good evening I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role Anna brwn here Tim Cummings here Jamie Falco here uh Jamie Falco is participating remotely
leis Figaroa here Lorie Herrick here Lee wuhong here Lori LAX wber pan here Heather gu here please rise to salute the [Music] flagi to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening everyone the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have
advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East brunic board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place
thereof posted at the Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the Newark Star Ledger the home news tribun J the alternative press of East Brunswick and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive
session discussions are videotaped for later broadcast it is the policy of the Board of Education that videotaped meetings are not edited for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping
rules all right we have a need for a closed session whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and whereas these subjects are within the exception to the open public meeting act and are permitted to be discussed in Clos
session pursuant to njsa 104-120 session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and action will be taken can I have a motion please move move by Mr Hong second by Dr pan
all in favor opposed extensions right we are in closed we will see everyone in an hour thank you we are back and we are going to begin with the superintendent report
thank you president gu good evening everyone tonight's superintendent report is going to be a little bit different it's going to be a Prelude to the uh tentative budget presentation which we'll follow tonight's about balancing Excellence the challenge of academics
Athletics and arts in East Brunswick Public Schools East Brunswick Public Schools has long been a beacon of excellence and education striving to offer students robust academic programs competitive athletic opportunities and thriving Arts education however maintaining this
balance is become increasingly difficult in an era of dwindling state aid strict tax caps and Rising inflationary cost the challenge for district administrators board members Educators and the community at large is how to
sustain and enhance these programs without placing an undue financial burden on taxpayers or compromising the quality of Education the financial strain a decline in state aid is forcing local municipalities like East Brunswick to
absorb a larger share of educational expenses at the same time the state's tax levy cap limits the ability school districts can increase property taxes beyond the 2% level annually even as costs continue to
rise inflation has only compounded these difficulties as expenses for essential resources such as tax books technology trans transportation and facility maintenance have escalated salaries will always be part of our equation we are a people
organization reasonable salary should be a minimum expectation attracting and retaining quality staff to teach all our students to prepare them for graduation and a purposeful life is
Paramount we also need talent to address student and family social and emotional needs to run and maintain our schools transport our students and secure our campuses so maintaining academic Excellence East Brunswick has
consistently ranked among the top districts in the state boasting High test scores in rigorous advanced placement programs last year East Brunswick students took over 1,000
650 AP exams additionally our students have accumulated 3,000 584 dual enrollment college credits so far this year and they're on track to
accumulate at least an additional 50 college credits before the end of this school year so what is all that mean based on us average credit cost among state state universities those dual enrollment
credits could be worth nearly $1.5 million as an instate student and over $4.9 million as an outof State student our students also demonstrate exceptionally impressive College acceptance
rates however preserving this level of Excellence requires significant investment in teacher training curriculum development and Cutting Edge technology with limited resources administrators in the board must prioritize
spending often making difficult choices between classroom resources and extracurricular activities to combat Financial constraints the district has pursued alternative funding sources such as grants and exploring the expansion of
our already robust Enterprise Revenue generating activities one of those is is where we're all sitting tonight this facility is in use every single weekend and generates revenue for the district additionally leveraging digital
tools has helped reduce costs while maintaining High educational standards the role of Athletics athletic programs not only promote physical well-being but also teach students discipline teamwork and Leadership skills however maintaining quality
Sports programs requires funding for equipment uniforms coaching staff facility maintenance transportation and officials with the rising operational cost we' have already been forced to impose 100% pay to play fees for ice
hockey and dance East Brunswick has sought to keep its athletic programs inclusive still the challenge remains in ensuring all students regardless of financial background have equal opportunities to participate in sports
sustaining the Arts the Arts Music Theater Visual Arts are an integral part of well-rounded education in numerous emails we hear the Arts community's
concerns in spite of what you have heard the Arts are not where we first look to make cuts when button when budget tighten in East brunck Arts programs have continued to thrive due to exceptionally High
participation strong community support and with the assistance of the East Brunswick Educational Foundation grants along with other external grant opportunities to sustain the Arts the district has creatively integrated arts education into core subjects applied for
state and National U Arts funding and leverage technology to provide virtual art experiences so the community effort the future of East Brunswick's well-balanced educational offerings relies on a collective problem solving
effort among school officials school board members parents students and the Greater Community advocacy for fairer State funding formulas active and respectful participation in Schoolboard meetings and continued attention to budgeting
strategies will be crucial in navigating these Financial challenges during this entire budget process we've Incorporated input from multiple sources we did not start out this process wanting to
modify the hu schedule that took so much effort to create we did not start this process wanting to impact music programs that we have built over the years and we did not want to start out
this process wanting to collapse positions and lose High quality staff but what we know is maintaining our status quo is no longer the option it has been reinforced from the
state that the next 3 to five years are fraught with financial obstacles the state school funding formula has not had significant modifications since last year Rising personal wealth among
District district residents in addition to to accelerating property valuations continue to negatively influence current and forecasted state aid allocations for our district in fact if you are an East Brunswick homeowner the market value of
your investment has risen significantly in the past four years in spite of this East Brunswick schools remains committed to upholding a tradition of excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts and through strategic planning created Solutions on wavering Community Support the district
continues to find ways to provide students with a rich and well-rounded educational experience to despite economic constraints finally I want to reinforce the board will take action on a tentative budget tonight our budget is
not finalized it will continue to be a work in process exploring every opportunity to present a sustainable budget for final adoption in April additionally as of tonight middle school and Ninth Grade
Sports remain in the budget fourth grade band and Orchestra remain in the budget and late buses at the high school remain in the budget thank
you all right thank you Dr veski all right we move on to the fiscal year 2026 tenative budget so we'll start out with reviewing some key dates that have already passed and then what we have looking
forward commity that are not aware of the timelines uh this the funding issue uh regarding state aid uh was was uh initially kicked off with the governor delivering his budget message at the end of February February
25th that was his message to the legislature February 27th was when the district along with all school districts throughout the state received uh the state aid information we held a special board meeting on March 3rd to share that
information and for the board to discuss uh options for reduction and here we are tonight for a tenative budget adoption there is no doubt with the issues that are on the table that the
board will need I would say one to two special meetings to finalize any revisions that might be made prior to the public hearing so that'll be something that we'll need to uh discuss and schedule uh April 24th is the date for
the public hearing on the budget uh the time frame for having that public hearing is between April 24th and May 7th and no changes may occur after the public hearing and we actually need to know whatever changes would be made
we would need to know that prior to that April 24th date final budget adoption is scheduled for May 8th let's talk talk about state aid this chart depicts the history of state aid over the
years most recently well first of all for the fiscal 2026 budget state aid is going down once again this time for $1.16 million over the last two years the district will have sustained a
$2.5 million reduction Charter School increases Community has heard me talk time and time again regarding charter school and the diversion of funds to Charter Schools uh there are several charter schools that funds go to the majority of
which is the hatia uh International Academy Charter School the charter school increase that we are obliged to budget in uh in fiscal 2026 increases that amount by
$668,000 for this tenative budget that increase for the last two years alone has been more than $1.4 million and over the history of having to pay funds resources that come out of
the District budget toward charter schools that total has been over $ 51.3 million health benefits health benefits are a part of the function we are a people business and this chart depicts what's happening
with health benefits uh it's broken down into the medical and prescription components dental vision and the employee contributions we have seen health benefits increase in the medical and prescription areas by
7% last year and prospectively for the 26 budget uh originally that was projected to be up to 10% and fortunately that number has improved but it's all based on claims experience we have no control
over what those claims experienced numbers come out to and nevertheless this is a significant impact to the School District budget take a few moments to talk about state aid we mentioned uh the variances
or the loss of state aid this chart indicates where those changes actually occurred you'll see Equalization Aid one of the uh several components of Aid significantly reduced through the
state's funding formula reduced by $7.5 million increases were then also reflected in transportation Aid special education Aid and security aid but the net impact was a 3% reduction in state
aid and as Dr veski me mentioned we've been told by the state to expect continued reductions in aid over the next 3 to 5 years another item up on the chart was stabilization Aid that was additional
Aid that the state granted to East Brunswick last year after it had implemented a significant cut to our state aid that was approximately $594,000 that was one time it allowed us
to reinstate a number of positions last year but that funding does not repeat itself and so right out of right out of the gate that is an additional reduction to uh to our resources and of course what I mentioned a few moments ago with regard to the
Charter Schools $668,000 additionally going to uh charter school funding what's impacting the budget many of these items are similar items to what uh were presented and discussed at
prior board meetings but they they waren repeating we are people business salaries are going up uh $428 million which was 4.06% this is prior to any
reductions health benefits increasing 2.06 m million it's almost an 8% increase again this is prior to any reductions in the budget out of District tuition
increasing over $1 million and I make a footnote to this I received an updated um analysis a couple of days ago that reflect that number increasing a little bit more from there electricity significant increases
are expected we received notice that electricity will be uh increasing um over 177% electricity charges that's $310,000 custodial services to keep our facilities
clean increasing $180,000 I won't belver this next one I've mentioned it already a couple of times on charter schools and a couple of meetings ago we discussed the impact of the special education uh Medicaid initiative which
is a revenue Source where essentially school districts do all the work and get a little bit of money from the state and federal government and the state and federal governments receive most of the money there's a change that we were recently notified of for how those
calculated amounts will be paid out in the future and it's a substantial decrease in our Revenue substantial enough that our Revenue in that area is estimated to decrease by over
$230,000 the amount that we increase in the amount of state aid that we receive certainly is going down when we take into consideration the amount of tax levy that we can grow in one
year which is a 2% increase plus any adjustments that may result from health benefits going up the net impact of that doesn't come close to addressing the salary and
benefit impacts on the budget and so we're left with a hole and having to fill that what are the budget reductions and this is a tentative
budget there are opportunities to make change but one of the things I will say and I say now I've said it before and it'll be said again is that anything that comes off the list has to be substituted in kind with something else
of an equal dollar amount budget reductions by consensus of the board at the last meeting elementary schools will not be opened Beyond 6:15 p.m. for individuals that utilize uh and
groups that utilize the elementary schools for meetings those opportunities will still exist at any of the other three schools whether it be hamers Churchill or the high school so those meetings and and Gatherings can still take place in the event that
uh there is an absolute need for um one of those events to take place at an elementary school then in those instances uh the individual groups will need to pay for the cost of security restructuring speech
services in this instance uh We've looked at um how to reduce that cost and imp and improve on the services and this involves eliminating contract some contracted services and hiring additional staff to help support these
Services summer ESL that program is abolished for the summer the fair viiew trip is abolished soon agendas at hamers shold are
cut the late bus service at Churchill and hamers shold are minated the district has absorbed credit card fees for online payments uh beginning next fiscal year the district will not absorb those payments uh that
will be passed on to the credit card holders uh that loan is worth $120,000 six period stiens six period stiens have supported honors music co- teing model at
Churchill late in and early out for grade 12 core content electives at the high school we'll be optimizing study skill scheduling and these are all reductions
in six period stiens Spanish electives and generally increases in class sizes at Churchill the high school we're restructuring the therapeutic Mental Health
Services that means they're not going away we're restructuring how they're provided we've been utilizing a contracted service to do that work that has worked for us for a number of years but moving forward we will be
hiring our own positions to provide those services at a savings and so so that will uh that will be a change in the budget Graduation transportation for the high school uh individuals will be transporting themselves to the
graduation venue administrator positions are reduced or four positions reduced in the budget teaching positions there are reductions in teaching position s in kada 6 this is
strictly related to enrollment and these would have occurred regardless the numbers uh of an enrollment always dictate what those uh what those position needs are special education has several positions that
will be reduced in instruction this does not affect compliance with special education programs this is also a function of the enrollment and we will be able to continue to provide the services necessary grade seven science will be
offset a position eliminated there offset by six period stiens Bandon Orchestra co- teing model at Churchill and hamers shold a general increase in class sizes K to
four and revising the school schedule for hamers shold in addition there are a couple of Secretarial positions uh being eliminated at the high school and on the revenue
side fees for clubs and activities and Athletics are being increased and increases to the fees for users of the Early Learning Academy the after school kids program and the early
morning program our bottom line our current budget stands at$ 198 plus million the tax levy general fund tax levy is increasing by $3.9 million that's a
2.72% increase that amount includes the use of banked cap which enables the district to exceed the 2% that banked cap is a little over $1
million Debt Service fund that is the mortgage for bonds that have been issued in the past the tax levy increase is 4111 almost $442,000 the combined budgeted tax
increase is $4.3 almost $4.4 million for an overall increase of 2.3% 2.83% Pardon Me the state recently uh Department of Education recently provided notification regarding what is called tax levy
incentive Aid um I believe there is a $20 million pot that the Department of Education will be Distributing based on
ation from qualified school districts uh East Brunswick has been identified as a qualified school district and we certainly will be making the necessary application for
that uh the amount is up to $1 million um but I caution that based on the guidelines which are very poorly written
from the doe but our interpretation of the guidelines uh will not bring us anywhere close to that $1 million that remains to be seen it depends on what other school districts do there are about 300 school
districts that qualify uh for this tax levy incentive Aid um but that is something that we will uh be looking toward hopefully in the next couple of weeks uh the doe has not yet provided uh any information on
how that application process will work so looking forward uh we do need to schedule additional board meetings for the board to engage in additional discussions the public hearing is scheduled for April 24th hi thank you all right moving on to
The Shining Light of our evening our student Representatives report from the high school Rishi um good evening everyone uh it's only been two weeks since we last met but there's been plenty of exciting news uh different events and competitions the
high school um our spring Athletics season is in full swing with triy outs concluded for most sports and preseason training will underway the boys volleyball team wrapped up four days of competitive competitive trials last week featuring fun games and drills meanwhile this girl softball field hockey teams made great use of our brand new
state-ofthe-art Turf facility both the boys and girls lacrosse teams also competed in their first scrimmages against local towns this week senior and girls lacrosse player Savannah Newman shared her excitement saying I'm so thrilled for this lacrosse season especially with our new varsity coach and the incredible Bond team has
everyone is working hard and winning our first scrimmage was just the beginning I can't wait to see what we accomplish the season official spring sports games kick off in the first week of April so be sure to come out and support our Bears students are is dominating on the field however last week our robotics team
traveled to Robinsville High School to compete in the annual FRC robotics competition each year students are challenged to design and build a robot capable of competing in a unique game this year's tasks require robots to successfully sort and retrieve balls from a complex series of pipes after an
intense day of 3v3 matches and standout individual performances our team broke the East Brunswick record for points scored senior and programming president kashar reflect on the experience saying my team and I work diligently to design wire and code our F FRC competition
robot ensuring it mechanisms performed all necessary functions this past week we executed our vision successfully in a strong Regional performance with the amount of points we earned were hopeful to qualify for the district competition at Lehigh University in addition to robotics our
future Business Leaders of America Club competed at the annual state level competition this past weekend in Atlantic City to qualify students had to pass rigorous exams exams on various business topics ranging from entrepreneurship to social media marketing at the competition
participants were given 20 minutes to analyze a case study develop a solution and present their ideas by the end of the event many students had earned Awards and accolades reflecting their hard work and dedication most notably senior and fbaa executive officer cin centel won first place in the entire
State first presentation on Agra business C chair's excitement saying the FAA State leadership conference was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to compete winning first place in Agra business was an honor and I couldn't have done it without the support of my teammates and advisers shifting away from
extracurriculars yesterday marked the beginning of our second semester parent teacher conferences students will have half days for the rest of the week while teachers stay after school to meet with parents and Guardians as a second semester senior I have to admit it's finally nice to have my mom stop interrogating each of my teachers about
what I do in class on behalf of students I'd like to thank all the teachers for their hard work this week and I wish all the parents and Guardians the best of luck with their conferences looking ahead to this weekend our drama club concludes annual spring production of Mama Mia after an incredible performance last
[Applause] week after an incredible performance last week one that I've heard my teachers my teachers raving about the cast and crew will take the stage again this Friday and Saturday you can purchase tickets online at ebhs bookbook ticks.com to support these hardworking
students looking ahead I won't be able to attend our next meeting but for an exciting reason in the first week of April our AP Institute for political and legal education will be heading to Washington Washington DC to represent New Jersey in the National We the People savs competition so I C while I certainly miss you all I promise to make
it up for it with a very detailed update about my adventures in Washington DC thank you all and have a great [Applause] evening thank you Rishi um my apologies to the board I need to back up a little
bit um after Mr Juliana's report I needed to come to the board for questions and comments and I was excited to get to the high school report and went past that I do apologize I did want to say from my own
perspective um the tax levy incentive aid for the state to come out with this and not yet have the application not have really robust guidelines when our budget is on such a tight schedule the district will apply
for this of course but it is very frustrating for the administrative team to see any amount of relief being offered but not within our timeline really all right questions from the board regarding the presentation Mr Hong
so uh for this uh tax ly incentive act so if weit did get something so I just want to make sure you know our student and our teachers are being take care of first in order to uh in order to get
this thing at this morning I received a notice about senator's budget hearing the next one will be March 26 which is Wednesday in NJIT new uh New York campus another one is April 10 which is virtual
hearing so I encourage everyone in this town to appear at least one of this to let them know we desperately need this incentive act the more people show up the more likely we will be they will know our name there and they likely will
get more so this is my opinion I will go at least one of those two hearings I encourage everyone go to go and express your concern your worry and your demand thank you thank you m um yeah uh thank
thanks for that uh um Bernie um I have a couple questions first very basic question the uh two board meetings that are to be uh scheduled is are those open to the public as well yes okay good thanks um the other is that um in terms
of the tax levies that we can expect in our budgeted for I've been spending a decent amount of time looking at other school districts and and what their um situations are uh are we're certainly not the only ones in this position but one thing I did uh note was that um
there is an additional Levy that could be given as an adjustment for increase in health care costs uh we certainly have an increase in health care costs and for example Franklin Township uh in their budget they had an additional 3.5
million um uh via that mechanism is there a reason why we're not uh we don't have the same sort of uh we we do that is being utilized ized uh the increase that we have that I mentioned the banked cap MH uh that was generated through uh
increase in healthc care costs and uh that amount for us is uh in excess of $1 million okay so that's wrapped into the that's wrapped okay thanks that's all I have thanks thank you anyone else Lori thank you um I have
uh two questions um first regarding the charter school Act um I've seen some discussion or some confusion regarding the fact that we own those buildings and pay for them and so i' just like to uh have you just say um
what our relationship is or how we support or work with to chart the charter school and what our relationship is in regards to um the building management the building ownership any of that so specifically Mrs herck you're talking about the charter school yes
yeah we do not own the building um our relationship with the charter school is to pay tuition to our district residents who attend uh we we are obligated for transportation and we do provide uh
security oversight and resource in terms of just our expertise and um you know just to make sure that they they themselves maintain a um a safe campus we don't provide any human resources other than going there to observe and
and to guide um and um I think that's that is the extent of Our obligation okay thank you that's what I uh believed but I just wanted to clarify that I also want to ask another point that I know has come up a lot for discussion and that is um in regards to planning and
looking towards the future um regarding this budget and last year and the future um but I know that there's Al only a certain amount of money that we can save that we can put aside like if we said okay we know we're going to be cut for the next couple of years unfortunately
we are capped at the amount of money that we could save or put on the side as a fund because we take in money taxes and that taxes is supposed to be spent on the students and um utilized in
our schools so I know a lot of people have concerns about why didn't we save or why didn't we plan mon monetarily for this and I'd just like you to talk for a moment or two about how much we're able to save how much we're able to put into
our our funds sure so um school districts the Brunswick other school districts are limited to maintaining uh 2% in our fund
balance uh we can't maintain more anything more than that must be used to offset the next year's budget uh we typically offset uh with a budget fund balance of
approximately $4.6 million that comes from uh funds that were not used in the prior year that maintains uh the 2% that 2% is looked at from the state as being the um emergency
Reserve we're not allowed to dip into that um without the commissioner of education's approval um and then uh there would need to be a plan for how do we replenish um so basically it's you leave
it there and and can't do anything with it okay thank you just one more um I also think that it's helpful to point out I know a lot of people also have questions regarding what steps we've taken in the past year regarding where we were last year regarding losing
funding and where we are this year and so I just like to point out um and feel free uh Dr leeski Mr Juliana to add the things that I thought about or know that we've done is that any position that had
gone through um attrition meaning we didn't uh somebody retired or left and we didn't need to fill it we uh took that off um we had last year after we found out our state funding we asked the Department of Education to verify our enrollment
because a lot of our funding is based on enrollment numbers uh Dr veski you had talked to Kevin deer who is the Department of Education uh commissioner um we have many of us at the time and continue to do so reach out
to our legislative um uh representative not only for our district but for others and sometimes people ask me why do you go and talk to others so I'm our New Jersey Schoolboard representative and we have the opportunity to speak to legislators from all different districts
throughout the state and what makes it a unique opportunity is that people or legislators for counties in the south or north of New Jersey don't know um the uniqueness of let's say our town right and our special education population and
the needs of that population and what it's uh the monetarily that we don't receive funding that covers all of the special education students that we have um we'll take another one like Monroe for example who's one of our neighbors um other legislators in the state don't
realize that they have a high senior population and that affects their taxes so the more we speak and educate other legislators they're all voting on these things as when they get to it um you know when it's brought up so it's really important that we provide education and Outreach to not just people that
represent us but throughout the state of New Jersey um also as a parent I did go to Trenton um many of us were on a meeting with Dr goal with the past few months for New Jersey school boards we asked him uh Dr veski address
specifically our out of District cost um and how we can uh we're in the middle of like a school year and we get a notification that the cost is going to rise and we have a contract and we have to abide by that contract we have to pay
that obligation that is Our obligation um and so we asked if there could be some more clarity I don't know Dr blesi where you guys left off I know you were going to take your conversation with him to the side and he had wanted to reach out and speak to you further um he also had a bill uh I think it was 31 s
3197 um it had although not changes to the funding formula it had some changes to um capping at 3% sorry capping at 2% transparency in the funding formula looking at local share averages of three or 5 years
instead of just one year um unfortunately that kind of stalled in committee um so we're waiting to see where that goes um a lot of us have really been trying to talk about the uniqueness and the needs of our district
um and so I think that uh it's important that anybody who needs talking points wants to write to our legisl ERS that you reach out I'm more than happy to um help I know Dr veski and Mr Juliana are as well I put that offer out there many
months ago um as a parent when I went to talk in Trenton at one of the school funding hearings um this isn't a problem that our district alone is facing and even with just a cut in in Aid if you think of 1.3 or1 uh1 million those are
is a lot of funding that covers a lot of our programming that sets us apart and I know for me a lot of the response that I get when I talk to legislators is East Brunswick received a lot of funding for the past few years and so if and again
this is not me speaking this is what I'm told that if you want to keep the programs that you have if the parents in the community want to upkeep those schools to that high standard then they you know they should pay like they see us as a a wealthy community that has
offered a lot to our constituents our you know our our families our schools and they say look you guys have really benefited years before this um and so now we're looking at it and it's not just here uh Middle School uh Middletown is closing schools Jackson Township is
putting two high schools together um we have many other towns that are selling schools or trying to figure out how to make up for the gaps that they have in their funding um and as was said we only have a certain percentage that we can save and we already know that even with
the the tax levy our salaries alone are over that our health care benefits alone are over that so it's really hard to plan for the future when we're trying to deal with these Financial things so I don't know if you have any more to add as far as things that we've tried to do
in the past year I know sorry I went over a lot but um I think it's just helpful for the community to think about the process that we we've overtaken and I think also something else that stands out is doing this so in years previous
we've had a finance committee and the finance committee would meet and go over some of the nuts and bolts of what's going on before it got to the full board and then the public and so now in our past few meetings this year you've seen us have these discussions in public so
it's realtime information it's exactly what we're working with we're sitting here trying to to go through the information and I think since our last meeting probably at least 2 hour hours of every day has been devoted to trying to to go through what other schools are
going through what else I mean we had a legislative committee for New Jersey school boards last weekend um so I think a lot of us are just trying to get a grasp on what we can do um and of course sending questions information ideas that we have to um Administration to see what
they can do as well and they've been very receptive in uh in all of it as far as Community feedback and board feedback but I don't know if you have anything else that you could add with I just want to I want to take the community back um 11 years and when I came to East
brunwick in 2014 that was right in the tail of Governor Christie's severe cuts to schools they he decimated schools and in the years that that followed we were able to recoup some of that money and we
built really good programs and the students that are assembled here tonight to advocate for those programs and the parents that are assembled here to advocate for those programs they exist because Boards of Education supported expanding academics the Arts and
Athletics we are in a much different position today than we were a decade ago because we did get additional funding funding that we were entitled to but was held by the state and we started recouping that but the state decided to implement this school funding formula
and one of the things that we discovered uh just in a meeting not too many weeks ago is that the state actually put a 3% loss threshold on the funding so throughout the state you'll see districts that lost
3% had they not put that threshold there we would have lost substantially more state aid funding this year and so we know from putting that those numbers into formulas here that we can anticipate as Mr Juliana said
probably over the next three to four years we're going to be encountering a 3% cut if they maintain that threshold thank you I just I just think personally that that that is my frustration is that we
were able to grow really great programs and we did that when we had resources and it seems like we are we are now tearing that apart to some degree because of the the financial situation that we find ourselves in thank you I just also want to add that um what was
done this year was done um by Governor Murphy we have no legislation capping it so a new governor that comes in if that's not a priority for that person they don't have to cap it unless we have legislative measures in place and I think that's why a lot of us are pushing for it a lot of us that have spoken
