I think we did it's never been fully fun this is the second time and my daughter okay i'd like to call this meeting to order uh Miss Asavo could you read our mission
statement sure working together as a community our mission is to welcome all and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative empathetic resilient and
who choose to make an impact thank you for those who wish to make public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m those remote comments will be addressed in the second public comment section this meeting which is hereby
called to order at 6:32 p.m is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law public notice was posted in the office of the board of education and communicated to the municipal clerk and the daily record on January 15 2025 we
all please rise for the flag salute i aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
mr sabahul could we have a roll call please miss Eve present miss DS Mr marco present miss Phillips here miss Penales present dr center present miss Sher I'm here miss Son here mr miller here
mr haimey would you like to introduce our speakers sure we have two pres three presentations this evening we'll start with the first one mr bulock uh presenting our student achievement uh good evening um first I just wanted
to take a moment just to thank um the board for uh the opportunity this night to um present and acknowledge one of our fine student athletes here at Dover uh high school um so this evening I have the honor of um presenting and an award
and recognizing uh one tremendous student athlete um and before I talk about uh what he accomplished this year in terms of his uh milestone uh on the basketball court I just also want to acknowledge he he's just a true gentleman i think many of you have met
him and and may know him but just a wonderful student wonderful person here that we have in the do school community uh and um we're going to re recognize him this evening for a milestone that he achieved on the basketball court but
this young man is one of the uh best overall athletes in Mars County um he's a three sport athlete um just a topnotch uh all county level football player um he's a varsity starter and just a
tremendous shortstop and um baseball player out on the baseball diamond for us this year once again so um very rare these days with specialization to have u three sport athletes and not only is he a three sport athlete he excels at all
three but tonight it's my honor to talk about Alio and Alio what he accomplished is uh the feat of a thousand points scored in basketball and in a career um and you know we said the word milestone because it doesn't happen very often and
we've been fortunate uh the last four years to have him in our program um and excel and reach this milestone this year so it's my honor to present Alio Mendes this evening a,000 points in a career that's a thousandth point was scored on
Feb February 11th and he ended his career here at Do High School with 145 career total points so let's uh if we could have a round of applause and and acknowledge the um if I could also um ask Mr miller our
board president and our superintendent Mr l Lewis Haimey to come up and present this and take a photo one two three right and for our next presentation
uh Miss uh Melissa Monza mess up your presentation okay can you hear me okay kind of yes all right good evening everyone my name is Melissa Matarazzo and I am a fifth and sixth grade gifted and talented
teacher at Easttover Elementary i am also this year's poster contest coordinator for the Morris County Council of Education Associations i would like to take a few moments to share exciting news about this annual contest each year the MCCA
hosts a poster contest to encourage creativity and character building i am proud to announce that Wendenise Wentia a student of mine at Easttover is the brain behind creating this year's
theme for the c for the county which is in my public school we achieve our dreams by students from Morris County were invited to design a poster that illustrates this theme out of the hundreds of submissions a committee
selected 16 posters to be printed in a countywide calendar and note cards these note cards and calendars will be distributed to teachers across the county at future MCCA events our winners will also be rewarded
with copies of calendars note cards and a $50 gift card from Visions Federal Credit Union at our Friend of Ed celebration next week now here's the best part out of the 16 winners I am
proud to announce that two of our six graders at Easttover Elementary were selected to be showcased in our calendar and note cards i would like to take a moment to call them up to take a photo with their winning masterpieces alistister Adams will be featured during
the month of October 2025 and Priscilla Kispe will be featured during the month of June 2026 congratulations to you both and thank you for representing Dover with your artistic abilities we are so proud
of you and if Mr miller and Mr mr hime could also come up and take a photo that would be great thank you give me your hand come here okay so now we're going to proceed with the presentation of our 2025 2026 budget
mr haimey and Mr sabahulu i'm gonna take the mic i'm just going to come up here a little bit closer to the presentation uh so good evening everyone woes uh thank you for joining us this evening as we will discuss our 2526 DOA public school
budget um so we're you're going to see throughout the presentation uh where we've been and what we've done in 2425 and looking forward what we're going to be doing in 2526 all right uh steps were taken as a team as a whole to be fiscally
responsible um for for decisions that we want to make moving forward for the district to continue to provide a quality program for our students and our community um and at the same time continue to push forward so meeting the needs structurally um as well as academically within the
classroom so speaking of moving forward with our academics I will uh start with these two first programs uh the first one being our community-based instruction at DHS what our community-based instruction uh um
program enlists is that our students at at our high school level have an opportunity as you can see from the pictures to home their skills life skills that they need to be able to be successful beyond that of DHS our high school uh our students are working on
learning how to do laundry uh take public transportation as well as going to purchase items and also waiting for change so these are skills that we want to home in on our students for them to be able to become independent and continue to excel once they um have
graduated and moved on from Do High School the Sorry I could go back real quick i'm sorry and the second one our emotionally regulation impairment uh Delk 2 uh this is a program where a full-time counselor
and teacher are working with students on regulating their emotions uh working on that social and emotional growth that's very much needed especially at a very s young age where some of our students still struggle with those coping skills those regulation tools that they need
and therefore we have a full-time staff working with our students and improving their their their social emotional growth at such a very early age uh also with the implementation of these two programs it allows us to bring in students who would potentially be out of
district at another placement and allows us to have our kids in house when we have our kids in our district it allows them to grow up with go to school within the community in which they are growing up uh no common people that they are familiar with and it allows us to
homegrow our students as well so not only uh does it allow us to keep our students in-house um and not send them down the district but it allows them to grow emotionally within their their their comfort zone which is do um maintain all programs and initiative
um of course like I mentioned before being fiscally responsible we want to make sure that we're maintaining our programming continuing to push our programming in the right direction our G&T program for example uh we just recently had a parent forum and during our parent forum uh we spoke to our
parents about how our G&T is going to continue to evolve and grow based on some of the data that we demonstrated and show to all of our families and our community and once again to continue to elevate our students and to make it more inclusive of all of our student population for those that have these
gifted and talented um demeanor instructions and then for our expanded mental health uh mental health is an area that it's it's huge and it affects everyone in different ways uh working with students regardless
of whether they're kindergarteners preschool or even high school uh there are students that are very resilient and uh can get past through some of these uh traumatic experiences they've they've dealt with in the past but then there are those that still need that support and we are now looking to add an
additional therapeutic social worker at the middle school which is prime uh time where our students really coming into their own really struggle with their identity they struggle with their growth um because now they're developing this awareness and I truly we know that
middle school is uh ground zero for uh the these supports to come in place in a in a system to help them uh get past and continue to grow and get ready for the high school level uh maintained all programs once again continues to speak about programming and
I definitely want to congratulate um and give kudos to our teachers uh our teachers here in do understand the needs of our staff of our students and understand uh the dynamics of the district and as you can see from here we've had 26 teachers working towards
their ESL certification that is a proud number that we are we are about um it's once again a demonstration of our teachers dedication and commitment to the needs of our students here in Dover uh transportation uh transportation is a cost san Francisco
does have a big uh grasp on our uh our budget and it's something that we wanted to also revisit and see if there's any way of us reducing the cost when it comes to transportation and with that we looked at the changing of our static you know changing the
start times and end times for our elementary middle school and high school that allows us to be able to double route certain buses um allows us allocate enough time that if we do have a driver out uh allows for another
driver to be able to pick up a different an extra route so it's going to help us take a lot of the strength that we have on our transportation but as well as eliminate us using any um third-party transportations
the and the second piece in bringing back uh which also has to do with transportation is we're bringing back five preschool classrooms into district so allow me to explain how that is helps us financially but also assists our the growth of our children so financially
we're not uh sending out we're not sending out third party positive buses uh to drop off stu preschool students which are brand new to the education right um at different locations um what we've done is we've identified the five
furthest locations for preschool and we've eliminated those routes and bring our kids back in house that allows us to homegrow our own students we know it's very important to have our kids growing from preschool all the way up to uh high school uh we also don't want our preschoolers at three or four years old
sitting in a bus for 35 maybe 40 minutes depending on traffic at a location that's far away from their home by bringing these five classrooms in allows us to maintain our kids in house and as we all know our as parents you know nobody takes care of our kids than we
do enhance the efficiency so once again as I mentioned since July 24th we wanted to work once again to be efficient to be focused mindset and deliberate steps to make sure that we're being uh responsible fiscally responsible with that um our
comprehensive and thorough efficient preschool through high school education program for the 2425 budget was also tied into our goals our goals of expanding support to promote inclusivity and meet the diverse needs of our students strengthen our stu schoolwide
and district-wide climate and culture for students and staff and enhance stakeholder engagements and communication across the entire district so with our goal one uh we had several staff members getting trained in
S sorry SEI uh teachers and administrators were supported and we had an additional 50 staff members uh trained this past year and I'll speak a little bit more about what SEI is in the next slide enhancing our dual sorry
enhancing our dual language programs to meet the evolving needs of our students we're head of a committee working together this year with both our director and supervisor of world language and multilingual and they have been working together at visiting different districts uh looking at the
programming curriculum what strategies to apply and how they can continue to reinforce our dual language program here in do reviewing and refining the gifted and talented program as I've mentioned before and developing new high school courses informed by our seventh and 11th
grade students we allowed our students now to have an input in a decision as we continue to explore CTE programming or career paths that we want to include at the high school but we definitely want to start giving them a taste at a middle school level so SEI stands for sheltered
English instruction and as you can see here we had administrators being trained we have school counselors CST members and we were training teachers and once again you can see all of us working as a team in the same direction to meet the needs of our students our multilingual
students our goal too uh strengthen the district-wide climate and culture for studentu students and staff so the door climate and culture connection committee which was formerly known as our panorama uh committee uh this year um we shifted the thought in how we were working
