's 1.1, so it's cheaper, but it's not base bid plus alternate bid. In other words, there won't be any additions, will they? It's just the bid is 1.1, and it's not going to be 1.8. That's the… Question, it's like I'm kind of confused as a base bid plus alternate bid A.
So, is it going to be 1.1, or is it going to be 1.8? Which one will it be? And it starts as a base bid, but eventually it'll be 7… it'll be another $700,000. I mean, that's a lot of money, exactly what's being done. I mean… Um, it's confusing to me. So I see a base bid and base plus alternate, and the base bid is 1.1, but then the total bid is going to be 1.8. So that means, are we eventually going to be owing another… 700,000? Um, because that's important, 700,000 bucks different. What is the total… what will the total project be? 1.1?
or 1.8 million. Um, that's a question, because guys, just look at it, just look at 20.4. Uh, please, everyone. Look at it. I mean… It's kind of confusing. And exactly what it's gonna be. We've done a lot of… I thought bondwork, quite a bit of bond work was going to be done, so what's the story with that? That's, um, you know, that's a lot of money, 1.8, so… how's that going to be done? Because we're looking for dollars here and dollars there, and you're cutting teachers, and cutting a lot of things.
And now we're spending $1.8 million on asphalt. So, exactly what are we doing? Anyway, thank you very much, and maybe you'll give us an answer. Thank you, Dr. Padowicz. Thank you, Dr. Potowicz. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to make 1st public comment this evening? I don't see any takers. I'm looking back online. I don't see anyone else for first public comment. And so I'm going to close first public comment. Mr. Schemp, is there any correspondence you've received on behalf of the board in your role as Board Secretary?
We did not have any correspondence. Okay, then I'm going to move on to the superintendent's report, which is our quarterly goals. Thank you, Miss Winters. Definitely appreciate it. Before I go into quality goals, I'd just like to extend kudos to Mr. Messias, Dr. Burns, and the High School West. High School West has a school, and definitely to the cast and crew of SUFS. Um, it was a great article, uh, recently published in the Philly Inquirer about… about the, uh, play itself and just the wonderful impact that it's not only had on the, um.
participants who've had an opportunity to view it last weekend, but also on the students who are members of the cast, it truly is a learning experience for them. With that being said, a quarterly goals were shared with the board on Friday. And they have been published on the district website. As a reminder, quarterly goals can be found under the strategic plan page. So if you if you go to the strategic plan page, you'll see a link for our quarterly goals for the third quarter.
Uh, the way that we have done the quarterly goals, these are goals, these are progress updates attached to the district's goals, which align totally with our strategic plan as well. Um, so that information is there, and it's available. Just a couple other things that I have. A few comments this evening already, and I'm sure there'll be more about our budget recommendation. On Friday, we did release, uh, budget clarity Hub that was mailed out to.
31,000 individuals across the community as a newsletter, and that we also posted a corresponding page on the district's website to provide as much specifics as we are able. to provide. So the final budget has not been approved just yet. As Ms. Winters just mentioned, that will take place on the 28th of April. Um, things continue to change as we… as we move forward, as there are retirements that occur.
We are able to or capture positions through attrition. Right now, we have a significant number of positions that absolutely are being recommended to be cut, but a number… a number of those. vast majority of those are positions we'll be able to capture through attrition. On a positive note, I want to just bring awareness that this this month is Autism Awareness Month and neurodiversity celebration month. It's a month where we celebrate, you know, the vast diversity that exists within our district. I had an opportunity.
to attend an autism awareness walk over at Cooper Elementary last week, at the end of the week, along myself, Mr. Guy, absolutely phenomenal. Miss Tiernan and her staff deserve to be celebrated and elevated for. Bringing awareness and bring an entire community together in recognition of, you know, children with autism and our neurodiverse population. Wonderful, wonderful celebration and celebratory event.
With that, I will close and say thank you. Thank you to any board members have questions for Superintendent on his quarterly goals update. Miss Stern. Yes. I'm sorry to move this away. It's very loud tonight. So, Dr. Morton, I just wanted to. I think more so make a comment. I think, you know, it was helpful to get the update. um, from you, and to read through, and I think we're making a lot of, um, good progress on quite a number of the parts of our goals, our strategic plan. I do want to mention, um, you know, we… there's ongoing discussion, um, at the board level, um, specifically also in.
In a couple of our committees, including special education committee, about some of the successes we're seeing across the district with improving, um, aligning student supports for our special education students, and also some challenges that we continue to, um, experience. regarding, you know, implementing with fidelity practices that are really the best practices. Um, you know, and making sure, um, you know, we continue to receive correspondence at the board level, um, regarding, um, some of those challenges, and I just want to say that we really look forward to.
Um, you know, ongoing focus with the board, um, and supportive, um, of the administration in, uh, ensuring that we are truly making the strides that we seek to make for, um, in supporting our students. Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. I just wanted to say I I appreciated the quantifiable results under key actions, and especially appreciate listing challenges, current blockers and next steps. I think it's it's important to acknowledge the great progress being made, but also.
acknowledge and awareness of where more work needs to be done. And if folks want to know what I'm talking about, it's on the district website under our district strategic plan about halfway down the page. You can click on quarterly update 3. And that's where you see updates on all of the strategic plan goals, key indicators, and next steps. But anyway, I just want to say I appreciate the the updates, quantifiable metrics, and you know, especially calling out where there's still more work to be done. And let's look forward to seeing updates in June.
So I just wanted to also speaking about, you know, data, the board is receiving to make its decisions under the Elementary Enrollment Balancing and Community Engagement piece. It talks about challenges and current blockers, finalization and board approval of enrollment balancing recommendation has yet to occur. This must occur prior to August 26th to remain on timeline. We'll talk about this a little bit more in depth. In the enrollment balancing committee report out, which will take place later in the meeting. But I think the board is looking for a little more focused information before moving to the next step of having the public meetings that were promised.
To happen and then moving towards an eventual decision on the superintendent's recommendation. So, you know, the board doesn't want to be a challenge or a current blocker. We're just waiting to find out a few more details so that we can move forward in the decision-making process, and that way we can all be on track to meet our goals. and on timeline. Any other board members about our quarterly goals update? Seeing none, Mr. Fain are I don't. I'm having trouble seeing you.
yell at me if you have something to say. I don't want to let you go. Nope. I'm getting in. Okay, I got a note from my vice president, and that's why he's here. He keeps me on track and on time. So with that, um… We are going to move on to old business. Do any board members have old business they would like to raise? No old business this evening, so we're going to move on to our board work session. So this is the part of the meeting in which the board does its work in public, which can be either really exhilarating or really boring, depending on what you think about board work.
The board meets and committees. We have a committee structure where we discuss things, and this is where committees can bring forward discussion and recommendations to the full board. So no voting yet, but we'll get there. So I'm actually going to go first reporting out from our CNI, which is our curriculum and instruction meeting. Cni met on April 6th at 7:00 PM. Um, we had a couple things on our agenda. We received a presentation on book approval for books at the secondary level. There was a lot of discussion about graphic novels added at the middle level for grades 6, 7, and 8, as well as a book that was.
approved as a pilot last year, March, which is now being requested for approval to be a required text for grade 8 to be used with Warriors Don't Cry and Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. So we learned a lot about that. Graphic novels are something that. are approachable for many of our students with learning challenges at the secondary… at the middle level. So our board readers are busily reading. And we will report back out on those books that we're reviewing at the next CNI meeting, which will be in May.
We also did a lot of work on our world language curriculum. We got some information on the seal of biliteracy, which is growing fast. And we learned a lot about the growth in the world language program and all the amazing work that our world language curriculum Committee did to develop an amazing curriculum for our learners. They're immersed in language. The board, the committee had an opportunity. for… to participate in what would be a 6th grade lesson early on in the year, which was taught to us entirely in Spanish. And I will say, I think we did admirably.
Um, I do not speak Spanish. I took Italian all the way through, but I've managed it with our fabulous world language teachers coming to provide us with a sample of lessons that we could experience what the kids experience. And that curriculum committee really did an amazing job. I'm seeing nods from my fellow CNI members. So that was really neat. Seal of biliteracy continues to grow at the high school level. I think it was almost 25% of our students. I'm getting nods from my CNI buddies now receive Seal of biliteracy, which is an endorsement they get on their diploma and on their transcript moving forward.
So it just showcases the amazing importance of our world language curriculum in the district and the work that our curriculum team and our teachers do every single day. I'm really proud of the kids and all the successes they have, and we really appreciate all the work that's being done on that. So thank you to. them for bringing that forward for us to understand. um… old business. We finalized our summer reading recommendations. Board readers read a bunch of books. They will be moving forward. Our theme for summer reading this year is sports.
So we will have those books coming forward for our high schoolers to read. and we talked in new business about the cell phone policy, which is coming back to haunt us, because the governor and the legislature have approved a new law around student cell phone use, so we will need to revise our cell phone policy so that is in agreement with the state law. As well as we're looking with in conjunction with the P. And L Committee, with an update to our policies around technology use in the district in general. So that is another thing that's really important as we move forward as we look towards the, um, the importance of the use of technology.
for our students in the district, and how that's something that the board is going to be focusing on going forward, because we think that's really important. Do any other CNI members have anything to say, or any other board members have questions for discussion on what the committee focused on this month? Dr. Braddock. Not really a question, just I want to commend the committee and and. just the decision to incorporate graphic novels into into the reading curriculum. I mean, I've… graphic novels have been a big part of what I read growing up, and some of the most important books, I think, are graphic novels. And we're using them more at the university level as well. I think they're.
They haven't gotten the respect they deserve. For a long time, and it's cool to see it being implemented into the curriculum. Thank you. Any other board members, committee members have things to discuss. Well, that was what the CNI committee focused on is for our April meeting. Um, moving on to BNF, Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. So. In BNF committee this month, we talked about 2026 summer capital projects. Capital reserve replenishment and.
The current budget status, and thank you very much to Ms. Palmer for subbing in. Your input's always appreciated. I'll start by going through some of the 2026 summer capital projects. Mr. Schimp did a great job covering many of these items in the project update, and you can certainly see the the full report out embedded in the agenda for a more complete list. But some of the highlights are security vestibules and main office improvements at 4 of our elementary schools. That's Barton, Kingston, Sharp and Johnson construction going on at all 3 middle schools, playground improvements at Mann and Stockton, parking lot repaving at several elementary schools.
Uh, starting parking lot repaving at High School East, which will include improved traffic patterns. Redoing the high school east auditorium, the small debark gym at High School East, High School West Gym renovations, elevator modernizations to improve accessibility at both high schools and stage and stage sound and lighting at. the elementary schools that did not receive new Aprs, but will still be receiving upgrades to their sound and lighting to be on par with the other schools. Lots more work going on. Again, you could take a look at the report out in the agenda if you want the full list, but those are some of the more exciting ones.
As far as capital reserve replenishment. Mr. Schimp talked about developing a budget that's more forward thinking, replenishing the mostly depleted capital reserve for the next year, and really doing what we can to put the district in a more sustainable place financially. And just to be fiscally responsible and to be in a better place next year to move forward. Uh, and then lastly, the fiscal year 27 budget status. Not too much to talk about here. The tentative budget was submitted to the county superintendent, waiting to be reviewed, and there'll be a public hearing and final adoption for the budget, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 28th, which is in two weeks at our next full meeting.
I think that about covers it. Bnf committee members, any questions, comments? Any other board members? Oh, yes, Mr. Schimp. Thanks. I thought maybe this would be a good time to maybe we can address one of the comments that came up. I think it's relevant. I think it's very, very, very important for everyone to understand that the… The projects related to the bond work, the $363 million that the community voted on back in 2022.
Uh, we are required, um. To remain within the auspices of what the community voted on. We are not, by law, allowed to use bond funds to balance our operating budget. or to fund staffing positions, or anything else other than those bond projects. I think that's that's very important that everyone understand. Um, the east parking lot site work that we'll be doing this summer is if you're looking at the building, it's the administrative lot to the far left. If you're staring at the building.
Um, that is the first phase of several. It is a massive, um… parking area. This is all part of the the bond work. The bid that went out had an alternate listed for the replacement of a the main major drainage pipe. Which leads out across the field at the rear of the building. We didn't like the price that we received on that, so we are only awarding the base bid amount, which is that parking lot area. We will be going back out to bid.
for the pipe project as a standalone as we believe the low bidder on the base was substantially higher on that alternate. So we'll save several hundred thousand dollars by rebidding that project. Thank you very much. I appreciate the extra information. Any other questions? Yes, Miss Cummings. Mr. Greenbaum, did you want to highlight the donations? I'll do that during the action agenda in 2 weeks, when when the board votes to approve it. But we had some some very generous donations which we will absolutely acknowledge at our next meeting. Thank you.
Yes, Miss Stern. I just wanted to thank Mr. Schimp, um, that specific clarification, um, and I think. you know, I think the sticker price for so much of this work is shocking to most of us in general, because. you know, to most of us don't understand wouldn't have had experience with the scope of, you know, for instance, paving. Um, you know, what that's involved, and how expensive and costly it gets, and how much work.
truly involved. Many of us who have driven that parking lot are been waiting for years for it to be, you know, repaved, and specifically my 1st year on the board, students from that school were asking about. um, kind of improve traffic flow because that's concerning for, you know, some of the traffic from the parking lots in terms of the kids. So. you know, I think it's a long time coming. I'm happy it's being done. But most importantly, I really, you know, this is your first year with our district, and I really want to thank you for, um, you know, you know, making the determination that the bid was in… was too high, and you don't want.