about it for the past year not just in our school district but many others throughout the state um find ourselves frustrated that here we are a year later and we still don't have legislative uh means to cap um but we are at the at the mercy I guess we'll say of our next Governor if they don't want to cap a
loss there they there doesn't have to be a cap and also this year we saw a little more transparency when you were able to look at the numbers online in a public uh you know document uh it sometimes it in the past it hasn't been so detailed and I know for those of us who were waiting and refreshing every minute for
our numbers to come out we saw a little more clarity about the breakdown of the aid that was available to the public that might not has not happened at times in the past um but those are are things that we're burdened with um right now that I think it's important for the community to understand and and if it
helps um i' I've spent a decent amount of time uh trying to dig into for myself to understand why we're in the financial situation that we're in and understand the rules by which we have to um uh deal with our our finances uh and I know that
um I I've put together uh this information and and I just did this on my own independently with Google and the doe website so that was awesome um and I came to this exactly the same conclusions and like almost all the
points that Lori made are things that I came to independently um so I don't know if that helps in terms of you know how believable uh this story is but you know to me I'm I'm pretty set on uh understanding what the real root causes
of our uh situation uh are I've talked a little bit about this at previous board uh meetings but in a nutshell it's our inability to put enough money away and uh combined with the limited amount of money that we can raise to cover
foreseeable expenses we can completely predict you know what our future cost might be we still don't have the ability to put money away and to raise um uh raise additional funds to cover that and that mathematically just does not work that affects every single School
District in this in in the state but the other thing that um affects us specifically is the unfair way that school districts are uh are supported for taking care of uh special education students and we all know we did a a
great job with that but the way that the uh State makes assumptions on on uh the special education population uh puts us at a disadvantage because they basically assume that we have a much lower special education population that than we do um
and just to put some numbers on it um uh and these numbers are rough but there are two ways of looking at this the state is saying that they will help support about 1250 1300 special education students here in East Brunswick and the remaining 250 to 300
that we have are not supported at all that seems awfully unfair to me um and the and the second way of looking at it is that if we actually got Fair support for the students that we actually see that would be a few more million dollars
per year in into our budget um and we're not receiving that and the fact that we're actually able to support our student population the way that we do um without having gone into the whole prior to this to me seems to be like a bit of a minor
miracle timy you were waiting thank you um so thank you for the presentation I am generally a pretty optimistic guy but feels like and I think most people would probably agree that for the foreseeable future uh our community will be coming together around
this time of year to grieve the loss of positions and programs within our district I hope I'm wrong but I have no confidence that the state aid formula will ever turn in our favor and again I hope I'm
wrong I recall either at the meeting on the 3 or prior to that and I just wanted to bring this up as it relates specifically to this report um we had one point had talked about closing boundman row and redistricting I'm not saying that I'm in
favor of that but I'm just curious uh and for the community sake you know why that was entirely removed from The Proposal um Mr Cummings one of the reasons why is because we want to ensure the community that the students at B
Monroe um and their families understand uh when they get moved where they're going to reside and we are trying to protect the cohort model as much as possible and so we understand the friendships and relationships that students make at that school that small
school so looking at a solution that would minimize the impact to students the other thing is I feel very strongly that closing bound Monro for the sake of of closing bound Monro is not not a prudent decision we need to have a revenue generating activity at bound uh
to be able to offset what we already know our forecasted shortfalls in next year's budget so if we close bound and do nothing um then we will still have maintenance cost to the facility uh to some degree to maintain an environment
to make sure we don't have any any adverse situations inside the building and we'll have to protect it but generating Revenue um as part of an Enterprise fund I think is is going to be one of the components of the future of the success of East brunic Public
Schools it has to be can I just clarify that I think some people believe that we're selling Bal Monro and there's no plans to sell I'm I'm sorry Mrs Eric I couldn't hear you that there's a plan is I think
there's just Clarity wanting to be seen out there as to whether or not we have thoughts to close um Bowman row and sell it at this time to sell it we have not discussed we haven't presented the board any option to close bound and sell the
facility that hasn't been discussed with the board previous T to tonight president yeah go ahead um okay so just a a point of clarification we know that we have some trouble now and we expect trouble for the next year
two possibly three is that correct that's correct okay so what I think we would be very uh smart to do is to start looking at alternative ways of working this budget whether it be
income or savings and I think that's what the public really needs to hear they want to know what we're going to do [Applause] yeah what we plan to do differently and I think that's really what um you know we we can sit all night long and say the
state is the bad guy and they quite frankly I I think we all agree I think the question is what are we going to do the next year two or three because this community deserves better I think and just so everyone is clear everyone in
this board agrees with that everyone here we all know that you deserve we deserve better but I think that's really what we are tasked with is coming up with new solutions to what seems to be same old problems um and that's really
what I think we need to do at this point moving forward anyone else Anna now going back to the budget reductions by consensus let me just explain a little bit what con census means we were
handed a document on March the 3 um with a list of potential Cuts I didn't see that document until I sat down at the deis now fortunately I usually can think pretty quick but looking at that
document it was absolutely horrifying and gut-wrenching now with the redoing of the Hughes schedule I would really love to know how
much input and notice did the Hughes principal have in that [Applause] decision now I had asked for a breakdown of um the Numbers number of teachers by grade in building
um so that I could kind of get a feeling like which schools are being hit the hardest well I couldn't I wasn't able to get that information so I did the best that I could and by my best guesstimate it looks like 39 staff members are being
cut between K4 and Hughes that seems like a really disproportionate number of Staff um now I know here on this paper it says budget reductions some were due to enrollment but I believe the bulk of
them are from the revision of the school schedule and I can't wait to hear what the parents have to say tonight because I have read every single one of your emails
[Applause] I I stopped counting when I got to like 120 I know and more came in and um yeah so we heard you and I personally am looking forward to what you have to say next another thing I do just want to get
in there real quick the reduction of the band Orchestra co- teing model and I had asked on March the 3 how many students are currently enrolled in Hughes in Bandon Orchestra and how many many kids
are enrolled in Churchill band and Orchestra and um do we have that number now do we do we know how many students are in those um grades because if not I I bet people out here will know I just I just want to
tell you okay um but that is a question that I I would love to know when you're cutting half of the music staff do we understand how many students are being affected even though there's no codification for
the number of students a teacher can have in a music class so that's it thank [Applause] you all right if I could I would like to expand on that
somewhat um when we sat at the de and as Anna said looked at the document the reason for that is because this used to be the finance committee so that happened as a small committee group where we sat down with the document for the first time this is the first time
we've done this in open so yes it was a very difficult situation and very hard to do and last year when I sat in the first finance committee meeting I had the exact same response but there were fewer of us in the room um so that's the
process as it used to go through multiple stages this time it was the full board in front of the public which is what we're trying to do I would like to say for the administration um the board Demands a great deal of information all of us we all ask a lot
of questions and people have stepped up to the mic repeatedly and said we want to see you asking more pressing for more well we can ask for things up here which is really difficult they're not sitting here with computers with books of numbers this computer has Miss Falco on
it actually but they're not sitting here with all those numbers so they ask us to submit questions in advance and boy do we you've got to see the list that we send in in the emails so that they can give us answers what we've learned from listening to people is they want to hear
us ask these questions here as well so they know what we're asking so they know what our thinking is so they know what we're challenging and we've been trying to do more of that um I would say that you absolutely did request that information um I was copied on that
email it came in at 4:15 yesterday so they are getting us this information we as a board tried to get the in or get our questions in in advance because they're working long hours working on the budget so a list of questions that
comes late in the day the day before the meeting is harder to collect but they did um excuse me okay this can't the other thing I wanted to ask for was we're going to be here a long time tonight we know this and I'm
actually Torn Between the number of hours I'm spending a day on the budget is intense if everyone can please hold their comments the public comment section please thank you but what I wanted to say is that I'm glad to see the number of emails that we get when I
was talking to parents on Monday night a week ago a mother was talking about her children I'm like wait I know this story I read about you sent me an email I recalled this we've all been reading and reading and I appreciate the time I appreciate the email I appreciate this is amazing the amount of passion in the
room for our schools and our students because we are faced with serious problems and I agree with Lou it would be great if we could balance our Revenue Ventures with our current costs I don't know if that can be done fast enough
the state is pulling money away and our costs are increasing faster than we can establish these things but we are working hard at it so we appreciate your input and participation what I would ask for on behalf of I think the rest of the board is just courtesy this is going to
be a long night I would appreciate people not yelling at each other yelling at us we are here to listen to you and we cannot go back and forth I apologize we can't answer but we are here to listen to you and we want to hear what we have to say we would just ask that it be courteous so that people can hear
people speaking and so that everyone feels that their voice is heard in a respectful way everyone deserves to be heard is there anybody else with comments on the presentation or questions if if I I'm sorry if I could I I just discovered this in the document that I've been
looking through the the information Dr Braun asked about so current participation at Churchill for the band is 235 students current participation at Churchill for the orchestra 277
students current participation at Hughes 206 students in the band and 307 students in the orchestra thank [Applause] you thank you we are impressed by our
students we love our programs there is no one up here that wants to see anything cut we are just trying to find our way all right for the good of the cause for the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the
importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest in order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall provide a period for public comment at every meeting of the board
residents are welcome to speak up to 3 minutes the timing will kept by the board secretary I would just request when you step up to the microphone you state your name and address unless you are a student if you are a student please just give just name and school
believe name and school and that you address your comments to the board is there anyone wishing to address the board this evening [Applause] hi hi I am Ariel Lea and I go to Hughes I came here to talk about how you are
ruining my school with your budget cuts the last time I was here I came to talk about Envision and how it made me struggle so much with math now I'm here to talk about more changes that are going to affect all the incoming fifth graders because you are taking away the
only fun things about hamers shold I lost my first 3 years of elementary school because of Co lockdowns did you guys think about my graduating class and all the things we lost already a lot of my friends are in band Orchestra and
chorus I used to be in District chorus concerts and even honors chorus but I was forced to quit chorus to pick the other electives now you're taking those away from me too I was looking forward to piano and family consumer science
next year those are my first choices now I have nothing fun to look forward to if you make this decision I am begging you to save my school thank you for letting me [Applause] [Music] speak thank you
Ariel hello I am Eevee and stepen a fifth grade Orchestra student at Hughes I have come to talk about Orchestra being cut from schools I think the school orchestra should not be cut because every day I look forward to my Orchestra class it's amazing how so many students follow of dreams and wonder
have the opportunity to play an instrument of their choice it helps me relax playing my instrument and I think other kids should be able to relax and play an instrument too it's so fun to play My Viola and my other friends who play the violin cello and bass love it a lot too my older
brother who is now in eighth grade plays the viola also and I want to play my instrument for as long as I can but my chance will be cut short I won't be able to play the viola if you cut the program my younger brother who is now in second grade won't have the chance at all to play an
instrument my older brother will have lots of experience I will have some and my little brother will have none if you cut the Orchestra program many dreams and opportunities will be crushed many students with an amazing talent for orchestra won't even know it and that Talent will be wasted many students
including myself love to play their instrument and it would be really sad if you cut the Orchestra program so please don't cut the program I am 100% sure that almost every student loves to play their instrument and has the same opinion as me thank you for listening I hope you consider not cutting the
Orchestra program have a great evening thank you sorry for interrupting is there any way we could lower than Mike I know there are a lot of kids are going to be talking and they deserve to be heard [Music] thanks hi my name is ARA salanki a fifth grader at Hughes and we are the fifth
grader students that had to make adjustments when our school Journey started and had to learn using laptops and kindergarten we had no personal coaching from teachers and at times still struggle to spell correctly since we never got a proper School experience
during Co now with budget cuts the same batch of kids are put to test once again where you want to take away the music the orchestra and Band program and international languages music helps me and several others calm down during
anxious situations music also helps most people Express their feelings you are taking away that privilege to do that the next change you plan to implement are going to further decrease our progress next year kids who get selected
for math prime would be pulled out and would be missing important math lessons with losing electives and languages you are taking away our Basics to future sucess I cherish learning Orchestra and still look forward to learning new words in my Spanish class that will help me in
the future for example learning languages helps with critical thinking people these days travel to other countries for work and vacations where languages would be beneficial Harvard University as it enables us to think express ideas and share knowledge
learning languages earlier in childhood helps us in the future my brother who is in Lawrenceburg school has been looking forward to learning an instrument in fourth grade and languages in fifth grade these changes are going to take away the opportunity me and my
classmates had of learning an instrument in fourth and language in fifth taking away from other students is not fair as a request to the board is to please not take away these opportunities that are given to us and weaken our and weaken
our foundational schooling Years thank you thank [Applause] you hi my name is Metaline Yu and I'm a seventh grade student at Junior chur High School to today I would like to discuss the budget cuts that will affect
my academic experience as well as many other students first off um I am a seventh grader taking level two honors maerin who would like to be able to reach the n9th grade level of learning but with
the budget cuts students that don't start in fifth grade like I did will not be able to reach the same success as the nth grade with more experience and that's what I that's why
I believe learning a language at fifth grade should be kept secondly the idea of taking away electives in Hearts changing a student schedule based on the basic curriculum without any
electives truly changes how they go about their academic experience the basic curriculum is made out of the foundational subject of English math science and social studies East spons being known for their Blue Ribbon Schools is the reason some towns
may live some parents may live in this town east SP East SP has its Blue Ribbon award because of the variation of electives we can provide to our students so they can grow if you take their chance away to
grow then we cannot be as successful as any other town or as any other school I hope you understand why I believe these budget cuts will affect our school so harshly and I hope you take this into deep
consideration that's all thank [Music] [Applause] you um thank you [Music] okay um it's okay that I talk about Bon
Monroe right um yes okay good evening I Julia Morales a sixth grader at hammerel Upper Elementary School I would like to provide you of my my insight on the budget cuts for first starting with bom androe
as someone who has attended bman Row from kindergarten to fourth grade the idea of the idea of losing the school me this school is full of memories I will never forget the playground the classrooms the gyms and even the hallways give me a rush of nostalgia
every day was a was a new memory and I hope that that I will not be I will not be one of be one of the only students to have a great time at bom nroe in in conclusion going to the school was a pleasure and losing it would be like
losing a part of my childhood that I could never visit or come back to I deeply believe that the budget cuts will heavily affect my child the childhood and education of so many current and future students another topic that i' would like to talk about is band an experience
that I will never forget is being in band is not just a subject or class is much more band allows students to express their creativity through a diverse Outlet band is also the highlight of my educational experience it does not only allow us to play music it also helps us to socialize together
in our amazing experience es and band and gives us an a community to have fun with additionally I always I always know I could look forward to Something in My Day with band I have an older brother in band and ever since I was little I've been looking forward to all the
opportunities in band and it has forced me to face the truth that I may not experiences experience these same opportunities as my brother therefore I believe me and many others others look forward to an experience found in in the
enrichment within the Arts which is why we need to dissect this topic as much and we as much as we can and as a community and town to provide the faces of the future with the best experience we can offer thank you for your
attention to this matter I wish you deeply consider the matter as it will change lives thank you Julia [Music] [Applause]
hello and good evening I'm Abigail Gagnon from Hughes I'm sixth grade student at Hughes um I think that they shouldn't cut out the languages or elective classes at Hughes or cut some of the languages and electives at Churchill I think this because I came from a family
that didn't speak Italian and ended up teaching my brother the ABCs while practicing them and he was six at the time I think that the elective should stay in because nobody in my family could play instruments I learned the flute next year tried out for OBO made it a couple months later got State honors ban this year I tried out for
Wind Ensemble and found out that I made it today we are also [Applause] the we're also the best music District in the state if we start music later we won't able be able to achieve that languages and band help me make friends
and I want more kids in our district to get that same opportunity charot a Roman Emperor once said to have another language is to possess another Soul thank you [Music] [Applause]
Abigail greetings and good afternoon to everyone here uh my name is Logan grassberger Dorman I'm a seventh grade student at Churchill Junior High School I am here today to talk about the or
Orchestra and why we should not cut the Arts first I would like to start off with a story there was once a time where a boy was in fourth grade he decided to go into Orchestra
and that was one of the best decisions of his life now he's standing in front of you explaining to why it would be a horrendous idea to cut the orchestra [Music]
this year I learned that the seventh grade Orchestra here is better than some high school orchestras in other [Applause] places the reason why we are so great is because we start from such an early age
I started in fourth grade with pullout lessons I think for everyone who is in the fifth and sixth grade Orchestra at the same time as me that is when they really got a a lot better making those pull out lessons also would harm
academics and harm the orchestra at its roots I will not stand and permit without saying anything the destruction of the beautiful thing we have here and I hope that no one in this
audience will do it either I ask for the people up on the stage looking at me right now listening to me to think about the decision that there might make at cutting the arcs thank you
for your time thank you Logan [Applause] hello and good evening East Brunswick Board of Education thank you for giving me the time to share how the East brunck music program has impacted my life and
how music impacts other people's lives my name is Elanor Kim and I am a seventh grade student at Churchill Junior High School I play the cello I started playing cello in fourth grade and ever since then Orchestra has been the class I could look forward to
when all my other classes were stressful it gave me the confidence to speak the teachers helped me grow as a person and the class taught me patience determination and the purpose of hard work East Brunswick is known to have a a
great music program and it would be sad to get rid of something we recognized for hamers shold is always packed during concerts filled to the max with people concerts bring people Joy playing an instrument is something that you can and should be proud of no one can tell you
that you should be proud if there's nothing to be proud of music has also allowed me to form Unforgettable friendships and Unforgettable Memories the music programs such as orchestra band and chorus are a great way for kids to be exposed to the
musical world and have many positive impacts kids can learn how to read and write a new language music how does hearing music impact other people's lives you ask listening to a school concert can benefit people
by boosting their mood fostering a sense of community providing entertainment enhancing appreciation for the musical arts and a positive social experience for both performers and audience members kids can create such great memories by
playing in concerts watching concerts performed by younger older siblings and connecting through music you can have skills that will stay with you for your whole life why shouldn't you change the current music programs because playing a musical instrument can impact a child's
life by improving their cognitive skills boosting confidence developing fine motor skills enhancing creativity and promoting discipline through the need of constant practice all contributing to a positive sense of accomplishment and well-being
kids can feel comfort in playing in a group of people instead of playing alone or not playing at all I appreciate the time you gave me to share my experiences with you tonight I I hope you will take my thoughts into consideration as you move forward with the 2025 2026 budget
music is really important to me and beneficial to the students and the whole of the East brunwick Community thank you for your time thank you [Applause] Elanor hi my name is lilan Martino I'm
in seventh grade at Churchill Junior High School and I'm speaking tonight about how important it is that we keep our Orchestra and language programs the way they are without making any cuts to start Orchestra is significant to me and my sister Kora who is in fourth grade right now and we both love being part of an orchestra we also play the same
instrument the viola my Orchestra teachers Mr Nelson Mr finigan helped me improve so much that I got into cjmea honors Orchestra in fifth and sixth grade I had Mr Nelson fourth fifth and sixth grade and when I was in fourth grade I wanted Orchestra to be every other day because I was excited to go to
hamers shold where the orchestra was every other day in fourth grade I had Orchestra every Friday and if I didn't practice at home I wouldn't get very far because I would need Orchestra consistently instead of once every week I took Orchestra very seriously and look at me now I've improved a lot and I hope
that I can stay the same so I can continue making great work the same goes for my sister because she's in fourth grade and she's having Orchestra every every Friday she's also very excited to go to hamers because she knows that there you have A and B days and every a day or every b day you have orchestra if
she keeps getting pulled out of class for orchestra not only she's missing out on what's happening in that class but she's also going to miss out on having Orchestra every other day I was very proud of her when she got into cjmea honors Orchestra just like I did when I was her age I want her to have the same amazing experience I did when I was in
hammerel and I want her to enjoy the orchestra just as much as me secondly I also want the language program to stay the same in fourth grade I was introduced to a little bit of Spanish Senora Fletcher would would come into the class and put a Spanish video or song on the Smartboard for the class to watch so when I chose my language for
fifth grade I chose Spanish I got the most amazing Spanish teacher ever in Miss Manners I love fifth grade Spanish so much that I chose to get in sixth grade and I realized in sixth grade I was improving a lot and I was impressed with how much I had learned now in seventh grade I got Miss Manners as a teacher again because she had moved to
Churchill from hammerfield she made Spanish class super fun for me and the class if students have to wait until seventh grade to actually start a language they will be so much further behind thank you thank you [Music] [Applause]
[Music] Liliana [Music] hi hi my name is Aaliyah bie I am in seventh grade in Churchill I believe that if Hammer should is removing blog scheduling they are setting these kids
up for struggle in Churchill this is because Churchill you have different classes every day in Hammer shold you have the same classes except for your language and elective if I didn't experience blog scheduling earlier I would have still been struggling in Churchill this means I have made so many new friends in different classes and I
had so much fun in each class if I haven't if I hadn't met these people I would have dreaded going to school since I have been in my language class I have learned so much from it it has been so helpful when my family and me travel to Pro also last year I took family
consumer science as an elective and it was so useful as well I learned so many life skills such as cooking for my family and learning how to S so hamers make the budget cuts you want but just know you are setting these setting these kids up for struggle in the
future thank [Applause] you esteemed members of the East Brunswick Board of Education my name is Eric Sherwin and I'm an eighth grade student at Churchill I stand here today as I am deeply concerned with your
approved proposal to remove the electives of band and Orchestra from hamers shold upper elementary school as a former Orchestra student myself I can speak from experience that these electives are very impactful on students not only from an educational standpoint
but from a personal one as well there are hundreds of band and Orchestra students currently at handshold this means that a good majority of students May face the loss of these opportunities students would have less time doing the activities they enjoy and could miss out
important school work due to being pulled out of class with the new system in addition the Poss loss in addition to the possible loss to the students may also be more difficult for teachers to effectively instruct Sho students with a shortened schedule or staff many times
in my past experience one instructor would be working with the main Orchestra while another would work with a smaller group when it was needed this was very beneficial I would also like to point out the recent decision that was made to remove language choices at hamers shold
with future students supposedly taking a semester of Spanish and a semester of French this not only limits the choices that students will have on their way to Junior High but may be considered a waste of time to those who planned on or already taking a different Lang anguage
it would not be worth it for me to start learning a language that I do not plan to pursue in my future education Board of Education we have given you the trust to supervise the best education possible for the students in the East Brunswick District the Hugh students need you now
more than ever with the drop of academic scores after the Corona virus pandemic your approved budget cuts have taken valuable educational resources from them and may send them farther down a path to an education with less choices that is no better than that of our forefathers I
along with countless other students came to the school district to pursue a worldclass education only to see the educational opportunities that we need being taken away I only wish that the students at hamers shold would receive the same opportunities that I enjoyed
that helped me become the student I am today thank you very much for your [Applause] time thank you Eric hello Board of AD members my name is Dylan lubarski and I'm an eighth grade student at Churchill Junior High School
my purpose here is to front to you the address of the budget cuts for the band and Orchestra for most kids in Churchill only having one teacher will impact the band kids and Orchestra kids too having this budget cut will cause them to cut most honors classes but how would they be in regular classes they would have to
cut a lot of kids in regular courses not just any kids probably the kids who are not performing as well as the other students and those kids will not be able to be an orchestra or band or never again in teachers it's also going to be hard again to other band and Orchestra related things such as cgma or also
known as Central Jersey music Education Association which I got into the finish and just finished for my first year some kids won't be able some kids won't be able to go there and experience it and become better in them and I would like you to take all this into consideration thank you
thank you [Applause] Jill hello my name is Sydney liell I'm in eighth grade at uh CJ uh
HS um for your um AB or like stuff about um the band and all that with uh Hughes um I feel that M like the muscles that kids
will need to get into um honors classes for band and um for them to pursue in music um they need specific muscles um to be able to conquer that and um
to like kind of start that in a way um that would have to be you'd have to be younger to kind of like get the muscles really working and and um get it harder to like like work them out
um so basically um I feel that if you're older and you start at an older age you don't have the time to work on those muscles and you don't have the teachers to really work out those muscles and get the right technique um and I feel that if you
start at a younger age with two teachers instead of one you're you have better benefits than if you had one teacher that you're paying for that you take time out of your day instead of It kind of intertwined in the
school um I feel that if you um if you have the teachers that know what they're talking about cuz you take risks when you're going to find teachers um like tutors and stuff I think that
you're kind of taking a risk and if you um kind of just start at a young age and have the two teachers they can kind of um like work together and work on one part of the band while the other teacher
working on another part um I personally as you can probably tell I'm in marching band um I started in fourth grade and I was planning on quitting in sixth but
um I was told to move on and I'm now in Wind Ensemble and I'm going to try out for region um for high school so um I'm I have those teachers
um next to me guiding me along um on that journey and um I'm getting way better um especially in Fall with Mr to by my side helping me out I'm sorry you have 10 seconds thank you um I just
wanted to let you guys know that I think you guys should keep the double like the two teachers and I think that you guys should um keep it younger because the younger that you start the better the more um beneficial it will be thank
you thank you [Applause] [Music] appreciate it all right good evening Council good evening members inside uh my name is D'Angelo tiller I am a senior at the
high school uh most people know me as a track athlete I am a multiple time GMC individual champ uh I have school records and I don't know that's people know meiz right what a lot of people don't know about me is that I'm actually also a member of the choir I'm involved in many different
ensembles I'm in concert choir I'm in tener base I'm in Jazz Ensemble I'm in fire Council I'm I'm in Mama Mia I've been to mjda yeah uh yeah um this year uh the music program is blessed to let me go to
Boston last year we went to Florida and the year before that and many other years before we went to NJ CDA right um um throughout the years um I've always felt a connection to the music program I don't know why it's just for whatever reason it's
always felt better with me than all the other programs of the high school um it's unlike any other thing that I've been in track uh JC right
um I don't know it's not Placebo either because scientifically it's proven that the artarts it they improve uh the entire brain your stimulation they improve foreign language comprehension they improve your memory and it also improves your overall health right and