operating as a as a whole uh one of the things that I wanted to do as a brand new superintendent is that I wanted to learn um learn first of how the committee was working and operating within the district and together as a team we made suggestions and changes for
next year and just this week alone we had an opportunity to meet once again and what we've done is based on all the data we've collected this year and what we've worked as a team we are now prepared for the 25 26 school year and we've created a thematic calendar with
already thought exchange ready to go for the each month that will provide us information and data to continue to provide that culture and climate piece to our district our staff our students sorry go back real quick sorry uh thought exchange launched so that was
the the new platform that we're going to be using during and for our culture and climate uh we I myself I did this year a listening tour and follow-up meetings so the listening tour consisted of myself going to each of the buildings and uh
just having an open door policy allowing staff members whether there were custodians uh administrative assistants teachers uh aids to sit down and just have conversations with me getting to know me as well but also to just share their thoughts you know where do they see programming i always truly believe that as a district to for a district to
be able to move forward into the future they have to get input from everyone right perspectives from everyone and how does that apply and how do we continue to improve as a district and professional development district-wide training for PBIS so last year in 23 24 we started PBIS training at the middle
school and high school in 24-25 we started the training at the elementary levels and now at the now that we're coming at the end of this year uh elementary is going to be getting ready for a full uh uh launch of their PBIS at at the elementary uh setting and the
high school and the middle school will continue with their now third year of implementation of PBIS here are a few pictures of some of the engagement that we had this year so we have our character count PBIS and once again this infusing character character education with positive
behavior um intervention systems allows our staff our students uh to collaborate come together build rapport allows our staff to look at alternate ways of working with student behaviors and addressing the needs of our kids emotionally and mentally uh our athletic events which I always promote and want
our staff and community to come out and support our ch our students as they are uh out there competing uh to make their name in history just as our student Mendes did today with 10,000 points the Latino Institute it was hosted back in November it was a beautiful event we had
about 60 uh community members join us that that day uh they were part of many workshops including information on licensing financial aid um and things of that nature there was also prizes it was a great event to once again brings our community together allows them to also
interact with us in a very informal setting we had our district concert performing arts which our middle school uh did a fall sorry spring play did a fantastic job and our high school musical was amazing and we have one 123 Andres once again this is one of our
assemblies through title one and it allowed our students to be exposed to different music different cultures different opportunities promoting student engagement and recognizing now this is an opportunity for us to recognize all the great things that are happening with our students in district whether it's decision day uh student of the month
with our keys for success the art club being part of the beautifification of our buildings and our district and our cars mentors our older kids working with our young creating that one-on-one connection that is very much needed and hands-on art opportunities and then our ESL awards night which was brand new
this year and it was an amazing experience to be there i myself was there personally sharing some of my experiences as a former ESL student so once again these are the ones ways that we want to be inclusive and be rec and recognize everyone for their strengths enhancing stakeholder
engagement communication across the district this is a a goal that I always found is continually evolving and it's continually moving forward uh this is a an area where we're constantly looking for different ways of communicating and this year um I've you know I've continued uh using uh Friday focus
videos every Friday within district and that's once again just updating the staff on any events or programmings occurring but at the same time also uh we've turned it interactive we are now using uh motivational quotes uh being provided by the staff and we share out and what it means to them so thank you
again to our staff for being part of that uh focus Friday video i really pretty do appreciate it uh our WhatsApp using technology as another way of communicating with our staff i mean sorry with our community um as that that is another resource that we're using our
new website um the Latino Institute workshop which also allow parents to identify some extra resources within the district um our new playground at uh North do allows our community to come together and and interact with each other at a playground those are very
important areas and then Home Depot students and workshops once again exposure is key for our students to be successful strengthening communication and continuing on with the strengthening communication and partnership we had our FAA night um we have our workshop for
our parents ESL awards night uh do town had a truck or treat which we joined in as a school district and had our own little trick or treat uh January 29th that was our second no that was our third parent forum we had for the year once again an opportunity to sit down with the community open forum discuss
have conversations once again continue that rapport with the community of Dover and our Hispanic Heritage Month once again celebrating uh culture looking back at the facility improvements of 24 and 25 so I'll speak a little bit about some of the improvements that happened from each of
the buildings so we'll start off with Dober High School we've had the decals in the front that provide not only a beautifification of the building but also a security as as well as from the outside in you can't see but you can see from the inside out we have our new
visitors pass system this allows our visitors uh to uh to come into the building uh whether it's a parent or uh anyone else and have to provide an ID so it's an extra layer to our security they provide an ID the IDs run through a
system and then they're printed a pass a visitor's pass to come into the building and once again safety security is always our number one priority and we want to make sure that we can add as many layers as possible and our visitor passes provides us that opportunity uh we've done some painting uh the 200 wings so I
want to thank the our painters in district who have been done doing a fantastic and phenomenal job and reorganized the guidance office there was a reorganization of the guidance office to allow more easier flow for students as well as opportunities for our counselors and administrative staff
there to work with our students within the district at the middle school we had a vestibon entrance brand new um reconstructed it once again when we're talking about so security bless you uh when we talk about security we talk about adding that extra layer uh at the
vestibule at the middle school we've added now a visitors entrance as well as a parent entrance and an opportunity for parents to drop things off so that once again if a parent needs to drop something off we don't have to let them into the building they could drop it there and now we've included a procedure
and protocol that allows us to to maintain this the building as safe as possible uh we've added new floors into the gymnasium with our with our beautiful tiger and padding for safety as kids are playing sports or doing any physical activity it allows for there be
extra protection on the walls with our padding and the visitors pass again we've included that from the high school the middle school just adding that extra security at Academy uh we discussed the gymnasium padding and they have their
one there uh installed as well this past year once again an extra layer of just safety for our students uh painting of the murals uh the beautifification across the district has been great and the murals brings our schools to life it allows our kids to be proud of the schools they're attending it speaks of
the pride that each of the school has as each of the murals speaks to their culture and climate within their building uh lower floor renovations uh lower floor renovations down at for academy we've mentioned them before in previous uh board meetings and where there had been uh water damage at the
lower part of academy uh the media center and some of the classrooms were out of commission for some time and over time we've been able to remediate the situation and add a beautiful new media center at Academy as well as uh fix up the classrooms we've also included a
flood prevention pumping unit in our academy building that allows the water not to flow into the classrooms but allows to for the units to react in the event that there is any flooding occurring and uh painted the teachers room we uh another piece that we wanted
to add and once again I want to give a shout out to our painters in district they did a fantastic job uh but our teachers uh calf at academy looks beautiful new furniture new painting uh and just another demonstration how much we appreciate the work that our teachers do thank you we have East Door Vestabon
entrance also was renovated uh that actually came all together with the main office for East Elementary east Elementary now has their main office uh reorganized as well as safety and security uh pieces put in place as well uh we have an H we had HVAC projects
being done at East Dover Elementary and the middle school uh we had murals done uh once again beautifification of the building speaks to the culture uh the mural they just actually recently just had is celebrating culture and unity uh it's a beautiful piece that the kids as well as uh some of the staff did
together and it's very nice to see our our staff and students come together to create something beautiful that our students can always come back and visit when they want um digital signage outside of the building so now we have the digital signage to once again enhance our communication from our
schools to the community um and we have the decals also outside of the the building and our modular uh classrooms uh actually once again you know space has been a huge barrier for us and the modular classrooms have allowed us to uh
create a little more space for our students within the schools and then at North do we had the hallway and classrooms floors done completely uh playground equipment replacement which is the new North do playground we were just discussing our ceiling tower replacement
HVAC project uh we also were able to create a vestibule at North do and the modular classrooms once again adding that space you know that's something that we have struggled in recent years with spacing we're looking to always be uh proactive always find ways to find a solution and the module has definitely
provided a little bit of help when it comes to our spacing needs all right at Belmont um we also have added a secure vestibule over at Belmont and we've done some painting and
we were able to locate our former superintendent portraits uh thanks to one of the custodians who saved it for us uh and now we have placed them over at Belmont we have them all uh going from our first superintendent to uh no not the recent because we're still getting we we're still missing two
portraits but we're working on it uh but it's exciting to see just the history of Dover um and the way we've painted and re together as a team at Belmont because I'm not going to say it's just me the entire team at Belmont has done a fantastic job of uh painting and and just remodeling the building and and we're very excited and happy with what
has happened at Belmont we love to share more pictures we will have soon and our bathrooms also were were redone um at Delk 2 we had emergency uh bar exits put in these e bar exits what they do is they prevent our little ones from pushing the little bar and getting out
into the uh public so uh it's another extra layer of security that we've added for our young students um we've added a new PA system uh that was very much needed in case an emergency or we need to make an all call we have a PA system installed at Delp 2 and new playground
design that's going to be coming soon for our students that's going to once again gives them an opportunity to engage in fun activities have fun uh and and share some happy moments with their teachers as well as their uh classmates all right so speaking of Del
2 uh the emergency bar you can see there with the red sign you can see the bar on the top once again it prevents our students from going out the PA system uh the phone line which is connected to our PA system and our gymnasium the academy you can see here on the academy you on the top left you
have the beautiful media center at academy as well as the padding on the right hand side of the gymnasium the beautiful artwork outside in the parking lot illustrating Academy Street School and now the new teachers cafeteria at North do uh we have the
hallways and classrooms done we have the new playground installed and some of the construction that was being done during the summer and here are the Jets um employees and volunteers working with our staff we have a new vending machine where kids have an opportunity to uh get incentives for reading and uh the
classrooms being done brand new floors um and paint do elementary as we're talking about the decals and the murals uh at the left you'll see the brand new reorganization brand new uh main office at East Dover Elementary decals going up
