Calling to calling to order the uh board meeting for February 9, regular board meeting February 9, 2026. Uh, in accordance with public law 1975, chapter 231, otherwise known as the public meeting act, both adequate and
electronic notice of this meeting was provided to the public through the press of Atlantic City, the Galloway Township Municipal Building, and the district website. All notice is went out on January 8th, 2026. If I could have a roll call, please.
>> Mrs. Dr. Permener >> here. >> Miss Mrs. Avery, Mrs. Harmon >> here, >> Mrs. Hank, Mr. D >> here, >> Dr. Basher >> here, Mr. Gentiel >> here.
A forum having been established, we move now to the flag salute led by the uh student council president, Mr. Marma. The board is asking now for a moment of silence in memory of the Lloyd Patton who is head custodian at Reeds Road
Elementary School. Mr. Patton will be remembered as a dedicated and valued staff member of the Galloway Township public school community. Remarkably, his entire career with the district was spent at Reeds Road School,
uh Reeds Road Elementary School, beginning with the school's very inception. He left a lasting legacy of commitment and care for the school and its students and the staff. Moment of silence, please.
Thank you for taking the time to uh respect Mr. Patton's memory. The next item on the agenda agenda is uh previous minutes. So the first is the uh minutes for January 12th, 2026. If I could have a
motion and a second to approve those minutes. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any abstensions? >> I abstain. >> Any nays? The next item on the agenda is a letter
which I had sent to the community uh back last Sunday, previous Sunday, addressing the school fire at uh uh Arthur Ran School and Mr. Santelli will be uh delivering a presentation to detail the response that the district
made to that and also uh looking forward uh moving beyond that. But I just wanted to offer some comments. As we we all are well aware uh public schools right now are sort of a focal
point of various polarities within the culture politically. Also the public schools as you also will hear with regard to the budgetary presentation are also the focus of significant limitations on state funding.
All of those broader issues sort of make us lose focus on the fact that at the end of the day, our schools are community resources. And I think it's fair to say that our
community's response, our school community, our FSAs, our greater t uh greater Galloway Township community, our police, our fire volunteers, anybody and everybody who touched this
crisis to try and rehabilitate it and get us through it shows the genuine metal of the Galloway community and its dedication to our children. And I think that as we move forward, as we address the various polarities
that are presented to the board in time, we never lose sight of that. That this community is a community that is dedicated to its members and to its children. And on behalf of the board, I want to acknowledge that. I want to
express gratitude to the district staff, particularly by way of districta staff. Everybody did a phenomenal job, but Mr. Santelli, Mr. Nixon have been in constant contact with me with regard to the development of the plan. Uh, and that information was spread to the board
and again with regard to all of the individuals who were set forth in my February one letter. Uh, the board owes a debt of undying gratitude to your commitment to our district, to our kids, and to the community at large. So, on behalf of the board, I want to thank
everybody for that. The next item on the agenda are presentations. >> So, at this time, we'll start with our student council rep. So, uh Anthony, why don't you uh go ahead and give us your update. >> Good evening, everybody.
Um I am here to for the student council report for February. Um things we have already completed so far on the student council agenda. We have completed our Martin Luther King essay contests and we have three winners who have been recognized.
The studenting council has finished our Operation Empty Closets clothing drive. We were able to donate seven bags worth of uh clothes to the Atlanta County Rescue Mission. We've also just finished our Black History Month or actually continuing with our Black History Month
presentations. Uh we have presenters appearing on GMTV, our um morning announcement program to present slides for our month of February. Um they're all influential African-Americans in American history.
Um we are also going to be hosting our AfricanAmerican Black History Month Museum on February 23rd in the library. um students can come down and see and learn about um in more detail the people featured on our
uh morning announcements as well as others. Um select students will be presenting uh in person to our tour guests. As well as this, we will be working on two paper paper murals to hang on our seventh and eighth grade hallways. These will depict
people from our museum and others. And we are also currently selling Valentine's Day candygrams for students to send to their Valentine. With this, the GTMS student council is also hosting a Valentine's themed spirit week next week. And finally, our student
council cabinet will be volunteering at a local food bank food bank during our spring break this April. This concludes the student council report. an Anthony, I want to thank you very much for that. Uh I think it's important to
note that the uh bylaws passed by the board uh essentially indicate the need that the district has for a middle school uh student representative to the board of education. The stated reason for that is the board of education
recognizes that the experience gained by by and input from our students in the school district is a valued source for our the school boards improving the operation of the school district. So you are a valued member here tonight and I
hope you understand that and we really take to heart the insight that you guys have. And that being said, if you hear anything tonight that you would like to offer an insight about, if you think we're missing the boat on something, please chime in. Dr. Parenta will tell you when you can speak, and we very much
would like to hear your insights. Uh, in addition, I'm looking forward to I'm going to be attending your meeting this Wednesday at 2:30. And I look forward to seeing Thursday, February. Good. Well, I was going to go there on Wednesday to practice.
uh and I would have you know but I'm looking forward to seeing how you guys govern and I really am looking forward to getting some pointers on that because I'm sure it's uh a much more lively form than what we sometimes see here. So I'm very much looking forward to that. But I genuinely appreciate you doing the flag
salute. I appreciate your time and as I said if you have any insights whatsoever you would like to share with us tonight please let us know right away. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right. At this time, we're going to transition to the uh floor. We have a
few more presentations. Um so, we're going to go down uh to the mic. All right, at this time um if uh Mr. Bardis if you can join us up here and Landon and Price, where you at? Come on down here.
All right. So, I'm going to turn the mic over uh to our solicitor uh Miss Amy Halco. And ultimately, Cooper Lemonson puts on a competition every year. So, she's going to explain a little bit about this competition and um and how Landon got here.
>> So, I have to say I'm usually up there. It's really nice to be down here for a really exciting reason. So, every year our firm sponsors a holiday card contest. And we do that because we want to contribute to the community and to the arts. And one of the things we do as
part of our contest is we ask all of the districts in the state to submit entries for holiday cards. And we get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of entries. And out of those, this year we selected five cards to represent our firm. And
I'm so happy and excited to say one of those cards was from Landon. Your cards up there. And in every card, we have information about a program we do that is really near and dear to my heart as well as Galloway Township, which is the Let Us
Eat Foundation. And we donate a ton of meals in the summertime to families in Galloway Township. So, your card and the card that went out to everybody has that information on there and it helps really spread the awareness of how important that is. But I have to say, I looked at
this card and I see that you're in fourth grade. I don't believe you're in fourth grade doing this card. This is a beautiful card. So, for everybody that can't see up there, here's a beautiful p uh plaque for Landon. He gets to take it home and it says Landon Price, fourth
grade Galloway Township School District holiday card contest winner. So, here you go. Gonna give you this plaque. And we have a little gift for you as well. So, we have a $50 gift certificate for you. Yep. Um that we're going to
give you and then we have a $100 that goes to your teacher for art supplies. So, we just want to say thank you. Uh, we definitely can use the surprise and hopefully you can talk mom into using uh the $50 for something fun. But we just want to say thank you and
congratulations. All right. Next up, uh, Mr. Crew Maker, if you can join me down here. At this time, we're going to celebrate some GTMS essay contest winners, and Mr. Crewmaker will give a little background uh, to the competitions that the
students have uh, successfully participated in. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um the first uh awards or the first essay contest that we've been participating in
uh probably for over 15 years now was the Galloway Elks essay contest. Um we've been doing this like I said for probably about 15 years now as a GTMS school community and we the students
that we have compete against local schools as well. So, Abssekin, Port Republic, the charter school, they're not just competing against, you know, our own students as well. Um, we had three winners that placed in the
category from, uh, seventh and eighth grade. Uh, first was, uh, Trinity Kilroy, who's the vice president of student council. Uh, unfortunately, she's not able to attend tonight, but I did want to recognize her as being first place. the uh theme that she wrote to
for the Elks essay was what does service to your country mean to you? All three of the students that received the award did attend the Elks meeting that night and were recognized by the Elks which we very much appreciate and they appreciate
us participating as well. Uh so the first was Trinity. Uh second place was Adriana uh Theavvisac. She is unfortunately not able to attend. She was also a person
that uh placed first place in our ML uh Dr. Martin Luther King essay contest. And we also had a similar theme as the Elks this year. It was everybody can be great because everybody can serve. That
was our theme for the Martin Luther King essay contest. Um, we also have two others that had over overlapped. Basically, they participated in both the Elks and the Martin Luther King Jr.
essay contest. Uh, we have Aaliyah Chowry and we have Marose Ali, second and third place winners for Dr. Martin Luther King essay contest. Congratulations.