as someone who's been in these programs for almost five years now I can attest to this right and it through the work done by the teachers and the faculty we it's I don't know it's it's it's undeniable through the work of the
teachers Mr Good Mrs D Sienna I have become a completely different person it's a transformation without them I would never have strived for the greatness that I've gone for um without them my work ethic my everything about me would be completely different and
it's not just me either many of my closest friends I've met through choir many of my closest friends they've also attested that they've been saved by the music program before I started choir before I started any of these ensembles I can say that I was not that great of a person I can I can almost say I was the
delinquent but um I don't know um one of my best friends are we had a really deep felt conversation this week about how before music he was considering taking his own life and then with through music he was saved this
[Music] week this week on Wednesday I created a Google form and I I shared it to a bunch of the different people in the high school I got over 100 responses talking about just how impactful the music prr 10 seconds but with that right I will
end by saying I beg and pardon you on behalf of almost a thousand kids in the music program please maintain the music program at mic High School look we the people voted for your board we put your trust in you to fix the issues in this community please don't betray us parents teachers current and future students by
setting up the future generation for failure thank you thank you [Applause] hi I'm Quinn pie I I'm a sophomore at
East brunwick High School I would like to talk about an aspect of changes to the Hughes our music program let's keep this plain and simple you're throwing an entire instrumental music program out the window with these changes the quality of instruction as well as
students skills on their instrument will decrease tremendously each year Church Hill and the high school produce students at the highest caliber of playing in New Jersey measured through region and Statewide auditions one of my closest friends is
currently the number one ranked High School percussionist in the state and one of the best in the country as a [Applause] sophomore he started out in the Band program in elementary school just as
everyone else did and he has had not one minute of musical education outside of East Brunswick schools speaking of which all high school bands are performing right now I don't want to sit here and repeat the changes to our music
program because at this point everybody knows very well but to take that away from students is crazy Hammer used to be the place of quote unquote freedom for kids especially in my grade if you ask any one kid from the class of 2027 what
their favorite year was every single kid would say seventh grade Co hit us seventh grade in fifth grade for us and sixth grade was hybrid learning our first real year at hammerfield was amazing with new classes and friends as well as electives for students these
things that make EB so great are being taken away because of the cost of money because they cost money we all know things cost money but this multi-year long project to turn Hughes into an easy transition building for the elementary to turill was a great idea
but now it just seems like it was an excuse for turning sixth grade into just another Elementary grade with specials rather than electives to save money this is not okay this is a plead of help from the students the vo is least commonly
heard we know fun comes second to monetary needs but I personally feel like the wool is being pulled over our eyes I know I'm not the only one all these people here tonight says something the fact that you had to host this meeting in a 1,000 plus seating
auditorium rather than your board meeting room says something it shows that this board understands the impact it shows that this board understands the impact on the community and it speaks volumes when there are middle school kids here to express their concerns don't just wait for me to be
done speaking think about what everyone else here is saying too thank you thank you [Applause] zor Sher freshman at Churchill it is truly devastating and
frankly embarrassing that a 14-year-old is standing before you this evening to discuss poor money management despite being aware of the potential for another budget shortfall this year a appropriate action was not taken take a moment to look around and
consider how chaotic this process has been what steps will be taken to prevent us from eliminating core aspects this district is known for when we run into this exact problem for years to follow last semester I had the privilege of taking the high school graduation
requirement of financial literacy in this class one of the things we learned was how to prepare for and create a budget [Applause] I think it could be beneficial for some of you to take a similar
course additionally when discussing budget cuts last school year it was highlighted that efforts were made to prevent any major impact on students nevertheless every single item on the possible cut list that will go into effect next school year will NE negatively affect the student body in
multiple ways specifically specifically I would like to touch on the plan for late buses to be removed from schools I understand that this is a courtesy not a requirement however many students that are involved in after-school activities rely heavily upon late buses to take
them home say you make this cut students who can't find any other Transportation will be unable to participate in activities they look forward to every day I can assure you with 100% certainty that you will see a substantial decrease in after school activity involvement if
this cut takes place on top of that it is so concerning that it is even a suggestion to take away Bandon Orchestra from elementary schools and hammerhal electives I hope you know what a disappointment you are to kids who love their instrument and have The Misfortune
of attending a school district that obviously doesn't consider music very important because that's what you're representing with this proposed cut the list that you have proposed is heartbreaking and it seems as if student priority was taken like a grain of salt
there are more possibilities you just think you just have to think outside of the box finally I hope you go home tonight and reflect on yourself as a board member and what responsibilities and duties you knowingly took on with this role be transparent if you can't
live up to the motto of excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts then take it down you have the opportunity to make a difference don't disappoint the community that put their trust in you act like the leader you promis to be time is up
[Applause] [Music] hello my name is D vadani my name is Miriam Duan and we are seniors AT ebhs AP German students and the presidents of the German Honor Society this board's budget proposal would slash German
Italian and Mandarin at the Upper Elementary level causing irreversible damage to the east brunic World language program we are here today to talk about the East brunic German program in which we have studied for the past seven years cutting the German program at hamers shold would set German behind other
languages and take away the opportunity to take AP German our integrated curriculum developed over decades ensure students have the skill set to succeed on the AP exam this year all of the AP German students received the New Jersey seal of biliteracy students almost
always pass the AP exam and perform better on average than other students nationally with the cuts forcing prospective German students to switch languages after 2 years students will be dissuaded from taking German and be less likely to stick with German as they grow
older we have had the privilege to spend the last seven years learning German in one of the best programs in the country in 2018 we became the first and only High School in New Jersey to be recognized as a center of excellence by the American Association of teachers of German and thanks to the hard work and
passion of our teachers Dr Franco fra Wilder lavry and FAL gai ebhs is now internationally recognized as a p school one of 14 in the [Applause] country since last year our program has
worked with the German consulate to provide students and staff opportunities such as scholarships professional development grants internships and exchange programs that enhance students understanding of the German language and culture it would be possible to recognize our internationally recognized
program if it is cut off at its knees the unwavering support of the German program staff their dedication to constantly improving our program and its numerous opportunities must be recognized this program is an asset to the East Brunswick Public School System and part of what sets East Brunswick
apart from other school districts for years we have prided ourselves on providing a variety of foreign languages cutting any of the language options at the fifth grade level would drastically diminish the quality of East runswick education and Rob students of the opportunity to partake in our diverse and varied World
Language community in trying to rectify the budget situation we cannot destroy the best programs in the district such as um the world language program the Arts programs especially the orchestra and band and 10 seconds thank you uh we
implore you to please reconsider your budget allocations to protect award-winning programs like ours thank you thank you thank you uh hello board Meer board okay my name is n of Jor and today I'm here to talk about the budget cuts
to the music program in our district chorus has been one of the only bright spots in my day for almost one almost two years now coming at the end of the day it's the perfect bookend teaching valuable lessons to me while being just amazing to be in while considering the options of cutting the music program in
our school I want the board to consider multiple things but one thing in particular the parallels of to sports these programs have I know from my experience in these in the ex outstanding classes I received from my amazing Coral director miss
[Applause] dcna that music is not just about enjoyment it's about growing as a person chorus has taught me lessons that I could also be learned as Sports and well I'm a part of the high school track and field team while also being on our freshman boy soccer team while also
being a part as our CH as our chamber honors Choir in Churchill Junior High [Applause] School I can tell you from my experiences that I learned so many from the same things as both some of them including leadership and social skills
social skills in particular in chorus you meet new people actually don't meet new people every day you meet the same people every day with those same people you learn new things about every single of other their day and those people you bond with over the course of a year or maybe even half a
year but even through that you learned so much and Leadership while it may seem a little bit random to put course and leadership in the same sentence there are so many parts of course that include leadership for example maybe taking
charge of your group when they're not singing as loud as they should be sing just giving that extra little bit just to give them that motivation to go further I stood before for you in a previous meeting and performed with the rest of my honors choir and we received countless praise from this entire board
and I'm just wondering how you can see that and then consider cutting our music programs if we don't start as early as that we're not going to get as good as that I just hope you consider the amount of students you are impacting the ones who maybe don't want to go into sports
but still want to learn valuable lessons thank you for your time thank good evening I'm a wise razza I'm a junior at ebhs and I'm currently the vice president of the German Honor Society I'm here to voice my concerns about plans to cut the German Italian
and Mandarin programs when I was six I found my first love the German national soccer team I remember watching the German teams of the mid-2010s play and just being in complete awe and during the major tournaments I would root for Germany
first and the US second which was wildly confusing to my family who had zero German Heritage for my love for German soccer came my Fascination for German culture I read everything I could about Germany I tried learning the national anthem I even tried putting on a German
accent so when I got to hmer I had no doubt about what language I was going to take and 5 years later I can say with confidence that being part of the German program has been the best experience in my academic career the German program has offered me a place to learn things I'm passionate
about from German culture and Society to world history and politics but more importantly it's given me a place to express myself language courses offer a degree of self-expression and exploration that is unparalleled by other classes they encourage students to
find they encourage students to try new things and find their voice in ways they never knew they could and a diverse offering of language programs allow students to explore their passions and gain a multifaceted understanding of the world around them language programs
enrich our schools with cultural knowledge and Global awareness the content and skills we learn in language classes help us in every facet of Life both inside and outside the classroom and personally being part of the German program has been an indispensable part
of my life and identity I wouldn't trade our language programs for anything and neither should you thank you thank you good evening my name is Maddie bishop and I'm a sophomore at East bun High School I've been a part of the East BRK performing arts program since
elementary school and I would not be the person who I am today without the opportunities that I have had to hone my artistic skills in school I played flute for 6 years and I began in fourth grade and I was a part of the amazing honors win Ensemble for New Years at Churchill and I am now a proud member of the honors bell ofce choir at
ebhs I have been doing theater since the age of four and being able to participate in theater week and Elementary School and drama club throughout my years in hammeri Church Hill and now the high school has truly changed me for the better the Arts bring me and so many other people so much joy and a lot of people would not be able to participate in the Arts if it weren't
for the programs that East PK has I am also a Girl Scout who is working on my Gold Award which is an 80-hour leadership project in my community and the topic I have chosen to address in my community is Arts education among the youth in our town seeing the Arts being targeted as a way to solve budget constraints is so
disheartening as this is the exact issue I'm looking to solve Arts education is one of the things that East bronic does incredibly well and it would truly be such a shame to cut any single part of it being able to start playing instruments at such a young age is crucial to the development of a student's skill and without the
opportunity to begin in elementary school the possibilities for them would become extremely limited I strongly believe that having so many chances to participating in the Arts throughout my entire High School career has has shaped me into the person I am today and I know so many others who would agree with me including the many friends that I have made through the
Arts pro programs in our schools we need the Arts to express ourselves and to become better more well-rounded people thank you for your time thank you [Applause]
m um good evening my name is Ain Hill and I'm a junior at ebhs I'm currently enrolled in the German and the 21st Century Class taught by F Wilder my experience in the German program since sixth grade has been extremely rewarding and it needs to stay just last month when I was at a peer leadership conference I remember talking with uh other students about foreign language
and when I revealed that I've been taking German for 6 years I remember being met with a subtle shock I felt very proud of my school for giving me this opportunity to learn foreign language for such a long amount of time with such amazing uh teachers if the proposed cuts the German program were implemented Not only would there likely be a severe reduction in
the number of students selecting German but it also incentive to stay in the program I know when I scheduled for this upcoming year part of my incentive to to stick with German is the fact that I've invested so much time into learning and studying German the longevity of the program makes people stick with it the class I'm currently enrolled in German in the 21st century uh where students
are able to discuss current issues and culture in both America and Germany while expanding German vocabulary would also be affected significantly by the cuts made at hammerel while it was currently available to Juniors like myself and seniors removing two years of the program would significantly decreased enrollment in the class uh a class that I find so rewarding and um so
educational I love learning German and I love our internationally recognized German language program and all the teachers in it and I believe this program thrives off of the early opportunities available to students cutting this program would reduce or severely limit the paths that students are able to take I want every student to have the incredible opportunities that I had and the pride that comes with having
those opportunities thank you good evening my name is Alex kuchuk I'm the assistant concert Master of the ebhs chamber orchestra and I'm here to talk about the East bruk School District's music program my dad Mr mle kachuk is a professional violinist and music
educator like many parents in this town him and my mom moved to East Brunswick in order to give me and my sister the opportunity to grow up and an accomplished well-renowned school system one of the reasons why my parents specifically chose East Brunswick among the many other highquality schools in New Jersey is its music program my dad
who unfortunately could not attend today's meeting wished for me to emphasize on his behalf that as a music educator that works at count basy Center for the Arts and Redbank Warren School of Arts in Berkeley Heights and NJ youth Symphony Orchestra New Providence he can confidently say that the music program
in E bruk is one of the best if not the best in the entire State the quality of the music program in East Brunswick schools can be attributed to the the tremendous staff and the emphasis that the Board of Ed has put on music education in previous years thanks to the music program me and
my classmates have found a sense of community enhanced our motivation and discipline and developed a deep appreciation for music these benefits among many others have positively has have positively influenced not only me but the thousands of other students and alumni who have participated in East
bronck music program in the past however the current suggestion to have students begin their Orchestra Journey with pollet lessons as fifth graders and hamers shold puts the quality of East Brunswick's music program in Jeopardy currently instructional music lessons begin in fourth grade also with pullout lessons with full period Orchestra
beginning just 2 years later in sixth grade so one would be inclined to think that shifting the program by one year would fail to make a significant impact however in order to truly grasp the however in order to truly grasp the severity of getting rid of fourth grade
Orchestra one must look at the situation through the perspective of a parent with a child in fourth grade parents in East brunck recognize that their kids will be going through a big transition from elementary school to hamers shold their children will be in a new building with new friends having new experiences and thus be faced with new responsibilities
considering all these factors what incentive is there for a parent to enroll their child in Orchestra Banner chorus what is the incentive for taking say Orchestra if they're going to be arbitrarily pulled out of their fifth and sixth grade classes why would a parent enroll their child in any music lessons if they know that the transition
is already going to be difficult enough because of this lack of incentive and due to the staff cuts the incredible music program in East Brunk is going to quickly decrease in size and deteriorate in quality I understand that the Board of Ed must make Cuts in some areas to compensate for the budget deficit
however I plead that the Board of Ed consider my suggestion to rep prioritize funding so that the music program and also the internationally recognized German program two integral Parts 10 seconds two integral parts of the East brunic school system and community that differentiate it from other towns are
not affected thank you thank you Alex good evening board my name is AR of Chri and I'm a junior at East brunic High School Excellence with honor and integrity as students of East Brunswick High School we are expected to excel in
academics the Arts and Athletics I will be sharing my personal experiences regarding Orchestra and public speaking classes I have been a member of East Brunswick orchestras since fourth grade and have represented our talented community in the New Jersey All State Orchestra I am fortunate to have had
mentors like Mr Becket Mrs Oma Mrs frankino Dr gopal and Mr finegan teachers who Inspire instrumentalists like me to use music to spread our message alongside my peers I coad a nonprofit called Mockingbird Melody
where we bring love and care to local senior citizens sharing our Musical and public speaking skills in the process every day we lose Future Leaders to the simple yet devastating inability to speak up opportunities that make East brunic truly excellent exist because
individuals have stood up and articulated their Vision with Clarity and conviction our fight to preserve public speaking classes isn't just about fulfilling a requirement it's about securing the future of change makers public speaking is about finding your voice in a world in a world that
desperately needs to hear it by preserving core electives like public speaking we Empower students to lead Inspire and change the world some will argue that natural Talent is enough or that practice outside the classroom suffices some will say not everyone needs these skills they are wrong
because public speaking isn't a talent it's a skill it isn't a gift it's a conscious Choice it isn't an option it's a necessity we cannot afford to send our students into the professional world without proper training we cannot pretend communication skills are optional in a world where ideas compete
for attention we cannot leave our students voiceless the cost of having public speaking classes a few hours per week the cost of not having them immeasurable we stand at a Crossroads we can continue to treat public speaking as an elective allowing anxiety to claim
another generation of potential leaders or we can recognize it for what it is a fundamental human skill as essential as Reading Writing and math because in the end public speaking isn't just about speaking being in public it's about confidence it's about leadership to be
East Brunswick we need Orchestra and we need core class electives to be East Brunswick we must have Excellence with honor and integrity thank you thank you AR hello my name is Maxwell seagull and I am a freshman at Churchill Junior High
School and I am a member of our District's Band program uh I'm here to tell you why my thoughts on cutting down our music program is a horrible idea uh as of now I plan on going to a music school and later on playing or teaching music professionally as my career a large part of this goal is because of
the influence our music program has had on me I came back from Co in the middle of my sixth grade year since then band has easily been my favorite class a large amount of my friends I've made in band and through the years I got closer with them and made more friends the social emotional elements that this class has provided me is large region I
have the friends I have now on top of all this every music teacher has been an amazing support on my journey they've inspired me to pursue this passion of mind and continue on playing music I'd specifically like to mention one of the amazing Churchill band directors Mr Bouvier who is Who as a fellow
percussionist and amazing teacher has inspired me to continue as a percussionist for the rest of my life without these teachers and this program I would not be on the same path I am on today the program in general has helped me learn so much about playing music my technique I've learned playing in a group and being part of a team it also
helped me integrate into large social environments and feel more confident in myself when interacting with others I come to you today now as someone who wants to continue band as my career and is a member of multiple large National band programs I'm a member of the 2025 United percussion 2 openclass wintergard International indoor percussion group
and a member of the 2025 Bushwackers drum core International all age worldclass group as you can see this program has had such a large and important impact on my life I feel as though is unfair to deny future students these opportunities with less teachers students will have a much harder time learning to play better and will be less inspired although you just assured that
starting music will remain at fourth grade not getting to experience on Ensemble playing until 7th grade will cause these students to be at a disadvantage to their experience playing in a group is entirely different from playing and learning individually these students will be hindered if they do not get to experience until seventh grade being pulled out for lessons is in no
way comparable to Ensemble experiences and funding being cut will reduce the amount field trips clubs extracurriculars and so on that make this program so rewarding tonight you will see many Church junior high school music program members but not many high school members this is because they are literally at a band Festival tonight
getting to grow as a musician and show off their skills this program teaches all of us how to play music well with good technique alone and without others this program provides an amazing social environment where students can meet and interact with others who have similar interests and personalities to them this program employs some of the best
teachers I've ever met and some of the best teachers this district has this program has created such an amazing environment for learning social growth and teacher interaction if these Chang are past future students will not get these experiences or opportunities the possible futures of Music they could have had will not be able to occur and
they will lose out on the amazing program and Community we have all built together please reconsider this Choice thank you thank you Maxwell good evening everyone my name is scho Mea and I'm in 10th Grade and I'm a proud member of the German Honor Society
at the high school here at East Brunswick our motto is Excellence with honor and integrity and we're always told to live up to our potential be as great as we can be but how can the youth in our town continue to do this if their options are taken
how is that Excellence the East Brunswick School District Prides itself on diversity and various cultures but how can we continue to promote that statement if we get rid of variety after all variety is what makes us diverse and
diverse makes each and every one of us different and that difference is what gives us the chance to be excellent the German program is undeniably one of the greatest in the state in 2017 the American Association of teachers of German recognized East Brunswick Public
Schools including hammerel Churchill and ebhs as a German Center of Excellence our program is the only High School in the nation to date to ever receive re this award every other day my peers and I sit in our German classroom in front
of a large poster commemorating this award and this achievement reminding us to always push ourselves to be the best we can be reminding us to be excellent but the German program is not the best in just the state the nation it is one
of the best internationally we are just one of 14 high schools in the entire country that is a p School for reference there's over 20,000 high schools in the nation and we are one of 14 being a past School gives
all of our students the opportunity to get stiping paid for learning trips and scholarships why should we deprive our youth of all of these opportunities by cutting the budget if our budget gets cut the youth can't take German one
until 7th grade this completely wipes out the opportunity to take AP German it will become immensely difficult to keep this program as excellent as it has been time and time again if rigorous courses such as AP German are not available what
happens to our past status what happens to our status as a center of German Excellence why are we penalizing a program which has already proven itself time and time again that has received State national and international
recognition our our program continues to remain the only High School in New Jersey with that award but you guys want to cut back on our learning and all the opportunities that we have been given parents aren't going to want to send take let their kids take German because they can't take AP in the future Dr
veski said that just 11 years ago New Jersey schools and East Brunswick schools were affected by Governor Christie's decisions and it was the students that changed our program let us continue to change this program thank you thank you
[Applause] hello everyone my name is arang pesara and I am a senior in high school I would like to begin with a regret I have one of my biggest regrets is not taking enough electives in high school
beginning with like classes like astronomy meteorology all these classes were available to me because of the extensive program we have at this school however because I prioritized my core classes I didn't take these I didn't have many of these opportunities and that greatly upsets me because I have I
could have had so many opportunities so many like fun moments in my high school career but instead I had to prioritize my core classes and that is something I do not wish on any of the rest of the students in this high in the high school
and in the school prr in general but in spite of that I'd like to highlight some of the very like positive moments I've had in uh high school and in years before that for example in my Orchestra class I remember during quarantine one of the worst moments of
my life I remember my first period class was with uh Dr Braun and Mr uh and um I'm sorry but I'm blinging on the other name but um I remember they would play K-pop in the mornings and I reflect on that now and that was such a that was
such a fun moment because it was one of the few bright moments of like a dark days I would spend in my room in front of a like a a computer screen and I just wish that we could continue to give students these fun moments and these
opportunities instead of having them focus on only their core classes and while our core classes are important I feel like the Arts are equally if not more important thank you thank you Arnold good evening I'm suvana sarti and I'm a
senior at ebhs I've found recently that it's really difficult to find free education for music and public schools have done such a great job of promoting it over the years with the band Orchestra and coral programs taking these learning opportunities away from students at hamers and Churchill takes away their
opportunity to learn an instrument they may have always dreamed of learning or the opportunity to develop their own own singing voice I was first introduced to the world of classical music when I took band in fifth grade I learned how to play the clarinet and stuck with it for so many years and that was because my amazing band teachers worked with me during pullout lessons and in class to
help me become more proficient in at the instrument and my teachers even worked hard during the pandemic to keep us to keep teaching us how to play classical pieces and that has allowed me to stick with music I know many people who have stayed in band course and Orchestra throughout their school careers because they enjoy it and the teachers at our
school make learning music fun there are many teachers who give private music lessons who would not have the same attitude towards their students our music program does the same thing that a private teacher would do except they would create a more friendly stress-free and accessible environment for students to learn how to perform professionally I have made so many friends over the band
and coral programs and have kept in touch with some who have even graduated our music teachers do not just teach us how to sing sight sing or site read a piece of music they teach us how to do it musicality and Dynamics and expression music is not just something we can completely learn on our own because we need teachers to tell us that
the trumpet section played the Rhythm wrong in measure 54 of the walson B minor or that the alto sounded more loud Than The Sopranos bases and the teners when be sing the ascending scale in choir class sorry these were just examples no harm to any trumpet players or choir singers and then these teachers would
tell us how to fix our mistakes which is so important because it really makes a difference when the concert comes around our music programs do not just allow us to excel in the Arts at school they also allow us to take our music skills to the next level and open so many doors for us I'm currently acquired student at ebhs without my course teacher I would not
have made it into the Regionals and all state choirs over the last 3 years I also would not have joined a modern rock band and made friends there if I didn't have the opportunity to audition for it at school our music program has helped me and so many other students achieve excellence in the Arts while building self-confidence over the years and I want our programs to continue having
that effect on our students but that can't happen if our district Cuts our music programs thank you so much thank you hello my name is Sarah Ibrahim and I'm a sophomore at East Brunswick High School student at East Brunswick High School today I wanted to speak with you about your plan to cut the late buses at ebhs
and cjss many students rely on these late buses in order to get home after clubs including myself my sister and my brother while East Brunswick High School late buses are no longer on the chopping block my sister's L bus is at CJs CJ HSR if students don't have that access to
these late buses they won't be able to attend clubs because our parents are busy with either work or prior commitments that can't be given up as high school and Junior High School students we cannot give up clubs especially since extra CES are one of the many main components colleges take into consideration when deciding when to
accept an application or not in order to spark interest in these extracurriculars students should have to be able to experience them I have joined multiple clubs in both Churchill and the high school and I can confidently say that the ability to attend these clubs have approved me not only has improved me not
only as a person but as a student by giving me the ability to dive deeper into my interests to help that help fuel my decision for my future career however the cut of late buses don't only affect kids' ability to attend clubs affects their ability to receive after school tutoring and get the help they need in
order to thrive while St while clubs are important grades and the ability to thrive in class are even more important by cutting late buses we are we as students won't be able to attend these after school tutoring sessions which can determine whether we succeed or fail in a class by cutting L
buses you are taking away a students ability to not only participate in critical extra extracurriculars but the ability to improve themselves academically with the help of teachers cutting the light buses would only hurt the students who are unable to get rides home thank you for listening to me and the students of East Brunswick good
night thank you hi um like I just came from a concert I did uh this is I was just that thank you guys um I just came from the when Ensemble and concert band Festival which uh without what you guys
are trying to cut that would not be possible for the future years your name please but um my name is Ethan star I'm a senior at the high school um and I just want to give you guys a quick Revelation music saved my life in 8th grade I was extremely lonely
