Calling this regularly scheduled uh board meeting to order. This board meeting has been appropriately advertised. Miss Coleman, roll call, please. Mr. Craig here. Mrs. Divine here.
Mrs. McCowski here. Mrs. Seltzer here. Mr. Sherman here. Mrs. Z Mr. McMillan here. Mr. Dulkus here. Mr. you here. Uh, please rise for the pledge of allegiance
flagis. Okay, there was no executive session for tonight. Uh so we're going to move on to section three presentations. But before that, I'm going to ask that we enter committee the whole uh so that it's a bit more of a conversation here. So uh can I get a motion to to enter committee
of the whole, please? So moved. And a second. Seconded. All those in favor? I. Okay. Um and so we're going to run through a very quick presentation. Uh and then we also have the uh we've also invited the burough commissioners here to join us. I'm going to ask for them to
come up after we're done with the presentation just so they don't have to crane their necks uh while I we do the presentation here. Um as many of you all know uh we sent out a joint statement the bureau in the district uh this
afternoon uh detailing a partnership um on the recreation master plan. And so I'm gonna go over the quick highlights on this uh screen, but all that information is going to be on this joint statement document, which you can get a
copy of uh at the back of the room, or those online can can find it on the burrow or the district website. All right. All right. So, I know this is a little bit small up here, but um essentially what this plan is is it's a
plan for us to come together as burrow and district to uh enhance and expand the recreational opportunities for Kingswood students. Um what this does is it uses the burrow's uh recreation master plan as its foundation. um that
was uh first I think commissioned in uh the fall of 2022 and the first draft was published March 2025 and that was a long process in which the the bureau went and uh got community
input and did a bunch of of studies to understand what the recreation uh needs of the bureau are. Now, yeah, that works. Uh, now, you know, I'm not the expert in describing this, so I'm not going to go too deep into it, but
essentially what uh we saw from the recreation master plan is that um it's clear that in order for us uh as a community to be able to meet the the whole recreational needs of the of the town, the burrow and district had to
come together in order to uh to to do that. So, um, back in April 2025, uh, the bureau commissioners, uh, back then authorized a recreation redevelopment bond, um, and that was there to fund,
uh, updates and expansions to recreation spaces, uh, within the burrow and, uh, you know, both in the district and night park. And so, uh, that bond was uh, strategically planned um, to avoid increasing taxes due to retiring
municipal debt. And so that's I think one of the big things here for us to understand is that there's a timing here with that that redevelopment bond that the bureau passed such that there's expiring debt at uh that this would replace so that it uh this bond wouldn't
have an impact on taxes. Um and so at this point there are three main pillars uh to this partnership. Um this is all the text which you know if you can't read it it's fine. It's the same thing on the joint statement but the three main pillars the first one is
modernizing outdoor facilities and this is specifically around uh the uh middle school and high school athletic complex. And so uh essentially the bureau will fund the updates to the uh middle school and high school athletic complex site. Um, a lot of these updates I think were
talked about before, but we can go into detail. We will be going into details more uh uh later and I'll explain that as well. Um, and then the second piece is additional indoor space. One of the things that I think has been talked about a lot is the lack of indoor
recreation space inside the burrow. And so what uh here will happen is the burrow will fund the district's purchase of the former Good Shepard school facility at 100 Lees Avenue. of where our uh district administrative offices are currently located. Um and so while that purchase will not let that building
be a school yet, um the uh point is for the district to be able to have that building for when uh that is a possibility in the future. Um but for now be a space uh where all those facilities, right, the indoor gym, the commercial kitchen, the library, the
classroom space can be used as recre recreational space for the community. Uh, one of the kind of the new things here as well is that uh in discussions with the the parish, we were also able to um agree to the purchase of the
neighboring St. St. John's convent, which then would be turned into an ADA accessible outdoor playground. Um that I think is a big big I think update uh a big kind of one of the newest things here because one of the discussions I know that happened before was the
question of outdoor space at the Good Shepard site and this would be an additional uh space that we could use to turn uh and have outdoor space uh both for the community and uh for the good sheep sheepardd site. Finally, kind of to tie this all
together, tie all these improvements and purchases together is that we are going to the burrow and district enter into a shared services agreement um that provides access, community access to the district's buildings, uh fields and playgrounds across Kineswood during
non-school hours. Um, one of the goals here is is that we really, you know, in I think in our discussions about the district and about district facilities see um the the schools as a community good, right? and trying and coming together and figuring out an agreement
in which uh we can make sure that these spaces are are open for the entire uh community um uh when they're not needed for educational purposes I is one of the big ways in which we can help meet the recreational needs uh of Collingswood um
across the entire community. So, those are the three pillars again, the uh updates to the middle school and high school athletic fields. Um the purchasing of the Good Shepard building in the associated uh St. John's convent uh and also a shared services agreement
um between the burrow and the district to provide uh access to the community for for all the district's buildings, fields, and playgrounds during non-school hours. So, there's a a lot a ton um to be
talked about in terms of uh what this uh specific designs and so forth are uh for these plans. But again, this is nothing uh new. It's it's in the joint agreement. our first kind of I would call it the official launch, first
community meeting in which uh we're going to talk through all of the different designs and all that stuff is going to be Monday, October 13th at 700 p.m. uh at the Kangu Middle School auditorium. Uh that will be live streamed. Um but that is really where we're going to go through uh you know
and dedicate that time to both explaining uh the individual uh design pieces and also soliciting feedback from uh the community. And then we're going to have additional um uh community meetings uh which those dates uh we're
still uh getting set but those will come out in the uh coming days. So that that's really the the kind of the overarching view of what this partnership is. Um at this point, I'd like to invite the commissioners to
come join us up here. Uh and then we'll have a bit of a discussion as a uh full board with the commissioners. Um and then yeah, and move from there. So, first I'm I'm going to just start by uh thanking the commissioners uh for their uh work on this plan with us. Uh
this has been I think a a very long time coming. Um, as maybe you all have noted in in my brief presentation, you know, these are plans that started back in fall of 2022, right? And I mean, this this redevelopment bond was passed in April of 2025. And so, it's been a long
process, but I'm personally really excited for the uh investment that's happening both in the community and and for our students. Um, and so I want to thank you all for that that uh work there. Um, and I just want to open it up to the the board now because I've been talking for a while about about this
plan and also the commissioners. Um, I can start. Um, so since not all board members were included in the revised plan, can we walk through how the process of purchase of Good Shepard was added? Um, I'm sure we all recall 2577 people voted against buying Good
Shepard. So, um, how did we get here and what was the process? You know, I I' I'd like to clarify because the vote um on the bond referendum was about uh was about whether or not the district could borrow
money to create facilities improvements. That is what a bond referendum vote is about. Um specifically about whether or not the district could uh uh borrow money. Now whether or not we can borrow money, our facilities needs uh still
stay the same. We have been very consistent about the fact that we have aging infrastructure that we have to address uh and we have been very clear that we're going to continue finding uh ways
to address the educational needs of our students. Okay. So, that wasn't my question, but if that's the answer to the question, that's fine. But my question was how did we get to adding that in? So, happy to jump in here. Um, if you read the rec master plan, it's
100 plus pages of a lot of really wonderful ideas based on a lot of community feedback. Um, there was mailed out surveys, there was online surveys, there was different in-person sessions, there was you have $100, how do you want to spend your $100? And based on that,
there was a breakdown of all the things that the people of Collings would wanted most. So, they kind of fell into buckets. One of them was fields and athletic facilities, but then there was a another bucket that was, you know,
walking trails and outdoor spaces, which would fall in the night park bucket. And then, and you heard, we've been hearing this cons consistently for years, spaces for things like Odyssey of the Mind. Um, our senior odyssey of the mind,
uh, and our senior center is very regularly used, which is a wonderful thing, but there's not enough space for everyone. Odyssey of the mind used to be in the old court building and recently it's been in people's basements that the coaches have been hosting themselves.
So, that's just one example. an indoor facility space. Rex soccer goes all the way to Marlton uh or sorry to Morstown to Morstown to play in the winter because it's the only place that we can get indoor gym space. Um we have a capped number of summer of um summer
camps because we don't have enough space to put some of these kids. So an indoor facility and we don't have any land. Um we're 2.2 square miles and uh the night park board of trustees weren't going to let us build a big building in the middle of night park. So this kind of
became a place that already had a gym, a cafeteria, an industrial kitchen, and it's already there. So while yes, eventually it will not it may not be available during school hours, there's still a lot that can be done on the weekends and on the evenings, which
is when wreck basketball, wreck soccer, um Odyssey of the mind, that's when these these things are meeting. Um there's also there's also a huge call for more programming in the master plan and a lot of that programming requires space. You know, there's only the living
room which could be put into two rooms in the senior center, the conference room which seats 12 people or the ballroom upstairs and that's it. That's all we have up our sleeves to offer for community groups, for adults, for older adults to have different ways to engage
and to do activities. So this was a physical space um and it is my understanding that the arch dascese would like to keep it as a school. So we were not as a burrow a very favorable purchaser for that and this would
address both of those needs. Can I interject? No, I got this. This is fine. Um I I I I just want to go over it's it's really a shame that this is being done the way it's being done because there's so much this is the plan that the borrow presented in spring. Uh the recreation
fields we proposed putting money up working collaboratively to do this with the district. Um would be great to see that get happen. It's wonderful to have that happen. The public process that's been added now terrific. Fantastic.
There's one thing different in all this. Um, and the one thing different is the district leadership made a proposal to the mayor and to the deputy mayor on September the 12th
to use a portion of the redevelopment recreation bond money to buy Good Shepard school. Uh they're they've created this fiction that Good Sheeperd is now being acquired
for recreation purposes. Yet you've heard the president go over how we intend to use this for classrooms. We're going to use this for classrooms. I and and I just want to go back reiterate from a year ago. That's fine
if that's the end result. That's perfectly fine. The difficulty here is a few people in district leadership uh so far us without any public involvement have decided to go do what I don't care
how you want to interpret the referendum last year. What the voters decided not to do. So I So I I want No, I'm I'm speaking Matt. Okay. Okay. This is so
Yeah, I'm speaking. Okay. And I'm not finished. Will you give like a cue? Commissioner, I'll let you know. I'll finish Commissioner Mey. Commissioner Mey. No, I'm not cut off. Commissioner Mey this my three minutes up. [Music]
You can let me finish. Let me finish there. You know, Mr. Chu thanked us for all the work on this recreation plan. There's been no work. September 12th, the proposal was made to go by Good Sheepard. This is a way to accomplish
what I understand district leadership wants to do quickly because Good Shepard was had told them that they would no longer have the exclusive right to buy Good Shepard school. That was ending in November. So they they requested the I
have the stuff they sent over to us. They asked us to approve this in October so that we would give them the money and they could purchase it. Now, other than going against the referendum, there's one other issue that's arisen as of
today, which is when the meeting the only meeting I was at because I was away and this meet this couldn't wait. this had to meet while I was away was last Friday afternoon and I raised the issue that I did not think that our bond ordinance that the burrow had approved
for recreation fields that you could use that money to purchase good sheeperd school whether you said it was for recreation all of a sudden it's nowhere in our rec wc plan but for recreation all of a sudden but in in the plan that
had been sent to us it was also for facilities, which you've heard tonight. It's for our education. It's in the statement. It's for education purposes. We're going to do classrooms. It's not permitted under our bond ordinance. Our bond council has weighed in today that
we can't we can purchase this building, which was our plan in March, April, was my our plan last July, July 24, which was soundly rejected by the board, excuse me, by district leadership. But
now the the claim is we can use it. We can't have the district owning it under the terms of our bond ordinance. All of this is developing at rapid speed. We met Friday at 3:00. Had to reach bond council. We got opinions from them today
about it. It's something that needs more discussion, more work. It needs public involvement. The other the my last point is the other part of the plan we proposed in the spring was engaging in a
full-blown public process with the board and the burrow to address the educational goals of the referendum in 24. We've done it's been a year. Nothing has happened on that. Now we
want to go buy a school and sit on it without any money to fix it up. Sit on it, speculate it with a plan to use it for classroom. So something else is being cooked up. Okay. And it is just it is just it's like I said at the beginning, it's a shame it gets like
this because the fields and everything like yes, everybody's on board. Great public involvement. this piece of it. Let the burrow go acquire it to the extent we can use it for some wreck. We can. But there's no reason for the
district to own Good Shepard until there's a comprehensive plan that's been approved by the public that we're going to make changes in our schools. Then we can have that school available to do that. Okay. Thank you.
So, thank you. So I'm I'm going to So Mr. Commissioner, you have uh used and reference the name of school district leadership and so uh I do feel inclined to make sure that we are all on the same page as well as that we are not trying to continually rewrite history as
it relates with where the discussions have been since 2017. And so in 2017 when the decision was made within the community based on the safety of the children and families in which we serve that we needed to tear down the old stadium, there had been ongoing
discussions. We have been receiving feedback from community members since 2018. In addition, when we started having uh uh discussions about what were the remedies that needed to be, uh we cannot oversimplify
uh the discussions that have been made. Many of the community members that voted no, they shared with us the reasons why they voted no. Number one, the closure of schools. Number two, the significant increase in taxes. In terms of the goals
and the objectives, if uh memory serves, and I do believe that we have it on camera for YouTube to stream, um Mr. Former mayor, uh you said on multiple occasions that the goals and the objectives of the referendum, we were in agreement. it was the remedy that was
being proposed. It was is what needed more work and that we needed continued discussions. I would also like to remind as a resident of Collingswood who actively participated in the development of the uh rec plan as a community member
uh in 2022 when it was announced that we were going to be excuse me that the community wanted to do something in order to address the supply and the demand challenges as it related with the recreation plan. uh many of us who were in this room we participated in series
of roundts the little dots the spend the $100 I was there with with many of you and the topics and the feedback that has been collected year overyear since 2022 with the bureau's plan was very clear
that the bureau had a plan had an idea had municipal borrowing authority but did not have property and that their plan was specifically centered and dependent dependent on active mutually beneficial partnership which is strategy
3.3.8 eight, pursue only partnerships that are mutually beneficial in terms clearly stated for all parties. That's in um your plan, sir. And so when we think about indoor and outdoor recreational space, uh the school district has been extremely clear that
in a community where the average age of our buildings is between 100 and 125 years old, it is not a matter of if we will have challenges, it is only a matter of when. In the news this morning, there was a water mane burst at Winslow Township and they had to shut
down their school for the next 30 to 45 days. Their building is much younger than ours. And so when we think about uh there is not a degree of fiction that is being recommended. There is how do we appropriately align the resources of the
school district, the resources of the bureau to achieve the goals and the objectives of the burough's recreation plan. And what was submitted to the bureau uh which was requested uh in order for us to move this partnership that we've been talking about since 2022
was to put together a cohesive aligned proposal to be discussed so that we could talk about what partnership looked like for us to be able to deliver on promises that were made in 2022 by former burough leadership and the district's role in how to be able to
achieve those said goals and objectives. And that's what we're here to discuss. We are not here uh to u uh sow discord amongst each other. I have been very clear since 2021 in Collingswood. What is good for the burough is good for the
district and what is good for the district is good for the bureau. And no one, I repeat, no one benefits when we are at odds and fighting each other. Thank you. I'm just gonna make one. I I'm I'm gonna really um I I would love that the
members of the board can act ask questions about this plan that's been proposed and that we have time to have that conversation. So um I'm going to ask us to all to like regroup to getting to making sure we're having the conversation we need to have to make an
informed decision. Um, I appreciate the starting position and we'll I recognize um the hand further down the table. May I ask one question to start us off in like the frame of getting to clarity um and hopefully on the same page. So, I
want to make sure I'm deeply understanding. Um, this proposal does not mean that we well I um we have the means or wherewithal within any immediate term future to actually create a school, right? uh there is no money to
do that. We are using existing space for existing activities and potentially more to meet the needs of our community. Is that am I clear on the financial impact to our community with this plan? Yeah. So this this plan in terms of good sheeperd
uh is a plan for uh the the bureau to help the district acquire that building knowing that we need to in the future uh uh make sure that we have younger updated buildings uh for our students.
