Good evening. I make a motion we come out of executive sessions. All in favor? Uh if you would please stand for the pledge of allegiance of America and to the stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh the first item on our agenda this evening is uh our retirement acknowledgements. Uh we have four retirees this evening that we'd like to acknowledge. Uh Mrs.
Uh Kimberly Keane, uh third grade teacher at Main Road School. Um she's leaving us with 24 years of service with the Franklin County Board of Education and 30 years of total service um in the education field. Uh second on our list this evening is uh
Mrs. Jill Sinclair. Uh she's a par professional at the neighborhood school. Uh she's leaving us with 27 years of service to the Franklin Township Board of Education. Uh third on the list is uh Mrs. Denise Hannah. Uh she's a bus driver in our
transportation department and uh she's leaving with 25 years of service with the Franklin County. [Applause] And last but not least is uh Mrs. Christine Brandon uh fifth grade teacher at Carolina River School. Uh she's
leaving us uh this year with 22 years 6 months of service with Franklin Township Board of Education. I'd like to uh congratulate all the uh retirees. Wish you all the best moving forward. Um we do have some blocks here this evening for um anyone who's in
attendance. If you guys want to go ahead and come up, I'll call your name and uh Mr. P will uh present you with a plaque here and we'll get some photographs. So, uh with that um looks like Mrs. Sinclair uh is the first journalist.
[Applause] ML, if you don't mind just hanging out with us for a minute and we'll get a group photos. Um, this is going to present you and your wonderful body.
[Applause] Um, Mrs. Kane came with this again. I do not see Mr. Ra. I don't think I saw her. So, we'll make sure we uh get her her again. Congratulations on your
retirement and uh thank you on behalf of the board of education for your years of service here with us tonight. Uh the next item on our agenda this evening will be our uh our final uh grades, Mr. Peters. Uh, where is that?
Good evening. Yep. Hello. Good evening. Thank you for inviting me up here uh to review the 2023 2024 PIP grades. This is a reflection of what we did actually last school year and it is merely an affirmation of our grades which were
previously presented uh to you from the previous academic year. Uh the hip grades according to the department of education range from a zero all the way to a 78. So this is not a 0 to 100 scale. It's a 0 to 78. It merely
represents our compliance to the uh anti-bullying bill of rights act which mirrors the b district policy for harassment, intimidation and bullying. Out of a possible 78 points, Ritter School uh achieved 77 points. Main road
school achieved 76 points and the Mary Fjamir school achieved 73 points. Uh this lists all three of our schools within the district as being compliant and actually exceeding the expectations in many of the areas uh when it comes to
the harassment, intimidation, and bullying policy and also the state law that governs that. Um as for some areas where we got a few points off uh and we were effective in these areas, we just maybe did not necessarily meet the
highly high highly effective uh result that would be in HIPP programs and approaches uh specifically looking at surveys, surveying every aspect of each stakeholder group um the utilization of the data from such surveys and also the
training of outside service providers such as like nutrition. So that's where some of the points uh came off for some of the schools. Uh but overall we were more than compliant to the state law to the policy and um each of our schools uh definitely did a very nice job
implementing the harassment, intimidation and bullying policy over the course of last school year. Any member questions? Uh thank you Mr. Thank you. Uh the next item we have listed is our
ELA uh pilot request presentation with our ELA committee members led by Dolan. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Um, I have next to me the ELA committee who'll be presenting to you. We have Casey Logar, sorry, one of our
kindergarten teachers. You Pence, first grade teacher. Um, Melissa Akona, who couldn't make it tonight. Amy Milano, one of our reading uh, interventionists. Kate Treblehorn, special ed first grade resource room. Christine Rowan, second
grade resource room. And Kelly Bodington, third grade ELA. So, I'm going to turn it over to them and then I'll be here for any questions that you may have. Good evening, everyone. Um, I know Jamie just introduced me, but for those of you that don't know, my name is Amy Milano.
I've been teaching in Franklin Township schools for 26 years. Um, 23 of them were in a first grade classroom, and then the last three I've been um part of the basic skills team as a reading interventionist. During that time, I have invested a lot
of time, effort, and heart into helping the students of Franklin Township become successful readers. And with that being said, we're here tonight to seek approval for the pilot of two highquality English language arts programs. The first is Core Knowledge
Language Arts, commonly known as CKLA. The other is magnetic literacy developed by curriculum associates the creators of I Ready. Our goal is to identify the most effective curriculum for improving student literacy outcomes particularly
in foundational reading skills, comprehension and knowledge building. And here are some some statistics, excuse me. Did you know that 21% of adults nationwide are illiterate according to the National Literacy
Institute and 54% of adults possess literacy skills below a sixth grade reading level? Personally, I find these statistics alarming. Also, according to the nation's report card from 2024, fewer
than onethird of students nationwide are working at a proficient level in reading in both fourth and eighth grade. And now on to the rationale. To meet the growing demand for evidence-based literacy practices and highquality instructional materials aligned with the
science of reading, our district must adopt an ELA program that effectively supports all learners. Both CKLA and Magnetic Literacy provide structured research-based instruction, but differ in their delivery methods. The
sidebyside pilot of both programs will enable us to evaluate which one best meets the specific needs of our students. And now, Kelly Wington will talk to you about what our students need. Hi, uh, my name is Kelly Waddington. I've been
teaching at Main Road School for the last six years. Um, we have this direct quote from the working group on student literacy recommendations report which was published back in February of this year from a group called the New Jersey working group. Um, they state that
students need explicit, direct, and systematic foundational skills instruction that's both sequential and aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards. Research has identified five key elements in a high quality ELA curriculum. comprehension, fluency,
vocabulary, phonics, and phmic awareness. These elements are organized systematically and delivered directly and explicitly. You might have heard of the simple view of reading, which is the formula that suggests that in order for a person to achieve reading comprehension, they must be able to
decode or read the words on the page as well as understand the structure and use of the language that they are reading. For example, even if a student can decode words fluently, meaning accurately and smoothly read the words on the page, if they don't understand the language being used, they won't
understand the text. Conversely, a student with strong language skills but weak decoding abilities will also struggle to comprehend what they read. We need students to be skilled in both word recognition and language comprehension in order to achieve overall reading comprehension.
In looking for our new curriculum, we searched for HQIM or highquality instructional materials. Highquality instruction instructional materials are teaching tools that are carefully designed to help students learn. They include clear learning goals, lessons
that match state standards, proven teaching strategies, and resources to support teachers. They also have built-in ways to check student understanding. These materials are organized, connected, and follow a logical order. They are also culturally relevant, free from bias, easy to use,
and support the needs of all types of learners. And now, Yra Hence is going to show you where we did our research. Good evening. My name is Yuc and I teach first grade at Janvir and this is my 20th year teaching. Um, here on this slide is some of the research the
committee used to determine which programs we would like to pilot. We read professional literature, listened to literacy podcasts, and had the opportunity to observe the CKLA program in person. We visited Harrison Township, Pitts Grove, and Woodbury schools.
We also used various tools to review different programs. Uh these were the New Jersey designing and evaluating instructional materials checklist, the New Jersey tiered system of support core instructional analysis tool aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards, ed reports and knowledge
matters reveal review tool. Um this is a list of the programs we reviewed and considered and CK um LA and magnetic literacy are our top choices to pilot. I'm going to talk a little bit about
CKLA. Um, CKLA has five key elements. First, it is a knowledges background knowledge systematically in science, history, and literature starting all the way in the early grades. Research shows that strong connection or strong content knowledge
boosts reading comprehension, making this a key advantage over skills only programs. Second, CKLA is aligned with the science of reading. It combines systematic phonics instruction with vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension and writing. This ensures students develop
foundational skills and higher level comprehension abilities. Third, CKLA is comprehensive and a cohesive K to5 program. Its fully integrated ELA curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade. This program aligns across grade levels, building upon previously
taught concepts and ensuring continuity and progression in student learning. Fourth, CKLA has built-in supports for diverse learners. CKLA includes scaffolded supports for English learners and struggling readers as well as resources for differentiation. This
helps ensure equity in literacy outcomes across all student populations. And finally, CKLA has engaging culturally rich content. The curriculum features highquality texts and knowledge domains that include a broad range of cultures, histories, and traditions designed to
foster engagement and critical thinking. The CKLA pilot would take place over the course of the entire 2025 2026 school year. It would be used by two teachers in each grade level from K to 4. CKLA will also provide teachers with training
and coaching throughout our pilot year. Now, I'd like to show you some pictures. Um, I was lucky enough to use one of the demo units this spring with my third grade class from the CKLA third edition that we're looking at piloting next year. Um, we did a unit on animal
characteristics and my students know so much more about animal characteristics than I could even imagine. Um, on the left two pictures top and bottom, the students are reading in their readers um, high-quality texts about animals and they're completing a frog scavenger
hunt, answering questions about frogs from around the world. The middle two pictures, top and bottom, might look a little strange, but students are pulling socks off of each other's arms to study how snakes shed their skin. Um, and in the final two pictures, students are
playing a spelling review game called uh spell and switch where they have a spelling word on their card. They have to spell it to the person across from them and then they switch cards and find a new partner. Um, I also have uh another visual aid that we made during
the unit. Um this is a wingspan chart or graph. Um this has been hanging in the wall or in the hallways at Main Road for the last couple of months. And even students who weren't in my class or did not have the CKIA curriculum would stop as they were walking past in the
hallway and check out their wingspan. Even at the um art and diversity night, some of the family members and parents of students would walk by and kind of test out their wingspan and see what it was. So it just really engages the students. And then all of my students pictures um are around the poster if you
want to check that out later. Um so after completing the unit on animal characteristics in March, I asked my students what they thought about the lessons and the activities that they took part in over the last few weeks. These are a few of their comments. Um and I did not prompt them with these or give them any kind of hints. I just said
tell me what you thought. Um a few of my favorites, the bottom left corner said, "We paired up and worked together more than before and we got better at talking to each other and communicating." Um, I also love in the top right corner it says we got to teach ourselves more and we got to be teachers to each other. So
they were working together um and really sharing that knowledge between each other. And finally in the bottom right corner it said it was more writing but I liked it which I was so proud of. They liked the writing. They said because I already learned a lot about the animal types so I knew what to write about. And another kid said I didn't have to write
about something I didn't know about which a lot of times is what we ask students to do. Write about something that they don't have a whole lot of knowledge on. and it's a lot harder. So once we build their background knowledge, they have more to be able to write about and make connections with.