All right. At this time, we're going to turn the mic over to Mr. Ganji, who is going to uh be able to present our uh audit report at this time. >> Are you both done? Thank you. Um, thank you everyone. Um, am I loud
enough? You good? Uh, so I wanted to first thank the board for um having us come do the audit again this year. Um, everything went very well. Um Amy Nemeister, who's here in the second row, um she she ran the job this year and did
an excellent job and um administration um the business administrator and superintendent and those offices uh did um an excellent job in assisting to make sure it went smoothly and efficiently. Um that's always greatly appreciated. Um this year, I believe you received your
audit reports electronically. Um and in the elect that's very loud but in the um the reports will look like this. There's a 165page report and a 10-page report. So the the first one's the auditor's um the small one's the
auditor's management report and the big one is called the ACTER uh annual comprehensive financial report. Um in these reports uh I wanted to bring your attention to a few things. Um, I'll give you a few page numbers of some areas that you may want to look at. Uh, we're
not going to go into detail here tonight, but I just wanted to kind of go over certain areas of what's in them. U, what might be helpful to read or to review. So, uh, first of all, we completed the financial audit. Uh, we really do basically four separate audits
in each year. Um, we audit the the general financials. We audit the ASSA, which are student enrollment counts, uh, low-inccome counts. Uh we also audit the DRTS which is our transportation report. Um in addition to that we have to do single audits. Um a single audit can be
federal or state or both and it's whenever you spend in excess of $750,000 in either. So this year we had one federal single audit and four state single audits that we performed in addition to the regular financials. Um and in those single audits there the
state and federal government put um quite a few uh compliance requirements that we have to look at um as part of that since we have to report on that annually and we do that and we complete a data collection form um at the end of
the audit. Um so in addition um to completing those and everything was completed timely um getting into the act for the main report it's basically uh in four parts. There's an introductory section, financial section, required
supplementary information area section, and a single audit section. Um, and I'm just going to touch on a few items in each of those. Um, the introductory section has a letter from the superintendent and business administrator to the board. It also has organizational chart, roster of
officials, um, and just some generic, uh, information like that. Um, then we get into the financials. So, you'll have your auditor's report. Um, you have a clean opinion, unmodified opinion. Um, in there, following the audit report,
you'll have the management discussion and analysis, which is a two-year recap of certain financial information. And there's some tables in there. Um, and then following that, it gets into the net position of the district. So that's
really broken out to uh districtwide, which is your main governmental funds, and then it goes into business type activities. You guys have four business type activities, your food service, uh child care program, community education, and gifted and talented programs. So
kind of that's that's basically how the report gets separated. And then from there, it drills down into some different areas. Um, some of the areas I think that are important to highlight are the notes to the financial statements. This is really the main place in the report where it
gives explanations of what things mean. So, if you look at the balance sheet and you see a name, you don't know what it means. uh most times there's a description of that in the notes to the financial statements and then and those start on page 34 and there'll be other
descriptive u items in there and grids that support the main financials. So, your long-term liabilities, which is some pretty significant items, um like your pensions will be in there. Uh your other post-employment benefits, those
are some um significant items. Um pensions, uh or and OPAD, they'll be separate on uh your footnotes uh eight and nine, I believe. And then following that on page 66 is fund balance. Um I
think it's there's a description of each fund balance type and I think it's important to understand what they mean. Um especially when you go to do your budget. What is um you know maintenance reserve designated for subsequent expenditures. What do these terms mean? So that way when you look at your budget
and you're going over everything, you know what what they stand for and their uses. Also in the footnotes in the last page of it, page 69, there's a information on um Gazsby 101. It's a restatement footnote. Um, and this is a new
accounting pronouncement that was issued during or a few years ago, but became effective during your last fiscal year. Um, this footnote gives a little explanation of why it's there, what it is. Um, there's nothing wrong. It's just a change in accounting principle uh in
relation to accumulated uh or compensated absences or accumulated uh sick time. Um, so that that's also in the footnotes. Um following that and in the required supplementary information section are your budgetary schedules and
um this is you know when you prepare your general fund budget um last year's will be in there and then um that starts on page uh 82 or 71 and goes to page 82 and that's really where the majority of your operations flow through. Um and on
that page 82 you'll see a recap of your budgetary fund balance. Um the on page 105 uh is your capital projects fund. Um there's you have several capital
projects that were exist existed in last fiscal year. And then on page 115 and 116 are your enterprise funds, your business type activities and you'll see the operations of those funds on those pages. Um just a few other areas to mention on
page 123 start your statistical section. Um, this is the only section in the audit report that is basically multi-year. There's a 10-year recap of um, like certain financial items. So, you could see financial trends. Uh, it has information on debt even though you
have no bonds outstanding right now. Um, operating statistics, tax levies, ratables. Ratable is always an interesting item to look at if you're like me. You're probably not probably find it boring. Um, and then there's also information about enrollment, uh,
teacher student ratios, and other items that's, uh, can sometimes be interesting or helpful to look at when you're looking at a long-term, uh, trend. Um, and then the last section of the report is your single audit section. Uh, in here you have your full detail of all
your state and federal grants that were expended and also your audit finding section. you did not have any audit findings, but that is a section it would be in. So, you had no prior year findings, no current year findings. So, you don't you don't have to take any
corrective action tonight. Um, and then just in the small report, um, there's a some general information the state requires us to present regarding certain audit procedures, definitely not all a audit procedures. Um, and there's some
information on your um, enrollment counts and transportation. And then there's the excess surplus calculation is is also in that report if you wanted to see how that was determined. Um, and that's basically everything I wanted to kind of go over. Just a quick recap of where things are and what they
are. And I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> Thank you very much. Does any of the board members have any questions of the auditor? Right. Seeing none, I I just know from past years, the fact that there were no
findings and no corrective actions uh speaks very well of Miss Nixon uh and her staff. Uh and again, kudos to her for that. Uh and that's really the only note I have. So, no board members have any questions. >> That's it. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. All right. At this Oh, that's pretty loud. At this time, we're going to uh switch gears and I'm going to give a uh update for the Arthuran Elementary School. Um, one of the things I'm going to try to do is is capture um really the
start of this and take us through um the first few days, the first few hours into the first few days and then where we are now and kind of the plan moving forward. Um so I wanted to be able to give an update in regards to how this occurred uh give some background as to how
communications would take place uh when an incident like this should occur. Um but first and foremost you can see and I'm not going to read all this. The first few slides have a lot of information, but I wanted to be as transparent with all of you and also with with the board in terms of this process. Um, the fire alarm first and
foremost was of course dispatched. Um, and you can see when that occurred um around midnight on January 26, so already into the morning hours, um, notification was sent. One of the things that I had in my very first communication with Mr. Jen Teal, it was
it was you know evident and what I communicated with him was just this that everything that was supposed to happen actually happened right and and in our world when things like this occur uh while unforeseen and we can practice all day long for any type of event like this
when things like that do happen in a process that that we plan for those are all good things and the alarm went off obviously the fire alarm went off fire alarm company was notified and then al What that what ends up happening at that point, the fire alarm company reaches
out to our facilities manager, Mr. Rossetti. Mr. Rossetti at that point then reached out to me. Um and and let's face it, I mean, you think about the time. Um you know, I I sometimes might stay up late, but I was I was dead asleep when that phone call comes. So, took me a minute to really truly grasp,
as you can imagine, what was occurring. Um and I think I probably repeated to him numerous times like, "So, this is this isn't just an alarm. This is a real event. this is and and that was what he was confirming that from dispatch that there was an active fire at Arthur Ran
Elementary School. So immediately um we got dressed um we we went to the school uh I met him there um and and they were live on the scene. Uh at the same time when that that call from the alarm company went to Mr. Rossetti in the
community of course this was being noticed and dispatch was being contacted. So when I say things were happening the way the way they should, the response from our internal systems of course were working, but again that situational awareness that we would expect and anticipate for our school
community was also working because people weren't just being passive. They were making those calls into 911 dispatch that they're seeing smoke and things like that. So that's what I'm talking about. Everything working together. The first people on the scene u were were two Gowe Township police
officers. I had an opportunity to speak with them uh who I know um from a variety of events that that we partner with them on, but we had conversation around what they had witnessed when they first arrived. Um and you know, they they shared uh some of those things with uh both both myself and Mr. Rossetti.
