this meeting in El Mrs here Dr here here Mrs ay Mr D here Mr jeld here Mrs har here
here and Mrs here can we allice to approve second all in favor I is there any exensions Iain okay any other oppositions okay moving on to reading of communications
please so attached uh we have a letter of appreciation from Cooper levenson attorney at law that was for a donation uh first and foremost thanks to our generous staff often times as I mentioned before we do dress down days as a the district and we look at
supporting different causes um this particular cause supports let us eat please U which is an opportunity for the local food bank through the support of Cooper levenson as well as other initiatives to be able to provide summer meals uh to those in need here in gwe
Township uh so again thank you very much but this letter of appreciation is uh you know for that particular donation uh from our staff thank you moving on to presentations please so tonight the first uh presentation and
and we're going to start off uh with a bang here gtms drama club is going to give us a sneak peek of their upcoming performance of honk Jr so I'm going to turn the floor over Dr come on
[Applause] down e [Applause] the gtms drama club is Pres the musical hon Jun this week on Thursday Friday and Saturday honk junor is the musical version of The Ugly Duck Story which
illustrates that you should never judge a book by its cover everyone has word and everyone will find their place in this world in the musical number you will see tonight look at him ugly the ducklin that does not fit in is being ridiculed by his siblings his father and
the entire community of farm yard F except his mother who believes in him and the cat me who desires to make a meal out of ugly here with the musical number look at him is the gtms drama [Music]
[Applause] [Music] CL at one of us [Music] you all of you must
along a special son come along all of you now follow me but stay close to me at all times or you may get trotted on and Beware of the [Music]
cat look at him [Music] like the neighbors screaming they see [Music] our why are you
[Applause] rude you at me it [Music] matter you your why
fish because you SC [Music] them now that's what I call snack look at a du but there's look at him cat food that I ever better still he won be missed they think
he's a May assist [Music] the she
was and [Music] now don't turn your toes in just bow your head lightly and [Music]
say my son and I love him you see what you done to this duckyard would be so boring if we all the same
[Music] a look at him look at me look at you you anywhere be [Music] this Lord [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] first of all let's give them another big round of appuse also selfo who wants to talk about the because so anybody want to take and talk about the show we got to get some viewers out
here come on Danny come on hi come to the show please it's this Thursday Friday and Saturday Friday at Saturday atth here on
um yeah please please way to put him on the spot good job all right so that basket behind you little little something I I need help because there's a lot of you so everybody gets one absolutely if you can help us hand out a little snack this is
from the Board of Education as a special thanks for coming out tonight make sure you check them out as you can see music in our school's month very important this week Thursday Friday and Saturday thank you all very much
hello I'll say too uh thank you to the administration and the board of education for supporting what we do here and um next week we go on tour to all of the elementary schools and the preschools taking part of our show there so thank you for supporting
that oh and we're stopping at Ridgewood R Assisted Living we're stopping there to perform too so thank you for the support stff absolutely than thank you and Mr Santelli before you start that while you're setting up I just
wanted to take a moment to thank those involved with the District Band Festival special thanks to abami and Mr AEF for their band coming over administrators from every building were at the band Festival they were doing ticket sales handing out programs coordinating the
kids it was absolutely fantastic our kids are amazing as you can see um and also a special thank you to GTA for providing all the t-shirts to the staff and students they looked wonderful it was a really really good night and I just wanted to say thank you
from the Board of Education thank you Mr santell whenever you're ready Steve I don't think your mic is on testing I think we're back no back up all right so we're going to start with some uh additional recognitions uh as we mentioned March
music in our schools month so opportunity for us to celebrate all of our uh fine and Performing Arts students so we're going to start first as I introduce Mr little um from Roland Rogers we're going to kick it off with the all South Jersey elementary honors
chorus students so with no further Ado thank you Mr Santilli so um this event actually happened earlier this month on March 1st um some of our students in the chus at Roland Rogers uh were selected and they actually auditioned in house first and then they
were selected to participate with about little bit under 200 kids around the area um of South Jersey region uh this happened at uh Washington Township High School uh so it was an all day event uh parents thank you so much for taking them and bringing them there uh to have
this awesome experience uh they rehearsed with a guest conductor a teacher from um West ORD middle school and um also got toet meet via Zoom one of the composers of one of the pieces which was pretty cool um so they
performed a fantastic concert um to a soldout crowd uh if you've ever been to that um Auditorium it's very big about gamy size a little bit bigger um so very very good so we're going to started off with the first recognition being Miranda Buchanan when you hear your name come on
down Bryce Miller there you go and stay over here with us Stella martiz Benjamin Shanker and Benjamin Shanker and senu Yan's yours and Stella here's
yours e check check check all right um we're going to go on to our Arthur Rand um Elementary honors band students um this event is happening at the beginning of May I believe it's
May 3rd this year on a Saturday um the students are nominated by their directors um for many participating schools and once again they similarly go and participate with multitude of other members from around the South Jersey region uh with the band they actually also do about four I think they're doing
four different Elementary School bands this year all in like the same concert one after another it's a pretty pretty Marathon kind of day for them um so our first uh member from Arthur ran Parker de Caesar uh Eric forby Jr
Carrington heck Elana ntile oh over here and sahil sha and Jason Yaro yaron sorry and ishra
Zaman parents you can come down here too if you'd like and take pictures you can come right in front all right you get one more to listen to me talk during uh back at Roland Rogers Elementary for our all South Jersey honors band members now um and before I