What we do not have very clearly as a district is funding to completely overhaul that building as we had proposed during the referendum to create it to turn it into a school building at this moment. Um, one of the things that
we are looking at because as we understand from the discussions last uh, winter around the tax increase and so forth is of course the the tax impact on the community. And again, I remember during the referendum discussion um that
the sign said no to taxes and no to uh closures of schools, right? And so what we have to understand is how do we achieve this in the uh most uh tax effective way possible? and understanding that as a district we have
our some debt retiring in 2030 from our last bond referendum which was 2005. Um that that that would give us an opportunity to raise funds uh to update this building so that we can uh at that
time be able to uh use this as a school building. Right? That's one of the uh places that we're looking at and targeting and trying to figure out how do we uh do that uh again in the most I think tax effective way. But the only way for us to do that is of course if we
have the building if I oh I I just want to make sure I'm I'm not the financial impact to the community is what? Right. That's what I'm supposed to So sorry I'm gonna jump in on that one. It is $15 million. Um we have
I don't know if you all remember, at one point there was an agreement with the former mayor for 80% of new pilots to go into a trust for recreation. There's currently $181,000 in that trust. And that money is what would be paying down the the bond. So
that's in the budget. We have that money. It will not increase your taxes. So believe me when I when I say that to you. I I beg. That's just not true. I I also want to That's not true. I also Excuse me. I'm Jim. I'm trying to be
very respectful. I spent the morning with Betty Joe. That is our CFO, our chief financial officer. I also spoke I also spoke with our bond attorney at Parker McKay. And I, you know, we received the same
information, it appears, but heard it differently because this is not breaking the law. We can use this money for these purposes because there are recreational uses to Good Shepherd. Odyssey of the mind is recreation. Basketball is recreation. Cooking
classes for adults is recreation. And they are activities that our community members are asking for. We do not have indoor space to provide them with that. And we want to provide more opportunities for our community members to learn and to engage with one another and we just do not have the indoor space
at the moment to do so. The schools do not have a building that's younger than a hundred years. This meets both of those goals. in a way that is fiscally responsible for the bureau and for the district. If
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] um Oh, okay. Go ahead. I Well, so I want to also jump in uh because a few there are a few things I think mentioned again about the tax impact. I I do want to mention a letter
um sent by uh out by uh Commissioner Mey in March of 2025 where uh there's an item number 7th which specifically says the bureau will bond approximately 15 million to design and construct brick hill facilities etc etc. This can be done with virtually no impact on
taxpayers because this bond will replace retiring municipal debt. I also want to address this idea that this bond cannot be used uh for this building. Um, I've had conversations uh with the mayor earlier today about about their conversations with bond council, but I
also want to remind the public that back in March of 2025, the conversation, the solution that our former mayor offered to the school district was to give the school district $3 million from the rec
redevelopment bond to use in our general fund. So for me, I am personally confused by the statement that suddenly using a recreational redevelopment bond to support buildings is not
feasible, not possible, not legal. when the specific offer from the former mayor in March 2025 was to give the district $3 million from that bond to use for whatever we needed inside our general
general uh budget. Not not for buildings, not for athletics, not but literally to pay teachers with. So, so I want I want to be very clear that that idea that that this type of of of of use, making sure that we're using
a redevelopment bond for redevelopment purposes is legitimate. You know, one of the things I find very unfortunate right now is that this meeting should be a celebration. For for for decades for decades, we have we have needed to
update our fields and our buildings. we have needed to come together as a burrow and as a district to do such a thing right here what we're saying is we're able to because of strategically timed uh uh uh bond and uh timed well with
retiremental debt which I have to thank commissioner me for um that we are able to come together with no additional tax impact for the community to bring all of these amazing things to our students and to our community members who might not
have students in the district. We're able to do this a and and offer more for our students. Tell our students, look at how much we are investing in you, in our students and our young people. And yet here we are arguing about
something that the lawyers have figured out. Well, I would like to me this should be a celebration. I so if I could then stop stop the arguing for a moment and ask some practical questions considering this is a schoolboard meeting. I do have some questions as did Miss Divine about the
impact on the district. Okay. So my first question so um Roger you talk about the burrow is going to help us acquire this building um and it will be updated and tax effective. Okay. But who who will own the building? Let's start there. The district.
So, can you explain how So, the burrow is going to purchase. The burrow is going to purchase the building because we have to Jim is correct about that. We have to purchase it, but there is nothing stopping us from selling it to the to the school district for $1 afterwards and then they
will own it. That's just not accurate. That's okay. Listen, I have an email conversation with the bond council, too. I do this work. It's not Everyone's got to keep title. I think it's very clear to the community has been done in a couple weeks and we
don't have all that fleshed out. That's all. I I think it's very clear at like at this point that there are certain number of us who are attempting to move this forward and there are certain number of us who do not want this to move forward. That is fine.
But one of the things that we are trying to do is to move this forward. Can can we can we just so so that question is answered. So let's let's keep asking questions. So, so if we will own the building, so can you give us an idea? Obviously, we have been having budgetary problems. We had to ask for a
tax increase on the community. We talked about a nuclear option just a few months ago. So, we own the building. So, how will we maintain it? What will be some of the operational costs of of doing that? And where is that money coming from?
We're maintaining it right now. I do have line item in the budget for electric and we have uh custodians that come in and clean it and we do maintain it. Large projects you knock on wood we haven't had a large issue in the building but we've been maintaining it with our staff. Oh absolutely. But if we're going to be expanding
the lease which I won't have anymore. Sure. But if we're expanding that the usage of the building and um you know hope you're right hopefully no no major but what if there is a major system fail? I mean so so now it's on it's on us to maintain that larger building. If we could just speak to that a little bit. Yes. Well, we do have capital reserve.
So, the good thing about this is I'm not liquidating. Like, we have a million dollars in capital reserve. And although that's enough to fix a roof or an HVAC or a boiler, it's not enough to purchase land or a building, which is why we're always in this conundrum every year. But the good thing is that I'm not I'm not
touching capital reserve. So, we will have I will maintain that account. So, so I'm I'm sorry. We are or we are not touching capital. I'm not. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, so where where So, um Roger was talking about like upgrades. So, how will we upgrade the building? Like where where is that money
going to come from then? Um, we're getting quotes now for the gym floor. So, we're going to hopefully build that into our budget going forward. I won't have the lease. So, the lease is 71,000. So, if we can update the gym floor, hopefully they're in around the same
dollar amount, then the cost is neutral. Um, yeah, we have a full service maintenance team. I'm just thinking kitchen. The library doesn't need a whole lot of work. The kitchen I need to get like there might be some expenses with kitchen equipment. I have to see what's in the kitchen because I I don't go in there because I don't we don't own that
space. And the big thing is the gym floor and to add that the um the playground that's going to be where the convent is. the comment. What? Well, that is also going to be part of the wreck the wreck money, the burough's wreck money because that's going to be open to the public
and open to the public rather immediately. So, if it takes two, three, five, however long it takes for it to become a school, it will be a playground for our community as soon as it's built. So, the one little thing, it was in the letter, but with the shared service agreement, opening the five school playgrounds to
the public means that 98% of our community is within five minute walking distance to a playground. So, and just also to to add in a couple things for then I see Miss Mine has questions. So, one of the things I know we've talked about uh Miss McCowski, sorry, we as in up here have talked
about is that being able to own this building also allows our um our buildings and grounds crew that we have, which is excellent. uh as they have time to go in and do some of the the work needed to kind of uh prepare and get the uh get the building ready in as good a
shape as possible, which hopefully over time, right, will again cut down on uh some of the stuff that we might need to end up um uh binding out for or figuring out other funding for when we want to turn it into a uh when we're able to turn it into a school building. Um the other piece too also I think it that's
important about the shared service agreement is is uh that what we will have to do is is come to terms again about you know there there I think are some you know insurance and so forth uh pieces which is why we need to come together in a shared service agreement to make sure that that's why uh that's
how we can open up these uh spaces uh for the entire community uh during non-school hours and that's some of the discussions that that uh we're going to be having to make sure that that that's wellfolded in shared service agreement so that all of the uh these spaces can be open to the community.
Um I haven't had a chance to chime in yet and I wanted to just make a few comments. Um first of all, thank you for inviting us to join uh this conversation. I have three kids, one of whom is in the district and two of whom will be soon. And I talked to my my kids
about big feelings and I know and I mean this authentically that these topics bring up big feelings. There is significant feelings around last year's referendum which are valid. There are significant points of feedback that must
be taken into account. And so I think that tonight what we need to acknowledge is that we're back at the table. Some of the chairs has have shifted. Education in the state of New Jersey is extremely difficult. We can see this across the state right now. We are in a
really unique opportunity and we have an opportunity to work with our school district. Not every municipality is willing to do this. We are adults at this table who are willing to acknowledge big feelings and see what we can do together. We are not all going to get our way. But what tonight is is an
acknowledgement that we're back at the table to align our resources, align our priorities, and see what we can do for the 14,000 people in this town, in particular, the 2,200 children who are in the public schools, but also the seniors who will use the recreation
facilities, young adults who may be on the walking track, etc., etc. So, I just wanted to provide those comments because this is not set in stone. I know there are big feelings around it. what tonight is is saying. We're at the table. We have this. We hear you. There is
absolutely a participatory community process that will take place so that we can hear from you. Um, and I just wanted to say thank you. And in particular, thank you to Jim Mey, Morgan Robinson, and Rob Luwendowski who did significant hours, hours, and hours of work last
spring to get us here. Thank you, Miss Divine. Um, so I think we started to touch on it, but I heard that all of our playgrounds, which are currently not open to everybody, will be open. So, how does that change our the demands on facility security, right? Families,
people who use the playground today are met with either our police department called on them or getting told to leave. How was that going to change? And what is our liability now that they'll be more accessible as a district? I I think you you've hit exactly on the reason why there needs to be a shared service agreement, right? because of the
idea of liability and also maintenance. And so those are you know one of the biggest things that I think any large organization I'm sure would say uh that serves you know people would say that that they have to worry about is liability right if someone slips and falls if someone you know etc etc etc
and so uh insurance coverage is one of the big things that we as a a district have to um uh make sure we're we're we're following and make sure we're getting the best price on. So, that is one of the considerations that we're we are going to have to uh have and discuss uh with the commissioners to make sure
that that works out well where um uh we have insurance coverage through all those other hours that are non-school hours, right? And and also that shared service agreement of how we're going to do the maintenance and and so forth. So, I guess I'm uh I would expect it
will increase and our budget is lean today. How far is too far for that increase for do we have a threshold that this is too much to add to our budget? Yeah. And so this is why I think it's it's really important kind of going back to my original presentation which is
this is why it's really important for the burrow and the district to work together. Um in in the end what we're looking at here is all it's all the same pot, right? This is all community resources. And so uh in order for us to I think be able to
achieve these things and meet the needs of entire community what's what's obvious is that the district by itself or the burough by itself will not be able to do that right and so I think that's why we need to come together so that we can meet those needs and it's something that we're on our own we
haven't been able to to do and and we haven't been able to say open those those uh playgrounds you know 247 or whatever um on our own right and that's why the shared service agreement is really important. I can I just ask a really quick question? Um I'm I for one I'm really
excited about this partnership and this plan and the flexibility that it affords both the bureau and the district. Um quick question because I know one of the biggest criticisms following the referendum was this idea of community input. Um and you know we spoke a little about the importance of it. Um what kind
of community engagement I know you have the one on the 14 or 13th planned. Are there additional plans for like smaller roundts, chances for community members to share some of their concerns perhaps not at a major board meeting? Um, just wanted to hear a little bit more about how you plan on using some of the
feedback um and rolling it into um how we're going to do this. Um, so we haven't said the dates are not out yet because as Jim mentioned before, this is moving quickly, but we have every plan to have four to six more meetings at
different spaces. So at the community center, um, maybe the li the library also, it's a matter of resource. We don't have any extra rooms. So it takes a lot of it's hurting a lot of cats to see which rooms are available and when. So we can do it on different nights of the week. Um, we're going to be printing
information in the town crier. We're going to have a box set up at Burough Hall. You leave your email address. You put your card. We will put Q&As's of the questions that we're getting on repeat repeatedly so that people can see the feedback. And one of the reasons that we're not out here tonight with a very specific plan for the for the athletic
facilities or for good sheeperd is because we want to make sure that yes, we have the rec master plan and that has at the very beginning all the stakeholders that were spoken with. However, we want to make sure that these plans that we have encompass and create
space for every community group that that needs it and that is willing to show up and say, "Hey, I need space. I know honestly the mind needs space. who else needs space? Let's make sure that you're accounted for. Girl Scouts, we have we had Boy Scout uh Scouts of Scouting for America come to ask if they could charter and colleagues when they
asked the senior center to do it and I had to politely say, "Listen, it's not that I'm not behind this ideals. I think this would be great for our community. We just currently don't have the space, so I'm going to have to put a hold on that." And that was not not something I wanted to say, but we didn't have anywhere for them. So community yes
those were um I'll also just add that um you'll notice in your future dates um there is a board roundt already scheduled for the 16th um and that could be another opportunity to build in to the feedback
loop is we have these monthly meetings anyway the one on the 16th of October could serve as purely a space for people to come and share some thoughts um and commissioners and mayor we can talk more about that. But it is an existing space.