You didn't want, you know, to… that wasn't the right move for the district. It wasn't being fiscally responsible. It's one of our tenants and our goals is to ensure there's always a sense of always a lens of fiscal responsibility. So I really want to thank you for continuing to have that on every aspect. Um, you know, it's really important that our community knows how. diligent you and the entire administration, and then the board as we oversee the work you're doing. Um, you know, you are about, um, being extremely mindful of every dollar spent.
um, that is contributed by our entire community, and making sure it's going to the places it needs to go. Um, and for the best impact with the… for our students, so I just really want to thank you for, um, always a lot of questions, and they're fair questions from community members. Um, you know, they have a right to know, so thank you. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, I will hand it back to Ms. Winters.
Nothing for HR committee this month, Mr. It did not meet. So we will move to P&L, which is Miss Palmer. Yeah, so first of all, thank you to Mrs. Manzano for subbing in for the P&L committee for April. We had a few things on our agenda. It was a relatively light, uh, but discussion-filled meeting. So first up was continued conversation around, uh, necessary updates to the, uh. district cell phone policy, major revisions that are prompted by recent legislative changes that will take effect, we know, for next school year in September. We are still awaiting some guidance from Strauss Esme, which is, um, the.
policy company, for lack of for those who don't understand waiting for policy updates from from Strauss as May before we move forward with official changes to the policy. We hope that that can happen for May. We did talk, though, about some results of a survey that administration did of our teachers. Um, any board members that have not seen that survey and would like a copy, let me know. Um, no surprises, really. Challenges get bigger the older that the students get, fewer challenges in elementary school, middle level at middle school, and then high school is really where we start to see.
the greatest challenges. Again, no real surprises, but we will, you know, we have to make some decisions next month around how we want to store cell phones moving forward. how we want to define, you know, bell to bell, if we want to look at, you know, buses. lunchrooms would be included in Bell to Bell, so there's some significant tweaks to the existing policy. What else? We also had an addition, a request from a member of the community to for permission to fly a drone over the upcoming star games in an effort to, you know, make the footage available to the district for some positive.
press PR. There were some questions about whether the individual. who wants to fly the drone had, you know, all the necessary policy required coverages, things like that. My understanding is that we have confirmed that that is on the agenda for a vote tonight. The Star Games are coming up on the 24th. So this is the last opportunity for the board to act on that. And then there was, um… conversation around the school calendars for the next 2 years, prompted by the loss of spring break days due to inclement weather this year. I know that that's been a hot topic. So there are proposals on the board agenda for 26, 27, 27, 28.
Essentially, Dr. Mahan, keep me honest. Essentially, just move around in service days, existing in service days. to give us greater flexibility at the end of the year, so that we don't have to take away those spring break days. And under the proposed changes, President's Day becomes the second. uh, snow makeup day instead of the first. So, you know, fingers crossed moving forward, we can we can address some of the issues that we ran into this year. Dr. Mann, do you have anything else to add on either of those?
No, I think you covered it. Okay. Any other committee member questions, comments? Mrs. Winters. Just a question. The survey that administration did of the the teachers. Was that cell phone policy specific, or was that about technologies in general self and policy specific? It was board requested, I think, 2 2 committee cycles ago. Our goal was to get a sense of. what was working specifically around storage concerns around storage and and. enforcement, and that for me, and I don't know if my other board members feel the same way. For me, the biggest takeaway was that it it really seems like the biggest issue cited was consistent enforcement.
Um, so that was… that was a substantial portion of the conversation in this month's committee meeting. Thank you. Dr. Braddock. You might have mentioned it. I might have missed it in your coverage in terms of the drone, you said we had to wait to see if the user has insurance? No, Dr. Mahan, have we confirmed that they have the necessary coverages? We confirmed that we have the necessary coverages. Okay. And that meets the requirements of the policy. That was the only outstanding question from the so then the request meets all of the… there's a policy where the board has to give permission for drone footage.
But yeah, if the necessary insurance coverages are in place, then it's compliant. Our insurance, though. So it might be a dumb question, this might be nervous, uh, filling. Um… if something goes wrong with the drone, and we… our insurance pays out. Would that cause our insurance premiums to go up? Would we be paying more for something like that? What goes into your insurance premiums changes, you know, with everything else. I think that an issue with the drone, um, is probably one of the.
less. Yeah, no, it'd be small. That would cause your insurance to go up. I'm just thinking about what my car insurance does. Every time somebody bumps into my fender. I think that's you particularly Dr. Braddock. The other issue is it's a student flying the drone. So the question would be, even if the student maintained its own his own insurance or her own insurance? it would still come back to the school districts. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Mrs. Cherfane. Thanks. My question is pretty simple. It's around the calendar. I'm curious if we can add or just a note on there when the week of parent-teacher conferences are, and how that's half days, because I feel like that week frequently gets confusing for people.
Last time I looked at it, it wasn't on there, and I know historically we don't put that on our school calendar, so I was just wondering if we can just put that on there, so the elementary parents know that those days are half days. Okay. Yeah, I Dr. Mahan is nodding that, yes, we can make that change. So thank you for the suggestion. Any other questions, comments, feedback. Okay, that's it. Thank you. And moving on to governance. Miss Chafain, it's your turn.
Great, thank you. All right. The last time we met as a committee, our conversation continued around solidifying dates for the CSA self-evaluation. The board's. role in that, and then as well as this, the board self-evaluation. So we came to some final dates. All of these dates should be in your email. I know Miss winter sent them out before, but just a reminder, uh, we agreed to. Um, require Dr. Morton to do his self-evaluation piece by the 15th of May.
Following that date, we will have a, um… Our NJSBA rep will come and do some training on the CSA evaluation for us at our meeting on the 26th of May, in order for us to understand our role in that. Following that, our piece, our board evaluation of Dr. Morton will be due on June 2nd. That will give Ms. Winters about a week to pull all of that data together with NJSBA, and the board will be hopefully will be ready to discuss what our evaluation is on June 9th.
Um, that way, once we have that first preliminary discussion about our evaluation of Dr. Morton, we can provide our feedback on the June 23rd meeting, which will keep us in line with the July 1st due date for that. Um, other than that, the other thing that we discussed in governance was board certification. So we are 9 credits away from being certified. We need to have those 9 credits in by March 22nd of next year. If we do not get the full 9 credits in, then we will be required to do one more by the following March, which isn't.
terrible. Um, but it'll just delay the certification by a year. So one of those credit… one of those 9 credits will be awarded through the CSA evaluation, uh, that we will have on May 26th of next month of this year. And then we also scheduled a summer retreat. So I pulled all of the board members and asked what would work well for them, and then worked with our NJSBA rep, and we fell on the date of August 22nd. That's a Saturday.
obviously in August, and the time will be from 11 a.m. To 2 p.m. I'll send all of this information to everybody out via email so that you can put it into your calendars. We have not yet determined what we will be focusing that retreat on. There have been suggestions by. Miss Bandlo, which is our NJSBA representative. But we, Miss Winters and I will be meeting with her to solidify what our plan is for that. But that'll give us 3 credit. So between the CSA evaluation.
training that we'll do in May, and the summer retreat. That's four of the 9 credits that we need, so we'll need five more, um, between now and March of 2027. So we have plenty of time to get all of that in. Another piece to this, too, is I sent out a poll, a survey to the entire board for feedback on what training they would be in. Everybody would be interested in. We were going to go with the top 10.
So that way we can do a couple of these over that summer retreat and figure out what we want to focus the additional training that we need before March on. Just some spoiler alerts on what came back as the most popular was the board self-evaluation feedback training, um, effective year-round communications. And then there was many that all kind of tied for the next in line. We had public and community engagement, key communicators as a training, 12 most common mistakes, strategies for success, governance by policy, effective meetings, continuous improvement, conflict resolution.
Committee effectiveness and roles. The board's role in policy, and then the the next one that kind of all tied together was board effectiveness and team charter. So that's how we will focus our discussion with our NJSBA rep to figure out how we want to spend. the time in the retreat, and then what additional education that we need before March. and I that is, if I don't know if Mr. Greenbaum, if you have anything to add.
From that, if not, if I see Miss Stern has her hand up. If anybody else has questions. Nope, nothing further to add. That was a great summary. Thank you. Thanks. I guess, Ms. Stern. Just yeah, just a couple questions. Typically, we have an annual HIB training and an annual ethics training as a full board which usually happen February, March. I know that got pushed off this year, but, um.
You mentioned the retreat. Are those… is the retreat going to be HIV and ethics as well? Are we doing that as kind of our annual training? Okay. We haven't. We haven't solidified what we're doing, so I can definitely ask her to include that. I think that would be helpful, since we will all be together for that. I can ask her to include that training. If that's what everybody thinks would be a good idea. If not, we can focus a separate meeting on that. That'd be great. Mrs. Guilfin, I know new board members must have those trainings, correct? But I don't know if correct. And the ethics training actually has to be done at a public meeting.
Um, so if you're advertising for a public meeting for that retreat, that would be acceptable. Great, thank you. Is it an annual requirement for the full board, or it is? Okay, that's what I thought. So yeah, I definitely want to. And I'm going to miss the mark on that, so thank you. Um, and then the only other question I have is, um, I know the Governance Committee was also working on goals, um, board goals, so I'm just curious if you have any updates on that? Uh, not specifically. That is also that was one of the… things that was, uh, that we could choose from for our training. It wasn't a popular one, but that was actually something that Miss Banlow recommended we do in our board retreat, was to focus for next year's goals. So.
I personally think that we might, or we should probably look into that during that retreat as well, because that'll be a decent chunk of time that we'll have together that we can work on that. But other than that, there has not been any updates with any of the current goals that we have. Thank you. Just follow up. It sounds like this might be a longer retreat than we typically have had. Are you envisioning a like a several hour retreat, just to get all the topics, including that? Yes. So right now it's from 11 to 2, so it will be 3 h.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. just that we in the past, and not that we have to do it this way, but in the past, we've usually had the board solicitor provide the ethics and Hib. So I know there was some conversation about finding a date to do that. So if you. I don't know if Miss Gil-Filan wants to hang out with us on a Saturday in August. She's giving me a look. So if we want it… is it her… is it your birthday? She can think of no better way to spend her birthday than talking about HIVs and ethics with us. But as an alternative, if you wanted to save that retreat time for NJSBA topics.
we could do the… usually what we've done in the past is we've done the HIV and ethics training with the board solicitor as part of a public meeting when the meeting's a little bit lighter, so maybe one of the summer meetings. Totally up to you guys, but that's just how we did it in the past. You actually just reminded me of something, too. I think that that is a better idea, because this retreat would satisfy three credits for us for board certification, but any training that's done by the board attorney would not count towards that training. So we wouldn't get the credit hours for that. So that's probably something better spent in one of our meetings.
Um, so that we can focus the 3 h that we're together on things that will give like get us towards our goal of certification. One more thing. I'm going to embarrass Miss Cummings. Miss Cummings is a heartbeat away from her new board member certification, and she's only been on the board for how many months now? January. Since January, and how many more requirements do you have to fill? I just have one question. One workshop credit left, so can we all just Miss Cummings?
It's gonna happen, and then we're gonna have a big party. But, I mean, it really… it's been a push for all board members to work on that, and I really appreciate you putting in that effort. That's a lot of training in four months. Thanks. It is, and I appreciate the recognition, but also very red-faced. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else for governance, Mr. Fain. All right. Then we are going to move on to our additional committee and delegate reports. So this would be committees that are our 2 special committees or any other.
things that people attended as representatives of the board. Ms. Stern? So I'm going to give a report, a brief report on our special education committee, which met on March 30th. So, as always, we had a very, you know, robust in-depth conversation about, you know, topics which are obviously, you know, we want to be sensitive about. I'm not getting into detail about any of them, except to say that, you know, I think that we, um, maybe similar to my comments earlier about our strategic plan and our our board goal, the district goals. Excuse me, the quarterly update.
We are… continuing to, you know, understand, and I want to really think Mrs. Miss Mallory for, you know, always providing really helpful insights and information on, you know, what you're the expert in, and your your folks are the experts in. Um, so that we have a better understanding of kind of some of the information that comes our way from community members and some of the things, you know, that we we understand are, you know, I guess concerns, questions. So we have a better understanding of how things.
function. We talked about ongoing, you know, opportunities to continue staff education and training to ensure, you know, that we have consistency from, you know, building to building and and and level to level. Um, in terms of, you know, how, um, you know, our services are being, you know, utilized, and how we continue to. um, you know, quite frankly, expand inclusion, which is brings growing pains. Inclusion brings growing pains, because it it's, you know, real full inclusion throughout the district is, um.
can be an adjustment. So that was a main focus of the conversation. We also discussed some updates regarding CPAG. We had received a request. from, um, for board members, uh, involved with the committee to meet with Cherry House Special Education PTA, and we had two board members who did that, so I want to thank you both for meeting with Josepta. I understand it was a very productive meeting, and we… seemed the feedback that we received through email indicated that it was felt on both sides, so that was… that was great. Um, and, um…
I think that is all I have to report about the meeting, Miss Obviously, Star Games, very excited for Star Games. Very sad I won't be here, so I'm going to miss them this year. It's my first one that I'm missing. It's for anyone who's never been, it is. just a day. If you are not feeling great about things around you, or things in the world, please come to the Star Games, because you will feel good all day. We'll hopefully be able to watch the drone video. Or you, if you can't… right, exactly, and hopefully I can watch this run video, as can everybody else who cannot make it that day. I will definitely watch the video.
you know, just the level of. students so many, you know, staff members, teachers, educational assistants. administrators, parents coming together to ensure that our students from every level, every grade level in our district have opportunities to have a successful experience. outdoor activities, sports, games. It's a really, really fun day. I I.