The next slide are some pictures of anchor charts from a visit to um Ovette School. We had the privilege to visit a few local schools that are currently piloting CKLA and these are from a second grade classroom at Ovette School in Pitts Grove Township. Um, these
anchor charts are all suggested in the CKLA curriculum and they were hung on the wall for the students to use and refer back to throughout the school year. Hi, my name is Casey Logar. I am a kindergarten teacher here and I've been teaching here for almost 5 years. Um, I
also got a chance to try out the demo uh account and use one of their units about kings and queens in our kindergarten class uh not too long ago actually. Um, we got to learn and read a lot about um, kings and queens, reading non-fiction and fiction texts. I found that my students found it really engaging and
they got to engage in appropriate age appropriate activities. In the first picture, they were doing a sequencing event which allowed them to cut and paste pictures from the story right onto a piece of paper in order. The second picture allowed them to um, identify characters, setting, and plots in the story. the one girl we read Princess and
the Pee and the girl even drew all of the mattresses from the story and the small little P right at the bottom. So, they got really creative with it. And then on the last picture was actually one of my students who voluntarily during free choice time chose to read a decodable that she was really enjoying
from CKLA. Um they found it very challenging but also um a book they could read with all decodable words. So, she loved challenging herself and doing it by herself as well as with me a one-on-one or during small group time. So, I just found my students uh every day they told me they were very excited
to read um especially about the kings and queens unit that we did together. Yeah. Okay. So, now we're going to dive a little deeper into magnetic literacy. Uh magnetic literacy is a comprehensive thinking curriculum that moves beyond
building knowledge to challenge students to apply learning and question ideas. Um, it fully integrates all literacy skills with each element intentionally connected so that no skill is taught in isolation. It also utilizes a backwards design so that students always know
where they're headed and why each element of learning matters. It synthesizes learning with culminating process writing at the end of each unit that scaffolds students from prompt to publish. It also empowers students to not just learn but rather think deeply,
create create boldly and share confidently. And it achieves unprecedented instructional coherence with connections to the adaptive IR assessment and personalized instruction platform for students. This slide shows the magnetic literacy pilot structure that we would see or
that we would use from September till early January because they are in the process of updating their current curriculum program and it will be ready in January 2026. So this shows us what we'll be doing in the meantime. We'll be using magnetic reading foundational
skills for grades K to two for the foundational skills portion. comprehension will be doing ready reading and in grades K to two and in grades three and four um magnetic comprehension and writing will be continuing with what
we currently use until the magnetic literacy pilot actually starts in January 2026 and we will also continue on what we always have been doing our I Ready personalized individual learning paths.
Um the pilot will include grade levels K through four and it will have uh two teachers per grade per per grade level um that will be piloting the program. Okay. Um, user and I are currently co-eing ELA in a tier 2 and tier 3
intervention classroom this school year. And we've had the opportunity to implement magnetic foundations for our phonics instruction and ready reading for our comprehension lessons as part of our intervention. And we were astonished to see the amazing growth our students
made using these programs. As you can see, the majority of the class hit their typical growth, which represents the average academic progress expected for a student based on their initial IR diagnostic placement and grade level. And nine out of the 20 students hit their stretch growth, which represents
the ambitious but attainable growth target a student should aim for to reach grade level proficiency. It's a higher expectation than typical growth according to curriculum associates. And also you'll take uh notice that the yellow star column is their baseline. So
that's what they started off with at a grade K coming in. And the pink star column shows where they're at currently right now. So they've gone to either early one, mid one, or late one. And then um and even though some did not
reach grade one, they still all have showed increased growth as you can see as well. So throughout this coming school year, we will be continually evaluating both curriculums to determine which program will be the best fit for our district and for our students. We will collect
data from the following four sources. First, we will look at student growth data um through our district assessments. Second, we will ask teachers for their feedback through surveys. Third, we'll look at the fidelity of the implementation within the classrooms using the pilot programs.
And fourth, we will then compare the outcomes across the two programs to see which one fits uh best with our students in our district. Uh now for the numbers aka the investment in our students education. These are the costs of the pilots for each program K to 4 in the
two classrooms per grade level for the school year. We believe that piloting a curriculum before officially adopting it in the district is the best approach. It will allow for datadriven decision-making tailored to our unique student population. The pilot approach will
ensure that educators have a voice in our curriculum selection. It minimizes districtwide disruptions while we are evaluating options and it positions us to adopt a program that maximizes student growth and equity. We respectfully request your permission
to conduct a pilot of CKLA and magnetic literacy curriculums across the selected classrooms. We are also seeking to allocate resources for teaching teacher training materials and implementation support. And finally, we look forward to reporting our findings back to you with a final adoption recommendation by May
of 2026. Thank you for your consideration and your continued commitment to advancing literacy achievement in our district. [Applause] [Applause] Thank you very much.
We got an upgrade to the sound system. So, a little bit of a learning curve. Um, thank you very much uh for your presentation. I'm hearing whispers uh from my fellow board members about how uh well you presented that information. Uh very impressed. Um are there board
member questions? I'm sure there's going to be some from the other side of the table. Uh this is sh you talk a little bit about teacher training for these piloting for those that are piloting. Has someone talked a little bit about the teacher? Yeah.
Oh, come on. What are the teachers? What the teachers? Well, they did a great job in the classroom. No, no, that's what I'm saying. I I want the teachers to tell me what the training I know for CKLA um they have advertised that they
have um coaches that check in at least weekly with the teachers. We have like professional development that will be done. They'll be coming to our district and they'll be teaching us and working through the curriculum with us answering questions. Um I know they have like a a live document that teachers can add
questions or comments to and someone will within 24 hours answer them from the CKLA program. And I believe magnetic reading has probably the same same kind of thing. Yeah. Thank you. Um, how did you come to the seven programs
that you reviewed initially? Okay. Well, we originally looked at um like a lot of the podcasts kind of uh recommend a bunch of them to look at. So, we kind of looked through that and just based on like teachers and around the districts and what the districts around us were using. Um and then just based on all those review tools, we kind of looked at all seven of those programs
to see which one came up in the review tools as like most approved or like the best for the science of reading or most aligned with the science of reading. Okay. Um have you looked at any research in regards to student outcomes with these programs? Well, we have the our actual class we
have a little bit of outcomes like our data that we showed. Well, I I know you showed for the I scores. Does that transfer to other because obviously not everything is going to correlate with an I already score, right? That was just we did magnetic um
foundations and that is um developed by curriculum associates that they're the creators of I already so that's why we showed our data to kind of support how great that program is. Right. But as far as the other ones, do we have So all of
the districts that they visited are currently piloting the CKLA. So none of them have had like a full-blown implementation. And then they're coming out with a third edition in September. Um and then for magnetic literacy that is new. So that's why we were looking at
some of the data that they were getting from their own students. Right. I understand. I guess my my concern would be that we want to focus on what the outcomes are for the students. Obviously, we want our programs to be aligned to standards, but standards are going to give us outcomes. True. Right.
Um and one one good thing about these curriculums is they kind of steer away from just sticking to just the standards. They teach more of that like background knowledge, which is how students can then complete the standards and and meet the standards. And from what I know about Magnetic, that's a supplemental program. It's not a core
program. It's a core program. Magnetic literacy is a core program. But the foundation is a supplement. Magnetic foundations is their core program for phonics for K2. Okay. So where does the language component come in for K to2? Then it's in the magnetic foundations.
And what they're doing is right now they're revamping their reading part and their writing part which used to be ready reading and ready writing into magnetic literacy. So that way the magnetic foundations, the reading and the writing are all cohesive and are wrapped around the same themes and background knowledge that they're
learning. So we haven't seen that yet. No, we have magnetic comprehension. We have those samples of the magnetic comprehension that they have now. So we have an idea of what that looks like and then that's what they're making better to align with the foundations. And you mentioned that there's a
difference in the delivery of the two programs. What's the delivery difference? Um, it's just kind of the structure of the lessons. Like I I don't know that like we can you want like specific examples of Well, I I mean obviously you were saying that they both are
systematic direct instruction, but it said that the there was a difference in delivery of the two programs. I was just wondering what that difference was. So CKLA uses a lot of um like read alouds um speaking and listening activities. Uh
there's not as many like um well there is I was going to say uh there's a lot of students like working together and doing group work. Um there is some direct instruction but there's a lot of like reading and also listening comprehension with it. So it's not just students sitting down with a textbook
and answering questions sorry and answering questions next to their book. There's a lot of discussion going on. the teacher bringing like outside resource like uh pictures in that show what they're learning about. There's videos included. There's a like multi-
media that is involved in it too. I just have a concern with the magnetics because we don't know what that language component looks like yet. The previews look really good. They really do.