the steps once again to Tiger Pride and our East Door Elementary having their own signage at the outside of the building once again creating their own identity separate from that of the middle school and their uh mural once again beautiful mural beautiful colors vibrant it sticks out and once again it
is a celebration of unity and culture within East Dover Elementary Dover Middle School uh we have the brand new gymnasium uh padding on the top where you see it do across we have their floors brand new done with all the lining needing for
basketball or lin needing for any volleyball games uh the electronic signage on the outside of the building once again enhancing our communication with our community and a mural how we roar that is our PBIS uh tiger our kids did together again it it continues to
speak about our core values and what are we want to instill in our our students as they continue going through the education here in Dover do high school decals as I mentioned before visitors pass painted and reorganization but I will say those decals just look amazing when it comes
to our buildings all right Belmont office as I mentioned there's our vestibule downstairs and here are the steps leading up with all of our former superintendent all right what the 2526
budget will support and this is only a snapshot of where we are going so new hires and positions for 22 to 25 we've hired over 120 certified staff 2526 maintaining all previous programs initiatives streamlining roles
enhancing efficiency and eliminating redundancies so addressing the needs of our students do high school culinary teacher to support the expanding of our CTE programming elementary therapeutic social workers that mental health piece the social emotional piece needed for our students to develop and grow uh uh
in the right way and our preschool right additional teachers and teacher assistance for additional in district classroom as we mentioned we're bringing in those five preschool buildings once students from out of district once again being homegrown being part of our do community and there will be the these
will be the teachers to help us assist in growing our students and then looking forward to addressing the needs of space as I mentioned previously during the presentation you know space has definitely been a barrier for us over the last couple of years and to meet the needs of our uh spacing we are looking
to construct a new sixth grade annex building in the 2526 and opening in the 2627 school year as you can see here on the map uh you'll see classroom space for administrative office nurses office a
cafeteria/multi-purpose room and the this building not only will assist with our elementary creating more space but I will share with everyone how this building alone would have an impact across the district so I'll start off with preschool with this the wait go
back sorry stay there for a little bit so if you go back if you're you know when we pull out the sixth grade classrooms uh students that's going to open up more spacing meaning we can bring in more of our preschool students in house meaning they are not moving transitioning from building to building
it gives an opportunity to grow with their friends within their community that they know and people that they recognize it will open for elementary an opportunity to also learn and teachers to teach the music and the arts within a classroom right now they're on a cart being in a classroom the experience is
totally different we want to enhance that experience for our students give them that opportunity for our middle school it will allow us to now explore other electives opportunities that will now marry into the high school give our students at the middle school level a taste of what to expect at a high school
level hopefully retaining some of our students in district um and we're looking to potentially look at dance and theater as another elective at a middle school level and then to go up to the high school level as we had mentioned before with culinary arts expanding we want to
continue to expand our CTE programming we want to be able to compete with all the surrounding high schools with the career pathways and CTE program that they're providing for their students and we want to have Do High School to be at that competitive level with with expansion on space it allows us to
provide spacing for potential esports um continue to provide span uh space for any other CTE programmings that do high school would like to pursue um so overall this is just a quick snapshot of all uh that comes with us creating a sixth grade annex building um as well as
the last piece that I'll mention is uh working in in in uh in education for as long as I have one thing that I've noticed especially working at middle school and elementary level uh sixth grade students you know they are not ready for middle school and sometimes they do tend to struggle a little bit
with seventh and eighth grade students having them at a building coming together for the first time at sixth grade as opposed to seventh grade will allow our students to congregate together as sixth grade come together grow be within their own peers before then they are met with seventh and eighth grade students giving them an
opportunity to grow and mature so when they do go into seventh and eighth grade now they're ready for that the transition that's coming in at seventh and eighth grade uh so once again extracurricular activities um so we also have our
programming for sports we've added girls flag football which they've been doing amazing thus far and you haven't an opportunity please go out and support our girls flag football we have golf and our esports who competed just in uh over the winter down in uh Georgia Tech um
for the championship uh you know for first time esports uh we didn't win but the fact that we made it as far as we did as a first time implementation is very impressive and new honor society mathematics dance and Spanish all right districtwide we're
going to be purchasing a new 54 bus uh passenger school bus 24 passenger wheelchair accessible bus U maintenance truck with plow and a zeroturn riding lawnmower which I wouldn't mind taking a ride on it when we do get it um and then district-wise supported by
DO PA grant award $6 million to continue to serve 300 students uh in 25 classrooms seven in district classrooms located at delk one and delk 2 and five community partners at Headstart and 18 classrooms all right and then projects
2526 once again I've mentioned this sixth grade annex building we have roof replacements at North Dover and new preschool building renovations and understanding our budget um our budget consists of planned and expenses expected revenues it's a
financial expression of district's needs and priorities and it's a living document all right and I'll pass you over on to Mrs sabahulu thank you i'll be presenting from here if you don't
mind no this yes so in 25 26 school year the tax levy uh when you see like 2425 it goes up from 18.5 to 22.1 and uh we have local tax levy for 681 for this year and next year is going
to be 679 and the good news is uh next year is going to be the last year we are paying the that service uh because we did refinance the bond and we saved a lot of money on that we are paying like at least like a five years early so that's a plus uh it's going to be like a
lower tax levy next year in that amount actually if we go back I'll explain why the difference goes up more than 2% in tax levy you see 18.5 and 22 22.1 I'll explain in the future slides so revenues uh we have uh federal and
state grants proprietary taxes which is kept at 2% uh several exceptions exist which I'll talk about that state aid surplus uh meaning it could be like a maintenance reserve capital reserve emergency reserve and local revenue
sources and expenses uh appropriate staffing effective instruction and programs control and item expenses and support district initiatives if you look at the revenues I know there's uh I apologize for the small numbers uh hopefully I'll do better job
on the slides than next year but uh uh the biggest part of the revenues are state 8 if you see the state aid portion uh in 2425 uh on the right bottom on the uh state 8 it says
69.5 this year next year is going to be 67.3% meaning the the state aid percentage is uh much lower than this year because we didn't get enough increase in the state aid we only got uh [Music]
$761,000 uh when we think about it just for our health insurance increase is like a $1.5 million and salary increase is like $1.5 million it adds up like $3 million and also all other things everything goes up as you know the inflation rate and everything that we
can add another million dollar so we just need to we just need like $4 million to survive so we only get like $761,000 increase uh besides that we they lowered the Medicaid reimbursement uh from around like 130 to $39,000 so we
lost another $100,000 over there so we made the difference with the tax levy using bank cap and health adjustment which I'll explain in the future slides so if you can see tax levy supposed to be 18.9 uh but we use the health adjustment at
the bottom 1.5 and the bank cap 1.6 right top of that so it adds up to $22 million in order to close the gap and the other revenues it comes up uh with the uh state aid
62.7 uh local revenues 2.9 which is mine hill tuition uh capital we are using capital reserve for three almost like $4 million that supports our NX project so when we look at the bank cap bank cap uh is the authorization to for
spending that if we didn't use enough increase last couple years which you can see it starts from 2022 when you add up it makes $1.6 $6 million which we are using all this year because of the reason we didn't get enough state aid and in order to catch the adequacy
budget which is the budget we supposed to get to uh properly uh uh proper instruction for the kids uh we are down almost like a $4 million so uh when we look at the expenditures the biggest one goes to instruction which is a plus for us uh
the second one comes in the employee benefits uh which benefits uh rates are goes up very high next year is like a 15% we're talking about if you think about it we only have like 2% cap to increase tax levy uh it's very hard to come up with uh the money so that's why
we get health adjustment so key impacts on the budget is health and other employee benefits salaries transportation inflation and increased logistic costs actions taken to contain district costs we use cooperative purchasing to
save money we also use ASUS uh which we we like a group of cooperative that use electricity and natural gas so we get a better rate and we also use reimbursement uh shared service with the town for fuel
and semi federal reimbursement program the grants uh we get is uh ESA which is title one two title 2 a three three immigrant and four IDA we get snip grant is around $25,000 we get rate
reimbursement preschool expansion aid is little over $6 million and DCF grant is uh a little over $300,000 so the readables uh essential readables are the total text base for the town the higher the redible the less of an impact on uh any tax increase
would have on an individual taxpayer so you could if you go you you see the 24 to 25 do town the reds went down so increase is negative uh and Victoria gardens goes up uh in average door home owner uh with
all the projects included which is like a $12 million annex and all the other the roofing project and everything else uh it's going to be $5081 per month increase uh for the average SS home and for Victory Gardens the average
the for average SS home uh it's going to be $27 $63 per month increase uh when we say average SS home tax esters determines the average SS home value assess home value is not the same with your home's appraised value so it's not
the market price so you please don't get confused you can always say that there's no average home like $200,000 in do but that's the tax assess value for the house not the purchase when we calculate the uh the
rates for the tax levy uh it's versus uh fisc fiscal year versus the calendar years so we have to get like half of the 23 24 and half of the 2525 when we calculate so that's how we come up with the tax levy uh it's calendar versus
fiscal year because fiscal year starts in July 1st and the calendar year starts as you know January 1st so we have to make that difference so uh the user friendly budget will be posted on the district website tomorrow uh if you could have any questions you can always stop by the
business office do I have any questions for me or Mr hyman thank you very much for listening so does I think at this time does the board have any questions that they'd
like to ask about the presentation mr miller I don't have any questions but I do have a comment um the facilities and finance committee met on Tuesday of this week and we had reviewed this budget presentation which I was very
very impressed um some of the the uh the work that was put into this is above and beyond what we expected from a brand new superintendent and a fairly new BA um it's a difficult job to put together this budget it takes a long time it's
it's never ending it starts the minute this is done and the minute the the um the budget starts it starts again over and again so um thank you very much gentlemen for your hard work for the
detail put into this presentation the photos so that our public can see what's going on and as you said um the budget will be the user-friendly version of this budget will be online so the community can go back and refer to it the uh the committee did put a lot of
questions to Mr hime and Mr of Gulu to make sure that we were getting squeezing every penny out of the district that we could out of this budget and I believe that we are so thank you very much gentlemen and I just want to add that when
um you know this is a continuation of the story from you know the space issues that we've had and from the referendum that didn't pass i think that the the committee and the administration really worked hard u to come up with