We have a room for it already. Um, so it's a place where people could come and share some of their questions and concerns about the plan. There might be there weren't too many mics on. I just didn't click it on. Um, I am really excited about this. I think this is something that since I started
on the board and we had our first ad hoc facilities committee meeting back in 2019 to talk about some of the major facil major facility concerns that we had. I mean that we had inherited from years and years of just not being able to do this to be able to address the
fields in the back which have been neglected for such a long time. Freeing us up to be able to use funds down the road to address other concerns and to add this space gives a our town flexibility if anything happens. And I
just want to say from parent of a middle schooler, parent of an elementary school student, um I'm in I'm on the fields at night park like every day. I run little league if you didn't know. Um I see how much that park is used and it is a park
with athletic spaces. It is not an athletic facility. This would allow us to reduce some of the use on night park and allow it to become more of a a park. Um, and I think it goes handinhand with this school pride piece. Um, our high
school has been getting kicked a little bit over the last few years. I'm really excited of all the great things that I've heard so far. Like everything out of back to school night was phenomenal. People were really happy. Teachers, thank you so much. My visits to the middle school this year were awesome. Like so excited to hear about everything
that was happening in my kids' classes and how excited they were to be able to tell us about it. very very cool. I want every kid in this town to be able to go and play on those fields back there and feel like they're part of Collingswood, feel like they are a Collingswood
athlete. That this is going to allow them to do that. Um it's going to take all of us coming together. There's going to be things that we fight about that we bicker about, but we got to keep the kids as the north star. Um let's let the experts work. Let's figure out the numbers. Let's come back. Let's hear
from people. Let's get suggestions on how we can do this better. But really in the back, remember this is about the kids and about giving them the opportunities that they deserve. [Applause] Um, I would like to agree with Matt
about the the idea of the secondary fields getting an upgrade. you know, I also have children and and I'm I'm back there selling concessions at the football games u you know, a lot and and going to a lot of other schools and to see what other schools have and kind
of wishing that our school had that stuff. So, believe me, I completely understand. Um I just I speaking of then the fields, I have um some other questions considering our budgetary constraints. So if 1.5 million of the 15 million is going to purchase good
sheeperd for the district, is that to assume that the other 12 sorry my math bad 13.5 million is going to the fields? Do we have an estimate about what that is going to cost? And what is the district if if this is a collaboration?
What is going to be the district responsibility price-wise uh for that that renovation? Do you want to answer the question about the the split or So again, one of the reasons why we're not out here giving you, you know, this is this much, this is much, this much,
this is this much is that the district did come with with a number under 135 for the fields. And the bureau's response was, "Let's get through a couple of weeks of community feedback to
make sure that we have accounted for all of the stakeholders that are not just going to be using the athletic facility. Let's make sure there's enough money in this plan to address their concerns and the things that they would like to see in Night Park or the activities that
maybe we thought could work in Good Shepard as a building but won't work and we need to create space for them." So that's why that number is still is still flexible um because we want to make sure that we have accounted for the rest of our stakeholders. There is still a lot
if you look at the the master plan um you know there's plans in there for like a $800,000 parking lot. If you speak with the night park board of trustees there's a lot of things that they are open to more concrete night park is not one of them. So like that's not something we're going to be spending
money on. What what what do we want in night park? More pathways, more walkways potentially like the only place that lights would be permissible in night park per the trustees is potentially around the outside but not in the middle. There was never going to be a a turf field with lights in the middle of
night park. That was never going to happen. So, we need to just make sure that we're in our our reality. But that's kind of why that number is not set yet because we want to make sure and you know the district might h might get a a few fewer things in the field if something comes up that we have not
accounted for but we don't know yet. Um and that's really why we're going to be doing a lot of work over the next two and a half months to to land on that. Literally keeps asking for lights and we keep getting told no. So just confirm. So so ju just just to real quick clarify. So, are you saying that the
burrow is going to be this is all going to be part of the burrow money and the district will not be paying at all for the fields for or or the park, sorry, or the park? Correct. Okay. Uh and then I think one of the the questions Miy had about what the what's
the I guess the the district like part in this partnership, right? And it's it's the uh piece and and we want to make sure that we're able to open up all of our spaces um to the community. And that's something that we haven't been able to do right now both because our
fields um just can't take that use as as they are like that the the site behind uh the middle school and high school uh it's both not configured in a way in which we can uh maximize use of that space but also the the field and so forth back there just cannot take that
use. Um and then the other piece too is I think we we talked a little bit about it earlier. Uh we are looking to to uh update the the gym floor inside uh the Good Shepard building. Um again cannot be a a school building housing kids yet.
But one of the things that that uh we've talked about is whatever we can try to do in the meantime to uh like say update those that gym floors so it's it's uh in really good condition for uh recreational use. That's something that that uh we will do understand that we
own the building but so that uh this can be a recreational space uh at all times before it becomes a school building and then of course uh after hopefully it becomes a school building you know after school hours. And one last thing to jump in on there is that um something else
that was in the recck plan that was like very clear of how we could sustainably fund recreation in this town is that night park the district and the bureau need to make sure we're all on the same page when it comes to maintenance. That we don't need to be oper like we don't
need to each have someone running. There's there's more I think there's more efficiencies that we have not mastered yet because the schools have been operating in their space and sometimes they mow and sometime it's little league and sometimes it's DPW and I think there is there is way more that
can be pursued there if we are doing this ta these tasks and maintaining these facilities and these fields as a group as opposed to everyone working in their own silo. So I think there's a lot of opportunities there. It is work that is still needs to be done but it's on our list.
So, I just wanted to say I don't want my questions to come off as I'm not in supportive of this plan. Um, I don't think I'm doing my due diligence if I'm not asking questions and maybe being a little skeptical. Um, because we have talked a lot about districtwide about budget constraints. We just raised taxes. So, I I am a little concerned
about upkeep of a second of another building. Um, so I am excited about this project, but I think it's all of our jobs to also ask the question. So, so we we We truly appreciate the due diligence and and the questions. And so I wanna I also would like um to just to
also give uh kudos to the fact that we have a top-notch fullervice uh buildings and ground crew um that other districts contract with us based on the talents, the abilities, and the capacity of our full service team. And so we are able to
do a lot internally at a significantly reduced cost in terms of building maintenance. Uh and so for example uh one of the things that we are extremely uh proud of uh among others is that we had been talking about um staff restroom
facilities at the newbie school uh for years. The initial costs that we received at Newbie uh ranged between 50,000 and $210,000 for one toilet. Um based on uh talented
carpenters, plumbers, electricians led by our very own uh Mr. John Longo, uh we were able to do that for uh a nominal amount. um and staff no longer have to do uh the pee pee dance waiting for uh
one sole bathroom for the adults based on the the talent and the capacity of our team. And so uh as it relates to ongoing maintenance, there's a lot that we can do internally and we will be leveraging that. But I completely agree with the mayor. There are there is so much untapped potential with shared
service and what we're saying this evening is that we want to fully explore what that opportunity looks like. I have something real quick. Um, so I know we're at very infancy of this whole project. We're still going through discussions. We're be we're being productive now. Um, what is like the
time frame um from maybe coming to a decision, breaking ground, and then final sum up of the projects. Um, so our hope is to have the shared service agreement by 20 by December
2025. Um the DIS the the bureau does not intend on borrowing our funds until 2026. Uh just because of how the 2025 budget was was made. Um that doesn't
mean that we can't begin once we have the design in in place after we take in the community feedback that we can't be getting bids in January or February. We've been told that bids in January and February is generally when you move to be able to break ground when the ground thaws. So that would put us on track for
that. Yeah. And and part of that piece too is is one of the discussions in terms of timeline is um during the winter time, right? Because you would have to break down and do a lot of stuff at the at the field site. Um at a certain point, uh contractors like you don't pour concrete
um at when it's too cold. And so if uh December is our target because that would give us time and our architects time to to to finish up all those planning, do the bids, right? Uh because um just so everyone's clear, we would be using, you know, state bids, state
contractors, people who have uh uh who have a a price that has been vetted and everything. Um and then hopefully break ground sometime like late winter, early spring, uh and with a hope of of
completing this this project at as soon as possible. Um I think it's probably makes sense to everyone here that given uh the current economic situation kind of in the nation um the longer we wait
the more expensive things will probably get. And so um if we want to be able to deliver this as as cost- effective as possible we do want to make sure that we're we're breaking down sooner rather than later. So it sounds like we want to hustle on that. And well, do we think possibly
this will fall into 2027 or this whole whole project will be wrapped up in 2026? I'm doing a remodel on my house right now. So saying anything about when a construction projects can be completed would like then you know I'm lying, right? Um so that just depends on on a
lot of factors and we don't like you know hit oil somewhere in the back. I think we can we can look at some of our neighbors too. Hen Township is doing this. Cherry Hill East just did did similar work with their fields. Morristown just passed the bond. So, I think we can get a realistic sense as we
we see how long it's taking them to to do their projects. I just wanted to react also to um Mrs. disease comment as well which I think is really valid which um you know I look out and I see quite a few people here but there are a lot of empty chairs there are a lot of folks who aren't able
to come on a Monday night they may be at work um taxes are high the cost of living u like I said I have three kids I spend an enormous amount on groceries it's amazing how much children eat um and how I just wanted to reiterate that this was all cleared in the spring and that this will be tax neutral uh we know
from you know at the burough people are paying high taxes um this really is an opportunity um for people to see what's been talked about for years in a way where we see something exciting happening in town and it won't add to your bottom dollar or your budget. Um
which I think is is critically important. All of us have our own household budgets and um we cannot continue to ask more. Uh so this is an opportunity um for us to see this in a tax neutral way which I I don't want to get lost in this conversation that we're talking about redoing fields at no
additional cost. Thanks. And thank thank you so much. And and believe me, I I can I can appreciate that this is a continuation of the taxes that we were paying back the other bond for, right? So I'm understanding that correctly. Okay. So tax neutral
absolutely. My concern though still is the because it's not going it's not going to be a neutral impact on our budget. So I'm just concerned about So if it's not if if if our cost of maintaining good sheeperd it's you said it's not going to be capital um funds correct
so because if it's that it's not capital but that would be operational and and we all know that we've had issues with operational right so just to reiterate what uh Dr. Dr. Dal and Miss Coleman said a sec uh a few minutes ago, we are currently
already maintaining the Good Shepard building, right? So, so nothing here changes. Well, it does change if we're building if we're putting in a new gym floor and and upgrading libraries and cafeterias, right? I mean, it is a
We won't be paying for the lease, though. The lease would come off the book. So, right now, we've been paying for the last few years. I have a line item in the budget for the lease and that would go away. So that would go towards the gym floor. Okay. Yeah, I get it. Um, but you know, you did say earlier that that we will build it into the budget. So I'm just
clarifying, are we talking our operational budget? Because again, I'm I'm just worried about, you know, we have we had a rough spring, right? So is our budget stable enough to take on the additional costs of renovating Good Shepard? Um, sorry. Uh because we don't have any numbers yet, right? So the
lease is coming off. I I do know what that number is, but is it going to is that going to wind up being neutral as well when we're talking about those renovations? That that's what I hope. I'm going to swap out the lease payment for um the work we're going to do in in the gym so that we can get people in there as soon as possible. I'm just at this point I'm
just swapping one light on it for another. Okay. Well, seeing as there seems to be no other questions uh from board members, thank you commissioners for joining us uh today, um thank you for uh this work on this partnership. Uh and so
at this point, you know, thank you all. I can go where do what y'all need and then uh um and yeah, so at uh with that actually before uh we close committee hall, we'll take a quick moment. Do you want to talk about entry or do you want to
Okay. Okay. Um, great. So, with that, uh, I'll take a motion to close committee of the poll. Uh, is there a motion? So, moved. And is there a second? Question. Second. Uh, wonderful. All those in favor?
I just really, uh, there's a public comment section in a in a few minutes. Y. Okay. So, moving on to section five, future dates and uh miscellaneous information. Uh there's a a string of uh future dates, of course, most notably uh
Yamapour, which means that uh our school is closed on October uh 2nd. Um also school and and third, but that's also that's also staff PD. Um, I do want to point out uh Monday, October 13th uh on here is that first community uh meeting
and then uh Thursday, October 16th, if you'll notice there's also uh the BOE roundt which is uh what Dr. Seltzer mentioned earlier and so lots of dates there. Um moving on to section six routine
business uh approval of minutes. Um, so motion to approve the minutes of the August 25, 2025 regular board meeting. Do I have a motion? So move. Uh, and a second. Second. All those in favor? I. Okay. Uh, uh, there are no student
reports at this moment. We should have our, uh, student board reps with us uh, next month. Uh, so at this point, we're going to move to uh, section 8, superintendence report. Uh, Dr. McDow. Okay. So, good evening again. Um, so actually to get us started, she has been
sitting uh very patiently in the back. Uh, and so we would just like to uh publicly uh thank, recognize, and acknowledge our Panther Pantry in the back with our leader, Miss Nisser, and the students. um they
have done a phenomenal job of uh identifying a need and filling a need. And so um the mission of the food pantry is to provide uh nutritional support uh and family resources uh in a welcoming, confidential and non-judgmental uh
manner. And so uh please uh as you were exiting, please see uh Miss Nishner. Uh we accept uh non-p perishable food items or hygiene products uh at the at your child's school, at the Collegewood Police Department, at the board of
education, as well as at board of education meetings here in the high school cafeteria. Uh we also accept uh cash, check uh or Vinmo, uh whichever you prefer. It all goes to support uh needy uh well-deserving families in
Collingswood, Oakland, and Woodland. Uh and we thank you Ardan for your leadership in this area. [Applause] And so we have a few u topics. And so I would just like not to belabor the
point, but I would just like to to just start with um just being extremely excited u about the uh promise of the recreational plan partnership. Uh we'd like to thank again um the board of education members as well as the
commissioners um of the burrow as well as the burough leadership staff members who participated in the development of the recreation plan uh which is currently available on the bureau's website. Um it's pretty meaty. It's about 98 pages. Um but there's a lot of
good stuff and huge opportunities for our community. Uh so I encourage all to take a look uh at that plan. Uh we'd also like to publicly acknowledge all of our faculty and staff across every single school for our back to school nights. Um we got tremendous positive
feedback from families across our uh burrow. Uh they're excited um for kids to be back at school. We're excited for our classroom leaders to be at the helm. Uh and we appreciate um their dedication and their effort to the children and families of this community.
