All right. If we're able to call a roll, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> here. >> Mr. Corey, >> here. >> Mr. Hayward >> here. >> Miss Prolamus >> here.
>> Dr. Poochie Bender >> here. >> Miss Stevenson >> here. >> Mr. Dr. Tang >> here. >> Miss Calves >> here. >> Dr. Robinson >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you. >> Miss Stevenson, are you able to lead us
through the flag salute, please? To the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In accordance with Open Public Meeting Act PL1 1975 chapter 231 as amended by
PL 2025 chapter 72, adequate notice of this meeting was provided on March 3rd, 2026 by posting notice on the Glenrock Public Schools website where legal notices and advertisements are listed at the website attached. All right. Uh the Glenrock School
District founded on principles of education in partnership with a supportive community provides an exceptional education to all students to cultivate resilient, responsible, and engaged global citizens. Hudson, are you able to lead us through
the student council report? >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Uh good evening everyone. I hope everyone's doing well. Spring break's approaching. Uh just to start with some sports updates. Uh the end of the winter sports season brought exciting achievements for Glenrock athletes. Uh with some
highlights being the girls basketball team winning the state sectional championship. Uh the wrestling team having three regional qualifiers and one state qualifier. And the boys track 4x two team finishing sixth place overall at Nike indoor nationals. Uh as well as many other team and personal
achievements. So um congratulations to everyone who achieved great things as Panther athlete. Uh and the end of the winter season also brings about the beginning of the spring season. Uh and those practices and have already begun some scrimmages are starting and after
spring break I think most of the teams will have official games starting which is very exciting. Um and yeah and overall final college decisions are being released within the next couple weeks marking exciting time for seniors uh who all be committed by May 1st. And
with spring break approaching along with the other fun events that come with this time of year, uh there's definitely an element of excitement in the halls across all grades. So yeah, thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Uh just a brief report some other things that are happening. Uh last
week was the high school GPA testing. That's the graduating graduation exam. Um all of the it went very smoothly. All the students took the test last week. We have three makeups to do. So that should be easy to easy to get through which is nice. Um some fun things happening uh at the middle school. We had a poetry
contest and coffee house that Miss Delesio put on which is a lovely thing she did um asking students to write poems about unity. Uh and the winner of the night was Lucy Rlla with a poem called Daffodils which I will share with the board in in the newsletter this
week. Um it was very lovely. Um other good things in middle school the this musical was last week. Um I hear it went really well. while I was out of town. And um we also had a presentation for middle school and high school parents about social media and emotional health recently. So I hope some of you went to
that. The high school had a blood drive. 31 units were collected which estimate could save 93 people which is a wonderful thing that that we're doing here and I really appreciate that. Elementary schools we've been really celebrating. Read across America. Uh Bird School had the Harlem Wizards come by. Hamilton has an author visit coming
up soon. So just a lot of lot of good things happening. Um, I do want to take a minute or two to talk about the the incident on March 13th, which I imagine a number of you are here about. Um, first of all, I I want to say to to the board and to everybody here that we
understand this was was a frightening experience for a lot of people. Um, we understand safety is is a paramount concern for for all of us. Uh, for myself included. I was here in the building in lockdown with the other administration and our central office and everything else. And uh it's it's a
it's a frightening experience. It truly is. Um but I really want to praise our administration and our staff. They reacted quickly and professionally. Um the local law enforcement were here within minutes and um other law enforcement agencies very very soon
after. Uh there was really really good cooperation between all of those enforcement agencies and administration. And I want to assure you all that all of the actions done whether it was communication or how we were supporting students or what we were doing with students was done um in consultation
with the law enforcement agencies or at their direction. So all throughout there was communication among them and uh we we were really focused on on everybody's safety at that time. I know many of you have concerns and questions. We can't go into specific details of our safety
plans. I think for pretty obvious reasons. On the whole, we think that the situation went well. Uh law enforcement was happy with the way that we we managed the situation and we worked closely together with them. Uh we are still going through our post incident
review with local law enforcement and internally and we're identifying areas that that do need need some attention that we can we can smooth out and we can make a little bit better um and make a little bit more, you know, uh streamlined in that way. We continue to work internally and coordinate with law
enforcement to ensure that we keep our students and staff safe. Um we we take this very very seriously and uh I just appreciate all of the support that we've gotten from everybody. >> Thank you. And um I will echo that sentiment of uh you know the the fear
when you you you know you find out that there's an incident happening and just wanting to make sure that to the best of our ability that everyone is safe as well as that um appropriate lines of communication are open when when it's time or when we're able to share. Um um
you know it it can be a frightening thing when you also want more information and you want more information to go out. I can definitely say I wanted more information to go out, but whether my wants are not necessarily what met with sometimes what is the most
safe option um based on the expertise of law enforcement. Um so as someone who spent you know I've spent 17 years in the military and one of um the tenants of of security for us is deter, detect,
delay and then defend. Um there a variety of things that we've done like since I've I've been board president I know a few years ago we did a security assessment and with that security assessment came a variety of things um um and and and typically small things
compared to what we're talking about today. However um that was an outside agency that came through to be proactive to talk about the things that we could do to just shore up our sec uh security. um you know like defense in this
situation would be the last thing. Not necessarily because it's not the most important but just simply because you want to deter you want to prevent things to be um from happening. We want to um delay them. Whether that is physical security measures with doors um or uh
entry procedures or um the way that our our guards here communicate with our students to make sure that they're um anticipating um if there's going to be any uh trouble or whatever other trainings and things that can be done. Those are all things that we do all the
time. And in this situation, um, you know, I'm thankful that it turned out to be a swatting incident where we essentially got like a real life drill, um, to test our to test our readiness, you know, and through through that
process, you're going to then determine where there are areas for improvement because that's what we're looking for for anything that we do. We're always going to be looking at where we can improve. And I would say that I I I know I've personally like read all of your emails um as well as the people that
aren't here. I've read them all. Um and I respect um the opinions that everybody has uh shared because like it has shown me how, you know, how passionate we are. We're passionate about our safety for our kids. We're passionate about making
sure that um that this is still a place that we want to live and come back to and that, you know, we're living here. you know that we're we're surviving here. We're thriving. I hear our kids are thriving um in a world where we're sometimes that's not uh so sure. So, um
I just want you all to know that we hear you. I I I've had many conversations with other board members and we're all weighing these things and and really not from a political standpoint. I can really assure you that it's not just, you know, where political lines are drawn that, you know, the board is
nonpartisan. Um and and safety is really should be a nonpartisan issue. You know, our our the the health of our kids, um the mental health of our kids, it's again a nonpartisan issue. So, um I'll also say that there are many things that
I learned about what people understand about our current um structure. Um uh you know, we have um you know, security personnel, you know, for instance, Rob back there. Thank you so much for what you do. I think that I've even had a
great um I've had a great conversations with even the security at my daughter's school. And I think that when I speak to other administrators um outside of this district that I happen to be uh friendly with, one of the biggest concerns that
parents would have is like whether or not the security is going to turn on their child. And that is that's a concern like it it it can happen across the country with like various uh law enforcement and you know like there's this perception that somehow there's a a
friction there. But these guards are are embedded in our schools. They're talking with their children. They're developing relationships with our children. They're developing trust and building trust with the administration, building trust with our children, things like that. Um and so whenever you know like you're
considering the um you know the impact of this decision do know that um the individuals that we employ are currently building those relationships and building that trust with our children with you hopefully um and and those are all things that we have to consider um
whenever we are you know making a decision. So, I will also open it up to any um board members that have anything that they want to say before we go on to our uh first agenda item, which is to talk about um the strategic planning for
our school district. Um but any board members I mean there will be opportunity for you to comment later if you have anything. Okay. All right. All right. So, um, today we have Miss Melissa Del Rosaso who's going to talk, um, about
the profile of of a graduate, um, and she's from the New Jersey School Board Association. So, thank you so much, Melissa, for coming today, um, and presenting this plan for us. >> Okay, can you hear me? Yes. >> Good. >> Okay. Um, I want to just take one minute
because I haven't been in the district yet as um, and and explain who I am and what I do. I am Melissa Del Roso. I am the New Jersey School Board Association Field Service Representative for Bergen County. So, my role is to support you as
board members and help you with anything that you need, answer your questions, um, and support you in what you do. My background is I've been with New Jersey School Board Association six months now, so I'm still a newbie, but not that new.