And of course, we had a variety of different fire departments on the scene as mentioned here between Bayville, Bay View, Oceanville, and Pomona had all responded. There were other EMS there and so on. uh all actively um you know in the building doing what they do and
um taking care of this event. Um because of of their swift action and I think I had shared very early on in my communication truly that rapid response and that that swift action is what prevented this from spreading. Not just everything working the way it should but
also because of of their actions uh from the police arriving there to the fire departments and how how fast they responded. So um we are especially thankful for our um community resources uh as well. In addition to that, you
know, as this was taking place, we worked at that time that that evening with Chief Ule. Uh he he certainly was was communicating with myself and Mr. Rosetti throughout the event. Um it was a little while before we can go in, but of course once they had everything under
control, um he had said, you know, let's let's go in so we can, you know, show you exactly uh what had occurred. Uh as you can imagine with with any incident of this nature. um it wasn't just going to be the sustained fire damage that was in a particular classroom. And I'll show
you where that occurred on the map, but also because of of the fire department's response, water damage, and most notably smoke. Okay? And we're going to talk a little bit more about that because I know a lot of the conversation in the community and questions that come up, you know, have have been pretty simple
like we thought this was one room. And you're right, this was one room where this was contained to in terms of the fire. However, what we've learned very quickly, it's the smoke and at times water, but in this case, we got lucky with water. We did had limited water
damage, but it was the smoke that is really causing uh a lot of our delays in terms of being able to remediate the building. And I'll get into some of those details as well. What ends up happening is after it's deemed safe, they checked all the rooms. Uh the fire department turned the building back over
to myself and Mr. Rosetti. At that point, uh, he and I were already, you know, making calls. Uh, we have a joint insurance fund. He was already on the phone with the emergency dispatch number there, leaving, um, you know, a message in regards to what had occurred. Uh, I
think I had even, uh, attempted to call the board president, although, you know, at 1:30 in the morning. Obviously, that's something that, you know, is is not I'm not expecting Mr. Gentiel to to of course pick up the phone. But again, you know, communication's happening right in the moment. Uh we wanted them,
you know, the joint insurance fund to be waking up in the morning having a message about what occurred and and so we were trying to put things into place as quickly as possible um for all the right reasons. So that was all coming to closure. Buildings turned back over to
us. I don't know, it might have been around 3:30 in the morning or so. Um we we made sure the building was safe. Um and then from there, of course, you know, in the midst of all this, I I think I failed to mention we had just gotten a pretty significant snowstorm,
ice storm on top of all of this. So, a lot of things we were dealing with um and and the facilities department right from the get-go um has has been there and they've been spot on with supporting in a variety of different ways. From there, besides the joint insurance
fund, I mentioned a few others that we're working with. Of course, we have an adjuster um we're also partnering with the Hillman Consultants. Um they are industrial hygienists. Um and that is a big part in terms of the decision making of access to the building and
then also all risk. And then all these different groups are people that we are working with in order to assess, remediate and in the end even rebuild depending upon what needs to be rebuilt. Um especially within uh room 8.
Communication began immediately. Like I mentioned, I did make that contact with the board president. Um and then continued to update the next the next morning after a few hours of sleep. It was starting to get communications ready. Um, of course, you know, that that first I think phone call, I think when I after I grabbed a few hours, um,
I think my first conversation was with Mr. Bardis because he's now waking up to text messages about what had happened at Arthur Ran. So again, lots of communication taking place, conversations around really the truth and being transparent, uh, providing as
much information as we possibly could. Um, but that was going to the board of education, the entire district staff because this wasn't going to be a communication that I was going to send out to only the Arthur Ranch staff of course at that time and then of course the uh school community as a whole. Um,
two things I guess you know there were two days right off the bat if if you know I guess anything that played into an advantage here of the timing of this was the weather. Uh if you recall, because of that weather, we had emergency closings for snow districtwide
on that Monday and Tuesday. During that time, behind the scenes, our administrative team, amongst many others, were working behind the scenes to really start developing a plan right from the get-go. That was happening immediately. Talk a little bit about environmental
assessment. So I've I think in 25 years or so I've been in this field. I've I've done a lot of different things. I think I I look around I see a lot of my peers and colleagues and educators. I mean COVID we thought was like probably was up here
in terms of like things we had to handle. Um when people ask me about this experience so far at this point I think myself, Mrs. Nixon and many others probably can write a playbook. But there's a lot of things going into this that that I I wasn't ready for. And and
to be honest with you, this is one big piece of the environmental assessment. Air quality is what's driving all the decision- making. And that comes from Hillman Consulting. Going into this, I can tell you I thought to myself, fire
in one room, we're going to remediate. We're going to replace. We're going to be okay. I can I can find a spot for that staff member. It's going to be fine. Maybe that hallway we had a t there was a ton of smoke. Same thing. We're going to clean. We're going to get the companies in here that we need to
do. But really what drives all this decision making is Hillilman Consulting because they're putting together that playbook based off of air quality and they took air quality samples throughout the entire building. Okay. So, I'm going
to share with you what that map looks like in a minute in terms of air quality. So my initial thought went immediately from we're going to clean, we're going to be okay. Maybe this is going to be a few days to a few weeks to really understanding the depth and
breath behind the importance of air quality and what that means for the safety of our staff and students to be able to effectively get back into the building. Obviously we do have that remediation plan in place. Um there is currently
seven days a week every day including Sunday remediation taking place with a company like All Risk right now and they're going through and cleaning everything from floor to ceiling. Um I can tell you that one of the things with air quality that we've learned very quickly is a simple fact that if
something is porous it can't be cleaned. So, anything that is porous has to be replaced. Again, something that I haven't really I couldn't wrap my head around in those first couple of days until we really were having these conversations with the
adjuster, with All Risk, with Hillman to truly understand really the magnitude of of what this was going to turn into. Okay. So that's kind of where we are right now, continuing to work with those partners to focus on different areas within the
school in an effort to try to have a phased approach to being able to clean the Arthur Ran school. So potentially potentially through other air quality tests, we'd be able to possibly take control back of certain sections moving
forward. One of the things I did here was I wanted to give a quick blueprint of the school. Right up front, you can see where that symbol is. Room eight is where the fire occurred. So, as you can imagine, that night that
we were there, that whole front hallway, I can tell you, was just inundated with smoke. Okay. However, throughout all of our buildings, we have fire doors. Anytime the smoke alarm goes off, the fire doors close. That is there for a variety of
different reasons. One, to help stop a spread of fire, but also to help stop the spread of smoke. To give you an idea of how bad smoke can be, forget fire, forget
water. You see where the red line is at the top of the map? All that bottom part of the building about 90% of the building or more was deemed unfavorable in terms of air
quality testing. So I just want to explain that again. What drives the remediation and the deep cleaning that has to occur is air quality tests. And you can see the extent even through the fire doors
because there are fire doors all throughout. Even when those fire doors were closed, that smoke found its way back into different parts of the building and currently have to be remediated. There are only about six
classrooms or so in that back section that don't need that deep cleaning. And then of course the trailers that are outside are not connected to any HVAC systems or anything. They're standalone. So, of course, they're not impacted. But
I just wanted to be clear that this is a lot more than we have a fire in a classroom, we need to remediate, we need to rebuild. This has a lot to do with the air quality. And with air quality, they talk about within this within the smoke is obviously soot and ultimately
that's carbon. So, when those tests come back at a certain level, they're not deemed safe for anyone to be in that space. So with that, like I mentioned, immediately on that Monday, Tuesday, we were holding virtual meetings. Um
probably felt a little bit like it was during COVID with my administrative team, trying to put things into place. um trying to come up with plans, trying to game plan on where can we put 670
students, over a hundred staff, okay, one of the largest elementary buildings we have in the district. And where were we going to be able to place them? Because I work with an excellent team. Because trust me when I tell you that this doesn't this isn't the
superintendent doing all this. this this truly is a team coming together to brainstorm and say, you know what, I think we could fit this many kids in said building and so on and so forth. All the ideas were out on the table there. There wasn't anything that we we
didn't approach through the lens of that's a possibility. And you can see where we landed through my communications that went out. We had an opportunity to move our preschool and also Miss Haftto's uh class to Roland Rogers with use of some creative space.
We have kindergarten through third grade here in sections broken down. Uh so they're still within their teams here within the middle school. And then of course because we had the Pomona I call it the Pomona factor that we did not
have any students currently this year in Pomona we had an opportunity to utilize that space and we we chose grades four to six. Okay. And that's how we've been operating uh for the past week.
Transportation was another big piece to this puzzle trying to figure out how can we not disrupt our normal Arthur ran bus runs in an effort to keep all of our students together so again we're not disrupting something else in their lives
right now. So we had a process that we were going to put in place. All bus runs were not going to uh be touched. They were going to remain the same. And so GTMS being it was K to3 drops off first then they go over and drop off
preschool and then they go out to Pomona. One of the reasons why we chose to do that first of all here on campus it's a lot easier for buses to do a route here because GTMS is is here and then of course if you know Roland is is
not too far away on the same campus. Buses it's nice and easy to make right turns. So, in order to not fight traffic because there's already a lot of traffic certain times in the morning and afternoon, we had the buses come drop off here. They loop around, they can
make a right, they go to roll in, they drop off, they loop around, they make a right again, and then they head out to Pomona. Another reason for that is because the older students being grades four to six, we knew we'd be on the bus a little bit longer. So being that
they're a little bit older, our intention was to drop them off last. Okay. So a lot of planning, a lot of thought went into order of operations, working with integrity. I have to say have been unbelievable.
You know, bend bending over backwards for for our district and for our students. Uh Joe Duncan anytime right away the next day he was on the phone with me and and his for Steve anything you need. That's what he would tell me constantly, anything you need. And he's
like, "We'll figure it out." So again, it goes to that whole community partnership piece. Everybody's stepping up. The afternoon transportation shuttle works the opposite. So they pick up at Pomona first. Again, the students in grades four to six would be on the bus a
little bit longer. Then they go GTMS K to3. And then they go pick up at Rollin for preschool. again. After that, once they leave Roland, they are on their normal Arthur ran run and they're going home for the day. Okay.