On October 21st uh is PSAT SAT school day. Uh as part of our continued commitment to college and career readiness, uh our high school will administer uh PSAT SAT school day. Uh this is a program offering uh the assessment to high school students at
their own school during regular school hours, eliminating the need for individual registration, travel, or weekend testing. It removes logistical barriers and provides free opportunities for our students which are supported by college board as well as our school. Uh
it's the same fulllength assessment uh that is given on the weekends and is used um in colleges uh and scholarships across the country. Uh and so our students will be participating in that. We would like to thank uh our director
of counseling, Miss Halenbeck, uh for leading that initiative. Uh this year we will also uh be uh putting out um a school climate improvement survey. Uh and so our district as well as your child's school are committed to continually improving
school climate, excuse me, to ensure a safe, supportive, and positive learning environment for all students. School climate refers to the current character and quality of school life. It is based on the interconnected experiences, perceptions, and impressions of students, staff, and
family members. It encompasses multiple dimensions of school life including safety, relationships, academics, and organizational structures. And so in the coming weeks, we will be uh administering the survey for students, staff, and families uh with links to be
able to provide valuable feedback uh while our students will be able to complete the survey at school. We will be surveying uh students grades 3 through 12. uh and for parents who prefer their children not to participate, there will be an opt- out process available and forthcoming. And
so we would like to thank uh Mr. Jefferson, our director of culture and climate uh for leading this important effort. Um in uh October, uh also coming soon, uh we will continue to build on our multi-year district-wide effort to
expand access to free highquality preschool and as well as full day kindergarten. Our new Calls at Park View uh staff members have been working together to plan lessons for the first few weeks of school as well as setting up the building. We are eagerly awaiting
the arrival of the newest group of preschoolers and look forward to welcoming them with the district's new preschool location. With the opening of Calls at Park View, the district will have met its goal to provide free state-f funded preschool education to all Collingswood families who have
expressed interest in our program for the 2526 school year. If you have a child who is ageel eligible, we encourage you to contact our registration team is there are still um a few seats that are available. Uh and so for more information, we will be
sending out uh the registration uh website uh for you to be able to peruse and sign your child up. And so we have an extremely u exciting initiative that is we actually have two initiatives that are going to be led by our newest team member. Dr. Dana Walker
is the new special assistant for school improvement, performance and accountability. Dr. Walker comes to us with almost three decades of uh instructional and leadership experience and she will be leading um two major initiatives this year. uh one is the
unified campus initiative. And so given the fiscal environment that we have experienced over the last several years, we seek to maximize efficiency of our secondary campus while continuing to provide students with an outstanding educational experience. And so we will be uh starting in October uh in a
community involved process to merge the middle and the high school into a single unified 6 through2 campus. The merger aims to create a seamless academic and social experience for students across grades. Enhance efficiency and staffing space utilization as well as service
delivery. Strengthen vertical articulation and access to accelerated student programs. Reduce transitions and increase consistency in school culture and expectations. And then ultimately to respond proactively to financial pressures and declining enrollment
patterns. And so please be uh on the lookout for information of how you can participate in that process. Uh students, staff, uh community members, families will be actively involved in the development of the design. The second initiative that Dr. Walker
will be leading is what we are calling our neighborhood attendance zone initiative. Based on continued feedback and community requests, the district will update the attendance zone or the neighborhood catchment process for our elementary schools. We seek to engage in in a second community involved process
to develop a K through5 school catchment plan that balances enrollment, optimizes local resources, and promotes student success. This new initiative aims to establish school identities that encourage community connection, enhanced walkability of the educational
experience, strengthen enrollment balance and optimize class size, allow flexibility for program innovation and overflow relief, and to provide clarity to families for improved operations and long-term plans. And so we look forward to uh both of
those um community initiatives to also begin in October. And so as part of our continuing um effort for uh to shift towards inclusive schools and in partnership with our Collingswood and Oakland CPAG, the district enlisted the
technical assistance from all end for inclusive education. Formerly the New Jersey coalition for inclusive education. In phase one, our middle school formed multi a multid-disciplinary implementation team and worked with facilitators from allin
to uh analyze current inclusive practices, policies and structures. They also provided our middle school with technical support, professional development and resources in order to build understanding and capacity to further support inclusive classroom practices and student belonging. This
year, our middle school moves into phase two of implementation and Sharp Elementary has been identified for phase one of moving towards being an inclusive school. And so, aligned with our vision 2026 strategic plan, we will launch an
inclusion task force to develop a district-wide action plan for implementation starting in the 2627 school year and beyond. And that will be led by uh Dr. White House, our director of special education. In addition, um the district recognizes
that the use of artificial intelligence may result in increased and enhanced learning opportunities for students. We also acknowledge the importance of classroom educators fully participating in conversations around responsible, secure, and ethical integration of any
new tools. And so beginning in October, uh, Colleingswood and Oakland school districts will establish a cross-dep departmental team of classroom, uh, school leaders as well as district, uh, educators to develop a comprehensive action plan for artificial intelligence
use in our schools. The task force aims to lead conversations and gather feedback from stakeholders to identify opportunities for artificial intelligence usage, review our current infrastructure and assess each school's readiness, and ultimately make recommendations to inform the
development of new and existing board policies aligned to AI, the use of new tools and strategies that help support teaching and learning, the scope and sequence of training needed to increase AI literacy districtwide, and then to make recommendations for future
investments in tools, platforms, training and infrastructure. And so that um large uh task will be led by Mr. Dan Whan at the high school and our IT director, Mr. Weisggerber. Um this is a very busy time of year. Um
we are well positioned for leaders across our districts um to move uh and lead multiple initiatives at the at the same time. uh and we're looking forward um to a bright, positive, and extremely productive new school year. And that
concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. McDow. So, now we move to section nine, the first section for public comment. Um the purpose of this public comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda. Additional more general comments may be made later in the meeting. Um the public is
reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should first go through appropriate staff members and administrators. The intent of public comment is to give community opportunity to provide feedback to the board. Um we will be actively listening and taking notes so that we can take all that is being said into consideration. We will also take uh note of any questions and
if appropriate do our best to address them at the end of public comments. I know folks might have some questions but uh just to make sure that everyone get their public comment in what we'll do is we'll take notes about the questions and then we'll address them uh at the end if uh if appropriate. So members of the
public are welcome to speak and expected to do so with the utmost sensitivity for everyone in attendance. Uh in fairness to all who wish to speak, there is a strict three minute time limit per person during public comment and Miss Coleman will assist uh by keeping record uh of the or by keeping time. And uh please remember to state your name and
address for the record. Uh and the the floor is open. Wayne Rossy 114 East Palmer uh in Collinswood. Um, I feel very strongly um in favor of this
whole plan to buy a building and make a youth community center. It's something I've been personally advocating for a while, particularly because I've watched my wife um struggle with finding space
for her Girl Scout troop uh in town. I know that the the amount of public space in town is extremely limited. Um, one thing I was thinking is that it
while it does um bring up new budgetary questions, it seems to me like one of the things that I think nobody really talked about during the um referendum process last year was that
a lot of what we're we were talking about then, which included Sharp as a uh rec center, but here it would be good sheeperd as a rec center and then redoing the the grounds would involve a lot of new income opportunities as well
for the district. And I I have to imagine that that should still be available, that there there should be ability to rent out to host uh events that would would bring some money in and help with the maintenance of all these
um you know, and that's sort of like the nature, right, of running something like this, I think. Um so I I I think it's a tremendous good for the community. I've really thought for a long time. I've been waiting for the fruition honestly
of this wreck plan for years uh because I have been advocating for this and I I'm so happy that the board and the commissioners are now um are now seemingly more aligned than ever on it.
And I think that this really is what people have been talking about, you know, seeing that in practice that that there can be positive shared services. I really love the idea of not duplicating efforts. Uh so I think that there
there's a lot of good stuff that can happen out of this putting heads together and I really want to um thank everyone involved for for moving forward with this. I understand if it seems like it's sudden. It probably everything seems like it's sudden if you're not
doing it for years. Um, you know, so that that to me isn't isn't a big deal. But thank you. Uh, I I appreciate it. I really hope that this is a great step forward for our county. Hello, Stacy Demarco 524 Jessimine. Um,
I like a lot of parts of the plan that have been presented. I would actually really love for Good Shepard to stay a recreational facility, but you guys keep mentioning classrooms and this feels like a backdoor way of closing Sharp of
in two, three years, you'll go, "Oh, these buildings are too expensive to maintain." Because you keep talking about old buildings. Sharp is the oldest building. We know what you're saying when you say that. And also on top of that, Good Shepardd is not a new building. You guys keep
talking about aging buildings. Good Sheepardd is also an aging building. The same problems that you have with the buildings you currently have, you're going to have with Good Shepard. It's not a new clean space. You already had to replace the gym floor. You're not maintaining it as you I know you said
you have a line item about custodial things like that, but that building is not an active use building. I know your offices are in there. I know the Cub Scouts use that building. It's not a building that people walk in and out of every single day. So, that cost is coming from somewhere.
If they're selling if the burrow is selling the the building to you for a dollar and we're talking about the gym floor, what about all the other spaces in this building? What what are they going to be used for? You said classrooms. And to me, that sounds like the plan
that the town voted down pretty resoundedly is what the plan is going forward. That's what it sounds like. And I don't like that. I don't like that the town voted against this and it seems like you're finding a backdoor way around it. It also feels like you have a
bit of a sunk cost fallacy about this building. You've invested money, you have a lease, you have all of these things about this building and it feels like, well, we've invested all this money, we might as well keep going. I my I have two kids at Sharp. I love the community at Sharp. I was on the Sharp
PTA. Um I really really hate the idea that people call it the bad school and that's why it was on the chopping block. People in the town call it the bad school. When my son was assigned there for kindergarten, I had to fight against people telling me to transfer him to a
different school and he's there and he loves it. And while I'm talking about Sharp, our third grade teacher resigned and that's in the later thing today. And we keep talking about staff leaving and staff need to feel secure and supported. And this is not how they're feeling this. When you're talking about
investing in this building at Good Shepard and Arts teachers are leaving in the middle of the school year, my son has to now deal with that. And that's really incredibly frustrating when you hear all of these veteran staff that are
leaving Collingswood and you talked about declining enrollment at the middle and high school. I asked at the last board meeting what was being done about the declining enrollment at the middle and high school. It was not addressed. It was not followed up on. And I also noticed we're not talking about enrollment until October until the next
board meeting. I find that very frustrating. Our schools and the staff in our schools are wonderful. I'm sorry. Thank you, Miss Marco. Yeah, our our staff is wonderful and I love our schools and I want everyone to feeling crazy for picking other schools. Thank you.
But you guys aren't doing anything to help people stay here. [Applause] Hi, I'm Kathy Ber. I live at 6 Connor Avenue, Collinswood, New Jersey.
and I'd like to know I got this I'm a senior so I'm 60 74 I have a hard time with all that right that's how I I
sorry but so I get this in the mail and this is this is the mail in ballot on the back of it has all the people that are running again. But I have been
looking all over on that computer today to find out about people and know what did you do, what what do you do, etc., etc. And I can't find anything. Are you ever going to send out flyers? I mean,
there's a lot of seniors that don't do computers, and I know that you all want to get rid of us, but sorry, I'm not going. But anyway, then I'd like to also te tell you I went to Haden Heights uh
um police station at Westmont because I have and many seniors talk about this. We're driving on Haden Avenue and there's kids with those big bicycle wheels and stuff and they're
always going up and down, up and down. I'm a retired nurse. I worked in the Pete's Intensive Care. I know what happens to car car when car accidents. So, I was driving on up. This kid is
right next to me and he's just going up and down, up and down. I rolled the window down and said, "That's dangerous. Please don't do that. You're scaring me." He turned around and cursed at me. Of course, I'm old lady, right? That's
what he he felt like. Also, she had said she had uh the commissioners said something about they sent out questionnaires. I never got any. My neighbors never got anything. And
That's I never received anything and thank you very much. [Applause] Hi, Virginia Jackson, 432 Virginia Avenue. Yes, we bought the house because my name
uh I just want to say how happy I am that the district and the burrow are working together. um as an Odyssey of the Mind parent and someone who is currently hosting Odyssey of the Mind in my garage
year round in the winter for a bunch of kids that don't like to wear jackets in middle school. Um I think this is going to be a really great space for them. Um and I also appreciate the long-term planning here. I understand community
concerns about closing schools, but if we have an emergency, like was talked about before, we have nowhere to put those kids while we make repairs to the buildings that we do have. This could potentially be something that can be used for that so we don't have to send everybody back to remote learning if
something terrible happens at one of these schools. So, I just wanted to say thank you and keep up the good work. [Applause] Hi. Uh, Megan Desmet, 220 Woodlon Terrace. I think, uh, Jenny said a lot of what I was going to say, so I will
try to just hit on some new points, but I want to thank you and the burough leadership for figuring out ways to work together and come up with creative solutions to problems that we've been dealing with in our town for as long as I've lived here, and I think much longer. Um, I know it's not always easy work. It's often really, really hard to
figure out how to work with people who you don't always agree with, um, and come up with solutions that work for a community. And when I think about all of our student athletes across town and they deserve new great spaces to play sports on, um I think about that my
son's in third grade and being able to play on the playground after school and have a safe space where he can continue to work on those problem solving skills and social emotional learning. And they do so much in school, but so much of learning happens outside of the classroom, too. So, I just want to thank you. I'm really excited to see where
this goes. [Applause] I'm short. Hi, I'm Lucille D. Young and I live at 550 Grant Avenue and I just have a real real quick question. Um, every a lot of people talked about the referendum and I kind of pulled up the
numbers that were there from from the referendum itself and basically the improvements and the cost of um, good sheeperd was going to be 25 million 35,540. The purchase was $1.450
something like that. But um I'm just wondering, are you going to hold off on doing any of the major work until the 2030 [Music] um when those other um bonds roll off? And then if that's the case, what do you
do with a building that you're just going to sit there for six years? I mean, real estate sitting is dangerous. So, I mean, I know you're going to have some people in there, but um 26 $23,000 worth of improvements you're not going
to be able to put through on our school budget. So, what what happens? Like, where's that going to be coming from? I appreciate all your help and answer in answering these questions. [Applause] Very short. Hello, Brena Holland, 429
Virginia. have um I just want to echo some of the other uh previous comments about how pleased I am about how um the burrow and the district are coming together on this plan. Um I think athletics are really important. I am clearly not a professional athlete but
but uh played a lot of sports uh growing up and um I credit that education as as we just heard that happens outside the classroom with you know my current professional success today. Um, and so I think it's it's really great that we're
taking these steps to to explore um improving our facilities for our kids. Thanks. Hi, I'm Adrienne Earl. I live at 409 Commly. Um, I actually didn't come about the wreck plan tonight. Um, but that was
interesting to hear about. Um, but I came out of concern for teacher retention, which I know has been mentioned at many previous um, meetings in the past several years. Um, my son is in third grade at Sharp
Elementary School and when I opened the board meeting agenda this morning, I found out that his teacher had resigned. Um, we had a lovely, like you said, such a wonderful back to school night. Um, meeting Mrs. Gerardano um who I have known for a while working in the
district um finding out how long she's worked here. Um she was just so kind and and we're so excited about a school year that our students have ahead. Um every year at Sharp has been wonderful so far, but Otis was super super excited this
year so far and I learned that she has raised her kids here and grew up here. Like I didn't know all these things about her. Um, and it's the end of September now and not a typical time for a teacher to be resigning and leaving.