Um, I've learned a lot. Um, but I also have sat in your seat. I have served I served previously on the Old Tapan local school district for nine years and before doing this role and starting this
job. So I understand what you do. I appreciate what you do and I thank you for what you do. Um it's not an easy job and tonight's not going to be an easy night for you. I understand that. Um so that being said, we're going to talk about the strategic planning this evening. Um, one other thing is
everybody has a copy of the strategic um, plan promo. It gives you a little bit of of information about an overview of what the strategic planning process is. You will see that there are two different options in there
and the one we'll be talking about is the threer program and and I'll go into that. The other one is one that's kind of defunct and isn't done as often now. It's it's like a weekend kind of a workshop. Um, but I'll explain the two differences. And also, just to let you know, New Jersey School Board
Association, I'm not sure how familiar everybody is. I know when I was a board member, I did not fully understand the value and what New Jersey School Board Association was. We are kind of a quasi state agency. All the districts in New
Jersey are required by statute to belong to New Jersey School Board Association. Okay? So, you are all members. All board members are members. superintendent. Um hopefully you've been to workshop. We we handle all your mandatory training, but we also handle other training. We
support the boards. If you if there's a topic you want to learn more about, we will figure out um put together a presentation and and we will have that conversation. We can work with you on your goals. We can work with you on workshops and helping you develop board
norms if you don't have it, etc. So that is what I am here for. You have my business, my card there. You have my phone number. Board members, don't hesitate to give me a call if you have a question. You can do that individually. You don't need to go through um the administration or anything like that.
I'm a resource for everybody. What we discuss stays between us. Um and also one of the things I often go out and do, especially this time of year, is I do ethics presentations. Um so also I just want to say what I would say during that presentation is we are not the board
police. We do not we don't um you know worry you know we're not going to have conversations about what you can and cannot do. I'm not the ethics police. So if you have any questions you're not sure about things please feel free to give me a call. We'll have honest conversation and that would stay between us. Okay. All that behind us I will get
into the strategic plan and um talk about that process. Okay. Um I've covered what New Jersey School Board Association is tonight. We're going we did the welcome and introductions. We're going to talk about what a strategic plan is. the advantages of a strategic planning process, how to be part of the
process, and then I will answer your questions. Um, so strategic planning is creating an organizationwide mission, a vision. It it's basically going to give you the roadmap of your next three to five years. The advantages of strategic planning are
they are proactive. A lot of times as boards, we end up being reactive. we end up having to manage what's coming down, you know, coming to the meeting on a on a regular basis and it's very difficult to get ahead of things. Um, so this is a proactive process. It's creative. It's
innovative and um it's a planning process that's flexible. So as we talk about it, these this is just the guidelines of what we would be doing. What works for your district is how we would proceed with it. Okay. It provides a forum of participation for a complete
cross-section of the community. It creates an ongoing cycle of planning, assessment, and decision- making there. It optimizes limited resources and increases communication. It's a wonderful process and having done
a few of them like I mentioned I am newer as a field service representative with six months in the role. I've already done two strategic planning processes with other districts. It is a wonderful experience. It is a great experience for the district. It's for
great for the community, the staff, the board members. Everybody is involved including the students when you have a high school especially, which is enlightening and um just really brings everything together. So what it the advantages are you get a clear focus on
decision- making. You highlight the importance of good information for decision- making and it creates a district-wide again vision, mission. It it kind of puts everybody on the same page going in the same direction. You're planning again. Why would you do
this? There's always changes and this is why you look at this every three to five years would be the time frame that you're reviewing this. Um is your school enrollment changing? Is the makeup of your school population changing? everybody in the area is having
significant development, right? And um meeting your district needs from low-income housing, etc. So, there is just such an increase in the area of um construction and all that kind of stuff. So, that's why this
is usually a good time in most districts. Um are there more people in your community who don't have children in school and would you benefit from a roadmap for the district's future? When I say this is open to the community, it's open to the entire community when you do this process, right? Because your
schools are such a significant piece of your community. But what sometimes we lose track of, it isn't just the parents and the students that are important to the district, right? It's the entire community. So, we take all that in cons
into consideration. We reach out to your key stakeholders including your council, your you know, everybody that you can think of. we would brainstorm to come up with how we invite them to be involved in the process. So why are we planning? Are there changes in family structure in your
community? Is the economic structure of your community changing? Let's face it, everybody is having financial issues at this point in time. All the school districts are having issues. Are the educational levels of community changing? Is there competition for your public schools? Is there limited funding
impacting your programs and services? I think that's the state mantra right now. So if you answered yes to any of these these that's what strategic planning is all about. It has a waterfall effect the strategic plan right. So we start out at the top and from your goals objectives
strategic plan flows your district goals your board of education goals your administrator's goals the building goals. What are you looking to do with your facilities? Are they large enough? Are you do you have the space you need? Do you need to change things? you know, is is it wear and tear? Are there, you
know, major changes that you need to have to your buildings to accommodate the way your students are learning now and what they are doing? All these things come into play in your strategic plan and it all, the reason it says it's the waterfall effect is because it all flows down to student achievement.