Parent drop off and pickup. Of course, u maps were sent out to try to help alleviate uh you know, some of the drop off or pickup for those that that you know wanted to still continue to drive their their kids to school and or pick them up. We know that many families in
Arthuran may not be familiar of course with Roland or GTMS or even going out to Pimona. So we wanted to again try to provide a process and procedure that not only um provided them the details of the times but also maps that went along with
it. I I didn't include the maps here um but in that communication and everything that's online uh those maps are there and easily accessible for our parents. Um, and you can see we try to stagger the times again, realizing that, let's face it, there are going to be times
where you may get a family that chooses to drop off and they in essence could have three children in three different buildings. So, we wanted to, you know, be cognizant of that and be respectful and we didn't want them to feel like they had a rush, you know, and that's what we've been um, you know, trying to
manage with with staggering some of this as well. We also came up with an ID system. One of the things that, you know, we wanted to make sure because we're getting students off at three different schools off the bus. The very first day we
started, uh, my team at central office as well as many others started to put together what we call like luggage tags. And ultimately, we came up with three different colors for three different grade levels. Why? Again, for safety of our students. If we're taking
preschoolers off, we want to make sure we're only taking preschool off. So, they're going to be easily identified as having a bright pink luggage tag, right? And you can see how we we um had bright blue for K to three and then of course
yellow for four to six. Again, trying to think of all the different things, making sure that we weren't going to, you know, the number one thing we don't want to lose a student. We won't we don't want to not get a student off the bus at that location, right? Because oftent times the Arthur Rand staff is
there. But let's face it, GTMS staff has stepped up and they've been helping. Anybody that has availability, they're out there. They're helping. Same thing at Roland. They're out there. They're helping the Roland staff. We're all in this together. But they also aren't going to know every single child like an
Arthur Ran staff member would. So, because extra hands were going to be helping, we want to make sure we had that safety piece in place. The other big thing is trying to make sure that we had the level of consistency and services in place that we always had. So meals, we always as a
district provide free breakfast, but we also wanted to make sure we had lunch ready to go. So that didn't change. Teachers and home rooms, and that was the biggest thing. We weren't going to create new schedules. We weren't going to have students in different home rooms. We weren't going to be, you know,
combining. So all of a sudden, you know, you're used to, you know, let's say Mr. Santilly is your home room teacher all year and now you're going to have somebody else. We wanted to have consistency and and again, the team put their heads together on how to make that happen no matter what location they were
going to be in and they were able to pull that off as well to maintain those home rooms. Nursing services, another big piece. Um the Arthur ran nurse is actually housed at Pomona, but students of course have access if needed to the
GTMS nurses or at Roland to the Roland nurse. So a nurse in every building in addition to the things you don't think about until you're in the throws of a crisis. So in a nurse's office, a lot of our students receive medication
that is stored in the nurse's office. So we had to work with our vendor to a ask the question of how can we access that medicine because the nurse's office in Arthur ran was within that zone. So it wasn't necessarily safe to be able to
obtain that medication. But we worked with the industrial hygienist who gave us some recommendations, worked with the vendor to be able to clean the actual medication bottles. If you can see this in your head, they're cleaning and our staff is now receiving the medication
and taking it immediately out of the building. And then we're sending out and we sent and not everybody would have received this communication, but for those that had medication in a nurse's office, they received med they received communication to be able to come for different pickup
times to be able to then retrieve that medication. So again, another layer of trying to think of every single thing we possibly could to make sure that we were doing everything possible to support not just our students, but also our families because guess what? We know what it's
like if you have to go and get that medication for your child and that refill isn't ready yet. You're not going to get it because now it's in that nurse's office. So our vendor was very good about working with us to get that. And then of course student services, all the student services were already in
place. Um guidance continued, mental health uh staff, CST related services, none of that changed for any of our students. Child care. I know that ultimately during the first
week it was not something that we were able to pull off. And I'll be the first to admit it pained me to have to send out a message that says, "Oh, by the way, we're just not ready to start before care and after care." But what I
will say is this. Any decision I've ever made, it's going to is we're going to implement a plan that I know we're able to execute. And also, we're going to implement a plan that I know that our students are going to be safe. And what I can share is that we were not ready
for this in week one because if you could just put, you know, your minds around everything we just talked about, every piece of this puzzle, buses going to different locations, my biggest fear was that we were going to lose a student. So, I just needed time to wrap
my head around how could we do this in the most efficient and effective way and most importantly the safest way. And that's why it started today. So before care and afterare started today, preschool students are staying at
Roland. One of the things that we've learned over the years, and I've been doing this a little while, right, they've got little legs. They move slow, but in reality, we're better off keeping them in the child care system and beforeare
and afterare at Roland, right? It's we're better off doing that. But I also said I don't want families that have to go to three locations. And I followed the buses on the first day and it takes about 15 minutes if you don't hit any
traffic to go from Pomona back here. Probably closer to 20. So one of the things we did again was said we can gather up students in grades four through six that require child care and
then we hold them and I worked again with integrity and integrity says again Steve whatever you need and what do they do they worked it out so if you think of it it's like Disney the students who need child care hop on a shuttle so
integrity sends a bus back around they pick up any to the fourth through sixth graders and they bring them back here to GTMS. So here at GTMS for before care and afterare especially at the end of the day for afterare it's grades K through six here. Now what did that do
for our families? What it did was it got back in place before care and afterare but more importantly it allows for families not to have to trek out to Pomona. they just go right here on this campus between Roland school and here, especially if they have a student in
prek and a student that might be in grades K to6. Again, a lot of thought and planning went into this. Uh, and I wanted to thank everybody for their patience. I know it was inconvenient, um, especially having to juggle responsibilities at work, but I'm glad
that we got day day one under our belt. Uh today, frequently asked questions was another uh area I wanted to touch on. One of the things that we started this year prior to um this event was an online backpack
and every school has an online backpack and the district has an online backpack and you can find that online under the family dropdown and there's also that little quick avatar bullet you can click on. Ultimately, what it comes down to is
that all information that we've been putting out uh to our families about this event can be found on the Arthur Ran webpage and then if you click on the link for online backpack, that's where it's located. Every letter, every map, any piece of information, but more
importantly, the other thing that we realized was that parents had great questions and rightfully so. And trust me when I tell you, we couldn't keep up. So, I'm just being honest. We're building the plan and we're getting hit
with questions. So, what did we do? Let's crowdsource the questions. Let's not try to distract ourselves by having to go answer every single parent because they were great questions. We crowdsourced them and we created an FAQ
and then I sent out a communication to say, "Here are all the questions we've received so far and your answers to those questions." We did the same thing and we sent those FAQs to the staff and then we also did the same thing for our own staff who may
have had some more internal type of questions that we created FAQs for as well because in a in a situation like this and I I want to I want to be clear and I think this is a good point good time for me to point this out as you can
imagine the amount of work that goes into this in that short amount of time. The one thing, it wasn't us trying to be disrespectful and not answer a parent's question and at times maybe even a board member's question, but what it came down
to was that we were in the throws of building the plan with the number one goal of getting our students back into school. Because the one thing I do know is the state has the 180day requirement and whether we have a fire or not, they
are not sympathetic to the mandate of 180 days. So I've told the board years ago when I interviewed and they may or may those that that interviewed me may or may not remember this, but they asked a question about an emergency management situation and the question actually
asked how would I communicate with the board? When will I communicate with the board? And what I shared with them, I was pretty clear in the moment, every situation is different. But at the end of the day, students are going to come first and then the community and families because the information that
I'm putting out to them is also going to be shared with the board. So at times those questions like in the FAQ may not have been answered in the moment with an email, but we did have a process in place to be able to make sure that we were answering all the questions to be
able to make sure everybody's needs are being met. But in the moment all day long and depending upon the crisis, we're going to focus on what's in front of us. because for every time we have to stop and pivot, that's just one more minute, one more hour that we're not
able to actually get the work done that needs to be done to get the kids back in school. So, I just wanted everybody to understand that as well. Tonight on the board agenda, speaking of 180 days, tonight on the board agenda is the 2526
revised calendar. Now, I know this is a little bit hard to see, but I wanted to point that out, not just for the board, but for the public, that we had two snow days, and the two snow days are designated uh on the calendar. They are district-wide snow days for an emergency
closing. In addition to that, Arthur Rand had three additional days, okay, for closing. In some of my communications, I was very clear again, the students need to complete 180 days. So, ultimately, they're three days
behind all of the other students. So, I quickly put together a poll and a survey. We sent that out to our staff. We wanted to get some feedback. And this is where we landed. February 16th is President's Day.
