a child kind of develop through. So, I'm very passionate about supporting students, supporting families. Um, you know, a lot of the work that I've done recently um has been in the area.
Okay. Um, a lot of the work that I have done recently in my principal ship at Pineroveve Manor was family engagement. Um, so working a lot with families who just need additional support. Um, coming into this role in the middle of the year
had its challenges, but it also has had its benefits because I was able to kind of see the year unfolding, see um the end ofear procedures and take notes of some of the things that I would like to develop and continue to improve. Um, my
predecessor did an excellent job, Dr. Solomon and you know I really want to take some of the initiatives that he has begun and just launch them into further success for our kids. Um just to give you kind of like a well-rounded picture of Franklin High School. Um I wanted to
give you the most recent numbers. So I looked at what our student enrollment looks like and it's actually 2029 2029 students. And so the rising 9th graders that are coming in, they are the class of 2029. So I thought that was kind of cool. um if you're like into numbers and
stuff like that and like superstrange. Um so 40% of our students uh qualify as economically disadvantaged. Um so just good for you to know kind of like what we're talking about here, right? Um 60% of our students uh have disabilities or
they have an IEP for their learning needs. Um and then the breakdown of kind of demographics. Our biggest racial breakdown is Hispanic students. Uh that is 42% followed by African-American students at 32%, 12% Asian students, 9%
white. Um and then the other percentage is uh mixed races or other. Um so that's kind of like what we're looking at. So we have a huge melting pot, right? So we have students of all different languages, cultures, backgrounds. Um we
have over 60 clubs. So, what's cool, and I think Dia, you can speak to it from, you know, your resume and your interest. What are some of the clubs that you're in? Um, I'm in Medtech. Um, I believe I'm doing secretary for that. We can't hear you. Oh, um, I'm doing medtech, which I'm going to do secretary for that. And then
there's wellness for women. Um, there is misrepresentation, but I believe it's going into wellness for women. And I believe I submitted a confirmation for my for like my own to my vice principal and then I think we should get to you at some point. But it just shows like students can take initiative and like
really explore their own interests even through like school like it really just shows like students are involved and through our clubs we have students who develop into being leaders, right? Because then they can run to be on the executive board. And one of the things
that our clubs do that sets them apart from other high schools is they have to have a community service component. So we're instilling in our students that you're not just here. It's great to have a passion, of course, wonderful, but what are you doing for others with that,
right? So that's a really really wonderful thing that I know Dr. Solomon pushed and we're going to continue to to work on that. Um, so for as far as my goals and my mission, I think it's important as a school, there are things that we're graded on, of course, right?
Graduation cohort. We want to make sure that we're graduating students on time in four years. Um, looking at the data from that, we were actually this past year at 94%. Which is really good. um it's right on
par if not a little bit better than what the state's uh average graduation rate is. So one of my areas is of course to continue that. I would love to see 100%. Right? What's happening with those other 6% of kids that are not graduating on time? So with that comes a lot of
support and a lot of working with those students who do have challenging behaviors or challenging home backgrounds that are not excelling in school. Um so finding things that are going to support those kids as well so that they can be successful. Um attendance is also another measure that
we use to see if our schools are being successful or not. We have a 23% chronic absenteeism rate which means these are students who have missed 10% or more of the school year. So if you think about
10% of a school year that is 18 days or more. That's a lot of school right? you can't fully grasp your content if you are not there 10% of the time. So, I would really like to shrink that number. It has been on a downward trend, which is great, but I I want to see it much
lower than that. Um, looking at that data even further. Who are these kids who are most chronically absent? When you look at the sub data, it is our Hispanic students and our economically disadvantaged students. Those are the two subgroups that suffer the most with that. So, what are we doing? what
programs, what um what caring adults do we have that are connecting with those students. So, those are things that uh we are looking at as my administrative team. Um I'm very fortunate to have four vice principles and four deans as well.
And they are challenged and tasked with working with their cohort, right? Each vice principal and dean has grade 9, grade 10, 11, 12. So they are almost like their own little school and they get to really drive those initiatives as
well uh by connecting personally with those kids because yes I'm the principal and I love connecting with kids but let's face it I there's no way that I can connect with 2029 kids um on a daily basis. So it's they're really key to driving these goals and these missions.