Um the components of the three Rs are reflect, reimagine, recalibrate. And this pyramid explains the process. Right? So we start out with the board committing to wanting to begin a strategic plan. And again, it's up to
the board to decide when you would do this and when you are ready as a district to be doing this. So you get the commitment from the board and during the first meeting which is the reflection meeting we do a state of the school. So your administration your superintendent would provide a
presentation to your to the pub public explaining what's been happening in the school where you are the highlights etc. Then the group as the community group comes in um and again it's a mixup of
everybody students parents board members participate everybody participates staff administration and again I keep saying students because it's a that's such a great piece of the the process and so the first meeting we talk about the strengths and challenges of the district
and just lay them all out there and at the end of that meeting we New Jersey Schoolboard Association as as the uh facilitator ator will take all that information, put it together, um, and then give you outcomes from each meeting as we go through them. You will share
all that information on your website. So, it also for individuals that can't make one meeting can catch up on it and go to the second meeting. It's a very inclusive process. Okay. So the second meeting after we go over strengths and challenges and come up with um themes
with those we go into portrait of a learner and that's one of the things that we were talking about that gives you that more individual student um focus of how we want our students to learn what we want them you know how we
want them to think or what would we want them to come out of school I guess as what that portrait of that individual learner would be and that so that's the reimagine piece of the process. The second meeting is where we do that. And the third meeting we come up with goals.
And again, when I say we, I'm referring to everybody in the community being involved with this. Everybody giving the input and then everybody has the buy in. And at the end of the day, all of this is broken down and the action plans and
how we get you're going to get to those goals becomes the role of the administration. So, it's kind of like board 101, the same process, right? The board is doing the what, which in this case with the input from the community, and it is the administration that is
going to be doing the how, how you're going to get there, how we're going to make that happen. And then the next step is once the administration puts together the action plans, we put together a report from school boards, we bring that to the board, we present it to the board, the board approves it, and that's
where the work begins. And it's a basically a cycl cyclical process. So, you know, this isn't something that Okay, great. We did all this and we're done. You will get regular updates and um let me go I'll go through a little bit more of this as I'm talking. I'm not
going through my slides here. Um but we have a strategic goals progress um thing. It's a little new feature that we have that would go on your website and it would show how you are meeting your goals. All of this is on your website so the community can follow along in how the
progress is going. So they're involved in the beginning and they're able to follow the progress throughout. Okay. Now, this is a fluid process and I always caution people when we do this, everything is not carved in stone because things happen along the way and
if that does happen, it it's up to the administration to bring it to the board which brings it to the public to say, okay, we had to adjust this or that and I'll always bring you back to COVID because obviously nobody expected that to happen and that would have changed everybody's goals and objectives, right? So, it's a fluid process and we just
keep revisiting it. And like I said, there will be this um you'll have a website for the strategic plan. It will as we go along, you will have everything spelled out in the process, transparency to the community and how you're meeting
those goals with um the little gauges that you'll see up there. We talked about who can participate and like I said, it's everybody. You'll see up there everybody that we've mentioned and I can't impress upon you enough the more people involved the better the plan
will come out. Um so student voice as we talked about is um really important in this and what it does is right our biggest consumer is the student. It's it's good to hear that from the student what they're looking
for or their perspective because we can always assume what it is but we don't necessarily it's nice to hear it directly from them. Um so that's how you participate. I talked about we will have it's a four to five month process and there are three meetings which include
the community um and the public is is invited and like I said we give ample opportunity for everybody to come and that's pretty much how the process plays out. Now, the question for you is probably going to be timing, but I'm going to open this up to questions and
then we can talk about all of that as well because um I'm well aware, right, that you're going through the process of searching for a new superintendent and with that comes more community involvement, more input sessions and things along that line. Um, so there are
pros and cons to when you do it and that's for unfortunately for the board to decide and figure out what's the best placement for that depending on how the superintendent search is going to roll out. So at that point let me open it up to say do you have any questions or
anybody? >> No go for it. >> I just want to say thanks for coming out. You're kind of it's like you're writing it's like you're reading my notes right now because these are the challenges that we're facing right now. Exactly. You're not alone. >> It's it's a cart before the horse chicken or the egg type of dynamic.
>> As trustees we do I was barking this today. We do the what and the administration does the how. >> Um so it is a it is a careful point for us to go beyond our our authorized role. we have to hold ourselves back and I think
that's I'll probably be emailing you when I have those questions. So, thanks for the intro. >> Okay. I I will say like and and we can for the questions. I'm really torn and I'm I say I love this job. I love doing what you are
doing, but I love this job so much more because my role is to come up here and give you insight. You have to make the hard decisions and that's the the joy of me not having to make those anymore. So, I appreciate what you do and I know what it's like to sit in the hot seat and have to make those choices. Um, so it's
my job is great. I just give you get to give you information and feedback and you have to make the decision. With that being said, I will tell you the pros and the cons of your timing are going out for the superintendent search. you will be, you know, there's one side of it that would
say, wouldn't it be great to have the whole community input for the superintendent that comes in to be able to know what direction the community and the board and everybody wants the district to go. The other side of that is it's such an inclusive and welcoming
process that it also would be beneficial to bring a new superintendent into that process as well. And the key to that is with the community involvement, your community gets to work with alongside your new superintendent through that process, right? So there would be a
little delay on doing the strategic planning piece until you get the superintendent um into the position. And like I said, the big thing for me having done both superintendent searches and strategic planning, it's a lot of input sessions. There's a you're going to, you know, for
the superintendent search, you're meeting meeting with each community group. You're meeting with teachers, you're meeting with students, you're meeting with the community and parents, you're meeting with the um you know all the different groups, the administration that that's a lot of information gathering and managing that
communication without confusing your public, right? Because one thing is looking for insight into the leader of the district and the other question is insight into where do we want the district to go. So they can be confus
confusing messages. >> So I will put that out there for you to think about. If you have any other questions about that, you can certainly ask. >> Um in in the situations that you said you've done this before uh even with a new superintendent, how long would you
say that you would have waited before initiating this process with a new superintendent in place? >> I don't know that I'd wait too long. I would give them the opportunity maybe two months to get acclimated to the community, but it's also a great way to bring the community to them, right? You
want them to be able to get to understand the community, know the community a little bit before they're in it into it. Um the only the only downside to that might be you they they have to have a know enough about the district to be able to give that state of the school address and to explain
where the school is and you know where it's going. So I would say two to three months in would be realistic. Um you certainly could do it sooner but I feel like you would lose that part of the update of where the district is at the moment.
>> That's why I asked because I feel like if you have potentially if you have someone new to the school district that they're not really sure where they where the district is. They're still trying to find that out. But >> that's just >> but they they'll have an administrative team and and I I would hope in that time
frame they're up to speed enough to, you know, know they may not know all the nuances, but they'll they should by that point have the general idea of where they are. And with the school districts where you did the process in the reverse, what what challenges was was
the process still successful or would you say that it >> I I be honest with you, I have not done it that way and I have spoken to the other FSRs who have and that's that's my point like it's kind of could go either way. You're setting them up. Um, I would say if I were to take a poll of the
other FSRs that I spoke to, they would lean more towards doing it once you have your superintendent. And again, the opportunity to your point, how much will they know? How much will they understand of where the district is? More importantly, they're going to learn that
in the first session because when you have your community come out and talk about your strengths and weaknesses, they're going to learn a lot. And then hopefully some of it they're going to already know, but it it comes out as a theme and it comes out, you know, it's
pretty clear what the community wants and it's a great opportunity for them to see that. >> With the um the the ones that you've done, how long would you say the process is from beginning to end? >> Um I think it was up there. It's usually about I I would say about a fivemonth
process to getting from your first presentation to getting to the board approving the process. It's like three months. So that's why I had mentioned if you look in there, there's two different ways that this used has always been done. And one is like a long weekend.