February 16th, Arthur Ran students and staff will be in school for an early dismissal day, but that will count for one of your days. So now we're down to two more. The other thing that we got was feedback for April, and it's April
9th and 10th. That's spring break week, but it's the Thursday and Friday of spring break week. Again, there'll be early dismissal days, but it'll count for the other two days. So, our goal was to get the Arthur Ran
students caught back up. We had feedback from our staff and I really think it's in our best interest to make up these days now because the other choice was I could have tacked them on at the end of the year, but I think we all know how people are and our students might be and the staff might be at the end of the
year, right? It's already feels like it feels like it's the, you know, most Monday of Mondays, right? Sometimes. So at the end of the year, I don't know if there's going to be as much teaching and learning on those last say last three half days, especially when you know your
friends are already out of school. So I think this is probably the best move for us to be able to make up these three days now while we're in the throws of of the school year and it gets everyone caught back up and then everything gets pushed back. The other two days were
recaptured were March 16th. That was one snow day. And the other day that we recaptured was May 22nd, which we had on the calendar for emergency closing day. Anyway, so we recaptured those two. That was districtwide. This calendar will be
sent out. Uh the board has this they had it over the weekend to review. Um but ultimately, this will be sent out to all of our families communicating this change. So then that way we can um and it's going to look a little different. And we did our best to to put things on
here to designate um you know the Arthur Rand families and what they're going to be making up compared to everyone else. I probably can go on and on. Um and I hope I I didn't miss anyone. I can say that when I say Goway Township staff
districtwide, that truly means everyone. Um certificated, non-certificated, administrative team. I mean, I could have listed everybody out here, but in reality, it's been a a full fullcourt press with with everybody lending a So, I can go down this list and I, you know,
from the board of education to to Council on Public Works, I can tell you they've been reaching out even when we need to access Pomona, right? What do we talk about? Snow, ice, we didn't plow over there. And think about it, it froze. They got on the phone with me and
said, "Hey, we're going to send some trucks over. we're going to help you out. So, even those little tiny acts of kindness that we didn't even think about in the moment meant a lot to be able to keep things moving. You know, we're talking about police and fire. The DOE
office has been reaching out to myself and Mrs. Nixon. They're the people that we fall back on. Integrity Transportation, I had already mentioned, of course, the business office. Probably it's budget season, but it's it's been busy for you. Um, of course, our staff
in central office and I put on here, you know, other Galloway community partners who have also donated a variety of items. Um, and again, there's too many too many to mention. There really is. Um, from different Starbucks to Waw Was
to and and trust me, it truly is an outpouring of this community and it and it makes you super proud to be a part of it. of course our FSA who's been jumping through hoops and moving and shaking um to not only take care of our our students but also to take care of our
staff. This is a time that we really need to check in on one another because trust me when I tell you it's a lot. It's a lot. And people may not realize that and and and people will say to me, "You okay? Have you gotten some sleep?" I'm like, "I'm fine. I'm worrying about
teachers that aren't in their normal classrooms. I'm worried about our students who aren't in their normal buildings. Like I'm going to be okay and I know our students are resilient, but in reality the FSA has done an excellent job and helping to make sure that even our staff that we're checking in on them
as well. Um because ultimately this this is definitely a huge undertaking. And then of course facilities and maintenance tech team, food service, the true support staff behind the scenes. You know, Mr. valver running around to make sure everything is ready to go at
Pomona. Pomona had nothing in it. Nothing, right? Making sure that we had connectivity because grades four to six were going to be there. So, we scrambled to get whatever we could, whatever Chromebooks we can get our hands on, um,
we made sure we got over there. If we needed to grab a box light, we found a way to get it over there. Right. So all these teams coming together make sure that that we make uh made uh ends meet to pull this off. Um and again it just
goes without saying how grateful we are as a uh community. And then the one thing I I I continue to say and I I said it to our staff in in one of my communications, but you know, I truly got the sense immediately like everybody h everybody had to take a deep
breath. Like it truly is sometimes it's just one minute at a time. Just take one minute at a time. Sometimes it's one hour at a time and in some cases it's one day at a time. But that's truly where we were when we were in the throws of this. And I think we're at a a place
right now um that through the support um that we've seen in the community and and and and our parents uh and our staff, uh I think we're we're in a place now where we're grounded and now we're going to figure out the next steps. You know, there are there is going to be more to
follow, right? There's going to be things that are going to be communicated uh to some of our Arthur ran uh students, let's say in fifth and sixth grade when it comes time to say, "Hey, the the all-risk companies reaching out because they want to have a pickup of
student belongings that might be in lockers, right? Like that will be another process. But again, that's going to just be one one more thing, one more communication that'll come out. We'll have a plan for it and we'll make sure we execute that plan. Okay? And I hope
by now that you've seen within the past week or so that we're not going to put anything in place that we don't think we could execute with fidelity and especially making sure that our students and staff are safe. So with that being
said, that concludes the update. Do any members of the board have any questions for uh Mr. Santelli? >> No question. >> Okay. >> Um you know they say it takes a village and this really is a testament to that um the response and everything. And I
know we've said you know the resilience change even if temporary can be scary. Um but this community has just made me even more proud to be a part of it. So, thank you to everyone um that has contributed to this. Thank you.
>> I'd like to also say our staff is unbelievable in going through this entire bad process. They're all working together and students are coming first from our what our staff says, kids first. And I said thank you very much
all staff and from every step of the way. Thank you. >> Uh Mr. Centilia, first of all, I just want to thank you. You did an amaz It's amazing. Like I'm blown away how much you've done and how much everybody's done. I mean this was a lot of this is a
lot of work, but of course it's all worth it. Um as far as the remediation goes, do you have an idea how long that might take? You might have said that and I might have missed it. >> No. Um I I Miss Herman, I probably left that out intentionally because um one of
the things uh one of the things I've learned over the years is is this. >> I'm I'm certainly not going to ever I did not include timelines for a reason. Yeah. >> Um I'm not going to uh ultimately overpromise and underdel um because in
reality I'm at the mercy of an outside vendor, right? And this is a pretty extensive process. So when you can think about trying to uh think about a building and what what might be porous and not porous and what can be cleaned
and not clean and having to take that literally one room at a time. Um even our vendor uh because trust me I've asked the same question like all right when we get back in here right but they're they're very quick to tell me the same thing. we're not going to commit to a timeline, but they usually
will say right now. It's a little too early for them to commit to such a timeline, but we have made requests in terms of a phased approach of being able to um address certain remediation and rebuilds within the building to work our
way through the building strategically. >> Well, thank you for everything. >> Thank you. >> That's the important thing, Steve. Safety first for the kids and staff. They come first. Anybody else have any? No. Just uh again on behalf of the board, thank you to the
community. Thank you to the extraordinary work of the of the district. And and to echo Mr. Deaz's comments, it's very clear that every decision that was made had the paramount safety of the children at heart. And by having that safety at heart, we thereby
have the safety of the children and the greater community at heart. So, thank you to everyone in this extraordinary time. The next presentation will show how even further extraordinary the district staff has been because while all of this was going on, Miss Nixon,
Mr. Santilly, and our staff were expected to begin the most difficult process of the year, which is the creation of the budget. >> All right, Mrs. Nixon, you're up. I've been talking a lot.
Okay, thank you. Um, so tonight we're going to be in our preliminary budget presentation for you. Um, as Mr. Gentiel stated we're in um about the beginning slashmiddle phases of the budget process for 2627.
Um so far budget discussions to date have taken place um beginning in November uh through December and January and and continuing uh we had budget preparation meetings um January 14th and 15th. Uh at that time uh Mr. Santelli
and myself as well as human resources, directors, director of curriculum, director of student services and uh facilities and IT managers all met with all department and building administrators and reviewed all of the budget requests um submitted um that
were due to us by uh December 15th. The funds of the budget. So we've talked about this each year. Uh fund 10 is our general fund which is our operating fund um as the auditor um Mr. Dan Gangi reviewed um tonight. Fund 20 is our
special special revenue fund. That is our grants only. That is um our title one grants, our title two which are federal as well as our preschool pea funding which again this bucket can only be used for the intentions of the grant
um purpose. Fund 30s are capital projects such as um our recent HC projects. Um that is in fund 30 and only fund 30. And then we have our fund 40 which is debt service which is bonds and
as mentioned earlier during the audit we have no outstanding debt um at the district. Our 2627 budget considerations. So at this time um our state aid is to be released March 12th. Um that timeline
is a little bit it's a two-e delay from when it is normally released. That is um due to uh pending legislation that has not been signed yet. However, it is expected to be signed. Um anytime a new governor is elected, they are allowed to
delay their state budget address by two weeks. Um so doing so the state budget address would be March 10th and then state aid a it is released to us 48 hours later which is March 12th. Um at this time there's no indications from
Trenton on any new funding formulas. So um with that said we'll talk a little bit later at what that makes our timeline look like uh for budget submission. Uh revenue increases
continued is tax levy cap. So 2% is the amount that we can increase our budget, which is 2% of the tax levy. That amount listed is $764,273. Other allowances that allow you to go above the 2% cap as of right now are
listed. Um, two that may apply to us are the health care cost adjustment. That amount is to be determined. um that is based on what our health care cost increase is as well as what the state health care cost increase is and then
what once the budget is completed in the state budget software it calculates what that health care cost adjustment is allowed to be. So that is a number that we will have as we continue our budget process um prior to submission at the
March meeting. The other amount that we have available to us to use for 2627 budget is the cap banking amount which is $394,255. So that amount is fully available to us
to use this year along with the 2% listed above for fisc year expenditure increases. Um I basically put on here items that were are larger items that are increases
to the budget. So we have our salaries. Um our current year salaries are $ 38.5 million. Um our estimated increase of um negotiated contracts uh equals about 3.75 to 3.85%
or 1.44 million. Our benefits. Um, this is a big discussion item for our budget this year. This is a very, very high number. We currently have an amount of three
$13.3 million that we put out for healthc care cost benefits. Our estimated increase as of this past Friday is 27%. So, what does that equate to? That equates to $3.59 million. Um to put that
into perspective, the current year was 9% increase, which at the time of our budget process last year, we were worried about as well. And that was a big item in our budget that really drove the trajectory of our budget
preparations. So, as you can imagine, um getting a call that we're looking at 27% uh 3 almost 3.6 million is concerning right now. Um, our transportation costs equal about
$5.6 million in the current year. The CPI number of 3.58% is the amount that the state comes out with and tells um transportation contracts that you are allowed to renew
at that increase percentage. So, that increase percentage for us is approximately $200,000. Um if a vendor does not want to increase that CPI, they are allowed to uh not renew the contract and instead go out to
bid. Um thankfully this year I have confirmation that um they will not be going out to bid for a num our main routes. Um so that is a positive. However, the increase is still about $200,000. Um tuition and student services are line
items in the budget that also increase each year. So, as you can see on the left side right now without having state aid um even so estimating say a flat state aid you can see we can really only increase the budget over a million
dollars um at this time and yet our costs are over increase or over $5 million. So before we move to the next slide, I just typically will point out and again in March we'll point out again when you
take a look at revenues, I just want everybody to keep in mind as a school district, we don't have the ability to generate revenue, right? It's it's actually in in Mrs. Nixon's world, it would almost be like our auditors, it would almost be illegal for us to like
fund raise, for instance, for the district, right? we rely on um the tax levy and state funding and things like that in order to balance the budget. And when you take a look at the left side for revenues, which again we can't
generate, and then the right side with the expenditures, they're really off like very concerning. The last few years we've been concerned.