Um, and so I guess my plea, like I said about teacher retention is for the board and the central administration to continue to examine like what's the reason that we lost this dedicated and wonderful teacher
um, in the middle of September. I I hope that someone either already knows and can work on that. to make sure that doesn't continue. Or if you don't know, please please please do some work. Um I don't know if it's like the personnel committee or just the
superintendants or who can look into this to find out how to stop this because it's definitely been something that's been occurring um for the past several years to all of us. It seems like at a much
higher rate than is normal. Um, and I trust in Miss Henson and the Sharp community, the school community that my son will be okay. This does happen, but it like it did break my heart a little bit. And I just don't want it to
continue to happen because we've seen it at the middle school, we've seen at the high school, we've seen it at other elementary schools. And I know that I'm not the only parent who is um seeing the the disruption to our kids
learning um and the cost that is coming to our students. And I I believe I like have a lot of hope that our district can do better to attract teachers. We have a contract now. So that's a good step. Um, but to keep teachers and keep the
teachers who have dedicated their career to this school district. Um, and I'm Did I not run out of time yet? I feel like Okay. I I really thought that I would have gotten cut off by now. All right. So, I'm going to stop there. Thank you.
Good evening. My name is Mr. Goldberg, music teacher at the Tatum and Garfield elementary schools. [Applause] I am here today speaking on behalf of the district music teachers, Miss Carlson, Mr. Gross, Mr. Hartung, Miss
Intricaso, Miss Lewig, and myself. It is the mission of the Collingswood Public School District's music department to provide every Collinswood student the opportunity to grow through a highquality, ability appropriate, universally accessible music education that inspires the continuing study of
music. The future of music in Collingswood is bright. I am thrilled to once again announce that it has been another record-breaking year of music program enrollment. In Miss Lewig's secondary band, over 100 students are playing an instrument. In Miss
Intriccaso's high school choirs, over a 100 students are lifting their voices to sing. In Mr. Hartung's middle school choirs, 140 students. Finally, after the instrument demonstration assemblies earlier this month, where Miss Carlson,
Miss Lewig, Mr. Gross and I traveled the district to perform for each elementary school. The fourth and fifth grade registration has climbed to over 200 students and counting. Signups for elementary after school
music ensembles are now open. If your fifth grader is playing a string instrument, check your emails to register for district orchestra rehearsing Mondays after school. If your fifth grader is playing anything other than a string instrument, check your emails for district band rehearsing
Thursdays after school. If your fifth or fourth grader has a heartbeat and a voice, Santaonics District Elementary Choir is the place to be Wednesdays after school. Check your email and sign up today. We are excited to start this next group of students on their musical
journey. A path that continues up through 12th grade and beyond. Along the way, students will develop the skills necessary to succeed in our everchanging society. The skills that study the skills that study after study link music
enrollment to higher academic achievement. Anyone who's ever been part of a healthy music program can tell you that the music gives students a reason to wake up in the morning, a reason to keep up their academic grades, a reason to like their school, and a reason to
like themselves. What we do in the music department doesn't happen without all of your help. It takes a village and it's thanks to your support on the board and the support of the community behind me that we can continue moving closer to the highquality, ability appropriate,
universally accessible music program that our students all deserve. Thank you. [Applause] I'm gonna follow Mr. Goldberg and talk
about marching band. Uh Andrea Haynes, 248 East Night of Collings with marching band booster president. Um our marching band has been busy these past few weeks. Uh we hosted our first home show in almost 10 years. We attended a competition at Washington Township and we've been having a blast at football
games. We also shut down East Night for our very first Porchfest performance this past weekend. Um, so on behalf of the band boosters, I would like to sincerely thank Dr. McDow, the board of ed, our CHS and CMS administrators, and the buildings and
grounds team um for all of your support with the home show. It was so great to see so many of you in the audience on September 6th and we hope you enjoyed the show. Um, despite some challenging weather, the day was still a huge success thanks to our our all-star buildings and grounds crew, Hector, Miss
Cindy, Miss Maria, and Brian. Um, a crew member just seemed to magically appear whenever we needed something, an extra pair of hands or a missing item. Uh, we'd also like to publicly recognize the district's food service director, Kathleen Colbert. She generously gave up her Saturday to come volunteer in the
kitchen. uh she's a fellow band mom over at Audabon and we really appreciate her support. And last but certainly not least, we want to give a special shout out to our director, Mr. Woodward, and our assistant directors, Holly Jackson and Haley Sherof, as well as the volunteer
staff. We appreciate their patience and dedication as they spend countless hours teaching, mentoring, and cracking jokes with our kids. But we're just getting started and we're excited to see where the season takes us. Uh we invite you all to join us at some of our upcoming um competitions later this month. Uh
come say hi at October 2nd Saturday and check us out at the Westmont Halloween parade, too. So, thank you again for all of your support. We appreciate it. Hi. Uh Cara Boer, 90 Summerfield Avenue in Collingswood. Um I have uh on the agenda approval for the honed hay ride
event um in October. Um I wanted to make a slight correction to the um information that I sent to probably everybody at this table. Uh when I was burning the midnight oil last night. Um I had some confirmation from our um I'm
always on the back end doing um scenes and the artistic stuff. The people that actually run the tractors for us confirm that we cannot hold probably more than 20 people per tractor. So for the event, in the information I sent out, we would be reducing the number from 1,200 tickets sold for the whole evening down
to about 960. So if there's any concerns about that issue, I just wanted to make note of that before you vote to approve it. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, seeing as there are no public
comments, um more public comments, uh I I do want to address the number of questions that were brought. Uh first, I I I want to mention about the voting information. Uh yes, there is a uh election for uh board members um to this board uh in November as there is every
year. uh as a board up here we we have um we don't do anything and and we can't do anything about in terms of like as a board in terms of uh advertising for board members or anything like that. Um although there are board members here who are up for re-election and they can talk uh to folks you know after the
board meeting. Um but I just want to be clear about that uh that that we up here cannot have anything to do with it in our position right now as on the board. Um, in terms of of uh bike safety, uh, that's something that I know that uh, our uh, schools and and our staff
actually do talk to our students about bike safety. And that was one of the big things that that we had to uh, address um, as we uh, opened up the elementary schools to uh, uh, third graders and above biking to school last year. And so that's something that that we definitely
um, uh, do try to work on. Um, and I believe that the the mayor uh was mentioning that that the plan would be to send out questionnaires. So, so uh I I hope you haven't gotten any questionnaires yet because I think the plan would is to send out questionnaires. Um,
now I I do want to uh address a few more pieces and give me one second here. I think we can also talk to our students about respecting elders because nobody should get cursed at for saying don't do wheelies in the middle of Haden have I drive through Hadenfield coming to
work and I white knuckle it the entire time down had I'm just like I I see it like when the kids are going to school in the morning in Hadenfield I'm white knuckle so I I feel it. Yeah, I lived in Fishtown for a few years and
so uh in Philly you there's nothing you can tell me about how crazy it is. So, um, I prepared this presentation back in, uh, January of of 2025, and we didn't get a chance to go over this during our board retreat because we had so many things to talk about, but I know
the the issue of staff retention has come up, uh, and staff departures. And so one of the big questions that that uh keeps uh kept on coming up that I wanted to look at and understand was you know who what teachers are we are we losing so that we can we can target and make
sure that that uh you know for the resonations that maybe uh we could not prevent but try to you know avoid that we would do so right because of course you know as with any job or any situation people resign for a whole
different set of reasons Right? If someone moves, of course, they're going to resign, right? But granted, I also understand that folks are saying, "Hey, there are teachers who are are uh maybe leaving that uh maybe had other choices, right?"
And decided to leave. So, what I did was um by hand uh I went through all of the um uh agenda from June of 2021 through December of 2024. Sorry, I have not had a chance to update since then.
So, what we see right here in this graph is all from June 2021 through uh through December 2024, right? So, in the blue at that time was the C are the distribution of
current teachers. This was at the end of December 2024. So that's the blue and what that what it shows is the distribution of current teachers by their tenure in the district. How many years they've been in a district in the orange is the uh
number of resignations that happened from that level. Right? So at the time so just to be clear at the time we had 223 teachers which is all the blue. The orange is just the resonations that happened beforehand. The orange is not
part of the blue, right? The resonations happened and uh and the blue is what we had at the time. Now, what I found from June 2021 through to December 2024 was that 99 teachers resigned, right? We're not talking about uh retired, etc. We're
talking about 99 teachers resigned. And what I found was that 47 of those 99 teachers were in years 0 through four in the district. they were new to the district. So almost half of the teachers who resigned during that period were new
to the district. All right? Uh about 30% of teachers who resigned were five to nine years in a district. And when we talk about our most veteran teachers, it was about uh about 20 or so percent, right? So either uh here you go
12, right? um seven or four resigned from the the most veteran ranks of our teachers during that time. So this is one of those things where it was really helpful for me to see that really what we were lo like the big chunk of the teachers
that we were losing during that period, right? Uh was uh from resonations was teachers that were newer to the district. All right. And if you'll see uh right there, it's not proportional to what our actual teaching force is,
right? Because you'll see we have a good number of of teachers that were here for 20 plus years and each of those orange and green bars aren't proportional to to each other. In fact, it seems like a disproportionate amount of teachers from 0 to four were uh had resigned. Now, of
course, I just want to mention uh this doesn't mean that there weren't other teachers 20 or plus years who didn't leave of but many times those teachers are the ones who are retiring and uh far be it from me to tell someone when they're ready to retire that they must
keep on working. Um so one of the other questions I had too was what is the current distribution of teachers and steps on the guide? So this is a little bit different. What we're saying here is looking at the end of December 2024, if you look at our
teaching staff, where are they on our step guide? And our step guide at that time was zero to 20. And that's uh or more. That's typically representative of the number of years that the teacher has experience teaching. Right? So if you've been teaching for 20 years, you're going
to be number 20 on the step guide. And what you'll see here is that 77% of our teachers were 10 years or more of teaching experience. Right? So, and and one of the things that that I think has bothered me is is
sitting up here uh meeting after meeting after meeting. It seems like there's this uh narrative that that we have no veteran teachers in our schools and and yet at the same time we have 77% of our teachers have 10 or more years of
experience. Right? These are numbers uh uh um by the end of December 2024. Again, pods have had time to to uh to update it since then. So, all this being said, I think back to the idea of of teacher retention. Um yes, I I think
absolutely one of the things that we talk about oftentimes is teacher retention and and having to uh to make sure we're retaining teachers and students and so forth. um and knowing that a disproportionate number of our young uh newer teachers are and uh are
leaving our district, right? I'm really glad I'm I'm really happy um to see, you know, part of what we did uh as a as a board negotiating with the CA over the last contract was to significantly boost
the starting salary of new teachers within our district. Right. So what we see here, this is a slide that I presented uh last board meeting is that by 2026 27 the starting salary
for a a brand new fresh teacher right with a bachelors in Kingswood will be higher than the starting salary of of surrounding school districts like Otaban, like Haden Township, like Hadenfield, right? And so right here, you know, the
question of what have we we've been doing to try to uh maintain and and retain teachers, we've seen that over the last three four years, a disproportionate number of our newer teachers have resigned.
And uh in partnership with the CA and discussions and negotiations with CA, we're able to raise the starting salary for our newest teachers so that by the end of the next school year, we will have one of the highest starting salaries in this area. Um I'm really
proud of that. I'm really proud that the board has has passed that. Um and I there's always more work to be done in terms of of making sure we uh keep and attract the best and the brightest. uh but those are tangible steps uh that uh that uh about how uh we are doing that
as a board. Um I also just wanted to really quickly draw attention to part of the superintendence report which was about the school culture and climate survey which I also think will give us some good data about what's going on in our
schools. Um, and I do think, you know, just to reiterate that this is a topic of utmost importance to the board. Um, most of us are also parents in the district and have a vested interest in in maintaining continuity for for our
kids and for all of your kids. Um, so it is very much on our radar. um that survey I we will all I know be really looking forward to seeing what data comes out of that so we can start paying some attention more attention with data to what's going on in our schools.