Um what we do and this is what we do over the summer is we create our admin goals. So these are the goals that we are working on throughout the school year and it is for school improvement right so a lot of it is it's attendance
it's graduation it's behaviors as well right we want to reduce the top two infractions um probably in any high school I would argue are physical aggression and class cuts so how can we get more kids going to their classes
when they're supposed to be in class and how can we get kids to use their words and problem solve and reduce conflict in a way that's beneficial because we all have conflict but we can't all just do what we want with it. Right? So th those are some of the things that we're
working on. What strategies can we um employ to support those initiatives? So that's what I'm working on. Those are my goals. Those are my my mission for uh next year and and onwards.
questions. I'm curious if you've looked into like the chronic absenteeism like are there some like threads there in terms of what's causing that for students like students working trying to support their families or or other things. So what has
happened and it's really really taken shape after during CO and after CO is there's a lot of mental health needs and what you're seeing now is a lot of kids who are school averse and are are very
much challenged by the concept of coming to school regularly and our families are struggling with this right so we have supports in place like family crisis intervention so we make referrals to to this organization to work with families who are struggling to get their kids to
come to school. Um, so that's one of the things that we see. Um, outside of that, I'm still kind of digging in to see what are the causes of this, but we do all the all the check-in points where families will get the daily phone call.
We send a letter if they have four absences, then eight absences, 10 absences. So all along the way we're checking in to say what is going on. We need your child to come to school. Um and so it's challenging and the state
has also changed its regulations as far as what is a state excused absence which there are not many state excused absences. Um so that's another kind of ripple in the effect of what our attendance looks like.
I I always ask uh as you know the uh the township has active maybe four three or four uh charter schools now uh
do you find that any any real competition and what would happen if a particular charter school student would be a decide to become high How would you handle that? I mean, we have kids coming in from
charter schools all the time. So many times a family will decide whatever is best for their family for their their child to go to a charter school. And they have different experiences, right? So sometimes they can be very regimented
and very strict and very academic focused, which it's good to be academic focused, right? We want rigor for our kids. We want them to be well prepared for college and beyond. However, when that is all that you have, it can be r very restrictive for a student who's
developing, right? Um, so what we do is we host tours throughout the school year for interested families who want to come out of charter to come to public school and we do a tour, we walk through a presentation, we explain all of the opportunities that they have. We did one
a few weeks ago and there was a practice going on in the gym um and we were in the weight room and there were kids there and they were they just interacted with them like hey how's school here and they would just have those face tof face conversations of this is this is what a high school experience is like. So
honestly and I think Dia you would probably agree whatever you want to do you will find at the high school. If you want to just have your nose in a book and have all AP classes and excel that way, you absolutely can. If you want to be a star athlete, you can do that, too.
If you want to be a club president, you can do that, you know. So, there's a little bit of something for everybody. I haven't had any challenges so far with kids coming in or out from charter. How about if you say, "I'd like to have school. I want to go to the chart school."
You have to okay that? Well, no. I mean, a parent has the right to withdraw their child. Any other questions? I I'm sorry for the attendance because we really have the attendance, but
yes, the breakdown 2029. Uh, this is from grade nine or grade 8 through grade 9. Grade 9 through 12. 12. So, this is the breakdown. I know. Hello, Gary. How you doing? Sorry. Okay.
Okay. Uh this is the council who's our liaison. The uh high school principal is just finishing her presentation and for some and for some reason we have a very low attendance tonight. I don't know why but
uh it could be some people are on vacation. I don't know. Yes. Most likely they are. So u uh we which just about to uh complete her presentation. Okay.
We have a new junior commissioner as you know which which you appointed at the last council meeting and uh right now the other junior commissioner he's on vacation now. So right right the new one. So thank you.
So my job is listening here. Okay. Okay. Very good. You continue. This is council. Hi. Hi, Councilman Farazzi. How are you? I'm sorry. I'm I'm in Canada and we had an emergency meeting as well, so that's why I'm calling late a little bit.
No worries. No worries. Thank you. So, the last question was, what's the breakdown of the grade level? So, we're grades 9 through 12, and it's about 500 students per grade level. It always kind of ends up that way. Sometimes we'll go up to 550, sometimes
it's pushing 600, but right now it's right around 500 at each grade level. And are all these students residents of Franklin Township or they come from neighboring towns, too? They're they're all Franklin Township residents. Yes. Yes.