no passion no Hobbies no anything and then I decided to join the marching band mostly because my mom forced me to um but I realized it was the best decision of my life it gave me my friends today it gave me a passion a hobby and a reason to
keep going and again this uh this passion would not have been possible without even starting a fifth grade because I didn't even know what marching man was all the way up until 8th grade um I'm just going to
say getting rid of music education at lower levels gets rid of a passion gets rid of a hobby gets rid of a career gets rid of a reason for people to keep going please I highly suggest that you reconsider your decision because this is people's passion this is people's reason
to keep going thank you thank you good evening everyone my name is Irina Katz Nelson I stand before you today as an ebhs graduate class of 2004 I'm also a proud parent of a fifth
grader at hamers shold with two more children to follow I moved back here so my kids could receive the same outstanding education my brother and I did but that education is continuing to decline as we all watch we were told that moving fifth grade to hamers shold
would expand opportunities my daughter excelled academically this year but the highlight of her day was Spanish stem electives along with developing Independence through switching classes multiple times a day with different peers this experience helps kids grow
not just academically socially and emotionally and now just as our kids are thriving you guys are trying to strip away all these opportunities for them it is a bait and switch that's what was pulled seventh grade is too late to commit till a language students who
start earlier reach fluency f SAT scores go up 100 to 200 points they financially make 5 to 20% more in their careers so not only are you ruining their school experience you are putting them at a full disadvantage I won't go
into the music program because we've heard a lot about it today but completely agree with what everyone has said this isn't just about our students it's the future of our school district great teachers will leave if this District continues to deprioritize enrichment strong educators want to
teach in schools that invest in learning not in places where these opportunities are slashed do better we understand budgets are tight cutting these programs is not the options we are willing to pay as parents we are willing to work with
corporations to match funding we are willing to identify budget efficiencies but let's be honest no school district that I've looked at is as topheavy as this one the Administration has taken no pay cuts no salary freezes no no meaningful bonus
reductions only the bare minimum the four people you decided to talk about today in Corporate America where I work we would never strip resources from the core output which here is our kids you know where we would cut it from internal
management look at your org and why isn't that same logic applied here as the board and the superintendent it is your responsibility to find Solutions and protect them not eliminate them look internally have you done everything you
can to not cut essential programs for our kids I'm going to end this by saying if you guys vote Yes for this B budget I will make it my personal mission to ensure that parents voters this entire Community will know exactly how you
voted I will go house to house we will not be quiet and we will remember next election I promise you that we will use every resource at disposal thank [Applause] you good evening board my name is Marta
Martinez I live at 103 Hillsdale Road I'm sorry could you repeat your name please I'm sorry your name again please Marta Martinez thank you um I'm reading this statement on behalf of my daughter Danielle Martinez who's a graduate of our excellent East Brunswick school
system hello everyone my name is Dany Martinez and I am an East Brunswick Public Schools Alum from the class of 2017 firstly I want to apologize that I wasn't able to attend the meeting today the reason for my absence is actually quite relevant to why I sent along a
statement in the first place tonight I have the pleasure of Performing original music at The Bitter End in New York City at an event sponsored by the Society of composers and lyricists of which I am a member to put it plainly without the extensive music performance skills and
Ensemble experience granted to me through my eight years in the EB public school's band pipeline I would probably not have ever pursued a music career in the first place my Years playing clarinet and EB wind ensembles were incredibly foundational to who I am as
both a musician and human today I vividly remember taking Josh Becker's band class elective in sixth grade and learning more about collaboration teamwork and discipline than I did in most other facets of my education Mr Becker's class as well as
Brian to's e HS Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band instruction provided me with the invaluable foundations that would eventually support me through my undergraduate and graduate careers this year I will be earning my MERS of Music in screen
scoring at NYU where I have been studying composition and orchestration for visual media such as film and television I can honestly say that so much of my passion for music storytelling composition performance and orchestral writing is owed to playing in bands from a young
age specifically through the highly engaging elective model which you are planning to cut what I find most concerning about your proposed change is that students will spend the first three years of instrumental instruction with virtually no Ensemble experience beyond the technical musical skills granted
from playing in ensembles the social skills active listening and attention that students can sharpen so efficiently in an ensemble will essentially be neglected I urge you to reconsider your priorities on this matter and ask yourself if downgrading an elective
program that so clearly provides kids with a well-rounded challenging and and engaging immersion into the world of music and Beyond is truly worth the money you'll be saving thank you thank you good evening Dom scani to Morgan
place I first want to apologize for my language last meeting I do have Tourette's and I try my best to control it but sometimes it gets the best of me but I assure you there was no Mal inent from it I have heard yet another terrible decision was made by the administration
that decision was was The Cutting of Jessica D Benedetti the science supervisor Miss D Benedetti is an amazing teacher and individual and I can say I'm lucky to have her I was lucky to have her both in seventh and nth grade she made me love biology in 9th grade
and she even helped wean me off modifi tests which helped uh which helped my critical thinking and I found out I got to be on the same test all the other students took I was a static um and I wouldn't have been able to do that without here uh now I hear there will be one
person supervising science and math for the whole District additionally I would like to talk about the music Cuts since I played both Sports and music I guess you can say I'm like Troy Troy Bolton um I play in band and did chorus
uh and the teachers were absolutely amazing I mean one of their names is literally Mr Good what more could you say uh now you plan to cut a programs that 75% of fourth graders and over half
a few students take um partaken you cannot praise the Arts and then propose to cut them do you not hear how irresponsible this all sounds I'm truly at a loss for words that you
continue to cut the best of the best yet you won't even consider taking a pay cut you say you will try your hardest to not impact students but that is a lie you are actively hurting students these students and their learning
administrators you could put you can continue to put money over the well-being of the students or you can show this community that you care by taking a pay cut thank you thank you Dom anet Iola 45 Merl uh I first want to
thank you guys for moving it to Hughes other districts haven't been so accommodating and I'd like to thank everyone for being civil because those districts are definitely not being uh like that shout out to all the kids who spoke tonight it's actually heartbreaking to hear children begging to be able to go to school that's not
something you want you would think you'd have to hear it's an irony that we're standing in this very room that we were here in one year ago talking about the unforeseen budget cuts and here we are in the building that you're going to slaughter in September and I don't I take it as an insult when you say you're eliminating
10 positions in hammerfield you're destroying 1,200 students by eliminating 10 positions in hammeri my daughter spoke first I'm sure you guys remember and she explained what she's been through in her short
education experience here in East Brunswick it's not fair to her and all the children behind her for them to not be given the same experiences that the alumni here have gotten when they were here with a $200 million budget I cannot imagine that there is not another place
to look for to find money I could give you plenty of people that we could remove immediately and you can save four or five teachers just with those but I'll keep that to myself nobody thinks that there's mismanagement where you got are like sending money offshore accounts and
spending your vacations in the Caribbean when people say there's mismanage mismanagement of funds it's because we regular normal people who didn't sign up to be board members are looking through pages and pages and pages of agendas to see where you're spending and when we see $80,000 on cell phone bills we want
to know how come we're paying for people's cell phone bills so if you could explain that one day let me know this looks like lazy budgeting to me it looks like an easy way and I know that you're saying it's not easy cuz I know you guys I talk to you normally it does look like that because I can't imagine
that you're going to destroy an award-winning program and my kids aren't even in it and I don't want it to go but as a taxpayer I find that the Arts is always considered a luxury I'm an artist myself and it's the first thing people think it's replaceable
we're Expendable yet everybody calls comes to us when it's time to get their therapy art is therapy and you're removing that therapy session from these children but I'm here tonight because I don't want to talk more about that there's a lot of people that want to talk I want to talk
about information that was given to me a couple of months ago a lot of people reach out to me anonymously directly they ask me for help I'm very vocal everybody knows that but this one seemed alarming to me so this person has direct information from
middle sex County superintendent's office and I was told that there's three Board of end members sitting on this panel who have restrictions on the way that they can vote and and I do not know how a board of education panel can vote accordingly if we have restrictions on specific members thank
[Applause] you hello my name is Sophia Yao this is Alisa Wang and this is cenace Lou we are currently seniors and is it is our third year of being in German Honor Society on top of being a German Honor Society
member I'm also president of mua FAA which is my school's math Honor Society oh thank you and um something that differentiates foreign language Honor Society from muaa is of course the cultural aspect in a world of over seven
and now even 8 billion people culture is what brings us character it is what brought us here and it will only allow us to continue moving forward bringing life with unique tastes and style foreign language brings greater recognition towards culture and should not be cut from
Hughes all three of us have been taking German since sixth grade and the buildup of these classes have been crucial to our current success in the language with these Cuts there is a very high probability that future students will not be able to take AP German or at least underperform in comparison to my
current class throughout the years it's been a fulfilling and enjoyable experience being part of our German curriculum we've had amazing opportunities being involved and attending ghs events we've listened to German music watched German films and even baked German foods together it's
sad to see this all go um our seven years as students in the German curriculum and three years as members in the German Honor Society has given us many opportunities to interact with the various aspects of German culture allowing us to gain long-lasting memories and a growing understanding of
the world I wonder if I had earlier years cut off from our German program would I still be able to stand here with the knowledge of German's language and culture that I have accumulated up until now to cut out the earlier years of these foreign languages is putting at risk the quality of the language honor
societies of not only German but also Italian and Mandarin significantly limiting our ability to share and learn as passionate German honor Honor Society members we express our sentiments against cutting language program at Hughes thank
you thank you thank you hi my name is Kate Gavin address 28 Sand Road I am here today as a resident Alum a substitute teacher in your schools and a working
artist the arts program in East brunsw gave me a hearty foundation for my career in the Arts before it even began my time at high school alone included participation in both Bello and concert choir the choir Council the Jazz choir which later became a student Le program
led by Yours Truly trian music Honor Society and international thespian society as its president uhhuh the choir alone consistently received the highest scoring at the acda course festivals and notably performed
at Carnegie Hall this doesn't even touch upon the numerous accolades acquired by the Bandon Orchestra because of this Foundation I have made a career working on off Bradway Productions in New York City and have been accepted to numerous theatrical masters programs so I am here
today to ask why a district such as East Brunswick is looking to gut its arts program a school that promotes Excellence not only in academics and the Athletics but in the Arts why are you doing this the only answer I see is that there has been a gross mismanagement of
funds the TCU at Churchill alone are reasoned enough to be furious we're currently spending how much $6.1 million on garbage that doesn't serve anyone least of all the children attempting to learn in them meanwhile the district is
still how much was it 8 million in debt these trailers are hemorrhaging funds and for what a hypothetical addendum for a new high school well there's no addendum and there's no new high school so why are they still here it's not for
the kids I'll tell you that much I see them every day say if anything the actions of this board have shown gross negligence and complete incompetence when it comes to serving the interests of their students I would have hoped that in the face of all that is happening in public education right now East Brunswick would remain a shining
Beacon of Hope but no instead we have a decision that will the district knock it out of any competition in the state and strip it of its Prestige so what are we going to do Victor veski second highest paid superintendent in the state would you be willing to take a pay cut or are you
reaching for another raise huh Bernie if you aren't fired you should resign after this we should call you Bernie made off the way you've made off with all of the funding in this district and finally I'm going to need
the board of education's elected officials to do something about these foxes in your hen house because calling yourselves the financial committee is not going to help you need to you will be the ones paying for this transgression elected officials not the
superintendent come election thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you okay good okay good evening everyone my name is Heidi who and I'm a senior at East Brunswick High School and yes in a few months I'll be off to college and
I'm lucky enough where the budget cuts are not directly affecting me but throughout my years in this District I've had the privilege of having access to this amazing education I've taken for granted for too long and now it breaks my heart to see it taken away from these amazing capable
students but throughout my years in this District I've seen so much and I can't stay silent while the very opportunities that shaped me opportunities that I once took for granted are Stripped Away from the students who come after me I remember stepping into my first middle
school art class with Miss Gano not knowing if it would lead to my work um being displayed at the n pack I remember the excitement of picking up a Yola in fourth grade and 6 years later playing in the cjme mea Orchestra when I took stem one and two it changed the way I
saw the world and the career I wanted to pursue after school I became the longest standing member of Science Olympiad competing every year since sixth grade and winning first place in the state in my event right now I'm president of Art Club and National Art honor study every week we have passionate members ready to
show up ready to use their passions for a good cause right now we're making blankets for St Peter's Hospital for new mothers and girls who code started out as just another one just another club but it turned me into an advocate for gender equality in Tech pushing me to
join the national board of girl girl through code and started growing chapter here at evhs and then there were the electives that shaped me Beyond academics AP art in design with Miss gbus possibly the best class I've ever taken AP Computer Science with Miss nesi public speaking
with Mrs Hagen developing student Leaders with Miss Moran a class that she built from the ground up alongside with the late Miss Anderson these weren't just classes they were experienced that shaped who I am they gave me skills I'll carry for the rest of my life and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to
have these classes defunding the Arts cutting late buses from hamers and Churchill removing core electives and making clubs less accessible it's not just taking away programs it's taking away futures from these students their families and this entire Community we are not just numbers
on a test this school district Prides itself on raising well-rounded engaged and thoughtful students if these Cuts happen what message are we sending that creativity passion and Leadership don't matter that only certain students deserve access to these opportunities I look at the younger
students who spoke before me students who are bright talented and full of potential and I wonder what happens when we take these opportunities away from them what kind of Community are we building if we let that happen please don't take away Something Beautiful from students who are more than deserving of
it thank you for hearing my voice today thank you Heidi um Mary antono 17 Buckingham Drive good evening The Proposal of the changes to hamers shold is an Abomination to the education that our children deserve the education we're paying for the education
that shaped my own life every parent goal is is to provide their children with a better future than they had yet your actions are making hardworking parents feel as though they're failing in that mission we sacrifice we work hard we push our children to adjust all the while hoping that these changes will
somehow build their resilience but it's clear these constant poorly planned shifts only serve to strip our children of the opportunities that rightfully belong to them and to enable this District to continue to provide subpar Solutions if you can call them that for
our children know that we will continue to helplessly accommodate you so let me make it clear enough is enough no more half-hearted planning no more short-sighted budgeting no more decisions made with career advancement or convenience in mind what's being
proposed here is unacceptable and I will be joining Arena door too if this goes through have you consulted the teachers or building administrators the real experts before making sweeping changes Parts especially to this extent have their insights been valued or is this
just another top- down decision without input from those we who know our children best the response I've received so far has been disheartening well this is how other districts do it that's the problem at one point other districts look to us as a beacon of excellence and
education now we want to be like everyone else so let me make this clear if your plan is to make us like everyone else I suggest you go there because East bronswick is in a league of its own but I've decided to take one out of your playbook and take talk to comparable
districts to ours and I've learned a few things in my conversations in other districts they're not as topheavy with administrators those roles may be important but in a budget crisis they are viewed as luxuries in other districts there're not it's rare for
administrators to hold positions for 20 to 30 years Innovation simply isn't possible when people remain in one role for that long in other districts Boe members have a back and forth convers ation during their Boe meetings and they answer emails how about we start with
those things if we're looking to be like other districts while I appreciate that in recent weeks some board members and the board president have started engaging with the public thank you I feel compelled to remind you of one simple truth you are not employees of this District you are our neighbors we
you are a part of this community and you were elected to represent us and our children there seems to be a blur of lines maybe there's a psychological Factor because of how much time you spent with the administration and while it's essential to have a good relationship with them let me be clear
they report to you you are here to ensure this district is functioning in the best interest of the community you are here to ask the tough questions not just not in agreement to poorly conceived [Applause] time I'm sorry one second please um if
you're sit sitting on the floor can you just move over to just to make sure that we have a clear exit in the case of an emergency thank you I appreciate it I'm sorry to interrupt go ahead hello my name is Valentina Morales and I am a ninth grader who plays euphonium in
church Hill's honor honors wi Ensemble I was a former student at Balman Rowe and joined band in fourth grade and it has immensely impact my impacted my life for positively ever since band has improved my ability to organize my time problem solved efficiently and allowed me to
meet new people from from from across districts thanks to my amazing teachers Mr Becker Mr Bouvier M Miss vanzini and Mrs vanaman my music education has forever been improved I have also been given the opportunity to join all sorts
of experiences such as marching bands which have has immensely changed my view of people and Music Learning an instrument is a rare opportunity that not many people are fortunate enough to have however I was lucky enough to attend a school like East Brunswick and the opportunity was provided to me the
fact that the school board is even thinking of cutting music will affect education for East Brunswick schools for years to come according to the NM Foundation East Brunswick has an outstanding support of music education the board is
thinking of cutting this and taking away a once lifetime opportunity to be able to enroll in an award-winning music program this will affect students for years to to come thank you for your time thank you [Applause]
Valentina hi my name is Elliot mirov and I'm a student at Churchill Junior High School I'm a freshman hi it's 10 p.m. do you know where your priorities are anyone from New York will get that reference from late night TV around the
'90s and I actually brought one more property a joke that I have lost or I've seemed to lost anyways it would be a pilot G2 pen the same one you most likely use to sign all your
proposals and bills I had a little something prepared for tonight but I decided just to speak from the heart for all the atrocious sounds beating my eardrums tonight I absolutely am for the music program and that's what I came to speak on today since I have a um
multitude of friends participating in these programs I myself am a Lyricist singer multi-instrumentalist and a independent producer but I do not participate in these the school's music program for reasons that I do not think are important at this time I have a lot
of friends who come to me every day after class every day before class I get texts I get calls multiple times a day telling me band was amazing today I love my instrument you should come join band you should play this instrument you should play that instrument this this
will help you this will help you hear this will help you communicate I believe this as an instrumentalist myself I see the impact of instruments in everyone's everyday lives I have my little siblings playing instruments four of them by the way so they're contributing to the school districts in immense ways and so
to the Future Generation Um with all the cuts being made as well to lake buses courses languages I myself come from a family of immigrants from Russia to be specific meaning I speak Russian English and
multiple other languages and dialects since my father is from a completely different country even and in school I'm taking Spanish meaning I am more than a polyglot a lot more four to five languages already in addition to that I
do speak Ukrainian just a fun fact to throw in I'm also an alltime honor student and if you take away any of these programs it will severely impact the people getting an education fun fact honors is consider Ed a special education program
meaning that cutting honors or any um core courses at all would mean you're taking away from the special education population that you have in East [Applause] Brunswick furthermore sorry my bad furthermore I
come from a family where my parents work extremely hard and they work long hours to afford ease brunic where the tax rates are high the wallets are constantly getting bigger but being shrunken by property taxes inflation 10 seconds nine 8 seven and that is what
all of these band teachers and students hear when you say that you're going to take away their music program they hear their careers coming to a demise no matter how old they are thank you hello members of the Board of Education my name is John Mar of frosio I am a professional musician and an ebhs
graduate class of 2019 I am deeply disappointed to hear of the possible elimination of Music electives and Hammer shold and the fourth grade Orchestra program cutting music electives delays students opportunity to pursue their personal interests early on
sending a message that interests outside of academics are not worth having time in their class schedule if our district is to achieve excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts these Cuts create an imbalance towards one rather than enabling our students to achieve
excellence in all during my time in ebps I was involved in pretty much any music program I could get my hands on including the ones on The Chopping Block today it started with third and fourth grade choir and Orchestra but grew into District choir and Orchestra cjmea choir
and orchestra concert choir honors Tri and music Honor Society its concert Orchestra I could keep going um but I was also an honor student taking advanced math and English classes and
taking multiple APS alongside AP music from experience I know that our district makes excellence in academics and the Arts possible and I believe that well-funded and properly attended music programs at all levels of Education
encourage this kind of well-roundedness for our students personally the classical training and experience that I learned from all of that choir and Orchestra helped me get into the world-renowned B College of Music when I was a fourth grader at Lawrenceburg
Elementary School I picked up the viola for the first time and last Sunday I just played a concert in New York City with the East Coast's only lgbtq Orchestra when I was in eighth grade in Churchill I took world of digital music and started learning how to use
recording software for the first time today I am a recording engineer at a recording studio in Time Square the East FR School District helped make me the musician I am today not just because of the Early Education in music but because of all the
opportunities it gave me to pursue my musical interests and L I forget about the brilliant and hardworking outstanding music educators who do not deserve the quality of life changes that will come with these Cuts I am proud to come from a school
district that has such amazing alumni in the Arts my sister's friend from drama club are on Broadway and Back to the Future and on TV on 911 lonar my friends are in carnegi Hall performing I've had
work um in uh Lincoln Center performed we are a talented school district and I encourage you to nurture that not limit it thank you thank you hi I my name is Elina mzo I'm a fourth grader and next year I will be going
into hamers shold for fifth grade I was really excited to go to hamers shold but now since you might be cutting some electives I'm not that excited for going to it anymore and um my brother when he
went to hamers shold he had a lot of nice opportunities and he had a really great time and now he's in Churchill and he's still having a really great time but now he might lose opportunities from
getting these elective cuts and so will I and um next year when I go into this school a a lot of kids including me will not have these opportunities nice
opportunities to have electives and everything thank you thank you [Applause] Elina hi good evening my name is Maggie Georges Garfield Avenue East brunwick uh
thank you for sharing the history of state aid looking at the history of state aid it's clear that before 2023 East Brunswick was significantly uh receiving significantly less funding this year we are still receiving 37 million before 2022 we were getting under 25 million and that was the
highest before 2022 yeah our schools were running just fine so where did that extra money go if District if the district functioned well under the fiscal um year 2022 budget why not return to it instead of making these Cuts one of the biggest changes since
fiscal year 2022 was the fifth grade moving out of the elementary schools you also added trailers for capacity when we were clearly under capacity at that time and we still are so we don't need those trailers so these decisions don't add up financially and this so-called budget
crisis $1 million cut is half a percent half a percent of the budget okay are you telling me that in previous years the districts never saved up the 2% in reserves especially when we receiving ex so much more money post 2023 till 20 202
actually until this year even okay yes I understand that salaries and health benefits have increased but shouldn't those increases have been offset by tax adjustments and the revenues that you supposedly developed this past year another major issue is the constant shuffling of ela program it's funny CU
When I parked I saw the ELA parking signs how much money did you spend on those signs besides a playground I've experienced that program centralized and at the home schools and if you consider moving all those school programs to Bal mono I promise you won't be making more money people find it more convenient to
go to their home schools so whoever is making these decisions or these ideas should be held accountable because we need to be making better decisions all right right now the bman r is very important but I'm not going to discuss that this point time but realistically please remove that idea of making
battman R centralized Ela because if I have to go through all of rout 18 I live by the turn pack and I have to go through all of rout 18 to drop off my preschooler that's not happening I'm going to go to a different preschool and then there's a bigger issue if you keep cutting programs more students will leave for Charter programs
and when that happens you will face twice the problems lower enrollment and reduce funding instead of cutting student focused resources maybe we should be looking at cutting administrative costs at the Board of Ed I expect this board to come up with solutions that preserve the resources that the district has had for the last
20 years back even when we had half the state funding that we are currently receiving and please don't tell me that salaries have increased that 100% it's it there's no way okay and especially that includes keeping Balman row because closing Balman row would not just impact those families that are going to B mon
it would impact the whole district 10 seconds we need solutions that prioritize students not shortsighted cuts that will only make things worse thank you thank you Magie hello my name is AKA Min aala and as you can see I've been coming from the cjmea concert I am a proud member of the
East Brunswick marching band and the East Brunswick Wind Ensemble as well as the German Honor Society and I am currently German Honor Society vice president both of these aspects of my education have impacted my identity so much and you can see that in
this audience there are so many kids whose these programs have created their life I was able to take German and band and not just focus on academics and make a new life for myself and by cutting
these programs you would be depriving so many children of this same opportunity and just because you may not have this same experience with band or these German programs that have contributed to your identity doesn't mean that you should deprive it of the the future
Generations it is your responsibility to keep these opportunities because kids and parents come to East Brunswick for these opportunities thank you thank you dear board members uh my name is Dimitri slinsky uh at 211 manahan here
in Brunswick my daughter is a junior at abhs who is also a member of a German Honor Society National Honor Society and Varity athlete among other clubs uh we are deeply concerned about the proposed cards to his Brunswick
music and foreign language programs these are not just mere electives they're cornerstones of well-rounded education fostering creativity critical thinking and Global awareness for your students music strengthens cognitive skills provides
essential avenues for self-expression foreign languages proficiency is indispensable in this world and it opens doors to very diverse opportunities for your students and critically uh these cuts at the elementary level effectively would
effectively close the door on the later language acquisition for many students as early exposure is very vital East Brunswick High School boasts an exceptional German program Testament to the district's commitment to Excellence that should remain and it's
recognized as a p School part of the um schools partners of the future initiative and it stands as a leader not only in New Jersey but Nationwide being recognized as one of the just 14 such schools in the country these prestigious
recognitions are not just merely accolades they represent years of dedication and hard work that will be just wasted if you cut these programs um they will also threaten our P accreditation and jeopardize vital
finding that provides our students with invaluable study abroad opportunities and stens it's also crucial to acknowledge that East Brunswick esteemed School System including these very programs is a primary reason many families like mine
chose to reside here many years ago and these Cuts risk undermining our students potential and jeopardize the very program s that make our schools exceptional we cannot sacrifice essential programs for short-term budget
Solutions we must think of a long-term budget Solutions and invest in our children's future and ensure that they receive comprehensive education that they deserve especially given the high taxes that we pay here we care for our Town's future and urge the board to
reconsider these Cuts protect the music protect the foreign language programs and the future of his brsw students and the reason many of us choose to call this town home thank you thank you oh hi my name is Kevin pan I am a
senior at the East brunsick High School thank you and for the last 12 years of my life I have been preached to by the adults around me to excel in the academics and arts because that's what East brunck is famous for right and at the risk of sounding Nan I'd like to
think I've done that I've uh for as long as I can remember I've gone through the gauntlet of honors classes AP classes AP tests which I've noted you are very proud of us for taking what 1,600 AP tests last year which I find is funny