Uh start questions. Does the fifth one next grade keeping what they have? Yes, the third grade. Okay. I didn't know if I missed that. Thank you. Yeah, Michelle. Is there anything as a pilot something that like answers questions
you're going to be looking for that maybe they can focus in on during the pilot phase? So, when they report out? Well, I mean, sure. I just from what I I know CKLA fairly well. magnetic. I don't. So, I obviously researched about
it and and my biggest concern with it was it didn't have a language component as of yet and we don't know what it looks like. So, um I'm not sure why we would want to jump into a program that we haven't really seen a a large
component that is prevalent and needed for students to read. Um I mean, it could be wonderful. I'm not saying it couldn't, but um I don't know. We we're only piloting two programs, so we I would hope to take the two that we could get the most
information from. Any other board members questions? Um I just had a quick question regarding the timing on the availability of the magnetic programs. Is that allow enough time in order for you to thoroughly evaluate the programs in the night?
Sure. Does the plan understand correctly? There's one commandment that won't be available till January. Is that I think it will. I think we're very comfortable with what we've been working with our reps on and the the trainers that they've already brought in to talk to us and the many units that they've
shown us and where they'll be in January. I don't think it'll be a huge lift from what we're doing in September to December to January, especially in K2. um because that foundation isn't really changing. It's more of the reading comprehension and writing
improvements that are changing. Okay. And we had a meeting with the magnetic reading people just uh like a week or two ago. And we asked about that. That was one of our concerns is how would the transition go from what we were using for the first half of the year to the second half of the year. And they said that's something that they're really
considering and they're putting out like they know that it will be a change midy year and a jump. So they're making sure that we're ready for that change and that it makes like it it's logical and makes sense for where we were at the beginning to where we're going to jump to with the magnetic literacy. Understood. Thank you.
U member questions. Thank you again for thorough presentation. Um best of luck with both programs and uh we look forward to seeing the results uh till 2026. Thank you. Thank you. Um the next item I left my computer but I believe
the next item is the uh Preschool extension presentation. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being tonight. Uh we're here in Franklin Township. We're back tonight to give you an update and then to ask the board for some
guidance on where we need to go because we experienced a little bit of a hiccup in the past few weeks. We'll explain that in a second. So, that's why we're here. Um, we're going to ask the board for guidance tonight because there are upcoming dates that are fastly approaching. In the first week of July,
there's a Department of Education mandated meeting that if the district intends on applying for this funding that someone in the district needs to attend. It's mandated. It's one day. There's no recording of it. You have to go to that meeting or you cannot apply
for that funding. We're looking at all submission of the application. It's about 75 pages long. We've done most of it already in a draft format. Uh but we're looking at an August submission and then fall
notification of approval of that funding. So those dates are coming very quickly. people are on vacation throughout the summer, a lot of work to do. Um, so we need some guidance tonight. So we, you know, again, don't want to spin our wheels over the next few months and then not take the
deadline and not have the support on the board or the community or or the staff to do this. So what's changed? So as I said, uh, two seconds ago, uh, we've done a
application. We completed the grant application 75 pages and we submitted it for review to uh NER they're out of RERS National Institute for Early Education Research so they can go through the the
application to tell us if there are any holes any repetitions anything that we missed so we can correct those deficiencies submit the application and we're pretty confident then it would be approved. So we did that a few weeks
ago. When it came back, we were told that the rules have changed. Our original plan was to use some of the funding that we could get and add mobile classrooms to J& Deer and then move
second grade out there because even though you could use fun the funding, the PIA funding for mobile classrooms, the preschool students, the three and four year olds couldn't be in those mobile classes. So um what most districts have done I did this in a
previous district we used Pasal classrooms move the grade level out there then have the preschool students in classrooms in the school where there are bathrooms from what we learned in that review and it was just on a little side note that
we can't use what are you talking about so we called contacted the department of education the child department she said that mandate is changing or has changed already in the application process and
in the the code that by the 2728 school year you can no longer use funds in that way. So we said okay what are we going to do? we can either give up or we can come up with some plans on how to proceed which is exactly what we did and
we want to update the board tonight community on where we stand with those uh those ideas. So here's the the code um saying that we cannot use temporary classrooms with the PI funds
um permanent structure space must be used for all funded preschool programs. This request ensures full day preschool access for all eligible students and plans must be sustainable, compliant and timely. The bottom bottom had to change. What changed was using PF funds to
purchase or lease purchase mobile classrooms. Okay. So, here are our plans and my collect. So at last month's meeting, I explained the initial piece of taking uh
art and music. Uh they would become mobile that would then create two more classrooms at Jambbeer. So we currently have two classrooms. This would add to they would both be full-time classrooms.
All right. With that said, um we would do a little bit of shuffling in ter in within the school itself. Um in terms of getting first grade students over into the current art and music rooms, two
kindergarten rooms would go into the first grade hallway. With art and music being mobile at that point, it would create two rooms in the kindergarten wing for preschool. And the bathrooms are right in there. So we're fully
compliant and that works. Then at that point I went into detail about moving forward and the use of the mobile classrooms and so forth. But as Mr. Bett said, well there's a major glitch in that program. So when we look at this
approximately 150 students would then be redistributed across the three elementary schools. So here at jamir we would have four prek classrooms and the remaining classrooms would be distributed between main road and
Ritter. Main road we would be looking for two to four prek classrooms and Ted I believe you said four classrooms over at Ritter School. So we're still able to accommodate the initial plan of approximately 150 students that first year. That part has not changed. just
now we would be redistributing those students across all three schools. Uh for Ritter School in particular, I would be looking at relocating uh the classrooms in the smaller of our two- fifth grade wings. Um keeping in mind that we would have to have a dedicated
bathroom for the preschool population. That would give me approximately four to five classrooms that I would then have to distribute back out into our general population. Um, with us being an intermediate school, uh, and having a fully departmentalized schedule, we're
able to double up with some of the classrooms. Um, I also would be moving, uh, music and foreign language, uh, to the classrooms during the teachers preparation times. Um, so some alterations to what we currently have. Uh, however, we're able to to navigate
those the classroom space a little bit more and also keep the prek students completely separate from the fifth and sixth grade population. Uh, Miss Inveroso speaking with her. She has a couple different options. Um, something very similar to what we would be looking
at at Ritter where she'd be able to utilize some space within her newer wing. Uh she also does have a few classrooms that have dedicated uh bathroom facilities. So that would also be another option uh that she's fortunate to have at the main road
school. One advantage that we would have here u would be for transportation. U with transportation we would be able to distribute the load of of students across all three schools.
And if we did that across all three schools and their unique times, so the students would all be attending school for the same number of hours each day. Um, however, they would uh basically take on the school times of the respective school that they're
attending. Now, if we were able to do that in particular at GM at in particular at Main Road and Ritter, the students would be able to have dedicated buses. We would be able to condense our buses at Ritter and Main Road, probably
three or four less buses, be able to push our existing students onto the other buses that are already coming to our school. That would then free up three or four buses that would be preschool dedicated. So that would allow us to have um the availability of busing
more likely in a more feasible format. Uh we also would be able to have more geographical schools uh with with doing that in in this uh this manner. Um you know all of our schools are are pretty uh separated
geographically throughout the township. Um clearly those who live towards the starcross area jam section of town will be coming here. more of the Malaga Franklinville section would be going to Ritter and then the Forest Grove uh Piney Hollow end would be going towards
the main road school. So we'd be able to geographically locate the students as much as possible. That's obviously all depending on what the lottery results are, but that would be the intention. Um this you know is not uh an optimal uh
aspect in a sense that you know we're looking at student placement and student placement with older students in two of the uh two of the settings. Um and it is going to really cap our our space and
really cap how much further Main Road Ritter and even GMV would be able to expand especially if we were to get an influx of students uh for any one of our particular grade levels. So it does put caps on um the amount of seats that we
can fit within our particular schools. Mr. Betts has here that this is only a one-year fix because we can only hold um approximately 10 to 13 classrooms with this particular setting. We know that through the preschool formula, we have
to have more classrooms than that. So, we have to still find a way moving forward beyond this particular plan in order to house the remaining eligible preschool students. That leads to the third bullet. It's really important. Yeah. Once you're
notified that you've received the money and you're going to accept it, you have 75 days to start some type of program, meaning you have to have at least one of the PIA preschool classrooms operating
within 75 days. You can then slowly roll out more classrooms as the year progresses. When you have 75 days, you start at least one. Um, and those who are not familiar with it, uh, the computer is talking about the math. You can only put 15 students max in a
preschool classroom. Can't go 16 17. It has to be 15. So we create 10 classrooms. 10 times 15 is 150. The problem is why it's a one year fixed over the course of the next 5 years. You
have to service your entire universe of students which we are calculating would be about 360 students. So those 10 classrooms just won't be enough if we go which led us to
led us to plan C. So with plan C and I mentioned this with the pre with last month's uh presentation would be to expand with external providers. Now this could be twofold. We could either find a facility that we could then place our
teachers um into and merely use it as an external school for our district. The other plan or other part of this could be working with other outside providers that already have established preschool
programs. This could be with another public school. It could be with a private school. It could also be with the local Head Start. So we would have to search uh which is part of the plan anyway. We would have to search uh for not just in our community but also
locally, okay, in possibly in communities uh immediately outside our our own for other agencies that operate preschool programs. Um now the negative with that there would possibly be a lack over our actual control over the
curriculum and quality assurance. We would be sending students out, our own students to these outside programs now with certified teachers with a pro, they would be Franklin Township teachers, but you know, still following
the same guidelines set by the state, but now at a a different facility that's not here uh within our own district. And just to build on that, as Ted just said, there are guidelines that the preschools must follow. They need to be compliant, you know, with those space guidelines
and so forth, time of instruction. So, it truly is not just, well, find a preschool that's willing to jump on board. If they say yes, they're right in there. We need to make sure that they're also compliant as they will be audited by the state, making sure that it all
ties in the way that it's supposed to. Unfortunately, we've already put opportunities out. We've already send um sent out correspondents to a variety of different providers within our local community. We have not received any
positive uh feedback yet uh offering their interest or assistance with this program. So that is a a negative that we do have to uh consider when looking at this particular plan. Plan B is the most aggressive piece of
of this plan. Um, so you need mobile classrooms. If you're going to explain to 360 students of that box, uh, you can go out for a referendum for 15-year bond to pay for eight mobile
classrooms. They come in groups of eight. Um, they're about $1.2 $2 million and maybe lower based on percentage of PA use. So let me explain that 21% of PIA funds can be used to offset the
referendum. What does that mean? So under the guidelines of the PA grant funding, you can siphon off a percentage of other costs associated with preschool, part of the principal salary, part of the electric, part of the air
commission, part of the custodial staff, uh covers teachers, uh part of uh other positions around the district. You can take 21% because 21% is the percent of 360 students out of the total
population. They would represent about 21% of the student population. That's what they base them on. And you can siphon off that money and use it for other things in the district such as paying for programs or whatever you want
to do. I would recommend that you use that money and pay for the mobile classroom or pay off that bond within within a year or two or three instead of kicking that out after 15 years. Um,
you're going to probably need more classrooms moving forward, but if you budget it correctly, that can happen through the PI of funds. Even though technically you're not allowed to, you can certainly take take
off that money, that 21% and use it for other things. For instance, my former district in James, they're building a wing onto their elementary school because they did just that. They're building that wing for the preschool students because they used the money
correctly. cycling off that money, put it in a in a line item in the bank, paying off, not going out for a bond, that expansion. We don't have time to do that because we're tight on space. So,
it's aggressive. It means a lot. I got to move things in a in a hurry. But the recommendation would be to go onto a ballot in November and it's uh governor's election, so you don't have to pay for the ballot for the
election officials and all that. But we would need to have a ballot question to the board of elections by September 4th because it's 60 days in advance of the election. you have to give them the actual plan. So, there's a lot to
consider and a lot to do. It's an aggressive plan. Um, it's not the plan we originally thought about because of that mobile platform pickup. Um, but that's what we thought if this board and the community supports this. This is a
way to make this happen. Um, it's great for kids. It's great to see your presentation tonight. Thank you teachers. And I love your template. I knew you were worried about that. um for doing that work, talking about what's best for kids. This program is what's best for kids and it has, as I said
before, a profound effect not only on the school district, not only on students, and it'll increase their achievement in math and reading, everything else. So, it has a profound effect on the town itself because you're raising property values. A lot of people
want to come to Franklin Township. You pay higher values because Preschool would be free of charge for three year olds and four year olds, saving families probably $1,000 a month, but it cost essential preschool and they're getting
quality education from certified state certified Franklin Township teachers. It's an amazing program which is why we're suggesting being aggressive and not taking no for an answer from the state for planning and that's do nothing
right it's part of our strategic plan to look at preschool that plan was approved three or four years ago and the district looked at it and it just was too complicated I think we've come up with a way it would work or we not doing.