Anything else? If not, we thank you. As as you know, we're here. We have the the two junior commissioners that we always rely on for high school situations when when Alex has a
particular project or we have a project, we always ask the junior commissioners like uh a couple of months ago they were complaining about the the school busing uh stopped. What
happened was they complained about that. I I I contacted some some people and at the last uh HRC meeting he told me that that's been correct. Yes, they've been reinstated. Just one more quick question. Do you see an increase in number of students versus
previous years or decrease? Um right now I would say it's a bit of a decrease. Uh last year I think we ended around 2150 maybe. So it always kind of es and flows. I've seen it as high as 2,200.
Um, so we we always have increased enrollment during the year. This it's never a hard number. How do you handle the drop offs? So those are always so challenging, right? Because you our purpose is to
graduate all of our kids, right? For all of them to get a high school diploma. However, you know, we were speaking about school sometimes is a traditional high school is not always for every single child, right? So, we have an
alternative program actually that is designed for students who have challenges with the general high school setting. So, before a child tells me, I really want to drop out, school is not for me, we have a number of meetings, right, with the school counselor, with
the uh student assistance counselor. um with their vice principal, their dean, and we say, "Okay, could you be more successful at RTS at the Road to Success Alternative Program, which has uh different hours, right? They do more hands-on, it's more accelerated, it's
proficiency based, so kids can get more credits in the same amount of time and it's smaller class sizes. So, it's a really wonderful program for those kids who are having challenges in this huge setting. Um, so that works for a lot of
kids. Unfortunately, sometimes you're not going to meet the mark with everyone, right? So that's when we have to partner with services like Middle Earth, right? And they have a wonderful GED program and job training program. So it's about finding what's going to help
those kids that are at the cusp of just just leaving us and we're not going to know what they're going to do. that it's like a vocational skills that they can they can their skills that they can train you know on on vocational trades
you know and we have partnerships with those other not everybody likes to sit in a classroom and read the books or learn the books but maybe they more inclined to do learn hands-on skills. Exactly.
And that's but that's better suited for some kids. Yes. As I said, you always get I always like to be close with the board of education. We had Nick Holland have a few times and
we have the other girl that's in charge of everything. She runs everything school. So let us know you have the junior commissioners that we rely on for schools. Wonderful. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. Nice to meet you, Tia. I'll see you soon. Thanks everyone. Have a good night and a good summer. Not much. Thank you, Mr. Karazzi. We have a police report. Lisman, you're on.
Hi, everyone. Uh, so we actually just concluded our FTPD youth academy. Uh, we had 32 graduates. Went very well. Um, all the kids loved it and said they're coming back next year. So, that's a big up. Um, we started with 36. Uh I think it was about four or five actually
dropped out. Said they didn't like it, couldn't couldn't handle it. So but like I said, 31 32 we graduated with and uh real big success. Um the biggest thing coming up right now is August 5th is our national night out. Um that's here in the municipal complex. So we're going to
have car show. Uh DPW is bringing out their um their front loader. Fire trucks coming out. Police department cars going to be on on display. um a tour through headquarters. That'll be uh like we're going to set up time slots for that. Games, food trucks, all kinds of stuff. So, please, you know, feel free to come
out. 6:00 August 5th. Um and really the last thing I have is September 3rd is going to be our police test that we're that we're putting out. So, hiring more, trying to get more officers to be, you know, to join Franklin's ranks. Uh September 3rd, it's going to be a
written test, then a physical test. um probably about a few weeks later after you pass the uh written test. Yep. So, if you know anybody who's interested, 21 and older, feel free to let them know and have them apply. All right. Uh anything for me guys? Anything else?
Alex, anything for the policeman? Alex? Uh nothing special. You know, we don't have we didn't have one council meeting in July. Uh I think I have
27th and uh we will have our next council meeting on August 12th. Okay. So nothing special. Um we have a few things we working on. You can hear me. Very good. Okay. Um, we don't have Edna here
because uh she was going to report on the brochure which uh her Pete and Anora were Yeah. Gary, can I ask a question? Can I ask a question? A question for me. Can I ask a question?