Roger, can I sorry, do you mind if I ask um I think it's I really appreciate Oh, sorry. Sh. Yeah, lot if you don't mind. I want to finish up questions here. So, there were a couple other questions um uh now kind of shifting gears related to Good Shepard. Um one was whether or not um
the uh we would be able to do major work to to the building and the answer is is no, right? some of the major work about the the building is electrical and so forth and and there's a hefty price to doing some of the major work that the department of education would require for us to be able to use as a school
building. Um and so no that is absolutely not within our budget. We don't have the capital reserve for that right. Um and so that's one of those things where uh we need to explore you know all options and one of them is uh uh looking at strategically timing
another referendum in the future when when the bond uh when our current you know 2005 referendum uh falls off the books so that you know we can do this with again minimal tax impact is what we're aiming for. Um and I think there's
also uh another uh statement about um you know whether you know the good sheeperd and its age and um very just qualitatively just at the surface level um good sheeperd as a building. Yeah, it's it's not a brand new building
that was built, you know, two years ago, right? But it is uh it's it's much newer than than many of our new schools. And because it was built in newer more recent decade, the bones and the structure of that building are uh in
good shape and are really well uh uh situated for us to renovate it and have it uh meet the the modern needs of modern students, right? like it has an indoor gym which none of our elementary schools currently have right just to give you an idea of how this is
different right yes uh good sheeperd is not two years old right but it is significantly newer and that matters in terms of for again to give you an example of why that's really important and uh is this building is not the same as buildings that for example we have
that are so old that there were separate boys and girls entrances Right? Like that's like there are massive differences there in terms of the layout, right? And a lot of our professionals, our excellent buildings and grounds folks have gone through and said this building has great bones. We
put a lot of uh we put a lot of work into it that it can serve our our students really well for decades, right? And knowing that um knowing that we have to be fiscally responsible that the tax impact is really important. Why?
Like like having this these bones already set will allow us to provide a completely newly renovated school building at a at at a much lower cost than um uh what we would have to do if we built a brand new building from
scratch. And so this is also part of making sure that we are uh uh keeping an ear to and keeping an eye towards uh minimizing a tax impact while trying to address uh our our school buildings. I also want to just be very clear. I know I'm talking a lot here, but I want to be
very clear. Um the partnership between the the district and the burrow uh is about using their recreation bond to upgrade uh uh uh our fields uh to bring in the concept building so that it can become a community resource. Um and it's
using that bond that current that is well strategically timed to have no tax impact. Right? I don't want us to get confused when we talk about that and our operational budget. Right? the budget that we have to use yeartoyear to run the district.
Those are two separate things. The operational budget, if you talk to any anyone in school districts across the state, all of our neighboring school districts, they will tell you that is going to be an ongoing struggle for years to come because of rising costs,
right? Because of limited resources. And what we have to do and what I think this whole board is dedicated to doing is figuring out the best way we can continue to provide the year-to-year services to our kids um uh as best as we can and do as most as we can with what
we have right while finding as many alternative grants or whatever else to bolster that right but I don't want us to confuse that discussion with this discussion of there is a separate uh uh source of resources that the the bureau has strategically timed to allow us to
do some of these upgrades to meet the needs of our community and our kids. Um, and we should not confuse that discussion with our discussion which will be a difficult discussion about our our operating uh costs yeartoear. Um,
so with that knowing that we we've gone for a while now I would like to move on to next section uh in our agenda. Uh, so moving on to section 10. This is M. Oh, okay. Um, uh, section 10, business administrator board secretary report.
Uh, Miss Coleman. All right. Um, item 10.01 is your August 2025 monthly, uh, budget transfer report. Item 10.02 is your August financial statements. 10.03 is your student activity cash report. 10 point
Well, I don't have a 10.04. I don't have food service financial statement for the month of September yet because it's still September. So, next month you'll have it. Um 10.05 is a listing of the purchase orders that were issued in September and 10.06 is a listing of the warrants that will be paid tomorrow morning pending approval this evening.
That's it. Uh thank you. Moving on to section 11 buildings uh grounds and finance committee. Mr. Craig the chairperson will present. Thank you. The finance buildings and grounds committee reviews all financial statements, purchase orders, and warrants on a monthly basis. The committee also reviews and approves all
contracts with outside service providers and oversees all maintenance and capital improvement projects districtwide. Uh we're going to be seeking approval of the following items. Uh 112 to 119 is the board secretaries report as was presented. Uh 1110 is a approval of our
comprehensive maintenance plan which we moved annually. Uh 1111 is uh moving on the recommendation to change uh how we are spending part of our focus grant money. Um details there. 1112 is approving of a
pilot program with uh foster puppies in the classroom. Um two of our teachers uh Robin Hogan and Beth Rogers respectively in Sharp and Collinswood Middle School. Once a month we'd be bringing puppy foster puppies into the classroom. As a board we will look at this and probably
talk about it again in December if we want to move forward with it as a permanent partnership. Uh and then after that I have several facil use of facility requests. Uh 1113 is community chorus. Uh 11:14 Collingswood youth theater. Uh 11:15
travel field hockey using space. 116 ultimate frisbee. Uh 1117 is the PTA Haunted Hayride. Um 1118 is the Tartan Basketball League. Um seeking approval for items 112 to 1118.
Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Questions or comments from board members? Just had a quick process question for the the food service report. Are we approving that in here even though we have not seen it yet or would we do that? I know it's still September. I don't have one yet.
So October you'll have September's financials. So would we not were we not approving item set 11? Yeah, just nothing in there. So Okay. Yeah. Okay. Uh seeing as there are no questions or comments from board members. Um roll call, please. Miss Coleman. Mr. Craig.
Yes. Mrs. Divine. Yes. Mrs. McCowski. Yes. Mrs. Seltzer. Yes. Mrs. Sherman. Yes. Mrs. Z. Yes. Mr. Dulkus. Yes, Mr. Chair. Uh, yes, except item 11.16 where I
recuse myself. Uh, moving on to uh section 12, curriculum committee. Uh, Miss Sherman, chairperson will present. The curriculum committee oversees and approves the district curriculum and assessment programs as well as field trips, home instruction, co-curricular
programs, and school calendar. Um, seeking approval for the following items. First, um, item 12.02, uh, is a a brief presentation or update on curricular projects. I'll kick it to her. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight. I'm, uh, going to
give a quick update on our um, elementary K through five um, literacy pilots um, as part of our multi-year transition to a more full implementation of science of reading best practices. And so I just wanted to uh acknowledge
tonight the group of teachers who are currently implementing this work in our classrooms right now. Um and just call out their names because I know that in the midst of a busy start of the school year um taking on this work is um time consuming and they're putting a ton of
effort and thoughtfulness into um learning a new curricular program um as part of our pilot um implementation year here. Um, and so every school, as you perhaps heard me share before, um, at board meetings, every school, every elementary school is participating in
our K through5 literacy pilot program, either using our HMH into reading, uh, pilot or the benchmark advance system. These are our two finalists um that have been winnowed down from a larger group of about eight or 10 initial um, considerations. Um, every school is
particip participating with representation from every grade level. Um, so we're putting this in front of students who are gifted and talented, English language learners, students with IEPs and 504 plans, um, so that we can truly determine um, the best fit for our
schools going forward. Um, and so I would love to just quickly but importantly shout out the following staff members who are in this work right now trying this out in their classrooms um, so that we can determine if this is a commitment we want we want to make in the future here. Chrissy Davis, Nicole Negri, Megan
Olsen, Lauren Nixon, Lisa Dimichi, Robin Hogan, Casey McKenna, Sue Miller, Rachel Gerner, Sam Nash, Kim Gaffis. Um, often joined by our interventionist Caitlyn Suitor, Heather Murray, Kim F, Kim Fom, Linda Phy. Um, we also have pilots
running simultaneously in our Oakland sister school with Kim, Alicia, Ally, Carly, Tracy Miller, Kim Capriyotti also participating. So, I want to just publicly acknowledge the work that's going into this in our classrooms right now. I know we have a lot of teachers up here um on the board or former teachers
and so I think you can appreciate the amount of time and energy that's going into this that was initially spearheaded by Dave Alivi last year and is now being led by Miss Eileen Mahadei. So, um we are rolling with this um and full speed ahead and I look forward to giving further updates in the future. Thanks
for the time Sarah. Awesome. Thank you to those teachers. Um, moving along with the rest of curriculum. Um, item 12.03, elementary uh, field trips. Several to Camden Center for Performing Arts, one to storybook land. 12.04, middle school field trips, all through the kindness
club throughout the year, visiting the Collinswood United Methodist um, senior residents. 12.05 um, high school field trips. We have sever different several different trips up for approval including for choir the 9th through 12 9th through 12 life skills program student council and 12th grade class to
Westford career council college fair. Um 12.06 the overnight field trip the senior class um trip in June. 12.07 um out of district home instruction placement for medical reasons. 12.08 08. This is granting senior privilege um per
policy number 5111 to for a student to finish uh their senior year at Collinswood High School. Um 12.09, this is the uh student voice action committee spearheaded by Dr. Mark Brassoff and paid for through the wellness grant. So seeking approval for items 12.03 through
12.09. Is there a motion? Uh in a second. Second. Uh, so I'd like to ask for a motion to uh table item 12.09, Student Voice Action Committee, uh, for now. Uh,
I think we're going to move that to uh, next month. Um, can I get a motion to table item 12.09? So moved. And a second. Second. Any questions or comments about uh, the the motion?
Sure. Can you just tell us why? So, um the any um program that is funded through the federal government um has challenges and so I got a message this morning from the program administrator asking us to
table it until we could address it um and then put it back on the agenda for next month. Any other questions about the the motion to table 12.09? Okay. Uh Miss Coleman, roll call, please, for the motion.
Mr. Craig, yes. Mrs. Divine, yes. Mrs. McCowsky, yes. Mrs. Seltzer, yes. Mrs. Sherman, yes. Mrs. Z, yes. Mr. Dulkus, yes. Mr. Ch, yes. Um, any questions or or comments from
board members about the approval of uh the remaining items? Okay. Uh, roll call, please. Uh, Miss Coleman on the approval of the curriculum committee items. Mr. Craig, yes. Mrs. Divine,
yes. Mrs. McCowsky, yes. Mrs. Seltzer, yes. Mrs. Sherman, yes. Mrs. Z, Mr. Dulkus, yes. Except we're required to abstain. Mr. Chu, yes. Uh, moving on to section 13,
personnel committee. Uh, Dr. Seltzer, chairperson will present. Thank you. Uh, the personnel committee reviews all recommendations for teaching and staff employment, considers co-curricular employment, and considers all professional develop opportunities for staff members. Uh, and tonight I'm seeking approval for the following
items. Um, 13.02, we have a retirement, and we thank uh, Miss Jenka very, very much for her long-standing service to the district. Um, 13.03, we have a resignation. We also thank Mr. Rodonna for her service. Uh, 13.04 is a
rescended contract. 13.05 is a termination. 13.06 to 13.08 are revised contracts for a number of reason reasons. You can see the details. Um 13.09 is a voluntary preschool transfer.
1310 to 1313 are a variety of leaves. Um 1314 uh to 13.17 are uh approving contracts for uh several teachers. 13.0 Uh 13.18 is approving an accounts
payable secretary. 13.19 is approving a business office substitute. 13.20 is the a um additional 2526 elementary permanent building sub. 13.21 is a building and grounds
substitute custodian. Uh 13.22 are school security staff. 13.23 23 is approval of a uh part-time student family liaison. Um 13.23 is approval of some support staff in the
wellness program. Uh 13.25 is approving um uh staff for the Zay Northstar Academy. That's a a tutoring program that occurs during lunch. Um 13.26 26 uh is the approval of um wellness
staff uh as you can see uh quite a few of those um for PD sessions uh that are paid out of the school mental health grant 13.27 uh is uh approving the student voices action committee members 13.28 is
approving an additional student voice advisor um 13 yeah 13.29 29 are the 2526 PLC leaders and stay tuned we're going to have a little something about that. 1330 is a
revised list of afterchool clubs at newbie. 13.31 is uh the approval of a sharp peer mediation coordinator. 13.32 is approval of sharp high impact tutors another tutoring program. 13.33
is the approval of an ESS instructional assistant paid with Title One grants. 13.34 are CST stipens. 13.35 is the um it's a revised um approval to
present a virtual session on the W uh NWA and MAP testing to elementary teachers. 13.36 are summer secretary hours. 13.37 is also a summer stipen for a school-based mental health services grant. Um 13.38
to 13.40 are a number of stipended um high school non-athletic, high school athletic, middle school athletic. 13.41 are approval of substitutes and tutors. 13.42 is the travel expense forum. We
have um several um uh events going on for staff across our schools um mostly related to professional development, some related to some of the AI work that was uh presented during the superintendent's report uh as well as several others. So tonight I'm seeking
approval for items 13.02 to 13.42. Do we have a motion and a second? Second. Uh so I actually have a couple of submotions that that we'll need to uh do here. So, first one is I'd like to get a
motion to table uh item 13 uh 27. That's a 2025 20226 student voice this action committee uh related to the the previous tableling. Can I get a motion? So moved and a second. Any questions or comments from board members?
This is the same it's through the same thing. Same issue. Okay. Uh roll call on this motion, please. Uh Miss Coleman. Mr. Craig, yes. Mrs. Divine, yes.
M. Mrs. McCowski, yes. Mrs. Seltzer, yes. Mr. Sherman, yes. Mrs. Z, Mr. Dulkus. Yes. Mr. Ch. Yes. And then I have a a second motion. Um uh I'd like a motion to amend uh item
13.29, the 2025 2026 PLC leaders. Um the the amendment should be to change November 2025 to October 2025. Um so uh can I get a motion please? And a second
second. And so just to clarify here uh what we're doing is just amending this item so that uh this starts staff can be again to be compensated starting October 2025 not not waiting until November 2025. Are there any questions or comments from board members about this
motion? Okay. So, uh, Miss, roll call, please, on the motion. Uh, Miss Coleman. Motion to amend that one. Correct. Motion to amend. Yes. Okay. I know. Yep. Doing a lot of work here. It's a lot. Uh, M Mr. Craig. Yes.
Mrs. Divine. Yes. Mrs. Mcowsky? Yes. Mrs. Seltzer? Yes. Mr. Sherman? Yes. Mrs. Z. Mr. Dulkus? Yes. Mr. Chu? Yes. Um questions or comments from board
members about the personnel uh committee items. Roger. I think we amended item 13.27. Do we also need to do 13.28 connected to that? Uh no, that that is um title that's title one funds. That's good. Yeah. Thank you.