This probably by far has been one of the biggest differentials I've seen in at least a decade or more. And we're what was the the the healthc care benefits increase? What was that again? >> 9%.
>> 9% last year. 9% last year obviously equated to what? About a million dollars. >> Over a million. One. Yes. I don't do math in my head like you do, but about a million dollars. Now we're at 27%
and we're looking at 3.59. And our vendor has shared pretty clearly our use of health care, which everyone is entitled to and we have fair collective gu bar bargaining with all of our units for this. Our healthc care usage is actually in a
pretty good place. What has driven this not just here but in the state and even in the country if you've been following the news is the use of prescriptions and unfortunately that's what's driving this especially um the the G what is it
G >> GLP1 >> GLP1s the GLP1s is a big piece to that puzzle right so there's some bigger topics of conversation that have to happen that we can't control that unfortunately have to happen at the
state level and even the federal level to get these things back into really just realistic places because this is not realistic. We're not going to be able to function trying to find 3.5 million in our district. Just it's just it
doesn't equal right. Sorry to jump in, but I just had to point that out. >> Thank you. Other budget considerations, uh, federal grants, we are being told by the New Jersey Department of Ed to reduce and budget at a 75% or less of
the current year. Um, unexpected costs, uh, transportation bids. So, as I mentioned, uh, we do not anticipate a lot of transportation routes going out to bid. However, there will be some, um, individual routes that will go out to bid again, such as out of district or
McKenna Vento. out of district tuition. Um unanticipated facility needs, utilities, uh is another item that has really increased in what we're expected to budget and and as all of you as well at
home um are feeling. Insurance renewals uh besides health insurance, we have our um property and liability insurance, our workers comp insurance. Those are all things that have continued to increase each year. um and student needs such as nursing or related services.
Um some other things to point out for the 2526 state aid. Um if you were here with us during those presentations, you know that we had an increase in our equalization aid for the current budget year. um that was based on the state
budget and what they did last year for calculations to stabilize state aid um for equalization aid among among districts. So what they did was they enacted one time a three-year average of local property tax uh revenue as well as
income tax revenue. So, what that did for districts that used to see spikes in the taxable ratables in a community or the income in a community, by doing a three-year average, it helped um average
things out so that districts were able to have qualified for more equalization aid, which was a more realistic number. What they also did was they did limit. So, we were a district that qualified for an increase in aid, but we were
capped at 6%. And then districts that lost state aid were capped at not losing any more than 3%. Um, all of that is gone this year. So, we have no indication of whether that's something that would be considered again, but it all expired last year.
The 2627 state aid, again, currently unknown. We don't know if any of that would be considered again. um or would pass and be returned or if they're looking at new funding formula or anything of that nature at this time.
Uh enrollment trends. I just want to point out I have up here if you can see um our ASSA counts as of October 15th for 2024 uh which was 2,942 students on roll in district. uh for
October 15, 2025, we had 2,859 students on role in district. So the change is a it's uh a minimal change, but it's still 83 students. Um so if you
look if you look at the way funding the state has funded districts, I mean any reduction in aid um reduction in enrollment is a reduction in aid. So you think of it such as if you if they provide um say $15,000 per student even
if they remain flat funding for this year that would be 15,000 per student um less for 83 students. So those are things that we're watching as well. I will note that um there are some new housing developments that are currently
under construction in Galloway. Um, however, when when there's new construction, although it may create new students to increase the enrollment for the district, um, there is a delay in getting funded for those students. So,
because we are funded based off the ASSA count of October 15th, for example, if a housing development was finished and we received a 100 new students in May of 2026, then we don't have funding for them in
the current year. However, they would be on roll for October 15, 2026, and then we would have funding for them in the future 2728. But, that's where it's a delay. So, another example for that to explain would be if the housing
development was completed in November of 2026, they would not be on roll for the October 15th count. Therefore, you would have to wait two years for the funding to catch up for those students um that
are u attending the schools. >> Two other quick things. Um, in conversations with other districts, one of the things that we've seen an uptick of, uh, has been our McKenna Vento population. And I think that's just a sign of the times based off of what
we're seeing, uh, in the world. Um, and obviously, you know, you you've been to the grocery store, you know, you know what it costs when you're you're leaving there, right? This all adds up. And unfortunately, we're finding more and more of our families are in a in a situation in need uh, and they're
falling into the Mckin Vento status. in conversation. There's there's a actually a large very large um probably the largest uh prek to 12 district nearby that actually had called me and asked like hey what are your numbers? Believe it or not as a prek to 8 district
compared to this largest in Atlanta County district that's prek to 12 our mckin vento numbers are higher than that districts. So, I just want to give you a pulse of of what we're also experiencing. And that's that's some of those unanticipated costs because we
provide transportation. Um, and it really is to to have educational stability for those students. Um, so we support that, but again, it's something that's that's uh on that list for unexpected costs. Insurance. I want to bring up for a minute because I think there could be a question that maybe the
board may have. You may be thinking about it or even the public. You know, with the recent events that we just reported on with Arthur Ran, I know people may be thinking like, oh man, what's going to happen with our insurance? Is that going to be a problem? Do we have unexpected costs because of Arthur Ran? Um, ultimately
what it comes down to is we belong to the joint insurance fund. So that's what I had mentioned earlier. So this is this is insurance renewals just the normal renewal process. It's not going to be anything with, you know, what we're experiencing Arthur ran that would have like a negative effect right now because
of of our joint insurance fund. >> So, our budget timeline, um, as we already discussed what's been ongoing, um, Tuesday, March 10th is the governor's budget address. Thursday, March 12th is our anticipated state aid to be released. Monday, that following
Monday, March 16th, is our regular board meeting to vote on the preliminary budget. The budget is then due to the county office by Wednesday, March 19th. Um, historically, when the governor's budget address and state aid um have
been delayed two weeks, there has not been a delay in the due date of the budget. So, we are fully working and preparing for March um 16th vote and March 19th submission. And then Monday, May 4th would be a regular meeting as well as the final public budget hearing
vote to set and adopt the final budget. >> So we point this out every year, but I think Mr. Gentiel, you've also pointed it out in the past as well that in essence, I may be a superintendent and Mrs. Nixon may be a business
administrator, but in essence, when you think about the things we talked about, it's almost like CEO and CFO. And I don't know what company in the in New Jersey or even in this nation puts together a budget in reality two working
days or if you want to count the weekend four. But that's what they're charging us with. And those are things that we get extremely frustrated and I'm I'm not afraid to stand here and say that. But that has to change. It has to change in the state of New Jersey. I I can't tell
you how much more advocacy we need in Trenton for things like this to change. Not just the fact that we don't have a funding formula that we can sit here right now and say this is what we would anticipate based off of our October 15th count that still doesn't exist. And yet
we're going to turn around a budget in two working days or four by working all weekend. And the administrative team already knows what this means, right? they they're already looking at the expenditure side and they already know and trust me when I tell you those are the big ticket items when they came to
budget meetings they were flat there was no increase in any supplies across the board they already know that it was a zerobased budget so there is ultimately when you think about those those other areas there's nowhere else to cut when
you think about supplies so we're going to have our work cut out for us this year for sure but I just wanted Wanted to point that out because I would be remissed if I didn't. That concludes our presentation. >> Do any members of the board have questions for uh Mr. Santelli or Miss
Nixon? Yes, >> Joy. Um my question is, can a school district exceed the 2% cap if there's like an extraordinary increase in health insurance? Can you explain that real quick? >> Yes. So that is the healthc care cost
adjustment that's to be determined. Um so they once once I have all the budget amounts in the budget software and they run their updates they will do a calculation and tell me what amount qualifies as a healthc care cost
adjustment based on what the state health benefits are increasing as which is not any different. And then based on what our cost increase as >> you anyone else. >> Thank you very much. And and again let's
remember the budget is supposed to be put together in four days while the administration and the district keeps working on the implementation of the Arthur Rand plan. So this is nothing less than a herculean task that our district is uh is undertaking. Thank you
again for that presentation. The next substantive section of the um of our agenda are uh uh public comments for items that are technically on the board agenda tonight. The reason that we divide up public content is the board would like to hear
from members of the public with regard to those things that the board is voting on this evening. Uh general public comment will be later in the agenda. With regard to public comment on agenda items only, the board values and welcome welcomes comments and opinions from
residents. This meeting will now be open to public comments. Three minutes per person on agenda items only. Public comments on non-aggenda items will be available at the end of the meeting. As I said, if your questions pertain to litigation, student or personnel matters, please see the superintendent