because you by cutting access to foreign language uh classes in our uh junior high school and middle and Upper Elementary School inhibits our chances to take those AP tests that you're so proud of and for Arts boy I could go on for a while I've I'm
in our I'm currently in our uh honors chamber orchestra and honors concert choir which I've been told hasn't happened for a long time I've been with our uh uh chamber orchestra when we went to a festival and received a perfect rating for our performance wow that was
an honor and I'm surrounded by so many peers that are phenomenal in these Arts programs I I've been told by my dad who's on the board right there how wonderful the Church of honors choir was when they went to perform for you guys so I think
that it is incredibly disrespectful and as a teenager I know a lot about that I think it is incredibly disrespectful for you guys to give us heaps and heaps of praise for our achievements in the Arts and in academics when you are also when
you're also clearly not valuing them enough when you choose to cut them I remember you saying that these are the Arts are not the first thing you go to looking to cut for your budget but clearly you don't value them that much since they're on a chopping block right now thank
you thank you Kevin um just just for transparency yes that is my son um uh he he called me out uh I also again for the sake of transparency I had zero input wouldn't
what he just said Michael msto 27 Colonial Drive good evening a few weeks ago I stood before the board urging reconsideration of potential cuts to middle school and freshman sports today
I once again am speaking out not just to encourage the board to refrain from cutting programs or curriculum which include the Arts band and language but also to consider potential
solutions by attending these meetings I've obtained a good understanding of our budget constraints and where we obtain our Revenue although this is a big part of the funding for our schools it does not need to be the only source
of our funding it seems as if there will be changes to the due structure for programs and sports which may be helpful we all know we have sports organizations within the township baseball soccer
football Etc we also have dance and arts programs through several prominent schools as we think about our community as a whole I see many opportunities for these programs to help continue their
support through sponsorship advert M other ways for fundraising to help keep these school programs alive as we have heard from the many students this evening elimination of the Arts language
or Sports will have longlasting impacts on our town families will move out of the area seeking other towns that have schools which offer these programs families will not move in into the area
because other schools won't will have these programs but also families will seek other educational alternatives for their children other than our public school system if we continue down this
path This is Our Moment to think differently and find other ways to procure funding for these programs not doing this will likely have a longlasting impact to the
township and possibly the composition of who we as a town elect to represent us so let's take The Road Less Traveled together and let's see how we can turn this challenge into a success story
thank you thank you Mike thank you very much I'm gai D I'm from one Swallow Court and I want to thank the board I know it's a thankless job I work with a lot of boards so thank you for the time and listening to everybody I want to thank the children
they did a great job and most importantly all the teachers that I see here from Sydney from Central Elementary and hammerel and now in Church Hill so I want to thank the teachers so I stand before you today to passionately advocate for the
preservation of our music programs music is not just a class it is a vital part of our children's education fostering confidence compassion and providing an essential outlet for stress the bonds formed through music extend beyond the classroom creating a
supportive Community allow me to share a deeply personal story from my un that underscores the transformative power of m music education my son who went through East brunwick who is now 25 began his musical journey in our school
district by learning the viola when the school needed some someone to play the upright base he bravely stepped forward through the unwavering dedication of his teachers and the encouragement of his peers he not only mastered the upright Bas but also learned to play the
electric bass guitar and other instruments this experience ignited a lifelong passion for music and shaped his character in ways that words cannot fully capture my daughter Sydney who spoke before started with percussion in
fourth grade during Co initially she wasn't sure about continuing in sixth sixth grade because she felt isolated being pulled out of class without a sense of belonging to a group or team music was always an option in our house as my husband is also a
musician who went to Berkeley College of Music and currently teaches in colleges and works on films and television we encourage Sydney to stick with it for one more year promising to respect her wishes if she chose not to continue
Sydney decided to persevere and today she is a proud member of the East Brunswick marching band honors percussion and is training with another very talented person from East Brunswick to try out next year for region this
remarkable transformation is solely due to the current curriculum and the exceptional teaching of our music instructors their dedication and collaborative environment they Foster Have Been instrumental in her growth the music department as a whole is
unparalleled with staff encouraging each other assisting across all grades in schools and creating a nurturing environment where students Thrive one of my proudest moments as a parent was witnessing students from our district complimenting students from another from
another school at our home show and telling the other students from another school how great they did so I think with that that just speaks volume I'm one the school thank you very much thank you Gil well I'm Vincent senson 18 High View
Road think I can offer you a I'm sorry can you repeat your name Vincent senson thank you you're welcome I think I can offer you a little bit of unique perspective I'm in my 22nd year as a middle school band director and I've also taught in both both formats the
current one and the far inferior one you are proposing in the current system that you have it really is perfect you have both Ensemble and with a second instructor you have
the opportunity for lessons all contained and nothing being pulled out from the other except within the program itself what you are proposing is going to put stress on both your academic teachers and the Arts teachers whether you want to acknowledge
it or not there are going to be some teachers if you go through with this next year year who are going to not exactly go along with it you will have some that will say no you're not going for your pull out lesson we have to do
this that is unacceptable the only way that that will work if we have to go down this path is that it comes from the top that you have a mandate that no PRI no pullout lesson can be obstructed in any way I don't
want to go toward this path I think what we have now is what we need to do as a professional that is my opinion so I want you to take that into consideration because not only will you have teachers fighting against other
teachers for student time you are putting the students in the middle and that is not fair to the student and I guarantee you if that happens to my daughter next year if she comes if we go down this path that none of us really want to go down I promise you the day my
daughter Alyssa comes home says Dad I wasn't allowed to go to my pull out lesson today I'm not calling the administration at Hughes Dr veski I'm calling you because unless it comes from you that will be an
issue you do not want that phone call thank you thank you Vincent any other students students okay okay howdy my name is Bobby Mahoney 110 Applegate Lane
I'm a singer songwriter recording artist touring musician music educator ebacs graduate class of 2013 I currently have four nieces and nephews in the East brck Public School System first I want to express my sincere appreciation for the time and effort you're putting into Gathering feedback from East BRS Community doing
your job I recognize this decisions are not easy which I appreciate the transparency as a proud product of the East Fric music program I feel compelled to speak out against these proposed cuts to our schools especially those targeting music and arts and foreign language education these programs are not just
optional electives um they are essential programs to a well-rounded education music and arts Foster creativity discipline teamwork academic excellence and eliminating these opportunities would be a devastating loss for our students in our community as a whole East BR has been long known for its exceptional
schools and families choose to live here and come here because of the high quality education their children receive that's why my parents moved here in 1999 uh weakening our music and arts programs sends troubling message about our priorities if we allow these programs to be cut we diminish the very things that
make these friends Wick special I know firsthand the transformative music education can be it was through East Brunswick music program that I discovered my passion for music a passion that shaped my life and my career these opportunities I had to participate in concert band from fifth grade trombone Wind Ensemble jazz band
AP music drama club and other other musical activities gave me invaluable skills that expanded beyond music itself I learned leadership perseverance uh collaboration from many of the wonderful Educators in this room uh shout outs to Dr sakad Mrs vanzini Dr Z Mr z Mr Becker
uh Mr stir Mr perz Mr Barry Mr to Mr pry anyone else I missed Madame Chang without these experiences uh I would not be standing here uh I would not have had this path in my life how many other future musicians Educators wouldn't or creative thinkers would have be denied the same chance if these programs are
eliminated I'm not alone many of my P sorry I I as a singer not a public speaker I'm not alone many of my past classmates are continuing to continuing to shine on stages speakers and screens all over the world there's something in the water in East Brunswick we should be nurturing that not stifling it current
and future students deserve the same if not more opportunities than I had certainly not less um what's really troubling okay actually music education is not about playing an instrument performing on stage it strengthens cognitive abilities improves academic performance and fosters emotional well-being everyone
has already discussed many of these things why music is great uh cutting these things would be terrible um also Foreign Language Fair View really late buses really what's troubling about these Cuts disappoint certainly falls on uh students other areas of the budget
remain untouched 10 seconds yeah uh I suggest you all pick up an instrument sing time in your free time thank you for your time and consideration thank you Brian harkavy 17 Quail Run uh thank you for letting me speak today my name is Brian harkavy I'm an alumnist
of the East Brunswick Band program a fellow classmate of Mr Mahoney and AP music uh a music educator and a lifelong Community member of East Brunswick I rise today like many others to address my concerns over the cuts being proposed by the Board of Ed and Dr veski to the
East Brunswick music programs between cuts from state aid and the continued siphoning of funds from Charter Schools this budget shortfall will not be easy to address however where I teach marching band they are facing a higher budget shortfall that would make East Brunswick look like a rounding
error as public servants and public employees it is your duty to make these hard decisions in ways that hopefully cause the least amount of damage to the student population the Draconian cuts to the program are short-sighted and will leave to devastating loss for all East Brunswick students in times like this I
think of the fame CEO of Nintendo sataro iada when Nintendo was facing large losses due to the failure of the Wii U many other companies would have chosen massive layoffs he played the long game he realized that employee retention was
the most important uh was most important for delivering quality products instead of ruining the livelihoods of his many employees he is CEO chose to take a 50% pay cut he knew that retaining Talent was how to get the best results in the
long run now Nintendo is trading near records highs and Reporting record profits this massive comeback would not have been possible if iada had chosen layoffs a school is not a business and a school should not be run like a business
nor am I suggesting anyone take a 50% cut however I think the lessons of playing the long game and ensuring Talent is held at all costs is universal cutting highly qualified teachers will be a net loss for this District
decimating the rehearsal time of students will lead to poorer results and low retention East Brunswick's award-winning music programs would clearly suffer I would have suffered Bandit hamers shold gave me the outlet I needed
to express myself and work on my creativity I came through East Brunswick schools at the height of the 2008 financial crisis and the Christy budget cuts I watched as a once successful Band program was suddenly crumbling under the
pressure of budget cuts and Staffing Cuts despite the amazing work of the dedicated teachers back in 2010 I stood before this board as a sophomore at ebhs to beg the board to spare more cuts to the arts program I stand before you
again and ask you the same I beg you on behalf of the students like me who needed abandon their schedules who thrived in that environment in a creative music program do not go through with these Cuts thank you for allowing me to speak today thank you Brian
deep the Ravi 28 H tole award um so I would like to read you today a letter written by my classmate who is also a class of 2013 at abhs named Cindy Zang who couldn't be here today because she lives in Washington DC she says my name is Cindy Zang I work
primarily in market research but have a thriving side business as a violinist violist performing in weddings churches musical theater Productions and Community orchestras I perform not only in the DC Maryland and Virginia region but also travel back to the tri-state
area while managing a full-time career I would not be where I am today in and outside of music with East Brunswick's robust instrumental music program I am very very disturbed by the proposed cuts to the district's music program they are not just trims to extracurricular
activities they are cuts that will set the district back behind its peers Ensemble classes starting in Middle School are a nationwide standard and this proposed cut of Middle School ensemble classes will set East Brunswick far behind the standard I say this as someone who picked music back up after a
5-year Hiatus following High School it is difficult if not impossible to obtain proficiency as an adult without a good foundation starting from elementary school private oneon-one lessons are not enough they don't teach the necessary skills of listening to your fellow players of keeping Rhythm and of
important skills that go beyond music communication empathy and open-mindedness are all easily taught and experienced through serious exposure to music these are values that we desperately need to teach the Next Generation using the excuse of a budget crisis due to State funding and lowering everyone to
the lowest common denominator runs exactly counter to East Brunswick's coveted status as a Blue Ribbon School especially in this current day and age postco and with a federal government in chaos it is more important than ever that strong school districts like the one I attended support it students
gutting a popular and successful program is the opposite of support it is a lazy short exited move that will ultimately cost East bronswick so much more than it saves it reeks of short-termism and budget line decision-making I'm not missing words here because I ardently believe the same programs that supported
me as a student should be available to those that come after me and it upsets me deeply that cutting these programs was even ever even on the table please work with the community to identify a compromise this budget c will cost students and the district their Futures even those who have moved on but remember their Hometown are watching
closely so that was some words from Cindy I would also like to speak personally um about the cuts to the language program I was someone who benefited um when I was in school the language program started in third grade and I stayed with Spanish from third
grade all the way to the high school and I will tell you as a person who did not take any Spanish in college even now as an adult I am able to use it I'm able to use it in foreign countries in New York City and I'm even able to use it in East Brunswick itself to connect to other
people and I've tutored groups of people that attended other schools and they are not at the same level even when they are thank you thank you Kathy kennes nine wsh Court good evening um while I have been a proud
staff member at hammerel since 2004 and also very proud of the students that spoke so beautifully and passionately tonight I am speaking in my most important role as a parent of two Frost students as both a longtime educator and District parent I have a deep
understanding of what makes Hughes special as well as the challenges it presents budget cuts should impact the fewest number of students teachers and programs possible however the proposed changes at Hughes will impact every single student in our district in lower
elementary the special classes serve an essential educational purpose while also giving students a much needed break from core academ mics research consistently shows that elementary and middle school students benefit significantly from structured breaks improving Focus
Behavior social skills and overall academic performance the proposed hu schedule eliminates electives and condenses fragments of the current cycle classes into what are now labeled as specials my biggest concern is the
incredibly rigorous and developmentally inappropriate demands this schedule will place on 10 and 11y olds foreign language and health should not be considered specials these are academic courses that require studying and testing they do not provide the
cognitive breaks young children need to refocus 315 minutes of heavy academics with only a short break for lunch and recess is not acceptable and let's not forget we don't even have a playground Here For Recess the remaining Cycles SL specials
are so drastically reduced in time that they will be stripped of meaning meaning F substance foreign language choices eliminated instructional time drastically cut ban Orchestra and chorus ensembles eliminated devastating the music program and having a ripple effect
at Churchill in the high school as a Hu Hughes teacher I must also speak to the impact this will have on our staff losing so many full-time teachers from one building is catastrophic and will significantly harm staff morale hamers
shold has already endured major upheaval in the past 3 years during its transition from a middle school to an upper elementary school now we Face yet another restructuring forcing students and teachers to continuously adapt to new schedules curricula and an ongoing
identity crisis over whether we function as an elementary or middle school the proposed schedule eliminates teachers common planning period an essential time for collaboration lesson planning and curriculum development since last year's budget cuts eliminated summer PD this
time has been critical for ensuring high quality instruction without the PD we're going to have a very overwhelming year for the sake of my own children and all my uh future children please reconsider the changes at Hughes our children
deserve better thank you Cath uh Steven liell one Swallow Court um I want to preface my points tonight by saying that I 1,00% support the music program here at East Brunswick I think that Dr ves's point about the amount of students that would be affected by the
budget cut which doing the math is roughly around 10% of the student population at East Brunswick and the attendance tonight shows the importance of such programs to the district and just how material this cut is as an alumni of this District who was a student during the Christy fund cuts and
a 2020 graduate during covid I understand the feeling like you are losing something but I know one thing is for sure we have found our way as a district to get where we are today and I definitely feel that we can get to that point again and even further Over time however rather than
come up here to repeat what we already know about the budget cuts I wanted to come up here to to give a possible solution or two an idea for the budget that I had that I hope can be considered came from the slideshow presented earlier and it is regarding play uh
payto playay for athletic teams I'm not not sure how the Athletics funding exactly works but the idea that I had was to make all sports a pay to play and to try to reallocate the funds saved from them to the music program that serves that 10% of the student
population if it's not already like that if they are all pay to play then possibly raising those fees a tiny bit would help too additionally I think it would be smart to raise fees for JM Pac and other space rentals I know the demand for these spaces are very high so
this idea would raise Enterprise revenues to help raise additional funding for these important programs in our district lastly I know this might be unpopular but after reviewing your past two audits before tonight hearing that different school districts in our own
State alone are having to make drastic changes to their district and as an upcoming graduate this may with my master's degree in accounting and an aspiring CPA I want to say thank you guys to all of you for your hard work your dedication to the community by
hearing all of us out and by trying your best to be financially responsible with our taxpayer funds while you are here trying to keep our district the same as much as possible I can 100% appreciate that effort and I would like to think that my neighbors would think the same
as a future accountant who is currently studying government accounting I do know the difficulty that you are being faced with is not within the town itself but is from a higher level from our state representatives um a message that I want to send out to my neighbors um is to take what one of
the board members said before go to the state hearings as he mentioned before go and send your concerns to your elected State officials you put your trust in them as well to do right by you and your children uh this board has expressed their want and desire to keep everything
status quo tonight but it is getting cut short by state regulation making our board look like the bad guy and forcing them to make these these hard decisions at the cost of your children in their Ed in their education thank you for your
time and listening to our concerns thank you thank you Stephen hello my name is Samuel schmidley I am a senior at East mck High School um I was the percussion captain for the 2024 marching band season um I'm
currently the drum set player in the High School Musical um I'm going to band on my own a couple of them are here uh we go around New Jersey and play uh at senior homes uh just to bring the love of music into the world um I just came
back from a concert I thought this was important to be at um I'm in the Jazz Ensemble I me I'm every Ensemble um I just think that I I came into the East Brunswick Band program pretty late in comparison to everyone else I was new to the
district I didn't start in band I came in seventh grade I didn't do band for two years my my first in class last per like day in band was nth grade um so I don't I've always heard stories about Mr Becker and I was always so envious I was like oh this sounds like so much fun why couldn't I experience that like I was
like that's not fair I was I was doing whatever and they got they got to experience Mr Becker you sound like so much fun I'm so jealous but it's not even like music doesn't even it's not just about learning music in music class the right now so many of
the important people in my life they they were the people who were the people I'm envious of they were the people in these programs when they were young they're the people who were able to gain these skills and it's not just skills about being good at your scales or like knowing good rhythms they're they're people I aspire to be the reason I'm in
in the position I am today where I'm able to play in all these ensembles I'm able to have positions in leadership is because I look up to the people that I surround myself with and by eliminating music at these lower levels you're completely eliminating these future models that people are going to look up
to and aspire to be so I think that's important thank you s hi my name is Chris romanic I live at 26 Buck Road uh since I graduated in 2015 from East Brunswick I have gone on to become
a professional musician as well as my younger brother who is currently on a tour an Off Broadway tour with The Adams Family uh my journey started in 2007 with Miss vanzini I started on baritone before switching to Tuba tenor in bass
trombone in high school and French horn in college which I still play uh in my time in East bronswick I was in the concert band win Ensemble Jazz Ensemble Orchestra marching band and Men's Choir to say that music had an effect on my life would be an
understatement uh my favorite performance to date that I have been in was when I was a junior at uh East Brunswick we played with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra it it was absolutely just a life-changing experience you
don't get that anymore after you leave school uh so I went on to study French horn in trombone in college uh which you know it it all comes back to this if I didn't have my love for music started
here I wouldn't be where I am in my life um and another thing is ensembles such as the ones I listed you don't really have that outside of a school system whether it's an a high school or college you can't get that education
anywhere outside of a school system it's tough you know if you become a professional to the extent of playing in let's say the New York philarmonic it's more difficult to get into that than it is to get a professional sports job uh these jobs are held for lifetimes so
it's without the education that I got here I I couldn't imagine what my musical Journey would have been uh on top of that I found out tonight about the language arts Cuts uh with you know Italian German and all of that and I got
to say if I didn't have my uh education with Italian I never could have spoken it with my Nona who has recently passed away and you know it's just that's not something you get from home on top of that Dr Braun I still have the slide
whistle that you confiscated from me in 2011 and thank you thank you good evening my name is Zoe Deo uh 496 Danbury Lane um tonight I wanted to share my perspective as a um music
education major and now a music educator um in a neighboring District um my first experience with East Brunswick's music program was in 2021 when I was placed in Central Elementary for my clinical observations and even from my first day um it was clear that the students in
East Brunswick received tot notot music education from incredibly talented and passionate teachers like those sitting to my right um from beginning in general music in kindergarten and from all the stories I've heard from all the students tonight all the way through high school and Beyond um and you know throughout my
time I've continuously encountered East Brunswick's excellence in music throughout my studies meeting East brunic Orchestra students at CJ honors and region orchestras attending clinics presented by these Educators and most recently hearing East Brunswick's incredible performance at the njmea conference this past
February yeah congrats to you guys if you're still here um it's incredibly clear that this is a program that has been built and developed years and years by teachers who invest and stay for their careers and fight for the program like they are here tonight um East
Brunswick High School according to your website is currently recognized as an NJ model School for the Arts and is incredibly more than deserving of this title based on your achievements but the proposed don't reflect this distinction at all um not only does East Brunswick have one of the top school music programs in
the state but we also have the state's first professional Municipal Orchestra the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra this Orchestra exists yes um because of our Town's love for the Arts across all ages and provides access to Quality orchestral music amateur ensembles and
music education and it's clear where our Town's Collective values lie and yet music is the first to go when it comes to our schools I am incredible proud to be one of the members of this Orchestra but at the heart of this group are the East brunic music teachers these teachers are some of the most dedicated hardworking and selfless individuals
I've had the honor of knowing they are leaders in professional organizations they are professional musicians and are some of the best music educators in the state that I've had the honor and privilege of learning from the proposed Cuts would mean that a number of these Educators would lose their positions and move to other districts are posibly
other careers altogether I myself was on the job market not long ago the music education World in New Jersey is small people talk word gets around and a move this big would change East Bruns rep East Brunswick's reputation forever quality music educators are already hard to find and these proposed Cuts would
repel many potential applicants no one wants to work somewhere where their job is on the chopping block at the end of each school year I understand tough decisions have to be made and no one will be happy with the outcome but as someone who is currently building a brand new Orchestra program East brunic program is the dream it's what I'm
modeling my program after I urge you please preserve the gem that is your music program once these cuts are made there's almost certainly no going back to what it is now thank you thank you Zoe alosa orus 754 Cranberry Road can
you repeat your name please Ali osores thank you you're welcome I chose to live in to live in East Brunswick because of its Blue Ribbon Schools it's the reason so many families move here we want the best for our kids but over the past few years decisions have been made that are slowly chipping away at the education
our children deserve once again balancing the budget means cutting teachers and programs the budget needs to be looked at differently ask yourself this are you too topheavy are we utilizing what we have can we utilize what we have in a different way can we
get grants to help with programs can we ask parents to pay to play I know you said that you are but we can do more um we ask our students to think outside the box and come up with Solutions you guys should too cutting programs and teachers year after year is not a real solution it's a
short-term fix that will have long-term consequences for our students what happens next year and the year after that it's not sustainable to Simply make Cuts every single year my son has been lucky enough to take electives like art and Robotics at
Hughes that have truly sparked something in him these classes weren't just something extra they gave him the chance to explore to be creative and to find what he loves what happens when future students like my third grade daughter who by the way is in choir chorus and absolutely loves
it um who don't get those opportunities Court classes alone can't provide everything our children need to thrive and Cycles serve as a great introduction but don't allow for enough time to dive deeper into content and it's not just electives research shows that the best
time for kids to learn a language is before age 10 by fourth grade but instead of setting them up for success this budget proposal makes it harder by delaying language learning until 7th grade why are we taking away something that could benefit our kids for the rest
of their lives every decision we make now is shaping our children's future how will they be successful when their education has been Whitted down year after year these choices don't just affect today they will impact our kids
for years to come and it's unacceptable cutting programs and teachers is not the answer we need a sustainable long-term solution because our kids deserve more not less and we owe it to them to do better thank
you thank you Tatiana Jordan 27 North Drive it is deeply disappointing that this District continues to harm students by cutting programs and reducing teaching staff the Educators in this District are among the most dedicated and talented
Professionals in the county and state thank you they work tirelessly every day to support our children nurture their academic success build meaningful relationship with families and provide unwavering guidance at every level our children love and respect their teachers
these are the people who leave a lasting impression on them there's been a lot of discussion about enrollment and the potential staff Cuts due to downsizing sections for example it was mentioned that reducing the number of kindergarten sections from 4 to 3 assuming that 21 kids per class is manageable overlooks
the reality in my own experience my child's kindergarten class last year had 24 students each with varying educational behavior and language needs now imagine trying to teach 25 5-year-olds under these conditions
meeting curriculum standards helping them navigate how to behave in school fostering empathy for their peers collecting data keeping lessons engaging and communicating with parents all while making all while making each child feel like the most special person in the room
Mr Julian while 21 kindergarteners may seem like a small increase from the average class size of 16 as you presented last meeting I assure you this change is significant managing such an environment effectively presents considerable challenges for both Educators and students neither you nor I
could realistically even survive a full day in that setting if Elementary education isn't your jam cuz it's not mine either let's go to Church Hill where 507th graders are packed into a single classroom learning how to play an instrument and read musical notes if the co teaching model is asked in such an environment
maintaining classroom management alone would be daunting let's not even talk about delivering meaningful instruction I would venture to say that neither of us would find these scenarios manageable or conducive to Student Success and this does not even address the safety concerns for large classes lockdowns
fire drills emergency situations Mr Juliana you had ample time to anticipate and address potential budgetary issues you are aware of Staff salary increases the likelihood of not receiving state aid and the rising cost of benefits to Now find ourselves in such a deficit resorting to last minute
reactionary Cuts instead of proactively exploring all options starting last year is both shortsighted and irresponsible this Administration must lead by example freeze your overly generous administrative salaries for 3 years to show us the community and your teachers
that you truly care about them though this may not solve all the issues we as parents community members hope for it would go a long way in showing us that you actually care about us our teachers and our children even if it only saves two teaching jobs those two teaching jobs can make a difference in the lives
of our children thank you good evening board my name is Pamela L nine Parson Road the proposed cuts to the music and arts program mean stripping 1,000 students out of our 8,000 student population of an essential part of their education these programs
Fosters critical skills that help students thrive in an increasing competitive world including brain development emotional expression social skills creativity the list is endless Mr good and Miss DNA's exceptional teachings have literally
saved lives and they're not even doctors uh I want to know have we truly considered the long-term effects these Cuts will have on the current and the future generations and are we exploring our alternative solutions to support
these key areas of development that we are stripping from our children by REM removing the music and language programs instead of cutting the program we should be looking at ways to generate Revenue such as possibly charging for admissions for the concerts selling