go on here just similarly as Mr coner said we really appreciate all the assistance and support the board and Mr sanelli and our principles and of course you parents and community members who come out to our events and make sure our kids practice at home and all that good stuff thank you so much uh so our first
member from Roland Rogers for band is Vanessa class Maya goola Leila flarity and we we yeah we bat a zero okay thank you Mr thank you thank you very much and uh for the students that aren't here we're going to make sure
that they certainly get their certificates as well um next up we are going to uh move on to Reeds Road school um so Dr Gross and is Mr sutis here why don't you come on down and help
me present these Awards the Reeds Road South Jersey band students first one up Quinton Bennett next one Erica res morowski Luke zampa Alexa Grace Quinn outon and Emma Steelman
good job you get to stand by yourself superintend thank you Dr Gross Smithville School Miss drega and I believe Mr razi is here if you both want
to come down and join forces we're to be uh giving out Elementary honors all right first of all I want to say congrat congratulations to all my kids who got accepted this year it's an awesome opportunity all right we'll start with Selma and Sari Jackson Reagan buer
Graham Chase Hammond congratulations and Preston Hammond and last but not least gtms Mr shugurz and Mrs junker why don't you come on down and join us so uh for the junior high uh honors
band auditions these students have to um audition again uh for limited spots so it is a it's a great honor that these students were able to make it first off is Ava abrabo next we have Nico class next we have AJ res morowski
next we have Michael Mia Joey new tile and Alex Simmons J to pass around some of the remaining cookies here nothing like spoiling dinner if you haven't already had it so again congratulations to all all of our
recipients especially during this month with uh music in our schools month so great honor great achievement and thank you to our parents as well at this time we're going to get ready to transition um if we can move on to our student rep report that would be that would be great
yep and we have a student representative here this evening from gtms amaza how how do you say your name we can say amoa AA amwa AI okay do you have a report for us this evening you are our student council
president for at the gtms middle school so starting January the student council had our Mar Martin Luther King essay contest and we had our winners um Sophia Tor Blanco Trinity Kilroy and me Isa and the contest focused on writing
about Mark Luther King's quotes and his lifestyle and beliefs each student council member also created a Black History Month slideshow that was made to be displayed on gmtv for every day of February which is Black History Month moving on to February the student
council participated in the Black History Month Museum which is a day full of learning for all the gtms community about the north side of Atlantic City and Black History Month in the early to mid 1900s in New Jersey the student council also put
together candy grams to sell around Valentine's Day time it was able to be bought by the gtms community and sent to a friend around the school which was very successful in March on March 5th the gtms student council went on a field trip to the New Jersey State capito
Building it was an inform informidable trip that helped us learn lots about the history of New Jersey and open us up to law making and their law making program on March 8th the student council cabinet went to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey to volunteer for a few hours it
was a great experience for everyone who attended and they enjoyed it and currently we have a spirit week which is like luck theme and St Patrick's theme starting today and extending all the way until Friday March
21st now for our future Ventures we are planning a Earth Day cleanup within the St uh gtms student council and maybe another trip to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey furthermore we're brainstorming for the end of the year pep rally with um our principal Mrs
junker we're also planning our annually successful diversity night Event in May it promotes different cultures amongst our gtms community bringing people together through culture tradition and University Additionally the student council continues to sell pretzels every Tuesday to the gtms
community this concludes our comprehensive report of student heal's achievements as of May 17th we're looking forward to do more for our school community and we encourage student staff and family to continue to show support thank you so um what did you go to Trenton as
well did you go yes I what was your favorite part of going I really enjoyed all of the unique architect texure and the symbolisms of our like just New Jersey and the history of it and just to see the progress that it's made over its
long span and finding out that it was one of the oldest state buildings that are still in use today okay all right well thank you for sharing and if there's anything else that you need from us or you want from us for the Earth Day celebration or your cleanup just let us know okay moving on to the budget
presentation with Mr sanelli please at this time we're going to transition to our um annual budget presentation joining me on the floor will be our business administrator Mrs Joy Nixon uh we're going to divide and conquer and go over um where we are as we prepare for
our uh fiscal 26 budget um for both the board and also for the public um first and foremost um this presentation and and also the preparation of the budget um wouldn't be a success without of course our board education members our
entire business office staff Central Administration directors um and also Central Administration staff in addition to our building principles and assistant principles many of whom are here tonight in a variety of different capacities um but I I'd be remissed um based off of U
Mrs pera's work from the business office but most importantly U Mrs Nixon's um we won't be able to present a balanced budget uh and our our recommendations for moving forward um for FAL year 26 so thank you in advance Mrs Nixon and to your team as well as everyone else
involved um one of the things we try to do is circulate everything around our current um vision and Mission so I'm not going to read these things to you but it's just a healthy reminder of the things we go back to um things like our core values which we've always held true as we try to connect the past in
addition to our current Mission here in gay Township as we prepare for the future timelines are important because this isn't just you know a couple of weeks of work um this is a process for us uh in essence it is really ongoing
for the entire year but ultimately this is a tight time frame you can see that uh January 24th started some of these conversations um then from there um we had additional meetings on February 3rd and 4th the governor's budget address