That's, you know, another option as well. That's why we're asking for guidance from um the board tonight. Um no expansion. Um you would lose that state funding, which is about $15,000 per child. So
times 360, you're over $5 million for the district. Um it has an impact on long-term educational consequences for students. And like I said, once you pay off those local classrooms and you're still getting that state funding, you can use that 21% for other things that
would improve the district. So you reduce that on that. And then there's no financial relief for for parents as well. So the board um asking for for guidance, we don't need a vote. Um we'll need an approval if we
can afford on submitting the application, but we just need um some guidance on on where you would like us to spend our time. Um our principles, it's the end of the school year, but it's a busy summer. They don't have off for the summer. Superintendent off the summer and getting ready for the next
school year. This is a lot of work and we don't want to spin our wheels if um there there's not support and understandably there are a lot of questions. I get it. Going off a ref referendum and adding on to the tax bill
of the township taxpayers is a big act. Although I think there's a way I know there's a way to pay off that bond quickly so that tax impact doesn't happen. So we're asking tonight for a open discussion and some guidance on
where you would like to point the administration. you make policy, you make uh you tell us what to do and we implement or or not. I just I just want to ask the administrator who's in verso you as
well. Um, are there any other obstacles or concerns that you may have in regards to these any of the plans um that maybe haven't been voiced so far or I mean cuz you're you're in the buildings all the
time. You you run them, you know how they work. Um, obviously preschool would be a great thing, but I just wanted to see if there were any other comments or concerns you might have that maybe we hadn't heard yet. I think something we have to consider is
is how much extra will this be for us each particular day. I mean, we're living and breathing in our schools day in day out along with our staff and our teachers. Uh we want to make sure that it's a feasible number of students that we would be responsible for. Uh that's
why I threw out, you know, 2 to four, 3 to 3 to four, four to five at the most. Um myself in particular looking at housing the fifth and sixth grade students as well. I completely recognize the age difference and I'm thinking in my mind, okay, well, you know, let let
me think back to when my son was that age in preschool and and how would I feel as that preschool parent knowing that he would be with the older population. Um I come to you with a perspective that it actually was quite beneficial. uh my son had that opportunity and there would be so many
opportunities and I know Miss Versa would would be feeling the same way where we would be able to use that older population in some ways to to be that she come on miss and versa you can come on up we we could use that older population in order to be that mentor that older brother that older sister for
for the students but we also would need a complete separation we we would that's why I mentioned it would be that one particular way Um, it now impacts all three of us. It now would impact all three of us. Yes. Did you want to add anything to that? There'll be an early childhood supervisor who will be
responsible will have to go to all three of your buildings and be responsible for those students. Yes, that's right. I mean, they are like preschool principal. That's another concern. Staffing is also a concern. Like we already, you know, it's hard to find preK3 teachers
already. Um, so that's a concern that I know we haven't already added, but yeah, I mean that that's something that we've been uh talking about throughout the course of our endeavors, looking at at preschools, just staffing availability, not just for the teachers, but also finding um support staff as well. Staff,
aids, um, and then the additional position, whether it be the the PERS, um, you know, there's there's other positions that we would have to fulfill and fulfilling them middle of the year is is definitely going to be a challenge as well. Mhm. And that's a big logistical piece
of fulfilling them in the middle of the year. You know, that itself is a challenge as we mentioned last month. The timing of the whole piece which is not of our valition. It's the state of New Jersey because it ties right into the budget and the approval of the budget and so forth, you know. So to
reiterate, we're going to find out if we move forward. So we apply in August and then we're going to find out in September. you know, that's what we were told when we spoke with the state individuals and then it's 75 days from that point. So, it is a mid-year roll
out. You know, there are some logistical pieces there obviously. Um, but you know, things that certainly can be taken care of and handled, you know, specifically to my building. It's just a matter of space, you know, and this is
um really at at that point all of our all of our space is going to be used, you know, and and the idea initially of well music and art they would go well in effect on a cart for a year and then with the mobile classrooms they would
get their rooms back. You know, this type of thing that wouldn't be the case. um it would be more of a permanent type of piece, but that's part of the balance and the juggle scale of decisions that we need to make. So, you know, there are my three cents.
I have quite a few questions. Um was there any more questions? Mer just just maybe for for Trish and Brian like uh you were saying that well first of all to speak to this Henry about the
75 days I think if that's the case we really only have to start the program within 75 it could be like literally one classroom one classroom within that 75 days that is true that's the beginning thing Brian um we talk about the ballot should we go with plan whatever the last
whatever one of 12 15 claims is participate uh for the referendum because it's not on uh date. Um how can we possibly put a referendum out before we get approval from the state? So, if we're putting this date, this is what I
don't understand, like we can't even send it statewide approved to August and we have to have it on by September 4th cuz you can you can handwalk that ballot on the 4th of September to the county board of elections and we're told we would know if we're going to be approved
in August. So, we would have some time to like I would have ballot by September. No, no, you have to submit it. You have to submit it. Um, oh, I just read that 60 days before November.
Um, and let's say the state, you know, all all this is contingent on on the governor and and passing the budget and all that. So maybe all that gets delayed and we've, you know, we we submit the ballot question on September 4th. Um,
and then we realize we don't get approved for something, we can always pull it back. We can always pull it back. They just need to print the ballots. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But the the nice part about that is that it won't cost the district 10 $15,000 to run its
own election in January or May or March, whenever. Okay. Thanks, Brian. One thing about that one question and clarification. Um I I mean based on my experience, there's not a rush. I mean, referendum is a scary word. It's like a lot, right?
Yeah, I I thought the state gave you 5 years to reach your universal or or years. I don't know the exact number. So maybe one day we could go for a referendum, but does it have to be like now? It doesn't have to. That's a great point. We should What you do have to add
in the plan is how you would service the 360 students. You have to put it in the plan. there's always a way to to build this phase it in maybe uh a few years from now. Again, I kept saying it's an aggressive plan. It's very aggressive.
Uh because you know, the more service you service, the more money you get in to the district. Um so it can be part of like a year two, three. I think you're going to have to do something though, a referendum eventually. Um unless you're budgeting the right way, you save up
that money and then just pay for it. Great point. Clarify that ballot. We get the approval. It all says fall, right? Notification
fall. Yeah. We've been told we would know we think the first week of September. But we have to have the question by September 4th. you have to have it by the fourth to the county, you know, board of elections. But again, if if we if we don't have it by the fourth, then
we don't submit the ballot question or I I mean, that's what I would You wouldn't submit a ballot question if you're not approved yet. Does that make sense? I didn't explain that. But this is the thing. Why do we have to do a referendum right away? You're saying you don't you
don't have to. We have 5 years to roll it out. But if we have to put it into the plan when we submit it, how are we going to service? How are we going to house these students? Eventually, you're going to have to do something. Yeah, you are. But but that's my point. So, we have the first phase.
Um, we might be able to accommodate. I think we can. I think we can do Brian. This is a lot to absorb. It's a lot to explain. Um, but again, we have to meet the deadline of the application, right?