alternatives to increase space at a fraction of the cost of uh the previous plans and so I think everyone needs to be commended for that because we're going to be able to do a lot more for our students and increase our programming at a very
uh much less cost than it would have been um if the referendum had gone through although that there would been a lot of positive things if it did go through as well but um you know we're answering the call of the public and what they wanted and I think we're coming through with something that
should be uh acceptable to everybody anyone else mr miller I was just going to ask it if would should we ask questions now or should we ask when it's on when we're voting on i I think you can ask questions now
miss DS I would like to say congratulations to the 26 teachers working towards their ESL certificate certification um I'm also pleased to hear that we are bringing five preschool um classrooms back Mr hime um how many
students are in each class uh you're looking at uh potentially between 14 20 students per class thank you anyone else okay uh first of all um thank you uh to
Mr sabaholu Miss Hardenberg everybody in the business office for and everybody that had a part in this um you know this is we're we're we're not a huge district but this is a huge budget and it's a it's a lot of work and um and I I just
want to commend everybody um on this the presentation is great um I appreciate what is obviously been a very difficult budget to put together um and I do have some questions
um firstly um the seven there's there's there's going to be a 700 roughly $700,000 difference in CAT bank available CAT bank funds for next year um that we have
to use 900,000 or so this year or that are going to expire I should say um and only 200,000 or so that's going to expire next year i I could just pull the slide if you don't uh Yes yeah so um have we made any
accommodations in this year's budget safeguards uh to get ahead of that $700,000 difference um in the event that our aid numbers continue to not be what they should be and not meeting the um benefit
increases salary increases to where we're actually getting an overall less percentage actually I would like to thank uh uh thank to Mr hime and the team here because uh there was a lot of savings so we made the budget work as it is right now by using the bank cap and
the health adjustment uh the revenues equals the expenditures meaning that it's working as it is right now okay [Music] um obviously the reserve percentage the reserve amount is coming down because of
the expenditure for the annex just generally speaking um where is do um as far as a safe reserve amount for the capital reserve yeah after this expenditure for the annex where are we
will we should we as as a good practice in the next few years try to put more money back into that our goal would be $10 million because we have $100 million budget okay okay and we have what is the total amount now or after the expenditure uh for uh for next year or
this year this year we're at like $8 million right now but we're going to be using some okay so we're going to be down to like three to four but it depends how much left over from this year is going to be so I can tell you exactly okay [Music] um obviously there's a lot of
uncertainty right now at the federal level um with regards to funding especially for states that are not uh agreeing to um eliminate DEI provisions
um what is the worst case scenario for our district as far as a loss of federal funds um if if that threat is followed through yeah we budgeted as we are getting the federal funds we get like the two big ones ESA which is title one
title 2 a title three three immigrant and title 4 and also IDA uh they're combined like $2.6 $6 million but if it happens we don't get it then we have to stop some of the programs we have to stop the purchases and we have to make it work uh so we don't close with
deficit but it's not something we can put aside like $2.6 million just in case we don't get it because we didn't even have that opportunity here actually we had one opportunity for a tax incentive aid and state authorize actually state
would authorize us for $8.2 2 million tax levy increase so they could give us like $410,000 aid for the tax but we didn't entertain it because it's too much uh for the taxpayers shoulder we already increasing 3.3 $3.2 million on top of
that they want us to increase another 8.2 which is going to be like 50% uh which is not going to work for $400,000 we can't really do that uh so we didn't uh you know have a actually we don't have a plan for if we lose 2.6 six but
the plan's going to be as we said budging is like a living document if it doesn't happen then we have to go according to that right okay um my last question and this is not one I submitted ahead of time um I apologize but but this is not going to be a new you you
will have seen this um a little while ago I was reached out to by a member of uh our head start the Head Start program in do um expressing some concern about um the the increase that is being passed
along to them versus the increase that is being passed along to the district for preschool uh purposes and specifically noted that um they they they mentioned that uh one of the reasons why um the numbers didn't match
is because of what they said the district referred to as duplicative services um I'm just if you can shed any light on that on what what we are providing to Head Start in this budget as far as an increase um is it matching
the increase we're receiving from the state are we continuing to assume that there's duplicative services we have some there is like a actually we have like a authorization for as far as I know like 1% their question is like a why is like a 2% cut but I don't know where they get
that number so we're in touch in touch with them there's a person over there i think he's even pulling the wrong number or there's miscommunication right there but whatever we are allowed we do that we are not going beyond that we not Okay i just want to make sure it was being looked into thank you that's all I have
anyone else okay thank you very much thank you and this Thank you everyone and I just want to thank the team as well we This was definitely a team effort thank you everyone at this time I'd like to open the the uh
public comments portion of the meeting the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period
of three minutes public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as
opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or
irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond to in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public
comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to legal liability for defamation is there anyone in the public that wishes uh to be heard please uh come up to the podium and state your name and
address okay seeing no one I will close the public portion okay I just No we have no virtual comments either that's not until the second half there's no virt Oh oh okay second half
okay uh we have executive and regular minutes for the March 18th minutes do we have a motion uh for approval so moved do I have a second second
can we have a roll call please any comments any questions okay do we have a roll call please mr seto yes miss DS yes mr mor yes miss Phillips abstain miss Penellis yes Dr center yes Miss
Sher yes Miss Son oopsy mr miller yes okay communications i am not aware of any board communications did we have any letter I gave you i don't Okay i did receive a letter like a few minutes ago
i didn't open it so I can open it yeah please open it that's actually not accurate because I did send the letter to everybody with the invitation to the Arbor Day celebration for Friday April 25th tomorrow at 5:00
p.m okay that's why I asked the question okay so we have that okay this is for uh the friends of education celebration held at Meadowwood in Wednesday April
30th um I don't know anything about this marsh County something I I would have to do some homework and uh get back well it was a nice invitation yes okay um our student representative uh
report good evening everyone i hope you had a good spring break and welcome back for the first part of my report I would like to share some important details about our Dober Olympics event that is coming right around the corner pretty soon so recently at the pep rally that we
hosted right before spring break on Friday we had each student in their stands where the color of their class to represent their class for the Olympics each grade was given their color and they had to choose a theme the freshman class is gray and for their theme they
chose Jaws it's a shark attack the sophomore class color is black and their theme is sophomores in black the junior class is class color is orange and their theme is construction or construction workers and the senior
class color is white and their theme is on cloud 12 so leading up to the Olympics each class will have time to decorate a hallway based on their color and theme and also create a banner and song that goes along with their respected color and theme as well
the Student Government Association also known as SGAA is putting together a rule book for some of the events and also finalizing lots of the events going to take place on May 20th the day of the Olympics but before all these fun events take place we obviously do have NJSLA
testing for grades 9 10 and 11th and also throughout the first couple weeks we have uh AP testing as well and also recently the SGA has been very active we just had our most recent fundraiser where during each lunch we
had students put in money to a bucket with a teacher's photo the teacher with the most money had to sing the alma mater at the pep rally which I believe was Mr derritter the SCA has also been advertising our campaign all around the school for the B&J
the SA had put up a poster board down the hallway going to the gym which you can see going down this hallway um with our slogan drive with care safeties in the air and lastly make sure to come out and support our spring sports teams as
we also have some new sports running like girls flag football and golf as Mr hime mentioned earlier and also make sure to just come and support all of our spring sports we have an amazing track and field team boys volleyball baseball and softball teams thank you
thank you very much that's a great report anyone have any questions for our student representative okay uh president's report um this month has been exceptionally busy and productive for our district i I want to
begin by extending my sincere gratitude to our administrative team who have dedicated countless hours towards the development of the 2025 2026 school budget their thoughtful and diligent work reflects our shared commitment to creating a budget that not only uplifts
our students but also respects the contributions of our taxpayers earlier this month I had the honor of attending the Mars County Unsung heroes presentation at Mars Nolles High School alongside several members of our board while we were inspired by the remarkable contributions
of students across the county we are especially proud to celebrate our own Dober High School senior data David Aguera Agueta argua Aguerta okay all right almost uh for his outstanding service and leadership uh
congratulations to David you make us make us proud uh also I had the pleasure of joining Miss Phillips for a meeting with the Dober Rotary at Subor Latino it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about their ongoing scholarship programs and their commitment to supporting Dober
students additionally uh several board members expressed a desire to recognize many professionals who make our district strong especially the special days set aside each month to honor their work with that in mind I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge PAR profofessional
day on April 2nd National Librarian Day on April 16th School Bus Driver Appreciation Day on April 22nd and National Administrative Professionals Day April 23rd to each of you PAR professionals librarians bus drivers
administrative staff thank you your work is essential and your dedication makes a difference in the lives of our students every day we appreciate all that you do so thank you okay uh superintendence report good evening everyone
winoce hope everyone enjoyed the spring break and just to follow up Mr miller uh you know once again celebrating our private professionals our bus drivers and our librarians i also want to include I'm sorry an administrative assistant day which was yesterday i also want to include uh this month we also
celebrated assistant principles uh during the week of April 7th and April 11th so it definitely was a month of celebrations and thanking everyone as everyone has an equal part in growing and supporting our students and our do community
uh April was also autism awareness month uh world autism day is observed on April 2nd on 2025 uh the day falls on fell on a Wednesday and is United Nations designated this day to raise awareness about autism spectrum disorder and
promote understanding acceptance and inclusion for individuals with autism uh April also was National Bilingual and Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements and needs of students to
speak multiple languages it's a month to spotlight the diverse language learners in our communities and their contributions uh as mentioned before during our budget presentation the ED mural once again I want to congratulate Mr chewy Miss Garcia as well as the
staff over at Ed for the beautiful mural uh that was also in collaboration with Dan from Morris Arts so once again uh thank you for putting that beautiful mural together and allowing our students to be part of the process uh the North Dover playground thank you all for your patience as we've worked to address to
resolve the hazardous materials concerns on the mulch at the playground we are pleased to share that the issue has been successfully mediated and it's wonderful to see our students and community enjoying the space once again your support and understanding during the process was truly