Hope that we're as lucky as we've been with the weather, and I believe is Haddonfield joining? They usually join us every year, so Haddonfield also participates, which is a nice little, you know, um, partnership we have with them. So it's a really special day. It's a big lift. So I want to thank Miss Mallory and your team for every year. putting it together, and thank you for the fantastic shirts, which I will now gift back to you. So someone who can actually enjoy them. And yeah, that's it. I don't know if there's anything else from the committee from Miss Mallory, from committee members.
Mrs. Palmer. I just so for for members of the community who don't realize this, the special ed… special education committee was a new committee that we started last year, and I have to say, I personally have really appreciated the forum that that committee has created for some real talk discussion on. some of the very real challenges that a number of our families face, and it's… it's been a valuable opportunity for administration to share, you know, its perspective and to share, um.
some fact, but it's also been an important conduit for us as members of the board to, you know, continue that conversation and make sure that things that we hear maybe at the board table are continued and they don't fall by the wayside. And, you know, rest assured that if. as committee… as community members bring concerns to the board, they are heard, they are addressed, that special education committee is an important forum for those discussions to take place. That is happening. I appreciate administration's engagement, especially Ms. Mallory.
Um, you know, just because you don't necessarily see it play out at a board table, those discussions are active, are continuing, and will not stop. So I appreciate, you know, stirring the work that you do as chair to kind of keep us on task and continue that agenda. But I appreciate that the committee exists. It's a very important time and a very important topic. Thank you. Any other board members, committee members, board members, general? Miss Mallory, I didn't sorry I didn't excuse me, hear anything, so I'm assuming we're on track. Okay, great. Thank you. That's it. Thank you.
Thank you. Starting the the special committees, sometimes we call the ad hoc committees. I think it's something that you know the Board innovated with last year to give special focus to certain topics that needed it little additional focus. I mean, the thought about having special education included in CNI, and they still are, we have that Ms. Mallory attends CNI meetings and give us to make sure that we're all talking together because special education should be an included conversation all that we do. But I think also adding committee specifically focused on it allows us to have additional time.
for topics that warrant it, because CNI is such a large scope that sometimes there were specific things that were getting lost, um, or balls dropped, and that's not really happening anymore. So I think it was a really good idea, and I think as long as the board is happy with it, that committee will definitely continue. The work continues. Do any other board members have additional reports? Anything you attended, Mr. Greenbaum? Thank you. So we're in the middle of budget season, and I've been doing what I can to help people understand the budget, provide an overview priorities, some of the challenges being faced, and the potential impact. What to expect, and just help build an understanding of what's being proposed.
One of these meetings was I was invited to speak at the last CPAG meeting and appreciated the opportunity to respond to some questions, in particular about its potential impact on special education. One of the real takeaways here is that although the state had cuts to categorical aid for special education, there are no planned cuts to the services delivered. If anything, that kind of signals where the state's priorities are. The district has not changed its priority. Anything that's required by statute is going to continue to be delivered.
Uh, without, uh, without those cuts. I was also invited to speak at the Fair Funding Committee meeting along with Ms. Cummings. And participated in a discussion focused on advocacy with our legislators about. helping control the costs, about helping with state aid, and most importantly, about fixing the funding formula so that it actually aligns with our actual costs that continue to rise.
And on that note, there's a fair funding meeting this Thursday, April 16th at 7 Pm. Via Zoom. You can find them on Facebook for the meeting link or contact them at fairfunding chps@gmail.com. And thank you to Ms. Yaris for hosting these, who. I anticipate we'll be sharing this information again during second public comment. But please join the fight. We're all in this fight together. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Greenbaum, and thank you for being our budget whisperer on the board. Somebody who's got all the numbers all the time. Miss Palmer.
On a similar note to Mr. Greenbaum, uh, on April 1st, I attended a meeting of the, I think it's… I think they call themselves the Camden County Fair Funding Collaborative. So this is separate from the Cherry Hill Fair Funding Group. This is a collective of. districts that are located in Camden County, specifically in the sixth legislative district, where we're represented… represented by Assemblyman Greenwald. Um, that committee, you know, obviously the conversation there for four months, for years has focused on.
fighting for our fair share in Camden County specifically. The group has been invited date is still to be determined to sit down with a very limited number of representatives to meet with Assemblyman Greenwald. Majority Leader Greenwald. So the purpose of the April first meeting was for us to really start to hammer out some concrete recommendations that are still, and and Mrs. Winners, thank you. You shared out a copy of the white paper that was put together with all of the board members this weekend.
If you haven't looked at them, I would appreciate if you just give it a quick once over. It is a draft, so it is changing in real time. But our goal was to to put together some immediate asks, some short-term budget asks, and then some longer term kind of systemic. structural things that we believe should be changed. The goal, obviously, will be to share those concrete recommendations with the majority leader. when… when the group eventually does meet. representatives who will go to that meeting have not been determined yet. I think… I don't remember if Kelly, who heads the group, um, said that I think she said they want to limit it to five, and they'd like one of their representatives to be a, uh…
A business administrator and then the others can be, I think they want an administrator or business administrator, and then one or two board members. So it's it's a very limited group to be determined. I mean, hopefully we can have Cherry Hill. My goal is to have Cherry Hill. represented in that meeting. But regardless, our thoughts will be, because we're coming to consensus on what the asks should be, and it was very clear. We know this from past discussions. Our pain points are the same, even if our districts are a little bit different, our sizes are different. I mean, there's there's very clear common themes.
We are also, we also discussed creating drafting a collaborative which we've talked about at this board table. But the conversation was, do we make that a little bit broader? I think the decision was yes. So I've offered to. work with Kelly on a first draft of that, we'll share it out to board members as that takes shape. That'll be in the… in the coming days. I think that's all there is to report there, but please, please take a look at those recommendations if you've got thoughts, I'd love to hear them, see them. Mr. Schimp, if you don't have a copy, we'll make sure that you get one. No surprises in there. But would really love your feedback on.
impact, you know, what's the most meaningful for Cherry Hill specifically? Are there any questions, comments, concerns, Mrs. Winters? Thank you for representing us and taking the ball and running with it. My only comment is that when I was up in Trenton at the assembly hearing, I was shocked that almost every single district that testified that day was South Jersey District. So, it leads me to believe that one of two things are true. Either the multipliers they're using for South Jersey are just completely bonkers, or the funding formula itself.
is unfavorable to South Jersey. So I've been that's the conversation that we've been having in the background. If you look around to other districts around us, it's terrifying. Um… I'm just going to say this not as just as myself as one individual board member. I'm not interested in selling off this district for spare parts, which is what some other districts are being forced to do. They are just selling buildings to keep the lights on. It's horrifying to me. Because once you lose things, you can't get them back. So I think, you know, all the work that we're doing in advocacy, the legislators need to realize that, you know, we've almost hit our, we've hit our breaking point this year. We're there. Last year, I was saying.
you know, there's no end in sight for this, and this year I'm saying we're there, because there's… there's nowhere else to go, and I… you know, everybody read my… my testimony, I thank you to the other board members for helping me with it and giving feedback, but there's no world in which paying for. almost 90% of our budget out of local private taxes is a fair share. That's absolutely ridiculous and absurd. And I just I appreciate you, Bridget, and all the advocacy that you're doing with the South Jersey group. I've got to believe that more voices join together are powerful.
Um, and hopefully we see some some traction going forward. Because this really does affect the South Jersey school. It affects everybody, but I'm really seeing a huge impact on our South Jersey districts this year. Yeah. And we've we've talked about this a few times, but there's something called a geographic cost. multiplier that is part of the formula, there are zero, um, zero counties in South Jersey that have a GCA, the geographic cost adjustment, above 1.
Um, and I just pulled up the stats here from the collaborative. Four counties in North Jersey do, and 5 in Central Jersey do. Um… The GCA is supposed to be updated every five years, has not been updated since 2014, and it's based on 2005 to 2010 census data. So that gives you an idea of how ridiculous that is. There was legislation, I don't know if it was reintroduced for this current legislative session that would have. made the GCA a minimum of one. I think across the board. I think it established a minimum GCA of one that has not moved.
Um, I don't have any reason to believe that there's an appetite to move it. I mean, that's what it boils down to, is that there just has to be political appetite. for South Jersey representatives to fight for what South Jersey needs. Mr. Braddock or Dr. Braddock, I'm sorry. Mr. Spy. Um, very quickly, and this speaks to the fact that it's a lot of South Jersey. townships and districts that are getting hit harder. Is there any data that you're seeing from the other districts related to, like, the heterogeneity of the income level at the household level in South Jersey relative to North Jersey?
Because one of the things that I think we've talked about is the fact that the reason that the valuation of the households in Cherry Hill is often because there's outliers. And I wonder if there's more outliers in South Jersey townships than there are in the north. I think that's a really good question. I have not seen that data. I think what's clear, you know, the perception has always been that it's more expensive, and property values are higher in the northern parts of the state. That's just not true anymore. Any… and just so that the public is aware, anybody with a GCA, any town, county with a GCA below 1.
That decreases your funding. So even if… even if they are evaluated higher, they would be actually beginning a fair share if the townships are… townships, if the districts are organized, if they're homogeneous, if the income level at the household level is pretty even across all of them, whereas we know. Cherry Hill's not that way, Voorhees isn't that way. A lot of these townships aren't that way in South Jersey. Yeah, but to answer your question directly, we did not have… did not have or discuss that data, but I think it's a really fair point.
Mrs. Stern. Um, do you… I mean, I hear… I've been hearing talk about this, but I'm just wondering if you've heard heard any more specifics about. The conversations around consolidation, and just for illustration, which I say all the time, you know, literally, we have entire elementary schools that are bigger than some districts in the entire state of New Jersey. And the amount of redundancy of cost, which then requires the State to give funding to those very small districts.
You know, it is absolutely a factor. It's not… I don't think it's the main factor. I mean, I think the reality is… You know, we are very proud of our status in this country, of the state of… at the level of education that we deliver to students, and that comes at a cost. And, you know, we're just at that nexus point right now of that, you know, how do we retain and focus on. the most impactful we can be of educating our students and deal with this. I always confuse the numbers. Is it $14 million, you know, decrease that we had, whatever, whatever the cuts we need to make, I mean, it's unbelievable that we're in that situation. And yet, of course, you know, fundamentally want to do everything we can to retain.
Incredibly high quality of education we have here, so… Um, I mean, if you… you're nodding your head, there hasn't really been a lot of… because that didn't go anywhere a few years ago when they tried to talk about consolidation. No, I have not heard anything officially about a new movement, you know, to codify that or require that. Mrs. Winters. It was a big topic at the board president training. They actually, um. I went to a day-long training by NJSBA, which is School Board Association, and I brought in. an expert from a firm, I think, who's going to make money running studies for people who want to consolidate, so that was kind of fun. But I directly asked the question. I was the only person from a large district there about whether there was any benefit for consolidation for large districts, and the direct answer was no. And that's… that's the rub. I mean, and that was the concern of us. And that was the consensus in the collaborative conversation, right? So it's… it's, you know, everybody from Cherry Hill to Collingswood to Lindenwald, like, very diverse, geographically, size-wise, economically universally, and I was a little surprised by this. Nobody really saw a huge value.
Um, and there was one district, and I want to say it was Lindenwald made a point that they just recently went through… I don't know what the term is for deconsolidation, a separation. Um, they were part of a regional high school district, and made the decision to. pull out of that because of a number of challenges that they faced and financially, it's I guess they made the determination that it's more beneficial for them to operate their own high school than to be a part of the regional.
Um, I definitely think, you know, there's a lot of data that needs to be collected, a lot of studying that needs to be done if the state's going to require that. My personal fear, and I got that sense from others on the collaborative meeting. is that, you know, the state is not magically just gonna say, okay, great, fewer districts. We're going to give everybody a bigger piece of the pie. My very real concern in a state that has a 3 billion dollar structural deficit is what they're saying, is that they just use that as an excuse to say fewer districts. We need to budget less money for education. So I'm very concerned that that's a little bit of a shell game, and that at the end of the day, districts are going to make huge compromises with absolutely no financial benefit.
Um, you know, so that's that's the very long-winded answer to that question. It's very helpful. Thank you. Any other questions, concerns, comments? Thank you. Other committee and delegate reports. I'm going to do a quick one, and then I'm going to turn it over to Miss Chervin, because I know she has enrollment balancing, and that'll be a longer one. Um, so I attended the ECAC Early Childhood Helped me out, Dr. Mahan, early childhood advisory committee.
I was going to say advisory Council, I would have been close. Early Childhood Advisory Council, which is committee, sorry, guys. It's late already. And that's pre-K through 3. It is a group of community members, teachers, parents, all kinds of people who get together to talk about the pre-K. through three spectrum. There was a lot of conversation, really good conversation about some of the wonderful things going on. The Kohl's program kits are doing a garden project with the pre-K program, which I sort of find absolutely lovely.
I absolutely love when there's collaboration across the district when it comes to especially our oldest kids and our littlest kids. I think it's really valuable for all the learners together. The Kohl's program kids, for those of you who don't know, for years had a garden. here at the Lewis Building that they cultivated in a courtyard. So they know a lot about it and they're working with all of our preschool program kids at all our locations on gardening, which is wonderful. We also have high school volunteers from both East and West at preschool events.
which I think is fabulous, and it's also great for high school students who may be thinking about education or working with children as a career pathway forward. I think it gives them that exposure. So I think that's really valuable, and I want to thank Dr. Mahan for all her work on that across the district. We talked about. Pre-K expansion for this year, and there are five new private providers that will be in the district. Our expansion. continues to grow. My information is probably old now, Dr. Mahan, so if I misspeak or say something incorrect.