As I said, I have a litany of questions. No, look, and we we understand it's a big ask. You know, we've had this discussion with the administration. We know we're kind of sticking our necks out here and we're doing it because we believe strongly in this program.
really strongly that our jobs are about putting ideas forward that are for the betterment of the district and and students. My colleagues wouldn't stand up here and I wouldn't stand up here if we didn't fully believe in this program and seeking our next out um you know
it's what you do when you you know passionate about helping kids. Since we're on the top, we did a referendum. Uh it wasn't going to be my first question, but we thoroughly looked at prek expansion in 2022 and in 2023
um and came to the conclusion that um without going out for a referendum uh to expand our facilities, it just was not going to be feasible uh in order to implement the program. Um now fast forward to the presentation of this all
uh last month uh we found you know I don't know if I want to use the word loophole or workound but you know we found an area where you know we were going to be able to use possibly some of this funding in order to use these mobile classrooms. Um I know there was some debate about the classrooms you
know but personally I thought that was you know not an optimal plan. however, it was a plan uh that was going to, you know, get us closer to where where we need to be. Um so now hearing that we're no longer uh have the option to use the
the mobile classrooms, I mean, honestly, um I I think that the the ideas presented, although, you know, I fully support uh the expansion of the prek are are definitely suboptimal um options. Uh, and I'll go through some
of the um the concerns that I have, but specific to the referendum that we're talking about. part of um the due diligence that we did in 2022 and 2023 was uh regarding you know the possibility of going for a referendum
and the state had said at that time that districts requiring referendums would not even be considered for the funding uh according to the notes that I saw from 2023 that that the state would if if a district's uh application required a
referendum at some point it would not be considered um under the guidelines. So, right, because they're they're going for referendum to expand their school for preschool students. We wouldn't be doing that. You would be doing for another grade level.
Um, and the preschool students would be in the current buildings, but you couldn't use the money to build a wing for preschool, but you you can you could refer that referendum would be required to expand the program. So,
according to this, the state will consider our application. It doesn't it doesn't specify that the expansion has to be on the No, it's what Brian saying. The way that Troy approached it us was that the referendum was going to be to
build a preschool for the students which you cannot do with the funds. He didn't look any other aspect of utilizing those funds for mobile. No, that's not the way I'm reading the document. It it says if a referendum is
required. I know. And that referendum is for preschool students. It wasn't for just students. It was to house preschool students. That's why the district will not consider that our our application for for the program is going to incorporate a referendum. Correct.
Part of the plan which we're going to present to the state is going to require referendum. Right. But it would be written saying that referendum would take place to house other students so that we can make room for preschool students in our current facility. But
again, the state is not going to approve an application for a district that potentially cannot implement the plan. Right there, you're saying that we can't implement this plan without a referendum, which we do not know whether it will or will not pass. So, we can we
can move on from that topic. No, I'm saying you could use that money, that 21% to offset the costs and and going after referendum, you can either pay off that bond or use that money for other things for What I'm saying is the state is not going to approve a plan that requires a referendum. I disagree with
you. Well, that that's fine. I mean, we all said, oh, we're getting free uh, you know, classes, but here we are. Um, so moving on from the referendum point again, there's a statement that we could use 21% for a referendum is also misleading because we were previously
told that that money was going to go towards supplementing our current budget. So, you know, so taking that money now and using it for some other purpose again is not consistent with what was previously uh presented to the board. Correct. That's that's why we're
presenting again tonight. It doesn't mean that that that something. Well, again, every time there's a presentation, everything changes. So, I'm not really feeling overly comfortable with moving forward with anything based on uh the information that we've received over the past presentations. So, that being said,
let's talk about transportation. Can I ask I have a question on that about the referendum to clarify only because it got rolled in. We have to We would have to include a referendum as part of this plan at some point to
make it acceptable to the state standard. You have to somehow house those could be adding more classrooms, but to pay for those classes, you're going to need something, right? We have to have a referendum at some point. What if where where do we what happens if we
try to implement a plan with a referendum and the voters pass don't pass the referendum? use more of that 21% to pay off for I would probably mobile classrooms or paying for the construction yourself
like they they're doing in Jesus talking about offsetting taxes if we had to pay for that construction ourselves where are we getting that money and I'm not being sarcastic but I'm asking because this year we had zero left over
in our our budget we don't have fun reserve balance. We don't have a capital. So, as a district, if we go forward and now we have to implement what we started our friend zone fails, we don't have the money to support that in our operating budget currently. So,
where do we find it? You're getting it from saving the the 21% not spending on on anything else. Originally we talked about using that that site taking it off percentages of electric and salary um using it for other things and in your
budget offsetting the budget doing other things. Now you could take that money and put it in reserve. Okay. Okay. So we we hold that money back but I thought that this preschool expansion
prohibits using its grant money to build infrastructure. In case you use the term loophole, that's what it is. You're using the money to pay for that 21% of Mr. Kick's salary. What happens if the state comes and says
that money is what you saved from our preschool grant? We can't now turn around and use that to build because we can't do that. So what if it hasn't happened in five years? I I didn't go back. Yeah. down. And just in my experience, if you are
attempting to expand and trying to reach a universal, if it gets voted down, as long as you're trying to expand, in my experience, that's what the state wants to see. They don't want you to see stagnant and you're not trying to expand. Clayton is still at our universal, right? But what happens then?
So we preschool for hip population year. We keep trying. We keep trying to expand until the community allows us to in our building and we can afford I don't keep trying service I guess service as many students as you can just reach your full universe. Right now we service like 20
students like so moving forward here um back to the transportation piece. Um, you referenced three areas within the township. Uh, there was multiple questions for me previously about how the calculation would work and who would
be eligible for this program. Newfield was no longer eligible from the program based on your statements about transportation. Is that correct? No, no, no. I Newfield No, I was just just referencing the different areas of this town with the geographic locations
of our school. So, Newfield will not receive transportation under this program. No, I No, they they would they would they and that the code that you feel has to be part of this, right? Okay. Understood your statement. You referenced three
areas of Franklin Township and which school district geographically but Newfield was not mentioned. There was no mention whatsoever. I'm sure I was just generalizing mentioned either you know there it was just a general I
was just generalizing okay I understand just generalizing the different geographical prior to me being elected to the board the the schools were set up geographically in that manner correct why are they no longer set up that way that's a genuine question it's a serious
question we board of education voted to restructure and reconfigure. What was the reason for that? Educational full board and actually you don't even
have to vote on it as a community. looked at the numbers of the two dis two school districts and decided that there was an inequity between the two
and there were other factors that people disagreed with. So they decided to be the same as some other districts that went from one school to the other to the other. of all three groups. And that first year we also went to full day
kindergarten for the first time across a little. So So if we were to implement a plan similar to this, we see inequities between the preschool programs. Is that No, it's different. It's different. No,
it's not a concern. It's not the same. Why you want to go back? What's up? No, I was I was just curious. I didn't understand. So, so um we we were also considering the length of the bus time. If if you have students coming from a more geographically closer location,
especially this population, 3 four year olds, right? You want as short of a bus time as you can. Um it it would get them to that school a little bit quicker. So implementing a structure like this is going to have a significant impact on our current student population. You would agree whether it
be through transportation or other reconfigurations. No, what what I had mentioned was that we would be able to condense some of our current buses in particular at our two buildings um which would then allow for a few buses to be
dedicated just to the preschool population. We we don't want our students with the three and foury old. So we know that we have to have preschool dedicated buses. We realize that and we're kind of predicting based off the number of kids in each classroom. 15 kids per classroom.
Looking how many students we have projected in each of those classrooms. When we multiply that figure, we're kind of figuring out about how many students in general and how many buses in general we would need. We were challenged to create alternative plans. No, we were
purely thinking out of the box to to determine what would in reality work. So with that condensing though, have you run actual or as transportation to run actual route and see less buses meaning
those kids may be on the bus for longer periods of time? Sharon involved with that. Sharon's involved in the conversations, but we have not run actual bus routes. No, no, we're not hypotheticals. And we're also assuming a lot of parents are going to drive their students like you have,
but when we have 17, 19 buses each day coming to our school, we're not looking at reducing, you know, half or even even a quarter of our buses. So, I think we try what 45 minutes, not longer than that.
like the max thing with preschool with Janer already Jan Beer already has kids coming from all over the town and they they reduce that number so that they have it's like 45 minutes I believe but you know it
ends up coming out sometimes more than that but you add the preschools to the bus it would be probably a little different I don't know but yeah Yeah, again I I could probably go on my questions and uh different concerns, but
uh just to recap, I mean, like I said, we we reviewed this once and we have calculations on what it would cost in order to do that uh to do implement the plan correctly. Um I don't think that this the options on the table right now
um again are even I described it as so optimal. I think they're going to have a negative impact on our our current student population. Um, and I just don't I don't see us being successful uh rolling out plans uh
like this in this manner. So I don't know what the rest of the board um you had said at Mr. Peters at Ritter you would have to double up on some classrooms or use some classrooms during teacher prep. What do you mean by that?
It's looking at a more middle school-like schedule. Teachers who are on prep, even in lunch, we could always have classes that are in session at that point go into those particular classrooms. It's something you commonly see in a in a secondary setting. And then your
special would be arts as well, obviously. No, just two of them. Two just music and music. No, not art. Music and foreign language. Art would still have its own dedicated classroom. So, I have a question as a parent. If I live on
your side of town and my three-year-old gets picked for the lottery, they're starting school at 7:15. That's that's what we threw out tonight. That's my concern is that everything is just thrown out and there there doesn't
again I I appreciate all of our work that you guys have done you know reviewing this but it seems to me that every time a hiccup comes up we're just going to plan B safe just the fact that we have plan B is a red flag to me um
again I don't mean to labor my concerns but no question yeah I apologize Stephanie is actually a point we probably didn't even think about. There are ways probably around that that you could have uh you know the students uh in preschool they
have to go the length of the day as everybody else but they don't have to follow the exact times but they can go earlier in Ritter's case I would say you know step back I I I appreciate that I I have gone I I printed out to the slides
and I made all of my notes because I feel like you you want guidance but you just said like that's an idea and this is what we're throwing out and we we have to decide on something that is going to have
you know tangible outcomes here and we're we have intangibles floating around like when we it's hard to I yeah I understand that we really do um that we're under the timeline of the state um and like I said we're passionate about
this we're confident that I think we all are everybody body here asked for this work to be done. It's just the answers we're getting. Could we like come up with a plan as a board and apply for the grant next year?