Um, and the trend now is just to do the three meetings, which are usually one a month. >> And then everything's put together and you have to give the administration about a month or two to put together their action plans based on those goals,
excuse me, and then come to the board and present it. So that whole process, yeah, five months, six months max. >> Thank you. >> Are there any additional questions? All right. Thank you so much, Melissa. >> Yeah. And if anybody if you have any
questions, you you know where to reach me because everybody has my card there. Um and seriously, and if anything comes up or you want to try to tweak something or do it a little bit differently, we can talk about it. Absolutely. Okay. >> I appreciate it. Thank you. One second.
Okay. Yep. All right. So, um at this time, um it's 7:46. We'll be opening up our first set of public comments. if you could uh please state your name and your address and then give uh you'll have three
minutes at which point you will hear a reminder go off and I will just ask you to wrap up your comments. Um normally like even if you go over a little bit, it's not like um a world crisis. However, I do know that there are a lot of people here that do want to
have comments. So if I am a little bit um you know more verbose about it, that's why. Thank you. Good evening, Elizabeth C231 Hamilton. I'm not talking about what they're going to talk about and right now I'm going to talk about the budget. Um my
understanding it's somewhere between five and 6% and um I'd like to talk about my concerns. Um, I've been doing a lot of reading recently about school districts that are closing down their their sports programs,
closing down schools, combining schools, etc., etc. And I think in Glenrock, we're very lucky that we don't have that. Um, but I do feel that a five% increase is excessive.
Um, I'm fully well aware of the health co health care costs. um that are included. But when you're faced with challenges like the budget, you do have to tighten up and um look to what you can control.
And I have experience doing going through the budget. I um when I was sitting on the board, I went through the 300page budget. I'd like to challenge all of you guys to go through the 300page line by
line item. I'm not sure if it's 300 anymore. It's probably a different program that you guys use now. Um it's very, if you haven't already, um I definitely suggest you do it. It's very telling. Um you're tasked one of one of
the responsibilities that you are tasked with as trustees is overseeing the budget. Um and just because we can increase at four five to six percent doesn't mean we should. Um my other concern is that we'll become we when I
say we I mean you I still consider myself a trustee in heart. Um I feel as if we raise it that much this year who's to say next year administration because it is based on
administrative recommendations won't come back and say well we we raised it five to 6% last year so let's just raise it six to 7% this year next year and etc etc. I think you owe it to um the residents because
five to six percent is $500 on the average house that's assessed at $550,000 and we all know what's going on in Glenrock and maybe there's half that are assessed at that much. So you're talking potentially just for the school
budget part can be raised about $1,000 which is a lot of money. um you know and if it snowballs it's going to get out of control in my opinion. Um I do think you owe it to the residents to
take a deeper look into what can be cut if it means supplies. Um I know that the parents in this town are very generous. I will sum it up. Very generous in this town and if you needed it the HSAs. But um I would
appreciate it if um you did go back and look at it and present before that May meeting some cuts and not just go forward. Thank you. Have a good evening. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I just want to make sure it's okay to speak about armed resources right now. Yes.
>> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Um Dr. Robinson, I appreciate the Starbucks. I would be doing the same if I was smart. Um good evening. My name is Nick De Gregorio. Uh, a few months ago, I had the privilege of addressing this board to request that Central School be renamed in honor of Tuskegee Airman Thomas Hawkins. As a Marine Corps
veteran who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, this remains an important issue for me. But this evening, I come before you with a far more urgent matter. In light of recent security events at Glenrock High School, I have become increasingly fearful for the safety of my children, ages six and
four, at Academy of Our Lady. While academy is a private school because it is located in Glenrock, our arch dasis has refused to allow our school to secure a class 3 special law enforcement officer principally because the Glenrock board of education has not
yet moved toward providing armed resources to public schools. We have now received clear guidance from the arch dasis that if this board votes in favor of armed protection, academy of our lady will receive a sleo, which is the desire of the majority of parents at our school.
I understand and appreciate that gun control is a highly polarizing topic in our country. Thankfully, this is not the topic at hand tonight. We are not asking for this board or for the residents of this town to settle constitutional law or to defend their personal political
views this evening. What we are asking for is as apolitical as it gets, that our children are protected by their school caregivers while they are outside the safety of their home and family. Only when parents most basic need of
safety for their children is met could we possibly hope to debate the finer points of our society's most pressing issues. As moms and dads, we would give our lives unflinchingly to keep our children safe from harm. We
request that the board share that weighty responsibility as you consider what is best for the thousands of children, both public and private, who will be impacted by your decision. On behalf of many in this room tonight, I ask you to please give our children, our
faculty, our administration, our school security officers, and our police department the fighting chance they deserve if, god forbid, the worst case scenario ever comes to our town. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Hello. Paloma Surmayor, 416 Acriman Avenue. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you, Dr. Robinson, for allowing us to speak tonight. Um, I'm here tonight to speak in support of arming our school guards. And more importantly, as a parent focused on
safety of our children. I'm not here to debate studies. I'm here to talk about what is practical and what common sense tells us will better protect our children. We accept armed security in places of worship. malls, public events, and many surrounding school districts.
Armed security is widely recognized as a necessary measure to protect lives. Yet somehow, when it comes to our own children and the staff who care for them in Glenrock, that same level of protection is questioned, debated, or
dismissed. Look at our neighbors. Allenell, Alpado River, Ramsey, Wyoff, Ma, Monville, Ultapon, Northville, Riverville, Hillsdale, S River, Fort Lee, Fairview,
Pamis, Fairlon, Waldwick, Helden, Rididgewood, and schools like Bergen Catholic. These communities have armed personnel in their schools because they understand that quick trained intervention can save lives.
You must ask yourself, if armed trained professionals are considered appropriate everywhere else people gather, why would we not want that same protection in our schools? This isn't about politics. It's about
everything we can do to protect our children. Some also argue that the children fear seeing armed police. But the reality is in moments of danger, children don't feel afraid of police. They feel reassured by them. We've seen
this locally during the most recent SWAT incident where students said they felt safer the moment officers arrived. This isn't just my voice. Support for this effort continues to grow. The
petition has already received over 600 signatures from community members who believe we should be doing everything possible to keep our children safe. Parents should not have to wonder if more could have been done. Staff should
not have to feel unprotected. Our children deserve to learn in an environment where their safety is treated with the same urgency as it is everywhere else. We are simply asking for consistency. If
we protect lives elsewhere, we should protect them here too. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Randy Bloomberg. I live at 87 Chadwick Place.