If you will just throw something in my direction. But I believe if this is still true, we had 552 applicants this year. My notes are good. And we're adding 12 classrooms, which is 180 seats. Our preschool population, when you consider both our general education preschoolers, which are funded by preschool expansion and our special education preschoolers, when you combine them together, that's 870 students. Um, which is amazing for how far we are into the expansion.
And we… Yeah, and that's pretty much all the information I had. They talked about the enrollment process. Um, we also talked about the future, not this summer, but continuing to look forward, um… I know that currently, if you are in a private provider site, some of those sites offer summer child care options as well. If you want to keep your child in that same location during the summer for consistency. So that's something that was talked about. I know we considered at the board level a few weeks ago, thinking about whether not for the summer, but sometime in the future.
We wanted to offer that to also kids who go to our Mallberg and Kilmer locations if they wanted to pay for summer childcare, but for that consistency, because we know preschoolers need care year-round. Is there anything that I missed, Dr. Mahan, that you think is important? is a wonderful meeting. Just really great to hear about the growth of the program. Does anybody have any questions about ECAC? Okay, and now I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Surefain for enrollment balancing.
All right. Thank you. So the rebalancing committee met at this point, I think maybe about 3 weeks ago. Um, our… the main point of our discussion was to revisit the recommendation that Dr. Morton and his team proposed before we had a budget status. And we were just asking if anything has changed now that we know our reality with the budget. Long answer… or short answer to that is no, things have not changed. Dr. Morton and his team is still recommending building classrooms at Barton as well as Rosa to offload the already existing overcapacity issues, as well as address.
the ones that we know are coming down the pike with the housing developments on the west side of Cherry Hill. So a lot of the discussion around that was really us asking for additional information, like Miss Winters kind of hinted at a little bit earlier. We were asking Dr. Morton and his team for specifics on how many classrooms were intending on building and what the. The evidence is to support that number of classrooms? Like, where are we coming up with those numbers? How can we as a board justify agreeing to build a certain number of classrooms at both, um.
Barton and Rosa, so that we feel comfortable knowing that it'll address the current issues and address the proposed issues that are later down the line. We've also discussed what the true goal is that we're trying to accomplish with the ROSA editions. Miss Winters had a, you know, started a robust discussion around whether or not the issue is the capacity at Rosa or a middle school capacity as a whole. Meaning are the… between all three of our middle schools, is that really supporting the number of students that we have, or is this really just a ROSA issue? We kind of, uh, we very briefly talked about a potential enrollment cap at Rosa and what that would look like. Um, we discussed what.
potentially redistricting some of the elementary schools would look like to send more kids to Beck, because that's right now, that's where a majority of the open space is on the east side of Cherry Hill to try to offload some of the classrooms. from Rosa. We also asked how many classrooms at Rosa are we planning on building, and we asked the same questions. Where are we getting these numbers from? How can we justify a decision that we make at the board level? we asked, or we talked about how the transportation guardrail was not really affected by the recommendation. But Dr. Morton reemphasized how they looked into.
how transportation was going to be affected by redistricting, and the benefits didn't really outweigh the risks when it came to relocating students or, um. just redefining the lines and how that would help the busing routes. And from what he could see from the grip studies, it really wasn't helping. the car… it wasn't reducing the cost of busing enough to justify disrupting so many students throughout the district. Because of this, the committee asked for other solutions to our transportation cost issues, and we're hoping that that can be.
addressed in this current, um, budgeting cycle as well. Uh, we discussed. Also, that the special education guardrail that we set as a board for this whole process was not clearly defined. We've discussed it throughout the process, but we were looking for more information on specific details, essentially, how are we. able to reduce costs specifically around program availability and location throughout the district, as well as reducing busing time for our special education students so that they're not being bused all over the district and spending so much time on busing.
And also, one of the asks was to bring as many back home to their… if not their direct school that they're supposed to go to, at least a school that will filter into a middle school and subsequent high school that, um, their elementary. school would should filter into anyway. We also asked for the updated GRIP study and we were looking for the specifics. and what Dr. Grip gave back to us in this most recent demographic study.
So essentially, at this point, like Miss Winters had mentioned before, we need to make a decision as a board how we want to move forward with not only the Barton editions, but also the Rosa additions that needs to be decided by August for us to be able to put. Any offers out for bid, and to decide how many classrooms and, you know, really get the ball rolling on this to be able to implement the new classrooms and open up the new classrooms for the 2829 school year.
So, um, I guess I'm requesting that any discussion be had, and that this is our opportunity at the board level. There's still a lot of information that's still pending that we're still looking for, but… we can't really drag our feet any longer, that this is the opportunity that we have as a board to really start looking at this and figure out how we want to move forward. I don't know if anybody else that was on in the committee meeting has any additional thing. I think I got most of it, but if I left anything out, if any committee… yes, Ms. Stern, I see a question.
Yeah, just and I apologize. I might have missed it if you already said this. But can you just. discuss the conversation or the involvement in terms of on the transportation side, how much input there was? Or if we're looking for more input from transportation beyond, I know you specifically talked about the special education guardrail, but in general, for the district as a whole. Uh, yeah, so the… from the original recommendation, Dr. Moore and him, I don't remember the specific figure off the top of my head, but I think it was somewhere around 600 students would be affected by busing routes that were changed due to potential redistricting of lines.
And… or maybe it's… actually, I don't know if somebody else on the committee remembers a specific. It might have been, um… it was just this… I don't remember… I'm sorry, I don't remember the specific numbers, but it was a small percentage, or it was a large percentage of students be affected by a small amount of money that. essentially would be affected on the budget. So it… Dr. Morton wasn't recommending making any changes to offset transportation costs, because it would have disrupted too many students compared to the actual cost savings for what those lines. I think the issue is really that where any potential lines would be, it looks like Dr. Morton's going to respond to this. Thank you, bail me out here, please.
Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. So the question becomes, where is the challenge and where does the challenge rest? The challenge rests at Barton Elementary. So Barton is projected to have a hundred plus students in excess. Uh, so, in order to find space, the space is on the far east side of the district. So that would mean that we would need to, if we were going to change, um… boundaries within the district, we'd have to change boundaries across all of the elementary schools, practically, and impact.
hundreds upon hundreds of families. And in doing so, it wouldn't actually save transportation costs. It extends transportation costs because certain communities would now move and it would require students to be bused elsewhere. So that's why the recommendation for focusing on where the challenge exists came up, and that's that's Barton. That's what that that addition piece came up. So the other, the only other 2 things that can be done around transportation would be to look at courtesy busing.
and courtesy button would would impact hundreds of families again. But that would be to go to state limits as well, or we could look at late buses and things along those lines for some some savings. Just a quick follow up clarification courtesy busing. When you're saying that you're talking about our. our requirements or policy about, um. the distance that we will bus students where, you know, if who qualifies for busing versus who doesn't. We are below the State limit. So I know we've talked about that a lot. But at the same time there are students.
who, you know, we have to also have a consideration of hazardous roots, which is another… which is a state requirement that we provide busing for students who live would it would be a hazardous route for them to walk if they were required to be walkers. So, you know, my recollection of that was just, it's very complicated, not, you know. There are many districts. We read articles about districts that have increased their courtesy busing lines, i.e, they moved, you know, maybe they used to bus students who were a mile away, now they bus them.
The two miles, or I think two miles for Elementary is the, I don't know the limit is two and a half for high school and middle school, two and a half. I mean, that's a pretty far distance for our kids. So even if we were to consider doing it, it sounds like they're essentially. wouldn't be enough, kind of, savings to really justify that level of disruption, if I'm hearing you correctly. That's… that's correct, Mr.
So I hear that, I do, but I also think that just to echo back to the budget conversation, we are at the breaking point, and we know what the drivers. of our budgetary crisis are, and one of them is transportation, and I think the committee was really hoping that there was a way to get our hands around some of these transportation costs by changing. By rebalancing. And I'm not saying that lightly because I know. the disruption is real, and the love that everybody in this town has for the neighborhood elementary school is real, and that's true.
But I also think that we are running out of. options to balance the budget. And nobody's going to be comfortable, and we're just going to have to sit with that discomfort at some point. Not that I'm advocating changing it. What I am asking for is options. If the board receives an option, and the option looks horrible, and the board decides we're not going in that direction, fine. But I just think that you know I appreciate what you said, Mr. And I think that's true. That's the information we received. I would just like to know as we're going into this terrible budget cycle, and the next one's going to be worse, and the next one after that is going to be worse.
what choices do we have? Because… When your budget is, and you can throw something at me, Mr. Greenbaum, we are at 75% personnel in our budget. What percentage of our budget is made up of people? I was pretty close. you know the things that we can get our hands around to control costs are really limited. So while I think it might be might be a terrible idea. and it might not save any money, because, to your point, for example, my family lives very close to Rosa Middle School. My child has maybe walked there when she missed the bus. I'm not going to admit to that in public. I just did. She shouldn't be, because they shouldn't be crossing Crescent Road.
I mean, that's the thing, even though I'm within the limit, that's a hazardous route, and that's real for everybody who lives near 70 or 38 or Crescent, or any of these other roads that you don't want kids crossing on their way to school. So maybe there is. Maybe that's real, but I would just like to see it right now, just for my own sanity. As every board member sitting up here and online tonight is absolutely miserable and sick over these budget decisions we're making, just… I just need to know, like, what are… are there other choices? What are the other choices? Because I really do think that next year is going to be worse than this year.
I hate to be Debbie Downer, it's not usually in my mode, I'm usually the team optimist. But I think at this point everything's got to be on the table. And you know that that's where I am with that. And I I just think that. I I do think that, you know, understanding. the conversation about… Barton is real. I would like to get a better handle on exactly how many classrooms we're talking about and why. Why X number of classrooms and not Y number. And at the middle level, I understand that Rosa is well over capacity. But what are the options for solving that problem? What I would not want to do would be to say, hey, there's some less kids at back.
This year, let's shift a bunch of kids over there. And then three years from now, the board goes, oh, great, now that one's overcrowded, let's shift people around again. I don't think that's fair. I think the board began this conversation by saying we're solving problems for now and for the future. We're not interested on punting problems forward to a future board that I won't be sitting on. We're not interested in reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. If the answer here is that we simply need more classroom capacity at Rosa. That's fine. I just need to see… I need to understand that and see it written out. If the answer is that there's a more cost effective way to solve this problem in a different manner.
That's fine, too. But I just need to know that a future board 3 years from now, 5 years from now, is not going to look back and say they just kicked the can down the field. They didn't really solve it. Because I think all of us on the rebalancing committee, and thank you so much for leading it, Mr. Fain. that's not what we set out to do. We intended to solve the problem for the future. So I think that's really where I am with it. But we are coming up to your point on a timeline, Mr. Fain, and we. If we miss the deadline here, and we don't vote on potential additions, they're not going to be here in time for the overcrowding to be solved. So I think that's what we're looking for.
Thank you. Miss Palmer. Yeah, I'm very much in line with Mrs. Winters just said, and I think, you know, when we… when the board first saw the recommendation that was was put forth. I think we all, I personally was caught off guard and I said that at the time because my hope was that we would see recommendations. multiple recommendations and recommendations that really. were bold and forward-thinking and would solve some of the very significant problems.
It may not bear out that way in data, but my hope was that we could. take a meaningful look at what our district should look like moving forward to help solve some of these budget concerns, because they are not going to go away. So, you know, to your point, you know, I think we have a great opportunity with the bond interest. If the data shows that the right thing to do, and I think at Barton, I'm probably there, I think there's a need for space, period. I'm not fully convinced that that's necessary at the middle school level, and I just.
Because we only that as a finite pot of money, right? We get it once, and that's it. And I just want to make sure that we're not throwing good money at a problem that we're not really going to solve. And then have to deal with it again in 3 years, or 5 years, or whenever that is, you know, that'll be another board's problem, but I don't want to do that to another board, because I hate when that's done to us. Um, so I'm not personally at a place where I am at all ready to take a vote on what's been put forth. I think there… there is more information that I need. So I would just echo the requests that have been made. I want to look at, is there a possible way? And again, like, I hear the concerns about courtesy busing. You know, my kids, I'm pretty sure we're within two miles of Karusi and my kids would have to cross 38. So like I get it.
But we're in a year and a situation where it's just a whole menu of terrible choices that are going to hurt people, that give us all concerns, that are causing us all to lose sleep at night. So, let's look at the options that cause. Okay, even if it's 600 kids and 600 families, like, there needs to be a discussion that takes place. But nobody is getting out of this situation unscathed, so let's just lay it out on the table and figure out which of the bad choices we can all sleep with. You know, and live with. Um… Because there's just not a world where I am going to get fully comfortable with anything that is being proposed, whether it's budget, whether it's redistricting, you know, real bad choices that I just none of us want to have to make.
Um, so to the extent that we can… Go back… not back to the drawing board on rebalancing. I appreciate the work that's been done. But I just want to make sure that the decisions that we're being asked to make. or enough are good enough, are what we need. So I'll stop there. Thank you, Miss Palmer, and a comment to follow up that as well, because I agree with both you and Miss Winters. I think it's important for us to recognize the fact that adding classroom adds cost to the district. So we all agree that Barton needs additional space, and that's something.
that we were lucky enough to have this additional funding for, but building classrooms, even if it's 5 classrooms at Barton, and then additional classrooms at Rosa, that's teachers, that's additional staff. So that is some… that is an added cost, and the goal to this project was hopefully. I would say, at the very least, to be balanced at the end of the day, but it was essentially any additional cost would be going backwards in the case, and for, you know, what our goals were for this whole project. So thank you. I appreciate both of your sentiments on that, and I assume has her hand raised as well. I encourage any more discussion on this, Miss Stern.