Um I just I was taking some notes a little earlier. I would like to speak to the um the latest resignation of Modonno which it sounds like uh really surprised a lot of people. And um you know just Roger during your your uh presentation on uh teacher resignations I just took
some notes and uh you know while I appreciate that you know the numbers look a certain way and we can talk about the data and sure data is definitely important but you know by this point fall of 2025 uh you know we've had more than 100 teachers resigned and um the
thing about those numbers no matter how long they were in the district um it it does leave an impact and some of the positions that those resignations have left behind still remain unfilled. Um I just recent examples from the high school for example uh due to the
departure of Chuck Karns who by the way was a veteran teacher of this district. Uh the AP physics program moved online. I understand many students have dropped out of that program due to it you know definitely being substandard to uh what Mr. Karns was uh offering. uh the computer science program uh was
suspended abruptly and and I haven't seen any ads for a replacement. So um you know some things and and that and it's all connected, right? So that does impact program offerings. It impacts student enrollment and now due to lower student enrollment now we're talking
about financial constraints necessitating a merger of the secondary campus and and you know I'm looking forward to hearing about what that would mean actually. So, you know, I think I think it's important that we do move quickly to figure out some of the real issues behind these resignations. Um, I
know you talked about a survey that's going around. Um, do we do all do we have um exit interview data or are exit interviews given Dr. McDowell to departing teachers? They are. Great. Great. So, maybe if we could see some of that data as well or that could be merged into the survey that's going
around. But, you know, I just I just think we want to be careful not to minimize those numbers. No matter who they were or how long they've been in the district, it is having an impact. And um you know, I just wanted to put that on record. Yeah. Um I I totally agree with what was just
said about about the importance. Um but I just want to I I don't think that the the numbers speak to anyone being more or less dispensable, right, in the district. I think every loss of a teacher is something we should look very closely at, right? So, I didn't read the the presentation of the data necessarily
as well, it's the newer teachers, so it's fine, right? Like that that wasn't at all what I I was getting from that. But I do think getting specific about who seems to be leaving, right? Patterns of of why is helpful for us to identify, okay, well, then how do we target some
retention efforts um at the building level, at the district level? um because if it seems to be a certain group more than another, we can do different kinds of targeting for for retention, right? So, I think just getting really specific about data can only help us to do some
of the things that you're talking about. I'd also like like to jump in um about I think uh Miss McColy, you mentioned that due to lower student enrollment, we are now facing budgeting issues and I want to make sure that that that Sure. I was just responding to to Dr.
Mell's report, right? Lower student enrollment is not at all why we are facing budgetary issues. The the structural uh deficit I we've we've gone on for for months explaining why we
are facing budgetary deficits and that is has to do with the rising of of of costs faster than what we as a district are legally allowed to bring in in terms of taxes. I was I was being very specific about the plan to merge the
secondary campus that was brought up tonight. That that's what I'm talking I'm not talking about. But I want to make sure that that we're clear that that it's not because of student enrollment that we're str that that we have millions of dollars uh uh gaps between our what we have available and
the cost of educating our students. Right. But lower student enrollment in the secondary campus is necessitating a merger. Am I am I understanding that correctly? No. And so yes yes and no. And so let me I I I to I I think I need to provide some additional clarity. We in this uh school district and this community have
had a structural deficit since 2013. We didn't start talking about the structural deficit until 2021. But we have had a structural deficit since 2013. Um and we were uh slow to respond
because we were able to uh rob Peter to pay Paul. We were able to make it work. Post pandemic, the rising inflationary costs are simply unsustainable. And so if we needed to float half a million to a million dollars, uh we could have done
that pre- pandemic. Simply not possible post pandemic. And what we're seeing now are inflationary costs that we have never experienced. And so, uh, when we talk about enrollment, um, enrollment at the the middle school and the high
school has been, um, somewhat consistent, plus or minus of 50 to 60 students in any given year. But what we see is we see shifts in enrollment. When we see an increase of students at our middle school plus or minus 100 to 110,
we see a decrease in in that same year at the high school. And then in the following year we see an increase at the high school and a decrease at the middle school. Having a consolidated unit allows us to have a continuity of service and flexibility in terms of staffing without having to cut from one
and add to another. It becomes one school and we get to share resources and there are going to be efficiencies and cost savings associated with us pairing down and removing much of the redundancy. And so that's one of the primary reasons in the grand scheme of things. But in terms of the inflationary
costs, we've been very clear uh for the last several years simply to pay for the rollover cost, the the raises, the annual year-over-year raises that our staff absolutely deserve, we're looking at between 800,000 and a
million dollars per year. And last year, the taxes we were allowed to increase based on the 2% was $360,000. And so when you add the cost of everything being more, this is a structural problem that we have to solve
within our communities, it is um encouraging that uh burough leadership wants to partner with us in terms of additional shared service opportunities because when we save on one side, it makes it much easier in order to uh to provide support on the other. And so
we're one community. We are uh uh we have one goal and that's to provide services to the students, the families, the residents and the taxpayers of Collinswood. When you say Thank you, Dr. McDow. When when you say redundancy, would that would that mean the the cutting of
redundant maybe staff members programming or you know it's premature to start having that level of discussion? And so hence the reason why we will have students uh family members um teachers at the design table because we need to figure out um
how to how to build new based on the demand coming from our students. You referenced one of the uh uh programs that went away. Student voice is what we have been talking about for many years but we weren't practicing. And so one of the reasons why some of our programs have gone away is because students
didn't select them. They selected other things. And so when you have extremely low enrollment in a program um but high enrollment in another program, we've been investing where students are asking us to invest in. You know, one one of I think the the
struggles that we all have to grapple with is that um the reality even though I I don't think any of us want this to be reality is that there is only so much of a pie. There are only so many
resources and and our job I would say I see our job as a board and and as as district leadership is to figure out how to meet as many needs as possible um and as best as possible with the limited amount that we have in terms of
resources. Right? One decision one place means a trade-off in another place. These are painful, painstaking trade-offs, right, that I know from having uh uh worked with uh Miss Coleman and Dr. McDow um are not taken lightly
by anyone in in the district, right? Um, but we have to do them because if we want our district to to continue um uh into the future, we have to be uh cleareyed in terms of making these
um decisions so that we can provide as much as as possible. One of the the struggles I think I've had a lot personally is that I I've struggled with what I keep on feel like I hear hear which is an idea that nothing should ever change.
No, nothing at all should ever change. The teachers we have today, they should be the teachers we have for the next 30 years. The the the things that we have today should be the things that we have. The thing ways that they are now, they should never ever change. And the and
the reality is we cannot that that times are changing, our fiscal reality is changing, the needs of our kids are changing, all those things are changing. And we have to very thoughtfully change and update and move our district along, right?
Otherwise, we'll never be able to get a place where we have new fields for our students, where our students can see our student athletes, our student musicians, our students in general can see, oh, look, the community is investing us, right? Change is is difficult, but I think it's necessary. And again, that's
our job as a district to be very thoughtful about how we do that so that we can make sure that our district can stay financially solvent and continue to serve the kids as best as possible again given the real reality of there is a
fixed amount of resources to go around. Yeah. So, yeah. Um, I just have a question going back to um exit interviews and data. So I did ask um weirdly enough I asked this question last week of if does the personnel committee review exit
interview or exit interview data emails anything um and it doesn't seem like the board has eyes on any of that information. So I guess it would be helpful to understand why or maybe that process um because I don't know how we would
attempt to um you know help teacher retention if we don't ever see that data. Yeah. So a a couple of things there. the personnel committee at times has gone over um exit interview data. So that's something that does happen on our personnel committee. Um there's also
this is also a really tricky spot uh um that I totally understand the I think the the struggles with. One of the the things is for example um board members for example like we have to understand um I know you do that that we don't run the schools and I'm just letting the
public know right we don't run the schools ethically. We're bound. We can't not run the schools. We oversee. We don't run. What that means, for example, is we can't like ethically, legally say sit in on interviews for staff, right? Same
with ex, right? Right. No, no, no. Same with Right. like right. And that's similar issues with exit interviews, right? Because we do not administrate the school. So, I think one of those those pieces there is, yeah, we do review um exit interview uh data at times in the personnel committee. Um but
also it's I I definitely understand that tension of uh I think all of us as a board want to do more but we have to understand that as our like we we there's uh we have our role and we have to adhere to to our role and that's one of the challenges. I I totally feel that. Absolutely.
So I guess I'm I just wanted to chime in that I I believe at our retreat we even talked about wanting to get culture and climate not just for students and families and all and our teachers, right? because that full picture is something we want to be measured about.
And so I think the presentation is one of many constellation of data points we need to account for and appreciate retention is critical to one just knowledge and even the cost of bringing in someone new is far greater than
supporting those who are here and who have invested in this community. And so we are making the steps to do this survey to help us have a a found the footing from an objective survey to have a discussion around this. Um I don't think any of this conversation is
intended or data presented is to say it's either or. We do need to figure out what the and is and how we will proceed in moving in that direction. Um so I believe we've created the intention to move in this that direction and may and will articulate kind of this is what we've heard from everyone so we can have
a point of view a clearer point of view than the list of resignations retire like that is in a clear enough point of view to help us figure out what our next step should and will be. So that's what I landed with from our discussion and look forward to seeing what that data brings forward. And I also just want to
I know we we talked about it in August, so this was a while ago, but that is actually an explicit board goal, right? Uh a board goal we set together over the summer when we met collaboratively to to come up with our goals was specifically related to teacher retention, but also
to the implementation of getting baseline data on on school culture and climate. So really happy to hear about that happening um also so quickly into the school year um because it is very in line with what we decided as a as a as a
community was was our goal. So that survey that data will be something that we can an review. Okay. Thank you. That's the overall goal is what I was trying to get to. So thank you. And I think one I'll just add on because I I've uh been a big fan of this this tool for a while now. uh there it's was
funded by the New Jersey Department of Education and it part of the cool parts about it is that there's a whole like online platform that helps already helps you kind of like um uh break it down and and and and analyze it for you. So it really helps in terms of be able to look
at it without having as much capacity. Any other questions? Okay. Uh roll call, please. Mr. Craig. Yes. Mrs. M Divine. Yes. Mrs. McCowsky. Yes. Mrs. Seltzer. Yes. Mrs. Sherman. Yes.
Mrs. Z. Yes. Mr. Dokus. Yes. Except we're required to abstain. Mr. Chu. Yes. Moving on to section 14 culture, climate and policy committee. Uh Miss May the chairperson is not here today.
So I will present. Um so the policy and regulations culture climate and policy committee reviews all updates and changes of district policies and regulations. We have four policies up for first reading. Um I do believe they're all uh mandatory. So uh one is
for uh board member election appointment uh revision notification of promotion new job and transfer opportunities uh special education Medicaid initiative. So the semi program and then uh budget prep preparation. Uh then there are several items several policies for
second reading and that's uh duties of public school accountant revised legal services revised professional services revised internal controls revised administrative employment contracts revised. Um and then there's section 14.04 is an associated regulation with
one of the uh second reading policies and that's for internal controls. Uh there's also uh an item 14.05 um where we'll move on the recommendation of the policy to deny the request within the parental grievance submitted on August 25th, 2025 and heard
by the committee on September 10th, 2025. Uh can I get a motion for approval of items 14.02 through 14.05, please? So moved and a second. Any questions or comments from board members? Okay. Roll call, please.
Mr. Craig, yes. Mrs. Divine. Yes, Mrs. McCowski. Yes, Mrs. Seltzer. Yes, Mr. Sherman. Yes, Mrs. Z. Yes, Mr. Dulkus. Yes, except we're required to abstain. Mr. Chu, yes.
Moving on to section 15, miscellaneous. Uh 15.01 is uh the HIP report from the previous month. Uh none were reported. Uh 15.02 is uh the uh revision for the 2025 2026 uh title 9 coordinator. Uh Dr.
uh Daniel Walker will be our title 9 coordinator. Um the 20 uh agenda item 15.03 the 2025 2026 compliance action officer is also revised. Uh once again Dr. Walker will be our compliance action officer. Um 15.04 is a educator
evaluation highly effective options. Um so this is a little bit more uh I guess complex of an item. So I'll let uh Dr. Dr. McDall explained this, but um we'll I guess we'll go ahead and get a motion though. So, motion for approval of items 15.01 through 15.04
and a second. Okay. Dr. Madall. Yes. Um and so uh over the summer uh the New Jersey Department of Education aligned with the Chie J um and their educator evaluation um policies. They
approved activities specifically for um tenured staff uh teachers who were rated highly effective on their uh last summitive evaluation uh in the previous year. Um what it does is with the
agreement of the staff member and their evaluative uh supervisor they have an opportunity to um have an alternative to formal classroom observation. And so there are uh six uh activities approved
activities um that an educator could choose in order to receive uh meaningful evaluation. Um for example um a tenured uh highly effective educator uh might select to conduct um and lead a
professional development where they get observed uh they receive feedback and that goes into their evaluation rather than a classroom observation. Uh and so uh we are asking for uh our teachers uh to have the ability to select this as an
option if they uh choose. Uh and that's what the uh the resolution says. It just provides our our highly effective educators options for uh alternative feedback. Thank you, Dr. D. Any questions or comments from board members?
