[Music] Welcome to our March meeting thank you Mar High School for hosting us let's See's not
here I'll start all right continue pursuant to the open public meeting act chapter 231 Public Law of 1975 this meeting notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press on July 8th 2024 and
has been duly advertised in the as par press issue of July 12th 2024 all little Clerks of the townships and the bur within the Freehold Regional District have been notified and the requirements were met on July 8th 2024
will you please stand and join inoni in this Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all thank you you're welcome any changes to the board agenda only two Mr President uh in addition of the items that were noted on the agenda was pre-printed Prior the start of meeting the board also discussed uh in
exception number three the student discipline report and also discuss it uh exception number seven referendum planning thank you I have a motion to approve in February 6 2025 agenda
motion Mr Mr Mr all right one that any discussion for not hearing any discussion roll call
Mr yes Miss Bruno yes Mr cell yes M Bush parus yes yes Lavin yes Mr M yes Mr M yes Mr Brun yes
you just a reminder communication on on the file and the board secretaries office Dr Hazel are you ready for your super I am ready um and before I say a few words um thank you Antonio for um
getting a started this evening with the Pledge of Allegiance thank you so much um also want to introduce uh another another executive student Cabinet member our representative from Marboro High School his name is Shan Gman uh he is
here this evening and he has um some information to share with us um as a senior uh he's been actively engaged obviously in his senior Gear with his college applications and making final decisions uh of where he wants to attend
next school year which I don't think is finalized uh as of yet um but we thought it would be really important to share with the board and to share with the public all of the services that we have in place in our guidance offices uh through our Support
Services to help students prepare for the College and Career processes which we start very early on even in freshman year so I'm going to turn it over um to Sean Gelman who is going to share his
exper experiences but really he's speaking to um all of the experiences of our students here in the freeall Regional High School District and the exemplary work um that happens within our guidance and and support service
areas of all of our high schools so Sean thank you so much for being here and uh for sharing uh your insights good evening Board of Education members my name is Sean G and I am maror high school's representative to the executive student cabinet as I am set to
make my college decision within the next month I would like to spend time discussing how F frhsd and the guidance department at marbor high school has assisted me throughout this process which I find very similar to a bus route with various stops along the way when I
entered the bus at the start of my freshman year the first thing I noticed was how many seats were available each one representing a different pathway and career that students can pursue I knew right away that I wanted to work in the business world so that area is where I
decided to sit and stay throughout my 4 years however it's also true that many people do not have an idea of what they want to do in their future in either scenario f frhsd is there to provide beneficial support and resources along
the way the first bus stop that I would like to discuss takes place in 9th grade at the start of the school year the guidance department at marbor as well as the other high schools presents students with what is called an action plan for Success this document outlines several
key steps that students should take to transition into high school and contains numerous resources that can help students explore class options and create their resumés for example students are required to activate their score account which is a great resource
that they can use to re to research colleges and organize their activities and test scores additionally during March F frhsd hosts a postsecondary planning night for 9th and 10th grade students which is another opportunity
for students to learn more about the College Planning process when this stop concludes students have the ability to take what they learned and create a plan if they find an area that to them they have the ability to move to that section of the
bus and sit there if not students can remain where they are seated and look ahead afterwards the bus continues to move forward reaching the next stop in 10th grade at this stop students are once again presented with an action plan
for Success which this time provides advice for junior year course selection standardized testing and career planning during their sophomore year students are encouraged to take the ASVAB career exploration program which
is an aptitude test designed to help students learn more about themselves and their career options the results from this test affirmed my decision to pursue business and it also helped many others narrow down their career choices once
again students have the opportunity to remain where they are seated or they can move around to a different area that they might be interested in which they can explore through fr s's flexible and diverse course and extracurricular offerings then the bus makes another
stop in 11th grade which is considered by many to be the most important stop along the way this stop could be overwhelming but I assure you that the guidance department is there every step of the way students are once again given an action plan including taking
standardized tests like the SAT or the act and creating a list of colleges or other secondary opportunities students are also given a checklist that ensures they are on track to graduate with the required amount of credits in each area furthermore
students are encouraged to review what is needed for the college application a lot of universities use what is called the common application which requires a personal statement and other information about a student including extracurriculars and grades this is a
good time for students to start brainstorming ideas about what should go into the personal statement lastly students help plan their senior year courses and learn about the dual enrollment process which is a great opportunity to earn college credit that