I just wanted to kind of pitch this to Mr. Schimp. If you could clarify what you, you know, you've done before, but just to get in this meeting, as we're having these very, very difficult conversations and as our communities, you know, rightly so. concerned, raising questions about, you know, what we're going to be voting on in terms of a budget, because we're voting on cuts. Can you just talk a little bit about how could we possibly be talking about?
adding to a building in terms of the monies. Can you explain how the monies work regarding building onto a building versus, you know, an operating budget, an annual operating budget? You're asking from a… actually constructing the the. the site or Manning and putting people in? Constructing, kind of like the, the… I guess I'm… I know we talk about kind of different pots of money, so to speak. You know, there's kind of, like, finite costs, typically, and then there's operating budgets. So I guess more like from that.
Perspective one-time cost versus operating budget? Yeah, so what we had talked about was making use of the. the interest and investment earnings on the bond proceeds that have been invested, you know, since… December of 2022, um… you know, I think when I last reported as of the last arbitrage report, which was June of 2025, if you take out the federal tax liability, I think we were sitting on 23 million dollars. Um, that the district would have options with. Um, that would, you know, during this process, that's something that that came to light.
Um, as a way to not impact. Obviously, you know, we wouldn't be going back out to the taxpayers and asking for another referendum to construct. We can't use the already authorized bond funds from 2022 because they've already been dedicated for other purposes. So this was an opportunity where it wouldn't have an impact. on the taxpayer. As far as building and then putting teachers and things. Well, yeah, that certainly would be an additional operating cost, but if the kids. are coming. That's additional enrollment that we're going to have to educate anyway. So inevitably, it's going to increase class size.
already. I mean, it's just there's… it's an increase in aroma. We're gonna have to educate them, so we would have to figure that out. This is… this would just be able to maintain a level of consistency and. Hopefully keep class sizes where we've recommended. But one way or the other, if we don't construct them, we're going to have to educate them. Thank you, and just Mrs. Chiffain, a quick follow up question, if I may. Mr. She just could you go further a little bit, because you did this before in our meetings, but I just think it's helpful to kind of restate this. Um… Why wouldn't you recommend that we use the bond… the sale of the bond proceeds, the interest we've earned? Why wouldn't we use that to fill our budget gaps that we're facing this year, next year, etc? Yeah, I mean.
To be honest, that's really one of the major reasons why we're in the situation we're in, is we've used non-recurring one-time revenues to balance budgets and. kick the can down the road to the point now where our. surplus funds and fund balance have been depleted. $13 million of fund balance was dedicated in this year's budget. To balance it. I'm aggressively anticipating and hoping to make $3.75 million in 26-27.
the times of relying or band-aiding and… um, you know, balancing budgets and not making the difficult decisions has gotten to the breaking point. We do not… we are not creating enough recurring revenue. to pay and sustain our expenditures. It's that simple. So taking the bond proceeds to balance this budget is just pushing and kicking that can down further down the road, because when those bond proceeds are gone. We're going to be right back in this exact same situation again.
Thank you for explaining that again. Do any other board members have any questions or comments related to this? Okay, so I think for next steps, or where we are and how to move forward with this, there's still a lot of questions that we had and information that we're looking for. Hopefully, after we gain some of that information, we can have a little bit different or. maybe similar, but more robust discussion about what we're actually going to decide to do. We still need to schedule our community events. And I know, as Miss Winters had mentioned, we are hoping to be a little bit more prepared with the information for that time, as there will likely be a lot of questions.
Um, in that forum as well. Thank you, Mr. Fain. Does anyone else have anything to report any committees? Anything that you went to as a delegate of the board or representative of the board that you want to bring to the full board's attention? Seeing none, we're going to move on to our action agenda.
The superintendent recommends, and I move the following curriculum and instruction agenda items 19.1 through 19.4 inclusive. Do I have a second? Miss Stern, are there any questions? Mr. Shimp, can you please open the vote?
Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Greenbaum. Can you please move the Bnf agenda? The superintendent recommends, and I move the following action agenda items 20.2 through 20.5 as presented. Do I have a second? Miss Cummings, thank you. Any comments or discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Schemp, please open the voting. Mr. Schimp. I'm a yes to all, except I need to abstain from bill list number 6. Any payments to Rutgers.
Mr. Schimp, I am also a yes, but need to abstain on payments to Bancroft on bill number 6. Mr. Schimp. I'm a yes to all. I need to recuse on payments to Lenape Regional High School District on bill list number 6. Motion carries. Thank you. Ms. Stern, can you please move the HR agenda? Superintendent recommends, and I move the following 21.1 through 21.7 inclusive. Do I have a second?
Dr. Braddock, are there any questions? Mrs. Winters? Not a question, but I just want to recognize the retirement of Miss Debbie Cardin-Duff, who is a physical therapist in the district. She is my son's PT. And any of you who know Russell Knight Elementary School know that there are steps to get upstairs to where the the kids in the older grades attend, and Miss Card and Duff worked with Ben over and over and over again, climbing up and down those steps until he could do it.
And so that he could get upstairs to where the big kids go to class. Um, I think that… We talk a lot about. you know, people in the district, teachers, and we rightfully should, but there are so many other people in the district that take care of our kids and help them to do the things they need to do to be successful. And our therapists, PT, OT, speech, all of our therapists are a big part of that for our kids, so… Ms. Cardin-duff, I want to thank you for all the work that you did for my kid and all the kids helped them be successful in school. Have a wonderful retirement.
Mrs. Palmer. And I on 21.2 also want to call out to retirements at Carusi. So Mrs. Stressle, who is my kid's current ELA teacher, has been a phenomenal. influence in their lives, but especially Mrs. Seacrest, who is the orchestra director, not just a Karusi, but also at Rosa and at West, uh, told the kids last week that she is retiring, um, and I can tell you the group chat went crazy. Uh, she is the GOAT, according to the Orchestra kids at Carusi. I can attest to that.
I think, you know, my daughter is a violin player, and the personal growth and leadership that I've seen in her over the last three years is. in large part, I think, because of. you know, the role that Mrs. Seacrest has played in her life and given her leadership opportunities. Um, you know, we all know how special kind of the arts and music, like, we all talk about it, but this is… this is that difference in action, so congratulations especially to, uh, to Mrs. Seacrest, and I wish.
Both you and Mrs. Dressel, all the best in your future and in your next chapter. So thank you for all that you both do. Okay, any more questions, comments, congratulations, best wishes. Always a nice opportunity to do that. Seeing none, Mr. Shemp, can you call a vote, please?
Motion carries. Thank you so much, and moving on to the P&L agenda, Miss Palmer. Okay, the superintendent recommends, and I move the following policy and legislation agenda items. 22.1 through 22.5 as presented. Do I have a second? Mrs. Manzano, any board member questions, comments, Miss Palmer. I think there's a question from Mr. Fain.
I am so sorry, Mrs. Chervin, I didn't see you. Go ahead. That's okay. I'd like to call up a point of order and make a motion to pull out 22.5 pending the changes that I recommended earlier to the the calendars. Do I have it? I'm sorry, Miss Chufain, are you asking for it to be voted separately, or to be tabled? To be tabled. until the next meeting, just so those changes could be made.
until a particular date. Okay, so that motion requires a second and a vote. And can I ask for clarification before Mrs. Sure. I don't want to interrupt. Does the addition of that note require board action? I think, or can we just do that administratively? That can be done administratively. So, Mr. Chefain, do you still? I'm happy to entertain that motion. Absolutely. Do you still feel? Do you still want to do that based on.
that fact. I'm okay with that motion. But can I vote separately on that once the whole thing is put together? So do you want to vote? Are you asking to divide motion to divide the question to vote separately on that? So I guess so I I'll make a separate motion to divide the question or yes. So, when you divide the question, basically, you'd be voting no, I assume, on the calendar as presented at tonight's meeting. Is that what you're asking to do? I'm just trying to make sure. Yes. Okay, you want to vote now. So Miss Cherfain makes a motion to divide the question. Is there a second?
I will second her motion to divide the question. We're going to vote on that item, agenda item separately. Ms. Palmer, you have it. Okay, uh… So now Mrs. Mrs. Winters, we need a… vote on Mrs. Chervain's motion. Sorry, on the motion to divide the question, Mr. Fain made the motion. I second it. All in favor of dividing the question? The majority is in favor of a motion to divide the question. The motion carries. Ms. Palmer.
So now we need to move… Do I need to remove the agenda again, or just ask for a second on? my original motion. Why don't you move it again? So we're clear. Thank you. So the superintendent recommends, and I move. the following agenda items, policy and legislation agenda items 22.1 through 22.4 as presented. Do we have a second? Mrs. Stern. Board member questions, comments?
Okay, seeing none, Mr. Shim, can you open the vote on 22.1 through 22.4? Only. Mr. Schimp, I have to abstain as I was not present for. the prior meeting. for 22.
Noted motion carries. So now, um… I move… superintendent recommends, and I move… For discussion. What is the correct wording, Mrs. You're gonna move 22.5 and require a second. Okay. Um, so the superintendent recommends, and I move the following agenda item 22.5 approval of calendars as presented. Do I have a second? Mrs. Winters. discussion. Are there any questions?
for discussion. Dr. Braddock is the idea. Is the idea of 22.5 doesn't they are allowed today. They if 22.5 doesn't pass right now be retaken up again in two weeks. So I guess that's a procedural question. When would we be able… would we have to go back through another committee cycle? before we can revoke again. Okay, so we could entertain it at the next meeting, correct? Would there be Dr. Mahan, would there be an operational impact if this were to fail tonight?
I think the larger impact will be to our families who are trying to plan. We've been discussing the 2627 school year calendar for a few months, and we've made several changes over the last few weeks, or actually over the last few months, I think having a final iteration. tonight voted on would be appropriate for our entire community, and a change to just include early dismissal days. is very minor. Those dates are shared with the community every year. It's not something that we don't share. It's just not shared in this format. We've actually, I've actually already communicated with.
Miss Figlieta, who updates the calendars for me to include that change. We already have the dates, so we know the dates. So I anticipate that this will all be updated by tomorrow afternoon, so that we can publish the calendars. And then Dr. Mahan, when are the calendars published online? When will this when when would… The 2627-27, 28 calendars be published immediately. Okay. Other questions? Mr. Oh, Mrs. Stern.
Just a comment. As a spouse of a teacher, I can say that, you know, we sometimes search for the calendars online as we're trying to plan. By the way, our staff, our teachers, they're trying to plan their years as well. Obviously, the families are trying to plan their years as well. So I think what you're saying, Dr. Mahan, really resonates with me. I know it's my own personal experience. Um, so, you know, just wanted to add that in. Sorry, I turned my mic off. Any other questions or Mrs. Chiffain, I can't see you on my screen.
Any other questions or comments or concerns? Okay. No, thanks. Okay, seeing no further discussion, Mr. Shimp, can you I guess we'll do a roll call vote. Dr. Braddock. Yes, Mr. Fein. Miss Cummings. Yes. Mr. Greenbaum. Yes. Ms. Manzano? Yes. Ms. Palmer. Yes. Ms. Stern? Yes. Ms. Winters? Yes.
Motion carries. Thank you. There's nothing under governance for this evening. Is there any new business? Ms. Manzano. Please bear with me, I wrote down my thoughts real quick, just so I can keep them clear and concise. I just want to take a moment to express some concern about the proposed elimination of the elementary Spanish and computer science positions. As a board member, I fully understand our responsibility to balance our financial challenges and obligations with our educational priorities. At the same time, we also have a responsibility to ensure that those decisions do not compromise equitable access to high quality instruction for our students.
At the elementary level, world language instruction is expected to be consistent, sequential, and developmentally appropriate beginning in kindergarten. I think it's important that we are very clear on how that requirement will continue to be met if we move away from having dedicated staff. In the same way access to meaningful technology and computer science learning is no longer optional. It is an essential part of preparing students for the world they are growing up in. Speaking also as an educator, I know that both language instruction and computer science require specific content knowledge and intentional planning to be effective. These are not areas that can simply be absorbed without structure or expertise.
My concern is that without a clearly defined and supported plan, we risk diminishing the quality and consistency of these programs across our schools. I would urge us to take a very close look at whether there are viable alternatives that could preserve both the integrity of these programs and the expertise of the educators who currently deliver them. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Manzano. Any other board members have new business this evening?
Checking online. See any hands raised? I'm going to close new business and move to second public comment. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to provide input to the Board of Education on educational issues. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. However, statements that are abusive, obscene, or which demeanor are defamatory to any individual or any group of individuals will not be tolerated. As such, comments are disruptive to the orderly operation of this meeting.
Speakers wishing to provide the board with information which is not relative to the district's operations may communicate directly with the superintendent and the board president via email or other alternative means. Similar to first public comment, you can approach the microphone. Everybody gets 3 min. You just need to give us your name and municipality for second public comment. The only boundaries are that it has to be directly relevant to the operations of this district or under the authority of the Board of Education.
Got it? Oh, students, thank you, Mr. And if you are a student and you would like to speak. You may speak first by indicating that either standing up and identifying yourself as a student. I don't see any of them, but maybe I'll be surprised. Current students of Cherry Hill Public Schools. Or if there are any students online, if you could put an S after your name. I don't see any of those yet, but if you do, I will call on you before everybody else. and you should be doing your homework. Now it's dark out. I don't see any students, so I'm going to start first public. I'm sorry, second public comment in the room, like we always do. Mr. Schimp is going to run the timer for me. Everybody gets 3 min.