I believe I'm in the minority here by a lot. Um, but I want to assure you this is I don't do not believe this is an issue of gun control. I think this is an issue of what's best for our children. There is a lack of evidence on reducing
fatality rates from school shootings with armed SRO's. Often there is a negative impact on the school climate. The best way to protect American schools from mass shootings and gun violence is to adapt an evidencebased intervention
plan like the one proposed by Every Town, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association preventing the shootings in the first place. A US Secret Service study found that 75% of school shooters got their
weapons from the home of a parent, relative, or friend. And they found that in nearly half of school shootings, the weapon was not secured safely. I encourage our board and our community members to check out the BS smart
forkids program.org or actually and it deals with safe storage of guns to eliminate getting the guns in hands of our children. It's a nonpartisan resource on securing arms safely and
keeping them away from our kids. Continue supporting guns and safety legislators. Um encourage I encourage our board to continue supporting children's mental and social emotional well-being. School
shooters usually exhibit signs of behaviors of disturbance early on. Programs like Sandy Hook Promise provide tools and programs to create school environment where any early signs are noted and addressed. Further, we know
that extreme risk protection orders known as herpo or red flag laws. Um I hope many of you know what that is. But those are in crisis and at risk to themselves and others apply to have their arms taken away from the to keep
them out of the home when there is a disturbance of a family member. While some students report do report feeling protected by an armed presence, a significant body of research indicates that armed SRO's can also increase fear,
anxiety, and a sense of being watched or criminalized. There is a lack of evidence reducing fatality rates from school shootings with armed SRO. Often there is a negative impact on the school climate.
So what can we focus on to avert school violence, safe storage, herpo red flag laws, and more focus on mental health issues. I think we need to address prevention
and not arming SRO's. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Nicole Krio. I live in town. Um, I think we could spend the next school year and a half at least debating whether or not to arm school guards. For me, that's not the issue
here tonight. It's what happened on the 13th. I hope that the afteraction report that is happening is not just an internal one. Many of us in our professional lives have to deal with afteraction reports all the time. The independence of a third-party assessment is critical. When things go absolutely
swimmingly, an afteraction report is essential because there's always something that could have gone better. From my experience with two children in the building, why a sixth grade class was was left unattended on a field for a significant amount of time and then walked into a school with an active bomb
threat is a key question for me. As is the fact that parents got an email at 1 p.m. saying the threat was noncredible and yet my high schooler sat on the floor in silence afraid to reach for her cell phone because she was told it might be attached to a bomb detonation device.
There is a disconnect between what the parents heard and what the students and staff heard and that disconnect needs to be addressed. And I understand for folks both on the council and the police and the board who have family members in the school, I understand. But you were also
getting more realtime updates than we were. You may not have felt that they were real time enough, but they were more than those of us who were sitting at home going refresh, refresh, refresh. Why is my kid not responding to my texts? Was she in the bathroom? Did something happen? There was a breakdown
in the hour plus amount of time between when I was told it was noncredible. And when my daughter wrote to me 75 minutes later and said, "Mom, people are peeing in garbage cans. What's going on?" So, I'm glad that everybody feels it went well, I was mortified. My children
beeping and waving at the bomb squad as they drove by, screaming, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." We are all very lucky. Personally, I don't know what an armed guard could have done in a bomb threat. So, to me, that's an issue for tomorrow. For today, it's what happened and what are we doing to make sure we don't
repeat the mistakes of even the best case scenario. God forbid it ever happens again. So, thank you. Thank you. Alyssa Mandara, 252 Cornroll Road. I attended this middle school and high school, and I do have three children in
Glenrock schools. The events of Friday afternoon have been replaying in my head ever since they happened and I feel an urgent responsibility to share what I witnessed. When I observed what I observed exposed a serious failure in safety procedures. We are incredibly
fortunate that this swatting incident was not real because if it had been the decisions that were made could have led to a catastrophic loss of life. At approximately 12:30 p.m., I was on the phone with a friend whose daughter was inside the high school and had texted that the school was in lockdown. From
the tone of the principal's announcement, she believed it was not a drill. I looked out my back window, which overlooks the lower lacrosse field, and saw the entire sixth grade class outside at recess. Nothing appeared alarming, and students were playing normally. I watched recess end
and the students gather in the corner of the field. I watched them walk up the path toward the high school, stand near the snack stand, and then walk together in one large group across the parking lot and into the back of the school. At no point during this time were there any
police presence behind the school, on the path, or on Cornwall Road. For clarity, I lived next to the path on Cornwall and have direct view of the field and the route the students took. I can say with certainty that there was no police presence on the side of the
school where hundreds of students were outside. From what we now understand, around 12 p.m. the school received a threat reporting a gun outside the building and a bomb in one of the bathrooms. Despite this, an entire grade of students who were already hundreds of yards away from the building where the
threat existed and only about 100 ft from outside school property were gathered together and instructed to walk back toward the school. Those students could have remained where they were and been safely secured. The lower field is separate from the building by distance
and by distance and proximity. Hold on one second. I apologize. They were grouped tightly together, making them an easy target and directed back toward the school and into the building. Based on the timeline that
this has that has since been shared, students were brought back into the school by approximately 100 pm. However, the building was not cleared as safe from a bomb until approximately 2:30. That means an entire grade of students was brought into a building that was
still being investigated for a potential firearm threat and bomb. I cannot understand how this could possibly be the correct procedure in a situation involving both a potential shooter and a bomb threat. What I witnessed was an entire grade of students being made
vulnerable. A person with a weapon could have easily targeted hundreds of children walking in a tight group in an open area. Those same children were directed into a building that had not yet been cleared of a bomb. This weighs heavily on me personally. While I was
receiving information that there may have been a threat, I looked out my window and laid eyes on my own child on that field. I counted several of his friends and then I watched them walk directly toward what could have been a horrific scene. I regret trusting that the situation was being handled safely.
I assume there was no real threat and that the school's response reflected that. In hindsight, that trust feels incredibly heavy. The only way I can live with that moment and my choices in that moment is by making sure this never happens again and by pushing for the
changes necessary to ensure our children are protected no matter the circumstances. Those children were unguarded, unprotected, grouped together, and instructed to walk directly toward a potential dre threat. That should never happen. Our community
deserves transparency and accountability. I'm asking the board of education, school administration, and local law enforcement to publicly review the procedures that were followed during this incident and explain why these decisions were made. Specifically, we
need to understand why students who were already safely away from the building were directed back toward a potential threat and instead of being secured where they were. >> If you're able to wrap up your comments, thank you. >> And why there was no law enforcement present on the side of the school where
hundreds of students were outside. In addition, I want clarity on how we move forward and what our administration, school security, and law enforcement are doing to correct these missteps. This cannot simply be dismissed because the threat turned out to be false. Safety protocols must work when the threat is
real. Our children deserve procedures that prioritize distance, protection, and immediate security, not decisions that unknowingly place them in harm's way. We were lucky this time, but luck is not a safety plan. >> Thank you.
