##VIDEO ID:EezRNFeylWk## [Music] okay good evening today is Thursday April 25th 2024 6:34 p.m. Brian can we have roll call please Mr grippo Dr Hopkins miss inocencio Mr Jackson here miss Lort Miss Maris Mr Parker here Mr Shaban and Miss s here you have a quum thank you can you also read the open public meetings act please in accordance with with the open public meetings ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 Sunshine Law copies of the public meeting notice were sent to The Courier News the home News Tribune The Star Ledger the Franklin reporter tap into Franklin Township Franklin Township Clerk manager district schools offices and associations PTO presidents and post it on the district website thank you can I have a motion to move into confidential session please so make the motion made by Dr Hopkins can I get a second seconded by Bill we're going to move into confidential session motion to adjourn to confidential for the purpose of discussing confidential matters including a student matter and a Personnel matter minutes of the confidential session will be made public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists all in favor thank you we'll see you soon good evening everyone it's still Thursday April 25th 2024 and we are now at 7:32 p.m. we just came back from confidential session confidential matters including a student matter and Personnel matter minutes of the confidential session will be made public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists we are back in regular session if you can please stand and Dr Hopkins if you can lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance right pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God lice thank you Jimmy can you please read the mission statement I can mission statement of Franklin Township Public Schools Franklin Township Public Schools Embraces diversity Fosters excellent educational Innovation and empowers all students to achieve their Highest Potential thank you can I get a motion to adopt the agenda please second moved by bills seconded by Dr Hopkins all in favor I thank you do we have the student representative I guess not and then we'll move on to the public hearing on the advertised proposed budget for 2024 for 2025 the floor is yours Dr Val well well thank you um so a little different than last month when we presented this as a preliminary budget this budget's now been approved by the county superintendent of schools it's been advertised and this is a hearing form so what happens is I'm going to talk a little bit briefly about some of the same things I talked about last month um Steve is going to come up and talk a little bit more about uh Mr freed about the things that he couldn't talk about last month which would tax impact and those kinds of things then we're going to open to the board members first for questions and then immediately following different than last time as well we'll be opening to the entire public for questions on the budget only then we'll close that portion take a motion uh and hopefully support the budget so the 24 25 school budget or what we would call fiscal year 25 school budget this is the final budget presentation there is a list of our board members who you all know because they're sitting in front of you and the reason we put this up here is because those with the uh asteris or those that are on a finance committee so you can see the board members who helped and the whole board helps to create the budget but these folks are intimately involved with the administrators in creating the budget and Miss Maris who unfortunately couldn't be with us evening is the Board of Education member who serves as chair of the finance committee these are the budget managers for the school this is a large District so you can imagine we have quite a few budget managers superintendent of schools assistant superintendent for business uh assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and the list goes on we've got building principles who also help to manage the budget we've got academic content supervisors 14 of them each who have their share of the budget manage it through throughout the year uh and help create it the athletic director so forth and so on so that's a complete list that's probably 40 or so folks um so again it's fairly large operation uh with lots of folks who play part in not only building the budget but managing it through the year the goal for tonight review the previously approved budget goals review estimated revenues and projected tax impact receive Board of Education and public comment and then hopefully gain Board of Education approval once the budget's approved under the current set of regulations then it becomes the operational budget for the year um would get uploaded into the system and then purchasing would begin over the summer for the new school year our fiscal year by the way for those who may not be familiar with schools our fiscal year actually begins July 1 not January 1 which is a Township's fiscal year and obviously the calendar year so last time I spoke about the this time we put hyperlinks to it as not to take too much of your time but these are the budget goals so every year early in the year we begin the budget building process the board sets the direction and the tone for Budget Building and they do it in the form of these goals so I'll just read the first one support District initiatives to ensure the physical and mental well-being and safety of students and staff so that's a budget goal and what you see hyperlink next to it is how it aligns to the board goal so this presentation will be online afterward you can certainly see the board goals which are also listed on your agenda by the way um and then you can see there's a whole set of budget goals that help to guide those 45 people or so in building the budget including myself and not only do we have budget goals and board goals but we also have a strategic plan in this district and this is how all of our budget goals connect to our strategic plan right so again using the first one as an example support District initiatives that ensure the physical and mental well-being and safety of students and staff that aligns to strategic plan goal area one and if you click on that hyperlink it'll take you right to our strategic plan and will take you to that goal area one so what you'd be able to see is how the budget goals tie directly to the Strategic plan and the board goals so like any other budget this Budget Building process had its challenges uh we want to support and grow programs and keep the programs we have while staying within our Revenue limits and in New Jersey the revenue limit is 2% and that how do we do that given increases in health care costs greater than 10% anticipated per increases in transportation costs greater than the current inflation rate increase of approximately 12% estimated Charter School tuition and a decrease in state aid of roughly 400,000 right so those are our challenges and so we have to overcome those challenges in order to support and grow our programs while remaining in those constraints so I talked about a lot of these things last time in the preliminary budget presentation a lot of this stuff you are familiar with um but what we did was took the opportunity to hyperlink a lot of what describes these programs best um right to the actual presentation so for example funds to support students needing behavioral crisis evaluations if that'll hyperlink you to the group that we use to support our students when they're in crisis you'll see effective School Solutions funds to support effective School Solutions we use ESS at our secondary schools if you click on effective School Solutions hyperlink it'll describe for you who and what effective School Solutions does for us we have a new thread assessment software um you might be interested in that we are opening a school-based health center soon uh with a partnership with zu fall so if you click on that link it will take you to what Zu fall is all about um and we've done that consistently under each each budget goal we've done that consistently where there may be what I would think an introduction to a new program or something you may not understand so another example would be these are all things that we're either maintaining or adding so the very top one we're adding 85 prek seats so you know we've built our prek program we had about a hundred students eight years ago we're projecting 800 students next year so you know that's a 700 student growth that's three and four year olds by the way I should have clarified that uh we see that as a very positive program it comes with a cost the good news is that's a state grant that money comes to us and we utilize it to support that program but it is part of our budget um we've got a very popular aviations program we're adding another section uh We've now got kids who are actually studying to become pilots and we have one kid who went through our program when it was a club and he's now just gained he also has recently graduated Franklin High School graduate who's now graduate of emyy riddle and he just earned his commercial pilot license and this was all fueled by his interest in aviation that was stimulated in our aviation's program which was thanks to Dr logren some of our staff members at the high school who had a very large interest and a very supportive Community member who helped us to fund the program so we continue that program we've now brought it into the main curriculum it's no longer just a club it's actually part of our um program at the high school so you take the course for credits now Aviation one Aviation 2 and we are going to continue to grow that to hopefully a CTE program we've got another CTE program starting next year we hope and that's tomorrow's teachers um you know one of the things we all struggle with in the world right now is finding teachers so we have this idea like a lot of other folks of growing our own um and we've got a wonderful group of students who are interested in doing that so we're starting a program called tomorrow's teachers we've got a business marketing CTE program and when I call them I should probably clarify CTE means Career Technical education right so these are programs where you walk out out with a certificate that shows that you're somewhat job ready right so um and then you can see some of the other unique things or interesting things we're doing or growing um the bilingual and World languages programs are struggling and they're struggling because of lack of resources and when I mean resources I mean Human Resources so we've got some Innovative things we're trying um under World languages we're going to try to engage these two programs um this particular program when you click on it you're going to see that that's more of an online support kind of program and this is more of an online learning program using certified teachers um so in place of physical folks which we're having a difficult time finding and so is the rest of the world when it comes to World languages we're going to try an Innovative approach to get back to some of what we were doing doing prior to having some of these struggles Benchmark Advance there's a bilingual component of that of course bilingual education is important for us it's growing population here and Benchmark advances our new literacy program and next year we're adopting the bilingual component for that um and