Sure. Sorry. We went to Dr. Karzi and I think I want to change it. I'm curious like when the um the the junior academy started and if you've seen anybody like come through into like the force. Uh yes. So that started I think this was
our 15th year we've been doing it. Yeah. So um we have I believe three no four now actually. Uh one who's actually a police officer in Franklin with us now. She did it back in 2017
I think it was 2015 or 2016 2017. Yeah. Um and then three more that were a part of the junior police academy as well as the cadet program in the high school. Um one is a dispatcher right now in Franklin. The other one is a dispatcher up north. And then the last one is in
Seaside Heights as a class one officer. So she's basically baton radio is actually what I did before I became a full-time officer. And she was riding the bike on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. Um so we have do have a lot of um good turnaround at the end of when it comes to all that kind of stuff. So, um, and I
actually just wrote a recommendation letter for another girl who was going into college for a criminal justice because of our youth academy. She said she wasn't really sure what she wanted to do with her life. And then after that academy, she immediately was like, "Law enforcement." She goes, "I want to do that." So, that's really cool.
Is it just for Franklin residents? No, actually, we uh we like let anybody come in. Um, we've had some Hillsboro, um, North Brunswick, South Brunswick, we've had people come in. Um, Middletown, they've come through. So really we try to focus on Franklin residents, but we do expand outside of
Franklin for those who are interested because not all departments actually have this kind of stuff. Um I know the county have their youth academy which is a great program as well. Um but I've been told ours is a little more disciplined, a little more tough. So they all these kids actually love the challenge and they come and try to
complete it. So it's an awesome time. Yeah. More quick question. What is the robberies or breakings in the township? increasing. There's one thing that I just want to mention for everybody's information. I'm sure
to just hold only for a minute. There's one question to the policeman. Okay. Uh so I don't have exact numbers for you right now. Um but I can tell you I have not heard anything of upticks or anything at the moment. All right. So, you know, it hasn't I wouldn't say gone away completely
because nothing ever fully goes away. Um but nothing I haven't heard anything of an uptick in those. Okay. Hi, Alex. Go ahead. So, I just want to let you know that probably you have received your tax bills and you may have noticed that our
tax bills, of course, everybody's taxes went up. Um, I just wanted to make make sure that you know that the municipal tax that the council controls went to only 2.6%. Okay.
However, however, other taxes with up larger as well as your assessment also may have changed. That's where you're going to see probably perhaps larger increase in tax. So, one of the things we are thinking of doing
is having a town hall meeting sometime in August. Okay. So, and inviting the assessor and some other people. Okay. to uh talk about the taxes and what happens, why the taxes went up and which part is that and
any questions that anybody might have. So, just wanted to mention that that's important especially with the senior communities. We we always hear that. Um have they been mailed yet? Because I haven't received mine yet.
Uh some of us received it. you will get yours too. But you can always look at the township if you wanted to know how much your taxes will be for uh the second the third quarter and fourth quarter or total for 2025. If you go to the teles website,
okay, then just under taxes just put your address and you can see the exact amount the total amount for 2025. Okay, great. and and then you can compare to 2024 and you can see what percentage your
taxes went down. Okay. Very good, Alex. Quick question for Alex. Um Alex, why why there's such a big increase in in taxes? Uh I mean um it was good for the people who sold their home and and moved away but for
the people who are who are living in the township 20 30% increase in taxes is is a huge amount. Can you repeat that? What was the question? Why why such a large increase in taxes?
I mean right so so what happens is that there are several factors one is that every year there is a assessment of the property. So if the prices of the houses
has gone up or if they came to your property and assess your property and saw that you have made any modification or the prices in the neighborhood is increase your value the assessed value
will go up and automatically that contributes to increase in taxes. Uh then the other part is that you have the school tax which this year went up quite a bit as well as the other library and others which we do not have any
control the council the only part that we really control is the municipal tax and even though our expenses in the township went up by 6% we kept our tax increases to only 2.6%.
But I I I saw that typically the raise in the taxes was year to year was about 2 to 3%. But this year look it looks like 20 to 30% increase. Correct. So look at your assessed value. This is Ron I presume.