>> Good evening, Board of Education. My name is Tim McDonald, 502 Daris A. First, I want to thank you for your time, your leadership, and the tireless effort you put into making decisions for this district. I know these are not easy conversations, and they carry tremendous amount of responsibility. So, I stand
here not as a community member, but as someone who works inside schools every single day. Through my work, I'm in over 90 schools across North Jersey and southern New York and Eastern PA. Out of those 90 schools, 82 of them currently have an armed security presence and most of them being right here in Bergen
County. That means we are not leading on this issue. That means we're behind. The fact that we're only seriously discussing this now in response to a direct threat to our school is a little bit concerning. Other districts have already done the due diligence. They've evaluated the risk, had the hard
conversations, and made the decision to prioritize highest level of safety for their staff and students. And while I want to commend our law enforcement and first responders, I think they did an excellent job. What the situation showed us is that we're relying on response time. And response
time, no matter how fast, is still reactive. Preparedness is proactive. Having an armed, trained professional already inside the building means immediate action. It means we're not minutes away, and we're not dependent on outside arrival, but we are present,
aware, and ready. You'll hear arguments about statistics, studies, percentages, probabilities, but honestly, in moments like this, stats don't matter because no parents send their child to school thinking the odds are low today. Or if we wanted to put it another way,
you don't wait for stats to tell you to wear a seatelt. You use common sense because the risk is just too great without it. This isn't about common sense. It's actually about reducing risk as much as humanly possible. Mr. VNS and the current board, you have a lot of
work ahead of you and I respect that and I respect the thought and care that you're going to put into these decisions. But if there is a place to start, this is it for sure. This is an opportunity not only to enhance safety for your staff and students, but to restore confidence to show parents,
staff, and the community that their protection is the top priority and not after a crisis, but before the next one. Thank you for your time. And just off here, um, Miss Robinson, thank you so much for commenting on the incident that
took place. And I know you gave the other board members an opportunity to do so. I was looking forward to hearing that from them, so I was a little disappointed to not hear them comment on the incident, but thank you very much. >> Hi, Michelle Quinn to Marinus Place. I'm writing out of deep concern for the
safety of our children in Glenrock schools. A priority I know we all share as the absolute number one responsibility we have as a community. Our kids, our teachers, our administrators and staff deserve to feel secure every single day when they walk through those doors. They are not
equipped. They are not equipped with the proper tools they need to effectively protect our children in the worst case scenarios. Glenrock is one of the only districts in our area without armed security, which unfortunately makes our schools a potential target. We cannot
afford to wait it until it is too late. In the event of an active shooter situation, the average time from when the shooter enters a building until the incident ends is just nine minutes. Even if police officers arrive in as little as 90 seconds, that brief window could mean the difference between life and
death for far too many innocent children. Without the ability to respond immediately and decisively, our security guards are left in an impossible position. What are they supposed to do if they encounter an active shooter while unarmed? It's simply not fair to
place their lives in jeopardy either, especially given their training and commitment. To address this critical gap, I respectfully urge the board to authorize our retired police officers to carry a firearm for emergency situations. This is not about arming everyone. It is about giving our
existing, highly trained security team the one tool they need to neutralize a threat and save lives. In lie of the recent events that occurred in the past week at the high school, I've done some research. I want to highlight the exceptional qualifications of the guards currently serving our schools. They are
not ordinary security security personnel. They are seasoned professionals with extraordinary backgrounds. Guard number one, a certified firearms instructor qualified to train retired police officers for their New Jersey carry permits. an active shooter training instructor
specializing in school shootings and a US Army veteran. Guard two, a former patrol supervisor awarded multiple multiple valor citations and officially recognized by the New Jersey State Senate and General Assembly for heroic actions that placed his own life in
danger to save another. He is also a US Air Force veteran. Guard number three, an active shooter training instructor for both civilians and law enforcement with a focus on school shootings. A former member of the county SWAT team and a DA DEA agent for eight years.
Guard number four, a firearms instructor, field training officer, and member of the Buhin, Buen Township, and Mountain Lakes Emergency Tactical Response Team. Guard number five, head school resource officer for five schools. Guard number six, a patrol
supervisor who oversaw Fort Lee court security for 12 years. Every one of these guards has more than 20 years of specialized active shooter training. They are already the most qualified individuals to protect our schools. They
simply need the legal authority to carry the tools that match their expertise. Please give these concerns your immediate and serious consideration. Let us ensure that Glenrock is no longer the only district in the area without proper proper armed security. Our children's
lives along with the lives of everyone who works in schools are far too precious to leave unprotected. Thank you for your time and leadership on this vital issue. >> Thank you. >> Hi, how you doing? My name is Dave Smith. live here in Glenrock.
I think that everybody here, everybody's heart is in the right place. Everybody wants to protect the kids and everybody said a lot of very intelligent things so far and I'm just going to add to those by focusing on one area I think is really important and that's timing. So,
I looked at every single shooting uh the way I look at um everything I do in my professional life, I dig into the details. Now, the timing, if you look at Sandy Hook, Parkland, and Santa Fe, from the time when the shooting began until
the police engaged, um four minutes roughly on Sandy Hook, the amount of people who died in that four to six minute period, 26 people. So, by the time the police arrive, by the time the police get there, even if they have a teleporter and they can get out here
within 30 seconds, people are dead right away. Okay, we know that as a fact. So the question we have to ask ourselves as we go through this is what will we do in those few minutes? How many people will die if something like that happens here
in Santa Fe? He was armed with a shotgun and a pistol. He killed 10 people within a matter of minutes. In that initial rampage, he was confronted by an armed guard, retired police officer, Mr. Bar, Officer Barnes. Now, according to all
the reports, Officer Barnes pinned him down. And because he pinned him down, he was able to save how many different lives? Because from 7:36 a.m. until about 7:45 a.m., according to reports, 9 minutes passed until law
enforcement engaged the shooter. That means if in 10 and sorry if in four minutes 10 people died. I mean I didn't do the best in math when I was there but I I I can do this math and and this is serious for me. I mean in those nine
minutes 20 more people would have died. That's 20 lives that officer saved if you do that basic math right there in bed just by pitting him down. Now if you look at the Parkland shooting there's a big delay. Everybody was dead in six minutes. That's 17 people dead in six
minutes before police engage. So the question I want you to ask yourselves when you're when you're vetting this is a very simple one. If this happens here and we look back and you do a timeline assessment and when you're doing the timeline here and you release it to all of us, I want you to please look at
those first few minutes. Ask yourself how many people would have died in those first few minutes if we didn't have an armed trained police officer, retired police officer, ex-military, somebody vetted. How many people would have died during that time frame? That's your answer. That's everybody's
answer here. I don't care about politics. I care about my kids just like all of you. And that's the answer here. Thank you very much for your time. Good evening everyone. My name is James Maguire, 46 Highland Road. Uh I'll keep this very brief. Uh my children
graduated from the district in uh 2011 and 2014. So I don't come at this from the perspective of of a parent, but I do come at it from the perspective I was a 32-year uh high school social studies teacher at Northern Valley Regional.
