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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=de7Ko6HGM0g

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All right. At this time, we'll uh start with our uh pledge of allegiance. If everyone could stand. Okay. And tonight we have a couple special presentations. So we have the 2026 2027 school year final budget presentation

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and hearing. Um, if you guys are ready to to present, you can go ahead. >> Uh, why don't you do yours first because that's more important. Okay, our final budget hearing for this

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upcoming budget 2627. OB, we kept our goals the same. You want to advance? Uh, we kept our goals the same. We, you know, we're trying to keep our class sizes down as best as possible. Always

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looking to improve student achievement, preserve all our core programs, keep our student staff wellness in mind, maintain safe and effective facilities, and then also ensure fiscal stability while navigating the rising health care costs.

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Next slide. Um, so here are some increases. These are the increases from the 2627 budget. Our labor costs have gone up $2.6 million. Transportation's up 182,000.

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Tech, cyber security, student software 173,000 and professional development another 33,500. Go back. Um, so increases in revenue, 2% tax levy cap is 763,000.

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Our health benefits adjustment alone is 1.9 million. The proposal question that the um that the public voted on in November 4, 2025 was 700,250 and we got a $216,000 increase in aid. I will address this

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later about our aid. Next slide. the sources of our revenue. So, this is a little bit um skewed here. So, we want to make sure we realize that the local tax levy and reserves is really our

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local taxpayers. So, it's 87.2 plus 2.8. So, it's really it's really uh 90% 90 90% of our budget comes from our local taxpayers. >> Uh Dr. Dr. Forte, I think the slide is

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not coinciding with >> maybe I did >> I I did skip one. Sorry about that. I will come back to that. So, our sources of revenue, like I said, it's mostly from our local taxpayers. Over the years

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that has gone down a little bit and up, but this year you can see there's a it's a huge difference in um we're only getting a little bit of aid compared to what we're spending. So let's go back to um the slide that

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slide right there. So where does the money go? So $ 38.2 2 million or 80.7% is salaries and benefits. So 80% of our budget goes towards

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people. The rest of it goes towards other important things like utilities, transportation, you know, telephone, internet, all the other things, books, that all has to come out of the rest of that.

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Next slide. And we already went over this one. Then we go over to that one. So let's go back to the next thing. Uh reductions. So to create a a balanced budget while using all available tax ladies and and aid funds,

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we we are reducing four instructional aid positions. We have used some of our reserves to fund maintenance supplies. We're doing the best we can with cutting. We had to cut some instructional supplies. We had to try to buy some of them out of this year's

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budget. Um, we had to cut classroom and office furniture. We had to cut school buses. And this year, our Dallas program will be fully funded by the parents. Whereas in the years past, we've allocated money in the budget to it. So,

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not only do we have a a high increase, we also had to make some some cuts, too. Next slide, please. So, these are our projects that we're going to be working on next year. Some boiler replacements. Um, we have to replace some window

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shades. We have a wall crack. We have sidewalk repairs. A lot of this is stuff we have to do all the time. Um, there's some window replacement at Lake View. There's a fairly large job at the annex bringing more power into the building and then distributing the power and um

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all different types of repairs and machinery replacements. Now, all of these items right here are coming out of reserves, so it doesn't impact the tax levy for next year. Next slide.

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So, our budget with the to the local tax is 39.8 million and the the increase to the taxpayer is 7.28% 28% which is a $348 increase to the taxpayer in this next

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year. Next slide please. Our overall budget, this includes reserves and all any kind of aid and all the other things that we have um is $47 million. Next slide. This slide shows

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expenditures. Where does it go to? instruction and programs, special education, tuition, basic skills, you could see all the things. Um, extracurricular activities, um, transportation, employee benefits, it's all listed there. And this will all

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be on our website tomorrow. Our historical tax levy impact, this goes back years. Um, this board has been has worked with the administration on keeping the tax impact as as low as we possibly could, but

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there have been times when it has spiked. Um, this one with our a huge increase in our health benefits, 31%. This is definitely uh one of the higher ones. And this slide is important. I want

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everybody to see this. I I went over this the last time, but it's important for everybody to see this again. Um cost drivers new to the budget less than 10 years. So mental health, security, and cyber security, $600,000.

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This is new things that are in the budget over the last 10 years. And the security program we have and the cyber security, um we have had outside attacks from cyber security. So, we do spend a fair amount on cyber

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security. These are all things that were new that we didn't even really discuss before that. Um, facts about state aid. So, this is this is the part that I think is really important. Um,

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the school funding reform act of 2008 requires that the state gives you certain amount of aid. In 2009, we got our full amount. Then we were shorted. Then they passed S2

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and in S2 they were going to bring your aid up to what it was supposed to be over seven years. So for one year we did have that. Now for the last two years in a row again we're being shorted even though I know we're getting more but

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we're still being shorted in in uh the last two years. 926,000 and 879,000. $1.8 million short that we're supposed to get in state aid. We're not getting

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also our extraordinary aid. The the the state is supposed to provide you with 90% of the cost of educating certain special education students that the the cost is higher than $45,000. Supposed to give you 90% of that. Is that right, the

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mayors? 55,000. So in since 2003 23, we've been shorted another million dollars in that. So right now we're being shorted $2.8

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million over the last since 2023. Two $2.8 million in regular and extraordinary aid. So it's it's hard to say like we're happy that we got an extra 200. What did we get this year?

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203. It's great. I mean, thank you. But where's the other 926 is the first question I have. Um, so that's something that I think it's very important for everybody to see. Just to put it in perspective, our our

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um health benefits waiver last year was the amount of state aid we didn't get. Next slide. Okay. So, I went through everything. It's not the first time you heard this speech. Um, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Um, I'm going

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to hand it over to the board president to, uh, moderate. And, um, I'd be happy to answer anything. Hopefully, um, Dearis and Sandy can chime in as well on certain items. And, uh, thank you. >> Just have a question. I think we briefly

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discussed it discussed it at our last meeting. I know we want to maintain good relations with the Department of Education and the the county board of education, but is there any uh have there been any legal precedences

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or consideration of going after money owed to the districts? We can't be the only one that's been shortch changed. And we've talked about this since I've been on the board, how uh the suburban districts are not treated fairly. I'll

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leave it at that. >> I brought it up to our attorney. Um, and also I brought it up to my state organization. Um, our attorney would do the work and look into it for us. Um, but I, you know, it's a fairly

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large project. Um, the other one was I did speak to my the president of our association, the school, New Jersey school administrators association, and the little catch that they have is technically every year they create a

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budget, they create new legislation. So that law now dictates how the money is spent. So for that one year, that law supersedes the school funding reform act of 2008. So that's their way around

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funding it the right way. And I know the governor said something that was important that the that the past 20 years governors from both parties weren't funding the pensions and now she is. And that's like $6 billion that they're making up. I get that. And that could have gone towards the schools. So that's

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one reason, but it doesn't really help our local taxpayers. Just so Dr. Fort just so I understand that though. So correct me if I'm wrong. It is not a matter of how much is being funded because it's my understanding and and please tell me if this is incorrect

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is that the governor has fully funded that line item in the budget. It's a matter of how the money is allocated. Is that correct? Is that your understanding? Like in other words S2 has not been fully executed it sounds like. Right. They started it and then they stopped it. The the problem with

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going down any road of trying to fight that to be honest with you, Don, is that you got other districts that are even worse off than we are that are fighting it, too. It just a it's it's a it would be money thrown away in my opinion at this point. It's probably not. I I agree with you.