appreciated at career day at Ed i want to thank everyone for inviting me over for the career day and sharing my experiences as as a student as well as my career aspirations as a superintendent uh you know going over to our fifth and sixth grade students I shared my journey uh from Puerto Rico to
New Jersey the challenges I faced as a student and the powerful impact that teachers had on my life and the pride I feel serving as a superintendent here in Dover uh students are curious uh they were full of energy and asked many questions uh you know what does a superintendent do which you know I kind
of flipped it back on them and asked them what do they think a superintendent does and their response was uh drinks coffee all day uh sits in his chair all day uh and looks at emails all day um so I I I elaborated a little bit more on
those responsibilities of that of a superintendent um and you know what was the favorite part of the job and I said that's always that's an easy one for me to answer that's working with our kids and you know what college I attended um and one question particularly they asked which really funny they asked which was
which one of the teachers was my favorite teacher um that's kind of like one of my children asking me which one of us is your favorite and all the teachers are my favorite um so they all started laughing but it was a great experience to really share with our students i will share that as a
superintendent you know I don't have that uh daily interaction with students as often uh so I definitely look forward to those opportunities and and being part of the kids in within the buildings so once again thank you to Ed for that invitation uh seventh grade orientation
happened just recently at uh DMS so congratulations DMS on hosting a fantastic seventh grade orientation from all elementary schools including Campfield our students ambassadors did an outstanding job leading our seventh graders future seventh graders sorry uh in tours of DMS helping them with uh
feel welcomed and excited for the next steps in their journey uh they also provided a club fair for the students to look forward to what clubs they would like to join at a seventh and eighth grade level uh they also then had a presentation from the administration and the counselors to provide them all the resource and supports that exist at the
middle school uh today we celebrated bring your child to work day and I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated this event is one that I always look forward to it gives our students a unique glimpse into uh beyond
that of the classroom it helps for a deeper understanding and building as they get to meet our families and our extensions outside of the building uh I was speaking to one someone earlier today as I mentioned having my children here as a superintendent was definitely uh exhausting i I'd rather take care of 500 plus kids than my two kids love them
to death but they were definitely exhausting today but thanks again to everyone who made this day very special uh I saw lots of smiles and interactions and it's great again to see that opportunity um our prek fair is going to be May 10th on from 10:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m at Kasa Puerto Rico it's going to be
full of fun activities for our students a meet and greet with the providers and also onsite registration uh um want to thank our G&T parents again and and the community came out to the G&T parent forum thank you for attending once again and get providing some feedback and your
presence there was very much appreciated congrats um to our once again our song hero David Guerrera Alguerta um musical DHS and DMS play thank you again to our incredible community for coming out and supporting our performing
arts your presence and enthusiasm mean a lot to our students and staff um and for all the talented actors musicians dedicated stage crew supportive staff thank you for delivering an outstanding performance your hard work passion and collaboration made each show truly
unforgettable uh spring sports golf and uh golf and girls flag football underway come on and enjoy the excitement and support as we are going on new endeavors with our athletes uh let's show our student athletes the strength of our school spirit
um last Friday we had our academy tricky trade uh first time joining uh since being here in do it was quite the excitement it was great to see the community coming together uh celebrating the wins or the lows of the night i have to share I did win twice uh thank you
and it was not um uh you know it wasn't something that I was hoping that would happen but it happened so I was excited for it i was the hero for my daughter who got a little squish so thank you again for that um I'm looking forward to next year's tricky trade but once again what a great opportunity to interact
with everyone outside of the superintendent forum and and seeing everyone kind of just having a good time and laughing so it's a great representation of our community here in Dover our want to give everyone an update on our website we have our dual language role language ESL link available on our website so please visit
i ask everyone to join um and I want to ask everyone also to join me in welcoming uh our new buildings and grounds Alex Toth and Laura Christiniac as our DMS assistant principal welcome to the Dover team uh DHS several of our
staff members uh including our chief academic officer Mr carl uh Mr carmona and Mr john Jack Hoffer uh who delighted our high school students by playing jazz during their lunch periods the musical interlude provided a refreshing engaging
break for our students showcasing the talents of our falcony and enriching the school's culture environment and and don't miss our big event Getting to Know Dover on May 17th from 12:00 p.m to 4 p.m that is all thank you thank you very much anyone have any
questions for Mr report i'll be there May 17th it's on my calendar mr sabu good evening everyone uh last month the board meeting and item 15 in the finance was the Palmonian Food Service Management Company contract uh
that's approved by the state uh last week so we're good to go for next year uh item eight on the agenda we're purchasing addition uh additional HVAC units to be installed in the future road grant projects won't be able to cover all classroom in North D Elementary
School and Do Middle School we will be installing these units in the future years but we would like to have them in house item 9 we're eligible to apply for increasing our expenditures by 410,000 as for 2526 budget this resolution will give Mr haime a permission to apply for
this additional funds but as we talk about it in the uh budget presentation we would like we wouldn't go for like $8.2 million tax leave increase but we would just keep it in case state changes something so in the future we have the resolution ready but we're not going to
continue with the application we already let the state know item 14 our uh 2526 final budget approved by the exe executive count and is up for approval item 21 our phase 2 architect proposal which is the last proposal for our sixth grade NX project is up for approval in
the agenda thank you anyone have any questions for Mr sabahulu okay uh do we have a motion to approve administrative items one through three so move so a second second we have
a motion and a second are any questions on those yes sorry you you caught me off guard um the care for kids uh memorandum um obviously this is dealing
with a very sensitive subject um and I just would like some clarification as to how these kits are going to be distributed um in order to prevent any um negative attention on the students
are parents going to be involved you know I imagine you know it's we're not just going to go here there's going to be some leadup conversations i just wanted some clarification on what the what the process is going to be for absolutely uh so number one I want to
thank uh the organization kids a care for kids for collaborating with us and the the collaboration within district is going to be between our community leaison at each of the building as well as the school nurses they're you know identifying some of our families in need
that already our liaison are working with um the directive working also with our district uh nurse and working with the nurses is to make sure that this is done in a discreet manner we don't want to out anybody put anyone on the spotlight so there is going to be a process going to be followed the parents are going to be identifi uh contacted
and informed so that they know these care packages are coming home and they're not surprised of course if a parent says they're not you know they're not okay with it we'll also respect that as well okay thank you any other questions can we have a roll call please mr seo
yes miss DS yes mr mort yes miss Phillips yes miss Penales yes dr center yes Miss Shower yes Miss Sness yes Mr miller yes okay we're moving on point of order mr
miller we skipped over the um reports i don't want to speak for Miss Downs but my legislative report is riveting and I want to deliver it that's what I meant by you caught me off guard okay beautiful uh oh
yeah okay all right so I skipped my report too so from the Mars County Educational Services Commission uh I did not attend the meeting but I did look at the uh the agenda and there was nothing that I would need to report to this board um I would love to hear the
legislative report thank you Mr miller um only one bill has been signed into law sunscreen policies um S1548A1020 will require school districts to adopt policies concerning student use of sunscreen and sunprotective clothing
at school and school sponsored functions the policy shall not require a student to provide documentation from a physician or other licensed health care professional as amended the policy may require written permission from a student's parent or guardian but may not require school personnel to assist a
student in applying sunscreen so the policy committee should look forward to um adopting that policy all right great okay Miss Downs good evening uh the unsung heroes uh
ceremony was held on April 2nd at Morris Nulls High School um I was unable to attend but I do believe that we had a nice showing from our board um DHS student um David F guvara Aueta was honored um
from Dover High School the next meeting will be on May 7th at Mount Olive High School where they will have more student recognitions um they will honor many
students throughout Morris County with scholarships unsung hero awards uh tuition to County College of Morris and much more and they will also honor um board member board member
celebrations which include um Victoria Pinales our very own and Maria Selenus for new board member uh boardman boardmanship certification
and 15-year milestones will have uh Mr miller and Miss Shower congratulations in advance for that um so again that's on May 7th at Mount Olive High School you can register
online um at MCSBI this concludes my report thank you okay so now we're ahead of schedule we could skip to personnel miss please um I would like to
make a motion upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the board to approve the following personnel resolutions 1 through 13 we have a motion do we have a second second any discussions questions u Dr sainer um
I just had a question what is a summer site supervisor here we go um this is a required position uh to run a summer meals program and we're required to have someone there who will
oversee the distribution and complete the required meal count paperwork uh the program gives them uh this title thank you you're welcome any other questions okay can we please have a roll call mr
yes miss DS yes mr mark yes miss Phillips yes miss Penales yes dr center yes miss Shower yes mes yes mr miller yes okay negotiations
um the negotiation committee met with the Dober Administration Association on April 7th and we'll be meeting again on April 29th thank you thank you governance Miss Downs the governance committee met virtually
on April 22nd from 6:30 to 7:05 the committee members present were Miss DS Mr haime Mr mccort Miss Phillips and Miss Selenus um there was no governance committee meeting in March uh for discussion we had CSA superintendent
evaluation process and timeline um the governance committee will prepare a letter to the board about the CSA evaluation process with timeline and evaluation link um we discussed the board self-
evvaluation and policy 0169.3 board member use of personal electron electronic devices at board meetings um we also discussed
PO153 annual appointments the ESC delegate appointment points discussed um okay so then the next governance meeting is scheduled for May 20th
i would like to make a move to approve the bylaw for first reading of the board member use of personal electronic devices at board meetings so
we have a motion do we have a second second yeah we have a second any questions dr ser um I love uh the policy is 0169.3 um it does not seem to preclude um board members from communicating on my
district device about board business so for example it seems like I could email or instant message another board member to discuss an upcoming vote or try to influ in influence their vote um and so I do think that um communications in
general about about board business or or personal business should be um included in this policy so if I may the red line portion of the policy at the top of the page does have
language to address Dr sanders's concern so my question is to Mr recruit if we remove the red line and accept the language which addresses that concept is that enough of a change that it would have to be um another first reading at
our next meeting or can we just make that change and have it be a second reading at our next meeting that's that's a um that's one of those questions where it's you know it's it's it's not like a clear line what the what the policies and laws generally say is that if it's a substantial change in the policy I think