we think that will obviously pay huge dividends we're going to expand our bilingual program because of our numbers and we're starting to mirror and create a second school that will host bilingual we already have Pine grve Manor we now have an second school that has some bilingual sections in it at Claremont Elementary School um we're going to continue in our special ed world with a transitional program that we're working in conjunction with the scesc that's Somerset County Educational Services Commission where they provide some life skills and some job training to our special ed population who will be transitioning out of school but not might not yet just be ready to enter the workforce so this helps them to get ready to enter the workforce um we've got some professional development goals or some professional development programs listed here one of the biggest things we're doing next year is making a shift away from our old Danielson rubric or at least we hope to make that shift we're working with our actual um committee that helps guide that process and we're moving toward a newer rubric that the Danielson group has uh rolled out and if you click on that you'll see that it's more aligned to the kinds of practices that were promoting the kinds of Equitable Equitable practices that we're promoting in our classrooms and uh so we're excited about that Orton Gilling hand training that's foundational reading kind of programs uh click on that you'll learn a lot there and then um a new website platform we switched a couple years ago we're going to switch again we think we've got a better solution even than what we have now what we have now is a lot better than what we had so we're excited about that um and keeping in line with that if you click on that first hyperlink apog that I say that right Mrs Clark I did apigee you'll see um the kind of move we're making there and of course Mrs Clark worked on this PowerPoint with me and she would never miss an opportunity to hyperlink the T Township newsletter because we all work very hard on that and she works especially hard on that and that shares a lot of news as to the going on in the district on a regular basis um we also have a goal about green initiatives and these are some of the things we're doing the first one's free we like free and I wanted to make mention of that because I do think it's important we are going to do a local government energy audit throughout the district and I think it's really important that folks know that we continue to look look for ways to save money on energy because if we can save money on energy not only is it good for the environment but it helps put money in our classrooms right um we are going to deal with the curriculum revisions for climate change because there are some new standards that do is releasing with regard to that so we need to pay attention to that uh our schools have been working night and day on meeting the board's goal of becoming sustainable and you can read a little bit about sustainable New Jersey if you hyperlink that one once this report goes up later today if it's not up already and there is a cost associated with that it's very minimal but um it's something we want to continue to support I think this is neat this is a savings by the way um that I wanted to make mention of because I think this is one of the fabulous things the board did more recently than not and that was um solar panels at Claremont Elementary School so we're generating solar panel Revenue um of about $85,000 annually so we own the solar panels at Claremont it's the only solar panels we own the rest of the district all the solar panels you see are actually owned by the county and these panels at Claremont we own and we are now making as a result of that $85,000 annually through the sale of srex and that type of thing um and on top of that we're get in an electrical Savings of about $83,000 annually or at least that's what I'm told so when you add those two things together that's a pretty good investment and I see Mr pnac is smiling well he's a councilman now but he was on the board at the time encouraged us all to get involved with installing our solar panels and owning them differently than the rest of the district and uh at this point now I'm glad we did it not only that the board most recently talked about even when we mature out of what's called a PPA on the other schools dealing with the other panels we talked about the possibility of acquiring those panels and starting to manage those ourselves as well as we would like to add to that annual revenue so I wanted to highlight that I know it's not an expense and I'm mostly talking about expenses but I think that's a really cool Venture and I think that's something that is important to highlight and it certainly fits into the sustainable and green initia and the decrease of energy consumption which was a board budget goal this is a summary chart and you know you can see this is not huge I mean we had some real budget challenges this year um so this is what we're doing stepwise we're adding an ESL teacher and that's really due to the growing population in the ESL World we're adding a bilingual teacher for the very same reasons we're adding a secondary English teacher and that's to restore academic Labs which we spoke about a little bit earlier on one of the slides and believe it or not it does help us to grow the aviations program and not because the aviations program is an English elective but it's because the person who used to run the club who now teaches our Aviation program because she went and got trained to do so is a former English teacher um and current English teacher yeah sorry Dan current I shouldn't say former because she does teach sections ofl English as well so U we need to replace what we've lost with her and then add some sections of academic labs to support our students so we're doing that at the high school level and we're also adding a health and physical education teacher and that's based on student demand uh you know we've grown that program as well um Mr Thomas is our supervisor of physical education and health he's done a nice job growing that program adding electives and doing the kinds of things that you need to do to help promote Health amongst our students and as a result we need to commit to now fueling with human resources uh and supporting those programs so that's it as far as a summary of personnel changes go um sometimes this is a little larger sometimes it's a little smaller um so This Is Not Unusual um certainly would always like to grow more programs and get more people but people are in high demand right now anyway so um and that's really the appropriation side while you're all here is to hear about the revenue side of things and our school business administrator Mr freed will talk about the revenue and he will talk about the appropriation numbers and how it all balances and what kind of impact that's going to have on you as a community member so Mr freed good evening folks Steph fre School business administrator so I'm just going to run through the um revenues and Appropriations with you guys Mr freed you'll have to get closer to the mic closer okay see if I can make it work so this first slide is uh a summary of the tax levy um that first line there uh 160 milon 974 396 that is our 2% Levy which is a 2% increase on last year's Levy amount uh the next line under it 1.1 14589 that's called the healthc care adjustment and it's an allowable increase in our tax levy uh to help offset um increasing health care costs which is uh usually in most Districts The Single largest appropriation in the operating budget and so the sum of those two is uh 162 114 985 and that amount represents 84% of the general fund revenues for the entire District so Franklin 's budget is heavily dependent on its tax levy monies you know we're not a district that collects a huge portion of their budget via state aid 84% is uh tax ly this tab is a summary of what we're going to be using for our capital reserve these list of projects here you know summing down to $2.5 million capital reserve is a savings account of sorts for unspent Appropriations from two years prior uh this list is developed in conjunction with the building and grounds department and represents Capital upgrade items that are often too large to fit into the general maintenance budget Appropriations similarly there is a maintenance M Reserve uh that we are withdrawing 1 million from also it's to you know help support the the maintenance budget operating costs and uh that is a list of the items that we're going to be uh you know projects that we're going to be doing with the main iner of money totaling $1 million this is a summary this next tab is our general fund revenues by category uh first one is the tax levy amount that I explained it's going up 2.72% which is the 2% that's allowable plus the the adjustment which brings us to 2.72 next line item is budgeted Surplus we're going to use the same amount that we did last year uh special ed tuition we're anticipating revenues um uh for tuitions and the same amount roughly capital reserve we're you know again using 2.5 million which is 200 Grand more than uh we used in last year's budget maintenance Reserve we did not use last year so you know that's 100% increase using a million dollars there we are also using unassigned Surplus in the amount of a million dollar which for all intents and purposes is the same thing as budgeted Surplus but when we are calculating how much fund balance we're going to use in budget year that usually happens in the fall before we get our state aid numbers which happens in uh February so it was determined when we found out that we were getting a reduction in state aid that we were going to use a little bit of the unassigned Surplus and unassigned surplus represents 2% of our total expenditures in the year that it's calculated the next line item is miscellaneous and uh interest income um estimating uh increase of around 750,000 it's a you know a modest uh expectation increase there and that's primarily uh interest income increases and that's uh our solar panel revenues and building rental income and all other miscellaneous revenues that happen over the year that don't fit into any other specific category the other Revenue categories is state aid um that like I mentioned is actually going down $386,000 um and that state aid amount is a categorical Transportation Aid categorical special education Aid and categorical uh security Aid uh the equalization Aid is is the component of that state aid where and we got a reduction extraordinary Aid um this is a grand award that is uh used to support our added District tuitions so if we have increasing added District tuitions then we also too have increasing extraordinary Aid the semi Aid that special education Medicare initiative that number is given to us by the county and that's increasing by uh $115,000 so that brings our total general fund revenues up to uh 19474 956 or 4% increase the other funds are special Revenue fund which is our grant fund and our debt service fund is what we use to pay down our debt service for or our bonds so our uh special Rue fund is you know estimated to go down 1,69 314 but that's typical because uh most of our grants you know our idea are title grants and non-public it's standard practice to budget 85% of the current year allocations so you automatically get a reduction and then when you