after the meeting as the board is procluded from discussing these matters in public. Depending upon the nature and complexity of your questions, the board secretary may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response. As a reminder, this is a public meeting. All comment
should be appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner. Uh if anybody has any public comment, please come to the podium, state your full name and address and sign in. Is there any public comment on agenda items only? Seeing none, we'll move on to the
superintendent's report. Thank you. >> So at this time, we have our attorney's report with uh Miss Halo. >> Good evening everyone. Since the last time we've met, I've had a chance to work on some student matters, personnel matters, contract matters, and um
matters related to the fire. The other items uh item 6.2 for student enrollment report out of district suspension report and harassment intimid harassment intimidation and bullying reports areformational items only and don't need a vote. Uh it was also
brought to my attention for a quick update. I know one of our board members had inquired uh where we stood with a particular policy. Um, it should be noted we did not have a policy meeting uh this month with our transition and then everything happening with Arthur
Ran. Um, but I wanted to give a quick update um based off the question um policy 2535 for library material. Um, it was uh board approved and had a second reading in December. Uh, at that time that policy was uploaded into board docs
as part of our uh policy catalog. In addition to that, a section of that um library materials uh was also placed in our family handbook um because it would become part of that update every year for our families as well. Um and then
we've worked on our internal processes should uh in this particular case uh should either a student, a a staff member or a uh parent uh have a question about a particular book from one of our libraries, we have our internal
processes also in place in an effort to be able to adhere um to the policy that we also currently are abiding by. So I just wanted to give that brief update. Okay, thank you. Moving on to uh
curriculum and instruction. >> So, at this time, we're looking to approve item 7.1 as listed and attached. >> I have a motion and a second on item 7.1. >> So, move. >> All in favor? I'm sorry.
>> Dr. Parmener. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> Mrs. Hermanau, >> yes. Mr. Dace, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. >> Finance and Facilities.
>> Okay. Yes, we had a a meeting tonight at 5:00 before our regular meeting. We went over to facilities projects and everything that are going on up and Joy updated us and our auditor was also in meeting and he gave a very good report
as for our business office. Apparently Julie is doing a real good job. I was going to say a fairly good job but she's doing a real good job according to our auditor. Other than that uh nothing else to really discuss other than like I said repeat myself. We had updates on our
facilities and that's it. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Davis? >> Okay, >> thank you. Items 8.2 and 8.3 uh related to uh reopening of Pomona School temporarily as well as the emergency
relocation of Arthuran Elementary School students and staff are up for your approval. >> And I have a motion and a second on um items 8.2 and 8.3. So moved. >> Second.
>> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanau, >> yes. >> Mr. Dase, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. >> Thank you. Items 8.5 through 8.20 are up
for your approval. >> I have a motion and second for items 8.5 through 8.2. 20 inclusive. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Hermanel, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. Moving on to personnel, please. >> So, first we have some retirements. Uh for 9.1, it's a resolution to accept with regret the letter of intent to
retire from the following Goway Township public school staff members. The first uh would be Lisa Clark, Smithville teacher, 35 years in the district, and Susan Lincoln, Smithville part-time food service worker with 26 years in the
district. We wish them the best. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second on item 9.1, please? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Dr. Permentor. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Avery.
>> Yes. >> Mrs. Hermanau. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dace. >> Yes. >> Vice President Basher Blouse. >> Yes. >> And President Gentiel? >> Yes. >> At this time, we're looking to move items 9.3 through 9.9 as listed and attached.
I have a motion and second for those items, please. >> So move. >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanau, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace,
>> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. >> I do not believe there are any new hires tonight. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to old business, please. So, under old business, we're looking to approve items 10.1 through 10.2.
>> I have a motion to approve 10.1 and 10. >> So, move call, please. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanau, >> yes. >> Mr. D, >> yes. >> Vice President Berlau,
>> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. >> Moving on to new business. So, under new business, we have item 11.1 to authorize the board president to communicate with the township and also 11.2,
which is the approval of our 2627 calendar. And I just wanted to point out to our staff and public that we will not be sending that out via email. Uh, it will be posted on the website, but we won't be sending it out via email till after President's Day as we don't want
to add confusion to the revised 2526 calendar. So, I just wanted to point that out. Can I have a motion to approve items 11.1 and 11.2? >> So move. >> I have a roll call, please.
>> I'm sorry. Is there any discussion? I apologize. Any discussion? >> Uh just on 11.1. That actually is something I'm asking the board to authorize. uh in looking at uh the budget coming up and looking at the possibility of some shared services uh
one of the things I would like to reach out to the municipality about is seeing if we can receive some assistance with regard to the SRO's uh and in that conversation I'm hopeful that we can perhaps have conversations with regard to other shared services in light of the uh the budgetary constraints that we're
operating under. So that is the basis of that. Thank you. Can I have a roll call? >> Dr. Pertor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanale, >> yes. >> Mr. D, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes.
>> And President Gentiel, >> yes. >> So item 12.1 is the board calendar is attached and item 12.2 are some special events. Just want to point out a few. We do have a uh drama club production coming up with Winnie Deoo and the
Really Big Machine. Uh here at GTMS there are three performances and one of them is a matinea. So we certainly encourage our public and our board to uh come out to that event. We have a few others coming up. A steam night at Roland Rogers. We do have our March
Madness community basketball game. Um that uh location is actually at Absagami High School. Um just so everyone is aware. Um, and then there are a couple multicultural nights and our big event with the Education Foundation people of the year year and retirement dinner on
May 1st. Moving on to public comment. The board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents. This meeting will now be open to public comment, three minutes per person. If your question pertains to litigation, student or personnel matters, please see the
superintendent after the meeting. As the board does not discuss these matters in public, depending on the nature and complexity of your questions, the board secretary may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response. As a reminder, this is a public meeting and all comments should be appropriate for a
public setting and made in a respectful manner. Please come to the podium, state your full name and address. Please state it loudly so we can hear you and your comments and uh make sure you sign in. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh Camber Artistis, principal at Arthur Ran Elementary School. Um I'm not going to
rehash or go into detail. Uh as Mr. Santelli uh very eloquently went through the process that we went through. Uh I'm simply standing here tonight uh filled with an overwhelming uh sense of pride. pride in this district, pride in this community, pride in the people I'm so
fortunate to work alongside every day. I'm going to apologize now uh because I don't know if three minutes is simply uh not enough time to express my gratitude uh that is owed, but I'm simply here tonight to say thank you. First, thank you to this board of education for your
unwavering support, your trust, and your commitment to ensuring that the students and staff of Arthur Ran were able to return to learning quickly and as safely as possible under incredibly difficult circumstances. Thank you to Mr. Thomas and the entire
food service team. Poor Mr. Thomas uh literally started I think a day before this all happened and was thrown into this. But thank you uh for them for never losing sight of what matter most, our children. Uh for many of our students, breakfast and lunch here at
school are not just optional, they're essential. They adapted immediately, ensuring that there were no delays and that every child continue to receive a nutritious, well- balanced meal no matter which building they walked into each morning. Thank you. Thank you to
Mr. Valver and the technology team, thank you for for responding with urgency and heart. In a world where learning is so deeply tied to technology, you ensured continuity where it mattered most. They scrambled, they adapted, they made the impossible
happen, mainly getting Pomona fully operational, phones, systems, connectivity in mere hours. Thank you. Thank you to Mr. Rosetti and the entire facilities and custodial team. There are simply not enough words. They
worked endlessly, quietly, and without hesitation. They transported materials from building to building so our students and staff would not go without. They hold what must have been thousands of pounds of furniture, technology, refrigerators, essentials. Somehow, in a
matter of hours, they transformed empty spaces or spaces not designed for our youngest learners to places where children could once again feel safe, comfortable, and ready to learn. what they accomplished was nothing short of extraordinary. To the entire administrative team that I
get to work with, I'm still trying to comprehend how they did what they did. You met complex needs of our special ed students, supported our preschool families, built schedules, rebuilt schedules, gathered supplies, prepared curriculum materials, and handled a
million other details. All while still leading your your own schools and departments. Your dedication, collaboration, professionalism were truly remarkable. Thank you to Mr. McGloin, Miss Junker, and the staffs at
Roland and GTMS. You didn't hesitate. You opened your doors. You opened your hearts. You welcomed us into your classrooms, your cafeterias, and your hallways. Never complained. Instead, you smiled. You created welcome packages. You organized art activities for our