digital recordings of the performance selling flowers send out an email everyone can come up with one generate Revenue generating idea and send it back to you there are so many solutions that can help generate the necessary funds while preserving the opportunity unities for
the music department to survive we cannot afford to take these away from our students let's work together to save to save the music and the arts for the future La uh next thing late bus I want to know what's the safeguards that we're
going to be putting in place for the student safety with eliminating the late buses especially with the US national average of missing children's being 2,300 per day kind of alarming I want to make sure that our kids are safe if you're going to take that away from them
also I'd like to know what's the next programs that we will be cutting with the increasing decline in funding it's to be expected that more programs will be cut and I'd like to know so I could properly prepare so I am very invested in my children's
educations final thought I have for you a child that is ill-prepared is set up for failure I want you to think about that as you strip the our children's programs that support key and their core development it is very very important
and you have that power apparently now um thank you thank you pamel hi Rachel O'Neal 15 Carter Road none of these programs that are being cut um there's no good situation
they're all invaluable programs to our children I have a daughter involved in Orchestra theater went to Bal Monroe my son's involved in sports and is going in the high school where there are going to be you know a myriad of cuts apparently for electives so none of these are good and I recognize that the board has some
difficult decisions to make let me remind the board that according to the New Jersey Board School Association it is your responsibility to understand understand the implications and changes of budgetary
cuts at the last meeting I was incredibly Disturbed when um there weren't numbers given and I applaud Dr Figaroa Dr pan and Dr Braun for asking specific questions how many students are going to be affected by the orchestra
how what is the percentage of students involved in the electives our business administrators either didn't know or chose not to share the information he didn't have the numbers that represent many students and staff many of whom we heard speak so eloquently tonight in
fact when Dr Braun asked how many staff will be cut she was scolded and with uh brushed off with an I don't know that's insulting to the Educators in this district and they are the heart and soul of this District speaking of the Educators in this District I am tired of
seeing the salaries as a shock it's not a shock you negotiated a 5-year contract that's the board the business office and the ebea you all negotiated that maybe some of you not sitting on the board now but that's a process that is one area
you can prepare ahead of time I was excited to see that there are some programs we're cutting that aren't going to affect students and staff for instance Genesis or Naviance I forget which one $4,600 that's a little bit in a $2
million b or $200 million budget but that could save a coach okay that's that's not small by any means what I was really disturbed by was the 120,000 of credit card fees were acre annually and when asked how long have we been doing
that I quote I don't know a really long time so is that 5 years is that half a million dollars is it a million dollars let me remind the board it is your responsibility to oversee the financial management of this District don't wait until we're in budget crisis to start
asking these questions we should not be using we should not be having any wasteful spending of this kind please continue Dr Figaroa Dr Brun and the rest of you Dr pan to ask those tough questions look for Creative Solutions the as we as we heard the
state this is not getting any better 10 seconds so you have time to make these changes please do it for us we can do better in this District thank you thank you Cather oh Katherine Tang 137 answorth Avenue I'm a parent of children
at both Hughes and at Churchill also alumni class of 2000 um in addition to my several emails and questions I also have another perspective to provide today the perspective of your current fifth grader at Hughes I'm sorry I'm sorry this is just okay echoing the thoughts of
current fifth graders at Hughes from tonight please consider that if proposed budget cuts remain in place your average current fifth grader will have adjusted to an AB schedule for this calendar year 2425 have to adjust back to an elementary style schedule for 20 25 26
and then they would go right back to an AB 85 minute block style scheduling for calendar year 27 this affects not only one child but the entire graduating class of 2032 furthermore the specific set of
budget cuts that if they remain in place is a major pivot point for the future trajectory of academic success in E brunwick these are not just words there's a reason for this uproar look at here at here who is upset students are upset teachers are upset parents are
upset I commend the children who were here today to speak out against these Cuts because at the end of the day they do not get a vote on this budget and they are the ones most affected by your vote so I must implore the board to find an alternative budget solution with
minimal direct student impact thank you for your time thank you Anthony klada I'm the k6 math supervisor and the president of the PSI good evening while the East Brunswick principal and supervisor Association understands the dire budget
Gap that our district faces we are disappointed and concerned that four supervisors which is more than 10% of our 37 members are proposed to be reduced for the upcoming school year these Cuts while small in number will still have a significant impact on curriculum and teacher support
throughout the district East Brunswick has nearly 88,200 students enrolled in over 11 schools with about 40 teachers per grade level in grades K to four about 35 teachers per grade level at Hughes and about 40 teachers per subject matter at Churchill and high school that's the core content areas the
proposed Cuts would reduce the number of Super supervisors across the district that can support these teachers in these many classrooms and will surely affect um support in our state tested subject areas while the positions would be reduced the work Still Remains the
reduced staff would need to pick up between 70 to 90 observations and summaries that each supervisor normally covers this is in addition to the Myriad of other duties such as holding meetings coordinating curriculum finding tutors for students who need support representing the department of parent
kns hiring staff designing Department teaching schedules um setting leveled course criteria and handling parent phone calls and emails our supervisors have also presented at parent universities served on school committees and presented at professional
organizations around the state of New Jersey but in addition to this work what will be truly lost are curriculum and department leaders that have built their departments Embrace new technologies establish professional relationships with their staff and are wholly
interested in the delivery of their Department's curriculum and programs just as teachers enjoy working with students there is nothing like watching a novice teacher grow into a highly effective educator and helping that happen this cannot simply be replaced
and a loss of these supervisors will affect the level of support that our great teachers will receive next year and in future years again the East Brunswick principles and supervisors understand that we are in budget crisis mode however these Cuts while they may look good on paper and
add up to a needed number will have far-reaching and detrimental effects on the level of support that our teachers need and deserve when they work with our students we ask that you reconsider these cuts to our unit to better allow us to carry out our simple and fundamental mission to help teachers
teach and students learn thank you thank you algra Sidler 12 South Woodland Avenue uh last year I sat in this Auditorium hearing how Rising costs were a given and continued cuts to state aid were likely and I'm now left wondering
how all of this time was squandered how could addressing this scenario not be the primary goal of this board to most this would indicate a need to immediately commence aggressive planning and I'm not saying physically saving money I'm saying making plans if it's
redistricting then where's the plan somebody asked and we don't have enough time to do it the simple fact that students have already selected classes for next year classes that will no longer exist under current proposals paints a different picture at last week's PTA meeting a question about
future years was laughed off by the board president who then revealed that goals are not set by the board the questions are endless having a flawed State funding formula and the mismanagement of the district are not not mutually exclusive we hear that thought was put
into these suggestions but when important questions are posed regarding enrollment and course offerings were met with deafening silence and board members seem to be learning about these proposals at the last meeting which we now know to be true but we don't want to hear that's how it's done because that's
not planning planning involves forethought and a concept of sustainability things we aren't even hearing now as Dr Braun asked I think we deserve to know how much time the principal of Hughes was given to produce suggestions and how it's possible that questions regarding the function of
restructured programs at Church Hill were met with the answer they would receive pullout lessons I guess guesses are unacceptable with all this time to plan why are we guessing going back a bit at the December 19th meeting an
anticipated decrease in state aid was addressed however that concern was coupled with increasing enrollment specific to the new developments it was stated at that time that current actual enrollments had already surpassed predictions for 2026 to 2027 by
21% and as of that day the bulk of new enrollments from the development were said to be in grades K through 4 but yet on March 3rd proposed reductions in elementary teachers were Justified due to linear projections and a decrease in enrollment it was stated that would
result in 21 kids to a Kindergarten class in Lawrence Brook for example I have a child in Lawrence Brook and this is particularly concerning to me as last year it was asserted that there were 16 kids in our kindergarten classes when as you heard my child was one of 23 with
one teacher and no support staff while there were empty classrooms in the school if 16 kids were actually 23 or 24 what does 21 really mean 10 seconds the impact of this in K toor is Monumental and this is the type of thing that leaves us all questioning what has gone
on here I think I speak for many in that course correction is long overdue and this moment is an opportunity for change thank you thank you good evening thank you for allowing me to speak uh very tired I'm sure you
guys are too so thank you for the time that you've devoted tonight it's been emotionally draining I did not think I would be here tonight watching my friends cry and listening to babies beg to have opportunities that have been giving to all the other successful you
know alumni from this school district so I'm just going to get on with it I have a fourth grader and a seventh grader so I've excuse me oh I'm so sorry my name is Melissa sansy T 200 door okay and um so I have a fourth grader and a seventh grader so I have
been on the side of the hamers hammer sale where you told me it was great they're going to get to go to the big kids school and have electives and foreign language and it was going to be so good for them and fast forward three years later my son is on his way in and
you're telling me that it's going to be great he gets to be a kid again and then we can you know work in with the different schedule and it's just what are you selling me you're giving me two different things you're talking out of both sides of your mouth Dr boy and I'm not really enjoying being treated like
I'm stupid or like like I can't see right through that because I can so we need Solutions and as a board I trust some of you guys are my friends and I I trust that you guys can come up with something really good um I understand the financial pressures we're facing but
I believe that the cuts that you've mentioned are misguided and shortsighted the programs that we thinking of cutting are not extra activities they are vital components of a well-rounded education which is what myself and many other families came to East Brunswick
for the American Council on the Arts and National Association of music education have both shared studies showing that students involved in music programs consistently outperform their peers in math reading graduation rates and standardized tests why would we want to take that away is it not there is no
coincidence that East Brunswick has these award-winning programs and high standardized test scores and if that's you know I'm a teacher and I know that that's what it became all about in the early 2000s all about the T standardized test scores and now we're just willing to basically forest fire established
programs and probably have to regrow it and it will never be the same because once they leave they're not going to come back there's not going to be it's not going to get better so I'm I'm really concerned about losing these guys here because they are the backbone of the school educational
system if you cram our music teachers into a room with 30 or more novice musicians and remove the opportunity to rehearse as an ensemble you're jeopardizing their student learning the students have already attested to how impactful this is what concerns me is how could you even consider creating such undesirable working conditions
again I don't want to risk losing these wonderful educators I'd like to speak about foreign language um it's obviously a necessity in this uh Global globalized world uh the Spanish and French introduction activities that are happening in K to 4 are not happening I
have firsthand knowledge considering to go forward with that in five and six would be devastating thank you Melissa do I get like a go um I'm Wendy seagull 10 New Yorktown Road alumni class of 1999 the saddest part of tonight is you still can't provide a number for Doctor Bron and all of us
here I assure you that everybody here knows their numbers and the fact that we don't even ask them as to what is going to be affected is the part that's devastating second thing 21 kids in a kindergarten I'm I'm sorry I'm a special educator in central New Jersey we sent an unprecedented number of incoming
kindergarteners into the building who are not potty trained I'm talking half your class how does that work with 21 to 25 students in the classroom and if any of you were surprised by this again very disconcerting as a parent that you don't know what's happening in these classrooms Okay the reason I'm here and
he made me get up here okay I am who I am because of East brunic High School's programs Fine Art music and theater put me where I am and sent me onto a trajectory of special education with impaired children tonight you've heard from concerned and frankly frustrated parents and incredible students who have shared
how they found belonging and support through music some have shared with you and an audience that it saved their lives right isn't this what we were all worried about over the co years of the social emot learning and how do we get through this and I was one of the first parents Dr veski that kept saying over
and over again they're resilient they're resilient they're resilient this year I've hit my wall of they shouldn't have to be this resilient okay all right okay the past few years have left lasting effects on our children some of which we may not fully understand for years to come but what we do know is
that students with sensory needs find peace and regulation through music we know that quirky kids thrive in the Arts Advanced Learners benefit from specialized differentiated instruction which another parent had shared with you New Jersey doesn't offer me those programs to have a brilliant child these
people took a future astrophysicist who is now going to be a percussionist in his life he has his eyes set and he's taking all of your AP classes and your dual classes so he can get to his music program faster and go these cuts to my freshman affect his placements and
opportunities okay I've lived my life worrying about the sports programs this affects where he goes next um oh wa I got to get to the red part before you turn off my microphone oh my God okay yet here we are again fighting against cuts that will get programs essential to our Student Success you continue to cite
increased cost this one kills me you continue to cite increased cost for special education and the charter schools it's been 16 years since the charter schools opened in New Jersey I think we've lost that battle and we have to keep giving money for our East Brunswick students I don't we can't even fight that one if we tried with mandates
and as far as the out of District placements I am sure you are not saying spend less on special education because the people left in the audience out of District placements are because we cannot provide for the child in the district but we keep throwing that out as an option of how much we spend on out
of District placements second okay oh no no no no no okay so I guess my biggest thing here is we are now bullying them for the second year to worry about their livelihoods and their health benefits in the last three months of the school district it's not
fair I need thank you hi everyone my name is Rebecca sudell I'm a former resident um who lived at 14 Quincy Road I now live in Keyport um but I'm in East Fric High School alum class of 2010 um so I'm here to express my concern and disappointment in the district's proposal to make
changes to the introductory music structure it's troubling to see this trend unfold in a district that has long been applauded for their excellence in the Arts this uh sets a deeply concerning precedent and the Damage this would do to the music program as a whole has the potential to be a
um this matter is very near and dear to my heart as my niece is a fourth grader playing trumpet at Central Elementary I myself am a musician um yeah I was in the win Ensemble jazz band marching band between 2005 and 2010 went to go uh
March the bushwalkers drum corp in 2008 United percussion in 2012 and 2013 and I worked for Carolina Crown out of North Carolina in 2011 um but music has taken me all over the world playing the baritone saxophone and singing in bands while ing all over the US Canada and the
UK I owe a lot to this District um especially to Josh I am going to embarrass him right now um teaching me how to be a shy clarinet player to learn how to be a saxophone player in 2005 and that's where it all started I would be remiss to not uh owe everything and
forget my roots here I will never ever forget my roots here um I remember a time when there was no fourth grade band no co-teachers within the band programs at hamers shold and Church Hill and the quality of the program has since just gone up um any restructuring of the
programs as we know them today and the subsequent reduction in force will undoubtedly negatively impact the upper education programs uh by day I have worked in the tech industry as a project manager customer success professional and Logistics manager in these kinds of roles you are required to be a quick
thinker a problem solver effective at communication and open to collaboration these are all core competencies an employer would give you on an annual review but in reality our skills that music education especially when introduced at a young age helps to Foster in our youth and subsequently are
taken with them as adults in the workforce um to make any changes to this is a disservice to our students to see a school district run like a private Equity backed company is disappointing you cannot continue to blame deficits on inflation State funding formulas non-standardized subjects and
extracurriculars while all of us in the room can see how much the administration makes um if there are any students left I just want to let youall know you did a great job keep your head up stick together um and thank you please make good decisions for everybody [Music] here thank you
Rebecca Jack L for Springfield Road so have you guys noticed a painful irony about where we're standing tonight we're in this beautiful state-of-the-art Performing Art Center named after one of East Brunswick's biggest supporters of the Arts and we're having these conversations
we heard about the last economic cycle where the not so beloved Governor Christie was vicious to our school budgets and the Pendulum Swang and we were able to come back but this time it's come back Fast and Furious in my work I've dealt with a lot
of budgets have had to be cut for organizations I work with and it's miserable there's no doubt about it it's the worst part of the job what's always a common theme though is that you stay away from items that are mission critical to the organization and C from things that are more peripheral we're
all familiar with our slogan excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts and that's what this community continue consider Mission critical and we need to figure out a way to stay away from those areas as much as we can we heard compelling and well researched pleas
from our kids which shouldn't be a surprise to anybody they're East Brunswick students having students who are passionate about learning do you know how many districts out there are trying so hard to get that in their districts and we're squandering it it makes no
sense why would we it's so much easier to lose that passion than to get it back and we need to protect our kids and our culture if we look at the mission critical things the programs we heard about tonight are at the core of that nipping them in the bud by cutting them
at the core may be cost-saving but it's potentially passion killing I know that it's naive to think that you're not going to touch them at all um but but trying to do it as a last resort and not as an easy choice I hate that in a people oriented business we have to talk
about people's livelihoods being at stake but I found it disturbing that all the cuts we looked at in the presentation touch students in one way or the other and other areas like central office functions that don't touch students weren't mentioned at all
Minal impact on students and shouldn't be impacted have you guys asked why the town elected you to ask the tough questions and to dig and to make even tougher decisions I have faith that you're going to do the right thing and I look forward
to seeing the decision you make thanks thank you Chris finegan Stevens Drive East Brunswick the last time I spoke at a board meeting was last year when East Brunswick schools were proposing to cut the fourth grade instrumental program removing the program from eight of our
11 schools would not only have meant a year of learning loss but was all also perhaps even more importantly have removed that from the culture of the district from one that values excellence in the Arts to one in which music education is an afterthought our community showed overwhelming support
for a program that over 70% of fourth graders participate in and it was temporarily spared it is demoralizing to be back here again as the district has doubled down on its previous plans with the proposal of even more harmful and destructive cuts to the Arts I have been
an orchestra director for 20 years years and have been proud to serve the people of East Brunswick for the past 15 of them I am proud of what my colleagues and I have accomplished with the support of this board administrators who support music education and the wonderful families and children of East Brunswick
if you were here at our Hughes winter orchestra concert you saw the standing room only crowds that gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of 310 of our student musicians after a decade and a half working to build this program I was thrilled that my older son would finally be able to Avail himself of it
when he enters fourth grade at Frost next year it was devastating to learn that just as my own children were set to benefit the board is going to Gutt it and attempt to eliminate eight and a half of the district's 15 and a half instrumental music positions cutting more than half the staff of a department
that teaches over 1,500 students will be eviscerating to a program that our students their families and our community cherish one thing this district has consistently excelled at is hiring I am honored to work with people who Talent
passion and expertise has created and maintained a standard of Excellence that is exemplary to our neighbors please do not ignore our expertise we want to help many of the logistics of the proposed restructuring the fuse will be completely untenable yet we're hastily
overlooked it won't work holding morning rehearsals for 175 fifth grade string players will be impossible it takes the combined efforts of our maintenance staff and music teachers ours to set that stage for the two Ensemble rehearsals we have every year tuning
such a large number of students will devour the entirety of a rehearsal one staff member supervising 175 students before school is hardly safe let alone educationally sound there will be at least six different ensembles all trying to use
this JM pack each week pull out lessons in a building of over 12200 students where more than 600 of them participate in AIC musical Ensemble will be nearly impossible The increased rigor of Hughes academics will lead to more stress for students teachers and parents as their
children Miss class band Orchestra and chorus will lose legitimacy as instructional time will be reduced by 60% a loss of 80 hours of instruction over two years and their status as regular scheduled classes revoked since their inclusion in the original restructuring of hammer shold in 1986 time we can and must work together
and do better for our children thank you Chris Elizabeth gburger three bford Court East Brunswick good evening dear board members and administrator I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to come together to talk about the budget it is my hope that you listen to
our suggestions with an open mind so that this event is not in vain we owe it to the children who depend on us we are cutting too many teachers position and creating an under undesirable environment that leads to burnout
teacher leaving a seeking uh Le teacher leaving or seeking early retirement talented knowledgeable teacher will be lost in addition liit limiting exposure to the Arts language and sports will have a direct impact on our children's
academic performance instead of broadening their skills children will have a reduced cognitive emotional physical and social Social Development classroom management will become increasingly harder the proposed cuts are changes changes that will be felt
for years to come these are too high of risks that as a parent I don't want this District to take I urge you to come up with alternative short-term and long-term solutions to our budget problem the community is providing suggestions and it is my hope that you
will incorporate them build them then and Implement them and present a different budget to the Board of Education that will have positive long-term impacts on the students education I also urge you listen to our students it is their future at stake
short term I would suggest that the school would work with the ebf foundation um to raise our Arts performance to raise money to keep program as for donation and Company matching programs Let's Help Us each other since our enrollment has changed
let's make changes accordingly let's put fifth grade back to elementary school saving money not having trailers sixth and seventh grades go back to hammer with ap schedule these are just some suggestions you know charge mebe before having also um concerts going on here um
longterm let's try to increase our revenues increase renting out our facilities charging more for that finding companies that will sponsors our great athletic art and language programs seek out big companies for financial supports such as stalling vendors
machines there has to be other opportunities to close the financial gap instead of cutting teachers programs and putting our risk Children at Risk my husband and I chose his BR because it excellent reputation we want our children challenged academically to
be exposed to the Arts and to new language languages I feel proud to be parent of here of East Brunswick um hence I urge the board members to keep fighting for our children for this Township for our community please
protect our accomplishments thank you listen my name is Jane vanzini and I have been teaching ban for 35 years for the last 23 years I've been proud to be part of the instrumental music program in East Brunswick I taught
beginners for my first 21 years in the district and I'm currently teaching at hamers shold during my tenure here I have witnessed tremendous growth in our program as additional staff need to be hired we are able to attract high quality candidates due to the Stellar
reputation of our music program beginning in 2021 our band students were finally given the opportunity to begin their study in fourth grade which has been the standard set by our esteemed Orchestra program for decades our current curriculum for beginning
instrumentalists in fourth grade offers pullout lessons in small groups and a limited number of full rehearsals before school for 20 to 40 students parents are able to drive their children to a neighborhood school and only one teacher is needed to supervise and instruct The
Ensemble there is one after school rehearsal for all eight schools combined which requires 3 hours of setup time by the elementary teachers it takes six band teachers to be present throughout that rehearsal to provide needed support for the students at Hughes we address
address the needs of 510 instrumental students in their second and third years of playing the model is officially labeled as co- teing but more accurately could be described as concurrent teaching while one teacher instructs the full Ensemble a few students from that
class are pulled to an adjacent room for a lesson with the other teacher in a full Ensemble rehearsal the addition in addition to reading music and using proper playing technique students learn essential skills such as power how to follow a conductor how fast are we going
is the conductor showing us to slow down speed up are they signaling that certain instruments need to play more quietly what musical style are they showing us while doing all of this the students are also learning to listen to each other am I playing in tune with the other
instruments if not am I sharp am I flat how do I fix it am I playing at the same speed as everyone else how important is my part right now can I hear the other parts how will I recover and I and re join the group when I make a mistake
it's a full brain workout and it takes many many years of being in a curricular class to process all of this information starting this course in seventh grade is way too late it's where students create
art with a community which is one of the most remarkable experiences that people can have the proposed schedule eliminates The Ensemble class from the Hughes School date and reduces weekly instruction by 60% it would gut this program and send
it into a devastating downward spiral music is an essential component of a child's education please do not take the Excellence away from the Arts thank you thank [Applause]
[Music] you good evening my name is Caitlyn vanaman I've been teaching band in East Brunswick for 13 years and I'm currently one of two band directors here at hammerhal before you make any decisions to reduce our programs I respectfully ask that you join me in the classroom
just behind that curtain so you can truly understand what it is that you will be losing I'll be happy to provide my schedule the proposed changes to our music program will end the Excellence and it will happen quickly this proposal has been made without the consultation of Educators that this community trusts
with its children and with complete disregard for its values reducing the instrumental music faculty to one per building is a mistake our program is successful because of our current co- teaching model while one teacher teaches Cooperative skills in full Ensemble rehearsal their partner leads specialize
lessons to develop technique and reading skills we conduct assessments to monitor progress we provide individual help for the students who need it co-teachers are also tasked with emergency repairs which are needed daily with one teacher in the room a broken instrument would stop the lesson or render the child unable to
participate when the district restructured in 2022 teachers were not asked to provide input on on changes before they were imposed and months of preventable chaos in building procedures here ensued at last week's Hughes PTA meeting a slide from the Department of academics outlining massive changes to
the music program was presented without consulting the teachers who understand how it runs I would like to take this opportunity to provide my professional opinion this proposed model eliminates full Ensemble instruction that is developmentally necessary for second and third year players pullout lessons follow a rotating schedule with the
lesson time changing weekly this minimizes disruption to instruction in other subject areas but it's confusing for students and other classroom teachers establishing this routine takes months of practice reminders and calls to classrooms at the beginning of the school year this task will be nearly impossible for a single teacher in a
building as large as this tracking down students who forget about their lesson will easily take 10 to 15 minutes out of a lesson period if each child only receives one pullout lesson per week this is 25 to 30% of their instructional time which is already being reduced by almost 70% furthermore the onus of SC
scheduling will be put on one teacher left here who will already be shouldering an unsustainable workload due to the loss of a teaching partner the morning rehearsal model works in the lower schools because of residential proximity District transportation is not offered students who live in the frost or Irwin neighborhood might be might have little
trouble walking to Hughes or finding a three-minute ride but it might be impossible for a child who lives near Lawrence Brook financial hardship and transportation challenges will disproportionately affect children of Working Families like the one I came from who cannot afford the increase in fees and who do not qualify for free
reduced lunch most insulting to our community is the final bullet point from that presentation currently students must choose between band Orchestra or chorus and other electives choruses the proposed schedule would eliminate that conflict 10 seconds this is in no way a positive outcome conflicts will be
eliminated because choice is being eliminated in their most formative years students will lose the opportunity to explore because it is a convenient solution for a now recurring budget problem this is not what EXs like and our students deserve better thank you k [Applause]
hello my name is Stephanie Braun I live over on nine R Track Road I work at Churchill and I'm an alumni of the class of 2017 I did everything our music programs had to offer from marching band to honors choir to Orchestra and jazz band piano Jazz choir and even more I
was proud of our music program and the opportunities it gave me and I am proud of the teachers I now get to call my colleagues now my parents have raised me to stand up if I see something wrong so I'm sorry Mom for making your job harder but I cannot be quiet as the programs that gave me a place to belong and the
chance at lasting friendships are being butchered so completely I understand that past decisions have put us here and there is no easy answer from here Mom can't tell me why she's physically sick with worry but knowing her I can take a guas our
family knows what it's like to be let go due to budget cuts my dad was ripped when I was a kid for the same reasons as today a lack of money in this District Mr veski you say that we are a business of people or a people business but do
you really understand the weight of those words for every position that you are cutting to save money someone is losing their career and to specifically remove so many music teachers from the lower grades is to neuter our awardwinning music program you cannot