was on February 25th a few days later State 8 is released on the 28th and then March 4th of course we got everyone together to really go through and take a hard look at where we were based off of what we submitted and based off of any state aid uh that was released uh we had
some final budget meetings on March 6th and 7th and then Here We Are Tonight obviously everything is uh due to the county on March 19th you can see and we talk about this every year the tight timeline that there is um and unlike you know let's say most businesses out there
that have budgets the size that we do um typically planning like this isn't necessary in the Pro private sector is this quick um but these are the timelines that we're faced with and we do a good job of meeting the challenge every single year to provide um a budget that will meet everyone's needs in the
future couple reminders and again we're not going to go too in depth but this is a good picture here representation for how uh our budget Works uh here in New Jersey and especially gway Township you know from from the non-b business office
side I I tell Mrs Nixon all time that I try to put things in like buckets and you can picture whatever you want here but the money falls in these different areas so for us it's a fun 10 but that's like operations fund 20 is going to be grants fund 30 is your capital projects
and then any Debt Service everything stays within those particular buckets oftentimes we will hear you know some great ideas and some of those great ideas are well why can't we take some of that grant money and use it to help offset some operations costs unfortunately it just doesn't work that way because everything has to stay in
that bucket that's the easiest visualization that that we can come up with um to help support um you know this work you can also see just a quick snapshot here fund 10 revenues and expenditures and I think it's no surprise that obviously the tax levy
supports the majority of the budget in addition to that state aid and of course for any operating um budget for any District salaries and benefits will take up the most of that um so again just to snapshot of that fund 10 here are some things within fund 10 that kind of cover
um the budget tuition student services instructional supplies talks about the purpose on the right side and really just giving a generalization on the left in terms of these particular accounts but again this is this is your operations this is your fund 10 fund 20 is going to be your grants oftentimes
you think about state or federal grants as you can imagine things like um our preschool grant for for in instance the general education portion of anything preschool comes out of a fund 20 account um for preschool nonpublic are also
funneled through a fund 20 you also see Federal monies and a lot of conversations around Federal monies right now still a lot of unknowns um we're going to be pretty transparent about that and we made some notes on here but Essa and Ida help to fund a lot of our programs to help supplement the
things that we do from let's say underfunding from the state so right now uh we've already been told and we put a note on here that we are expected of course to have an anticipated reduction in those federal funds and we've been told to budget at
least 25% less than what we were anti than what our actual realized Federal funding was last year that equates to about $560,000 so those are things that we have to figure out what we can do without how we can then support in other ways and and
if you remember during the pandemic ARP Esser was a grant that was uh continuing for a number of years that has now expired as well so that funding is not available and then we jump into let's say a fund 40 Debt Service and what's important here it's a good thing I guess
and a bad thing so you know when you think about your home if you have no debt that's great but when you have no debt when you try to do other things that might be a large Capital project or things like that there's nothing to replace it with so right now we have
pretty much no debt which is great um but we have to be careful about the things we are planning to do in the future so as we jump into our fiscal year 25 to 26 I'm going to switch gears here and hand a mike over to our business administrator you got one
that's functioning there all right Mrs Nixon go ahead thank you Mr Santilli so this slide here this shows you the comparison of our state aid from the current fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26 um what you see here is an increase in
state aid of 1.6 million and that is through um categorical AIDS our special ed Aid security Aid and transportation Aid that have increased this year um however our Equalization Aid did decrease um those categorical AIDS I
just want to point out in the last seven years um we have not seen increases in those AIDS although costs have continued to go up this year with the funding formula they did try to increase in those categories however I need to point out the 1.6 million while we are happy
that we had an increase in state aid um we were capped to a 6% maximum of the current year state aid so that 1.6 million um we actually are entitled to more uh but we were capped at that amount so this slide shows you we were
actually based on the C the calculations from the state we were entitled to close to 3.2 million for fiscal year 26 if we were fully funded so as you can see we basically received about 50% of our increase in state
aid so with that we were still underfunded by um just over 1.5 million doll um to kind of put some things into perspective um that this is a definition of the adequacy budget as well as the
local fair share um the adequacy budget is basically what the state determines that our operating budget should be in order to operate the school district efficiently for our area for our atrisk enrollment and our special ed enrollment
then the local fair share is the amount that the state determines that the local taxpayers can afford to contribute to that adequacy budget in addition to the state aid that we receive So based on that on the right hand side is a
snapshot of um negative 5.9 million with a negative as it points out here that means that our proposed budget is actually below the expected local tax levy so what the budget that we are recommending and showing you tonight
that is a balanced budget however according to the state we are spending below what they consider adequacy spending so we are doing that in an effort to um to help with taxpayers as well well as build a responsible budget
all around fiscally for our students as well as for the community so Jo before you go on from that slide this fiscal year are we adequately funded from the state this fiscal year per their formula as well or are we
underfunded underfunded we're still underfunded this past year the one that will be ending corre shortly okay that's great thank you um for some considerations so as I mentioned our Revenue increase 1.6 million our 2% tax
levy cap is about 743 th000 so the effect is that we are allowed to go up to cap of 2% um for a home assess of $200,000 that equals 1772 a year or $147 a month the other adjustments that