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It's a It It stinks. But um and but that's my understanding, Steve, is that it was fully funded, that line item, but I don't know if it's allocated in accordance with the funding formula from 2008. I believe

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I'm not 100% certain of that. Um I can't answer for sure. Um but that's the idea of S2 is to take away money from the districts that are overfunding, give it to the districts like that are underfunded. But they put a catch in there where districts can only lose 3%

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and districts can only gain 6% I think it was. So, so we're never going to catch up like right now, right? It's going to take time. And and there are So, we're a positive S2 district, meaning we we get more money, but there's negative S2 districts. And

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that's the problem with it is like all of our associations and groups that we work with have both. And same thing with our local legislators, right? They have both. They They have the Denvilles and then they have the Mount Arlingtons and the Roxberries. So

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that's why it's hard to get like any traction on it because it's both sides. >> Yeah. We're not supposed to be political, but um you we've been fiscally prudent. We've done over $20 million in repairs and upgrades to our our schools without a referendum. And

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recently we had had that uh that's that question to fund the annex. But um maybe uh to the legislative committee that James is involved with there, you there should be a little bit more political activism there because this is not governing properly. The fact I forgot

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the number, maybe it's like seven school districts in New Jersey, maybe more. Um have filed for bankruptcy are, you know, and have let staff go and cut things from their budget that are really helpful for the kids. So, uh, it

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it's not well governed in terms of the way they've allocated the the money. It's really a a disgrace. We probably should have more political activism on the part of our citizens in each of the districts to uh see if we can get a truly fair allocation of money from the

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state and uh not be a shortfall. And the fact that they changed the legislation to get around it is is really pathetic. It seems like the most noise I'm seeing is from the people losing their funding. The ones like us that are getting funny but are still

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being shorted aren't really saying much. But I mean, if you're entitled to a million dollars and you give you 200,000, can't really be jumping up and down about the 200,000. Oh, >> the old cliche is better than nothing.

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Um, Dr. Forte, thank you for all the time spent uh getting these slides together and the calculations. U Miss Gowski, same to you and your team. Uh, of course, it's another difficult year and you guys are the bearer of bad news. um

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which we I think as a board uh fully understand and completely respect and um one of the biggest challenges and I've said this during the last couple meetings is that uh healthc care costs are a huge part of it. I mean can we go

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back to slide number five please? Um Rebecca, thank you. It's the one that has the increases. >> Yeah. Increases in revenue, which is Yeah. Keep going backwards.

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>> Actually, that one I mean, I'll talk about that. Um um first, I mean, the labor cost, which includes the salary and benefits, is $2.6 6 million, right? So, $2.6 million goes to the staff, the administration,

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uh the the bus school bus drivers, etc. But then, can you please go forward two slides of that $2.6 million, 1.95 1.95 is the health care benefits. At least

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that's how I'm reading it. Maybe that's not fully correct, but >> it's close. It's that's the that's the adjustment. >> That's the adjustment. >> It's not the full amount of the increase. It's just the adjustment. We're not you don't get the full amount. You get anything over 4%. >> So the difference between 2.64 and 1.95

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is roughly about 700,000. And if that's not the full amount, then health care costs is more than 1.95. If health care costs has increased by $2 million or more, this is not the full

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cost. This is just the increase in cost that attributes to roughly about 5 to 6% of the tax levy. 5 to 6% 5 to 6% of the tax levy that now

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Dville residents have to pay for. So if uh Mr. if we need to, you know, um get any kind of ground swelling and um Trenton activists and whatnot, it has to be the

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cost of health care because our tax levy increase would only be about 3% if we did not have a roughly $2 million increase in health care costs. I mean, this is mind-boggling. I am a pharmacist

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and I've mentioned that many times and I cannot believe the the the costs of health care. Now, I'm not saying it's the doctor's fault. I'm not saying it's the it's the pharmacist's fault. I'm not saying, you know, I I I will I might

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want to say it's the insurance c, you know, insurance company's fault, but bottom line is the cost of health care in this country is unsustainable. this my um my napkin calculations is that the health care benefits

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to the the cost of salaries is roughly 42% of the cost of salary. So when we hire someone for let's say $1,000 the district it's costing the district 1.47 or 1.45

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just to hire that person. you know, a $100,000 salary, the district has to pay $145,000 because of the health care benefits. So, our next negotiations is not going to be pretty because, you know, we're we're going to now be infighting with our

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staff because we are not going to be able to sustain this. So, what do we do? I mean it's it's not the teachers fault you know and and how do we now ask the teachers to forego uh stuff when it's not their fault it's the cost of health

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care. So um we're we're approaching quickly 50 cents to the dollar where healthcare benefits will be easily surpassed 50 cents for every dollar the district every district will have to pay for. So yes, I understand that S2 and all that other stuff is, you know, the

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fairness of that, but you know, this country and and this the health care benefits associated with this, there's it's it's really going to become unsustainable. I mean, we have a town council representative here as well, and I'm sure he understands, you know, the health care cost benefits for the town

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and what the town has to endure as well. So, I'm I'm sure this is an ongoing statement and, you know, if if I were to allocate my time and resources with Trenton, I think this will be one of my first things. You know, uh, how do we

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support districts across the country or across the state and subsidize some of this cost? I mean, the cost of special ed is growing as well, and I think that's not something we should sweep under the rug, but you know, it how do we as a district function when we have

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all these rising costs, but we're limited by a 2% cap? You know, this is something that Mr. Anderson has has said uh every single year, and I couldn't agree with him more. So, once again, thank you. if you don't mind.

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Um, I'll it's hard to follow that, Mr. Kim. I got to say it was well spoken. Um, and once again, I will echo his thoughts on thank you to Dr. Forte, Dr. Cullis, Dearis, your team. Um,

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as you said, I think I said it every single budget year, right? balancing a budget of a 2% cap with 80% of our budget going to salaries and benefits that go up faster than that. This year way faster than that is

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unsustainable. And even to your point, if we got the $900 and some odd thousand in extra aid, great. That helps us this year. What happens next year, right? It's it's just the sustainability of this becomes more and more challenging. And kudos to Mrs. Gowski and and Dr.

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Forte and Dr. call us. They've found ways other years to get creative and find ways to get through the year. And um unfortunately this year there's just no way to do it. And there's also nothing that could have changed this,

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right? I don't think there's anything this district or this board could have done differently. Maybe a little bit here and there, but you know, nothing greater than less than a percent change. Um it's been really, really, really challenging.

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Um, and I think we I I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Kim. If we're going to dedicate time to anything, it needs to be kind of pushing legislation towards or legislators towards helping with uh with health insurance funding because it's been a problem since the

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day I got on the board. some years better than others, some years worse, but if you look at the sustain the year over year over year, it's always like it's it's a roller coaster, but there's some years that are really bad and really challenging and this gets more and more challenging. And the one thing

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I'll say and the reason why I say I don't think anything can have changed this is we need to go back to our strategic planning that we listen to the community and the community said what they wanted and they wanted smaller class sizes and they wanted mental health supports and they want security in the building. So the things that Dr.