Like not saying I think everyone here is poor for the preschool program. However, I feel like there's you can certainly wait a year to apply. I would I would caution the district when uh we were in discussions with the
department this year the state allotted I forget how many you know I think like $50 million in this program they're anticipating um between 10 and 15 million this coming year so that that
window is getting smaller of districts that would qualify. We have a leg up because of the of the status of the district. We already qualified for funding years ago. Last year they opened it up to all
district. Used to be just a handful of districts. Now it's all districts, but because we originally qualified, I would think that gives us some points to get approved. But that money is is drying up um from the state. So I don't think that that pool is going to be there, but it's
not going to be as expansive as it as it once was. So you run the risk of state saying we have people with districts in this program. We're done. You know, we'll fund the programs that are in existence, but we're not going to
allow anyone else. That's what the risk. And again, it's another Yeah. Um and plan C. Plan C says that no room in district. So, we must partner with out school preschool providers to
absorb the overflow. You said you have still not heard back from any outside providers. No, we we reached out some we sent them letters. Um we put together pretty extensive list of providers. We sent them letters. Uh and that's part of
the application that you have to do that. What we would do to go that route, we would knock on doors, make phone calls. I made a couple phone calls. We would actually go to those places and say, "Hey, I'm Ted Peters. I'm principal Ritter. We're doing streets." You know,
try to We would be more aggressive. But part But part of plan C is using them and we still don't know their stuff, but that's required. We We have to do that part. I have We had a
gentleman last month um you know, the Jeopardy is putting those those institutions out of business in preschool. The idea is that they they make money because our students are there. We pay them tuition and they may not understand. I had one. So you explain that. I think I have one more.
Maybe too. All right. Plan D. It may require more units moving forward. This is where I want more clarification. First of all, how many more we know? Cuz originally it said 24. If no one if no one no outside provider
max 24 could be I mean you do the math you have to house 360 students 15 no more than 15 right so what my question is if we needed more of those units okay let me back up if we have to if we
put in a referendum we would have to ask for you know tax incentive referendum to the to the public and if they voted no, we have to use that money then to put
towards building, right? What but that's the same money that we're going to try to before that portion would get to that we're supposed to be funneling that money to pay for more mobile classroom.
Right? So it's the same money that we could possibly be allotting to two things and well you general fund you don't have to get
sorry if we said if we had a referendum now take that 21% if we could if the referendum doesn't pass and I said okay so now we're already in this program and they vote it down how we pay for
everything else and we're recycling that 21% we're saving it to to build or whatever. That's the same 21% that instead of plan A using to offset everybody's um pay, you know, to us
salary, we're now we were supposed to be siphoning off to use for classrooms, but we might actually have to siphon it off to build. It's the same pot of money that we may have to use two different ways. Correct. Then you'd have to figure out
in a few years that Yeah, I understand your your theory 21% the best. Um, but do you have any calculations to support that or have you done any calculations to support that? I can tell you it's 21%. I I can tell you
that much. Um, it depends on you know if Mr. Kobe unfortunately decides to retire in in a year or two, his salary, you know, it would be someone else's salary. So, it's hard to predict what that that would be.
Um, and utility rates are going up or down. You know, it's hard to predict what 21% of of all that would be. The studio salary, uh, food, um, all those kinds of things that you can siphon off. When we part, if we were to partner with an outside agency, what tuition rate
would we pass? It's negotiable. We know we'd get $15,000 for China. Um, you would sit down with those individuals and negotiate on how much they would charge us for basically for the rent of a room or two of the playground,
whatever it might be. Um, I've seen it somewhere, you know, could be four $5,000 um per child. That's for the facility. Then we provide the educators, right? Um now I also read that the the state is
increasing the square footage requirements on the um classrooms per child effective 2025 2026. They're trying to make it so that a lot of the when you go to um go to the private providers they can't or won't
participate because our rooms are too small. So they're looking to wave that moving it from 950 to 900. Do our I thought they were increasing it not decreasing it but do our or our classrooms they do they make the classroom that we were talking
in the classroom which is nice. It's not a mandate, but the bathrooms have to be within sight of the room. In this instance, we based our plan around classroom bathrooms are already in the classrooms. And are the curriculums are they, as I
believe, they're play based? Yes. Yes. The state lists um certain curricula that we have to choose from to choose from. They're all played. So, this school board knows how I feel about preschool. I've been felt very
strongly since I got on this board. I thought this town really needed preschool. I see the um reward. I see the growth. I see what it can do to a district. I do think there is risk. I see the risk, but I do think the risk is worth the reward. I think in any change,
this is a huge change, but in any change, there's risk. And it's scary. And I know that you guys, you want like a black and white answer, but you're not going to get that. It's kind of like we're gonna go kind of just don't build it as we go kind of thing. I think we
need to start off small with our first plan. Just four classrooms. I think four classrooms is amazing cuz it's better than we have now. Um, and you know, we just keep trying and I I would like you to do more with it. probably eliminate it for wearing what I
hear. But I do see the reward. I think the rent is worth the reward. And I agree with we have the preschool in Monroe and we're in our third year of expansion and we are expanding to every nook and corner in every building, but we're
making it work. Um, so it and no, no modulars. We only have two outside. Most of it's in in-house. But, um, I I tend to agree with Alicia and and feel that it's it's worth moving
forward to at least give one of these plans a try. Well, I appreciate you saying that, Alicia. Um because I see it exactly as that building a plane as you fly it. Um and I understand that you're completely
comfortable with that. I I just unfortunately that's not that's not how I operate. No. Well, again, I I don't think it's best for the kids to take away their art, to take away their music, to put their ons
to jam, you know, kids push into a classroom. It's rare for a great year that you know in 2022, why don't we just go for a referendum to build a facility the right way? Like, why don't we do things the right way? We
should have. We should. You didn't want to raise taxes for years. Listen, I we could run over. Well, I think what why didn't we use Why didn't we use Lake School at that point? Because it wasn't sold yet. I wasn't even on the board and I looked at it.
Lake school wasn't sold yet. Why didn't we write that? Why didn't we grab Eggerton when it was open? So, what if everybody knows anybody? What if they're on the back page? Really? We got to either decide what we're going to do or
move on. I think I think the struggle is that it's left to nine of us who want prek but are afraid to hesitant not afraid hesitant to make the decision
that the outcome could be at the expense of the current students we have. That's what that's where I think the hesitation is. I think the hesitation is that I understand the risk. I get that it's you don't get great reward if you
don't take big risk. I live that every day, but I don't I wouldn't take a huge risk on something that I'm not really sure of all the parts and plans and then I'm not we're we kind of have to figure it out. We might have to use new tools. That's
where I'm nervous because you can't operate a business like that. And that's how I that's my life experience. So that's what I mean. I I don't mind the big risk,
but when I know the pieces, like when I know I have the money that I can pay for it, that's what I need. like that's and then referendum getting a referendum in this town, but they know it's for they know that it
will help preschool. They were very vocal about it on social media, but they wanted preschool. Yeah, I understand that. But I don't know how many people aren't that if we get into this knowing we have to have that component somehow
someway in the future year and more people that don't want to come out like what do we do then? Now we're already flying the plane that we don't have the part for. Are we going to crash and burn? Cuz I don't whether we're here or not. I don't want to leave this
something that might crash and burn because what are it's so rushed. That's my problem. It's so rushed. Oh, I know. Listen, the state of New Jersey did with this with the NJS. It was going to be all online and guess
what? Now figure out how to get all the computers to test all these kids. They did that to all of us. And whether or not we had money in the budget, we had to find a way to do it. Yeah, but we have that we have no choice. This is a choice we have to
make. Yeah. Well, not going forward. No, no, I mean this is a choice left on us. So, let me remind you all that we don't need a final. We just need some guidance. We'll spend the next month trying to answer those questions,
putting the program together. got a notice today there's a an online um information session from near that we could attend maybe we'll be answering your questions or not we just we don't want to spin our wheels if it's a dead no from the board
you know I need four people to say move this forward or not we just we want to know because you know we have school to close up and we have school to open up in September and you're hiring superintendent I know that's a part of this as left, right? There's that
transmission piece. So, there's a lot happening here in Franklin, Texas. But again, it's all good. It's all really good stuff. If we were sitting here debating, you know, the cost of electricity, it would be mind-blowing. We're having conversations about what's best for
children. And that's what your I think your jobs are. Um, so with that, you know, what do you want to You don't What you need is you're going to have to, if it's a yes tonight, if you get that application, when we submit it, you're
going to have to approve it either or, which is probably about a month away. I take the board. I think that there you can do it for
the board or not. Yeah, I I would make a motion that we table it for now. No administration comes in look at it. Um table for how long? Until next month. You're going to have to make a decision. Yeah, we can't table it. We the
administration needs to know whether or not they need to continue to work on this or not. Yes. At this point and and leave them with no direction. I don't think that's very responsible. No, I just said to review it when the new administration comes in, have them take a close look at it and
come up with a thorough plan to move forward concisively. I think it's irresponsible to continue to move forward in a manner where we have no guidance and no clarity whatsoever. Again, that's my personal opinion. That was my
Okay. All right. I just want to say this. There's six people at this table. So, that means three people of the board are going to make this decision. I think that's irresponsible. I think you have three more people that that should be here to make three of us. Okay, I'm
going to wise. Well, you can't always come to everything. You've missed some meetings. I don't want to hear it. I don't think you're you've missed meetings. I think three people aren't enough. And I'm saying as much as I went through school, I don't think the plan is significant. I
don't think the plan is clear enough. Sorry everybody. I say no. let the next person in if if you want to pursue it. I agree. Listen, we're all not everybody's going
to like everybody's decision. No, I I I have to tend to agree with Bart. I think what things a one-year fix and trying to redistribute kids over preschools and using hopes of loopholes and having to do this and right now without a plan
that we still have ideas that we threw out tonight that are good ideas that might be options to consider. I don't even know if that's a plan. This is an idea. I don't know if it's a good enough plan to face
just a lot of risk on me. I I would unfortunately I have to say the plan isn't there yet. I like preschool. I want preschool. This plan isn't sufficient enough for me to support it. And I'm sorry.