Little unique because it's just it's two buildings but two big high schools. They approach this a little bit differently. uh in the one building in the Demeris building they always had one of the local police officers at the front entrance
for a considerable period of time. The uh resource offices officers were not armed in the old Pan building. They had always used retired police officers very similar to to what is done here. Now
this goes back a few years for them. They did not want to carry weapons in the building. So the the one point I would bring up to you is to please make sure you have a conversation with the people that do the security in the building and what their thoughts. You have to make the final decision on
this obviously but you need to talk to them that the people that you might be asking to carry firearms within the school district and what their thoughts. Uh Tapan has made the move. They do now have the group that was there when I was there. Most of
them have retired from doing that postcoid. They do have two officers in the old van building uh who carry firearms. So they made the decision to go that route. Uh again not tremendous amount of thought and research was put
into it and they did make that decision. So even in a case there's two buildings same uh board of ed handles it a little bit differently. uh one with a police with police officers in the building, the other with two armed uh retired
police officers who had been there as a security. Everyone has as been told you the these are difficult times. Emotions run very high and for very good reason because we're talking about the safety of our children. I do hope everyone recognizes that whatever side people
fall on this, they come at it from what they feel are in the best interest of the children here. So, I thank you for uh your leadership in Glenrock and to public education. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Vieira
Varovski. I live in town. I grew up in town. I graduated from Coleman School, the middle school and the high school. And my two children attend Coleman School. I have been a career prosecutor for almost 25 years. During that time,
I've prosecuted solely violent street crime. For the past almost 10 years, I work as a fi as a federal prosecutor with the US attorney's office and I deal with national security, specifically domestic terrorism. So, when you think about what domestic terrorism is and
what I started doing, domestic terrorism work, it was about people who send money to support ISIS, right? That's what everybody thinks about when you ask somebody, "What is domestic terrorism?" The bulk of my work now is dealing with
school shootings, with school violence, with youth who pray upon other vulnerable youth. And let's face it, all of today's youth is vulnerable youth. And they pray on them. And I'm sure some of you have read the articles and done
the research. and they prey on them by exposing them to gore, to sexual violence, to animal cruelty. And these are the people who become school shooters. And not to pat myself on the back and
the FBI, but we are very good at what we do. And the reason we are very good at what we do is because you don't hear about all of the cases that we disrupt. And there are countless of these cases that we see every single week where we
find these kids and we find their blueprints in their house for their schools and they show the entrances to those schools, the exits to those schools where those guards are and how they plan to commit a mass shooting at a
school. And despite how good I am at my job and how good my agents are at their jobs, look at how many school shootings we have. And the reality is is that we just cannot keep up with the work. We
can't keep up with it. And I la all of the mental health professionals who work in schools and I praise them. And there just are not enough of them. We cannot keep up with the work. And so when we talk about when people talk about a
multi-disciplined or a multiaceted approach with mental health and turppos, I deal with that. I talk to the FBI behavioral science unit on a weekly basis to identify those kids who they think are going to become school shooters. And we go into their houses
and we issue turppos and we take the guns away from their moms and their dads. And guess what? The next week there's another act of school violence. And so when you talk about somebody who has a mental health challenge and confronting that person with a school
psychologist, that's great, but that's like bringing a knife to a gunfight. It's not going to work. It's going to be too late. And so we need to have an armed professional at our schools. If I could just have one
minute, I want to point out some of the studies that people will bring up or have brought up about how there may have been increased violence in schools with armed personnel. The problem with those studies is that you don't know what
would have happened without those armed personnels. Also, in the past, a lot of those studies are are dated and those armed personnel before the height of the school violence epidemic were placed in schools that already had elevated rates
of violence. So, you cannot have a causation. You cannot prove causation in those cases. So, I come to you as not only somebody who has children in this district, but as somebody who has devoted my career, to public service,
and to making sure that the community of Glenrock of New Jersey remains safe. And so, I urge the board to really consider this carefully and to give our students, our faculty, and our staff a fighting chance to not become the latest victims.
Thank you. THANK YOU. GOOD EVENING. UM, my name is James Sun Davis. I live at 61 South Highwood Avenue. I'm a parent of a middle schooler and an elementary um, lovely daughter. Um, firstly, thank you to the board of education for all you do. Um, plus recognizing everything the staff
did to look after our children on that day in an unthinkable situation. Um, I totally support the third party investigation that other people have shared tonight so we can all learn um from what happened. What I think is a shared value is we all
want our children to to be safe, me included. Um, following the recent incident that my desire for that is stronger than ever. It took a lot of confidence to come here on a very controversial topic. Um, but I wanted to provide a very unique um um different
point of view. Um firstly getting that communication about what happened at the school was absolutely terrifying. Um for someone who's new to this country who who've been here eight years um it really brought it home um to us as a
family how um emotional must be for every single parent in this room to get notification what happened at the school. And I'm so thankful everybody is safe and it was a false alarm. It's just impossible to put it into words. But tonight, I want to challenge the growing
assumption. It's very easy to link safety to more firearms. It's a very compelling argument and a very emotional one um just to keep our children safe. However, I do not believe that that is the only way. Um our family moved to
Glenrock from the UK um over eight years ago. um just like a variety of families that have immigrated all over the world to this amazing country that stay in New Jersey and this wonderful town of Glenrott that we're really proud to call home. Worldwide there's over 7 million
schools the vast majority of nations across Europe, Asia and a range of countries. The presence of armed guards in in in a middle school is practically unheard of in those countries and vast majority of them which consistently rank
as safe for children. Safety is defined as the absence of a threat, not the presence of a counter threat. They've proven that you don't need a firearm to protect a classroom. You need a community that identifies a crisis
before it even reaches the front door. By introducing armed guards, we aren't only adopting a safety model. We're adopting a high conflict model that over 95% of the developed world has rejected as unnecessary and counterproductive.