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Forte brought up there that are increases that we've done over the last 10 years, this is what the community wants, right? So I do believe that we are doing what the community wants, even as challenging as it is to present a budget at this high of an increase for the taxpayers because it's difficult on

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me and everybody else in the community to bear that uh increase. Um, but I do believe it's for the right reasons because the only, if you look at the percentages, there's only one thing we could do is cut more staff members. And that's exactly what the community said they didn't want when we sat down with

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them and they went through a five-year strategic planning with us for multiple meetings. So, um, not that we aren't cutting, you know, some this year, but trying to do it carefully and make sure that it's not impacting having the least impact on the students um, and the staff

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uh, members as well. but primarily on the students and their education is is is for foremost and um and I just wanted to say thank you for for the administration for the work they've done and um it's it's always it's it's a tough one but um I do think we're doing the

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right things in accordance with what the community wants from us. >> Yeah, Mr. Anderson, if I may follow up on that because I think you just triggered another thought. this this increase in healthcare costs was roughly about 30 31% this um you know for the

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upcoming year year and a half. If we see another spike like that, another $2 million plus increase, it's not like a $2 million increase from last year. It's an increase of $2 million on top of the $2 million that we're already counting

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for. So then we'll easily go above, you know, 50 cents on the dollar in terms of our, you know, health health care benefits compared to salaries. At what point does it get unsustainable? And I think it's already unsustainable. Now, how many staff members are we not able

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to hire or, you know, or how many staff members are we going to have to lose um you know, to account for these healthcare benefits. So the negotiations are not going to be pretty, but I think you know we really need to bring this to

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the forefront to um you know the state as well as the federal level. So um >> just so we I I don't know if I mentioned it today, but our health care costs are now 25% of our budget. I guess I just want to echo uh obviously

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I agree with with everything that's been been said here, but I also uh want to uh echo my thanks to the uh the administration. I mean, I think, you know, they they make our job um significantly easier and and uh um we're

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really fortunate to have folks that are um skilled in their expertise, um ethical and truly care about um the the town and the schools and and that's just so rare. I you know, I I don't know

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how uh other boards sleep at night. you know, we're we're very fortunate to to to have have you guys and um you know, I I genuinely appreciate that. You're you're some of the most uh um

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there there's an ingenuity uh to the way that you tackle a lot of these problems, trying to uh do what's right by the the town financially and still really support the school in the way that, you know, we all want to. So, thank you very

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much for that. Um, are there any other comments for Okay. So, to the uh one member in our our meeting, if if there's something that you'd like to to share or you're you're wanting to share, feel free to to come

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up and do so now. Thank you. >> Yeah, we have two people. >> I know how to use it. He's hitting my seat. Again, I'm Glenn Bully. I'm the council leazison to the board of education and I've been watching the videos, but I

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figured I'll come in. I met Mr. Kim one time and unfortunately a lot of times I have meetings when you guys have your meeting, but I do watch your videos which are very educational. Uh, education, your cuts. I'd hate to see mental health is something that people weren't even thinking about years

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ago. And I think everybody in this room knows how important that is with what we see going on in this world. And the same thing with special education. I don't like to see anybody being cut short. But when you get back to the insurance, uh I don't know what the state's going to do.

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They may have to cut everything because people are pulling out like Denville. We are actually able to cut our insurance rates by working with the unions, negotiating with them, going out to outside companies, and getting rid of the state. So, I mean, the mayor and the

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administrator did an excellent job. And again, if it wasn't for the union's help, we wouldn't have been able to do it. And that's it. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Um, since since we've opened up comments now, um, if you if you want to

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if you're online and you'd like to speak, just uh feel free to raise your hand. All right. >> All right. We'll we'll continue on then. Um uh I have a a presentation here um for the uh board and district goals

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discussion. Um Andrea was uh Mrs. Sadelis was kind enough to uh help me with the slides. Anything that looks good is her. Anything that looks bad is me. Um that's uh I just want to make that clear. Um,

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so I wanted to to put this together because we we wanted to try and and come up with a way to uh um formalize uh all right to formalize uh the board and district goal setting process and and

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this is just sort of a way to do sort of a dry run with this. Most importantly, if you look at our schedule, even when we are uh doing the um the goal setting in June, it's just so fast-paced and it always feels so rushed. Um and I wanted

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to try and and and get us thinking and talking about it as early as possible. Um so we want to just um try and uh work on establishing that that framework and and uh ensure uh a clear alignment

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between governance and uh uh governance functions and district operations. Um let me just see if this Oh, look at that. This is amazing. All right. So um you know most of the information that I got I got from the uh 2025 uh New Jersey

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school board's association webinar on uh the goal setting. And so the framework that they set up is accountability. Define the priorities and promote accountability. Align the daily work with the board's mission and vision and provide structure to monitor that

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progress and focus the board and superintendent energy where it matters most. So, I think these are important things to keep in mind as we think about it. They they show this stairstep model of responsibility which might help us a little bit when we're thinking about uh

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district goals versus board goals and and that sort of thing. But, uh the board of education um is is supposed to provide the vision and direction. The superintendent is the planning which is the strategy and action plans. Then the administration is the implementation and

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staff and students. Staff being the action and students being the results. I think that could be a little overly simplistic, but it at least helps to have a little bit of a a framework. Um, and so when we're when we're thinking of our goals, uh, they have this acronym

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SMARTT, right? to be specific, clear and focused, measurable, datadriven, attainable or achievable, relevant, aligned to the district priorities and uh time bound with defined timelines. Um, one of the things that they they

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stress and which which I think um is is really kind of the vital part of us having these discussions early is for it to really be collaborative. So both the board and district goals are collaborative. There's shared ownership that builds clarity and trust and it

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prevents that rushed or siloed goal development which I think feels like happens often when we kind of just just rush into it in that one planning meeting. Um the governance focus is a uh uh community board goals can be

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community engagement and communication, oversight of district priorities, policy and governance functions, finance, budget and facilities oversight. Those are just a few things that they had sort of brought together as ideas. Um, in

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terms of of board goals, um, district goals t is, uh, a partnership between the board and superintendent. The board defines the what, the superintendent defines the how. Again, I think that's helpful, but probably overly simplistic. Uh, driven by data, student achievement,

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and strategic planning. And so I just put up I'm not going to go through these, but I put up the the strategic plan because I think it's it's really that can be a really great resource for board and district goals um to to look at where can we uh influence

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these different um goals that the community um took time to set up for us. So we have the different goals um set up and like I said, I just put it up there so we have access to them. But all I really wanted to do today was to begin

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um the discussion. And what I I'd like to do is just offer up uh uh time this meeting and the upcoming meetings uh for you guys to throw out um uh some board goal ideas and I will uh record them,

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put them in a document, send them out so that you guys can can think about it. Um and we can keep updating that. Um, I think from from my experience, the the best way to do this is is we're not really talking about if it's a good goal or a plausible goal, but just throwing

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them out there and we just accept every idea, get it down on paper, take take some some weeks to let it marinate a little bit and then come back with our thoughts and ideas. And I want to encourage uh I'll do that first and then I want to encourage um the superintendent and assistant

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superintendent if they're thinking about uh district goals, what's kind of on their mind um if they have anything uh on their mind now um to get us all on the same page. Um, so, uh, I guess

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before I open that up to, um, uh, that that discussion, is there any questions about anything that I I said or or presented? Okay, I'm going to get my uh word document ready and uh you guys can feel free to to

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throw out any um thoughts or ideas. If you don't have anything now, that's fine. I'm going to I'm going to do this for each of the board meetings that we have um upcoming. So, uh if anyone wants to throw out any