You don't have to abstain. [Music] three no three yes you can abstain if you would like okay and you don't have anybody in the room
you don't have you don't have to feel pressure from anybody in the room whether they're at this table or not please and thank you for thank you again for for all your hard work [Applause]
this decision was easy. It wouldn't have taken all this time out. All right, moving on. We have our first public comment uh section regarding the agenda and agenda. Good evening. Do you want to give me a microphone? I
don't I can talk loud. That's fine. I can hear you. I'm loud and I'm loud and proud. I can speak loud. Uh my name is Brook Sanders. I wear many hats in our district. I am a mother of three children, all four and under. I'm
a Franklin Township resident. I'm a teacher here at Janvir, who has many roles within the district that I proudly serve on. Finally, I am the membership chair for the TFEA. I come to you tonight to speak about an important topic that is lingering in the
room, the prek program and expansion grant. I want to make this clear that I come to you tonight speaking about this program that my two children age four and three will not reap the benefits of um for the following school year because they were not selected. So, I want to
make that clear that I am not speaking as somebody that's actually benefiting from the program, but I'm still standing up here tonight because of how strongly I believe in this program as a community and a staff member. There are a few statist statistics that I would like to
touch on tonight. All my statistics are backed by research. I will gladly share them with you if you need it. Um, children who attend highquality preschool enter kindergarten stronger pre-iteracy, vocabulary, and math skills. Something obviously relevant to
our conversation tonight uh with our ELA curriculum uh in our ELA committee. Uh long studies show that lasting academic gains, including higher test scores and reduced need for special education, come from our prek program. I would
appreciate it if you would listen to me, Mr. Brandt. This public comment section is for agenda items to be voted on. This is this is specifically talking to Mr. Kesley regarding that. So if you'd like to continue in this section, that's fine. Um I'll allow you to do so, but
typically um this public portion is for items listed on the agenda for approval. So go ahead. I'm still going to continue. Public preschool participation is associated with lower rates of grade repetition in elementary school. Participants in quality preschool
programs are more likely to graduate from high school. Long-term data shows higher rates of college attendance and stable employment in adulthood among preschool participants. Preschool helps children develop cooperation, emotional
regulation, and problem solving abilities, which we greatly lack at our elementary level currently. Studies link preschool attendance to reduced behavioral problems and significantly lower cr uh crime crime rates lower in
life or later in life, excuse me. Quality preschool can return up to $7 to $13 for every $1 invested due to reduced special ed, welfare, and crime costs, and increased tax revenue. Public preschool allows parents,
especially mothers, to work, improve family income, and economic stability. Public preschool programs are especially effective for children from lowincome, minority, and dual language households, helping na uh narrow the opportunity gap. I took the time to seek out
information from local districts who have already implemented the grant in their count in our county. One in particular is the town I graduated from, which was Washington Township. I spoke with teachers who were in the lower elementary level, as well as teachers who are currently teaching in the prek
program. Some information I gathered as questions and they gave me answers. I asked them what is the greatest successes and benefits of the program. The greatest benefit of the expansion would be to be able to offer pre-k to the majority of our population in our district. Preschool is a vital time for
children to learn in a social setting and prepare them for kindergarten. My second question I asked was, "How do you think the expansion is helping shape early childhood education in your district?" Uh my prek teacher that I spoke to said the program has actually really helped our kindergarten program
as it is not as vigorous as in previous years. The students are continuing with choice time going into kindergarten. They are able to learn through play rather than focus on alphabet knowledge and number recognition which is a completely revamping of what they what they have done for many years. One of
the first grade teachers in the town said, "We are already seeing social, emotional, and school readiness changes in the students who were in our preschool program. It has made our transition more seamless and has helped us uh spend less time on things like sharing, taking turns, using our words,
etc." My last question to them was, would you recommend the program? I highly recommend as this allows for a higher population of learners to attend school and gain social and emotional skills. We use the creative curriculum
in which children learn through play and hands-on learning. Washington Township is still currently a lottery system. They started their program in 2021. They hope to begin fully expanding in 3 years. So obviously that's beyond the 5-year window that we were discussing
earlier. The district has a main building which is Grandlock Terrace. They bought a school in Pitman and they are currently utilizing that and they have multiple classrooms and various daycare providers throughout the town. This is all funded through the pea grant. I respectfully urge the board to
allow the public, the parents and guardians of this community to have a voice in decisions that directly affect their children. Family deserve the opportunity to choose what is best for their children's education, development, and future. When decisions are made without public input, we risk
overlooking the diverse needs and values of the very people our schools are meant to serve. Trusting families with a voice in the process is not only respectful, it is essential to building a school system that reflects and supports the community it serves. I will leave you
with this final point. From the Franklin Township Public School website under the board of ed section, we find this statement. The board is responsible for providing adequate and direct means for keeping the local community informed
about the district and for keeping itself the school and the school staff informed about the wishes of the public. All planning both that which sorry is and that which is not related to the
budget needs to be interpreted to the public if citizens are to support the school program. This statement means that the school board has two major responsibilities. Communicating with the community. The board must make sure that the people in the local area know what is going on in the school district. This
includes sharing updates, decisions, goals, and plans in a clear and direct way. The second is listening to the community. The board also needs to understand what the public wants and values. This includes listening to parents, staff, students, and other
community members so their voices help shape school policies and decisions. I urge you to follow what the board is intended for, listening to community's wants and values, whether they align fully with your personal viewpoints or not. And speaking for myself in my
school where I went, uh we had our preschool program in Washington Township for the time being in our high school, a 9 to12 district. And it was very beneficial for myself. I was able to take courses. I worked with the students hand-on my junior and senior year. And
thinking about this, maybe going to Mr. Peter school, I think this could, excuse me, I think this could potentially be extremely effective for those fifth and sixth graders. Why not put them in an opportunity where they could learn babysitting skills at that age where it's developmentally appropriate for
them to maybe watch their younger sibling or, you know, look after a neighbor for an hour. Thank you for your time. Anyone else in the public? Good evening. How are you, sir? My name is Paul Vanamas. I live on on Mary
Avenue. Um I'm not going to come up here and try to tell you that you don't care about preschool because it obviously just being this is my first school board meeting, so I'm sorry if I if I'm up here. Um I've worked in Tell us your last name. She needed for the minute. Uh Bonamasa. You want me to spell it for
you? Mind if she does her best? It's okay. All right. Thank you. You really I'm sorry. Joe is your relative Joe? Uh very distant, but yeah, um so I've been a public servant my entire life. I still work for a fire department. Um so I appreciate all your guys work for our
kids and for the town. I I do appreciate all that. And I'm not here to blow smoke. I'm just here to ask a couple questions. Am I allowed to ask questions about like the referendum and all that stuff? Sure, you can ask. I mean, it's it's not really Q&A session, but if you have a question, we'll be
happy to try. So, I guess my my point of the question would be your the plan was to get a referendum for 1.2 million or something like that. Was there ever a talk about just building a a dedicated
part a portion of a school, whichever one for preschool? Like if we're going to raise taxes from a tax from my point of view, I would rather just do it for it to be a permanent solution, not a not a not a mobile mobile completely. If we're going to spend the money, if we're
going to do it, we'll do it, right? Um and to answer your question, yes, in 2022, um into 2023, part of our strategic plan uh under the finance portion was to uh investigate the possibility of uh preschool expansion. Okay. Um a lot of those documents are
available on our website. Um if you want to hang out, I can direct you after the meeting to where you can find them. Um and the conclusion actually happens even uh at the time uh we were looking at a student population of around 330 children. uh based on current
construction costs. Uh at the time in 2022 2023 uh it was an estimated cost of $15,675,000 in order to add on the infrastructure uh that we would need uh in order to accommodate the uh the full university
prek students. And how long do we know how long like that bond would take to pay back? Is that a 30-year bond? Is that a 50-year bond? I'm not on council, but I mean Okay. So, um is I know they're talking about that we can roll out a small portion of this if we apply for the
grant without a referendum, right? We can roll it out but with a small portion of classrooms and we still receive money if we do at some point expand. Is that is that true? Like I said, I'm coming for this. Yes, I apologize. Yes, I think the
question was if I'm out of line, just let me know. What if we can't uh you can do that? Yes. The question was phrased. What if you can't meet the what you put in the plan and and uh house all the all the students within a 5 years period.
You know, obviously you can you can rework your application. I know that fact and as long as you're trying to do things, you can have that program in place. So we have to accommodate everyone within 5 years. You have to at least try to. Okay. So if we try and we
can't and then So then what happens? So then I'm sorry. It sounds like Washington still is doing a lottery. Sounds like they didn't meet their uniform. So you would just, you know, keep the program and it would have to be for a limited number of students.