can be transferred to a wide variety of colleges and universities across the country the final stop along this journey takes place in 12th grade by this time most students have a much better understanding of what to plan they do of what they plan to do in their
future thanks to the wide array of resources and opportunities that they've received at each stop at this last stop students are given their final action plan as well as resources and guidelines that are helpful when applying to
colleges and finally students are given opportunities to apply for scholarships through fhsd and other organizations with a history of helping applicants overall the College and Career planning process is length and requires a lot of
time and dedication I'm thankful for the great amount of resources and advice that have helped simplify course selection standardized testing and college applications now that I've made it through every single stop I can confidently say that there is no bus out
there that prepares students more than F frhsd thank you for your time are you going to stay locally uh um no most likely going to go out of state unless I mean I'm waiting on the University of Pennsylvania which is you know somewhat local but that's probably
the only like school that's really close byot so you know we see what happens thank you Sean did a great job and really um articulated the guidance road map that we have in place in our
district from Grade 9 through 12 um I love the analogy with the bus stops along the way but I can relate to that um but it's it's really about the personalization that exists between the counselor um and the student and all of
the resources from Administration school counselors and our teachers providing all of those necessary supports and helping you and helping each student articulate the action plan so thank you for so uh for outlining all of those
steps for us we really appreciate it and and thank you to all of our guidance departments I know that our seniors um are in very good hands and making all of their decisions right now good Lu yes she has a son who's going through the same going through the same process yeah
and it's it's yeah it does get overwhelming at times um but our district um on March 5th we had a visit um from the county office it's actually from the state uh a qac visit they uh
visit school districts every 3 years years um they assess Us in areas of compliance in five core areas instruction and program fiscal management governance operations and
Personnel um so I think everyone can recall we had middle states in the fall then went right to cusac off to you know our next steps in the school district um but this is to ensure that our school district is providing a thorough and
efficient education you know for all students so we haven't received all of our scores back but we go through um it's a district performance uh report called a DPR uh whole slew of indicators um and our district um work through all
of those processes and and shared all of our evidence uh with the county office also this evening on this agenda we will be adopting the tenative 2520 School uh school year budget uh there was a resolution that seeks the
permission of the board to submit the budget uh to the county office for review um once again you know uh Freehold Regional we did have a state aid cut of um a little over $916,000
our total state aid allocation for the district um is um 29,6 33,700 um that's what comes in uh to our district from the state at this juncture um the Board of Education as well as the
administration will work through details of the budget and our public hearing on the budget will be um at our April 24th uh Board of Education meeting this week uh we just finished up with State Testing uh the New Jersey
graduation proficiency assessment known as the GPA in English language arts and in mathematics uh that was for all of our Juniors um and I know they uh had very successful test administrations uh at each of the six high schools many of
the central office administrators including myself went out to visit uh those schools and and I could really see our students uh taking the test extremely seriously uh during this test Administration um and that's very important to all of us we know they are ready for those tests and we want to
make sure that they're putting their best foot forward in the best environment and have the best test conditions uh for that assessment next week uh for any students who were absent will be the required makeups um next week want this is take to get the
results back we should have them for probably the end of June oh so it [Music] does each each year um it seems to come sooner and sooner it used to be in the summer um it was August then it was July
now it's June who knows it could be even sooner but I think they're getting a little bit better in processing those scores because it is an online assessment but I think by the end of the school yes good turn we had very good
attendance um like I said in visiting the schools all of our students I mean were diligently taking the test taking their time through the whole test Administration uh we did see you know in previous years um you know when there was so much influx around State Testing
um not really taking it as serious as they should um but I I really think um in terms of test culture and expressing that it is a graduation requirement students are taking that much more seriously good to hear we do have a couple of board
reports tonight um we have Finance we have curriculum so I'm going to call on Mrs Higley to do her curriculum they had tonight Mrs Higley you um first of all we discussed the curriculum Updates this
year the curcum writing is mostly in the electives Department which have not had any um revisions in quite a while so it's good that they're hitting that especially in Design Tech are um bang or a lot of the um elective courses and the
enhanced implementation is year one is AP Physics social studies and um honors calculus this is where they look at a second year been implemented where the teachers any suggestions what they think needs to be changed so that by the third year everything is running smoothly so
it's a really it's a threeyear process it works well as um Dr Haz already said um we finished middle States and they added some of the great compliments we had regarding our staff and also the NJ GPA