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ideas um just let me know. Go ahead, James. >> Dr. Moore, I'll I'll kick it off. First of all, I want to thank you for doing this and Miss Dallas, this is perfect. This is u uh something that we've talked about for years and to see this on paper and a formal process, you know, uh we're

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getting there. So, thank you very much for uh initiating all this. Uh, I'd like to kick it off by uh suggesting a board goal to start looking at AI and how AI can influence u the board and and how

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the board uses it. Uh discuss and maybe put into um policy about how the administration could use it. You know, if it's going to help with them with their work, great. But uh you know for example they should not be making

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decisions off of AI or letting AI make decisions. And I think we could uh trickle that down to the staff or you know let let the administration figure out how that trickles down to the staff and finally how the students might use it and want to use it um and what you

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know and how that might impact the curriculum you know and the way that teachers teach. So, you know, I'd really love to see if we can start that discussion and conversation. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Gim. I've got that down. Um, does anyone else want to throw

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out any ideas at this time? >> Very general on my part. You referenced the strategic plan. I think it's always important and critical that we use that as the compass to go forward with our goals each year.

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And um as you mentioned before, it's important that we look at uh some of the issues we've been facing. You said we've already had a lot of discussion about the health care and

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that probably should be an important goal because uh who knows what it's going to be the next budget a year from now when we sit down uh as James said is it going to double I I doubt it's going to go down and this isn't just a dental problem. This is a problem all over the

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country with the health care course cost and and pharmaceuticals. So, um, that's got to be a part of it, the, uh, the cost structure. And going back, Mike made a good point about the 2% that goes back to Governor Christie. Um, that was

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put in place because the astronomical increase in property taxes every year for the citizens. I mean, how much would, you know, do you have to increase them every year if you get rid of that 2% cap, 5%, 8%. I mean, some of these uh increases are

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astronomical for uh people and it's going to impact their uh quality of life. >> Thanks, Don. And I think that's one that's uh uh perfect for this format that I'm I'm talking about, right? Health care in and of itself isn't really a great board goal, right? But we

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know it's something that we want to tackle. So, even beginning to think about that now, what does that look like? What can we as a board do? um you know and we can marinate on that a little bit. Think about it. Um what would be a a feasible goal? And that may

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not come to us right now, but to really just begin to think about what would that look like for us to dive into that and see how we can um impact our district in that area. I could give you one possible suggestion for that would be a goal on advocacy

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with legislature and maybe the action plan could include you know conversations with local legislators cloud conversations with garden state coalition school boards any of the different groups um and uh you know cooperation with the township all the

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different things that that could be a possible one and and and the frustration that you could probably hear in my voice about them shorting us again after we finally were whole. To me, that's a perfect opportunity for some advocacy, especially saying from the guy who's not

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going to be here next year. But, you know, but I'll have a lot of time. If you guys want, I'll help you with any advocacy. >> Cliff, I um I I I agree with Dr. Forte and it kind of goes back to Mr. Kim's comment about like, hey, if if we're

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going to do one thing financially that's going to impact us, I think um it would be discussion on, you know, state aid and the reality here is that there's a lot of discussion on redoing the state aid formula. And if we are not

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understanding what those discussions are and we're not giving our input as to what it could be really bad for us, right? Like we could be one of these districts that right now are losing millions, right? Um because if we're not paying attention to it and advocating ahead of time and proactively, I I I'm

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I'm seriously concerned about that, right? Um the reality is is that we we suffered for a while with not getting our fair share. But if the formula goes in the wrong direction and for some reason we start declining and losing money, then we could be in a a worse situation. So I think it's hugely

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important that we get ahead of that curve and understand what those discussions look like and potentially try to get involved earlier. Yeah. And I I think this kind of discussion and thinking is is really important. Like what does that look like uh practically for our goal or action

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steps, right? Because a lot of times we'll we'll say, you know, we need to do this and get involved, but what do we need? Do we need uh a committee for that? Do we need uh that to be um part of a committee that then divvies up responsibilities and we really hammer

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out these are the legislators we we hit and these are the board members that do it? like what will that look like? And and so then it's not quite so ambiguous, but we have the time to begin to think about those things now and come back with those uh those ideas.

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One other thing we did, if you remember, remember we had that group come up from South Jersey and we joined that group. It was like the pro S2 group. I mean, you just need to get a bunch of group districts that are like us that are not getting their fair share.

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you there's it's going to be a mix. It could be like the next town is and you're not. So you you it's not going to be like any rhyme or reason. Get this group together and maybe you could have some advocacy with maybe it's half the county, you know, something like that. But remember the other half is against

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you. So it's kind of it's a weird situation. >> But I mean the other thing too, Dr. Forte, is right now it sounds like the discussions are almost like throw the entire formula out and start over. that could be awesome for us or could be terrible for us, right? Because I have

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no idea what the discussions are about what it would look like, right? We know what we know from those discussions back in years ago was that it took a long time to get to the 2008 funding formula because there was a whole bunch of previous formulas that were thrown out

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by the Supreme Court as being against the state constitution. So, I'd be interested trying to find somebody who's digging in on that. To your point, Mr. or Dr. Moore, I I I'm not sure where to start with that. And

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good point bringing up early helps us, but somebody's going to have to like roll up their sleeves and figure out and get down with school boards and figure out what is the discussion look like and what does that mean for us, right? I think that and and get proactive ahead of it. And we we've got the the good

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part is is we've got some local state legislators that we may be able to partner with and see if we can get on the inside track on this or try to find somebody. Um because that was the Dr. Forte if you remember. Uh I think that was Mrs. Jablonsky was it? I'm trying to

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remember her name. Um who came and spoke to us. I think finding somebody who understands it. It was a state aid guy, Dino, if you remember correctly. Um he understood the formula really well. It's trying to find somebody that understands it and is on the inside track would be super helpful. I know this is a little

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bit pipe dream, but like if we're thinking about it now, maybe there's an idea we can come up with that helps us form it. >> Yeah. I mean, kind of to tap into that, I think um it's important for us to be in the room when those discussions are happening. And and you're right, trying to find who that is and where that's

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happening. I mean, I think school bars can be a part of that. I think our local legislators can be a part of that. we are going to have to do some leg work and we may have to be going down to Trenton and we may have to be meeting with like-minded districts. So, it's going to require some leg work and some work. I mean, I I think it's totally worth it. Um, but I think it's going to

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be that level of engagement we're going to have to do to really get ourselves kind of, you know, totally embedded in in it and and understand what the discussion is. The other thing that I for me that I see is that we have two things really. We have every district in the state is looking for money.

