mic mike's mic is on can you hear me goodbye okay all right i'm going to call this meeting back into order and we're going to resume uh the meeting yeah can I get a motion to the
documented all those in favor say I i september okay can I get a motion for the approval of the March 25th regular meeting minutes a second second all those in say I i any
opposed any extensions okay can I get a motion to approve the March 25th executive session minutes motion thank you all those in favor say I i [Music] thank
you communications enrollment february of 25 3,425 students march 25 we were 3,422 credit to March 24 we were 3,49 and that is all for communication
thank you okay the president's remarks i mean this crowd out here today um I don't know if anybody in my hallway wants to listen too we could pop those doors open maybe people could hear i'm not sure if the speaker system will allow it but the
first thing I wanted to do tonight since so many of you come out tonight I wanted to um dispel some rumors especially with the people that are logging in um but first a little housekeeping about public meetings versus meetings held in public i just want to remind everyone that this
is a meeting held in the public it is not a back and forth session not a Q&A session what we're going to do is we're going to have two opportunities for public participation one in the beginning is um on agenda items only and then we have a second opportunity for public participation that has to do with
anything pertaining to the district that you wish to speak about um and I want you to know that this board is listening very carefully to what everyone is saying we don't always react here because we have a session and we talk as a group and we collaborate and we think about and discuss everything very
carefully but it will be a one-on-one Q&A session if something is asked very simply like is a bus at 10:00 or 10:05 you might answer that and say yes at 10:05 so very simple things we might respond to but we're not here to have a big Q&A session um we're here to listen
and um we do value everyone's input that's the first thing second thing is I wanted to talk a little bit about funding because I saw a lot of things going um online a lot of room in those i want to talk about the referendum that has just passed and that type of funding
and then I want to talk about contract funding so referendum they're for facilities um this district um went out for a bond we had several information sessions one was in public
one we had live in public one was online um and then it was put out to the voters if we have kinship and this was specifically for our aging infrastructure um security upgrades our roofs um there's a list online that you
can go read about i want people to understand that that money was approved by the voters of Philadelphia because of our buildings over 20 some odd years and that we have passed a referendum and we in dire need of spending millions of
dollars to make our schools safe for our children and we had the support not only of our parents we had the support of the FDA we had the support of this board and we had the support of a simple majority of voters that felt that we needed to spend that money to make our buildings
safe we all know about the issue with the open lots but we want doors within those buildings we want security investigators to make um the entryway safe we have aging HVAC structures some renovation issues roofing issues a lot
more than what our typical capital improvement budget could pay for so that's why we had the referendum and to be the state of New Jersey with throwing up to 30% of that funding if the voters would feel that they did and they did
and we had an election and that election it passed and the state of New Jersey is now on the hook give us upwards of $40 million our record okay so $40 million coming in from all the taxpayers across the state
through Freehold Township to offset our costs because of our infrastructure but that money cannot be tapped into for anything else it must be spent on that so that's that's referendum funding then we have other funding one of which let's
say for example is a contract we currently have a three-year expiring contract and we're looking at a budget cap of 2% so when the school budget is created we look at that 2% cap and we also look at medical exemptions
sometimes our medical costs go up 10 15% and there are some exceptions where we can exceed that cap just for those exemptions but typically we have to operate within that 2% cap and what we don't want to do is we never want to try
to get into a situation where we negotiate a contract settlement that is so costly that we would have to perhaps increase class size reduce teachers we don't like going down that area that's why we have a negotiation that's why we talk to our business administrator and
we try to come up with a number that we feel meets the budget where we can avoid all of that and that is still an ongoing process so I'm going to quite explain the difference there's two I call them buckets one bucket of money that's the referendum can't touch that the other
bucket is what we raise from our taxpayers to our employees next thing I want to talk about a little bit is um this word out there also on social media this whole thing of no strangers
and outsourcing we need to be realistic we currently have SEXO our food vendor and we have outsourced people working for SEXO in this whole school system they feed our kids these are people that have vetted our department of education
at security clearances they're just hired through that avenue and we're in our Google because it's Alexa and although we have made absolutely no decision whatsoever we're still in a negotiation we've made no decision whatsoever in terms of doing any further
outsourcing i just want to put the rumor to bed about this whole thing about strangers and outsourcing there's outsourcing already for decades that have gone on within our buildings and again I'm not saying that we're going to do that but I am saying that um we have
to dispel that rumor the second thing I'd like to say is finally about negotiations itself i've been involved i think this is my kind of my this is my first contract and then this is Lambert as well and I feel like there's there's