get the actual Grant award in the budget year you true it up to what the actual award amount is so it's not really technically a reduction there but we don't know what our award is going to be so best practi is be conservative 85% and also includes our pea number you know that would be a straight 15% reduction based on what I just said but our pea preschool education Aid is going up so the net of that is is is going down 5% and our Debt Service uh fund is going down $45,000 but this number is completely driven by the Amor amortization schedules which is basically the payment schedule of our principal and interest on our bonds in this tab is our budget to budget comparison where we take the entire budget and uh squeeze them into a bunch of different categories and I'll I'll run through the big ones here so regular instruction um that is going down roughly 652 ,000 and that's primarily from breakage and you know teachers uh departing and new ones being hired and the breakage in salaries there whether they're people retiring at higher salaries and hiring and lower there's breakage there um but you know although it looks like a big number it's a 1% decrease on that line um let's see uh special ed instruction you know that's roughly $800,000 4% increase and that's due to added specialed programming and contractual raises uh co-curricular is going down around $619,000 that's primarily due to a reallocation in transportation costs that were budgeted in that line in the prior year that we moved down into our transportation lines Administration and Technology uh increasing 311 Grand and you know in looking at this this is mostly made up of uh contractual raises and salary breakage and a decrease in some of the technology lines that's a 2% increase from prior year in in the admin and Technology lines student transportation uh this one's up $3.4 million that's a 20% increase and so that includes the raises for all Personnel in in Transportation uh the increased route costs on all of our routes new special ed routes for new added District placements and uh in addition um as I was looking at it the the original budget which I'm comparing to here was under budgeted a little bit last year and we had to move money around in the budget to bring it up so it uh it looks it looks worse than it is I'll say um and uh the next line employee benefits up 2.9 Million that's 8% % increase and that is our health benefit increase in addition to all the other employee benefits like the PRS pension contributions the board Sheriff Social Security and workers comp insurances and uh the other big Market mover there is charter school tuitions so we budgeted around uh 21 million even that's increase of 1.35 6984 that represents a 6% increase um and that's based on Trend analysis and and and you know you know looking at this very heavily and closely you know with the superintendent and a whole number of other people the doe actually Pro proposed a 12% increase on charter school tuitions but um Dr rali appealed to the the county office and did some Trend analysis based on enrollment that he's seen and proposed a different number on that line so still it's a 6% increase which is hard to budget for um but they were originally proposing 12 so you know that's a whim so the tax rate now these numbers are all calendar year I want to make that clear so you're not going to be able to tie back these tax numbers to the levy numbers I showed you earlier in the presentation you have to annualize this because um that's how the the property taxes are actually calculated so it is actually the second half of 2324 and the first half of 2425 so that's what you're seeing there for count of the year the middle column count of the Year 2024 that's what that Levy amount is the next one net valuation taxable that's the taxable value of all properties in the entire Township of Franklin I get this number straight from the count the tax assessor for the township and if you divide those two numbers out uh the levy divided by the valuation taxable you get your tax rate which is 1.12% U which actually represents a reduction in your tax rate because ratables went up if you look at the net taxation valuable year-over-year it's up across the the township of $1.1 billion and that impact on the average assessed home um the average assessed home value uh 47700 this also from the tax assessor um and you guys can find your own assess valuation this is just the average uh as per the tax assessor you can Google you know uh uh uh you know assessed values on Google and find out what your actual value is plug in this tax rate and get a good idea what your actual properties uh School tax rate would be but taking the average home 47700 time the school tax rate 1.12% that you know annual tax impact on the average home 5,350 bucks so it would be going up $112 and that concludes my presentation sure thank you so much first of all Dr rali and Mr Fred for this presentation and I will turn it on to Dr Hopkins any questions comments uh no I think we uh we did Deep dive into this last month and um it's just a overview of what was presented then and um nothing pretty much has changed since the last month so I'm good thank you Walter um no questions uh great job with the presentation thank you Jimmy no questions great job Bill uh any action being taken to improve with the health benefits the cost of health benefits are there any strategies that might be employed now that we have the facility for staff to to go has that impact lessened with nner and our providers it's lessen the increase if that's what you're asking and the projection is it would continue to lessen the increase but there's going to be an increase health care costs go up every year so the idea is to control the high the idea behind self insurance and then having your own Center is we pay one price for the services the staff get quality care and we get it at a reasonable price so everybody wins and we control we get better control over the elevation in those costs rather than you know just being at the whim of other providers so um remember we just opened that in November Brian right um so the doors opened in November we we're seeing you usage but obviously it's going to take time for that usage to make an impact the more and more usage we get the less and less um expense we'll have and hopefully the goal is not to see the 10 and 12% increases and quite honestly budgeting it at 10% is probably better than a lot of folks who are budgeting at much higher rates already if they're not self-insured and on their own Premium plan so so so the health Center that our staff uses could in fact lower our health health costs as more staff uses it well I'm going to rephrase that for you it will help control the increase you're going to find there's no magic Panacea if you will since we're talking about Healthcare um that would take away costs or reduce costs what you're trying to do is slow the increases right cuz the increases in healthare are crippling for no matter what business you're in you know if you're I don't know a car dealer I just rode past one a little while ago and you were a large car dealer and you employ a lot of people um you know your costs in health care are a challenge for you as an organization well no different for us so our strategy is to control that elevation in price um and slow it if you will so we're not paying those 10 12% increases or more like some districts are paying and you know again we're self-insured which has helped by the way uh our moved to self- Insurance the board's moved to Self Insurance a few years ago just having your own fund has helped because uh and I'll give you an example Why without belaboring the point so I apologize but in 2020 when people weren't going to the doctors if you were in a premium based plan guess who got the keep all of the money in a premium based plan when people weren't using the doctors don't raise your hand because well you can raise your hand because we were self-insured but in districts that were paying a premium based plan the insurance company got to keep that money right so um you know we listen you know we certainly didn't Envision the pandemic hitting but we had gone self-insured prior to that so we benefited from the fact that we were self-insured during that time because we weren't spending money on Healthcare which means we were keeping that money where other districts were paying a premium so they were still paying for services that their teachers weren't really getting so I hope that explains it a little bit more that's better John and uh just want to kick over to the solar panels Y and electric buses uh I know there's been talk about from various parents to look into electric buses and I know that the provider owns the buses we don't we used to own the buses I mean that was way back in the day but um is there any move toward talking to the providers I mean would that save us money and if we increase the solar panels which Claremont is a perfect example and moving toward electric buses is there any well there are two separate things but two separate things talk about the solar panels first um I think we learned our lesson dipping our toe in the water with the Claremont solar panels that yeah there's money Revenue to be made while you're saving energy costs so uh you know the challenge is managing those things but uh our our person in charge of that is doing a good job and um there is a point where the what's called Power purchase agreement will expire in a couple of years and then the board will have to make a decision um because there is a uh provision in that agreement is my understanding where the board will have an opportunity to buy out those panels and maybe that's not the move of course we'll have to do a little more research this is all premature but then similar to Claremont you could be saving on the energy and selling the srex for and I don't know what that stands for but maybe I know somebody in the audience who might know that stands for but can um allow us to make some money right so uh yeah there's some interest there for sure and I think the board has an interest the facilities committee has already spoken about it so um we're going to keep our eye on it we really can't do anything with the PPA and most of our flat roofs right now where the county has those panels on our roofs but certainly something in a few years for us to be talking about um because I think we've learned our lesson that this might be something for us to be doing not only from a stewardship standpoint um but because there's an opportunity for Revenue which means more money in our classrooms right so um that's that part electric buses that's a whole another challenge uh you're right we contract seven or eight different vendors and if you know being honest if we put that in a bid specification it would drive the cost of your bid specification up because it's not equipment that they they have um but there may be an opportunity and uh you know we want to have some of those conversations actually um hopefully going to engage with some community members who are active in that area in the very near future we're actually trying to find some dates now um because there may be some opportunity to begin to build our own Fleet out again and I'm not saying overnight um but we do transport a lot of kids and we transport to a lot of places and there may be an opportunity to take smaller steps um to building