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Everybody feels that they got screwed one way or the other. They got screwed by S2. They got screwed before S2. They're all looking for money. So, we're not going to be any different than everybody else, but each of us has different motivations to Steve's point. So, I think that's going to be difficult. But even if there was all

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even if you threw out S2, threw out the funding formula, came up with a new version, with the way health insurance is going now and the increases, there's not enough money, right? So I mean to me that comes back to the primary primary problem and the primary point we should be advocating for is the health

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insurance has to be fixed regardless of everything else regardless of how you spread the money around which is wrong which is bad and needs to be fixed but until we deal with that the rest of it's kind of window dressing in my mind. So I think we need to do both. >> I'm going to send you a a list of the

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districts in our area that are in the same situation as us with with the uh state aid. That way you can get a start with that. >> The the only scary part with that Dr. Forte is if they because I mean I am reading that they literally may throw

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out the entire funding formula. That may mean that like districts we have no idea who's like district anymore, right? A district that was losing before may be in the same boat as us and we're all like if they're going to get rid of it. I'm not sure. So I think we need to do both. I'm not saying throw that out. It's a good point. But

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um and and I agree with Dino like I mean I think that I'm not I'm not that one we need probably more than a few weeks to figure out how it's that's a I mean fixing healthcare. Holy cow. I mean the insurance thing I mean we're going to

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have to really think about that one because I think it's super important. I agree. I mean Mr. Kim mentioned earlier, right? Like we can't can't fix this budget without it, right? I mean, the reality is is, let's face it, 80% goes to, you know, staff and benefits, salary

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and benefits. The reality is is I I don't want to speak for the seven of us, but I may say this. I don't think we could pay our staff members less. So, we can't cut a lot there. There's not unless we're cutting people, and people don't want to cut people. So, that's I don't think that's an avenue to go cut. So, the only place we can cut is in in

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benefits, and we got to figure out a way to not cut, but at least control that growth much much better. I'd like to throw something else out there. Uh and this could maybe be converted into a board goal. Um I've been to um uh for the several uh

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conventions, New Jersey school board conventions I've been to, um I've always attended the self-insurance plan seminars. So, I'd like uh the district to maybe look into becoming one of those self-insured districts and see if that

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is something that allows us to begin to control our own health care costs. Uh uh and see how beneficial it is. And uh I'd like to maybe talk to some other school districts. I'm sure that down in this

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October convention, there'll be um another presentation by that same company. So, you know, that could be part of a board goal where we sit in on that and find out more information and maybe interview some other districts that have um that have it and how they

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were impacted by it from a budgetary standpoint. So, You know, I like the the combination of uh of dreaming and practical. You know, if you recall when we did our uh uh strategic planning, that was sort of some of the different exercises they had

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everyone do, you know, sort of the ultimate dream, like what would you what would you want the school to look like? And I I I think those are are are great places to generate ideas. maybe you never get there. But um I think that that's so um you know o o overhauling

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the uh health care system can still be a part of the discussion even if it's a uh a lofty dream. You know if you again I'm going to put something out. Um, I'm I'm going to think about the format a little bit, but but feel

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free between now and the next meeting if you want to um share uh more ideas uh or you want to share ideas about some of the ideas that are shared. I'm going to put it all together in a in a document. Everything that's uh been shared. I have

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um some ideas uh to throw out. As I said, I I don't know that they're really good um board goals. uh in and of themselves, but um you know their thoughts that came to me and uh you know again maybe we can just kind of think about them a bit. Uh one of them of

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course is the special education situation and just wondering you know what we can do um about that and and I again I have no real uh practical ideas about it other than it's a it's a something that we

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we want to be able to offer. we need to be able to offer it and we're having trouble affording it and that's a real bad mix. Um, one of the other well and inspired I I'll lump them together. um

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sort of inspired by uh our discussion earlier today, I jotted down um I wonder about um the uh culture of of sort of cruelty that's that's sort of developing

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amongst uh the the the students that seems to be new and trying to figure out if there's a way in which the board can help address that or get behind the the district. if there's a way even thinking about engaging um the parents and the

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community a bit um on some of these issues. Um and this is a little too maybe a little too specific, but it it nags because I I keep hearing that um the uh the Valley View PTA is struggling and uh I wonder if there's anything we

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can do. I just keep thinking about how there seems to be so many more struggles that begin to happen in the middle school and to me that seems to be part of that that there's a systemic nature to it and if there's any way that we can begin to support and help may maybe

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there is. So I I just um threw that out there as well. And um in addition um as we're uh going to be looking at um our new uh our revised conduct policy, one of the things we're really trying to to

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stress is that we're not um leaning so much on that HIV designation. Whether it's a yes or no is not going to be a determining factor in in how we necessarily deal with the the situation. Um, and that kind of messaging and

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getting it out there may be something that the board can can help with as well. Um, so those were a few of my ideas. I have those down. Um, I know, you know, uh, Mrs. Eststerino sent me one and I'll I'll get that into the, um,

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the, uh, uh, document as well and we can begin to kind of think about this a bit. Um, so if uh, uh, there are Oh, Don, go ahead. I have one more thing you you mentioned. Uh I I think the board goal

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setting has been pretty good. There's always room for improvement and we've had some good ideas tonight on doing that. And it's always part of a meeting and a meeting agenda. So you might want to consider as part of tonight's discussion and think about it is having

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a separate meeting solely for the goals so we can uh because we do spend a lot of time on it and it's uh a very important part of our responsibility to uh do realistic goals and make sure they were achieved. So that may be uh an idea

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where we still have to worry about voting on all the other items on the agenda and just focus on the goals and make sure everybody has a chance to contribute to them and we have a good lively debate about them. I guess I'd like to just open it up to

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uh the superintendent and assistant superintendent if they have any uh um thoughts about their uh their district goals. Um I guess that would be more our assistant superintendent. Um and I I I'm I'm curious. Are you is there going to

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be a way for you to loop in um uh Charlie a bit on this given that he's going to be a significant >> he's going to come to our June 8th meeting just to be in the audience at least to hear what the board is thinking. Uh

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my main goals right now that I'm thinking about are just based on my experience with curriculum. So, I'm definitely thinking of like reducing the achievement dip between fifth and sixth grade. We still are continuing with the math and science achievement,

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the restorative justice practices and parent communication in particular. We need to look at the Valley View space, you know, start that first phase of planning for an addition if we're going to go down that route and at a minimum

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removing the trailers and what are we going to do with the storage that we need that we use the trailers for now? Um, planning to we're planning a move the third grade to the annex. So, how is that going to look? Because there's some factors. Not

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the entire third grade probably won't be going at the same time. So, we have to make sure that uh the community feels and the parents feel that it's equitable, that the students are moving the same amount between the two buildings. So, they don't feel one is slighted over the

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other. And I put down the same things, engaging middle school parents and code of conduct messaging as well. But Steve has ideas definitely from just things we've been working on too. >> I mean, there are some big challenges

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coming up, right? I mean, um the building's going on. We are getting more people and we're expected to get more. They're expected to approve another one like that's going to start soon. Um so, yeah, we um have some challenges while we're dealing with the current

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challenges. We have some things that are coming down the road. So I think uh you hit the nail on the head about all of them and any kind of public engagement is great. Our strategic plan ends in 2027. So there'll be an opportunity in the second year to create a new one. So

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that's that's another great opportunity to engage the public. We've done well over the last few years. We've had a hundred people at each one of those meetings. So and we try to get a cross-section of just not parents and staff, but we also try to get other stakeholders in the district to come as

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well. So yeah, I think it's that that that document to me is um really important. Helps us govern. It helps us decide the path uh and where the fund should go. Right. So great ideas. >> Dr. Moore, uh if I could just follow up

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with what Dr. Cullis said, uh if if that is a district goal that uh that you would want to recommend, then maybe another um space considerations assessment um you know as a subcommittee could be possibly um created so that we

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could do that uh analysis again and maybe a presentation so that we can uh have something formal terms of projections and face. I got it down. All right. Well, as I said, I want this to be uh an active ongoing discussion.