Please approach the microphone and give us your name and municipality. Hello, my name is Rachel Hain. I'm a Cherry Hill resident. Did I miss anything? Okay. I'm a parent also of two students at A Russell Knight Elementary and a teacher in the district as well. I'm here tonight with an observation and a question. The budget has forced some hard decisions for Cherry Hill Public Schools. As you know, many teachers have already been laid off, relocated. And surely many more changes are on the way. It is said that a total of 70 positions will be cut at all levels in the district to cope with the budget loss. The first round of layoffs and transfers made to inspire attrition were all teachers.
Upon examining public district records, I have observed that over the past 6 years, the number of educational assistants has increased by 10%. The number of teachers, including academic coaches, has increased by 6%. The number of building level administration has increased by 34% and the number of central office administration and staff has increased by 68%. This number represents an increase of 15 positions and an additional increase of $1.9 million in salaries over a six-year period. It might be worthwhile to note that the number of students enrolled this year is actually slightly less than six years ago.
Any good bookkeeper might tell you if your finances tighten, look at your biggest expenses first. Therefore, this begs the question, will there be cuts at all levels? Instead of just cutting programs for students like world language and computer science, instead of just reducing teachers that directly support students, instead of just increasing class sizes, will there be a real reduction or transfer to the biggest salaries in the budget? As a teacher, I am well aware of how hard it can be to be parted from the friends who you work with. Bonds are formed, and those relationships are real.
What I'm saying is, I understand if those in charge of making cuts find it difficult to make tough decisions, decisions that impact their day-to-day colleagues and friends, but heavy hangs the head that wears the crown. over a thousand staff members in the Cherry Hill public school system, as well as thousands of families and students, are watching and hoping that they will see their leaders demonstrate that cuts at all levels means that we must all share the burden. together in solidarity. Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your comment. Moving online. The first person, it says Laurie. If you can unmute and give us your name and municipality, you'll have 3 min. I mean. Yes, Laurie Neary, Cherry Hill first had very quickly like to put a note out to the community that Chasepta is having its family fun night at Payne Elementary on Thursday, and we will have Mr. Softie there. So if you sign in, your student will get a ticket for cone. cup or popsicle. Now to my other public comment and just a wonderful shout out to Miss Hain. My son had her. She was amazing, and I think she nailed everything that could be said about the budget and the cuts.
very aptly, so my hat off to her. Uh, then I'd also like to make a comment on elementary redistricting. And in hearing that conversation and the previous conversation, I have to say I didn't see any work done to explain the recommendation that was made. Um, that fact that we're talking about roses enrollment again is shocking when my husband and I stood at that podium in 2022.
and warned everyone of exactly where we would be. So to revisit again, frankly, isn't acceptable to me. Figure it out. The decision was made, and the ship has sailed. The district was warm what the numbers would look like, and here we are. As far as elementary balancing goes. I don't think the Barton or Kilmer community fully understand the impacts of having such massive elementary schools and its impact on outcomes. Increasing classes there to absorb enrollment without doing the hard work of looking at the entire district and just tearing down the walls and understanding what it looks like isn't acceptable to their students or their community, and we are doing them a disservice. Our most socioeconomically disadvantaged students by creating such massive schools.
And our bond was constructed in 22 for that interest money to go back to the taxpayer. So I still challenge that is an appropriate use of those funds. So I really urge that that be reviewed. I don't see the work. The district is actually less enrolled than it was in 1998, after looking at 30 years worth of data, folks. We have shed students on the east side, and we are underutilizing those assets and refusing to look at it. That's an easy way out at the taxpayer when we're telling them we're going to cut their teachers and their programming. It's not an acceptable answer. The work needs to be done.
Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room. Who else would like to make second public comment this evening? Hi, Wally Batista, CHEA President, Cherry Hill. CHA's mission is clear. To work for the welfare of students, the advancement of education, and the improvement of instructional opportunities for all. That mission guides our work and shapes the partnerships that we strive to maintain with this Board of Education and with district administration. We believe the best outcomes for students happen when CHEA works collaboratively.
Even when we do not agree on every issue, we remain committed to partnership, problem solving, and shared responsibility for the success of our schools. The collaboration is reflected in practical ways. Through the flex option, certificated staff can fulfill requirements by completing an NJEA workshop at no cost to the district, saving tens of thousands of dollars this year alone. Those professional learning opportunities also help CHEA members strengthen their practice, which benefits students in the classroom. This is one example of how CHEA helps reduce costs while still supporting strong teaching and student success.
We also believe that we must be careful about how this budget crisis is presented to the public. When rising expenditures are framed around employee health benefits and contractual salary increases, it can suggest that CHEA members or the collective bargaining agreement caused the crisis. That is not fair or accurate. CHEA members are the people who teach, support, mentor, and care for Cherry Hill students every day. Competitive salaries and healthcare benefits are necessary to attract and retain qualified staff.
the salary enhancement reached in 2024, and the sidebar providing family medical coverage for non-tenured teachers were necessary steps to keep Cherry Hill competitive. The district has proposed cutting 70 positions, and those losses will not stay on a spreadsheet. eliminating those positions will increase workloads and reduce access to programs and services. That will affect the quality of educations our students receive. Now, as I said at the March 24th meeting, we must be willing to have courageous conversations about how best to structure our schools to provide services more efficiently and maximize the resources we have.
Revisiting enrollment balancing is an opportunity to make sustainable decisions that strengthen our schools for the long term. We remain committed to working with the board, district administration, and our community to protect what matters most, our students. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the line. The next caller is Laura Einhorn. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. Anne Einhorn, Cherah Hill, New Jersey. I'm calling to speak about your operational excellence update.
Particularly regarding redistricting. I'd like to know when will the board rediscuss elementary enrollment balancing and recognize the significant and erroneous numbers contained within the current. If you should move forward with the recommendation to build additional classrooms. How are we paying for this in a budget crisis year? And what is the projected cost to the budget for the classrooms that we have to cover? I am adamantly against any voting on rebalancing on a flawed grip report that doesn't include where all the anticipated pre-K students will go, and the opening of the massive Hampton Roads development projected to open by August of 2026.
If salaries are such a large part of the budget, what is the protected cost to staff these rooms alone? I feel you will be doing our community a disservice and yourselves as board members. Voting on building expansion based on inaccurate enrollment numbers. I do agree with Ms. Neary that. Where was the discussion? Where were the numbers? How did you get through that process? We, as the public do not feel that we've heard that, and I don't think that the board has heard that.
I would like to recommend, and I do agree with Miss Batista. you know, to throw everything on the salary. Salaries has always been a bit large part of our budget. But when you look at adding more classrooms, you're talking about adding more salaries, which causes a decisive reaction from the community. against the very valuable teachers that we already have. This is wrong. I would like to go for an idea that under open enrollment policy 511.2 that when.
Children are requested to move to the school that has rooms, the parents must provide transportation. So how does that apply to the East West? open enrollment when and how much does it cost transportation? to send those kids from one high school to the other. If our elementary school parents have to provide transportation, why aren't we asking that of the very parents that want their children to go to a different high school?
Um, and during the discussion about budgeting, I'm going to ask once again that when you throw out the acronyms such as DCA, you need to explain to us. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room. Who would like to speak next? Just give us your name and municipality. You have 3 min. My name is Jackie Woods. I am a computer science teacher in the elementary schools in Cherio. I have been teaching the children of this community for 22 years.
I love my job. I love teaching computer science. I'm standing here tonight because the budget you are going to vote on would eliminate the elementary computer science program. I want to start by saying something you may not expect. I understand the deficit. I understand three consecutive years of state aid cuts. I understand the 10 million dollar health care surge. These are real. No one manufactured them. And I do not envy the decisions you do face. But I'm here to tell you directly and without apology that eliminating computer science is the wrong answer.
In 2022, the people of Cherry Hill voted 8,831 to 4,011 to approve the largest school bond referendum in New Jersey history. $363 million. Every homeowner took on. 400 extra dollars a year because they believed in the future of our schools. The bond funded new classrooms, new infrastructure, spaces built specifically for the hands-on technology integrated instruction that we deliver every day.
those classrooms are about to be emptied of us. A technology-ready classroom without a technology teacher is just a room. This district has invested in computer science for years. It hired dedicated technology teachers. It brought in technology coaches, it built curriculum. It sent us to professional development. They brought us materials like amazing coding robots. We assess any and all resources available. We grew a program.
You are being asked to destroy what we built together. Morristown kept its computer science teachers. Haddenfield kept its computer science teachers. Mount Laurel kept its computer science teachers. Every comparable district in South Jersey protected this program. Cherry Hill is preparing to be the exception while still raising taxes. The children of Cherry Hill deserve better than this proposal. The taxpayers of Cherry Hill deserve better.
And we, the teachers who stayed in this community and built something real deserve better. We have other ideas which you will hear, which you will hear tonight, and I ask you to listen, and then vote now. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the line. The next person is a caller with a phone number ending in 7, 8, 8. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. You have 3 minutes.
Dr. Podowitz, we can't hear you. My name is Jeff Podowitz, I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. There is an article today on New Jersey Spotlight News about the NJDOE and special education. It's entitled, Perfect Storm of Awful. I suggest you all kind of read that article. It's very, very interesting. The very first year of preschool expansion. Alright, with much fan for the fair, the acting governor promised us $3.4 million in expansion aid. We only received about a million.
Alright, the state keeps on… just keeps on cheating our community and our kids. State has no problem about having us spend money on preschool expansion. In districts like Cherry Hill. Alright, we are being… our services are being cut. And our taxes are being raised. Services are being cut, except for mandated services, state services, to preschool expansion. We hire more administrators, we have to hire nurses, we have to.
hire so many more people that the state demands. Alright? And we don't have the room, and a lot of districts, they are losing populations. We are gaining them. And you have 15 kids in a class, not 28. Alright, that 4th and 5th graders are going to have 15 kids in a class with a teacher and a paraprofessional. That is ridiculous. That's where the money go, is Munk is going. Money is being filtered down. Money from our capital reserve is being filtered into building classrooms. It's being filtered to supply those classrooms with desks and other things. They… the state, they get prime.
Everything. And a lot of administrators, too, are going into that. It's time to stop that. In the end, we'll save money, we can repurpose some of the classrooms already, we'll make it up, but keep the teachers we have. You're gonna be… we have to double the amount of teachers, double the amount of nurses, double the amount of everything. We only have half the amount, we're gonna have 1,700 kids. Think of all the teachers that we're gonna have for that. Think of all the busing we're gonna have for that. It's gonna cost money. Everything is gonna cost more. It's time to stop that. And maybe we could stop the bleeding, because the state will eventually cut all our expansion aid in about… in about 2 years. God knows what we're gonna get. Lra keeps on getting cut. So I'm asking you.
Stop this preschool expansion. We can't afford it, and save teachers jobs. Alright, and I just save everything. Please stop this. Now, that's where a lot of money is going. Thank you, Dr. Potowicz. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, please approach the microphone and give us your name and municipality. Good evening. My name is Eileen Steitle Collingswood.
And I teach computer science to elementary school students in Cherry Hill. I've been teaching the children of this community for 26 years. I love my job. I love teaching computer science. I want to take 3 min to tell you what I actually do, because I suspect there is. Misconception about what is being cut, and I want to correct it. Computer science in elementary school is not just a typing class. It is not just playing games on a Chromebook. It is the deliberate, structured development of computational thinking, the ability to break a complex problem into manageable steps, recognize patterns.
Design a systematic approach and learn from failure. I'm sorry, bees are not coding skills. They are thinking skills, and the research is clear. Children who develop computational thinking in their early years show measurable improvement in mathematical reasoning. reading and comprehension and science inquiry. The skills transfer across every subject. They compound over time. They matter far beyond any single class period. New Jersey has recognized this in law. In 2018, the legislature passed.
PL 2018, Chapter 81, Establishing a Computer Science Teaching Endorsement in New Jersey. That is not how the state treats enrichment. That is how the state treats foundational instruction. Governor Murphy's computer science state plan calls for computer science standards in every grade. Kindergarten through 12, not just high school. Every grade, because waiting until high school is waiting too long. I have watched a child who struggled in every traditional academic setting, discover for the first time that she is brilliant because the problem that defeated her.
In reading clicked perfectly when she approached it computationally. I have watched students from every background find something in this subject that is uniquely theirs. That is what you are proposing to eliminate. The board's own Portrait of a graduate promises students who are innovative creators of technology. technology, not just passive users, students ready for a future economy in a world yet to exist. That is your promise to this community. Computer science teachers are how you keep it.
New Jersey high schools offer computer science in 86% of buildings, but only 8.8% of students actually take it. The gap exists because students who had no foundational exposure in elementary school arrive in high school without the confidence or background to engage. What we do in the elementary grades is not a prelude in a high school elective. It is the foundation without which the elective is irreversible. Without us, without elementary computer science, who teaches that foundation? No one.
And the deficit compounds year after year in every classroom that follows. Please vote no. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to clarify that we're not voting on it tonight. Okay, I just wanted to make sure if you all were waiting here for the big finish. There's a break, and then the finale is in two weeks. Okay. Going back online, the next person, it's… M. Ritano?
If you can unmute and give us your name and municipality. My name is Melissa Ratano. I'm a teacher at Johnson Elementary School. Although the health benefit costs are a significant driver of budgetary increases. Public employees do not receive free health insurance. I have been a teacher in Cherry Hill for 22 years. And I pay $789.84 a month for my family plan.
Thank you for your comment. Okay, um, good evening. Give me one second, I'm just going to restart my timer. Sorry. Sorry, I'm doing this the hard way. Go ahead. All right, good evening. My name is Jennifer Henry. I'm from Voorhees Township. I am your last computer science teacher to speak tonight. I'm sure you're very happy about that. No, we love our computer science. Okay, good. Well, let's make sure it'll show us how much you love us in two weeks. Okay, I'm sorry, back. Timer's going.