we are able to make to go above the 2% cap is through healthc care cost adjustment and Bank cap which Al together what that equates to is $ 79,2 or an additional $25.7 a year what we are recommending
tonight is to go above the 2% by just $315,000 of the Ben cap and that equates to $1.14 a year therefore total tax impact of $28.868.01 the reason for needing that additional
315,000 above the 2% is on you as you can see on the right hand side our expenditures continue to increase well above that 2% tax levy cap and well above what the state has funded us so salaries for example an increase of 1.2
million benefits are at an increase of 9% which is 1.1 million Transportation increases at a consumer price index of 3.5 7% for next year which equals about 380,000 I added this year utilities I'm
sure you've all been well aware that utilities are continuing to go up um therefore we were were instructed to anticipate an increase of 15% which equates to 180,000 and then for tuition and student services and another estimated increase
of 500,000 therefore our Revenue increases equal 1.6 million ion in state aid our fiscal year 26 expenditure increases equal 3 almost 3.4 million therefore deficit of 1.7 million again this is
where it would have helped if we were fully funded and received that 3.2 million so with that def deficit of 1.7 we are recommending as I mentioned the 2% plus partial available Bank cap of
equating to just over a million dollars which then we had an adjusted deficit of about $650,000 that um Mr stanell if you want to add the work we did to balance that so a lot of that adjusted um deficit was
taking a continued look at our enrollment um and we take a look at our projected enrollment pretty much all year but we take a real hard look at it obviously now we continue to run reports in January February March just like we looked at that timeline we are operating as you saw from that one slide for local
fair share and adequacy budget we are op ating a budget an overall budget that is to the state you know through their lens obviously below what we should be um and we continue to do that with you know really just trying to operate as efficiently as possible and that's what
we work on uh very hard administratively no matter what department or what building we take a look at that enrollment we take a look at also our mission and vision our philosophy on education you know we don't want to see class sizes for instance continue to rise so we basically think outside the
box and the administrative team comes up with the great ideas in order how to combat this but some of this deficit was basically tackled um through that work and continuing to operate as efficiently as possible one of the things and they'll tell you sitting here as they're watching this presentation the one thing
we we LED with this year in a conversation I had we could have been funded with 1020 million we still would have sat at that table and said let's take a look at projected enrollment how things are moving in terms of our student body and population to again oper as efficiently as possible because
at the end of the day it's our it's really our responsibility to have a budget that is not only fiscally responsible but also fiscally responsible uh to the taxpayers as well so with that being said as we wrap up our recommendation is is written out
here and broken down here just to recap tax levy at 2% which would give us the 7 143,000 the partial Bank cap of 315,000 for a total of 1 million 58,183 40 per month technically if you'd like
to understand what the Cent tax rate increase is 1.44 um one thing to to note here and we put it in here because of that Debt Service I mentioned earlier falling off by using a little bit of this additional bank cap this year this is the last year
you would also as a taxpayer be getting a little bit of a give back so because of Debt Service falling off everyone's getting 386 back this year if that wasn't the case that 386 would be on top of you would add that 386 into that
2886 for a little over $32 instead so we're taking advantage of The Debt Service and that falling off a little bit this year in terms of a little give and take um with what we'd be asking and what our recommendation is to have a balanced budget and continue to have you
know educationally sound class sizes in addition to the programs and and and so on that you saw whether District Band Festival the things we had going on here tonight we want to maintain that caliber uh of students um because let's face it we're trying to develop the whole
student and give them a rounded experience so the resolution you'll see tonight is uh as listed uh and with that being said um this is the remaining timeline obviously like I mentioned earlier March 19th budget is due to the
county office March April it's going to be reviewed and approved and then of course on May 5th we have our final regular meeting um and public hearing so with that being said uh we certainly thank you for your time we are certainly open to questions but again before we
conclude I'd be remissed if I didn't really point out all of the work that the business office has put into this uh it's not an easy task to turn around so quickly so again thank you Mrs Nixon for your hard work and your staff's hard work with present you know putting this together for tonight so thank you agreed
I do have some questions um for slide number 14 if you can go back to the title fiscal year 26 considerations Miss Nixon I'm not sure I'm understanding the math and I'm hoping you can just explain it to me one
more one more I guess they all said there it is so I I don't understand the the plus 17 the plus 25 the plus 11 and then minus the 386 doesn't come out to the 2886 increase I'm not exactly sure no problem
so the 17 plus the 1114 um is what we're recommending so that comes to the 2886 the 386 um credit is already taken into account for the 2886 okay um and then
separately the 2507 that would be if we were asking to go use the full Bank cap and Healthcare cost adjustment of 700 so technically per law we could have used the 17 plus 25 but we're just recommending the 20
the 17 plus the 11 okay thank you so then my next question is we have 709 available we're using 315 so what does that leave us maybe like 385 in Bank cap when does that expire so about 250 I think 259,000 of that will expire
in the 2627 budget year um and then the remaining about hundred and so thousand will carry over for that year and then the one more future year okay before expiring okay in addition to what may become available next year we just don't
know until we get into next year with the other health care adjustments based off of our plan compared to the state okay thank you thank you for asking or answering those questions I have a question um is does our
budget fund the extended school year this summer so that would be or is that in Jeopardy so um extended school year will occur um that's funded through Ida um so uh we're we're going to be uh waiting for our fed uh Federal Monies to be able
to fund that obviously it is driven by needs within IEPs um so we are planning forward with our um ES program uh things that would be funneled through Essa so for instance we had at one time a standalone Summer Academy um we are