out our own Fleet with electric buses unfortunately that program as it stands right now is one for swapping out Vehicles not for acquiring vehicles um so you have to have buses to trade in to swap out in order to benefit from that program but there may be others out there and we're going to start to do some of that work to answer your question thank you chff Sammy sure yeah thanks guys great job can we go back a few slides yeah that one um so I guess I'll just take one at a time so with the student transportation I know that we had a whole covid and postco Spike have we seen those prices start to come down it's my understanding my mom owns a bus company that those prices are starting to settle down and should we expect that number and I know that we have well I don't know who your mom's company is but we'll take her the answer to your question is no in general she's seen route prices come down for at least Morris County um I'm wondering if we're seeing a similar Trend here because labor has become more available routes have become cheaper no we haven't seen that Trend we're not seeing the double digit increases we were seeing but we're seeing the inflation increases the 5 six% for sure so I don't know what you're referencing as coming down we were seeing 10 and 12% increases we're not seeing those but we're still seeing 5 and 6% increases there was a huge Spike yeah there was 10 12 15% increases we're not seeing those but we're still seeing five and six% and you know when you get a 2% increase in revenue and you're trying to balance out a big line like that at five or 6% that you know that math doesn't work so well so the answer your question is I would love for them to be at like 2% but they're not so what was this increase relative to last year's increase uh this increase Rel it's about it's what you see there although it's not because that 17 million as Steph said we had to inflate that up a bit because that was somewhat under budgeted last year um but um we're anticipating tonight approving routes that are about five or six% up correct me if I'm wrong consistent with inflation okay and then I know that we have a a new analysis and that we were considering that it might even drive the rates up based on the requirements that we might be elevating is that no I don't think it I I think it's just supply and demand I you know I think that's pretty consistent and I mean I just meant the the the additional requirements that for safety that we were discussing no I don't think it has had an impact I we're because we're consistent with inflation and if you're consistent with inflation that's about what you're normally going to see so again I don't know you know what company your mom's company is but I'm sure if she's quoting routes it's probably consistent with inflation and that's what vendors typically do when they're Contracting when they're bus contractors CPI you know they they they relate it to CPI but my understanding is CPI and inflation rate are pretty similar jumping to the Charter Schools tuition y have we noticed that that's are we getting to a point where it's leveling off because I know that they were going for increases and so on are we at a place where it's going to level off at this point so let me explain that uh I mean I've explained this probably to nauseum but I'll take an opportunity to explain it again uh because I'm not sure if everyone understands a concept because it is it is a challenging concept to understand so different than how we budget in the regulations what happens is the charter school has charter schools have a an approved Charter that has so many seats right and then if um if they have an expansion or if they don't have an expansion and just have open seats they are able to project what their enrollment would be based on the number of available seats so what's supposed to happen and that's where I'm questioning this a bit um what's supposed to happen is there's supposed to be a look at the enrollment Trend as well not just take you know the number of seats available and say okay allow them that to be projected so that the tuition becomes X um so for example if a particular School says that they're going to get 40 more kids next year and the doe agrees with that and they have room in their Charter they would then project that as part of our increase but if you know my question to that would be well if the trend analysis doesn't support that then you're asking me to budget an amount of money that may not get utilized and then that becomes a problem because that's not money that we can then budget ourselves so we were asked I'm going to use numbers now we were asked to budget $2.3 million in increase okay $2.3 million in increase is a lot of money and our 2% increase is roughly 3 million or a little more so that eats up most of it all but 700,000 and I just talked about a 5% increase in transportation well where's that money coming from then right so what we've done over time and you know I've been here almost a decade now um we've tracked the amount the doe has projected and the amount that has gotten adjusted so how does that work in December each year we also get an adjustment so we are made whole you know it's not like anybody is taking anything they shouldn't take we're made whole so in December Stephen as a school business administrator gets a new download from the state that says oh by the way that was over projected now your new number for the last half of the year is this so you're going to pay that much less but the problem with that in school budgeting is when does a school spend most of its appropriation the beginning of the year the summer you're buying your goods you're hiring your we're hiring our teachers now for next year so I don't have that money available if if if we're not doing what we're doing I wouldn't have that money money available so that decade's worth of data is telling me that that number on average has been typically somewhat overestimated by the New Jersey Department of Education by around 6% but 6% on a number that big um you know on 19,6 43 6% is a big number right um it's a million dollars or so well a million dollars buys a of teachers right buys a lot of supplies so um what I had to do was demonstrate that to the doe to say look you know here's a decade's worth of data here's the average amount it's over inflated and here's how it's been adjusted and we wouldn't what we don't want to do is short ourselves and then get that money January because January then that money becomes I mean it's great because we can do sidewalks and we do you know Pavements and windows and all those things but school districts can only put underspent money at the end of a year into certain accounts and the accounts we're allowed to put it in maintenance Reserve capital reserve and and and that's it um tuition Reserve but that's not for Charter tuition that's if you're a send receed so I'm sorry excuse me so uh long story short um no that hasn't gotten better and it's really the way the regulation is I I don't know that's any fault of anybody um but I think the important thing is that you know we've got a history and at least we can you know we've got a peg to hang our hat on now should we run short in that line at the adjustment in January then we'll have to figure out how to make up the difference but you know we typically do take in Revenue steeve um already mentioned we budget our oh my God I just brain freezed um our state um our our idea grants our federal grants at 85% right um so we all take in money during the year likely because we've conservatively budgeted as we were told at the county level so we'll be able to cover that we feel comfortable plus we also have additional Monies in maintenance Reserve we could always put more things on our maintenance reserve and transfer money so I'm comfortable where we're budgeted to be honest with you and I'd rather keep that money for you know uh available um but it is an issue it's a financial issue is what it is it's you know I've said this a thousand times you know I don't want to support or not support or that's that's a political issue this is a finan one for us yeah it's not about sport not sport I'm just trying to understand so so would we expect that same percentage to be the difference for the years coming as well I mean it's gone up it's gone down it's no I I I add a new number in next year and if it's you know if the projection was X and the reality is y it'll add to the chart and then we keep adjusting that but yes it's danced around in the last decade since 2014 it's danced around 5 6 7% as high as 8% one year um but you know we want to be conservative with that too thank you C can you flip to the next slide so so in this slide are we is the basic takeaway that inflation and everything around it which has driven up all of our costs um also increased the net value of the taxable income of our homes so we actually have elevated our own cost at a slower rate we've beaten that in a sense um from what the inflation would have put like we've done a good job basically budgeting is the way that I'm reading this because we are at a lower percentage uh relative to the inflated house rates which affected all of the costs well I would love to take that bow but no is it I'm just understanding is that fair you're it's fair but remember we're capped so although we would love to take that bow at the end of the day our budgets Capa so inflation is outpaced our budget cap so the answer is yes but it's because we got a 2% budget cap I mean it's you know which is very difficult to live on but yes I mean even though we probably could use more Revenue um because we're Capp so rigidly as a school district by regulation um doesn't really matter what inflation is because we're not going to be able to get any whatever the exiest reason is for why we did it we did do it we did do it that's all I'm saying yeah I'm I'm with you I just don't want I don't want to be the one up here taking a bow because it's it's it's not it's not magic it's because we're capped we were forced to take that but in the end it ends up beating it ends up beating yes inflation has you know we all know what inflation is doing right it's been yeah thank you so much doc thank you so is that it yeah that's it and uh I would like to open up for public comments only on the proposed budget now 3 minutes per speaker can I get a motion to open moved moved by Sammy second second seconded by Walter all in favor I I okay public comment is now open 3 minutes per speaker proposed budget only okay Ed pesnik Deputy Mayor 475 deont Lane um first I just wanted to give a shout out and congratulations on the budget on expanding the bilingual bilingual program as someone who taught science for 10 years um I know how difficult it is to take a test in a foreign language not personally but for students and I think a lot of times you know people say you know what's happening in Franklin schools and you look at the English language learning population which is pretty significant they're taking tests in a foreign language and it's really hard to do well on that test and the bilingual program is a great Preparatory and supportive program for students that are transitioning particularly if their first language is Spanish spoken at home um and I think that's very exciting and also responsive to the community which is nearly 35 36% now um uh from the Latino or latinx community so congratulations on