Yeah. Yeah. So look at your assessed value and you will see relative to last year probably has gone up quite a bit and that is going to be the major contributing factor for increasing your taxes. Mine went up 8%. Others went up
12%. Some others went up only 5%. So depending on where you live and what the assessed value of your property is, that is going to be different. So, but take a look at it and you will get an idea what
the what the value of your uh property has changed since 2024. But but the issue, Alex, is that for the people who sold their homes that was fine because they moved away. But the people who live here in the township,
you know, the taxes went up 20 30%. It shouldn't be 20 30%. If it is, remember there's one thing that you always have to remember and I think everybody should remember. During this April, they will send you a a letter
along with the assessed value of your property. If you think that your property value is lower than what they assessed, you have the option to appeal and you have until like May of the year
to appeal it. Okay? If you didn't, now the deadline has passed. But I would highly recommend for you till next year when that comes, take a look at the value. If you think that, for example, your neighbor sold his house for
$700,000 and you have a similar house and they have a sense $900,000, you have a good story. You can go and show to the assessor and they will bring it down. I have done that myself. One time I saw that mine were top the property next
door was selling for much less than what my value was. I went and I appealed that. This goes back like several years ago and they reduced it. So please make sure that everybody looks at that assessed value. That's the part that
really causes the most increase in taxes. But uh Dr. Krazy doesn't I mean did the county budget go up as much as well like shouldn't the county have reduced their rates if the you know the property values are going up?
So in New Jersey unfortunately there is a a law that the assessed value the properties needs to be assessed annually. So it's not our township. Everywhere in New Jersey tax rate I mean so
the tax rate will come down. So it it will be coming down relative like last year it'll come down but still if your assess value went up by $100,000 you're going to pay some more tire taxes. No matter what you do you know rate might
be low but still going to be increased. Okay. So when there's all kinds of formulas they use but the unfortunately New Jersey is one of those states not too many states does it but it's it's one of those states that it's in the
it's constitution that the value of the properties needs to be assessed yearly and based on that the tax rate needs to be determined and also uh uh you know the the increase has to to be uh
implemented but Again, I wanted to to make sure that everybody knows that we as a council, we only increase our taxes 2.6%. That's very good. That's very good, Dr. Har. But but the only thing is that it may not be fair to some of the residents
for taxes their premium total taxes go up 20 30%. They usually up about 3%. Yeah, really take a look at the big pay take a look at it 2025 total 224 total
and just really see what what how much has gone up and look at your assess value also and then again you can come to that town hall meeting they can answer all those questions bring your tax uh information
that you've received and then you will you will be able to get all the answers from the the you the experts Our assessor also is going to be there as well. So they will assess go ahead. It would be nice to have some kind of
mechanism so that uh any resident yearbyear taxes would not increase by a certain percentage like let's say five person fortunately it doesn't work that way. I wish that was the case but you know what
the reason is I tell you why the reason is there are certain part of our township that the value of the property does not go up as much as other part of the the uh the township that is for the months who have gone up
you know maybe have a 10% increase rather than 30% increase that should be a limit is is yours has yours gone 30% % up. Yeah. Yeah. Mine has got about 23%. I saw people on Facebook saying, "Uh, you know what? Do me a favor. If if
you can if you have a copy of the letter that you received and you have also 2024 information, can you send it to me?" Because I'm I'm just curious to see what has changed because mine, as I said,
mine went up 8%. All right. But others I know went up more uh than less. My neighborhood a lot of people but increase 20 to 30% increase. Very few people should be seeing that
kind of increase and that mostly 99% I'm confident is because of your asset asset value has gone up. Assessed value has gone up that's why. So please just look at into that and if you see that your assessed value has not gone up, you can
always uh talk to uh uh somebody in a township in the tax department and they can explain also exactly what has changed and your suddenly has gone up by 30% or 20 whatever percent. Come to the meeting.
Thank you very much. I hopefully hopefully we'll have as I said we're looking to have a town hall meeting but I'm sure there will be people that they will be uh coming to just hear what's really going on. Thank you, Alex. Okay, you're welcome.
Okay, so since Ed is not here, this is all I have. Um our next meeting is August 27th and as usual I'll send out something. So I have to okay the minutes. Welcome to our
new junior commissioner and I will take a motion to adjourn the meeting.