really trying to think outside the box and preparation for a lack of let's say Federal funding through title monies um I can't really put all that you know hope let's say let's face it hope isn't a reality right I can't sit here on hope so we have to plan accordingly uh and
we're trying to get creative with with how we're going to function with a combination of Summer Camp which is paid in addition to um offsetting some of that that need and academic service for our students through the use of any title money we may get so it may look a
little bit different but um we're trying to get creative and deliver a program that's going to work for for our community is there any other questions or comments yes I got a question I just don't quite understand it we're operating on an
underfunded budget does the state fund us to what they say we should be spending now so um the state shows in their calculations what we should be getting however they also showed what we
did get but the caveat was that it was limited to a 6% cap so what they did this year for districts is that no District was going to have an increase above 6% of current state aid and no District was going to have a decrease of
more than three % for a state aid so that is what they try to do to stop some districts from getting so much in state aid and districts that were losing so much in state aid they they came up with a cap both ways any other questions yes um just two
two questions related to the federal dollars one is uh when we would expect to to know what that is and then the second is I I anticipate that that notice came from the Department of education or or its proxy at this point but I did note last week that the USDA
has cut about a billion dollars out of the funding it gives to school lunch programs is it 85% plus whatever we lose because USDA is cut or is the 85% include the anticipated cuts by
USDA so um that is separate so this 75% that they told us to budget for as a a decrease this for next year is strictly based off the Federal funding grants such as Ida and Essa um as far as the food service programs our district is
not um right now affected in that USDA program significantly um however there's you know more coming and and we're closely monitoring that as well we also normally receive our funding notices for
federal grants anytime between May and sometimes it's later even sometimes June um so that's we're waiting for an anticipation from that and and I wanted to also just just piggyback off of that last year under normal circumstances with the Department of Education that
funding didn't actually come in and notifications until June and if I'm not mistaken I believe even July for idea and that was under normal circumstances hence why we're being very strategic and we're being able to plan ahead to make sure we don't blade off more than we can
chew moving into the Summer with the programming that we're going to offer um truth be told with with some of the the you know let's say who the proxy is going to be for the potential dispersement of this money um under normal circumstances it was a little slow um for programs that we were
running in the summer and so we're being cautious about when we may get notification of those dollars so is there any other questions seeing none I think we're good thank you very much
at this time while Mr sanelli transitions back up to the stage I will open up the meeting for public comment for board agenda items only at this time is there any public comment for agenda items only okay seeing
none we will move on to the submission of the budget and I'm actually going to read it the submission of the budget for the 2526 school budget to the county office be it resolved to approve the proposed school budget for the 2526 school year for submission to Executive County
Superintendent of Schools as follows the total general fund 79,90 556 that's the total budget and the local tax levy of 38 m213 658
can I have a motion to approve that budget please so moved is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss
Lura yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs hermano yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Carman yes moving on to superintendent report please first before I move on I just want to thank the Board of
Education um for their support um and continued support of not just the business office and the work that they do but also with our recommendations as an administrative team um I know these decisions aren't easy um but I I certainly appreciate the support and
trust that you have in not only myself but the business office and our Administration to really come up with um a plan that is going to continue to move move the district forward and and do the most we can um in situations like this so again thank you very much for your
support with that um we're going to move on to our attorney's report um and turning it over to miss Hal Kelco good evening everyone since the last time we talked I had the opportunity to work on some employment matters contractual matters and student matters thank you so any questions from
Miss H H Elco seeing none moving on to student enrollment please so s 7.2 is attached our student enrollment report 7.3 or out of District suspension report and 7.4 is our harassment intimidation and bullying
report they are all attached and are informational items only for the board thank you moving on to curriculum and instruction so at this time we're looking to move items 8.1 through 8.4 as listed and attached can I have motion to approve 8.1 through 8.4 please so moved
second is there any board comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Laria yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs herel yes vice president
Basher Blau yes and president Carman yes moving on to finance and Facilities was there a finance and Facilities meeting yes so the committee met last Wednesday March 12th and a large portion of the meeting was focused on the budget review and discussion we also discussed the HVAC Rod Grant contract s which are on
the agend on tonight's agenda and we also received an update um regarding gtms Chiller it is still as of now scheduled for delivery for April 10th and the hope is that the install will be complete by the end of May thank you moving on with finance and Facilities
please thank you items 9.2 through 9.19 um I apologize 9 through 9.2 through 9.20 are up for your approval can I motion to approve items 9.2 through 9.20 so moved second is there any board
comment may I have roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lara yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr gentil yes Mrs hermano yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president
Carman yes moving on to Personnel please so first we have item 10.1 uh a resolution to accept with regret the letter of intent to retire from the following go Township School District staff members um their dedication and
years of service are certainly appreciated they are as follows Christine Burgess District employee is a director of student services for general education with seven years in the district Joan Marie Esposito gtms