was this week and we had four days where the students were tested for 90 minutes which might not is when were sitting there for that long and I was happy to hear that the students were actually took this test very seriously and this um it seems to have been they spent a
lot of time doing boot camps making test awareness going around talking to the students so they would take the test more seriously and that seems to be paying off magnet program applications are finished and also acceptances have been sent out it's nice to see that in
last year we had um 1,763 applicants this year we had 1,8 819 applicants and with the number of students going down enrollment that really speaks highly about our programs so now we're waiting for the um students side because the county also sent theirs
out and then right now we're waiting to hear kids come back to make commitments and then those on the waiting list might be given an opportunity to try out to be on some of the programs sure uh 2324 the uh application was
1,763 and for 2425 this year was 1,819 so it's a nice increase and actually 2023 if you want put that was 1,432 so the last three year that was right we really had a big
increase um the one of the programs that's also flourishing very well is the um international baloria program which is very dear to my heart since I'm the one that started in the district and um it's actually this year um they actually have 41 students in the class of 2027 at
township which is the one that everyone outside of How High School can apply to because how has its own program and Township has Township students and that has been a very successful program also the um career Pathways program web design Health Professions and the cyber
security also have a large number of students who are interested that usually doesn't start until um sophomore year they apply and it's last years but they been increasing and it's been very healthy one of the things that's been important and stress is is we've been working in grading practices and
developing common District grading practices regarding recording calculating communicating student progress that means making sure that students are waiting things the same that homework is the same in each teacher's class so one teacher is counting homework for 40% and another teacher 20% so schoolwide they have
different percentages and it's common across the area so this way it's fair for every student no matter which teacher they have and that's something they've been working on and also communicating to the students so that they are all being assessed fairly and equally across the curriculum also uh
the SAT prep course which something students pay for only $100 you know how much it is true but the prep course we had this year in March they have enrolled 198 students for the May exam we have 111 students enrolled and
registration opens for the June exam April 7th and for the a August Exam May 13th this is a great program for kids at a very reasonable price if you've ever tried to go to some of the other sat programs and it's been very successful and it's a great program and another
thing that they're starting this summer they're already out there advertising the summer program staff has been hired but they're starting an attendance recovery program because right now the student fa to class they were able to go to credit recovery and get a grade for
that class were successful but if a student lost credit in a class they passed but lost because of attendance they couldn't recover that recover so now they can recover it it will be a week in um July where they can go for three hours a day to recover the seat time so this is of course they already
pass but we're not getting credit for and they'll be able to receive credit but only for one course but it's to encourage students again you can't be can't learn if you're not in school but if you're able to squeak through even though you didn't have the attendance it gives you a chance to get some of your
credits back so that it'll keep kids in the path of graduation and that's our thank you Mr messenger from Mar to finance all right thank you very much on March 6th we had a finance committee meeting in the first order of business
was to really revisit what happened over the past 12 months with respect to spending the money that was raised from the taxpayers cuz of course last year year we increased taxes by more than
2% uh so we basically went over all the facility improvements that we spent the money on so just for the Public's uh knowledge some of the things that we spent money on were a security project that called
snck uh the stage refurbishment at Burrow um jimm curtains at freehill township art rooms at h um and bathrooms in man alipin and then the security vesle here at Malboro High
School uh then we went on obviously it was just referenced by Dr Hazel about adopting the tenative budget for the 20126 fiscal year uh so we went into more depth on that um obviously we're
voting on that tonight uh $26.2 million and about1 $69 million of that is going to come from the taxpayers uh and again of course we talked about the DraStic Cuts in state
funding whereas you know we used to get $50 million or more from the state of New Jersey and now it's down to uh $29.6 million um and of course as we've been talking about certainly the
administration and the board is concerned uh we're not going to be able to generate Surplus to use in the years ahead uh and when we talk about what we're spending on this budget tenative budget that we're adopting you know the
big drivers or salaries and benefits which are 71% of the total budget uh and again everyone knows about inflation we're limited to increasing the tax levy 2% but everything we buy goes up more
than 2% just like it is just like it does for everyone at home so basically the 2% tax levy increase is not really going to cover a lot of the Necessities that we need to spend money on uh so we do need to reduce spending
by over $5 million uh we talked about some of the ways that's going to be accomplished uh just like on the equipment side we're going to be looking to lease and not purchase certain items and of course one of the driving forces
that the administ ation has is that you know there's going to be spending reductions but the primary goal here is to keep the smallest class sizes possible in math and English uh Switching gears we talked about some
boiler issues that are have crept up at freeold Township High School and we discussed some regular operating District grants uh to pay for that uh also with terms the big picture we looked at enrollment and spending and if