that um also um excited to see Zu fall continue to have progress which I think is awesome and of course I always like to see the district making money from the solar program and uh you know building on uh uh board member gpo's comments uh you know electrifying the school buses is not only good if if as Dr ravali said you can bring them back here and own them you're going to get a ton of savings and the savings could be $1 to $2 million a year off that $20 million number so as soon as you can get that going I think there's going to be great benefits there are tremendous challenges the way the rules are written quite frankly because um I don't know where my time is 32 seconds because of Governor Chris Christie when he took back the rainy day funds this District was forced to sell its buses to an outside vendor who now leases them back to them as jacking up the rates every time and it's out of control if you take that back you take control you control all parts of it and electric school buses are cheaper and they also are better for the health of the kids they don't have to breath 30 diesel layer and cough their way to and from school so um happy to support and help that it's a challenge um because you can't replace buses you don't already have and that's all the programs currently um but we'll work through it thank you thank you Deputy Mayor former board member former board president anyone else okay motion to close by Dr Hopkins seconded by Sammy all in favor I I thank you so now we're at the point where we would like to adopt the 2024 2025 budget sections 1 through six and 7 has been withdrawn can I get a motion moved by Mr grippo can I get a second second it seconded by Jimmy can we have roll call Mr banano just to clarify s wasn't withdra that's oh main res maintenance Reserve withdrawal sorry yeah so one through seven one through S Mr grippo yes the uh budget was prepared at great detail and all of my questions were answered I think uh we're going to have a good year next year we just have to continue looking for ways for money to be uh to work for us and and I think we're in that track so yes definitely Dr Hopkins uh yes Mr Jackson yes Mr Parker yes Mr Shaban yeah a agreed with Bill not easy living within that 2% budget and then also building a Health Center building a center for the health center with partnering for for the kids this year expanding the prek program for next year doing all of that within a 2% capacity is impressive so thank you so much Miss s yes motion carries thank you and now we're on to our superintendent report doesn't want me to talk doesn't want me to talk anymore so I I don't have a formal report but I do want to say thank you to stepen um thank you to all the budget managers thank you to the board finance committee and the board as a whole uh like every year this year was quite a challenge um and I appreciate the endless amount of support and the number of hours that went into uh crafting this year's actually next year's fy2 school budget so Stephen thank you thanks to your St um and thank you finance committee rest of the board for your support and of course thanks to the community for your continued support we look forward to a great year next year and that's it for me thank you and now we're on to board president's report I will begin with requesting everyone to join me in a moment of silence would like to ask everyone for two Warriors who we have lost since our last meeting the first one was Jeff Cook who served the district for over 18 years most recently as a custodian at Franklin High School I understand his children also graduated from Franklin High School and the second one is Dr Tain Jackson who retired from Franklin Township Public Schools in 2013 after over 30 years as an employee she served in various capacities from English teacher to her position as director of fine Visual and Performing Arts care and guidance K through 8 when she retired thank you human relations commission I attended the human relations committee meeting at the municipal building yesterday at 700 p.m. I presented a synopsis of the district goals and the media review that Dr rali had presented to the board in our Marsh special meeting the committee was very impressed and commended Franklin Township Public Schools for the phenomenal work we have done so far during the Q&A session after the presentation the committee had a few suggestions on how the district could share updates more effectively with the larger Township community I will be asking Dr rali and the Board of Education Communications and public engagement committee to discuss these suggestions just a few student Updates this month as we are looking forward to the special board meeting for student recognition in June Winter Guard win the High School winter guard won first place at their last regular session competition earlier this month Navy coin design contest it is with great pride that I share that the design created by one of our very own Franklin High School student sophomore Rahul Amin made it to the top 25 entries in the Navy coin design contest Rahul submitted the design to the USS New Jersey SSN 796 commissioning committee for consideration the Winner's design will commemorate the commission of this new Fast Track submarine which is being named for the state and is expected to be commissioned in the fall Chicago the Run of Chicago teen Edition at the high school this month was fabulous we had talented students who are truly amazing congratulations to staff members Kiara rinsky director lindsy deera choreographer Alise Martinez assistant director and Michael a aragones instrumental music director thanks to Anthony Frances technical director Amy Rice costume designer and producer Carol Stewart for their contribution as well Project Graduation spring used clothing Drive will take place on May 11 Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Samson G Smith see the website for a flyer you can donate new or gently used clothes hands bag shoes stuffed animals blankets and curtains the Franklin High School sisters and training for Life prom dress giveaway is back and happening on May 4th from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the high school all students in the community are welcome to join they are currently accepting donations of new or gently used dresses for questions or to donate dresses please reach out to Shaina Brittain at the high school at 73232 42000 extension 4321 I'll repeat the number again 73232 42000 extension 4321 student code of conduct survey the district has sent a link to a survey asking our students and their family to comment on the current student code of conduct the survey will remain open until noon on May 2nd finally please check out our district website for information on the upcoming diversity night festival which will be held on Friday May 3rd at the Hamilton Street campus of Franklin Middle School from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. all in the community are welcome to enjoy the performances music food games crafts and artart which will help all to learn celebrate and be more aware of the various cultures within our school community community organizations will also be on hand to share resources Raffles and prizes are also part of the evening's fund that concludes my report and now we are going to open for comments from the public 5 minutes per speaker agenda items only can I get a motion so move moved by Sammy can I get a second seconded by Dr Hopkins comments from the public all in favor 5 minutes per speaker agenda items only please state your name and address and then you can come and say your comments thank you uh as I said my name is Matthew zaty I live at 1935 old Amwell Road I didn't intend to make this these comments on the night of the budget discussions but they're very prudent um I have two children currently enrolled in Franklin High School my daughter is a senior my son Elijah is a sophomore my wife Deborah and I are members of the Franklin band parents Association the Franklin Athletics booster club and my wife serves as the president of the Franklin Township Orchestra parents Association I'm here this evening to voice some concerns about the lack of cell phone and mobile internet services in and around Franklin High School quite honestly when I first experienced the poor cell phone reception and mobile connectivity in and around the school my initial thought was great kids shouldn't be on their cell phones at school anyway my position on this has changed drastically since uh since then due to a number of factors first I became aware that the Franklin athletic uh booster club the Franklin band parent Association Project Graduation the student store and many other organization and clubs that operate on school grounds lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in the sale of spirit wear food concessions ticket sales and the like because their customers cannot connect to online payment services like venmo cash app and zel rather comical that sometimes you can see people trying to buy things at the high school that leave the line or the cashier run outside and hold their phone over their heads until their app connects and then run back in to show that they've actually paid for something After experiencing this once many people don't buy anything at future events then there was the uh Metro Basketball classic which was held at FHS uh I worked at every day was there was a number large number of people there and we raised tens of thousands of dollars for the school the organization that ran the event had nothing but great things to say about our school's location its facilities the concessions and the people that work there and so it was shocking that they said they would never come back until the mobile service improved significantly as they couldn't receive or place calls during the event both the organizers ESPN and a number of media Outlets next was the March Madness Tricky Tray we raised over $27,000 for our school at that event we could have raised more had the attendees been able to use online payment services to buy tickets goods and services during the event Franklin athletic booster club has uh expended over $500 purchasing a mobile signal booster I purchased it it was off of Amazon it's nothing significant but and we had it installed in the events Lobby unfortunately it was not installed in the way we had anticipated or in the location we had anticipated and it has provided minimal or no improvement in cell reception all of these things are inconvenient and have maybe cost our school some much needed revenues but they never Rose to the point where I thought I needed to speak out at a Board of Education meeting as I'm doing this evening the need to speak out became evident on the night of the March Madness Tricky Tray Saturday March 23rd after the event and a long day of work at about 10:30 we were made aware by a student that someone was on conscious in the main office that person turned out to be Mr Jeffrey cook the assistant head C custodian we all ran to the front office and when I arrived another parent Derek cotton was administering CPR to Jeff with one hand while trying to use the amboo bag with the other I jumped on the bag and assisted as best I could until the police and the and the ambulance arrived when they did arrive and took over they informed us that Jeff was gone and they had that he had passed away a number of hours early ier