really um you know a close settlement here i don't feel like we're really that far apart i mean I I appreciate the enthusiasm of here to support each other i get that this board of education values its teachers very much we value
also our students and but as a board we also have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that the parents that are going to go out millions and millions of dollars towards some settlement for the next contract we want to make sure that the instructional time of our students
is getting increased because we've seen over the years a diminishing of the actual instructional time that our children are getting in the schools and we know for a fact that we increase instructional time for our students but they want to perform better that's one of the goals that's why we exist why do
we have a board and teachers custodians and and workers plowing the lot we're here because we produce students hello that's why we exist and our students our students are what's most important and we're all here for them and we know
everyone knows across the aisle that increasing instructional time for our students is beneficial and that's our outlet we don't make cars we don't make airplanes we make educated kids so we are still at the table we
have two more meetings of negotiation set up um we have to clear the pass because it seems like there hasn't been much movement on either side towards a settlement and all that means is that you just continue negotiating um an arbitrator will come in and we'll talk
to both sides and we'll try to get some movement and sort of decide them but again the offers being made by this district and the offers that we're hearing they're not terribly far apart so um I appreciate the crowd that's here
i I think it's probably unnecessary but I do applaud that you're unified and that you want to have all your colleagues have a fair settlement and we want that as well um but I just wanted to put it out there that I do think that
um over the course of this summer we I feel confident that we should be able to come up with an agreement i think that's fair for both sides that this board is really adamant we the votes on this board are for the students and for the fiduciary responsibility of the
taxpayers that we can come to a reasonable settlement where everybody's getting the raise that they deserve the children are getting the instructional time that they deserve and at the end of the day we can come to a meeting so with that um I'm going to move on to the
administrative report thank you um both of our middle schools at this point hosted career days um I want to thank those staff members who coordinated um the career days organizing the speakers organizing the
schedules um without their work and their coordination it wouldn't have been successful or happened um I would like to thank our community members and not only our community members but also several staff members from our district participated in both schools to
highlight their roles in the district and what they do working for our own district including preschool teacher Andrew technology so various roles within our own district um so I'd like to thank our staff and our community members who participated and made uh
career day successful in both of our middle schools uh I also wanted to highlight uh the last school year maybe two school last school year uh Mr brousardi who was the um speaker for Field Township High School he's moved on to Manal and is an assistant principal
um he had come over to have a conversation regarding um how they can work with their student population to as we do here try to um counteract and educate students on anti-bullying and
what they realized is that by the time they get to the high school some of the behaviors are ingrained so they came back to us and said "Can we use our student leaders to work with your students?" And we came up with a three-year plan um working with third fourth and fifth graders so we're in year two and a student leadership
organization from Bo Township High School with two staff members came to each of our five elementary schools this year they worked with all third graders across the district on empathy and fourth graders on bullying versus conflict and next year it'll roll up to
fifth grade so third graders will all get lessons on empathy fourth graders bullying versus conflict and next year we'll have our fifth graders and every student will go through that in all of our elementary schools um not only is it beneficial for our kids to learn from peer models it's a wonderful opportunity
to partner with the Freehill Regional High School District and Freel Township High School to provide them student leadership opportunities and our students really enjoy being educated and engaging with high school students so it's been wonderful the feedback from our administrators and our teachers who have been in the classrooms to witness
it has said it's wonderful and uh we got an email of thanks from the um staff uh adviserss from the high school appreciating the hosting of the programs the um engagement the teachers engaged in what they did our teachers engaged
with what they did in the classrooms as well so I'd like to thank um those students their adviserss and it was a wonderful program and um bullying investigation report since our last um meeting we had eight reports of harassment intimidation and bullying out
of those eight reports six were founded and two were unfounded thank you so this is going to be the first opportunity for public participation on just items that are on this agenda if anyone wishes to address the
board please write your name and address on our signin sheet and state your name for the record statements are going to be limited to three minutes and should not be abusive obscene or defamatory in nature okay seeing none I'd like to move
personnel policy and communications is not here mr absolutely uh we did not meet tonight we did not meet tonight as the committee so I'm just going to move to the items
item number two uh first reading of policies and regulations as listed do I have to write read off the numbers there or just as listed as listed as listed yes sir item number three first read to