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So, nothing's closed here. Um I'll send something out in the next few days and and we'll continue to to talk about it. Thank you everybody for uh for engaging in this and uh I guess now we will move on to uh superintendent comments.

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So um tomorrow our committee will be selecting the persons of the year, our student of the year, staff member of the year and community member of the year. We have approximately 100 nominations which was really nice. It's a pretty decent amount of uh nominations. Several

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have multiple. Um and tomorrow, Dr. Cullles, myself, the PTA presidents, and the foundation president will decide on the winners, and we will um announce the winners at the May 11th board of education meeting in in which

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we will present them with their awards. That's it for superintendent comments. >> Okay. If there are no questions and or comments, we'll move on to assistant superintendent comments. >> Just a reminder that NJSLA testing

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begins on Wednesday. So, parents should have received a message. It is on our website and in the Friday folders. You can always look at our assessment calendar, but starts with uh on Wednesday science uh at the elementary school and

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was it math? Uh, I can't. Yeah, I think it's Ela la at uh 6 through 8. We'll start there. We changed some of those. So, please check your calendar to see when your students are testing. Uh, kindergarten update, we're

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actually holding at 184, which is one less because we one less student is going to be regraded at this point. So, we haven't gotten any significant growth in the last month. So, keep watching and see how it is for May 1st. Uh, but right now we're sitting there comfortably at

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185. I don't know if that what that means moving forward, but that's where we are today. Actually feel pretty good about how we have moved students over to between Lake View and and Riverview. We'll have five sections of kindergarten and five of first grade at Riverview,

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which has made space. We'll have five kindergarten at Lake View and four first grades just because they had that smaller for uh class last year which does leave at least leave one room open in case we had a grade move in a number of students move in in a certain grade

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that we had to add at least one classroom. So right now we're we're comfortable with our space issues and we have room quite a bit of room at the annex to move grades over. Uh anything else? This concludes assistance

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superintendence report. >> Can I just ask real quickly, Sandy? We were at 170 on April 1st. Is that right? >> I don't have the dock up. >> That's what the spread was. It's in the spreadsheet, right? >> Okay. So, we're 184 now. >> Okay. >> So, heading towards May 1st. I haven't

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gotten any new for the last two weeks. Okay. Thanks. >> Okay. Uh, business administrators comments. >> No comments. >> All right. So, now we're we'll move to our uh open public discussion section.

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This portion of the meeting is open to any individuals for the purpose of addressing resolutions on the agenda or matters that they find is important to the board of education and is governed by board policy 0167. Um we'll open that at 8:36.

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I just wanted to make a comment on the state funding that if you I read in the on Facebook or not Facebook but somewhere on the internet where they came out with some numbers of the funding that different towns get and

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you have to have your budget approved the town council has to have their budget approved but you know or the town has to have the budget approved by the council and every three years gets approved by the state before we can move on. But I don't hear anybody talking about audits of the spending. And I think that's what needs to be done first

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because if Newark's getting over a billion dollars for their school budget, I'd certainly like to know where that money is going to ensure that it's being spent properly. And in order to do a statewide audit would take forever. So I think that the legislators or the state would need to come up with the dollar

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amount, a a medium that anybody getting over this amount needs to be audited every so often. And I think that would help curb the problem and also make it easier to readjust the fair share of, you know, applying the right amount of

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funds to each town. >> Thank you. All right. Seeing that there's uh no one else uh in house and no one online, uh we'll close at uh 8:37. And we have old business action to be

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taken. Um I'd like to uh move for approval the following resolutions under old business. Um under A we have the reports for treasurer of school monies and board secretary. B is the report of student enrollment for March 2026 and

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the report of the health office March 2026. And the HIB Valley View 10. Um and then under C we have the work session and executive sessions and regular sessions for March 16 and March 23rd.

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I'll second >> and roll call. >> Just a reminder, if you are out for the March um meetings, please abstain from the minutes. Mr. Dis,

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>> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> uh, yes. I will actually I will just abstain on all of them. >> Thank you.

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>> Mr. Capello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim. >> Yes. >> Dr. Moore. >> Yes. And now we'll move to new business action to be taken under personnel. Uh Mr. Capello, could you move us through that? >> I'd be happy to. If there are no

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objections under personnel, I would like to move items 1 through 7. Um, first I'm going to call your attention to number one, new hires, resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, and salary adjustments. Um, I'd like to

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call out uh item K. The amount in the amount column uh is going to need to be changed from 3869 to 5804. Uh, and that's a uh reflection of straight time pay for that employee. Uh,

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number two is the master staff list. um tab one only for the 2526 school year. Then uh number three is the list of staff for extended school year ESY program. Uh the Dallas and CST work for summer 2026. Number four is approving a

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new hire substitute for the district. Number five is uh substitute school nurses to attend the Valley View field trips um and being paid $250 a day um plus an after hours rate of 34.84 84 when returning from a regular school

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day. Um, number six is approve an employee leave of absence under FMLA. And finally, number seven is we're approving the student volunteer mentor summer program uh description. >> I'll second.

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>> Roll call. >> Misselis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass. >> Yes. >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Capello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim. >> Yes. >> Dr. Moore. >> Yes. And now under instruction and

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program, if Mrs. Asterino would take us through that. >> Sure. I would move um to approve the following resolutions under IMP. Uh first would be workshops and expenses focused on uh school psychology taking place at Keen University. Uh number two, the attached list of field trips. Number

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three, uh, that the board approves Julia Cusack, a student intern from Keen, to use student work for course research with parent permission. And then number four, the title three purchases. >> I'll second. >> Roll call.

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>> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. Mr. Kim. >> Yes. >> Dr. Moore. >> Yes. And under governance, Mr. Kim, could you

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take us through that? >> Sure, I'd be happy to. Uh, I'd like to motion that we approve for first reading policy or regulation 5600, which is the revision of the student code of conduct. >> Yeah. And I'd like to just make a a few

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comments on that. Um, uh, Dr. Cullis uh spent a a lot of time and and considerable work on this. The the uh initial regulation was in in need of of a lot of repair even without the additions that we were looking to put in

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and it was quite a bit of work and I just wanted to highlight a few parts of it rather than have it sort of sail by unnoticed. Um under u item 1A um is where uh some of the uh restorative

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practices framework is is uh is mentioned um addressing student misconduct in grades preK through 8. Um and this is part of that uh effort to really uh begin to um make sure that

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it's it's integrated into you know sort of every facet of of of school life. If you look at the district conduct goals, um I think they're worth they're worth looking at. Tools to make good life choices, to foster students self-esteem,

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to encourage citizenship in a global society, and to promote a climate and culture in our schools that support high achievement, cultivates mutual respect, responsibility, and integrity. And uh this is goes back to uh I think Dr.