I've had the privilege of teaching children in Cherry Hill for 31 years. It has been a pleasure, and I have enjoyed every minute of working with our team, and you can see how passionate and dedicated we are about the computer science program at the elementary level. I would like to speak about how Cherry Hill compares to neighboring districts, because I believe that context is important as you make decisions. Superintendent Morton shared that even with proposed class size increases, Cherry Hill class sizes will remain smaller than those in neighboring Morristown.
and Haddonfield. Since those districts were mentioned, I took some time to look closely at their overall programming as well. Morristown Township spends approximately $24,275 per pupil and maintains a full K-12 computer science scope and sequence. Haddonfield, which ranks 10th in the state, spends $19,030 per pupil and continues to support K-12 computer science. and technology programs. Mount Laurel Township spends $20,934 per pupil and maintains K-8 standards-aligned computer science, and Voorhees Township also includes elementary computer science in its encore rotation.
What stands out to me is that these districts have continued to prioritize computer science instruction for their students. As Cherry Hill considers changes, it may be helpful to reflect on how our designs align with the practices of districts we often look to for comparison. I also want to share a broader perspective. Cherry Hill is a district that families actively choose when families explore communities, they look closely at both class size and program offerings. Maintaining strong forward-looking programs like elementary computer science.
helps reinforce the value and competitiveness of our schools. I understand that these are complex decisions, and I appreciate the challenges involved in balancing a budget. My hope is that we can continue to find ways to preserve programs that prepare our students for the world they are growing into. Cherry Hill has always been a district that competed at the highest level, eliminating a program that every comparable district has protected. is not a hard choice. History will not remember this budget line. It will remember what the board chose to protect and what it chose to abandon. When the children of Cherry Hill needed it most.
more sound protected their computer science teachers, as did Haddonfield and Mount Laurel. In two weeks, you will decide whether Cherry Hill does too. We have built something real in this district. We are asking that you not destroy it. Vote no for our students. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.
going back online, the next person is Kristen D'Amico. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. You have 3 min. You're fine. Yes. Hi, am I unmuted? Did that work? Okay, good. Thank you. Sorry. Yes, I am a my name is Kristen D'Amico. I'm a Cherry Hill resident. I have 3 children that will go through the Cherry Hill School Districts. The first ones in middle school now, my second is in elementary. And my third is Thor. So he's up and coming. But obviously, you know, the idea of, you know, exactly what our computer science teachers have come on and said, what Miss Manzano came on and said.
the thought of giving up, and I think somebody said this earlier, what we give up, we cannot get back. We might not be able to get it back. And to eliminate such a crucial and pivotal, I mean, based on all the recommendations, I mean, New Jersey Education Association and the 2020 New Jersey Learning Standards for World Language alone, I mean, all of these things. indicate that we should have essential and intentional components with world language, with computer science. This is the way our world is. This is where we're going, and to give that up at K-5 at this point, I mean, how will we get it back? Will we get it back? Could we ever?
And then how do we compare to our neighboring school districts? And that forever puts Cherry Hill in a position to maybe be behind in that. So I just wanted to, you know, come up and say that. And I hope it is a no. I hope my all three of my kids get to have the same experience that, you know. that their sister had, who's already in middle school and you know, I hope we can keep those programs. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room. Is there anyone else who would like to make second public comment this evening?
Please approach the microphone. Hi, good evening. My name is Chris Rothman, and I'm a Cherry Hill resident and a Thomas Payne, Rosa and West alum. I appreciated hearing all the public comments regarding the gravity of the budget situation this evening, and I also appreciated receiving the budget transparency email. However, I felt that it was insufficient, as it did not describe the impact on a school-by-school level, as it doesn't seem like the changes will be felt equally by all students.
As a mom to current Thomas Payne first and second graders, they will not experience a classroom increase of one to two kids. They will experience a classroom increase of 8. That's an incredibly different learning environment. I'm troubled that we're increasing elementary classroom size while at the same time losing Spanish and computer science. and expanding preschool education to an additional 180 students in 12 classrooms, as noted this evening, with a very manageable 15 per class student.
When we're making hard choices, why would we choose to spread ourselves thin across 14 grades instead of bulking up. Our standard across 12 as best we can. As much as I support preschool education, public preschool is extra credit. And right now we have to focus on our standard coursework. Additionally, I understand the cap moves from 22 to 24, but what percentage of elementary classrooms met their cap of students this last year? I understand that this will be occurring because of the gravity of this situation, but I want to make sure that the pain is felt equally across all schools. Can the numbers be updated in that sheet to reflect the impact of class size per school, and especially the elementary school level?
Lastly, how will the district be tracking the impact of these classroom changes? I reviewed the test scores, I'll admit, not my favorite metric. For the spring 2024 to 2022 data as the last jump in class sizes occurred for our fourth and fifth graders that year. They went to 26 per room. The results were not good. They dropped in ELA, math. And the other one, which at 9 o'clock, I'm blocking them. Yeah, thank you. But, based on the comments this evening regarding the state budget allocation to South Jersey, wouldn't it be helpful to go to state representatives with concrete data on how the impact of all these budgets.
of all of the funding decisions are having on our students. So how are we going to track all of this? If we're going to end up with these classroom changes, how are we going to track how it's impacting our students? Are we going to use test scores? Are we going to use disciplinary actions? Are we going to use. how it's impacting the teacher's sanity. Anything. But if we have to go to our state reps, you need to go to them with something. So if this is gonna… what's going to happen over the next two years, how are we going to track it? Thank you. Thank you for your comment.
going back online. The next caller is Alana Yaris. It's your turn. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. You have 3 min. Alana, Yarish, Perry Hill, chair of the Fair Funding Committee, a division of Zone Pta on Thursday evening, April 16th at 7 Pm. Zoom only. We will be having a fair funding meeting where we'll be discussing the long-term goals of how the. Funding the state impacts Cherry Hill residents. Our long-term goals and next steps from here. The fair funding. If you need information about how to join the meeting, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram or email fairfundingchps@gmail.com.
Um, the FAIR Funding Committee has been doing Fair Funding Fridays and asking people to submit testimony to the Assembly Budget Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. Anyone who has spoken tonight at public comment or will be speaking, please email your personal testimony to abudget hearings at njleg.org and SBA budget hearings at NJLeg.org. These are testimonies that go to everyone in the state on the budget committees. They read every single testimony that comes in, tell them how the continuous cutting of funding to Cherry Hill is affecting our students, is affecting our teachers, is affecting our residents.
Because if they don't hear from us, they're not going to help us in the future. They haven't heard from enough of us and they need to hear from more of us. So please don't just speak at a board meeting. Please share your public testimony with the state, because although our board members are here to represent all of us and our administration represents us. The one thing that they hear over and over again from the state representatives is that they want to hear from the almost 80,000 residents that live in Cherry Hill. They don't want to hear from the nine board members who we've elected or the however many administrators.
We have, they want to hear from everyone. So anything that you've said tonight publicly at this board meeting, they're not going to watch the board meeting, but they will read your testimony if you can please write it down and email it. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anyone else you would like to make second public comment tonight? Really? All right, Michael Nussbaum, Cherry Hill. I want to raise several connections concerned to about special education, staffing and transparency.
First, the district continues to talk about expansion and long-term planning, while families and staff are hearing about larger class sizes and greater staffing strain. Those things do not go together. If we are building and expanding, then we should be talking about smaller class sizes, not larger ones. Even in co-taught classrooms, inclusion can become chaotic if the room is too large and staff is too stretched. Inclusion should be treated as not as an afterthought, but as both an educational budget and budget priority. We must strive to exhaustively find other sources of aid to fill in gaps.
Extraordinary aid, for example, can reimburse high costs in-district special ed placements above the threshold, with a higher reimbursement rate of specifically 90% of costs above $40,000. When students are educated with non-. disabled peers. I don't know if you're all aware of this. at the same time, there are signs of real staffing pressure. The district is relying on multiple additional class payments at Beck, including several in special education, and that should be taken seriously.
When schools are already under strain, the answer should not be larger classes or less direct supports for students. Teachers, special ed staff, and paraprofessionals with students who are with students several hours a day. Okay, they are the people who do the daily work with the students. And you know, it's like you're you're asking an empty factory to keep producing. On paper, these services may still exist, but in practice, the system is delivering it is weaker. And if reductions are being considered, then top heavy admin structure should be examined before the district staff.
who are closest to the students every single day. And, you know, I think, personally, I'm always limited to these 3 minutes or an email with just a, um. Thank you, kind of a reply. Um, I would like the opportunity to voice, you know, some of my ideas with the board, whether it be through CPAG or whatnot. Third, I want clarification about the, um… special ed consultant. It's on the on the agenda. My understanding is that this consultant was previously approved, and is now brought back for revised hours to assist with compliance, and county monitoring report and state special ed regulations.
Simple question is, what exactly is this for, and what specifically will be reviewed? Um, that matter brings us to the Independent Special Ed audit, okay, with 236 responses. Is that in response to to that? And I brought up this issue in the past. Okay, thank you. Thank you for your comment. going back to the line, the next person is Timothy Casale. It's your turn. I don't know if I said that wrong. Casal, I'm sorry, Timothy. Timothy Casal.
That's what happens when you take too much Italian in high school. That's okay, thank you very much. And it is Italian, yeah, right? You've got 3 min. Uh, so I'm here representing Johnson Elementary School. I'm a teacher at Johnson Elementary School. I'm also the current VP, uh, elementary VP of this Cherry Hill Education Association, and I'm going to talk a little bit about. See the CHEA pride and FAST Committee, and what it has done for our district over the past 5 years. I was the chair of that committee.
before becoming the VP. Chea or Cherry Hill Education Association has provided over $225,000 in funding over the past five years to support programs that benefit our students. members in the community. These monies are used for such events as the Kingston and Rosa Mindfulness Nights, a series of nights highlighting student and family activities related to mindfulness through academic activities. Barton STEM nights and days focusing on STEM-based theme activities completed by the whole school community in the evenings and completed by families.
Multicultural nights at Sharp, Johnson, and West, highlighting the diverse cultures of our Cherial community and presentations, food, dancing, and performances. Literacy nights at Payne, Johnson, West, Woodcrest, Hart, Sharp, and Cooper, focusing on reading and writing in a theme setting. Getting families, students, and staff working together to build community through literacy. Numerous school and district math nights explaining new curriculum and highlighting activities that our students complete every day, being taught to our families by the CHA members in the buildings.
Kilmer's Alex's Lemonade Stand going on its 19th year. Rosa, Carusi, and Beck author visits, providing our students with an opportunity to meet, discuss, and learn from famous authors of some of their favorite age-appropriate books. Some are reading books provided to each student. of their choice to all incoming sixth graders over the last 4 years. And CHA has financially supported the Star Games each year since 2021. This year, we have and continue to provide over 50,000 dollars in funding to similar events throughout the year in all of our schools. I just wanted to take a few minutes to highlight those those activities going on in our district that happen every single year.
Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room. Is there anyone else who would like to make second public comment this evening? Please approach the microphone and give us your name and municipality. Rick Short, uh, Cherry Hill. I was just gonna compliment Dr. Braddock. I believe he's right. We shouldn't have a student flying around a drone. Let's just call in the Cherry Hill police. I'm sure they would love to help out at the event. Um, it's a really bad idea to have a kid flying a drone over a vent. We really need the police to do it. I'm sure they'll volunteer their time. Alright, let's get down to the budget here, folks. Ladies and gentlemen…
On April 28th. Uh, it will be the biggest vote. that you ever make. You know, I would really love to know the cost of busing for pre-K. I think it's like, I have rough numbers, it's in the millions that this cost is driving us crazy here. Also, I just noticed on the sheets that we spent $377,200 for Black History Month.
Payroll. Black History Month payroll like that's like 4 teachers jobs, ladies and gentlemen. And what the heck is this? 229,200 for. Um… Promising Practices. Is this helping our… No, I don't think it really is. And I want to go back to what Mr. Schiff was saying, that we can use the funds from the bond interest. He's he's saying it's kicking it down the.
kicking the can down the road. So the question becomes is, uh… there's gonna be cuts, whether it's 72, 33. 20? 10? Is it worth saving 10 teachers jobs? I think it is. That's why I would encourage you to vote no. I think it's worth saving seven teachers jobs. But you technically could save 33 teachers jobs at $90,000 each, and if you use the 3 million from the bond interest, which would leave you with another, say, 6 million.
You know, Madam President, you said it tonight. You're good. You hate being Debbie Downer. She said it! And it's gonna be next year, it's gonna be the same thing. So I would say… Save some of the teachers! We can't save 72. Maybe you don't think 33. But I would encourage you. It would show… that you care. It really would. It would show the community that you care about your teachers. It's gonna be something. Like I said. So it's a big vote!
It's the biggest vote you'll ever make. As a board member. Don't kick the can. Too far. But kick the can. Don't lose teachers. They're too valuable. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back online. The next caller is Megan P. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. You have 3 min.
We don't hear you. Make sure that you're unmuted. Megan P, we still don't hear you. Alright, I'm gonna go back to the room, and it might help if you hang up and then call back in and raise your hand. Sometimes that resets it. Um, going back to the room, is there anybody else you'd like to make second public comment this evening?
I don't see anybody in the room going back online. Is there anyone else for second public comment this evening? I don't see anyone in the room. I don't see anyone online, so I'm going to close second up. Megan, you are back. Please unmute. You have 3 min. Give us. You made it. Give us your name and municipality. Megan, we still can't hear you.