build off of a skeleton isn't it our job as adults to make make things better for the kids who follow us these kids have already been deprived of so much these past few years why are we restricting them more we would deny a thousand kids a place to belong I am not asking you to
spare the program entirely I know the money has to come from somewhere and I know it is not an easy decision and would not want to be in your place but please reconsider the extremes you are proposing because if this goes through as is you can take excellence in the art
off the motto thank you for listening thank you that's hard to follow wow uh Josh Becker uh ban director at Churchill Junior High School good evening members of the board thank you for your time I'm here today because I deeply care about the future of our music program the proposed cuts
to the co to co-teachers will not only impact our students education but also create serious Challen ches in class size safety equipment management and teacher well-being first about the class sizes our music classes already push capacity with over 55 students in a single room with the elimination of
honors and percussion classes due to due to only being one teacher the number will only grow we we project to have uh student group sorry class sizes of maybe 50 to 75 students for next year that is impossible for one teacher to handle no other teacher in the district is asked
to manage that many students at once this is this isn't isn't just about instruction it's about discipline and engagement and ensuring every student gets the attention they need to succeed without the Cod teer model behavior issues will increase and students will struggle next we have to talk about safety in a pack classroom filled with
instruments how can one teacher effectively maintain order during fire drills or lockdowns and in an emergency how can a teacher answer the phone when the room is filled with students actively playing their instruments co- teers provide crucial support to ensure our students remain safe then there's the issue of equipment our schools own
thousands of dollars worth of musical instruments with a co-teacher many of these can be repaired on site saving families and the district thousands of dollars without that support instruments will go either unfixed hurting student progress or they'll be sent out for costly repairs with so many students packed into the small spaces more damage
is inevitable finally let's talk about the people at the heart of this are teachers removing co- teers will triple their workload this just isn't Su sustainable music education is not about notes on a page it's about creativity teamwork discipline and passion but without proper Staffing we are setting both students and teachers off for
failure we must invest in our music program not dismantle it keeping co- teers in the classroom isn't a luxury it's a necessity let's ensure our students have the education the safety and the support they deserve thank you thank you [Music]
Jos good evening everyone Alex Nelson I live on darrenb Lane and I am a hammerhal Orchestra director I'll never forget the profound Joy I experienced the day I received my job off offered to teach Orchestra in the renowned East Brunswick School District 8 years later I currently have
the privilege of directing approximately 310 excited fifth and sixth grade musicians in their winter and spring concerts each concert represents a successful collaboration between our Administration staff and Community I am so proud of what we achieved together
when performing for a thousand School community members after months of preparation my students and I share a special bond the students are proud of their achievement and eager to give their very best when sharing their love of music with an audience through these concerts and the rehearsal process
process which precedes them we emerge with a sense of having built and created something larger than ourselves these experiences leave an indelible imprint on who we are and who we become I am also proud to recognize that our instrumental music department boasts
eight staff members who perform in a professional Orchestra the East Brunswick Symphony a remarkable distinction four of us recently presented a well-attended recital raising several, for the symphony and ebea scholarship fund I'd be willing to
bet that we are the only Public School staff in the state offering public recital at this level and with this impact the enthusiastic response of our audience members of all ages made it clear that our Community Values live music tonight I want to advocate for for
the fourth grade instrumental music program as it is on the chopping block for the second consecutive year as someone who worked for 5 years teaching Orchestra in the lower elementary model I can confidently and sadly say that the loss of this program will initiate a
decline in the instrumental program districtwide K through3 students will not see their fourth grade classmates perform their Spring Concert carry their instruments to and from school or hear sounds of the instrumental music lessons as they pass by looking serously from
the hallway one advantage of hamers shold redistricting to a 56 school was that students would have a designated period for orchestra and wouldn't need to be pulled from core curricular classes with the academic rigor involved in grades five and six parents will be
very reluctant to have their children participate in the proposed pullout lesson schedule at Hugh's next year especially since their children wouldn't have had the experience of playing an instrument previously in a culture which increasingly encourages pass consumption of content children who study an
instrument and perform publicly fully participate in an activity which demands their full attention one which builds confidence and teaches patience perseverance and appreciation of the beautiful qualities which will serve them well for a lifetime thank
you thank you Alex good evening I'm Eileen man and I'm proud to be part of the East Brunswick Community as a music teacher 15 years ago my student teaching experience with Michelle Moore at irn elementary school changed my life though I started a
career in another District it was always my dream to return here as chorus teacher I took a leap of faith leaving a tenear track position elsewhere to become a halftime traveling General music teacher and thanks to Nicole
tibbit I was hired on the spot to be that teacher at Central Elementary East Brunswick has transformed my teaching I've learned to plan long-term planning countless chorus concerts backwards I have a growth mindset with the support
of the ebf I've secured thousands of dollars and grants to purchase materials like music notation software Bluetooth speakers and instruments for students during the pandemic I even recently got tap shoes for my intro to dance course I've helped raise the next generation of
Educators partnering with Ruckers University for practicum and student teaching programs one of those students Miss petal took over my classes during my maternity leave and later became an orchestra teacher in a New Jersey public school with your support I've created
and updated two curriculum guides and I deliver professional development on music technology movement and social emotional learning at local and state levels I hold a master's in education for administration and supervision at Ruckers thanks to your financial support
this journey has has helped me see the importance of building positive relationships with admin colleagues students and parents I consistently uh view the community Through the consistent analysis of coral enrollment data since
2017 I'm proud to say some of my former students are now sharing their music on Spotify and YouTube pursuing music careers and even Serv as substitutes in District I've witnessed incredible transformation in students especially those with special needs and English
language Learners I've seen special needs students performing at preschool levels progress from non-verbal to singing and Harmony and reading music I deeply value the Visual and Performing Arts programs here in EB at a recent fifth grade parent orientation a parent
ask me which elective should my child choose my answer simple help your child choose a course that will make them excited to get out of bed in the morning I hope we can all find this joy in our work furthermore it's my desire to add the following highlight to my long
speech Mrs man Hughes chorus elective teacher and cjhs coral teaching assistant director to help Miss dcna offset her influx of additional seventh grade students offering chorus as whose Club is not enough I don't want to give
you 15minute concerts I want to share more Art thank you for your time thank you good evening uh my name is Adam good I'm the chor teacher at ebhs I'm here to advocate for students at risk of losing access to vital music and art programs
due to the administration's proposed elimination of nearly 50% of the music staff and additional 25 to 40% reduction in elective offerings depending on which Cuts you decide to make our secondary Arts electives alone serve roughly 75% of the student uh entire student body at
the high school these Cuts along with potential changes to late ing will make it impossible to maintain adequate music and art instruction at all levels how can a music staff Reduce by 50% deliver the same results to so many students eliminating the chorus program as an
elective until 7eventh grade shifting them to optional before or after school activities and increasing the cost of Club participation is not an equitable solution many students especially those from lower income families will lose access widening an already existing Gap
our education is not just an elective it is a proven driver of academic achievement social emotional growth and long-term success by increasing costs and limiting access we are not only denying our most vulnerable students creative expression but also hindering
essential cognitive and social skills that will shape their Futures consider these negative impacts on our music programs attrition will rise beyond the current 16% loss of Music students National Data shows cutting Elementary ensembles causes a staggering 65% drop
in secondary music participation within 2 years eliminating chorus band and Orchestra serving roughly 50% of hamers shold students will lead to increased class sizes in other academic are areas reducing individual attention hindering customized instruction and harming
academic performance I urge the board to find other solutions that put our students First Art education is not an Expendable luxury it is an it is essential to developing well-rounded capable indiv individuals and is what sets East Brunswick apart East Brunswick
Public Schools once set the standard for Arts education most likely these Cuts will proceed so in the future we can no longer claim excellence in the Arts as part of our motto again I urge you to reconsider in my time here those in charge have sought to eliminate the
Cycles Class Cycle classes at hamers shold SL Elementary music and art instruction from 80 to 45 minutes per week and now for the second year in a row propose cutting fourth grade instrumental music entire L these ongoing reductions make one thing clear those in charge are systematically
dismantling Visual and Performing Arts education programming prioritizing short-term savings over long-term Student Success is a failure of investment in our students yet despite this budget crisis decision-making stakeholders refuse to consider freezing their own salaries putting personal gain
over fi fiscal responsibility therefore neglecting students and forcing staff to endure life-altering circumstances as John El Benham warned in his book book music advocacy a financial crisis will always expose the education philosophy time thank
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] you hello everybody my name is Jamie D Sienna I live at 14 Yorktown Road in East Brunswick I'm a mom of three children who have greatly benefited from
the East Brunswick orchestra band and choir programs and I am also Al currently the choir teacher at Churchill Junior High School I specifically want to address the current proposal of cutting chorus as an elective during the school day at Hughes and offering chorus only as a before school club for next
year currently fifth and sixth grade students and Hughes chorus elective have over 60 hours of coral instruction the proposed cut to the chorus elective would move it to a club meeting once a week for about 35 minutes which would equal 12 total hours for the school year
if students attended every single week and didn't miss so realistically actually less than 12 hours a 35 minute rehearsal once a week would not adequately meet the needs of our curriculum it is an insufficient amount of time to cover technique
pedagogy music theory and part Independence which are foundational building blocks needed to grow during this crucial period of development and singing this model would lower all achievement and enrollment in our aoral program fifth through 12th grade to give
you an idea of what can be achieved once a week in about a 35 minute rehearsal for example in our chorus Club at Church Hill after school we can reasonably prepare maybe one piece maybe two very low rigor pieces but the reason we can
prepare those successfully for a concert is with that constricted time frame is due to the majority of those students also being in an academic chorus class during the day we're able to dive into technique and pedagogy and vocal
performance these students also have the had the foundation at Church Hill of two years of chorus already at an elective at Hughes so they that's why they can achieve such high things at Church Hill needless to say the proposed new Hughes Coral model would directly impact the
Integrity of our whole East runswick Coral program from the bottom to the top due to eliminating time to develop the skills necessary this proposal of eliminating the chorus elective at Hughes will dramatically impact the numbers of enrollment at Church Hill and
subsequently at ebhs chorus must be during the um during the academic day and um and have Equity with full access for all students just like band and Orchestra during the school day cor electives
also are a successful placement for our elll students students with I APS and with AIDS much of this is due to the support that can only occur during um class time as an elective um we elect all of you guys on
our East Brunswick board to support um us as residents please hear our voices and know what best represents the community which is the Arts thank you thank you Jamie [Music]
um Michael sabota seven right Court uh east brunsw class of 99 I studied music in college um it's I I don't want to get too much into my story and how music um really affected My Life um but it started here and before this meeting I
just quickly Googled kind of to get a a background of you know um impacts of Music on broader education academic success and um I couldn't process a lot of it it's not my area of expertise but every article I uh
looked into included a a phrase to the effect of um even though there's a lot of evidence that music affects academic success in X Y and Z ways it's always the first to go on budgets and well you
might you might say that it's not the first thing you looked at it's clearly taking the brunt of the assault here um and it they're just it's not unique to East Brunswick um I'm not here to point fingers I I understand that you know
money is finite and you can't spend the same dollar twice but um there there's just a general lack of political will to acknowledge the realities of how cutting the Arts um
impacts the students in ways that are beyond the arts and you're doing a disservice to them if a tenth of these Cuts were proposed in any academic area there would be an outcry and no people would laugh you out of the room but when it comes to the arts for some reason
this is the norm and I really thought East brunwick as a as a proud alumnist I thought East brunwick was a little better than this um and I hope you guys can prove me right about that thank you thank you Michael hi hi Jessica Wexler 11 Wolf
Avenue um I stand behind all of you music teachers everyone spoke so wonderfully about about this and I had a whole different speech prepared but I kind of just want to get to the gist of it um especially I have a fifth grader
and a second grader especially these fifth graders they've already grown accustomed to having Ensemble experience every day in their band Orchestra and chorus so they're going to have that for fifth grade and then sixth grade go back
to pull out lessons it just seems so unfair to these children and their Futures in the music program in addition there are no recreational opportunities for playing an instrument the current A&B schedule allows these children to
have Ensemble Ensemble experience during every class period playing with all of the instruments or singing with the full chorus in a school is a music students team in addition pull outd during the academic rigor of fifth grade and sixth
grade is unacceptable it should be part of their regular school day just like it has been they deserve it we heard all of these wonderful stories from these M musicians tonight and it's truly heartbreaking if this change were to go
in effect and I beg you to save the Hugh schedule and the music program budget cuts should never directly impact children thank you thank you how you doing uh Dan aani 43 Gates
Avenue uh yeah wow what a night right that alone should tell you everything you need to know people don't show up in numbers like this unless something is very very wrong and let's be honest we all know what that is the frustration in this town is at an all-time high and rightfully so not just at the board
itself though some some of you let's be honest deserve it but at the administration specifically Victor and Bernie the mismanagement gross incompetence the lack of transparency the blatant disregard for the people who actually fund this district is all
catching up and yet why would you care it's not even your tax dollars being wasted you don't even live here Victor you don't even live within 45 miles of this town so how can you truly empathize with a community that you're not even really a part of and Bernie under your leadership the financial decisions you
have suggested and made would have gotten anyone else fired in the real world if you were a business and you both have side businesses so you should understand this youve been shown the door a long time ago which brings me to my point the idea of freezing salaries even including teachers was thrown
around recently let me be clear that's ridiculous teachers should be making more money but when it comes to salaries freezing them should be the absolute bare minimum you could do it's not going to magically fix the mess you've created but because it would be a
rare tiny sign of Integrity a sign that you recognize just how bad things have gotten under your watch but let's be honest that's not going to happen right because to show Integrity you have to have integrity so let me suggest an alternative a cut like Lou mentioned
that would actually make a difference if you really want to do what's best for this town then do do the right thing resign tonight take the L you'll be all right replacing both of you would be easy frankly it would be cheaper and
most importantly it would be a win for the town this isn't personable it's about the kids the teachers the kids that were all here before you remember them and our tax money do the right thing step aside and let's get this District back on track
where it needs to be thanks for your time tonight appreciate it and go Bears Susan Muse I teach Orchestra at Churchill um I just want to thank all my colleagues for still being here after midnight I know I'm exhausted and I'm not sure how well I'm going to
articulate what I want to say um I actually had a bit more prepared but so much of it has been said I just want to Echo uh the Excellence in the Arts um I've known that since I was in high school 30 years ago I grew up in South
Jersey and I made all state Orchestra and I remember being amazed at how many students from East Brunswick were in the All State Orchestra I thought I had a great program but nothing compared to what I saw in East Brunswick um fast forward to becoming a teacher I taught
in two other districts before I came here I've been teaching a total of 22 years 15 here in East Brunswick and I've always known that East Brunswick was the place to be I actually left a tenur position to come here and the reason I left was summed up quite nicely by a
friend of mine it's freaking East Brunswick and I have to say that's how I felt when I came here I truly believed in the Excellence in the Arts through the support of my supervisors my principles the community the the the
passion for my students it really shows the Excellence in the Arts um I'm also the performance chair the New Jersey music educators Association and I've worked with the All State orchestras pretty much my entire 22 years teaching and I can tell you that while there are
other great programs in New Jersey our program as somebody earlier said it's perfect the way our our program is scheduled right now the co- teing model really works and really allows our students to achieve a much higher level
and I feel very sad and disappointed for them when I say if these proposed changes go through we will at best achieve mediocrity in the Arts thank you sir my name's my name's Kathy mannon I'm
at 23 Lois Avenue um I'm an East Brunswick resident as well as the current music teacher at Chik Elementary School um chick yeah um I was going to say uh Susan same thing as you I grew up
uh in South Jersey and uh one thing I always knew um was the arts program in East Brunswick was always such a great part of All State uh Orchestra All State Wind Ensemble um I'm actually reading a
letter on behalf of Michelle Moore the general music teacher at Irwin Elementary and I wholeheartedly agree with the contents of this letter one year ago parents teachers and community members rallied to support the fourth grade band and Orchestra program
hoping that it wasn't just a temporary fix today I return with renewed concerns as we Face even deeper cuts to our music department despite ongoing efforts to maintain the Excellence we're known for I'm deeply concerned about the proposed
changes for instrumental music at Hughes and Church Hill these programs are essential to our students development The Cutting of the co- teing model for instrumental music at Hughes and Church Hill will have long lasting effects on both our students and the district as a
whole music education in the early grades Fosters creativity discipline critical thinking problem solving collaboration and emotional expression skills crucial for success in life without Early Access to instrumental
music our students will miss these opportunities to develop skills needed for middle and high school programs eliminating these programs sets a dangerous precedent as Educators we know how transformative early Arts education is it ignites passion and
builds the foundation for future success cutting music at this stage would damage the future of our entire music program from elementary to high school when we consider vertical alignment cutting the co- teing co-teacher model of instrumental music
at Hughes and Churchill creates a gap that impacts the whole District our high school music programs Thrive because of the strong Foundation built in the elementary school without it students wouldn't be prepared for higher level music instruction and the quality of our high
school ensembles will suffer the proposed changes to music at Hughes will diminish the quality of the instrumental program leading to unmanageable class sizes and safety concerns like we've heard from my colleagues it's disheartening to see budget cuts that threaten these thriving
programs especially with ongoing teacher shortage and fewer people entering the profession losing talented colleagues during this time is alarming but more importantly we're talking about our students future I urge you to reconsider these cuts and
think about the long-term impact on our students thank you thank you Kathy hi my name is Alexander Patel I live at 15 Pony Road can you repeat your name please Alexandra Patel thank you yep 15 pwy Road um I've been sitting
here for the last 5 and 1 half almost 6 hours now and I just want to come up here and kind of also reiterate what a lot of parents have said I have a son who is in Hughes he's in uh Miss Miss bamans he plays the trumpet never
thought he'd ever want to play the trumpet I was like really he loves it right he has an IEP he's now excelling in math he's excelling in Reading because of the services that we have here at this school right my daughter is in second grade she is excited that we
brought back theater week right from the Arts she's excited for it she wants to go to theater week camp we have to give these kids these opportunities that is what we value in this community the opportunity to find themselves where it is not every kid plays Sports not every
kid is a brainiac not every kid plays an instrument but they find themselves here we have to do it for our kids as we've said briefly everybody has said at the end we have to do it for our children we can do better we have to find the money somewhere it is in there somewhere find
that $5,000 Hammer find that $2,000 toilet seat it is there please find it to save our kids because that's what we value as a community we have to remember what we value every time we have this Appropriations or something think about
is this the right thing for the children we don't need reclining seats in a $450 million High School we need kids to have an education have the co-teachers have that that's what we need to think about we need to think what do we value 6 hours
of people saying this is what we value let's find it thank you very much for your time thank [Applause] you good evening my name is mar Mara I've been a teacher for 22 years and an
orchestra teacher in the East brunic schools for 18 years I'm also a member of the ebhs class of 1998 as a student here I was fortunate to have outstanding Educators who inspired me to become a teacher 18 years ago I left a tenear teaching position in
another school district to come home to East Brunswick to take a new Orchestra position which was created due to the growing number of students in the program I came to the conclusion that it was the right fit for me I could return to the the place where the value of the Arts would never come into question and
I could do my job creatively and passionately with without a second thought fast forward to this moment to a situation I could never imagine East Brunswick being in I'm extremely overwhelmed by what we as a department are facing and make no mistake we are a family for example there are three of us
that currently teach close to 280 Orchestra students at Churchill if the cuts you are proposing happen I'm looking at over having 60 over 60 students in each class based on projected numbers for five classes I cannot fathom managing this amount of students by myself it is completely
unsafe additionally this age group is still developing foundational skills I have been teaching long enough to know that I will have to greatly lower the bar as far as rigor and level of repertoire that we are able to perform I fear this will lead to disengagement due to the inability to differentiate my
instruction another impact will be felt in actual instructional minutes during this past winter we had a stretch of time with no heat in the orchestra room temperature greatly affects wooden instruments and they cannot be played out of tune during extreme temperature changes it would take us close to 20 minutes to tune with two teachers in the
room also on a typical day we have multiple students with counseling appointments students going to the nurse getting phone calls from the attendance office and fixing instruments that are in need of repair the reason we can actually rehearse is because we have this built-in support where we can manage all of these issues
simultaneously additionally we are able to differentiate instruction provide extra support during class time when one teacher pulls small groups to work in Greater depth which is also in our curricul and it was how it was designed and written this is the best educational practice for music ensembles of this
size as instituted by my former supervisor Jeffrey lesser it's pretty obvious the quantity will greatly impact the quality as a board of education member in my own town I know that you often need to make difficult decisions I assure you that we as teachers are
prepared to be creative in problem solving and would love to partner with all of you to figure out Solutions I implore you to be very thoughtful before making any decisions that would erase Brunswick from its distinction as one of the very best districts from music education thank you thank
you my name is Alex stelbar and I teach chorus piano and media production here at Hammer upper elementary school and uh I'm the first two Ros here I've been noticing you've been listening very intently you've been taking notes and of course this has been going on for
hours so thank you for for listening and for clearly caring enough to do that um I am here to show my support of the Arts and Early Education as a music educator
and also my support of the uh of of learning foreign languages I in addition to teaching here for five years as a music educator in the district I also taught five years teaching foreign language at the University of Pennsylania
and uh I cannot reiterate enough how learning language and learning music as early as possible will benefit children throughout all subjects and all areas of their life we've of course I've been had we've had parent teacher
conferences this week but I can assure you that at every parent teacher conference there's uh always uh innumerable parents who tell me that their student is doing better in all areas of life because of the
exposure to music and uh Ensemble music making that they've had at the very early stages so thank you thank you [Music] Alex or my sneakers so I have to lower the mic to child level okay um Heather
James Zuckerman 527 Old Bridge Turnpike East brunwick thank you all so much for staying here so long I know that this is an incredibly difficult role and I respect you all greatly so I say this with the utmost respect we need to
really think carefully about these decisions that we're making I know it's difficult I know there are budget constraints but sometimes it feels like we're figuring things out after the change has already happened and it's it's too late to really think through
the potential pitfalls to our children on the front end a lot has been said already but that's why I want to talk specifically about hamers shold hamers shold has been an experiment since we restructured our schools okay hamers
shold has no outdoor play space as others have said but it has a mandatory recess it is such a large school that you are lucky if you get to play outside at hammerhal The Faculty staff are trying they're doing their best they can
only put one third of the kids out there another third's in an auxiliary gym another third is in here okay they're sitting like you all are right now for recess at 10 years old we are still working on the situation in this
building to completely upend it again our faculty our students they cannot get through that it is not enough of a savings to jeopardize these kids' mental health their test scores their progress
to Churchill when parents push thank you when parents push back on the restructuring we were told very clearly in 2021 this school can be a bridge for your children from elementary school to the Church Hill schedule to the Church
Hill rigger now we are talking about making this building just a larger more complicated Elementary School how will they bridge in that case that does not make sense scholastically that is not going to help our test scores go back up
here in East bronswick that that just that doesn't help anyone and I don't think we really thought that through we were told okay yes your children have no playground they don't have the joys of elementary school they have to grow up a little faster but it's okay they have
advanced electives they have orchestra band and chorus they have language and now all of that will go away everything that we said was a benefit of the restructuring would go away if we make all of these changes and we have to
understand that the changes that we're talking about the music program it's not clear that we can even Implement them we may not have the staff to be able to do that we need to sit down and think this through thank you for hearing the community please take a step back and
let's reconsider this [Music] okay good evening Josephine Dominique 52 Dutch Road okay I have three children in this school district currently two of my children are participating in string
orchestra and have done so since fourth grade they are currently enrolled in the advanced Orchestra honors class at Church Hill a chamber orchestra whose members are chosen by audition and they are two of the many East Brunswick students that
had made it to the cjme cjme orchestra regionals and most recently my older son was auditioned for and was accepted into all state their Journey started in fourth grade at Warren St Elementary with Mr Becket without Mr Becket my
children would probably not have even entertained strings at all all of these teachers are someone's Mr Becket okay having said that I V vehemently object to the proposed changes to the music program these changes have a direct impact on my
family and can and will diminish the music program a cut like this would would downgrade our school district across the board in the Arts my youngest child will will will my youngest child receive strings instructions next year
when he joins the fourth grade will his second grade schoolmate will be able to take part in the program the following year my child wishes to play the cello with the proposed change fifth and sixth graders will receive even less instruction as everyone has determined
but I don't understand how one teacher can possibly be expected to teach hundreds of students with limited and reduced in-class instruction before and after school will this teacher be compensated accordingly have you placed a value on what extra time and work is worth is
there even an appropriate number for that have you attended any of the fourth grade concerts by comparing have you attended Hughes Church Hill and ebhs concerts I invite you to compare the remarkable Improvement the children make just from fourth to fifth grade and
observe that the teachers are helping each other behind the scenes to make sure that their colleagues concerts go smoothly if you cut them in half how can you expect them to do that job I would also like to speak on the pull out sessions as proposed for the music program in Hughes the pull out
program in fourth grade didn't seem to affect negative my children negatively however at Hughes my daughter was in the tag program in fifth and sixth grade pull out sentence for tag while academically stimulating for my daughter actually added an additional stressor on
her and she was already having a difficult time dealing with anxiety at Hughes pullout sessions took her away from instruction from social studies for example and every week she was expected to catch up on in her class on her own my daughter is considered to be a high achiever so how will students who are
struggling academically be able to deal with the losing class time for music P session time thank [Applause] you uh Christy Martino 224 miltown Road
um I wasn't planning on speaking I'm sorry I'll be quick ah oh no um uh but I just wanted to address the lengthy speech um for from earlier where the board was trying to explain that you know where the deficit came from we do appre appreciate it um and
how it's not the administration's fault let's say for argument sake that's true um we understand that you can't save over a certain amount of money you know per year or carry it over year to year we do understand that the state aid formula is very flawed but when we say it seems there was lack of planning it's
because of this Hughes proposal um it's it's garbage it it won't work uh it guts the music program this is East Brunswick we are known for our Orchestra um like the student who spoke earlier he was the the son of of Mr kachuck um I think I don't know how to say his name but we
have one of the best if not the best Orchestra program in New Jersey this is why we don't feel this was adequately planned out it seems last minute because it seems like a proposal that didn't have any real thought put into it by anyone who knows anything about music education I can't imagine anyone from