since that day I have been unable to stop thinking about Jeff's last minutes in this day and age when someone experiences a heart attack or any emergency really the first thing they reach for to call for help is their cell phone I cannot stop thinking about the possibility that Jeff spent his final moments dialing 911 or his family from the floor of the front office to no avail because he couldn't get a cell phone signal that led me to begin thinking about all the times they get text notices that that there has been a lockdown drill at the school while while I am so very thankful that they have all been drills what if there comes a day when a lockdown is actually needed our children would not be able to contact us and we would not be able to contact our children in discussing all this with my daughter Maya she mentioned that the lack of cell phone service also has an impact on our children's studies she informed me that due to the poor mobile service most students utilize the public Wi-Fi to connect to the internet on their phones which makes connectivity incredibly slow if not impossible on the public Wi-Fi while there is an administrative Wi-Fi that all the school provided Chromebooks connect to and works well according to Maya many students have their own personal laptops or tablets that they use in their studies which they can only connect to the internet with over the public Wi-Fi which again many times is too slow or impossible to connect to with all these things being taken into consideration the most important being the safety and the lives of those we love I implore the board to immediately begin investigating options to improve the mobile service at Franklin High School whether that be through enhanced Wi-Fi a commercial mobile signal booster or even the installation of a cell tower I saw on a board of an organization along the New Brunswick Road dead zone as Verizon T-Mobile a number of companies call it it's not a unique problem to our particular area of the school uh that organization looked to have a cell tower instructor now they were much smaller than our Board of Education or our town uh and have been unable to do it but while negotiating we're told that they could generate $50 to $100,000 a year in income from the companies that hang their antennas on that Tower I don't know the configuration of the school grounds and what the likelihood would be but I think it's worth investigating you would be able to greatly increase the mobile service at the high school taking us from nothing to everything and possibly generate up to $100,000 in income thank you for your time and consideration on this issue thank you [Applause] good afternoon board members and faculty my name is cheran cook I am Jeffrey's cook Widow this jentan have I felt like he was in my head head because everything he mentioned today is what I wanted to come up here and speak about thank you what are we going to do about this I have spoken to my husband many times about the bad um phoner service I'm afraid that something terrible was going to happen Okay it happened to my husband we have to improve the system he's been he was dead for over 10 hours before someone found him what are we going to do about the custodian employees that's at age that could happen to anyone something have to be done don't please don't let my husband death be in vain we need Improvement walkie-talkies is not working okay thank you thank you seeing no further comment I move to close the open session second motion by Sammy second by Dr Hopkins all in favor I I public comment is now closed well first off sorry for your loss Mrs cook I mean we did talk at uh your your husband's um service and I know you spoke with Mr Wilson and we certainly are committed to uh continuing our research to try and make a change and do what we can it's a huge building it's obviously schools are not built for selfservice a lot of concrete a lot of Steel and there has been things tried especially with the boosters you may be well aware of that with our technology department in order to try and uh boost signal using Signal Boosters and other things but obviously that has has not produced the kind of result that we were hoping for so it's not like there's no concern about that there is certainly concern and there has been some uh attempts to improve things from a cell perspective um I will say during the day um and I know I'm not trying to argue the point but during the day there's lots of communication vehicles that allow us to deal with emergency situations we have have Police radios in the hands of folks that need Police radios that are truncated across the town um and you know there's buttons on those radios that someone can push and in a moment's notice uh just about every cop in the town or at the school um so you know during the day when we're fully functioning there's some kind of issue uh not only that we have share 911 and several other uh modalities if you will or abilities to communicate in the event of an emergency that doesn't require cell service in fact cell service is frowned upon um or cell useage just frowned upon in the event of emergency because we all saw what happened during 911 no matter how many Towers you have that all gets clogged up so the truncated service that we have that is a closed circuit that allows us to communicate directly with ourselves and with the police department is uh the more preferred method in the event of emergency that we utilize during the day but with that said we understand there's a need for service and we understand that um you know it can be improved not only in the high school by the way there's other buildings as well the smaller the building the easier it is to overcome to be honest with you um because the smaller buildings don't have the amount of Steel and concrete and the other kinds of things that don't allow cell service to easily be transmitted unfortunately like I said our school's humongous and it comes with challenges and then on top of that to your point uh even just the internet service is a challenge right so we've got in the budget um and you're right this is timely we've got in the budget uh equipment that'll allow us to make our uh internet service even more robust we we rely on it for testing and everything else so um you know we want to increase what is commonly referred to as bandwidth to even more so than what we have now we have a lot uh but that won't help on the guest Network because that's not where we're increasing that bandwidth we're increasing that bandwidth on our student Network um so yes uh I think the board's committed too we've had these discussions as a board trying to figure this out but um you know I don't want to promise that that's something that will occur overnight but I can promise that it's something that is on your Forefront and is on your minds and it's certainly something that um we understand as a challenge and like I said we've tried some things um especially to address that more commonly used area the events Lobby um the auditorium the cafeteria area where we do have lots and lots and lots of folks often for different programs and we haven't been able to find the answer but Mr bananos uh capable technology team will keep after it and uh and certainly you know we will hopefully have some kind of resolution that improves it I know that'll make it perfect honestly uh because it is a very big place but we're going to continue to try so thank you Dr rali and um as the board president I also give my sincere condolences Mrs cook and assure you that the board is committed we will we have continued to have discussions on this and will continue to have discussions and try to find resolutions and solutions and hopefully keep the the public you know updated at follow-up meetings what steps are being taken in the future um in the interest of time and that we have spent um time on budget discussions um our committee and liazon reports have been posted online um I am um our board members have already read the committee report so if at this time any board members have any comments or questions on the committee reports we can have a quick discussion no comments any comments Dennis uh no comment Walter no comments Jimmy no comment Bill no they're all available online perfect so then we can move on to new business great um I would like to move uh in a01 oh sorry where's it did I miss a a page okay yeah there we go sorry I'd like to move in R1 monthly reports M1 minutes of board meetings A1 travel and related expense reimbursement A2 affirm harassment intimidation and bullying decisions A3 Teacher Appreciation Week woohoo A4 special education week A5 Autism Awareness resolution A6 seek awareness and appreciation month woohoo uh a7th donation A8 Revis policy second reading A9 facilities use A10 emergency bus exit drill report a11 child and adult care food program a12 2425 paa budget revision a13 special education board policy statement of assurance B1 warrants and payrolls B2 Financial reports B three contract approval B4 change orders B5 receipt of bids student transportation services B6 Award of bid student transportation services B7 Award of RFP Danielson training B8 Award of RFQ speech therapy services B9 Award of RFP attorney special education B10 receipt of bids toilet room re renovation B1 Award of bid toilet room Ovation for uh for the Middle School B12 receipt of bids Chiller replacement B13 Award of bid Chiller replacement b14 receipt of bids Food Services District produce B15 Award of bid Food Services District produce B16 Award of RFP Private Preschool provider Partners B17 year 25 Board of Education estimated tuitions B18 minor Amendment to long range facilities plan b19 submission of schematic doe application B20 as C RS reimbursement C1 out of District students 2324 C2 field trip destination C3 field trip application C4 sheltered instruction dates 2425 P1 create position P2 new job descriptions P3 Personnel report number 10 and that's it thank you so there's a motion that was a mouthful there's a motion to move R1 M1 A1 through a13 B1 to B20 C1 to C4 and P1 to P3 can I get a second seconded by Dr Hopkins can we have roll call Brian Mr grippo I have a question John about B3 contract approval th how does this work this list of all private schools and St maias and all that stuff what does that have to do with us so that's whoops uh so we are the conduit for flow through Aid there's some categorical Aid that private schools and um are entitled to and technolog is one of them um so you probably you're looking at some software things um that's mostly what you're seeing on here is technology so they're entitled to some tech technology Aid because the state doesn't have a direct connection to private schools per se the department of Ed they flow the money through the resident Public School District and then we disperse it on the state's behalf so we just really serve as a conduit for the Department of Ed for technology funding it's not our money it's a pot of money that is dedicated to private schools that the private schools apply for the money is distributed to us and then we forward it on behalf of the doe to those private schools is there any impact on our staff to manage this are we getting any kind of you know it's a compensation I don't think we get any percentage do we Steve no it's just uh it comes with the territory can we charge just find this fee or something Steve no nice try all right Mr