That was actually pretty fun. Megan, if you turn up, I see that you're trying to unmute. Maybe if you turn up the volume. We still can't hear you. You can call in with a phone number, or if you want, you can always email us your comment. We do read all of our emails that we get. From community members.
I'm going to give it a few more minutes. Is there anyone else in the room? Anyone else online? Right? I'm going to close second. Oh, so close. Megan, come back. She was right there. Bear with me, everybody. I'm gonna try to give this last caller their moment. Everybody's been waiting online. Megan, are you there?
So sorry, can you hear me now? Yeah, so exciting! So, there's pressure now. We can hear you! Is that you, Meg Perrone? Yes, it is. Hi. So sorry about that. I hate my computer. Hi. Give us your full name and municipality. Um, sorry, my name is Megan, I live in Cherry Hill. I'm a parent, but I also work at the school. I wanted to address, of course, the budget cuts. 1st, I just wanted to let the board know I do not envy the position you're in. This this stinks all around, and I know that no decision is going to be.
uh, easy, or we're all gonna… something has to give. Most of what I plan to say was already covered by Mrs. Hain earlier. Everything she said was spot on. I wanted to ask if the board has looked at what the percentage of staff is that's in administration and leadership, as opposed to the actual teachers and those working directly. With students. Uh, those positions tend to have way higher salaries than teachers. And it seems to me very top heavy. I am wondering if we can't consolidate positions to remove the excess.
Um, if you eliminate a few of them, you will have entirely more money to play with than with just teachers who make significantly less. Um, the next thing I wanted to talk is about eliminating Spanish and computer science. I really am upset and heartbroken about this. It is so important to them. You have no idea how excited the kids are for these classes, first off, but second off.
When it comes to language, how much easier it is to learn that when you are a child, when you're younger, and your brain is able to absorb that information. It's literally studied that how much easier it is for a child to learn a language. And in our world, we need… we need to learn languages. So that, I think is a huge disservice. As far as computer science, again, they adore this class and we need to have kids learn how to properly use a computer for something other than YouTube.
That is very necessary in the world we live in. Uh, and finally, just speaking as a staff member, the morale at the school is just so sad and low. Understandably, teachers are heartbroken. Uh, you're gonna… you're gonna convince a lot of people to possibly look at other districts. for jobs, we are going to lose some really good people, and it's just these are wonderful people. They love your kids. We need to show them more respect.
Thank you for your comment. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to make second public comment? Seeing no one in the room, and seeing no one online, I am now going to close second public comment. I do want to thank everybody who made public comment this evening, and I just want to explain that. the way that public comment works is that we take your comments, and we take notes. It's not a back and forth between the board and the community. That does not mean that we didn't hear you. That's just not the way public comment works at a board meeting. It's your opportunity to come and tell us the board.
needs to hear from community members and teachers and families about the impacts of. The proposals that are on the table and the decisions that we're going to have to make. Um, if there are people who were unavailable tonight or couldn't come to our meeting, please encourage them to email the board. We do not see, and we cannot respond to comments on social media. Board members are not allowed to comment on social media on any kind. of district business. If you use social media post, if you private message us, we cannot respond. So please, the best way in our computer science teachers can help us, use your email.
email the board at their official email addresses. Nothing else is you're not going to get a response in any other way, because board members are unable to respond to you. We cannot respond from our personal cell phones or anything like that. Everything that comes to the board needs to come through our official email address, because it's all a government record subject to. public records law. So that is my speech. I hope that made sense to everybody and I thank you all for coming out tonight. Your passion was evident. The next thing on our agenda is board member activity. This is when board members get to talk about things that we have done since our last board meeting being out and about in the district, and I'm going to start on this side with Miss Cummings.
Sorry, do you want me to start with Ms. Manzano? No, it's okay, I can… I'll wing it. She can do it. Well, first I want to start by thanking all of the teachers who came out to offer public comment tonight. We hear you, and we feel you, and to my board colleague, Miss Manzano. Thank you so much for speaking your voice. Moving on, um, as far as engagement this week, or the last couple weeks, I guess, I did attend, and I'm going to let somebody else talk about this, because I have something else to talk about. I did attend the SUFS media preview on the 8th at Cherry Hill High School West, along with Miss Manzano and Mrs. Winters, so…
One of you can talk about that. But I also attended the public policy expo with Mrs. Michiosa's class, eighth grade social studies class at Beck Middle School on Friday. So if you're not familiar with what the Public Policy Expo is, it's students who work on this project over the course of a few months, and it's a combined grade with social studies and ELA. So they research a problem that they care about.
And then they design a realistic policy solution, and they have to consider important factors, such as who would enforce the policy, how would it be funded, and what benefits or challenges it might create. So I got to walk around and engage one-on-one. With probably 30 or 40 eighth graders. They all had a 30-second pitch where they told me what their policy was, who would enforce it, um. where it would begin, how it would apply, and why it is important and needed. And you, you know, we heard things, um, like.
cell phone bans, we heard things about immigrations and customs enforcement, as well as recycling and EPA. But there were some really interesting ones like surrogacy, and then there was also a student who had a big policy initiative on AI. So, they… some of them had letters, some of them had websites, and I just want to warn you, board members, they're our future, and they're coming for our seats, and it's going to be great when they get here. Um, so… Stay tuned. It was really great. And I thank Mrs. Michiosa for inviting me.
Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Moving on to Ms. Palmer. I'm going to set my 3 min. A little bit of a quieter month for me since the last meeting. I, uh, was fortunate to be able to attend Multicultural Day at High School West. Which feels like it was ages ago, because I think it was March 26th, I have in my notes. Um, but it was, it was great to just have an opportunity to spend, I think I was there for about an hour, just taking in. the multicultural clubs that exist at West, I got to play bocce to taste some food, um, watch a little dancing, so it was, uh, it was, it was heartwarming. Um, I want to echo, you know, Mrs. Cummings' comments, just that I appreciate the thoughtful.
comments that were made tonight. Um, again, that has been heard, and thank you to Ms. Manzano for. having the courage to say what many of us at the board table are thinking. Thank you. Miss Stern. I also had a chance to attend multicultural Day at West, and I saw our amazing student reps over there, and I want to thank you both for making it, you know, an effort to show me the the tables that you and the the clubs that you're involved with and to make sure I got the amazing food that was there. So it was. It was a fantastic day.
It represents, you know, again, some of the best of what we have to offer. I do also, you know, there's no way we can sit up here and not make comments about the painful situation we're in with the budget and Mrs. Winters is raising her eyebrows at me. And I'm just going to say that. Um, this is Guilflynn's looking at me too, so board member activity is the topic. The activity is the conversations we've been having many, many, many about the budget. I'll go there. Um, I just want to say, um, along those lines, that, um.
you know, this is my 5-year, 4-month mark on the board, and the longest. I'm now the longest serving board member, um, before being on the board, I attended fair funding meetings. I testified multiple times at many hearings. I had the privilege of meeting with legislators, and I just have to say, you know. We are in a really off… this is an awful, awful situation for everybody involved, and most importantly, obviously, we have to look at the full view impact. We can't look at anything in a silo, unfortunately. We hear everything we're we consider all the pieces.
As a parent, as a spouse of a teacher, I am intimately experienced with those lives as a parent, a computer science is really important to one of my children. I appreciate that so much, and we take it all into consideration. I want to tell you, we hear you, we care passionately. We volunteer our time to do this. The people who need to hear from you are majority leader Greenwald and our new governor and people who make decisions, who we have met with again and again and again.
But we have testified to, advocated to Alana Yars is spot on when she says they don't care what we say generally. We had one successful year of our efforts really paying dividends and really, really, really were felt heard by our one. legislator. But other than that, the community. Go to them, write to them, meet with them, call them on Fair Funding Friday. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Greenbaum. Can you complete the assignment and discuss board member activity burn.
Thank you. So I already spoke about some of the, um… Some of the groups that I met with with CPEG and with fair funding to talk about the budget. Once more, I'll put in a plug for the Fair Funding Committee meeting this Thursday. Uh, at 7pm, you can find the information on Facebook. There'll be discussions on what options we have for advocating. Many of the things that Ms. Stern said. Anything we can do to get in our legislators ear, let them know how this is impacting our schools, our students, our staff.
Um… Yeah, I think that's it. Thank you. So I went to the Supps media event. But I'm going to let Miss Manzano talk about that. She's the theater teacher. Um, I also went to Multicultural Day at High School East, which is pretty amazing. I saw Dr. Birdie there. Um, and I got to see the activities in both gyms.
And I also got to go into the East Auditorium, which apparently no longer has any seats anymore, according to Mr. Schimp. So the seats I sat in are all gone now. It's being ripped out as we speak. But I got to see some of the performances. And honestly, I was blown away by the performances at East. multicultural day. It was really a testament to the amazing diversity of our schools and the cultures that exist, and the pride that students have in bringing it forward and sharing with their peers. things that they've created. They choreograph these things on their own. They put so much work and time and effort into it, and it was just a beautiful thing to be a part of. So thank you to Dr. Birdie and the East staff for letting me be a part of Multicultural Day.
Um… I think that's all I have. Miss Manzano. I also attended the SUPS meeting event with Miss Cummings and Mrs. Winters, and I just want to thank all of the students that are involved in every aspect of the production. The students spoke so eloquently to the members of the press that were there. They were so excited to share what they've been working on. And I think it's really important for the community to see. I think it's important for your. Um, mothers, for your daughters, for your sons, for your grandmothers, um, to see this show, um, at this point of our lives in 2026. Um… Oh, there was a proclamation by Jen Fleischer. That was excited and Pam Lampitt was there. See, you guys should have spoken about this, not me. I'm excited to attend the middle school event for SUFS on Friday, so hasn't happened yet, but I will be there as well.
So with Miss Palmer. So thank you so much. Thank you. And I heard. So they asked. women in the community to record. a little 60-second spot about what the 19th Amendment means to you. the women on the board did it. I know some women of town council did it. I heard when we were there for the media event that they got former Governor Whitman. and current Governor Cheryl to record a spot for it. So this is huge over at high school West. It's really just a wonderful thing happening in our community.
I know that it's overwhelming sometimes because things can seem… I think Adam and I keep saying the theme of 2026 is two things can be true at the same time. There are wonderful… there are things that we're struggling with right now, and there are also wonderful things happening in the community, and I think where I am right now is I'm going to try to go support the things that matter. in all aspects of the district, because everybody out there is doing really great work, despite the challenges we continue to try to face together. I am going to go off script, because I can, because I have the microphone, and this is what happens when you're the chair.
I know. I just wanted to say that I know, but I'm going to just be the chair for a minute, Miss Gilfilin, unless she wants to gavel me. There was one year that we got… extra money back from the State, and that was the year that we were able to enhance the salary guide, and it was because everybody got loud. Everybody needs to get loud. Me yelling at them by myself is literally gonna do nothing. So I implore everybody who is coming to us.
We hear you, but there was there was one year. that we got help. So I'm just hoping that there's going to be help again. That is all I have to say. I'm back in my box, and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Morton for superintendent comments. Thank you, Miss Winters. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who came out and shared candid and honest and courageous thoughts as well this evening. I think you know this is what continues to make me.
I feel so passionate about the community that Cherry Hill is. Our community is informed, our staff are informed, our staff love our kids, they love to service the community and bring such tremendous value to the district and to the community and to our schools, ultimately, and to our students. And I think, you know, just as I reflect as well, um, the discussion tonight just reflects just how painful and difficult this entire situation is for our district. And… Again, you know, I think the emotions being expressed, really express one thing, and that is really that the deficit that we face and that we're facing now is $29 million. It's not the fault of any one group.
or any program or any specific entity. just to double down on a couple comments that our board members have made. Jaris has made as well. Our district has been underfunded for years upon years upon years, and. It gets to a certain point, as Ms. Winters has so eloquently stated, that, you know, there's no more wiggle room. There's a point of critical mass where it begins to impact operations and impact the things that actually make the district.
what the district is. We absolutely share in this frustration. We do not want to be in this position at all. We do not want to eliminate any staff. Certainly not staff that we've been arm-in-arm with, hand-in-hand with, and we've seen provide value. for our kids. Our budget, uh, budgets that we've recommended last year, this year, and in light of, you know, the massive cuts are done with very deliberate thought, with empathy provided, and strategy as well. And the idea is that.
We mentioned positions that are eliminated, but our goal is to try to shift people into other spots so that we save our people. And that's really the goal for us if we are required to restructure and do things in a different way. Um, thank you for your comments about computer science. Thank you for your comments about world language. I share all of… and I agree and share in everything that's been stated. We're not eliminating those things. There's statutory requirements. They're requirements that the state has that we're required to teach these things.
being placed in a position that we are in, though, requires that we just think differently about how we provide that instruction to our students. But again, I just want to really highlight and elevate the fact that I appreciate everyone so value and appreciate CHEA. Um, that's our teachers association and secretaries and. facility staff as well. I appreciate everyone who works with our district, and listen, if there was a time more than ever before to be united, the time is now. We need to come forward as a community, and we need to make our voices, um, heard. I'll never forget a few years ago.
When we went up to Trenton and had a few people come with us, bought a busload of individuals, and we went into a caucus room and filled the room, and it was clear to our legislators that Cherry Hill was coming and they were coming with meaningful words. Um, related to our budget. And absolutely, the supplemental aid package did come afterward. I'm not sure if that'll happen, but at the very minimum, we need to make our legislators make, uh, everyone who needs to hear know.
that we're not happy. We're not happy. We recognize that we're underfunded. We're not happy about it, and we need to do that together. So with that being said, I just wish everyone a great night. Thank you for hanging in there. Thank you for your comments. Have a great evening, everyone. Thank you, Dr. Morton. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Miss Cummings, all in favor. The meeting is adjourned.