college policy as listed item number four resignation as listed number five new employment as listed and we'll circle back to that one in a second [Music]
okay number five oh sorry I apologize number six as listed uh do employment as listed number seven extend change long-term assignment as listed number eight leave of absence as listed number nine salary adjustment
update as listed number 10 resend PTO honoria as listed number 11 PTO honoraria as listed number 12 unpaid days as listed
number 13 family engagement nights as listed number 14 affirmed during investigating investigation findings as listed number 15 student teacher practical observation placement as
listed number 16 certified substitutes as listed number 17 non-ertified substitutes as listed number 18 termination substitute employment as
listed and like I said I'm going to circle back to the hiring of Journey i apologize sir got to get back to my page as I Oh thank you um want to acknowledge
the hiring of James Ascalles as the assistant principal at Dwight D eisenhower Middle School now once we vote congratulations which will take place in a few seconds okay do we have any
discussion we'll talk twice i do twice um do we have any Did we get a second mrs gives a second do we have any
questions or discussion okay seeing none can I get a roll call mrs bran yes yes miss Crosby yes mr gulo yes mr lambert yes mr williams yes m O Sullivan yes mr yes he has a big night he's got a lot of
friends okay the uh curriculum committee there good evening and uh the curriculum committee did meet this evening the attendance were myself Emily Crosby Sullivan and Rebecca Montgomery
we discussed the items on the agenda we discussed also middle school math 8 and vision implementation which is coming uh we discuss I updates discussing the middle school professional day and review sessions involved with those days
instructional usage data and upcoming focus group work with middle school teams we also discuss atlas summer curriculum partner workshops and summer curriculum committees with the development and postings of
curriculums i'd like to read the following items for you number three program as listed that's it thank you have a
second awesome do you have any questions for quick okay so none all those in favor say I i i any opposed any discussions motion carries finance Facilities and Transportation
mrs member uh the Finance Facilities and Transportation Committee did not meet this evening so um sorry sorry so I'd like to move Can you hear
me i'd like to move the following items uh bills and claims in the amount of $3,716,41451 um along with um machine print checks of $32,925 reviewed by Mr williams mr williams thank you very much item number
three travel and related expenses as listed item four transfers as listed item five donation of school supplies uh listed from the Freehole Beetle store to be used districtwide thank you to
Freehole Beetle Store item number six the PTO honor area update as listed for the Laura Donovan School item seven specialized evaluations and services update um as listed soon Health
LLC now adding physical therapy item number eight safety grant program application as listed nine competitive contract crossc courtyard digital contact content and skilluing platform with integrated lesson delivery and
assessment tools as listed item 10 renewal of competitive contract for Sedexo um do you need me to read the new prices or we're good on that okay um item item 11 um the approval to use title three funds for uh staff members
to facilitate family engagement night item 12 the renewal of the ESCJ tuition contract item 13 amended professional services agreement um with regard to the referendum uh switching our um contract
for our architects from a percentage to a set fee and item 14 could request for proposals for construction management services also related to the referendum does anybody have any questions
second no questions okay all those in favor say I i i any oppose no okay thank you uh we have no business oh
you have no business i just wanted to update i left two things off the administrative report first uh for the assistant principal position in Eisenhower we did we had 120 applicants uh we we did two days worth of first round interviews uh to narrow it down we interviewed 22 I think candidates uh
with a committee we still believe in our committee process that I went through 21 years ago of a committee of stakeholders administrators teachers uh support staff parents um and um we went through two rounds of interviews the second round candidates had an hour and a half that
they had to be here they uh they had to prepare uh create a presentation as if they were presenting to middle school uh staff members at during a faculty meeting they had to uh prepare that presentation to do a simulation activity and participate in interviews uh we did
today conduct our first round of interviews for I'm not going to say Mrs arman's replacement because if for those that are there is no replacing capital but um for the Ericson principal position we again had our committee um structure with uh teachers parents uh
support staff and administrators um we had 59 almost 60 applicants we invited 12 people for first round interviews today we'll be finishing those interviews after break to a second round and have a recommendation to the board in May for a
July 1 start can I just piggyback that the assistant principal we appointed was a former student of some of us that are pretty old at the table um so it's really Oh yes he
was um and I would also like to give a shout out that there were twice as many applicants to work in the middle school um so middle school very good always going to take off thank you so in time there will be no new
business or further president's remarks i'm going to open the floor to public participation of any type this is a second opportunity for public participation if anyone wishes to address the board please write your name and address on the signing sheet and state your name for the record statements are limited to 3 minutes and
should not be abusive obscene or defamatory in nature do you have anything