teaching and learning facilitator with 19 years in the district Tina Gomez gtms World Language teacher 12 years in the district Emory Keeler reads Road teacher 32 years in the district and finally
caram Manzo reads Road teacher with 29 years in the district thank you can I motion to approve item 10.1 please so move second there any board comment may I have a roll call Mrs Chester
yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lura yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs herel yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Corman yes at this time we are
looking to approve items 10.3 through 10.9 as listed and attached thank you can I have a motion to approve items 10.3 through 10.9 so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs
Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lara yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs herel yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Corman yes do we have any introductions to the um no no
moving on to policy was there a policy committee meeting this week month yes there was we had a meeting on U March 13th um under old business we discussed um policy 5300 automated external defibrillators 5305 Health Services
Personnel 5306 Health Services to non-public schools 5307 nursing Services 5308 student health records 5310 Health Services 5320 immunization 5332 do not resuscitate orders and 5335 treatment of
asthma um those are under those were um a second reading this time um under new business business we reviewed and discussed um for a first reading 5120 assignment of students 5130 withdrawal from school 5200 attendance
5330 administration of medications 5350 of student suicide uh prevention 5313 care of school property um 5519 Dating Violence at school 5550 students in need of additional supports
5560 disruptive students and 5750 equitable education opportunity um all new policies under new business for first reading and previous policies for second reading uh Second and final reading are being recommended to the board as listed and attached in board docs the policy committee is
recommending um new policies under new business which would require two readings these new policies do not have any new language in bold or have any language that or strikeouts that have been removed from the policies previously finally within the policy approval section of board docs two roll
call motions will occur um the first one is for the second reading um and the second is for the uh a roll call for approvals requiring first um the first of two readings um and possible future topics would be um two policies that we
may be um doing a secondary review on thank you so per Chester OH go ahead oh I'm sorry um so at this time we're looking to uh move um items 11.2 through 11.10 for a second reading as listed in and
attached thank you can I have motion to approve items 11.2 through 11.10 for second reading please so moved second Z any board comment may I have a roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss
Lara yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr genel yes Mrs hermano yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Corman yes at this time we're looking to also move items 11.12 through
11.21 for first reading as listed and attached thank you can I have motion to approve items 11.12 through 11.21 for first reading so move second is there any board comment may have a roll call please Mrs
Chester yes Dr Parmenter yes Miss Laria yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs herel Yes except I do abstain from 11.16 policy 5350 vice president vasher Blau yes and
president Carman yes old business old business so uh we're looking to move items 12.1 through 12.2 um the first is the 2425 school calendar it's been revised due to those pesky inclement weather days so we had to add an
additional day at the end of the year and the other is the uh to affirm Hib determination reports thank you can I have motion to approve items 12.1 and 12.2 please so moved second is there any board comment may I have a roll call please
Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lara yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Gentile yes Mrs herel yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Carman yes new business please so under new
business we're looking to approve items 13.1 through 13.3 um some of those things are standard uh operating procedures with memorandums of agreement as well as our 2526 proposed District calendar thank
you can I motion to approve items 13.1 through 13.3 so moved second is there any board comments may I have roll call please Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes Miss Lara
yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr Jin Hill yes Mrs herel yes vice president Basher Blau yes and president Carmen yes so 14.1 uh is a board calendar which is uh attached um as well as special events
that are listed for uh the board to review it is an attachment this time because there were so many but I'm just going to highlight a few as you saw tonight uh honk junor musical please save the dates this week uh March 20th and 21st is 6 o'clock P.M and then of
course on March 22nd 2 o'clock P.M for the MAA right here at gtms uh something that came to fruition pretty quickly but it's getting a lot of momentum and that is March Madness our School District staff versus the gway Township Police
Department you certainly don't want to miss this one right here at gtms it's on March 28th starting at 6:00 p.m. first come first serve and I hear it's going to be packed so you want to get here early um then there's a variety of different events from Multicultural
nights to our district family nights um to Spring concerts all on here to of course save the date and most importantly May 2nd once again people of the year and retirement reception something that you don't want to miss hosted by the Ed foundation and
gy Township Education Association supported by our GT PSA as well all informational items so thank you very much thank you at this time we'll open up the board meeting for other public comments is there any other public comments this evening if you can come to
the microphone state your name and whether or not you're a gall resident the board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents this meeting will now be open to public comments three meetings three minutes per person please if your questions pertain to litigation student or Personnel items 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 you 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 okay yep thank you Joe can you hear me now yes okay thank you g Marie Mason from Ocean City I am a strong supporter of the Galloway Township Public uh School
District District I'm a fan and I have friends that come here send their children here and so I'm very familiar with um the education the wonderful education here um last week several Galloway residents attended the Ocean
City Board of Education meeting with the intent of presenting their feelings about policy 5756 which is a policy based on guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education that aims to help us public