you go back 9 years the enrollment is down 99.2% but our our staffing is down 133% uh so that is something that is appreciated I'm sure by the public to some
extent uh and one of the big drivers of spending is the percentage of students in special ed and multilingual really has exploded during this period when enrollment went down
99.2% you're not saving a whole bunch of money because the explosion and spending in these other mandated areas um so and then towards the end of the meeting we did have a discussion about what the future may look like with respect to the
transportation Debo uh since we don't have a lifetime lease there at some point in time that issue is going to have to be addressed so we talked about what that may look like in the future and then lastly we just bandied about the
referendum uh and the impacts of it getting passed and voted or Andor voted down so nothing really specific just you know as we discussed in the last meeting when we submitted a list to Trenton I what have 59 different applications so
you know there's a million things there not all of which are going to get done so we just went back and forth with the administration to really see what the pluses and minuses of all this were and that is your wrap up thank you good job
with that um Mr ver any changes to the agenda tonight oh yeah yes Mr Mr ber we do have some changes um so on resolution G1 approval of resignation uh we have one more name to add um last name hunt first
name po uh special education thank you special education teacher I'm an Al high school with effective date of June 30th 2025 uh on G2 approval of retirement um one more mean to add last name lante first name Susan power
professional at how high school effective date of June 30th as well uh number uh G3 approval of appointment we have two names to add there uh Campbell first name patri LTS family and consumer science at freal
township uh pro rated per DM uh $ 68,5 effective dates uh March 31st 2025 to June 30th 2025 for um for upon completion of paperwork and one more
name on G3 as well cotton n uh LTS school and Community liazon officer at fre burrow uh step one 40, 680 pro rated perum with the effective dates of March 20th 2025 to June 18th 2025 and then
finally uh G14 approval of substitute uh and home instruction Personnel one name Mella uh comment Thomas uh teacher effective date March 14 2025 and thats the uh uh adjustments to the resolution
thank you and I want I don't want to dismiss that I don't think I skipped over public participation but nobody signed up is there anyone in the audience who like to speak on an issue Rel to the board of
ed okay so we're going to go to um we're going to take Personnel negotiations programmed operations and building transportation and physical plan educational programs and
administration G1 through g115 J1 through K2 we're going to take it all one time is yeah just to clarify G1 through g15 H1 H1 through
i1 and J1 through K2 anybody who has a conflict uh you can just state that during the time so may I have a motion coms I'll make a motion have a motion yes okay
uh I second was Miss cell okay so G just so everyone's clear G1 through g15 H H programmed operations building transportation and physical plant educational programs this is J1 through
K2 and administration all right now I think there's some question well there's actually not a question there's a comment on G10 so I just wanted to say that Jennifer oerson is listed here
in G10 and going back from 2014 to 2016 I've seen this woman's genius in action and I cannot express how happy I am that this is
happening um because if people people are a reflection of their leader I cannot tell my fellow board members how impressive Mrs erson is with respect to the quality of the faculty here and if I
go back to 2014 when my son was a freshman and he had this phenomenal teacher but I think she was going out on maternity leave maybe 3 weeks into the school year so we also met the long-term sub that time and
to this day I still remember how incredibly impressed I was with this long-term sub sub knowing that even though this teacher was leaving three weeks into my son's freshman year how he was going to be in such good hands and
Essen and actually you know what I think for my other son the same thing happened with another longterm sub um so yeah I just wanted to point out um you know and I was at every back to school night in every teacher
conference and saw the math faculty at this school in action and I mean I really can't imagine a a department supervisor doing a better job so I mean pine Street's going to benefit to the
nth degree so I just wanted to make that comment thank you [Applause] so any other discussion or comments board members any discussion comments no
okay so we we took G1 through g15 programmed operations building Transportation H1 through i1 and educational program
Administration J1 through K2 call please Mr AO yes M Bruno yes M Capell yes M butcher farus yes Mrs Higley Yes except I obain on G10 pertaining to C
keski and Christina aquella thank you Mrs L yes m m yes m m yes BR yes thank you thank you any old Business board
members any old business discussing old business any new business how I have something okay see it's 848 and we're at malber high school so could Dr Bley go to the microphone I
have a I have a question or two form it's easy Don't Panic Don't Panic turn volume up on channel one back there I channel one all the way to the left I turn the volume down I have your back
Dr okay so I've been out I was in Texas for this whole week and I rushed to get here and I didn't have time to drive to the back of the school so before I left I saw the tractors out there and now I see all the bleachers are gone so if and
it's too dark now could you just tell the board what what's the status and what's going on back there at the football field what you know what stage they're up to sure yeah we're really excited about it the work began last week you know uh we've been working with
the township and uh The Architects the engineers the contractors over the last several months uh but yeah the actual construction started last week and very quickly they demoed the homeside bleachers which are getting replaced the visitor bleachers are not within the scope of the project so they they remain