the music department had any input in this the proposal has to be a no-go we literally moved here because of the orchest Orchestra program I hate feeling like we made the wrong decision and we're not just a music family we're a sports family too um my kids have been in competitive swim teams since six and
seven years old I was glad to hear that Sports wasn't being cut for now um but honestly it's so disappointing how easily you did not reach consensus on cutting Sports yet so far you've reached consensus on this truly awful plan for Hughes I'm hoping this is because the
board members didn't fully realize just how much the kids would be losing um Dr bullly lack of explanation into what would be lost definitely didn't make it easy to understand um it seemed that there was also pressure to reach consensus on these proposals um but I'm
sorry I know it's not convenient but you have to do the right thing and say no to this proposal thank you good morning members of the Board of Education superintendent administrators Educators and Community thank you for
your dedication to our schools and your commitment to providing a high quality education for our students I apologize Cheryl brass nine Scott Drive I know you care deeply about the success of our district and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak to you as
you may know I'm speaking to you as a parent a musician the creator of the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra and on behalf of community members businesses and fellow music educators I'm deeply concerned about the proposed reduction in the instrumental music program a
decision that would have far-reaching consequences not only for our students but for the health and vitality of our broader Community a strong music program doesn't just Foster Talent it drives Community engagement and supports the
local economy when students develop musical skills they carry those benefits into other areas of their lives academically socially and emotionally the success of our local Arts organizations and the broader cultural life of East Brunswick are directly
linked to the strength of our school music programs the instrumental program at Hughes is not just functioning it's thriving currently 510 students enrolled in the program close to half the student body this is an awardwinning program
with a legacy of over 50 years of Excellence it has produced remarkable results as seen from from the sheer volume of students participating from grades 4 through 12 the program is working it is one of the strengths of
ebps and a key pillar of our District's motto academics ex uh Athletics and arts we must also keep in mind who we are as a community not every program enjoys the same level of success or participation as the music program but the
instrumental music program is a proven success the evidence is clear from the high participation rates to the accolades and performances on prestigious stages this program reflects the very best of East Brunswick our students families and communities
deserve a solution that protects and strengthens the programs that are already working it's vital we retain the incredible music educators we currently have and it's essential to show them how much we value their dedication and
expertise but by continuing to invest in these programs we can retain our exceptional Educators and ensure our students benefit from the best possible learning experiences this is not a time for division or blame it's a time for
Community engagement and I'm confident that when presented with thoughtful Alternatives the board can collectively make the best decision for the long-term health of our district thank you thank you Cheryl all right is there anyone else wishing
to address the board this morning all right seeing none um Jeff z milman a drive um first time speaking just moved here a year and a half ago so um so first of all I want to say thank you to everyone um it's a
long long night thank you to all the boards that you know do what you do and you know watching all of us thank you to all the students that have spoken and luckily went home and gone to sleep um and thank you to all the parents Friends
Community sisters brothers the teachers my God are you guys teaching tomorrow that's crazy um so you know thank you so much um it's it's not it's not our job right to to know what it is that goes
behind you know closed curtains um it's not my job to know what you guys spend money on um that's your job right that's what you guys want to do that's what's what we elected you to do um it's what you're paid to do
um I noticed that almost every board member has intently watched us speak for hours and midnight however Mr Bernie I noticed that you haven't really looked at us and and I find that personally very disrespectful if there's a good reason please let us know because I find
that disrespectful personally um I'm actually from Edison I want to joh I went to John P Stevens 2005 go Hawks don't be mad um I I say that because we're not here by accident right nobody's forcing us to be here I moved
here on purpose I didn't move back to Edison Edison doesn't have the schools that it had 20 years ago East Brunswick is amazing that's why we're here um we all know how important the Arts is um I don't not going to say that you
know or or you know how how important all the teachers are the teachers are here why are they here why why are we here why are we speaking I'm sure that speaks volumes I don't know why they can't find a job elsewhere or they think that you know uh they left their 10-year
jobs to be here why I I don't know but it has to be for a good reason um you guys talk about what other districts are doing I don't care what other districts are doing I care about what we are doing I care about my kids I care about my son
my daughter my town my people so look at what's going I don't want to hear uh pay cuts I don't want to hear the trailers I don't want to hear the quar million dollar partition I want to hear what is the money being spent on you're only giving us a fraction of information and
there's so much more 200 million is a lot of money what is it being spent on um you've heard a lot of passionate speeches hopefully including myself I don't care about you not I don't mean any ill willll I don't care about you all I care about my kids let's
get together please whatever we need to do tell us the information and let's make it together thank you so much good night thank you one more time is there anyone else wishing to address the board all right
seeing none I'm going to close the public portion which leads us to all right I'm going to ask for a motion for the entire agenda that allows
for discussion for the entire agenda um it doesn't take anything away but it allows us to not go through one section in a time which hopefully will expedite a little before there's a motion I just want to make
sure that the board is aware that the um March 3rd minutes are not on the agenda there was a revised agenda put forth those are not on the agenda and um under Human Resources the addendum number one is
pulled thank you all right can I get I like I'm a teacher I want to like get up into a quick stretch but so so move to condense all right Miss herck and
no I don't agree take a vote to condense the agenda you mean to we we have a motion oh we're going to talk about it in closed no we have a motion on the floor okay so uh
well we need a second is there a second first all right no second on the agenda all right please understand that it's fine the way it is but moving the whole agenda changes no discussion on the agenda but
okay all right I need a motion for Board of Education items 1 through five having removed item four so moved second all right laori then
Anna all right is there any discussion all right this is a voice vote this is a voice vote all in favor I I uh post extensions all right motion carries one second uh Jamie
oh sorry Jamie oh yes I vote I thank you thank you all right moving on to curriculum and instruction items 1 through through 7even can I have a motion please I I should recuse myself from uh
I need a motion I need a motion first sorry so moved Anna and second Wilber thank you all right any discussion I I have to recuse myself from items three and four just my son's
going on those trips just when you vote okay discussion yes for this items uh number six and number seven this about the open night trip to either Washington DC
or so uh for this application uh there is no administ emergency contact information for the administrators and for other open nit uh trips uh it does contain the administrator contact info for
administration so I I just want to know why there's no contact emergency contact information for this two trips H we we'll check into it to make sure there is an an administrative contact yeah it's very important when
our student tra travel to some distance away we School need have a contact can I assure you we do that I just have to find out why this suppos will yeah that's not just one two number six and number 10 thank
you any any other Lori uh I just want to point out number one under curriculum uh is a program by Mothers Against Dru driving that will happen on Wednesday April 9th called The Power of parents I've seen the program before um it's really excellent I encourage parents um
to attend uh it's a very good program anyone else all right this is a voice vote I need how do we do exensions on that then
um uh Dr pan can just note the abstention during the vote during a voice for those items yes okay do you want those before because he has one I have can do it now okay I need to abstain on item
five as my student is on that trip L which ones did you need to abstain on three and four three and four four all right this is a voice vote all in favor I opposed
abstention right motion Jamie I'm sorry Jamie I okay and the extensions are noted thank you all right moving on to business and support operations items 1 through
16 I need a motion so move ianl lauan Wilbur thank you somehow I heard please forgive me I'm a little confused are are we talking
about the budget is this including item 12 yes a motion was for the items 1 through 16 all right so we have a motion we have a second um I'm going to start the
discussion on this having to do with the budget um what I would like to say is well I have a few comments and then I have a question or two uh my comments are that I appreciate everyone's
participation this evening I really do I especially appreciate people that were thoughtful and respectful because even now at this hour our children are here our children are watching and I think that we need to model the process of
caring we also need to model the process of collaboration and we need to model the process of respect so for doing that I am grateful we need to show our kids exactly that um as
to the budget I want to say some parents spoke about pay toplay being difficult um for parents that you know don't fall under free and reduced but struggle um I want to say that I am openly one of
those parents I am a mom with three kids and quite frankly right now um I have at times paid a late fee on pay to play for sports not because I'm disorganized but because I couldn't afford to do the registration before it was due that
happens and with the increased fees that we are looking at for sports um I'm going to really have to figure my way through those things that being said um I do think from the community from the emails that I have read and from the
passion tonight I do think that we need to discuss and really look at making music pay to play um I think there's the support for it I think there's the support for the program but we also have to be realistic in that we need to find
more funding and I think that there is the community support for that um having said that I do want to say as far as the budget stands I I am not in favor of the current scheduled change for Hughes the
change in the arrangement um that is a personal statement I am though constantly talking to the administrators about the tenative budget that they are working on what the priorities are I've been very open and clear about I I don't
support changing Hughes um but I also support the ongoing efforts I get to have the conversations more often to hear the constant work being done on it and that it's a tentative budget I am hoping that in the
what we have five more weeks that we have more time to come to Greater conclusions I do want to say though that with those changes Hughes and music there is always going to have to be something that has to give um and I suspect that will come in the form of
class size in some places which is something that I would be willing to discuss and deal with myself what I wanted to ask was if we vote Yes for the tenative budget tonight and further down the road on the final budget we do not support the
changes that are there we can still vote no at that time correct yes okay all right those were my questions because I I am in support of tentative with work to be done but I
I do not support the changes to Hughes and I want to find a better way for the music but I want to give the administrators more time to work right all right those are my comments anyone else um I'm going to work my way down from the end okay Luke thank you
president gu um I just want to make a couple of comments on tonight because uh it does have to do with the budget of course I want to say first of all uh thanks to all the people who spoke this evening um thank you to the staff and to the parents who are going to go home and get
up in a couple hours and go back to work um appreciate you being here and what you said really resonated Dr veski and Dr Bley after hearing our kids speak tonight we are doing a lot of wonderful things in this District it is our job to
make sure we continue doing those kinds of things to our students I I can't tell you how impressed I am especially this students who spoke about programs for younger kids that's called
community and that's something we have in this town we have a great sense of community I fear cutting back on any of our programs will crush that spirit and we do not want to see that and lastly in my comments All
regarding the budget Elena msto who has gone home to go to sleep I suppose she didn't want to go to you she's not excited about going to hamers Shaw next year Well we want you to be excited Elena and all of our kids should be excited to go to our East Brunswick
schools we owe that to them thank you very much president gu Wilbur yeah um so uh just a a couple points um I want to reiterate the points that I made at the last meeting um because initially I was not providing
consensus for for the uh proposed Cuts between grades 5 and 8 for the m music program um I want to reiterate that I provided consent with the understanding that I'm expecting to see a different
plan uh come come forth from the administration and that I was doing so only so that we could move the process along um and the other expectation that I have with the with with this new plan because I'm not sure I was explicit
about this last time around is that through this process I've asked actually a few times how these Cuts get proposed and made and my understanding with from the answers that I uh was given and perhaps I missed something but it seemed
like these Cuts should be made from the bottom up and everything that I know about um organizations is that's how you do it you start with the people that are are the boots on the ground re uh regarding that um uh process um I find
it a little hard to believe that the proposed plans to um cut fifth and sixth um music to such a degree um and seventh and eth music to such a degree and the item that didn't um make it on the
intive budget but the uh uh proposal to cut fourth grade music to such a degree that's a loss of 8.5 FTE altogether if I remember correctly um I find it really hard to believe that that was a bottomup plan um and uh
because just on the face of it um it number one it just seemed to be an outsized sacrifi sacrifice in the music program um I don't know anybody would um propose such a thing um in in in their right mind and I know the teachers here
they they have right Minds um and and so my question is the plan that was given to us on the temporary budget where did it originate from I I really would like to know Dr P
it we started the process at the central office level and we spread that out to other stakeholders I'm not going to tell you that we did a bottomup plan that we went to the teaching staff and ask them for
their input I'm just answering the question please I'm answering the question of the de we have to maintain some level of confidentiality when we're talking about
cuts that involve people and we do that to the greatest extent possible and have those conversations with the board we are now at the point we're having these conversations in open we've been here a long time the teachers have been here a
long time and to discuss to to get input but this is a tentative budget that still has room to to move but as we've tried to explain to the board that if we put something back in something else has to come
out but that is that is the process because we we are tasked with at the central office level initially with the numbers that come from the state we have shared and we did share with the board prior to that until those numbers were
finalized by the governor's address so that is the process that that we follow or that we have followed so um so I'm still a little confused because again my perception of what the process was going to be is a bit different from what I'm being uh
told now in regards to the proposed cuts for the um for the music program and again here I'm really just looking for fairness um knowing the magnitude of the of the Gap that we were facing I'm resigned to the fact that we we're going to lose positions we lost positions the
previous year um with with a similar with a similar Gap um I don't see how that's completely avoidable um this year but having said that um I'm trying to come up with a scenario where the stakeholders involved came up with a
plan to lose half of the teachers in the program um and it's just not making sense to me Dr pan as I said this was not a bottomup plan I we did not go to the teaching staff to ask their
input on this proposal okay then I would suggest that um there are better processes than to impose a top- down uh change for any program and this isn't just because it's a music uh uh program uh that's just good U management
practice at least in my experience I understand I mean when uh when when I had issues on the floor at the Children's Hospital first people I talked to were the nurses the pharmacist and the pdex why because they had more
contact with the patients than I [Applause] did so thanks okay understood Lea um I'm Fair fr
with this budgeting process and the proposal you I read in last two weeks I read more than 200 emails from parents from friends and tonight we have 102
student parents teachers talk I have three children in this building I'm the only one bring income to the my family I'm supporting a family of six so I everything I I believe my family is
deeply deeply impacted by anything we're doing here and my my old one is a I don't know if I can call him music children child but he was just selected by the Central Jersey
education educator Foundation program and he he loves it he played cow he he Lov it so as for the H for the hshi I think this time is it's
hemmed really bad so we have to admit that you know I for this is temp temporary budget I'm going to vot years for this for sole purpose to give our administrator some time to work on it to come up with
better ideas I understand that if we don't have a temporary budget the state of New Jersey is going to take over our budget then we have no control it you know I don't want that thing happen so I'm
willing to give our administrator Dr vaski and his team to put more effort to do more job and you know I know you're going to scratch your head please scratch it harder to come up
with something where you know at this difficult time you know uh that's is the reason I'm voted yes tonight thank you CH yeah real quick um I'll just share I'm not aligned with this budget I
think we're uh there's a lot of work still to be done so um and I wanted to thank the members of the community for coming out this evening uh the teachers the students the parents uh and uh all of the emails as as leeu had pointed out have been you know flooding our inbox so
there's clearly a lot of energy and a lot of concern over what is proposed and it needs to be made better so I look forward to seeing that before the next vote oh I'm sorry I I'm didn't mean to cut you off thank you I didn't mean to skip past Jamie Jamie
did you have any comment yes um my remarks are personal remarks um this is a very sensitive thing for us we care so deeply about our children and about the quality of the education I believe personally very
strongly in the importance of early language and early music and I am very optimistic um in the sense that I believe that this board and this Administration hears the community and I
believe that we will work very hard to meet everyone's needs in the best way we can and I want us all to go forward with some degree of positivity because at the end of the day we are
here for our children and we are going to work really hard for them thank you more thank you Jamie more I'm cool I'm sorry Tim did I cut you off no no no I'm I'm so um I'm in agreement with some
of the things have been said so far um I'm not in favor of huge changes uh I think it's too drastic too quick and we're not really thinking about the best interest of our children I wish they were still here because I really wanted to see some of the signs that they had
that I couldn't see um with a glare here so um but I I thank everybody who came out tonight because it you know um our community does have an impact and um I I do have a question um
regarding um the budget as far as late buses for at least for Churchill um I don't know if this is a thing but it seems that we'll get another round of funding for high impact tutoring sorry for high impact tutoring
is funding for high impact tutoring that happens after school can we use some of that funding for late buses that may be run like once or twice a week can funding for no probably not it's probably very specific to to the
tutoring to the actual tutoring we'd have to look at what the requirements are for the high impact tutoring money okay cuz um might there may be restrictions on it so we'd have to look at the details okay thank you because my thing um is equity and um I really think that everybody should have the
opportunity especially when it comes to tutoring services or staying after to uh work with their teachers um as for music um we tonight have seen these great educators is here right we're all
here until it's 1:00 a.m. I'm going I'm going to ask all of you and I'm going to ask the administration please get in a room and talk about it let's try to work out some solutions together um I think
that we see the passion from all of you we know the passion up here we know how hard everybody is working um I I think we have some solutions I think we have to to uh to to work them out um you know thoughts that you all
probably have as well as as thoughts or things that they could work uh you know try to hammer out um because I I don't want to cut our music I don't want it to be negatively affected it's obviously something that is very dear and sets our
community apart from others but I'm also aware of financial constraints so um if we could at least start to have some more uh conversations over the next few weeks um I I just would like to see that um come to fruition so thank
Youk you Anna okay first let me thank everyone who came out tonight thank you especially to those who have stuck around until 1:00 in the morning it's been a while since I've been out till 1:00 in the morning I always imagined it to be more fun um now I very diligently
took notes on what people were saying and I was particularly um Wanted to hear your ideas as to what you know we know what's important which is obviously the music department thank you my colleagues there
my former colleagues and the foreign language we heard a lot of support for that um so I would like to hear more from the community ideas your ideas of ways that we could help bring in more income balance I mean
I believe in the hive mind right the more uh input we have the better now I don't know if this ever came to fruition but we were given a draft of community budget input form a couple of weeks ago I don't know if that went anywhere but I
would love to see this up on our website yesterday you know um just to just to get some ideas from the community so I would like to make a motion that Dr figuroa Alter budget proposal which was
submitted to Dr Braun we're doing discussion on a motion that's already on the table we can't have another motion point of order um we can I will defer to the attorney but we already have a motion this is the discussion for the motion on business and support
operations items 1 through 16 right now no okay so oh can we take 14 out of that at at this point I don't think so well
admin Administration really makes the recommendations on what the agenda items are in the budget um so you can vote no on number 14 um and then it wouldn't pass if you know a majority doesn't vote in favor it
and then so in other words you want us to vote um including the budget so in other words I could say no to item 12 no to item 14 is that what you're saying yes okay excuse me I just have a question
why is it we can't pull 14 and have a further discussion on it for tonight we're having the discussion we already had a motion for all of those and we're on to the discussion so my question is why can't we pull 14 to add a little bit of additional
information if Dr Brawn has a suggestion that might help if sufficient board members vote no then it's not going to pass and it could be put up on another meeting well I don't think that she I mean I don't want to speak for Dr Brun I don't think she's asking for a no vote I
think what she's asking for is to add a little light to number four 14 and I think that given the extens extensive evening we've had and I think if there's any light to be shed on anything that we've been talking about having to do with the budget I think we
should be doing it tonight well this is the point of discussion at this time so you can have the discussion on this now you can uh move to table it but you still need enough members to vote to agree to table it the alternative is you might have enough members to vote no and
then you it would be brought back another meeting so you could do either option but you would still require a vote either way okay so just because I'm trying to understand this now too now you're confusing me so what I'm trying to to understand
is how is it that we can't pull it out to add something to it doesn't mean that we can all vote Yes on it if that's the case if it means the tenative budget um should go to the next level which means when we may we may say yes with
prejudice but I think it should be I think any board member who has something they'd like to add to the conversation it should be allowed that's what I'm asking okay I have I just know that we are bound by Robert's Rules of Order right so you can
make a motion to table an item you can make a motion to amend an item but it has to be a motion and it has to be approved by the board it can't be a singular board member saying I want to add to a particular uh resolution item I want to change a particular um resolution item so you can table a
particular resolution item by vote you can vote to amend it but it still requires a majority approval to either table and or amend so can we do a motion in a second to say that there's something additional that she would like
to speak to on this it's already open for discussion she could speak to it right now well that's what she was trying to do no and that's what I Believe Miss squ was indicating that she can talk about it right now because the floor is open for discussion okay do I do it again you don't need a motion for
a discussion only if something is going to change okay you can't do a motion right now because we're in the middle well I would like to suggest that at our next um meeting that we take a look at some alternative
suggestions that Dr Figaroa has already sent we have all sent things in I would like to gather in information from the public and then then I would like to go line by line at the next board meeting with these
Alternatives is that okay are you referencing resolution number 12 or 14 yeah I'm talking about 12 oh you had said 14 earlier I I want to talk about 14 too but uh but right now we're on the budget right T tenative
budget we need to either vote Yes or if we all vote no then this budget goes to the state am I am I thinking correctly here is that how it goes like it goes tomorrow to the state
right because like we got this budget binder on Friday so and I did read the whole thing but um I don't feel comfortable voting yes on something that you know we definitely need more information to add
to it so I'm not quite sure what to do well as a reminder this is a tenative budget and we've said all along that the tenative is a perform of budget that um we have to have an approval to submit to the state and it is subject to any
revisions that may come between then and prior to the public hearing so this is a temporary it's a placeholder think of it as a placeholder it's not final I don't mean to cut off your discussion at all so excuse me if I'm out of line but
maybe for claric ific a I asked the same question when I started because I I will vote Yes for the tenative budget to allow us more time to work on it um but I did ask if when we come to the final budget if we can still vote no if we
don't agree and I was told at the final budget you can vote now okay that now that really helps yeah it does because uh I'm not an expert in Robert's roles I'm an expert in Mozart but not Robert's Rules an exstension on uh 12 how would that
play out you just indicate if you were abstaining when we go through and they do the roll call you can say yes for however many no for when if I may just that's no no uh so this is a motion on the motion on the
table is for items 1 through 16 for any item that would be would have a vote that is different than what you would for for the rest would just so state that for that item does that make sense I
understand that yeah my concern is that if multiple board members elect to abstain from number 12 that that may trigger the budget going to the state is that accurate or not that's accurate that's accurate
okay all right moving no not moving further down down the line then Dr Brun anything else Dr Braun I I just wanted to I guess it clarifies it I I was the reason I wanted to pull 14 separately was selling of um six buses because then
we're going to be buying more for $800,000 so I just wanted to I don't know you know say hey maybe let's not sell all those buses especially since four of them are from 2016 so the buses have already been
purchased these are the ones that are in the cycle to be sold okay they're in a cycle to be sold but they're only 9 years old I thought the state said we could have up that we could have them going until they're 15 years isn't that did I did I
misunderstand that's correct and in the Q&A There Was an explanation that also referred to uh the um High Cost of maintenance once the um once the extended warranty expires and that the cost of the maintenance will end up
exceeding what we have budgeted for maintenance oh wait a minute so in other words if we buy buses for $800,000 repairing buses that are 9 years old is going to cost that much
that doesn't seem to make sense to me why would we spend all that money when we already have those buses and I understand that you want to you know keep them going cycle every five years or every um every year getting five new
buses but given the DraStic cuts that we're making making to student programs I just don't feel comfortable selling off buses and then buying more does the purchase of the buses come
out of this budget the purchase of the bus uh the budget purchase or the bus purchase does not come out of this budget thank you where does it come I'm sorry I'm so sorry please forgive me where does it come from it comes out of the shared services agreement which the
board approved in January you might also recall that we had um lengthy discussion regarding the shared services agreement at that time right right anything else for discussion okay this is for business and
support operations this is a roll call vote correct ready I'm ready Anna Brun okay so I'm voting no on number 12 and I'm voting no on number
14 and the rest yes noted Tim Cummings um voting yes on all with the uh intent of getting number 12 solidified and
um updated appropriately to meet the needs of the community uh by the next and final budget vote noted Jamie Falco I'm voting yes to everything with the understanding that number 12 will
continue to evolve noted uh Lewis Figaroa yes yes uh to 1 to 11 on number 12 I am uh voting with prejudice yes uh but I do suggest strongly that the alternate budget proposal that I have
shared with the administration and board uh leadership be responded to in public line by line at the next board meeting um 13 yes 14 no and the rest
yes could I ask could I ask for clarification Dr figurov yes what is the date of the email that you're referencing was it there was one sent weeks ago um that some of the budget items that were put on that document
were included uh uh one was updated after getting masses amount of data uh one was sent this morning so my my request is that the full document be looked at um and to be addressed at the
next board meeting Lori harrick yes I'm abstaining on number 16 noted Leong uh yes but for number 12 uh I yes
for the purpose to avoid this budget to be sent to the state and the state's control and to provide more time for the administrator to do more
work for others in voting yes wolber pan voting yes uh with the same stipulation as last meeting I'm expecting that um uh the proposed cut to the music program will be revised with
significant input from stakeholders involved hel I'm voting yes and I want to include that as the tenative budget for number 12 and I also want to thank the administrators for the amount of work
that they're putting in on this process all right motion do we have VES I'm sorry I was not keeping track I was listening to the discussion we are now to Human Resources uh one item okay
sorry all right so business up all of those carried yes yes okay Human Resources item number one I need a motion move
uh Wilbur and Anna um sorry if we have things crossed out I have to make sure if it's a it is a roll call Vote Yes thank you Anna Brun yes Timothy Cummings yes Jamie Falco yes leis
Figaroa yes Lorie harck yes Lee wuhong Yes wber pan yes P gu yes motion carries uh special education and student services please note that item one was
removed uh revised sorry revised please excuse me item one was revised so we're looking at items one through four is that correct yes one through
four and that will be a roll call vote [Music] need a motion I'm sorry I thought we had move second wlur and Tim so sorry any
discussion on that okay it's a roll call vote Anna brw yes Timothy Cummings yes Jamie Falco yes abion on three and four
noted uh Luci F gooa yes Lorie Herrick yes the Wong yes Sil pan yes GL yes all right i' would like to thank the board for their attentiveness here on
Thursday um committee reports information items and for the good of the calls for the board we have no okay Mia this Friday and Saturday I'm
sorry what go go see mam Mia this weekend it's a great show the kids come out firing on all cylinders they they don't let up until the final curtain anyone else here L yes so I just repeat again the Senor budget and
appropriation committee will meet March 26 which is Wednesday uh at NJIT in New York and this is important and virtually Tuesday April 10 so I
encourage people make every effort to attend one or two and I personally I will go to train March 28th Friday night I'm going to talk about our own East BR situation I still trying to convince
them you know the formula is is not uh right one for the entire State and I'm try my try my best to talk as many people as possible you know I strongly believe in a way State should
give us more so that's all thank you anyone else all right if you can even believe it we have the need for a second closed
session right whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and whereas these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed session pursuant to njsa 104-1 B and
whereas the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as listed in tonight's agenda whereas the length of the Clos session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene being an action may be
taken no action will not be taken can I have a motion please move all right Wilbur and Anna discussion all in favor opposed
extensions all right we are enclosed thank you everyone