grippo yes Dr Hopkins I like that Mr Jackson yes Mr Parker yes Mr Shaban yes and missing yes motions carry thank you and before we move on to comments from the public I would like to welcome welcome Carolina Smith our new supervisor of ESL and bilingual education K through 12 Miss Smith Miss Smith would you like to come to the podium and say something Welcome to our district thank you so much for the opportunity good evening everyone everyone it is a pleasure to be here I'm karolina Smith and I am pleased to be your future uh ESL and bilingual K to2 supervisor uh since as far back as I can remember I have always been an advocate for bilingual education advocating for our multilingual population but also advocating for the teachers and the administrators that work directly and indirectly with those populations uh I have been a teacher for over a decade and prior to that uh I was a a business manager in the financial world and I am truly uh humbled and excited to work for uh our continued student achievement in this district and to join such a wonderful District that as I could see from today's budget proposal We are continuing to work hard towards um making sure that we are inclusive and not forgetting anyone and not forgetting the achievements of our multilingual population as well all of our students so thank you so much and I am very grateful to be here thank you thank you congratulations [Applause] again and now can I get a motion to open for public comments five minutes per speaker any topic so moved moved by Sammy second second seconded by Walter all in favor I awesome comments from the public five minutes per speaker any topic ladies when you're done just okay thank you okay good evening my name is Nita vangi address 238 amethyst wave fr Park and with me is Don soio addressed to shepher Street we are here tonight as representatives of the newly formed Franklin Township stigma free Council the stigma free council is an initiative of the mayor's Wellness campaign Franklin to raise awareness about the tangible impact that mental health stigma has in the community stigma is a practice of associating negative stereotypes with certain memberships or characteristics such as substance abuse race social class income intellectual or developmental disability status this can create barriers and challenges that could be eliminated in relationships housing employment and education many are ostracized isolated and rejected based on perceived differences and societal values we are stigma free Franklin Township some of our members live with mental health issues Andor substance use disorders and some do not but we all believe one thing and that is stigma is harmful through personal stories and testimonies we we show that a person with the condition is just as valid as someone without embracing a stigma free culture in our community and schools encourages dignity and respect for of our students and employees reduces the fear of judgment as a barrier to services and celebrates the differences that make our community and schools both diverse and multifaceted we appreciate the mental health and substance abuse Prevention Services currently available to our students however however we ask the Board of Education to consider taking the pledge to be stigma-free Franklin Township Public Schools again we are asking you the Board of Education to consider taking the pledge to be stigma-free Franklin Township Public Schools we have with us this evening a copy of a sample resolution for schools for your consideration and use in light of May being Mental Health Awareness Month perhaps this this can take place at a May board Education meeting the council strongly believes that post pandemic Youth and Young adults have been greatly affected by mental health issues and even though some resources are available are afraid to reach out to help for help due to the stigma attached to mental health the stigma free Council wants to break the walls of stigma and reach out to young people to come out and face their issues in a safe and nurturing environment where they don't feel judged helping young people will not only make a healthy school district but will also make our Township a healthier Place May being Mental Health Awareness Month a small initiative in schools can be wearing green for a chosen day in all schools as a solidarity to stand for a stigma-free school district it does not need to be mandatory but even if schools are encouraged to put it on on their weekly bulletins to students and families and even if a small portion of students can stand by it it could be a start the majority of our society Praise on children and teens who have mental health issues and or substance disorder these young children and teens are so vulnerable and easily targeted by our society we cannot allow this to continue action must be taken we need to stop the suicides of young children and teens where the rate has escalated and there are reports that I have read that say children as young as five six and seven years of age have succeeded in ending their own lives this is tragic action needs needs to be taken it is a huge undertaking we know this however with your help we can all become a stigma-free community and a stigma-free public school district with your help this board all of you have the power to effectively make our school envir safe to provide education for both the parent and the child regarding how to give support ask for support to be given education by Professionals in regards to their substance disorder or mental health condition and to achieve a no Stigma environment where all children yes all children can blossom and shine and Thrive and ultimately become their best selves there will be no feelings of isolation there will be no feelings of Shame they will no longer hear classmates and friends and others degrading them the Board of Education all of you sitting there have the power to become a stigma-free public school district and to give these teens these children a judgment free environment by doing this both teens and young children will have a sense of freedom and relief their confidence and self-esteem will rise they will feel whole again how can we as a public school district and a community deny these children these teens of this now I don't normally do this but uh oh I don't know what that means oh well then I guess I'm not going to do oh I can okay well I'm one of the those people if you can finish your talk I'm one of these people that have a mental health disorder at a young age approximately seven or eight my sister who was a lot older than me noticed that there was something different about me they saw a a lot of sadness in me and a lot of anger I I never felt a part of my family I always felt that I was very different and my sister asked my mother and my father if I could see a psychiatrist my mother was very willing my father said no he said he wasn't going to be embarrassed he wasn't going to be ashamed what kind of daughter would that be how how would these neighbors think of think of us we lived in a in a prestigious Town Westfield and he could not take that chance to be stigmatized and to have his family stigmatized throughout the years I only got worse when I was around 14 I wanted to commit suicide I wanted to end my life all I did was I cried and I couldn't understand why the rest of my family was so happy and yet I was so sad and I did feel ashamed I didn't know why I felt ashamed I guess it was because I wasn't living up to what my father wanted for me and and then finally after trying to commit suicide and luckily I didn't succeed I got my mother was able to get me the help at least from a pastor Who had who had a degree in Psychology and it was nice to be able to talk to someone on a weekly basis but here again my father was adamant that not having me see a psychiatrist and so my life went from bad to worse because I couldn't understand what was happening to me and my father was in denial and he was so afraid of what society would say that even though I know my father loved me he just couldn't do it he just didn't want to risk losing friends wondering how his work and and their employees would treat him it he just wouldn't accept that I needed the help he just wouldn't accept it and so finally when I was in the hospital for a for my heart they realized something was wrong and that I needed mental health and they sent me to a psychiatric hospital and I was diagnosed with mental health conditions one of which is probably why I'm shaking now is anxiety it's depression it's borderline personality disorder and it's post-traumatic stress disorder because I figured I certainly couldn't tell my father that I was raped he would think it was my fault I couldn't I I had suffered from sexual molestation but who could I share that with I couldn't get a doctor and so I tell you this not for you to feel pity for me I tell you this because this Council this stigma free Council was the first time when I had gone to a meeting where I actually felt safe where I felt as though I was respected and validated and that was really different for me I stand here before you still feeling ashamed I remember having people tell me my supposed friends classmates and others that I was nothing but trash that I was essentially garbage I was a worthless human being and I should have committed suicide that is very hard for a young child for anyone to have to live with so I ask you tonight and I know that it goes against protocol but I ask you tonight for people such as me and for all those little kids and for even the teenagers and the young adults to make an exception and the pass to make this pledge for becoming a stigma free Franklin Township Public Schools no I'm not actually asking you I'm begging you I am imploring you to not have another child suffer like I did because of what Society has said was normal but they would accept I'm begging you to help not only people such as myself but of the child that felt isolated that didn't feel like they belonged because of what Society had said and it was funny because when I was finally did when I was finally diagnosed in my 30s my father said to me well Donna it's just like having a physical illness but it wasn't so again thank you very very much I appreciate your time and you listening to my story I hope that you can still respect me even though I have a mental health issue I hope that my words are still of value to you thank thank you thank you thank you is there anyone else who wishes to speak good evening my name is Nicole Rollins I live at 20 Winston Drive here in Somerset I wasn't sure if I was going to speak tonight um my heart is racing uh I come from um a few different backgrounds where I feel for the young lady that just left the mic I also feel for the custodial family Jeff's Family I was there that night I also am a member of the Franklin athletic uh booster club sitting on the executive board and I speak on behalf of the youth here in this community uh my husband and I we moved here when we were pregnant with twins um from Essex County and we were we we have a moveing service and we actually found that this was a wonderful Community the more people we moved here we said let's find somewhere and um we planted our feet here and raised our daughters um our our background is in sports um it's what keeps us grounded in our household um what I see and what I hear um seems to always resonate with me for inclusivity