school districts create inclusive environments for all children however the Ocean City Board of Education has already approved policy 5756 I agree that each one of us has the
right to express our opinions in an open form what I do not agree with is people who come to a school board meeting who disrupt and cause chaos at a public
school board meeting to the extent that our school board president had to bang his Gabel and say the meeting was out of order I was in the audience and behind me I heard shouts of it's a lie it's a
lie repeal 5756 this happened several times while the board was trying to conduct business not during public comment it's apparent that some members do not understand Robert's Rules or
parliamentary procedure the first thing that I thought of as this continual disruption occurred is there security here at this meeting professionalism and decorum is required
at every school board meeting I feel as though the disruptor or disruptors were unprofessional and disrespectful towards our school board
our community and your board and your community and yet when I walk down to this meeting tonight there was a sign that said respect on a lighter note you have a great drama club and I hope your play
goes fantastic and if you celebrate St Patty's Day have a wonderful St Patrick's Day thank you so much thank you Dr Mason is there any other public comments this evening thank you if you can sign in and come to
the podium and state your name please yes I did sign in my name is Father Jim hutkins I've lived in Galloway Township for 10 years and I've had ification home here for an additional 10 years i' like to make a excuse me a comment about
5756 in preparation for this meeting I listened to the comments from the board meeting in February and understand that the cafeteria was filled with attendees that was unusual numbers however do not matter as much as truth does in
listening to the comments from the board and from those who made comments last month there was an emphasis on love and protection of the children but you do not love children if you lie to them by saying there are more than two genders
you do not inform parents that their think their child thinks he or she is a different sex than that of his or her body you do not love the parents of these children but the only way parents can find such information out is to ask
rather than to be informed then you do not you do not uh love the children or the parents the children belong to the parents not to you the so-called fact was presented last month that half the homeless kids in a certain place I'm don't remember
where where lgbtqia a plus it was inferred without proof that they were there because their parents rejected that it was as if there could be no other reason also research tells us that a child who early on wants
to transition to the opposite sex is going through a phase that will eventually pass prompting a child to embrace something that is passing is not to love them a board member last month stated falsely that in policy
5756 the parents rights are protected the bill says that the teacher does not have to notify the parent about a child transitioning only if the parent asks must they tell them what kind of Twisted logic concludes the parents rights are
not being ignored in such an arrangement must the parents call in every day to check on their child a child's broken leg a recess would automatically be communicated to a parent parents would not have to call it is the parents right
and obligation to deal with the issue of so-called transition not the school's right people who lived under communism in Europe and moved here I said the same thing that happened in Europe had happened here indoctrinated children is
a communist tactic this is not love of students might does not make right the matter how many people show up at a scho school board meeting truth is what counts the truth is that 5657 deliberately denies parents their
rights thank you thank you Father hudgin is there any other board com is there any other comments this evening from the public you you can sign in and state your name please my name is Gary herow I'm a Galler resident for about 20
years you have to excuse me this is off the cuff and I know no one on the board has to answer my questions but how many of you up on the board believe in God I know some of you don't a lot of you don't there's one there's another
there's a third how many of you believe that a boy can become a girl any any of you believe that how many of you believe that boys can become pregnant anybody takers at the end of the day you may be
trying to help these children this is about parental rights and the parents need to know I've come up here and stated this before and as father Hutchin said so eloquently they're not your children you may be thinking that you're
helping them but if you're helping them to live a lie then you're not helping them to be happy and if the worst comes to the worst you're not there standing at the grave site it is the parents responsibility to
raise their children as they see fit and that is a fact and you can bring in 120 members from the gtea to confuse and muddy the waters on what this is really about but the facts are the
facts and 120 people as the father said does not make something true what it makes is a gang members just makes gang and the fact that you had to have 100 people come here and you thank
them for their time and answering the call to take on maybe two board members who lose every single vote I don't I can't even understand that how threatened are you by two board members that lose every vote that you
had to bring in a 100 people from gtea to take them on and intimidate them that's what intimidation really is thank you is there any other board Com or any other public comments this
evening if you can come to the microphone state your name and sign in please good evening I'm Kelly Grace I'm a 31-year Galloway resident and and uh taxpayer I should say um let me sign in
here I wanted to ask because last month I was a little late coming in so when I saw all these people I was so excited it was great and I was hearing a lot of good things until it got to the point where
it said that the leader of GTA said that there was a hurt there very offended and hurt and how we all have to come together and I stood there quite confused because I'm like wow what did I miss and in reviewing I didn't see
anything that I missed then or even going back some as to why were these teachers hurt why was this one person speaking for all teachers saying that they were hurt and I'm like I'm here to ask you do you know of any
incident that was said at a meeting or outside that they would have reason to come here and say that they were hurt we're not answering questions okay there a public comment make your comment thank you no problem maybe in a later later time I can come and and ask Mr
Senti or someone absolutely okay cuz I know you don't want somebody to walk away confused here as to what happened I certainly hope it's not because of 5756 because that has never involved teachers as far as I know and I