It would be everybody, right? If we so we would still be able to help more than we are now if we if we if we got accepted if we if we accepted the grant it would still be a lottery but full day but we can we could still accommodate more kids or would it be less kids? It'
be more kids. It would be more. Okay. Um and I guess my final question would be is how long is that grant good for? Is it unlimited? Is it It's not actually a grant. It's um it's an additional state aid. uh so to speak like our budget is
made up of uh uh funds that we've gathered through local taxation your friendly council president or Yes sir. Yeah. So um we take care of taxable portion of it and you know it's revenue that's generated by our district um fund our operations and another portion that
we get through state aid. My understanding is that when you go for the uh preschool expansion, that's why it's called preschool expansion need. Um it's actually an additional uh aid source that goes onto your your state aid funding and I think deferration
on that how that works. So we call it a grant. Some people call it a grant, but it's actually an expansion and your state aid funding. Okay, that's all I really wanted to know. Like I said, I appreciate you guys like doing this. This is a you know, we appreciate you attending the meeting. I
uh I have two young kids. That's why I'm kind of I I really wanted to kind of hear you guys. But I mean, I feel like from 2022 to 2025, it sounds like there's been like little to no progress on this. Is that kind of there's little to no progress, but again, in 2022
through 2023, there was several updates on it. And the conclusion was reached that um you know, without uh going to the bond referendum for let's just say around numbers $15 million. Yes, sir. Um we didn't have the capacity to accommodate any students. Uh in the
intermrats uh came in uh no pun there because he was an interm superintendent but um you know he took a different look at it and said uh I'm not sure if you were prud I was not I'm sorry an ability to use that funding cuz what had happened was
the funding you're never you weren't never allowed to use it to build um infrastructure. there was no capital costs that were allocated to the expansion aid. So, uh we thought and had been done in the past um we will be able to use mobile classrooms uh and use the
expansion aid to fund the mobile classroom. So, we're like, okay, we found what I call loophole or you know a workound. Um while the state and I'm assuming it's because the state is looking for ways um you know to decrease uh funding you know moving forward on
these type of things they they're no longer allowing districts to utilize the expansion aid for those mobile classrooms. Is that accurate? Um so that's kind of brought us to where we were at now. Uh which in my opinion
perspective you know square one of 2022. Um, so essentially kind of brings it full circle. So I guess I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. Yeah. Uh, so are we still looking to possibly do like get another price on expansion like a like a permanent expansion? Is that is
that at all in the work like a possibility? I mean that's something we'll possibly discuss in the future. Uh, I can't answer that for you. Okay. I guess that's all I got. Thank you. No problem. Hi, my name is
My name is Samantha Vancoy. I'm a resident of Stanton Avenue. Um, I just had a couple questions about the mobile unit. I just wanted to make sure I had the facts straight. Um, you were saying it would be $1.2 million for eight classrooms.
And how long are those units generally good for? I was looking online. 20 30 years. Is that what life expectancy 15 20 25 years? So $1.2 million to get eight classrooms for
20 years. I I've never seen any of these numbers in in writing. I don't know if it's 1.2 million. Um I've seen it that just that that seems pretty affordable to me. Um, so I was just I just wanted to make sure
I had it straight. Thank you. I really excuse me. I'm sorry. Good evening. My name is Wesley So, resident of Franklinville. I stand to actually benefit from this program. So, I do want to say I do appreciate all the
hard work that you know the staff came up with to present these options. Uh, one of the questions I did have is you said you knew for a fact that it was going to if it did go to the state the application would be rejected. Can you share how you know that it would be rejected based on the information that
we gathered in 2023 according to the information that was provided um plans that require a referendum or do not qualify for the expansion. The second thing that um that caught my attention. So you made a comment and the comment was
that bas just boiling it down. These gentlemen provided a contingency plan and and I've never heard of a situation where not having a contingency plan is a red or having contingency plans is a red
flag. And that kind of was bizarre for for me to to listen to you to say that having plan B and plan C was a red flag. I think those comments kind of seem reckless in in any endeavor really. Can
you share why those com why having contingency plans are red flags? Yeah, I don't view them as contingency plans. So they were plans in addition to other plans on top of BC. Um, yeah. I didn't I don't interpret them as being
contingency plans. I inter I interpreted them as being a plan B, plan C. So like I I didn't really I didn't gather that they were being lumped together. I just saw that they are because plan B doesn't work without plan C, D, E, and F. Um, so
they're really although they're labeled plans B, C, D, and F. They're one plan. One can't. So So then how So then how is that a red flag? What I'm saying is that having something and so many different forces, so many things if they're unplanned for
that rely on something previous to happen to me is a red flag. It's successive in nature, wouldn't it be? I don't I don't interpret that one. Okay. Anyone else from the public wish? I make a motion to close. I have a
second. All in favor? All right. Um, I got I have All right, moving on. um schoolboard president report. I have a report I'm going to read here from for
the public benefit. I think I've updated all the board members. Uh this is Judith Walton, the consultant which is helping us with our superintendent search. Uh the application period for the superintendent CSA uh search has closed
on May the 20th. Um we've received 20 applications. um of the 20 applicants uh we've scheduled eight uh candidates for first round uh interviews on June 19th and 23rd respectively. Uh second and third
round interview uh will be scheduled the 25th and 30th and we're hopeful that uh we'll be able to appoint our next uh CSA sometime in July. Um that being said, obviously most uh superintendents and
administrators have a clause. Um you know, if they're coming from a current position that um gives a uh 60 typical 60-day um notice, 60 to 120 notice clause. So although we
may be hiring a superintendent in July, um Mr. class may still be with us through uh September depending on who the hir questions. Um we'll move on to superintendent report.
We need to keep it short. It's been a long night. Um so today was the last full day of the school year. We have three. We have three missile days left. I just wanted to thank um the board of education for making this year really something special. Uh the staff,
administrators, everyone in this district is just uh topnotch. It's really been a great place to to work. Um it's hard not to get attached to this place. It's there's something special here and it comes from the people sitting on the board and in the audience
tonight in our classroom at every single thing. So, thank you for making the school year terrific. Well, from October through now, I can't speak for some time. Um, but it's been a really great year. So, thank you, um, Ted for the, uh, graduation ceremony, which was
really a lot of fun. Terrific weather helped out. It was perfect timing. So, thank you for that, the staff that made that happen. Um, and enjoy the next two and or three and a half uh or three early dismissal days to close out this week.
Thank you. Um Lacy, anything from uh NJB? There's two statewide training programs. June 23rd, there's a leadership summit for board presidents and vice presidents from 9:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Manville High
School. And on June 26, there's a spring school ball forum. And that's for like everyone, the board, the public. Um that's from 9:00 to 4:00. at double tree by in township.
Thank you. Uh any DOE reports? Sorry, I didn't hear. Uh moving on to the board education VA time reports. I think um we'll move on to the approval of the minutes. We have minutes listed from uh
May the 14th and May the 19th. Uh if you guys have had an opportunity to review them, I'll make a motion to approve the amendments as listed. I have a second. Second. Are there any revisions? Uh if not, all in favor?
Any opposed or abstensions? I have from F1 for the rest. Uh human resources. Uh no revision since our review. Is that correct? Any more member questions?
I'm sorry. I know about um if there's no questions, I'll make a motion for human resources items G1 through G13 is recommended by the I have a second.
I have a comment for 12 minutes. Tanglei, yes. Cuttingham, yes. Yes. Brown, yes. Sar, yes. Fre, yes. Motion cares. Uh, education. Uh, any questions
by board members? It's pretty short, this um there's no comments. I'll make a motion to approve education items H1 through H5 as recommended by the superintendent. I have a second. Second. Um, any other comments? It's not first
to go. Yes. Brown, yes. Star, yes. Yes. Cunning. Yes. Yes. Uh, general administration
superintendent report. Nothing. Um, I'll make a motion to approve all general admin items I1 through I6 and recommend by superintendent by a second. Any other comments? Trish.
Brown. Yes. Sar, yes. Changi, yes. Cunning, yes. Brand, yes. Motion carries. All right. Uh, cl Yes. The bills list was at this morning.
That's why that's in yellow. Does anybody need time to review? None. Moving. Um the only other things that were added or item uh 19,
we just received this proposal today for uh physical therapy services program. Um, as well as item number 21, the insurance package removal. [Music]
Questions on any of the items. This insurance look for our health is to the health benefits or is this some other? No, that's our purpose comp commercial auto property liability student
health. Yeah, health benefits are already approved. Do we uh do we anticipate being um able to move anything capital or reserve? Will there be anything? Uh very minimal honestly um given the the raised um in salaries.
Yeah. Any other questions? Uh hearing none to approve operations committee J1 through J25. Uh by superintendent. Any comments?
Sorry. The last time I have to launch number one, I'll move that correctly. Yes. Cunningham. Yes. Go. Yes. Brown. Yes. Yes. Motion carries.
Right. Um, old business. We have four goals in the yearly planning calendar. review uh new business. Um I I just had old business. In April, we had a um update on the
survey that was sent out to staff on the character strong. We were supposed to get a copy of that if we could get the results. Okay. Thank you. That's it. How you doing? This I don't know if this is a business
but um I hate to say the word I hate to say a word but last month you presentation your school expansion presentation at the end of on the very last slide you put your name and your email. How many
emails did you get about questions about about none? None. Okay. Um, any other new business? Uh, we're second public comment portion. Uh, make the public second. All in
favor? Uh, anyone from the public comments? Seeing no one motion to close second. Um, our next scheduled meeting for the purposes of the public uh will be July the 21st, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Um, just a
reminder of all board members, we do have four additional meetings scheduled uh for the uh superintendent interviews. The first of which being Thursday the 19th uh at 6:00 at 6:00.
So quickly everyone there I make a motion to