untouched and at this point uh almost the entire field has I don't know what the appropriate term is but you know all the turf has been removed and it's been leveled uh there's still a lot more work to do obviously but we're very impressed at the pace that the contractors are working and how much they've gotten done
in one week obviously the most important Target for us is the graduation date we have been given uh reason to be confident that they're going to meet the Target to get it done in time for us to graduate on that field um that's extremely important to us and so you
know we're we're happy with that all right and just to remind my fellow board members like we're not spending money on this this is being entirely funded by the taach of M bar so no favoritism the
m just so you know thank you you're welcome um any other discussion with new business I would Mr Bruno just like to make a comment um I noticed uh among our retirement announcements is uh Kevin
Gardner from colck uh who was my cooperating teacher as a student teacher uh so I would just like to congratulate him on his retirement thank you and Dr Hazel have some things just
talk about I'm very exciting yes so um gives me great pleasure to introduce um some of our new supervisors who are coming on board with us in Freel Regional High School District uh to compliment our administrative and
supervisory team um the first um person that I'd like to introduce is Jennifer oerson uh Jennifer oakerson will be joining the central office team as an administrative supervisor um she is replacing uh
someone who resigned from the district um last school year um Mrs oakerson has 22 years of service in the Freehold Regional High School District I think here all at Marboro High School um 10 years as a math teacher and 12 years as
an academic supervisor um each of our candidates that are getting introduced tonight went through a series of three interviews um with um our administrative staff also a final interview with me all of our
candidates and I'm going to speak about each one this evening extremely impressed with um Mrs oerson this year step up to the plate and is supervising uh subject areas completely outside of her domain uh but she is as Mr messenger
said uh a fine talent and when you're a good supervisor and a good administrator you can do it all um so Mrs oerson we are excited and pleased to have you joining the central office team as I expressed to you we have our work cut out for us um but we are so happy to
have you on the team and I know the scope of work for you will be extending far beyond even the cni office at our central office cuz we have so much work to do so if you could please stand uh we want to officially congratulate you and thank
you and uh she will be joining the team um she'll be finishing up all of her responsibilities and duties here at Marboro high school and joining the central office team on July 1 so congratulations to you um the second uh supervisor that I'd
like to introduce is Jacqueline titella um she will be the new academic supervisor in Marboro High School um officially kind of replacing uh Miss oakerson but will be overseeing the social studies and English departments
um here at marbor high school um Mrs tiella has 18 years in education 11 years of service as an English teacher at Marboro High School a small stint I think at free hole Township High School uh for a short period of time and was in another school
district uh prior to coming to the freeho Regional High School District and then speaking with her and meeting with her has a skill set um you know um very Diversified based on the school district that she came from she has served as an
induction specialist in our district for a number of years I know she is super excited uh to take on the Reigns of those departments uh and we are excited to have you part of the you know the team at Marboro high school but also the
central office team uh alongside working with all of the other academic supervisors in the school district so please stand we congratulate you on your new appointment to academic supervisor last but not least um another uh talent in the district uh and it is
so wonderful when we have have talent within our district moving into supervisory and administrative positions um and um this appointment is Christina aquavella who will be uh supervising at
Howell High School replacing Christine Jenner um who is now the assistant principal over at Howell High School 22 years in education 7 years of service as an English teacher at Manalapan High School also was in another District
prior to coming to Freehold Regional High School District um so has a plethora and a diversified uh skill set was an Adent professor at Ruckers University um is teacher of the year over at man alipin High School this year
uh for the 2425 school year and also serves as an induction specialist uh for man alapan high school and for the district mentoring new teachers not just at your school but supporting us you know across the district um had a wonderful uh conversation and interview
with Christina um too many clubs and activities and um so much involvement and passion uh for your work over at man alipin high school I know you're going to take all of that um with you over to Howell High School um and I know uh we
have many programs over there uh that I know you are looking forward uh to supervising and leading with the team over at Howell High School so please stand um this aquavella congratulations on your to supervisor and I'm I'm super excited to
have these members um join our team congratulations and I want to thank the Freehold Regional Teachers Association for Organizing yesterday's um musical um for the senior citizens I went and senior citizen you're not but
um and the dinner after it and I'd like to thank the crew for organizing it it was a nice turnout a good show um I was running between negotiations and the show so I saw pretty much all the show so um and uh so get out there to see how
high SCH music will you have it because it's very good kids are very talented and I want to congratulate Dave Ryden who as we speak is getting the U New Jersey athletic director Association director of the Year in
Atlantic City and um we spent we sent a rep we don't yes and the seers are there as well and the seers are there so congratulations to dat so not hearing any other discussion for new business Mr I'd like to make a motion to
adjourn okay I here too did you get this too we're adjourned hold on all in favor oh all in favor I now weed thank you morber