with everyone that I meet somehow I believe that uh Sports seems to bring together many communities um the diversity um conversation um discipline everything and one thing that I also see is that it seems to separate a lot of people and it comes to a point where you have to bring the community together with the children and the youth and a lot of that is Lost in Translation when things are going on because the world world is the world and it's a lot of things that are taking place that we're not aware of I think that's my phone I think it's important that um we're all aware of what keeps us all grounded one way or another and not to forget the youth or for the adults once they become adults um the young lady that just left just spoke about when she was 7 years old and before that the Widow that just left was speaking about a a young man that spent many years here in the school system working giving his life towards assisting our youth all of this brings us together some way um if there's a way to keep everyone on the same page age I think from my my experience it has been through Sports uh it keeps the world going financially um emotionally um academically it keeps children on on the same course as far as something to look forward to um it stays inclusive um there's no gray area when it comes down to teamwork and I think when you sit on the board and you bring um everyone together such as our community is a Melting Pot it should be something that's um supported not from when you're just seven until you're seniors here in the community um our youth represented this community recently in March um through the national New Balance Nationals here um on the east coast and they didn't get support as far as all the things that they've worked hard for um these these children start out young at seven years old and you have no idea what they're going through but the adult sets in their lives you know they're here sometimes for the right reason sometimes you know it's just a job you don't know but the mindset of the youth and being a former student athlete as well um they're here just trying to set goals for themselves for their future and they're listening to the adults around them more importantly the adults are the support system but when that falls off when they get older it's really hard to explain I think it's important to invite the youth here to the meetings so they actually see where it begins where it ends how they're um presences an impact in the community and when that's overlooked it's really hard to explain to them when you want them to come back and give back um we reward or award the kids that a few moments award the kids that actually produce throughout the season but the kids that actually continue to thrive past the season need to support as well so I'll give you a quick example our season here um in the district starts through the njsia and ends on March 3rd I'm just going to talk about the uh indoor season three days later is the sorry Nationals time is up I'm sorry I'm just asking for a quick support for all the youth that's in the community when they continue throughout the year that keeps them ground it as student athletes and I think that's what we're trying to do so that's my point thank you okay thank thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak phis Spiel six Al M Court um there are so many activities and good things that go on in the fr Township Schools and I know president um sing you mentioned a number of them but on behalf of uh Dr Gail Nelson I want to share that um and I'm happy to say that uh the stigma free Council and uh Dr Nelson have been in communication so anyway Franklin high schools pacce that's protect accept care educate youth education conference sponsored by it gets better 50 states 50 grants 5,000 voices on May 4th that's the uh Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. here all ages are welcome guest speakers games entertainment arts and crafts food provided so I'm sure um this is you know a culmination I believe or part of a huge Grant that was received um to support this program and all students are welcome I don't know if you can see it's uh the rainbow Plus+ Plus and um she really wants a lot of lot of you young people to turn out so anything please spread that word thank you thank you anyone else okay mve to close public session by Bill seconded by Dr Hopkins all in favor thank you so I'll let Dr Vol address most of the comments I just want to say sure um no just if there is anything but uh I just want to thank everyone for their comments uh especially about the stigma free campaign I am looking for the resolution if you would like to email that to Dr aali or myself and myself so we can uh take a look at that and talk about it at the board um Nicole I really I can't see you but I really appreciate your comments and um that is one of the reasons why I think most of us decided to move into Franklin so we can all relate to that and we will you know keep your comments and consideration and I think that's really about it yeah I would just agree agree if you could get that pledge to us the the resolution um and I'm going to encourage you send it to me send it to miss Singh but also if you could copy Miss Scott I think you might know Miss Scott K Scott real easy K Scott she's my assistant K Scott at franklinboe.org and we'll put something together for the board to consider but Kristen to be helpful with that so you could do that I appreciate it thank you and now we're at good of the order so I'll start with Jimmy anything for the good of the order uh first and foremost thank you for for all the comments and for all the constructive words that were said today um heart go out to you and for all the things that you've had to deal with ma'am um that should not happen to anyone um and then also for the uh student athletes uh that perform outside of the normal school year uh 100% uh there is support for that so thank you for your comments to us all Bill no specific spe ific comment there's been so much said tonight that's so worthwhile you just have to digest it thank you Dr Hopkins well my heart and prayers go out to you Miss Cook um with the tragedy that has occurred on the school grounds and yes um uh and to um the mental health piece of it yes well well spoken and um uh we all have uh definitely would uh look forward into seeing the resolution behind that and um to my student athlete mom um yes um one thing that I'm big on in the the subject that you um approach there as student athlete that yes um sometimes we get lost in the mix as u a athlete but don't take the student um part of it uh into consideration that you know uh that comes with Academia and all that so uh yes um you best believe that the board has um um the support behind that also but all together great board meeting tonight um Point very great points that was bought up just like with your suggestion um with the cell phone situation so a lot a lot was done tonight I said Thank You Walter um first want to thank everybody for actually coming out and hanging out and sticking with us till almost 9:30 we usually don't see this big of a crowd so please feel free to come out every month um to to be heard um cuz as as you can tell we we we are listening um your comments um we we we take dear to us so thank you for coming out um once again my deepest deepest deepest condolences to um you Mrs cook um I was there um that night uh me and my family hung out um a while with uh Dr Solomon um until everything um got situated so once again my deepest condolences to you um you we have heard um from you as well as Matthew um Mrs Smith she's gone I believe but congratulations and stigma free Council we are once again we we have heard we're listening and I appreciate this board because and I appreciate this community because we we we are Franklin strong we we we are here to support each other and I'm so glad that you guys took the time out tonight to to come and and and voice your concerns so we we are a board who cares about our community because pretty much everybody on this board also has a lot of students who have gone through the Franklin uh District so we are listening have a safe and enjoyable weekend um spend it with u family and friends and give somebody a hug while you while you're at it thanks thank you Sammy yeah sort of reiterating some of the stuff but condolences to Miss Cook um sorry for what happened and uh I think looking at technology there's there's got to be a technological solution to help with some of these things so uh I have a technology background as well I know that there's always a solution so I'm sure we'll be able to find something that will help uh remediate that situation congratulations to Miss Smith although I think she's departed um in terms of uh how having a stigma-free Zone I think that Franklin is the second most diverse town in New Jersey only Jersey City is more diverse than us and so we need to make sure that people of all shapes colors sizes everything are feel accepted and that is our part of our responsibility and our mandate as the Board of Education we take that very seriously it's actually embedded in everything we do from the Strategic committee to our goals to everything um and in so far as we can improve that you have at least my full commitment I think the board's full commitment that we will do that um so we look forward to getting that particular statement um some pieces of that are like having seek awareness month so congratulations that beautiful month here to to recognize it also for our Muslim Students we're going to be trialing uh halal meat in our school district another sign of inclusivity another sign that we want other students that may have different dietary needs to feel accepted and welcomed and not have any restrictions on them um one huge thing that we're also pushing for is food and security that's one of our major goals and we have our Fisk meeting the Franklin food and security and safety Coalition meeting next Tuesday for anybody who'd like to come it's at the senior center at 3:30 the only goal of this committee which the board of education is fully brought into and Dr orali has been helping to spearhead is to solve food insecurity for our town we have 45% or so Title One students in our district meaning they can't afford to uh or there there's restrictions on on paying for lunch and so Fisk is there to help that and that is a Consortium of our district It's Our Town Council it's the YMCA it's our 70 houses of worship it's our youth center all coming together to follow to solve one problem in Franklin which is food insecurity so when we talk about inclusivity food insecurity is at one of the basic cores of that there's a lot of uh you know of that there so anyway that's this coming Tuesday uh if anybody would like to attend that and that's all thank you thank you so I'm not going to speak like a broken record everything that my fellow peers have said I'm not going to repeat that uh the only thing that I will say is um a lot of us are very tough on our elves so don't be hard on yourself just be you and you've heard the thing that you know cup half full or half empty start looking at what's in your cup and I think that's where change will happen because if you have coffee in your cup and you shake it coffee will fall on you and others so try and see what's in your cup and let's work on that and with that meetings adjourned thank you [Music] [Music]