based on what I've heard and I I haven't seen the policy but what you're saying is it's actually in the language is in there and it's just crossed out it's in the language I guess that was provided by Strauss Esme that was crossed out and so you're just going to remove that so to me if the board were inclined to
do that I think you could make the change at and and have it as a second reading at the next policy okay mr miller I think we'd only need the one sentence that says um board members shall not communicate electronically with each other or other persons during
a board meeting period mhm yeah that sounds that takes care of it so I would move then that we amend the policy to uh reflect the addition of
that sentence um also just to clarify I guess this would be an amendment part of the amendment um the we talked about this the title of the policy should read um instead of use of electronic devices by board members at public board
meetings it should read board member use of personal electronic devices at board meetings because that is the overall meat of the of the sub of the policy but it's also board devices it's
not just personal it's it's it is I think should be electronic devices because the policy addresses both my board device as well as my personal device yes because we could by adding that sentence I guess no that that does okay yeah i I I revised my motion then
to just just the first part that's fine second you need a second on the motion to amend second all right so we have a second and then we now you'll be just voting to first you're going to vote to amend the policy do that first so just
you can do that by a voice vote it doesn't have to be a All those in favor i I opposed okay now you move to a to sorry now you move to approve that policy on first reading it's already moved which is it's already
moved so you just have now you have to have the vote roll call right the roll call on the Miss Esve yes miss DS yes mr mark yes miss Phillips yes miss Penellis yes dr center yes miss Shower yes miss
Son yes mr miller yes okay uh student achievement and curriculum dr s thank you um student achievement and curriculum met on April 8th at 5:30 p.m we were joined by Mr himeme Mr carl Ms rodriguez and Ms
norman um we learned about the ED the second um ed camp this year on March 21st we saw the agenda which included lots of offerings by our staff as well as some outside providers um Mr haime in the budget presentation um mentioned
thought exchange so we kind of saw a little bit about how that works and how it allows real time anonymous feedback and allows uh comments and feedback on prior comments so they had utilized it during that ed camp to get uh participant feedback about how it was
going um and moving forward it will be used um within buildings as well as possibly within the community as a whole we um heard that the G&T parent meeting um was attended by 60 to 70 parents and students and that because some parents
weren't able to make it um a video was created for them as well we uh very quickly discussed um the Strauss SMA AI policy um and our work to create a do public schools plan um but the majority of our meeting uh revolved around um our
dual language program and data associated um a data review of that program so for your information once we have 20 students that speak a language other than English we are required by law to provide bilingual instruction um
our current model of dual language pro this program supports bilingualism biliteracy as well as cultural understanding um we learned that the academic benefits of dual language include improved test performance enhanced cognitive skills executive
functioning and career advantages and that the cultural and social benefits include appreciating others heritage cross-cultural communication and global perspectives um we saw a ton of data which I wish that I could share with you i did put a
very I found it fascinating um interesting uh graph that shows the different models of um educating e um multilingual students and their efficacy and our model of uh
dual language instruction leads to long-term the best um results in in for those students so you know I I don't remember who said it but the comment was made that uh we're playing a long game here that in the short term the students
are you know learning English and Spanish simultaneously um but in the long term um we will see uh pretty dramatic um performance from them so we also discussed how uh the district is using I ready and I station
as well as the link program to uh gather and then analyze data um and to show that we are seeing the appropriate amount of growth um amongst this population of students and then finally I'd like to share with you um from Mr
carl that 37 works of art from uh teachers Mark Maggaro Heather Rolandelli Michelle Garcia and Katie Peterson um these 37 works of art were displayed at the Blackwell Street Center for the Arts High School Art Show um held at the
Morris County Courthouse out of 750 entries only 250 were selected by the Blackwell Street Center for the Arts Committee um into the show and so it is a huge um accomplishment that our 37 students um were honored um and in fact
we had um Esuardo Calderon won second place for photography and Alicia Ruiz won third place for graphic design and illustrations as well as many honorable mentions so I'd like to offer congratulations to all of these students as well as their teachers and hopefully
we can see these works of art at the district art show which is on Wednesday May 14th at 5:30 p.m followed by the DHS spring concert this concludes my report any questions for Dr sainer
um with that I would like to move that the board accept items 1 through six on the agenda oh do we have a second second okay have a motion a second now do we have any questions dr ser um I uh was wondering if you
could explain the Dover High School North do elementary school-based mentoring program and how it works and how it will benefit um both groups of students please absolutely uh we have we're working right now with Big Brother Big Sister mentoring program and it's one of our
high school teachers who's also part of the program outside of our our comm our door district and what we are doing is we're providing our younger uh elementary students with a one-on-one mentor on academics
uh you know socialization which is very big um as well as opportunities to just work on any assignments or have a big brother that can just sit there and talk to and speak to at times and the outcome are and our our our benefits are huge you know because we it gives our younger
students uh someone who's closer in age as a peer to speak to and and work with uh the academics uh enhancements are are great because you see more of our kids improving academically because they have someone to sit down with and and assist them with any homework assignments or projects um but also the socialization
piece you know when it comes to our elementary students that's an area that they still need a lot of support and growth in and someone who's closer in age can assist with that socialization which is huge so it it's a program that I'm very much interested in also in expanding uh unfortunately uh they are
uh funded by grants um and if the funding was to ever increase I told them to please keep it keep us in mind we would love to expand to East Elementary as well as Academy Street anyone else no okay can I have a roll call please
mr sido yes miss DS yes mr mort yes miss Phillips yes miss Penellis yes dr center yes miss Shower yes miss Son yes mr miller yes okay community relations Mr mccort thank you the community relations
committee met uh briefly on Tuesday April 1st uh present were myself Miss Panales Miss Selenas and Miss Phillips um the only item that we needed to discuss was uh actually mentioned already by Miss DS the um Victory
Gardens Forum the idea was to have a parent forum uh in Victory Gardens specific to those students um we tasked uh Mr himeme to reach out to uh the governing body there to gauge their
interest in such an event um as Miss DS indicated we were told that that wouldn't be necessary uh which is unfortunate but um it is what it is try again next year um and so we will now be uh
um shifting our attention to the possibility of a student forum that we discussed um happening uh at the end of May early June hopefully before the students check out too much um for the summer um there was also a community uh
sorry citizens advisory committee meeting on April 1st immediately following the community relations committee meeting we were able to um thanks to to uh help from Mr haime we were able to close a lot of um old items
that uh had been lingering for a little bit so I want to pre uh thank him for that um some new issues did come up which we've communicated and we'll uh circle back to um the committee when we meet again uh next week um those issues
included just some technical things on the website um as well as some more serious things uh like um our bus routes and um not sticking to enforced routes there have been uh quite a lot of
complaints from residents that drivers are not sticking to the to the main routes they're using side roads roads that aren't necessarily built to handle school buses um which makes it not only unsafe for the road but unsafe for the residents and and the people cars the
people walking around um Mr hime has assured us that um that that is being addressed not only with our um uh bus drivers but also our third party bus drivers um the other the the issue an
issue that came up and um um that that really does in sort of uh conclude my report but an issue uh has come up that I believe might warrant a full board discussion um this was brought up at our
March meeting um and and was communicated to the administration uh the issue was surrounding coaches um a member of the CAC um expressed
some concern um with a particular coach i won't mention the coach i won't mention the sport i won't mention the school for obvious reasons but um it was an ongoing issue um it was one that they
believed was contributing to a very negative environment um there was even a question asked as to whether or not you know people would want to even play that sport if that coach remained in that position that
necessitated further comments from other members um that indicated that this might be a you know a more I don't want to say widespread but more than just a single coach um may be somewhat of a of an environmental issue in general and
the questions were asked by the members how is this how could this be addressed so um some of the questions that were directed to the administration was how are coaches evaluated is there an evaluation process how are coaches
evaluated h you know what's the process for hiring coaches who's eligible how are they eligible are coaches retained year-over-year just because you know what does it take for a coach not to be retained um and we did get answers to those questions um and I want to thank
Mr haime for that but there is an outstanding issue um a recommendation was made by the citizens advisory committee to have students involved in the evaluation process have a much like
you have in college after each semester where a each student in that class is given a evaluation form um that is usually anonymous to review the performance of that professor and that
goes into that professor's uh file and is and is used to determine whether or not that professor returns the next year the the recommendation was made that there might need to be uh such a form
made available to student athletes at the end of each season to review their coach's performance um and unfortunately um we have been advised I've been advised that such a
form is not possible and I guess the the question I have um is why why is that not possible um especially considering as we all saw on the budget presentation
tonight we are willing to go to students to ask them what kind of courses that we think should be added to curriculum a decision which actually has financial implications for the district but we
aren't able to give student athletes the opportunity to express possibly some concerns that could result in a coach not being reappointed um I'm not saying that this is a you know widespread issue that
we're going to route out a bunch of coaches root out a bunch of coaches but and I also know that our students um are not just going to submit reviews that say "He's a meanie i don't like him he yelled at me once don't don't appoint
him." There's a there's a difference between um you know constructive criticism and genuine issues that don't belong um on the court or on the field and so
um you know I think it is a good suggestion i don't see why it's not possible so I am curious as to why it is not and who Is this coming from the administration is this coming from the athletic
department where is this no coming from and what is the reason behind it excuse me Mr miller this is and I'm can't believe I'm saying it a point of order this seems to be a little bit more than just a committee report so if this
is a discussion as Mr court said for the full board it should either with prior uh acknowledgement by the board president and the superintendent put on for new business perhaps a discussion for new business it this goes far past
just a committee overview report i believe well I think u Mr behind me do you have any comments at this point or is this something that we need to um have a discussion in another forum
i'm always willing to continue having the discussion you know in regards to student evaluations of coaches you know in inside the classroom students don't have the opportunity to evaluate teachers you know um you know it's not something that is a
common practice this is we beyond just a further discussion so it's definitely definitely open to more discussion absolutely mr miller can I ask if I'm a student on a team or I'm a parent of a student on a team and I'm upset about something what