have full respect for teachers because Guess what at 60 years I can still remember Mrs stanner thanner Mrs Davies Mrs tarden Mrs low to name a bunch for my daughter's schooling Mrs Leonard was she
not the best although there's a lot that are the best so it's hard to isolate but she left this world way too soon Mr a Miss Henry these were all my daughter's teachers these were wonderful teachers nothing as far as I know has ever been spoken out about a teacher it's always
been about parental rights so please let's make it clear 575 six comments has never been about a teacher it's always been about parents and what's been taken away from them and I'll tell you what in looking at the news and reviewing some of the things that are
printed how is it that schools are being sued by the state for trying to remove this or change language that includes the parent if there wasn't something wrong with it please set me straight I know you can't answer but maybe later on
set me straight if it is something that doesn't interfere with an a parent knowing about their child not coming to you and asking but when you find out that there's something of that nature you contacting the parent and saying we
need to let you know about your child's health concern whether it's physical mental whatever just as you would want to know about your child so my comment is about that when I spoke to you about my cousin Richard that our family welcomed him
with open arms we were talking about a man who waited till his parents died and he transgendered in his late 50s early 60s this was and and I'll tell you what being the only family that welcomed
him when he had his surgeries and transgendered into Cheryl he did a full disconnection because he wasn't happy then either and so if you find a man that age who transgenders and found that
he was wrong and not happy in that place of Mind and Body Change how do you expect an 11 15 nyear old to have the wherewithal that this is what they should be I'm not
told what your Protocols are do you recommend puberty blockers do you have somebody set up with surgeries do you have an on-site guidance counsel we've already we've already gone over that those exact points we've answered those questions is there any other other new comments that you have this evening
their time is is almost up it it is just to say that this is something that still interferes with parents parents rights no matter how you want to color it unless you change the language on the board as how it you know appears so that
parents are included it is something that does leave the parent out thank you thank you is there any other public comment this evening you can sign in and state your name and whether or not you're resident please good evening uh my name is AJ
Mass I'm a Galloway resident and my son Xander attended Galloway schools all the way through he also had Emory keer as a teacher and I'm very sad that she is retiring she was a great teacher I just wanted that to go on record thank you uh keep talking a lot about parents rights in this room and an obsessive compulsion
with 5756 meeting after meeting how many parents rights are actually affected by this 5756 currently about 1% of the US population is believed to be transgender which means with about 3200 students in
this school system we're talking at most 30 transgender kids 30 sets of parents for a lot of these kids the parents already know and are actually supporting their child through the transition process so you don't need to tell them they know some of these kids the parents already know and they're not on board
with the child's name change and those scary pronouns but they still know about it so their right's not being violated they know so what are we down to maybe 5 to 10 kids 5 to 10 sets of parents out of 3,000 that's less than onethird of 1%
and this is what you are laser focused on as your Beall and end all goal as members of the Board of Education or public comments seriously for some of these kids they may not tell anybody about it out a fear being stigmatized or
actual be being bullied given the environment created not only by executive orders from a morally repugnant president but also locally by board members harping on removing a policy specifically designed to protect these vulnerable children who can blame them for staying silent and again what
is this policy that everyone so riled up about if a child expresses their wish to use a different name or Express a different gender identity than what's on file no parental consent is needed that doesn't mean don't tell the parents or else it simply means you don't have to
tell the parents if a child were to come into school and tell the teacher that their parent physically abused them last night the proper course of action would not be for the teacher to pick up the phone and tell the parents what their kid said I would hope there would be some plan to put the child's welfare first in those situations and in fact
there is such a policy 51 41.4 all that 5756 does is extend that same level of concern to a transgender child who might say to a teacher but please don't tell my parents because if there's even a chance that could in fact harm the
child if the parents are told you don't take that chance take these incidents on a case-by Case basis and make sure that telling the parents won't cause the child any harm yes parents have rights but a child's welfare comes first period I believe that you sincerely
believe that you're doing the right thing here that you're the hero of this story but a lot of us come here month after month to tell you that you're not to quote Martin Luther King Jr nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious
stupidity thank you for your time thank you is there any other public comment this evening seeing none we will move on to Executive session we do have executive session this evening for 15 okay thank you be it resolved at this time that we the gall
Township Board of Education shall meet in executive session on March 17th 2025 and immediately following this reading for the purpose of discussing Personnel further resolve that the discussion of each subject matter in executive session will be disclosed to the public when matter has been settled unless such otherwise is
prohibited by law we will be in executive session for approximately 15 minutes can I have a motion so moved all in favor I what action will be taken after executive
session for e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e ition to so move second I session
motion that motion yes um I would ask the board to entertain a motion to terminate the employment of employee number 2043 for the reasons as discussed in executive session effective uh immediately which is tomorrow March 18th
2025 thank you can I have a motion to so moved second can I um can you repeat that first and second please thank you Mrs Chester yes Dr permenter yes
Miss laa yes Mrs Avery yes Mr Dace yes Mr genel yes Mrs hermano yes vice president Basher blous yes and president Corman yes at this time I'd ask for a motion to adjourn all in favor meeting adjourned
thank you [Music] now