children. You went out of your way to help our students and staff feel like they belonged. Your compassion and generosity are something we will never forget. Thank you to Miss Nixon and Mr. Santilli. As one of my colleagues said it best, you delivered a masterclass in
leadership and what it truly means to superintend. The amount of behind-the-scenes work you took on coordinating with outside vendors, the county, state departments of education, and so many other moving pieces was immense. Yet you led with calm,
compassion, organization, and decisiveness while remaining flexible when it mattered most. In a matter of days, we transitioned 670 students, more than 110 staff members. This doesn't happen. This only happened because of your vision, your planning, and your
steady leadership. Thank you to our Arthur Raman parents, guardians, the entire Galloway community, Miss Stenson and her incredible FSA team. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for your patience, your grace, and your flexibility as we work to build the
safest, safest, and most effective plan possible. Our community rallied together in ways that was truly inspiring, supporting one another regardless of where their own children attended or attend. and our FSA. Wow. They poured their hearts into decorating the halls
of Pomona, GTMS, and Roland. Bringing pieces of pieces of Arthur Rain into our temporary homes. They organized supply drives, filled gaps that we didn't even know existed. The selflessness they showed shown by this community will stay with us forever. And finally, to the people I have the
absolute honor and privilege of working with every single day, the staff of Arthur Ran. You were displaced. You lost access to everything familiar. Your routines, your classrooms, your materials gone in an instant. Your professional lives were turned upside down. And yet, not once did you
complain. Not once did you panic. Not once did you quit quit on our children. Instead, you showed up. You adapted. You spent countless hours away from your own families planning, decorating, and preparing so that when our students returned, they would feel comfort, stability, and love. You reminded all of
us of why this is more than a job. This is truly a calling. I am in all of you. Thank you. And thank you for allowing me to address the board tonight. And before Thank you. Before you leave the podium, I just want to say as the principal, I know that you
were an intricral part of that and your leadership was incredibly important to this working. So, thank you as well. Hi, how are you? Uh, my name is Jenna Smith and I am the very proud president of our Galloway Township Education Association. Like everybody else
tonight, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their support over the past two weeks. But I also wanted to take a little bit more time to brag on our staff and recognize all the acts of hard work and kindness that we've witnessed over the last two weeks. After the fire, we saw disruption,
uncertainty, and loss. But what we also saw was the very best of our people. I watched teachers, classroom assistants, support staff, our FSA and administration walk into unfamiliar spaces with very little and in a matter of hours rebuild welcoming learning
spaces for our kids. They recognized that students would be walking through our doors soon and they deserve to feel safe and comfortable. Many of these people had just lost decades of carefully collected materials, supplies they had purchased with their own money, pieces of their
professional lives that can't be replaced. And still, they showed up and carried boxes and shared resources and supported one another. They did whatever needed to be done, not for recognition, but for the kids of Galloway Township. I
also saw our staff from across the district step in without hesitation. They donated supplies. They gave up their time. They gave up their own classrooms. And still, they keep asking one question over and over again. What else do we need? Our staff are steady in
moments of crisis. They are compassionate in moments of loss, and they are unwavering in their commitment to the children and the families they serve. It was a powerful reminder that schools are not just buildings. They're people. And the people in this district
are simply awesome. I've never been prouder to be an educator and I have never been prouder to be part of Galloway Township. We really are the luckiest. So, thank you. Is there any other public comment? Seeing none, uh we'll move on to the
next section of the agenda, which is uh what's called under Robert's rules for the good of the order. So, I'm going to open I'm going to basilally canvas each uh board member, see if they have anything that they want to comment upon. I'll start with Mr. D. >> Not really. I think all has been said
about how wonderful our staff is and let's pray the best for Arthur Ran. >> Mr. >> Yeah, I just want to add, wow, what a what a great night and to see everybody come together like that and everything you've done. I mean, you guys are amazing and the kids, you know, and Mr.
Cintelli, I'm really really so impressed with you. enjoy. I mean, you guys are doing a great job and I'm just really thankful for you. And I do and I just wanted to add to there was one other thing I wanted to ask you. Um, it's not even really important. Thank you for everything.
>> Dr. Portman, >> I'd like to echo what everyone said about um the master class, but I also want to add this. Um, I think we witness educational leadership at its finest. And people when they think of educational leadership, they always think of the superintendent and the
principles, but it's more than that. You have teacher leaders, you have um um classroom aid teachers, you have all types of support staff leaders. So, this was really nice to see how well it came together. But also, Mrs. Cintilli, I do have to give you the major amount of
credit because you're the one who coraled everyone together and taking the input and giving out the output. So, thank you everyone. Mrs. Aver, >> I think it's all been said. Um, I do want to thank uh Mr. Marma for joining
us as well. Um, hope you've got to witness everything that we do here. Uh, so thank you for joining us this evening and again just thank you to all. >> Anthony, do you have anything to add? >> No, thank you.
Uh the one thing I'd like to to add to Mr. Santill's presentation was he said that everybody responded the way they were supposed to. And I think Mr. Santilly especially needs to be acknowledged for that. Every time I
communicated with him, he was about seven steps out of where he needed to be with regard to the issues that were being addressed. uh and his transparency to the parents, his transparency to the staff, his transparency to the board on top of all of the other stuff that he
was doing uh was extraordinary. So, thank you very much on behalf of the board, on behalf of the district, most importantly on behalf of the children. Uh I can't say enough about the leadership in the district. Uh as Dr. Pariner said, from uh from the aids to the teachers to everybody else who
touched any portion of this, everybody stepped up. It tested it tested the metal of this community. It tested the metal of this district and our staff was was way be was up to the task and beyond.
Moving on to the other issue for the good of the order. Uh there's two things I would like to do with this board. One, I would like to begin to pair board members with schools. So, I'm going to send out an email, but the idea would be that I would like each board member or
two board members to assume essentially a pairing with a school so that we can make sure that we have board members at every uh everything that goes on at each school. Uh I am going to ask that uh folks give me the name of a couple of schools they'd like to be paired with
and that will go out. The second thing I'm going to ask the board to offer me is some ideas. This now is I think my seventh or eighth year sitting through a budgetary presentation and each year it gets worse. Each year the state seems in
my mind to act more and more irresponsibly towards the funding. They create statutory schemes which are financially not sustainable. They then fail to finance them fully. They then expect the cost of that to be borne by
the tax taxpayers. And I I recall last year when the state offered us an opportunity to raise property taxes in this municipality by I think it was $7 million. $7 million. They authorized us to tax the the property holders of
property owners in Galloway Township. And we of course turn that down. But if that is how the state is treating the homeowners in this state because of their own fiscal irresponsibility in educating our children, which is a
constitutional responsibility imposed upon the state, clearly the levels of advocacy built in here, the lobbyists, the groups, uh the legislators are not roped into the reality. And school boards have very
limited statutory authority, but school boards have constituencies. And our constituencies are the people in this township. And I believe that it is time for this school board and other school boards to begin to advocate vigorously
on this issue. Uh, I have ideas, but I very much I'm going to send out an email and I'm going to ask if each board member could give me some ideas on how we can actually begin to take this advocacy uh to our legislators and to Trenton. I mean, think think about what
Miss Nixon said tonight. There is some obscure regulation that precludes the district from getting paid for to teach a kid for two years because of the date he happens to enroll. I mean regulations are not supposed to be arbitrary and
capriccious and that is the very definition of arbitrariness and capricciousness. So we need to begin to deal with the facts that the regulatory schemes are outdated, the statutory schemes are outdated and that those people who are elected by us either every two years or
every four years are not responding to these needs. And it is up to we the people, it is up to our constituents to become informed and to respond. And I think it is upon us, incumbent upon us to begin to think of ideas by which to
do that. I'm open to ideas now. I'm going to bring this back up next month's meeting, but I really don't want to wait till next month. So folks can email me advocacy ideas. I'm all ears on that. So thank you, >> Jim. If I can say one thing. >> Sure. I've been saying for many many
years, state mandate, state pay, federal mandate, federal pay, and it falls on deaf ears in Trenton and Washington. And I wish people would unite and say, "Hey, that's our future. We can't pay for it
out of our own pocket. We need help. If the state says you must do something and teach the kids, let them help us pay for it." and and part of the reason most of it part of the reason it falls on deaf ears is because school boards aren't advocating vigorously to those people
with whom we should advocate. So I I would really like to move us uh into that area. Anybody have anything else for the good of the order? No. I want to thank again all of the board members for their attention tonight. I can't thank everybody in the district enough enough
for for everything that was touched upon in this meeting. Uh do we need executive session tonight? I don't think so. >> No, I don't either. Okay. All right. So, there being no executive session, can I have a motion to adjurnn?
>> Second. Can I have a second, please? >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? No. Thank you everybody. Thank you for the members of the public.