would be the correct chain of command for me as the student or the parent to address these issues i I always direct our parents to speak directly to the coach if they feel unsatisfied with that discussion and felt that there was no way of coming to a conclusion uh then
the next step would then be to speak to the athletic director u and if they speak to athletic director and felt that nothing has changed and they're not satisfied with the way the action was taken uh then then that discussion comes to me thank you very much if I
may while I understand that that's the process I'm not sure that all of our student athletes would be comfortable taking those steps um talking to a coach and saying "I have an issue," often time leads to
repercussions and similarly they may not be comfortable going to the athletic director certainly may not be comfortable coming to you if you're talking about the student the student right as a parent yes but as a student may not be comfortable going to the
coach and saying I have this issue because xyz um so I think parents with an issue or students with an issue is is different agreed and um you know just working in with students you know we always try to
encourage our kids our students to have to be empowered to have a voice and definitely speak up if there's a concern you know I know working at uh ED and the middle school I did have kids come talk to me about teachers at times and and we sat down and we looked for ways to find solutions i think that in a situation where students have an issue with the
coach the students should definitely come to their parents if they're not comfortable speaking to the coach and then the parent then taking the next steps to speaking to the coach and addressing uh what the issue may or may not be um and then from there then following on on the protocol um but it's very similar to within within a building
uh working with students you know students uh and parents may sometimes not agree with what happens you know class management or if there's something within the classroom or within the building or an event or program um you know for us it's always opening up those opportunities and have both our parents and students be sharing those concerns
and there's always room for growth you know we as as whether as a coach or a teacher an administrator or a leader uh a leader in general uh we're always growing and evolving and and if there's always room for discussion which I am a big component for allows us to to grow and and make our our the situation
better can I say one more thing the only the and I understand that too the only challenge that I'm going to say I think that that that the only challenge I think that po poses there is 90% of our
parents don't go to games so a lot of times they're not seeing what I mean speaking from myself I've been to games where it's me and two other parents and that's been all four years so I think that it might be tricky because if a if
a parent's not there to see or if their child doesn't really go home and express it you know the same way because a parent what a parent sees and what like a player experiences like on the sideline when parents can't hear or in the locker room where parents don't hear
are different if the child doesn't necessarily express it when they get home um but I think a big part of the problem for different reasons um you know and I think of a lot of it with respect to girls sports is timing because games start at four o'clock and
most people can't be at games at 4:00 they work but if a lot of parents aren't at the games they're not seeing they may not be seeing what's happening to be able to raise an objection or a comment or whatever to the coach to Mr block to you if they you
know feel like they're not being um their ch child is not being treated fairly or the coach is just not effective yeah and I I definitely have to say that I I definitely have to do some work on my end as well to understand better the process evaluating
our coaches um and definitely that's a conversation I'm willing to have with the athletic director and and explore other options exist as well i know um surveys can be used a lot of different ways and some of them not
threatening but just really understanding the overall experience that maybe a student athlete had but at the same time um you know I don't know from you know a legal standpoint um are are there is there any best practices
out there that other school districts are utilizing to maybe help determine how to improve programs so if you think of it as a it's an improvement type thing and not a rating of a person yeah i think I as you can tell from my gray
hair I've been doing all this a long time first time I've ever heard this particular issue brought up um I I think that there's definitely concerns about the particularly the the reference to the evaluation process I think is almost certainly problematic uh to include it
in the evaluation process there are there are probably legal but also contractual uh regulations and and and and policies that affect the evaluation process of staff and and and student involvement in that would um you know unlikely be
appropriate um I think that there's but there should be ways as Mr himey indicated for rep for putting in you know complaints and suggestions that maybe in an appropriate circumstance don't necessarily involve going to the coach if it's something that's so
upsetting or you know could maybe skip a step and go someplace else so I think that's one thing but I think there's also room for for as you mentioned surveys Mr miller or other things just to assess the issues but you know you have to realize too with surveys they're almost always confidential uh in order
to be effective and so which also goes back to the idea of why it would be difficult to involve anything like this in the evaluation process because you couldn't certainly couldn't you know it would be very difficult to have people evaluated and have their their jobs on the line with an uh you know sort of a
you know anonymous uh reporting survey so I I think that's something that you know needs some discussion and there may be ways to get input and by the way I'm not saying that an anonymous complaint shouldn't be investigated because it should you know it may be as Miss Phillips indicated that some students
you know if they may be dealing with a very situ serious situation that they're uncomfortable bringing forward um so if they make a complaint about a specific situation it can be investigated you know normally like from outside places we wouldn't usually give too much
credence to an anonymous claim but if it's something that involves student well-being and student safety you know that would need to be investigated as well so it's a it's a it's certainly an interesting issue as far as trying to determine ways to get input as to how programs are running and things like
that but the the aspect of actually involving it in the evaluation process I I think is probably problematic if I may I think I think the word evaluation is being like mis misconstrued right i don't think it I don't think the from when I was at the meeting I don't think
the intent was evaluation it was more so like soliciting feedback from the players on like whether they felt that coach was effective whether they felt that coach they were able to connect with that coach i don't think and it is it wouldn't even even as I understood it
even a negative right like "No we don't feel like he's the most effective coach or she's the most effective coach." Wouldn't necessarily mean that person would not be the coach again but it would be the opportunity to identify things that the players might be feeling
that can be addressed not necessarily now you're not going to be the coach again but but again it's not it's it I don't think the intent was ever an evaluation i think it was more soliciting feedback so in a less official capacity than what an evaluation I just one of the things that
raised concern was it specifically mentioned putting it in their personnel file which is absolutely unbelievably evaluative so so I that so anyway but I uh I I think it's something that is not something that can be just my opinion
it's something that maybe something could be worked out to address the concerns but I don't think it's something that can be easily done you know sort of on the fly no yeah absolutely not so can we agree um to enable Mr haimey to have the
opportunity to do some research and and talk with the uh athletic director to see if there if there's a way to solicit feedback because I think what Miss Phillips is saying is if there's any way to get feedback that's going to help
improve our programs and the experience for the student athletes we need to look into that just one final thing um obviously if if a a complaint was made um and an investigation was done let's
just say that would figure in to the conversation about whether or not that coach gets reappointed by the administration absolutely right so is the issue simply that it and you know but that's only going to come from people who are
comfortable doing that we're not going to catch unless there is some sort of informal you know solicitation of of feelings you know there's no way to
capture some things that maybe should have been reported but weren't because the person wasn't comfortable doing it so and if they had reported it then it would figure in and maybe that so that's I think you that that was the that was the crux of it was you know the only way
and I will say some parents did express some concern that they they did report these things and nothing was done um that people remained coaches um that that the that in fact nothing changed and so it was
like my my you know my incredility at the no was how is there no way to in to somehow capture this information not put it in their personnel file i please I did not if I if I indicated that that that was not
what I intended to say but but use that information as part of the overall process when you're deciding whether or not that coach gets to be the coach again the next year and I think what Mr haimey said he's going to look at the process for evaluating and determining
the coaches so I think um give him the opportunity to do that and then hopefully maybe this incident will bring a new awareness and put some other things in place to help uh understand and and solicit feedback in some way
sure okay does anybody have any questions on the community relations report okay we'll move on to policy miss Penelis thank you the policy committee met along with Mr har on April 8th at 6:30 p.m um for first reading we have
policy 6620 on petty cash was revised um this policy was revised to um know that um certain certain funds um and is going to be in charge of certain employees in
certain amounts it is important to note that pettic cash funds may be dispersed only for the immediate payment of comparatively small expenditures or to provide the tiger program with the funds for students to conduct an authentic purchase within the community as
outlined in their individualized coursework and may not be used to circumvent the regular purchasing procedures of this district we also have policy 6660 on the student activity fund in accordance with the provisions um of the
NJAC the school business administrator board secretary will designate an administrator of the student activity account or designates the school principal to administer the student activity account in the school in each school building very important this is
very important because um when it comes to field trips which involve a great amount of money to be collected and deposited the funds will be collected for a stu the funds collected for a student activity shall be turned into the board secretary and deposited within the bank within 24 hours of the next
school day after collection we also have policy 6471 on a school district travel key points to know is that the board of education shall ensure the effective and efficient use of funds by adopting and implementing policies and procedures that are in accordance with
NJSI all travels must be preapproved with detailed justification must include agenda description location cost breakdown they require board approval except for routine local travel under a threshold
they shall follow federal perm rates and they should have receipts required for all reimbursements they must maintain detailed records and so the superintendent must ensure compliance and report
violations there's also ethical guidelines that emphasize responsible use of taxpayers funds all travel must reflect educational value and cost efficiency for second reading we have policy 5701 on academic integrity policy
8500 on food services policy 9163 on expectator code of conduct for intercolastic events policy 9140 on citizens advisory committee we have some job descriptions some new job descriptions and their old
yearto-year contracts we have transportation dispatcher administrator of student performance and strategic planning technology administration support specialist and that should be all with that i would like to make a motion to approve items
one through three under policy do we have a second second we have a second any questions dr ser yes could you please explain the need for both the transportation dispatcher and the administrator of students per student
performance and strategic planning and with regards to the second um explain why this person will be conducting staff evaluations absolutely so our transportation department is uh operational is about 12
plus hours um a day uh bus drivers begin as early as 6:00 a.m with the athletic events field trips etc the transportation department could be operating beyond that of 6 pm on any given day given this extended operational window is it essential to
have consistent coverage throughout the entire 12 hours as it is not reasonable to expect a supervisor of transportation to present for a 12 hours a day uh the dispatcher will assist in ensuring a real-time communication between drivers schools uh school staff families and