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Forte even mentioned it a few months ago that we're we're concerned with the the whole child and this is an attempt to um really take that into full consideration uh throughout this uh code of conduct. And then if you look at um the

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restorative practices piece um which is um under uh um it says restorative practice is that Roman numeral four. Thank you. my Roman numeral uh ability has gone down

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page eight and that's the philosophy is that the district recognizes that misconduct presents an opportunity to teach, learn and restore. Um the restorative practices shall be the primary method for resolving instances involving physical or emotional harm,

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social conflict or disruption to the learning environment except where removal is required by law. And and what's what's really um significant about that is is is it's it's a great mindset that um it's an opportunity to teach and learn and restore that we can

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we can have an opportunity to help students to become um better citizens and and to grow from these things rather than just look at it as a behavior to be squashed. There's an opportunity to learn and grow and uh Dr. Collus has put

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a a significant amount of um energy into um seeing that that'll happen through training and and other things. So it's not just in word only. Um and uh if you look down uh in item C under those restorative practices under the core

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components I just want to mention that um the district shall utilize an outcome focused approach to student conflict um in order to really see that we restore safety and trust for all all involved parties. And again that's a that's a

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significant uh piece to focus on that we're looking at the outcome. You know, again, this isn't just about um labels or finding fault, but uh do the people involved truly feel feel safe? And um

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just uh I mean there's there's a lot throughout this document. I just wanted to highlight how much I mean there was a lot of work that Dr. Cullis put into it. Um and uh so it's it's been a significant upgrade. And I would just highlight um uh item H which is the

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outcome monitoring and continuous improvement which was mentioned earlier in our our executive meeting is this idea of of allowing and providing an opportunity for those involved to be able to um express um how they

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experienced this. Do they truly feel it's resolved? Do they truly feel safe? um and having a followup on that and then that information being able to be um aggregated and and collected and presented to the board so that we get an

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idea of um how this is how this is playing out. You know, is are the majority of the individuals feeling heard? Uh are they feeling safe and restored? In other words, is what we're doing really working? And and this will provide us with a vehicle to begin to to

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assess that. Um, so it's uh it's exciting for me and I I really do appreciate all the uh the effort and work that was um put into this. And there's there's wording in here again that um sort of tries to differentiate between just this HIP designation and

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what we actually do as a school district to try and um um address these situations properly. So I just want to thank you again for all the work that you've done on this, Dr. Cullison. >> Thank you. I did want to also thank uh

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Dr. Moore and the IMP. We have Dino and Christina as well because we've been working on this and uh we've had a lot of discussions over the whole year. I would have to say this has been an ongoing has been an ongoing work for the entire school year because there's been it does require a lot of conversation

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and we've had a lot of conversations. I do feel like we this last edition that Dr. more shared I think does wrap up you know does put a final piece that we didn't quite have that outcome piece. So I do appreciate that wording and um I look forward to

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implementing the next phases of this. >> I had a couple of comments and again nice job on a on a on a big job to uh get that updated. Uh a couple of things um on page two and this goes back to uh when I first joined

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the board too uh we had a discussion when Dr. Clark was here. I objected to the word global citizen. The word global I feel should be citizen. And this uh you know I triggered my

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my position based on the the Davos event and I believe it's in Switzerland where you get the billionaires very successful people flying in there on their private jets and then telling us that uh we're polluting the planet

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and how to run our lives. You know, I think first and foremost we should be providing an environment to be for our students uh as well as our employees and everybody else to be good citizens of the United States and we certainly want to be good citizens for the world but I

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think the US comes first. So that was one thing and then on page 11 there was the word anonymous followup. anonymous uh caught my attention in there. Um there's the followup would be we better served if we had

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somebody's name attached to that that the recipient of that correspondence knows the person and probably has some conversations with them regarding whatever matter the that is on. Yeah, we did talk a little bit about

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that and it's sort of I think that piece is is a bit ongoing. We're thinking about the idea that it it would be sort of optional, but the the key there is is we want to catch folks that may not feel safe to share truthfully and provide some sort of opportunity to to catch

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that because there always going to be folks that may not want to um express their concerns for fear of retribution and that sort of thing. So, there's got to be some kind of way for us to allow them to have a voice as well. >> Yeah. I I didn't, you know, interpret it

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that way when I saw it. I thought it was, you know, somebody riding the victim, >> you you know, so it's people can express themselves without signing their name. That piece is for um after there has

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been victimization and those students have had uh restorative practices, they've either had counseling, we've worked with the families, that's a follow-up in a few months to find out how the parents are feeling about it now. They may want to tell us and and actually have a conversation with us,

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but they also may just want to say um make comments of how they felt about it. And so we we're giving them those choices. Well, if the response was had some negativity in it, they're they're not happy, things are not well, etc. How do we get back to that person and try to

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rectify the situation if there's there's no name? >> We may not be able to if they choose not to do that. We may just have to use that as part of our data collection and just know that okay, we have to look again at our practices and see that we are our

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practices working. Um but if they are specific specifically want us to con to assist with them then they would have to tell us. >> Yeah. So some of them would sign their name. >> Some would Yeah. >> Some will some will not. >> We'll give them the option.

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>> So maybe in the policy we should put down not only anonymous slash um name of writer and make sure it's optional. I can certainly understand somebody feeling very uncomfortable to uh write about an experience that was

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not good. Now the first piece I talked can we take out the word global? Does anybody have any opinion of just >> Yeah, I would be I I would No, I would say no to that. I would say I would I want to keep global in respectfully. Don, I I disagree with you completely.

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Yes, we're all citizens of the US. We're all citizens of the globe. I think it I think it gets to an intent that we want our we want our students and all our citizens to understand that we're we're a part of the world. You know, it's not it's not just we're not just out for

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ourselves. We're not just out for our country. So respectfully I would disagree with you. >> I think too with that is we've had a lot of discussions on the fact that a lot of our Dville students, right, were kind of like in a Denville bubble and our goal is to get them to be outside of the bubble.

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We could take a look at that wording and see if there's something that um kind of addresses both issues and comes to a you know that would address both things. >> I did real real quickly. Um I just wanted to uh you know say thank you again to Sandy and everyone who

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contributed to this. Um I definitely want to call out uh Cliff and Christina because especially Cliff um I think you've gave uh form and you articulated something that we have felt you know at the board level on and off over the years. We've had instances of parents coming to us and things that have come

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up where we felt uneasy with you know what we've had in place. Um I think you drove this to the basket and came up with something that we all kind of had a feeling needed to be done but you put a framework to it. you worked with Sandy and everyone else to to get that, you know, to this point. So, I just want to

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thank you for that because, you know, up until then, it was something that we we should have we should have approached, we could have approached, but I don't know if we necessarily had the tools to do it. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I want to echo that uh because um I I felt the same way and I think that

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uh both uh Dr. Moore, Mrs. Serino, um the whole IMP committee as well, Mr. Capello as well as Dr. Cullis, uh you guys did an amazing job. Um I for the public, I just want to put this in a little context as well. Um I think that

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um the conversation internally was that the focus was too much on the process, a process that was mandated by the state. And uh I thought that uh or I think everyone here felt that that process uh began to lose sight of the victim and why uh we started this uh whole

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investigation to begin with. So, it wasn't a matter of whether it was deemed as hip or not that uh resulted in, you know, um uh how do I frame how do I word that? um >> whether or not it was a a a reason to be

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um uh fixed, I guess, if for a lack of a better word, but uh that now we're focusing more on the victim and making sure that that victim feels safe, secure, and uh yeah, thanks. Thanks again for um as Mr. Capella said, putting this into a framework and uh uh

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making this actionable and and substantial. So, thank you. All right. If there's uh no further uh comments or questions, we can um proceed to roll call. >> I need a second. >> I second.