Okay, roll call, please. Mr. Craig, yes. Mrs. Dine, yes. Mrs. McCowsky, yes. Mrs. Seltzer, yes. Mr. Sherman, yes. Mrs. Z. Mr. Dulkus, yes. Mr. Ch, yes. Moving on to section 16, our our
second um section for public participation. Uh so this this section of public participation is open to to all topics. So it doesn't have to be just for the agenda. Um again, we'll be actively listening, taking notes uh so that we take all that's being said in
consideration. And also we'll take notes and answer any questions uh at the end of public comments uh as appropriate. Um, you know, in all fair in fairness to all who should speak, there's strict three minute time limit. And also, please remember to state your name and address for the record. At this point,
the the floor is open. Hello, Liz Wilson, uh, 109 East Franklin. Bear with me. I have a lot to say. I'll do my best to be concise. I'm here to tell you about my niece. She was born at 26 weeks premature. She had severe heart and lung issues as a result. She spent the first year of her
life at CHOP. She had to have a TRA and a G tube put in. She had her TRA taken out two years ago and it fully closed less than a year ago. She has still has a G tube and is not able to eat normally. So, she receives all of her nutrition through her G ttube. She's always at had at home nursing because of
these medical concerns. Her mother, my sister Sarah, is a single parent of four kids who works full-time and has a special needs daughter who has required Sarah to be a full-time advocate and medical care manager since she was born. I've seen her devote countless hours and energy into taking care of her daughter and making sure that her needs have been
met everywhere she goes. Last year, when her daughter was in kindergarten at Zay, Sarah had to be a strong advocate to make sure that her daughter had the accommodations that she needed. This year, she's in first grade at Sharp, or rather she is supposed to be. The district has decided that she no longer needs her nurse despite the fact that
she has a doctor's order to the contrary. She has a doctor's order saying she requires nursing care, but the Collingswood school district and all their wisdom has decided they know better. Instead, they would like the school nurse at Sharp to be in charge of my niece's care. My sister has told the administration time and time again,
"This is not an acceptable solution. It's too much to put on the school nurse. Not to mention, it puts other kids in danger when the school nurse is devoting so much of her time to one child's care. It's not fair to my niece. It's not fair to the other children. It's certainly not fair to the nurse. Sarah has been telling the district since June that her daughter will not
come to school without the nurse. It is for the safety of everyone involved. As a result, it is now almost October and she has not been able to start school and she's being penalized as such. As you may or may not know, the way nursing program works is my niece's insurance covers it until she goes to school. When
she's at school, the district is responsible for paying the nurse. I can only conclude that this is the reason for the resistance. And yet the district has hired a one-on-one for my niece who has been working in the school since September 4th. So we're paying a professional to be at the school for her while she's not there. And yet the nurse is too
expensive. Obviously, this is upsetting. It feels like the district is counting on the exhaustion and/or ignorance of the parent and hoping they will fold and not put up a fight. My poor sister has been through so much these past seven years. The physical and emotional toll of fighting for her daughter is unimaginable.
I would ask that you look into this situation and rectify what I see as a pretty huge injustice. Um, I don't know if you need it, but her name is Sarah Wilson. Wilson with two L's. Her email is sarah s a r a hf w I ls o ngmail.com.
If this is not addressed in a way that meets her daughter's needs, she may be forced to look into legal options. Thank you for listening. I just want to say that sorry can you uh and sex you know the first three years when
you're in a job although you might just not match do you know what I mean like you might not match in the community you might not match with the students and stuff you might not, you know, match
with your co-workers and also you have to kind of like make it like a a family kind of thing because I know I've worked in a lot of intensive care units and when intensive care unit opens up their arms to a new
nurse on and makes it a family, they don't leave. And so it's kind of like, you know, Be kind to the new people because
they're scared and it's their first job possibly. Good evening. Can't believe I'm up here speaking right now. My name is Rick Pence. I've spent 27 years here in the district as an educator. Uh four years here as a student uh here. uh wasn't
going to speak tonight. I am finally happy that a board is partnering with the burrow to help any part of the facilities in this district. It is 25 years and probably more overdue. On top of that, I've gone through three
bond referendums and been actively involved in all three of them and one out of three does not help our students of this district. So, please pursue that. Yes, there's going to be budgetary items and there's ways to work through that and we all know that and seen that
with that. I'm up here right now to reinforce teacher retention. On top of that, Roger, I appreciate your numbers. Obviously, I have not looked at them. Can't say whether I agree. I'm going to basically go with what your numbers are. It's troubling that almost 50% of our
new staff from zero to four years are leaving this district because the number one thing when someone walked into this district in my tenure here was you're never taking a new job. This is the last teaching job you will accept and you
will retire from the Collinswood school district on this. The troubling becomes is yes that salary is great and I think the board and association did a wonderful job in negotiations for both sides on that but the troubling point is
in a year from now Hadenfield will be higher than you will be higher than you so don't rest your laurels on that number I'm going to guess every exit interview that you've seen from data the number one reason why someone's left is because of salary
especially Especially when they're 15 years, 10, 15, 20 years in this district, they have left because salary. That's their number one personal reason. The real reason an educator of 10 years or more has left this district is
because of the continuity within these buildings and the arguments back and forth. And that comes from the board to leadership to school leaders to the association to colleagues.
Everyone has a part to be blamed in that. I will stress to you, you want to make retention and have better retention, figure out how you're keeping your 10 years to 20 year staff here because they are the structure of your
district and they will bring along and keep the people from zero to four years here and make them 10 years, 15 and 20 years. Zero to four, they're updating their resume every single year. No doubt
about it. And I would be too if I was in their situation. And a lot of this happens to do because of what's happening at the state. Agreed. Nothing you can do about it sitting here in front of here. But you have to figure out how leadership here takes it down to
the school leaders, take it down to colleagues that continuity of the buildings become stronger because that's what keep the people [Applause] Hi, I am Jodie Faroh, 911 Park Avenue. Um, I wanted to speak in follow up to
what Megan said and also what Rick said. Um, that I think pwning or piggybacking on what Rick said about the continuity from the leadership down to the teachers that we also have to understand that that continues down to the students. And
again, we have a problem with retaining our eighth graders coming into our high school. And I currently have an eighth grader, and I'm once again deciding what's going to happen. And I really, really, really want to continue to keep my eighth grader here. But I have to tell you, it is extraordinarily
difficult when we go to back to school night and we hear from other teachers who are saying that they're having difficulties with getting their supplies. I was in a class with him and we heard a mouthful about I feel like the district is trying to ruin my program even though I have 150 kids in
this program. I'm not getting the supplies that I'm promised. I'm not getting returned emails or anything like that. AP physics is a huge deal that we don't have a teacher for that. And I understand that
people leave for countless different reasons at the um you know the teacher level, but when you're a parent and you're looking at starting this again and I have a senior I do not want to I've already split up a kid. I have a sophomore at PBI and I have so many
friends who have split up their kids too because we continue to see the loss of highle highlevel teachers and also too I have a friend who her son is a senior here as well. Well, he is having calculus tutoring right now and the tutor told her at my school your kid
wouldn't even be an AP. He's completely unprepared now. And I'm sorry, but that has to do with going back three years ago, losing an Amy Wiltsy from teaching calculus. I we've just lost so many teachers. And I just want you to understand that not only do the teachers
have a face, but they have a real purpose in retaining the students here. And for people who are now beginning to shop around with where they're going to send their kids, that's something that they're looking for. And I'm here with Cara Boiler doing the haunted hay ride. So I am in it to win it for this school
district and giving so much time and I really want to be here but we have got to figure out retention of highle teachers because the concept that they're just leaving and that's it. It's a lie. And the longer we continue to refuse to believe that maybe we should actually look at what they're saying in
exit interviews and let maybe the rest of the board say it, we're not going to get anywhere further. We are going to continue to lose the eighth graders. We're going to lose more high school kids and we're going to continue to lose more of our ele uh middle schoolers too. And I would like that not to happen. We all desperately love this place and would like it to go. And also too, I
have to say I'm kind of for this plan. I think it was good and I appreciate everything that you guys said about that. So, thank you. But please take a look at what's going on with retaining those high level teachers. Thank you. [Applause]
Good evening. Uh, I'm Vince Angeluchi or Venzo Angeluchcci. I live at 130 Woodland Terrace in Oakland. Uh, my my older student has already graduated. I have a senior Sophia and a sophomore Rocco. I came tonight. Usually I'm busy. I'm involved with football and the
wrestling teams, coaching at the high school level. So, I'm usually stepping or watching it uh via YouTube. Couple positive things to start out with. super excited to see you guys settle the schoolboard contracts. I'm a a year 26 teacher. Um so, you know, congratulations on all your hard work
with that. Um number two, going down my list, um fantastic to see collaborating and moving forward with the projects for for community-based projects for parks and and fields and all that stuff. Uh I don't think my kids ever play on those fields, but as I as I
walk over and I'm not coaching anymore, watching, it'll be great to see. Uh, props again on the the the yonder pouches as a teacher creating uh an environment in the school district with zero distractions because the students can't regulate themselves with that stuff. Fantastic. Um,
uh, great back to school night program. Uh, lots of positivity. It was a great program run around. The teachers were super positive. Moving on to a couple concerns. One, piggybacking on what what some other people said way more elegantly, retaining teachers. Teachers have to feel like family. You know, uh
the students feel that love and they're safe and they learn and they blossom. You know, that's not going on right now. And you guys are are working on it. I couldn't say it as well as Mr. Pence, you know, as well as the last lady before me as well, too. But there there's issues. My son, who's a sophomore at VMI, had his uh three years
of Spanish here in his college credits and he rolled into uh third year VMI Spanish, was completely unprepared for it. had subs year and a half of his three years of Spanish. You know, that's something we're not preparing our kids and we need to do a better job of it and
it falls on you guys. Not that I have any answers for that stuff. Last thing relates me back to back to school night as I was rolling around talking to all those teachers. I rolled into construction technology. Two of my students are excel and they love school. My last student, he's still figuring it out. I rolled into construction
technology and talked to Mr. Rosselle and he he had some concerns about being able to um that he has a budget of $4,000 and he put in money for Home Depot and supplies and he doesn't have them. He doesn't have drills like cordless drills and things to build, you
know. Um and I'm a college kind of guy, but you know, skills and trades are super duper important and for him not to be able to have things for those kids to go and again I only found about this last Wednesday. I haven't said sent any messages out to the principles or to buildings and grounds or anyone about it. So, I don't have any background
information, but while I'm here, I wanted to mention it, you know, and he said an exhaust system was supposed to go in, you know, throw in a fan, and it's a lot a lot more complicated than that, and suck out the dust, but again, he said like he's kind of scrapping to come up with things where these kids should be building projects and doing things. And hey, um, this is this is
what I might want to do with my life. And it seems like it's struggling big big time. So, I'd hope you guys could check into that for us. You know, I'll send follow-up emails. I know you guys are busy with a million things also to principles and that sort of stuff, but you know, Mr. resolves like for three years I've been asking for this stuff
and I'm not getting our stuff. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Uh seeing as there are no more public comments. Uh I think there are a couple issues brought up. First I'll let
uh Dr. Mal um address the issue with uh that was just brought up. All right. Um so thank you everyone uh for providing the feedback. I'm going to speak to uh the CTE aspect. Um former CTE teacher, former CTE principal,
former uh regional superintendent in charge of nine uh CTE centers. Sorry, Dr. No, I'll just CT career and technical education. So career technical education. Um so related to construction technology, I think that we need to also be very clear. We are not a vote tech
school. Um and uh some of the requests that uh you were referring to uh uh in in the comments are items uh that are not we are not cleared in order to provide some of the items uh also
include toxic chemicals and so uh we're not a vote school with the exhaust systems and safety has to be a priority. This has been an ongoing discussion in terms of facility upgrades uh needed and potential movement of programs for many
many years. This is not a new concept. And so we will be working with uh Mr. Rosel. I know that our head of buildings and grounds they are working to accommodate to the degree possible that does not sacrifice student safety. Um but we will not be operating um uh
dangerous equipment without the appropriate safety uh systems in place. We will not be storing um volatile organic compounds in traditional classrooms without sufficient exhaust. Um and uh it will be an ongoing process
in order to be able to strike the balance. We do have a wood shop that does have an exhaust system and that is available uh to our construction tech team. Uh I know that the high school uh leadership met with the construction uh department today uh and they're working
on how do they accommodate uh the needs of the program without compromising the safety of our students. Uh thank you Dr. Mal. Um I also just want to take a a quick moment to thank uh Mr. Pence uh for for his comments and
and I think uh what's been made very clear is of of absolutely I think a focus for the community and for us is um about uh how uh do we attract and retain the best teachers possible and it's an
ongoing discussion ongoing work that that um we always have to uh focus on and and we do it because uh in the end what we're really focused on is our students, right? And the best for
our students. Um, you know, I think there's there's also been I I've been part of discussions about uh whether or not um families want to send their their kids to, you know, the middle school or the high school. You know, one of my when I first moved to Kingswood in 2012,
uh one of my first friends here, they had four kids and they said, "We're, you know, going through the the elementary school. They might go through a middle school, but yeah, we're going to send them a miller for the high school. And what I found really troubling with that assertion, talking to them was their
assertion that our teachers, our school wasn't good enough. that that these teachers that that we've heard a lot from that that uh we've
heard a lot of uh parents and families praise and talk about how amazing uh work they do just not good enough and that I think is a really troubling assertion to to keep on hearing and and and I think I would encourage everyone
right you know if they if they hear those types of discussions to say here's an amazing experience that my kid has had with the with the teachers and with the with the schools right? Here's an amazing thing that's happening here. And I'd really encourage, you know, something we talked about our border
retreat was really part of it is is that we have to start talking about all the good things that are happening in our schools because I think what gets missed is all of the amazing work that are teachers are are doing that our students are doing. Um
and and that's that undercurrent when we talked about whether or not uh you know when when I've talked to you know my my friend that that I found troubling was was that you know they're saying that that our schools couldn't meet uh their needs. It's always an ongoing push. You
know academics are absolutely right the the the main piece of of education that that's why we're here and you know I know that Dr. Dao uh Miss How Turner have put a lot of work uh into trying to put the right supports in place and the
right structures in place to really help throughout the district in terms of pushing academics. I think our test scores uh uh have are showing that uh knowing that that's also not the end all be all. Um, it's constant work and I appreciate everyone's push for us,
right, as a as a board to continuously push, continuously try to improve and never be happy with where we're at and always try to bring the best because in the end, we want to bring as the best possible for for all all of our kids now and into the future. And so with that,
thank you again for everyone for what they've said tonight. Um, Meredith, yeah, sorry to interrupt, Roger. Uh Liz, if you're still in the back, I'm not going to go into it publicly here, but I am personally very familiar with your niece's circumstance, and if you'd like to speak afterwards for a few moments,
I'd be happy to. Um and then second, not to extend the meeting longer, but just to speak to one of the trends tonight regarding teacher retention. Um, without w without getting into more statistics and and and a long answer here, as a as a former elementary school principal,
teacher retention was one of the most essential elements of running a successful school. Again, I know we have many teachers up here and former teachers. And so, I just want to chime in and say that is continues to be um a core component and a core focus of my
work in this role as assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction. Um and there's obviously more work to be done there and will continue to be a focus of mine, my teams, etc. So look look forward to further updates there going forward.
Thank you. And so with that uh it is after 9ine so we're looking to section 17 uh for German. Can I get a motion to adjourn this meeting? So moved. And a second. All those in favor. Thank you everyone. Good night.