handling last minute changes or emergencies administrative duties as well as driving duties to keep everything running safely and on time in regards to the administrator of student performance and strategic planning the role will play a critical
role in aligning our instructional practices with district-wide goals for student achievement based on what data tells us this position is designed to ensure academic performance data is systematically analyzed and used informed strategically decisions across all schools by focusing on both
performance metrics and long-term planning the administrator will assist our team to identify areas for instructional improvement guide curriculum development and implement evidence-based strategies that support students particularly at the elementary level um as for conducting staff
evaluation the responsibility is typically assigned to administrators who have direct impact on instructional equality given the roles emphasis on performance and strategy it is essential that the administrator not only assesses outcomes but also engage directly with educators to support professional growth
this administrator will conduct staff and administrative evaluation ultimately the person's involvement in evaluation bridges the gap between strategy and implementation ensuring the district initiatives are effectively carried out on the classroom level thank you also wanted to note that the
transportation dispatcher must possess a CDL mr hime in case that drivers call out they we have backup absolutely like currently um you know we had I believe a few drivers out today and our transportation supervisor was out there
doing the routes with an extra hands on deck is definitely going to assist us to make sure we stay on time okay any other questions everybody good got a roll call please mr suedo yes miss DS yes mr mor yes miss Phillips yes miss Penellis yes
dr center yes miss Sher yes miss Sness yes mr miller yes okay okay on to finance and facilities mr shower thank you very much Mr miller so the finance and facilities committee met on as I said earlier uh April 22nd Tuesday we
started at 5:30 we ended about 6:40 at the Belmont building and we were actually in room 213 my first time in that cozy little room and I enjoyed it um in attendance was our superintendent our BA um members in attendance were Mr
miller Miss Aedo Dr sainer and myself uh a lot of our time in the meeting was taken up with the budget review um which as I said earlier I thank everyone involved in putting that together because it was it was very good very
very good um and then we did talk about facilities projects so in progress still um and actually if you drive by now there is a sign up on the Route 46 prior Dover Sport building that says under
contract so that's nice to see that um it's the 14,000 square foot building and there was a full packet of information put together by uh Mr haime and staff for Department of Education approvals and we are awaiting those approvals uh
we also discussed uh the ongoing HVAC upgrades to do middle school and North Dover which is under the ROD projects the equipment and the materials have been ordered the price has been locked in with signing of the contract um and
there will be some additional um items that we can keep on hand for emergency repairs in the future which is always a good idea the long- awaited uh generator uh the contract has been signed the equipment has been ordered the price is
locked in um so no matter what happens at the border the price is locked in and that's what we're going to be paying we are just awaiting the delivery for the new generator the completed projects as Mr haime provided the uh the photographs from Northto Playground it's absolutely
beautiful um had a little time on it myself uh two weeks ago very very nice some new and updated uh PlayStations in there which were not in the old playground so that was a lot of fun the Academy
Street sump pump installation is now complete and let's hope that the water stays away there and then under finance as I said much of the meeting was the budget presentation and review and committee
members did ask a lot of questions and we were satisfied with the results of those um answers that were given to us um the sixth grade annex modular building project phase 2 architect proposal review is included in the agenda for tonight um so I hope that
everyone had the opportunity to go through that and read it and uh there was a review by um Mr sabugulu which was very nice to see because he took the time to actually do that because he's so inquisitive uh the review and discussion
of the district fund balance over the past 10 years and the changes that have uh brought us to our positive balance today so that is the end of the report for the committee
um we have items number one through 17 on the agenda which include and we would like to thank our contributor Mr william Mott for $200 from the 19 the class of 1972 scholarship account for donation
towards scholarship we also have a contribution from Trinity Lutheran Church of Books uh donation and Casio again has come through with some calculators uh for a donation of a total of $479.20
and we have in addition to that we have the contract for as mentioned earlier the um big brothers and that project including the two amounts for not only the high school but also the secondary
contract for high school to big brother to north do students um additional contracts for the um Lakeland Andover School New Jersey Assault Prevention Grant for elementary
teen and neurody divergent learners and as we said the adoption of the 2526 school year of budget and that's the end of my report i'd like to make a motion to vote for items 1 through 17 do we have a second
second any other questions from anyone i don't have a question but I do want to give a shout out to Casio they've always come through for us um especially um during the summer they do a backpack drive for the um school supply community drive and
and they're just great oh that's great thanks for mentioning that anyone else i have a couple questions um from the bill's list uh there was a large expenditure PO2425-1714 to Eastern Dataccom was that
equipment that's the new paging system that's the paging system okay um also there was an expenditure to an urgent care yeah that's the medical service for high school student that's all I can say that was for us that was for a student okay
yes okay um I had another question but that was answered by the presentation thank you for that um item six uh the expenditure permission is that a standard thing is the first time is this related to the first time yeah that what
you talked about the possibility of Okay yeah it might not be second time so that's why some other district entertained i know one district they went up to 32% increase the other one went up to 25 and the other district went up to 36 and they changed their mind it was a huge impact so they're
thinking that it might be one time thing so but we didn't want to entertain it okay um and lastly there's several and and this had been mentioned um before there's several tuition increases in
this within this um what's what's the general uh is everybody increasing their tuition for next year yes are they increasing it by more than we're used to yeah I mean it's going up over 10% as far as I know it wasn't that much before
but I have the link for you for the state you can see like how many like which years but how what how much and what's going to be the estimated for next year it's going to give you all the details for that okay and and obviously we do we still have u um receiving
schools that still need to communicate um our terms for next year because I believe there's there's more that we use than are on for tonight are we still We could always get it like today tomorrow next week it doesn't matter as long as
uh we canate the kid yeah like a student we have to send it and we have to get a contract okay thank you anyone else have a roll call please miss Esto yes miss DS yes mr mar yes
miss Phillips um yes with an abstension to payments to vendor 1950 miss Pinal yes dr center yes miss Shower yes miss Sness yes mr miller yes okay upcoming uh meetings our next
meeting is May 13th we have one on June 24th and July 15th uh we had some facility requests uh the Dover Public Schools liaison department getting to know Dover at the Dover Middle School gym May 17th
uh the East Dover PTA cafeteria for a fun night on a Mother's Day project and the town of Dover uh rec department for the Fourth July uh fireworks celebration at Hamilton Field uh do we does do we have any old
business uh under new business I do have something I wanted to bring up to discuss with everyone and that is board certification and so uh I think you've seen that some boards have received awards for being
certified and the board certifi board certification recognizes the full board's commitment to effective governance and continuous improvement through training so in order for a board to receive that certification they have to earn 16 credits of group training
within a 4-year period so right now within our four-year period we have 11 credits um and part of this is that you participate in a board retreat um one of the requirements is to complete a New Jersey School Board Association policy well wellness check which is really a
policy audit not an official audit but a review to ensure the board's policy manual is current so our um representative Charlene Peterson recommended that I ask for one and I did a few days ago and I got the results today so I'm going to send it to the
whole board i haven't had a chance to really look at it but it's one of the requirements towards board board certification um so one of the things I wanted to see is our time frame of the 4-year period once
we get past July 16th we lose two credits so looking at the possibility to see if we're all willing to try to uh get the additional five credits so one of the ideas and uh this was also came
from Charlene Peterson is to move our board retreat from August to July so it would have to be before July 16th so I know that's a time where there's a lot of vacations you have the Fourth of July week um so just keep that in the back of
your mind for a minute that because the board retreat is worth three credits um and then we would try to conduct a full board self-development training um there's actually an an updated training on ethics training with new case studies
that I was told would be very interesting and um that would give us the other credits so that would be like the May June time frame of trying to schedule a meeting just for that that can be an in-person training but the
training could be virtual and the thought process would be that it would be at Belmont we would have to open a meeting so that we can have that kind of training uh I did talk to Mr croo and so there's no way to do everything completely virtually it's not that's not
allowed so um I just wanted to hear what you thought about trying to fit in a retreat and a training i could send a doodle poll um once I would find out if the trainer is available in that time
frame um and but I wanted to find out if you wanted to to try to go forward um if we didn't do it this time it just means that next year we could go for it but now we have to add another two credits it would be seven credits that we would have to be able to figure out how we
could go forward with that certification so I just wanted to know your thoughts if it's something we should try and I put out a doodle poll and see if we have enough people to do it in order to get the credit of any of those events you have to have seven of nine board
members so what is your thought anyone just say go for it it would probably I mean the retreats in the past have been on the weekends right so no no they've not been No during the week they've been during the week yes
okay okay so I will Dr s just I think we try if the doodle poll comes back and we can't make it happen then we know and we have a full year to work on those seven credits exactly so I think either way I
think it's doable okay because what I'll do is I'll reach out uh to Charlene because she's still working until the 30th to see if we could get some dates from whoever the trainer would be in May or June and then uh if I do get a couple
of dates then I could put that out there in the doodle poll and I'll do the same thing we'll look for dates uh working with Mr haimey to see when we could have our board retreat and then we'll try to focus everything there but if if we can't get the additional training then we know we'll focus on it next
year okay well thank you for that and we'll we'll see what we can do did anyone have anything uh for new business okay so now we will we come to our second um public uh comment portion
the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held uh to a time period of three minutes public comments
not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m remote comments will be read
by a member of the board of education and the board of education will alternate between in-person and online comments please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not
respond to public comments however all comments shall be considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the night the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that
students and employees and specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals
could subject you to legal liability for defamation is there anyone from the public that wishes to be heard seeing that no one is here Miss Phillips there is there is one comment okay could you please read it from John
Kiglio 24 Taylortown Road in Montville can you please explain the reasoning in the agenda for the BSI position at North Dover Elementary being terminated the position is not being uh terminated uh it's just a reassignment
she's in the agenda okay i still don't see anyone in the public no other comments all right all right I'd like to close this portion of the meeting to the public and ask if there's a motion to adjurnn
some move second all those in favor i opposed okay have a good night everyone uh homework time