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>> Thank you. >> Oh, forgot. >> Sorry. Just a reminder that Paul that regulation is just for first reading. It's not for vote yet. >> Misselis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass,

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>> no. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. And now we have finance. Uh Mr. Anderson, can you take us through that? >> Sure. If there are no objections under

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def finance, I'd like to move uh items 1 through seven as a block. Uh this includes our checklist as well as uh some contracts. Um most importantly, uh item number seven is our um final 2026 2077 budget as uh presented by Dr. Forte

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earlier. I'll second. >> Uh I'd just like to uh highlight item number two. Um that is uh the allocation for us to take our final steps toward the completion of our website um which

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uh will be um the the audit that uh Mr. Capello had done um on our current website and that's going to be incorporated into uh the um structure and and revisions um that are going to be done. And I'm I'm excited that we're

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kind of at our final step of of creating a really um usable and compliant uh website that's on par with our uh um our fellow schools in the area.

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Um, may I uh I just have one thing about that uh proposal. I had discussed with this with Dr. Cullis and I don't think this needs to hold it up now, but I I do want to maybe have a discussion with Susan is to make sure that we have way points in place so that as that work's

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progressing um we we get, you know, we get updates, we see what's happening, work in progress. Um so that it's not just a final presentation that's like, hey, this is what we did. Um, so I just would like to see I'd like I'd like us to be advised and that can be synchronously asynchronously. I you know

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I don't know if it matters but just get updates and see see what see what's happening as it's going along. >> Oh that's great. Thank you very much. >> I'll I'll definitely mention that terror so we can have some kind of uh benchmarks.

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Do you think we'll need to revise the uh quote then or um is it okay to vote on today? >> No, I think she can provide like three updates during the project of a fourmonth project, something like that.

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Yeah, I don't think it needs to be super extensive or super timeconuming. And I don't think it needs to necessarily be in person if that's, you know, like I think it needs to be, you know, just a presentation of, you know, we did our planning, here's what we're going to do. Here we have we're part of the way through this is what we've got kind of screenshots, design ideas, things like

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that. >> Yeah. What's that called in Excel? What's that thing called? Some kind of sheet. What's that called? >> Oh, Gant chart. Like a gant. Yeah, like kind of. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do that. All right. If there are no other comments or questions, uh, roll call.

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>> Missellis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> And Mr. Cass, can you take us through

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operations? I'd be glad to. Under transportation item one, I'm asking the board to retroactively approve the following school bus emergency evacuation drills. One at Lake View, April 15th,

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one at Riverview, April 16th, one at Value, April 14th. Number two, under buildings and grounds, I'm asking the board to approve the Dell Township Board of Educator approve the attach MOA with County College of Morris for the

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2026 2027 school year. Item 2.2 is for the board to approve the attached service agreement proposal for the building automation system from automatic temperature control services in the amount of $12,638 for the school year 2026 2027.

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Item 2.3, I'm asking the board to approve the attached quote from R. Albertans LLC in the amount of $5,89 to be paid for maintenance reserves to repair the collapsing storm graded at the bus garage.

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>> Second roll call. I I had one question on it uh real quick on the uh on the quote. Uh obviously as I think Dino once suggest suggested that there could be a day when the bus garage floats away. So I'm sure

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that that drain gets a lot of work down there. Um but they talked about maintenance. Is there something that uh that has to be done periodically on that to uh keep it in halfway decent shape? >> This this is a drain that collapsed. So

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this is the first time that we had to repair this specific drain. So it's not a recurring issue. >> Yeah, they they just reference maintenance in the quote. So I just wanted anything it just drains. There's nothing special that has to be done pee out like we do with some of our other things in the school. >> No, no, it's just basically repairing

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the drain. >> All right. >> No maintenance required. >> Is that the original drain? Do we know? >> I don't know that. >> Okay. >> Okay. There are no further comments or questions. Roll call. >> Mr. Adelis, >> yes.

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>> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. And that will take us to go to the cause. Um, are there any uh uh reports

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or comments from committees? any anyone uh want to share anything from their committee meetings? >> Uh just one quick thing, Dr. Moore from the Denver Education Foundation and Dr. Forte, if you want to update this too. Um they did uh cancel their spring event

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which was at XGolf. Uh they didn't have a lot of participants registered, so they decided to uh cancel that and they will be regrouping with the golf outing and and movie night and things like that in the fall. Uh I'd like to just update the rest of

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the board with regards to board goals really quickly. Uh Miss Asterina was able to finish the uh board member orientation and training document. Uh the formalization of the setting of district and board goals was uh well

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presented by Dr. Moore. Uh advocacy at the district uh at the government levels. I gave you an update during our last meeting. uh and uh advance a safe, supportive and respectful school environment by reviewing board policies,

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studentcoded dot conduct was uh presented uh by Dr. Moore and uh Dr. Cullis. So um the final presentation I guess we'll just make in June uh so that we can uh assess or I think uh we'll

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need to do a self assessment as well right besides uh superintendent assessments. Okay. if I can. Um, I just wanted to point out that a school board's county meeting is May 6th. It's the end of the year celebrating success. I did want to point

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out that Don is being honored for 20 years of service. So, and I believe Dearis um, did you register everyone? I've registered doc uh Mr. Cass and anybody else who's interested in attending please let me know. Um I can

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reg register register the entire board and you can come in if you have time if that's okay with everybody. >> So So we need to let you know if we're going to go and you need to know that soon I'm assuming. >> Uh soon.

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>> All right. >> Um yeah, a week from a week from this Wednesday. So congratulations, Don, by the way. And um also I wanted to thank you all for nominating me for the boardmanship award while I wasn't here. So that was that was a pleasant surprise. So thank you very much for

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that. Uh I'm honored. Uh so I'm I'm in great uh great company here. So um yeah, so I'll be there anyway for that, but also to celebrate Dawn. So So thanks. Thank you very much for that. >> You ready for board highlights? >> Okay, I got persons of the year will be

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May 11th. I have the 2026 27 budget was approved and it will be posted on the website. Um the board approved the propo um a proposal to improve the district website by place at the table productions. The board heard the first

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reading of the revised regulation 5600 student code of conduct. The final version to be approved on May 18th and the board um approved an application for reimbursement of water filters in the amount of 26484. And then at the bottom just that the spring event for the foundation has been

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cancelled >> and the donation from the PTA for the uh trips >> and Mr. Cast is 20 years >> and it expanded my uh my friendship with people we've had uh including the and

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I've also mentioned to people that this is a very effective board that we have right now and uh the other ones too. We we've come a long way when the uh our buildings were falling apart and slowly but surely we got a lot of things done

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that for the benefit of the children, their parents, and especially the taxpayers. So, uh a good job and uh I guess I'll have to go now. I I really don't like to self-promote myself, but uh they serve dinner there. >> Yes, >> they do. Okay.

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And since I'm a recipient, do I get to pick the wine list or? >> Absolutely. >> You're a fine community member and uh possibly even a global citizen. >> I I I do have an international family. You know, we have um fa family in Spain

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that have dual citizenship. when my uh sister-in-law married a Spanish man, much to my mother-in-law, she grin and uh she never heard that the end of it from the the day of the wedding on ongoing.

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>> All right. Uh congratulations again, Don. Um are there uh anything else or we'll move on to the uh open comments? Okay, this portion of the meeting is open to any individuals for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda

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or matters that they find is important to the board of education and is governed by board policy 0167. Um, all right. Seeing that uh there's uh no more uh um interest in in coming

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forward, we will close it at 9:08. >> Since there is no need for executive session, I uh move to adjourn. >> I'll second 908. >> I mean, James over packing up.