We've also got to consider our specific local context. New Jersey has one of the lowest gun ownership rates in the entire country and I'm proud of that. That means that the vast majority of Glenrock students firearms are not part of a
daily lives or household normaly. Introducing them into hallways of a middle school creates a significant cultural and psychological shock. We're essentially importing a war zone of a visual into our community that has
intentionally chosen a different path. I understand this is very emotional and I am emotional reading through this. Um, and I understand a lot of arguments have been put forward by nearby towns and an increased um, view of introducing these
guards, but Glenrock for me has always been a leader, not a follower. Our own data shows that mental health and well-being strategies that we're working on lower incidents. Let's not trade a proven human- centered model for a
militarized one. Let's invest in our wellness centers and threat assessment teams, the tools that actually make our schools a sanctuary for learning. Thank you. Thank you. uh Joseph Monoproto my I have kids at
Academy of Our Lady and uh I would like to address something here as not only a parent but from a unique perspective first of all I don't envy any of you in the coming days or weeks and Dr. Robson, thank you for your service. 17 years. Big deal. Um, I coach T-ball here in
town as well. And the kids, parents are trusting me to be there, not just to be their coach, but to give them perspective, to help them get through, teach them the most basic fundamentals. And the main priority I have for those
kids is safety. I know that's the main priority you have here as well. I also come in public service. I work for the MTA. Public safety is a key part of what I do. And I will tell you that it's imperative that we execute our plans and
have our safety goals in mind. What does that mean? Active security, working with passive security. I'm sure you all know and you've heard those phrases before. Well, eventually anyone will tell you if
someone really wants to do harm, they will get past passive security measures and you need active security then to engage. Security is done in levels. And I'd like to emphasize that
your decision here will also impact the decisions of the local private schools around you. And as someone who wants to live in Glenrock, who wants to invest their time in this town, as someone who's here actively doing it,
I want to be I want to know that my kids when they do eventually go to school in this town, those measures are already here. I'd like to say thank you for your time and thank you for your your service that you do because it is a thankless one for
the long hours you put in. Have a great day. Thank you. Sorry, gone blind. You'll notice that there's some themes repeated here, and you should pay attention to them because those themes are important. Putting armed guards in our schools will attract
a shooter. So, the studies say, the argument goes like this. The shooter wants to go out in a blaze of glory so they'll seek out a place where they know they'll get shot by police or security. Let me be clear. That's simply not how most school shooters operate. Their
primary goal isn't suicide by cop. Their priority is maximizing the body count. The higher the death toll, the more wall-to-wall media coverage, the more twisted notoriety they achieve. That's what drives them. These attackers almost
always expect and have accepted that they will die in the process. Studies making these claim are fundamentally flawed. How exactly do you measure prevention? Prevention means something doesn't happen. No tragedy, no
headlines, there's no quantitive data, a no neat spreadsheets or statistics. Why? Because when prevention works, there's nothing to document if the incident never occurred. Think about a police officer on patrol. Just his presence
will often deter a wouldbe criminal. That's how effective deterrence works. Dismissing armed security because we can't count the non-events is like saying seat belts don't save lives because we only study the crashes. Let's address another point. These shooters
snap one day, grab a gun, and rush into a school on impulse. That's not reality. Most spend some time meticulously planning. They study layouts, entry points, schedules. They calculate how to achieve the highest possible body count
for maximum impact. This is premeditated deliberate horror, not a sudden outburst. So, how do we prevent a school a shooting at our schools? The answer is target hardening. We make the schools such a hard, lowreward target that the
attacker decides it's not worth the risk. We already have layers of this. Lock doors, staff training, drills, cameras, it all adds up. But one of the most powerful additional layers, arming our guards. These are highly trained,
retired police officers with decades of real world experience. These aren't amateurs, they're professionals who know how to respond decisively. Their present just doesn't just react, it deters. It dramatically raises the shooter's risks and provides immediate intervention and
immediate resistance. in turn lowering a high body count. Target hardening does another critical thing. It buys time. In an ideal scenario, a police officer is immediately available. It still takes in real time receiving the call, racing
over to the school, roll up, rush out, locate the threat amongst the chaos, and finally engage. In a perfect world, that's two to three minutes. In an active shooter situation, 2 to 3 minutes is an eternity. By the time that officer is ready to act, the shooter has had
those first deadly moments completely unchallenged. Waiting for outside response isn't enough when seconds count. You can't stop a determined shooter with barriers, locks, or good intentions. You need an immediate, capable counterforce on the inside.
Arming our security changes that equation. They act in those first critical minutes before the casualties spiral. This isn't about fear or politics. It's about facing facts. It's about giving our children the best possible protection when every second
counts. Thank you. >> Hello. Good evening. My name is Samar Swag and I live here in town. I did not prepare a whole speech. I was not planning on speaking. Um but I thought I would just share a few thoughts that haven't been mentioned. um and try not to repeat things that
have been. Um one one comment that was made was the interest and desire to have outside voices from the community to participate in your afteraction review. I would like to echo that. Um I think that would be really important. I think there were
many stories that may not and probably not would make their way to you that shouldn't be lost. um stories about urgent medical matters and how those were dealt with in the moment. Um students who were left unaccounted for
in rooms. Um staff didn't know students were there. Students with disabilities and their needs not accounted for when responding to the situation. Um I don't know if this is true. I heard
of an autistic student hiding in a closet. That won't work. So, how do we support our children with disabilities? Communication with students, especially those in middle school who don't have cell phones. I know that there was some
communication between parents and between among high school students. That did not trickle down to the middle school students. I heard of medical students, uh, middle school students who were throwing up, passing out, um, urinating in their pants, um, crying for
almost three hours, hugging their friends. They did not know what was happening. Um, they heard the dogs, they heard the police, they heard banging sounds. They didn't know um, if there was an active threat or not until they were released almost three hours later.
Um, I don't know if there's a communication protocol that can be put in place during an urgent or crisis. Um, but I think that's something to ask ourselves and try to figure out. I've heard of stories of students not taking the situation seriously. I heard of
doors not being locked properly. Um, I don't know if this is true. Kids playing ball in the gym. I don't know. These are stories that are floating floating around town and I think that um students know what happened. Um I think parents
know what happened and I think that these are the stories that need to be collected and considered to really have a thorough afteraction review. Um and so I truly hope that you will consider opening that up to the community um when
you when you have that. Um the other thing that I haven't heard brought up yet is of course we're talking about whether or not to have um armed guards at the door, but there are also other measures that can be considered um like metal detectors at
you know every entry. Um we moved to town when my kids were in third grade. Before that we were in the city and our schools had metal detectors. Kids had to walk through them. Staff, everyone had to go through a metal detector. And if the goal is to prevent these weapons from even entering the building, there
are other me measures that could be considered. And so I would just like to enter those into consideration as well. Thank you. Thank you. >> Hi there, Megan Finley, 47 Emerson Road. I'm uh in Glenrock. uh my children uh
were graduates of the district. Everybody obviously here concerned about safety and making sure that our kids, our teachers, everybody in Glenrock is safe. I think what I want to make sure that you guys are thinking about as you face this challenging decision is that this
isn't just a question of risk on one side and not having armed guards creates risk, but also that there's risk of downside in the case of arming the guards as well. More guns in more places
just don't make us safer. Folks may not want to hear the statistics, but I'm going to share them anyway. America has the highest per capita gun ownership rate of our comparable countries. And as our friend in the UK pointed out, our gun homicide rate is 26 times higher than other highincome countries. Having
a gun in your home, you would think that would make you safer. It actually increases your risk of fatal injury, two to three times higher rate of homicide and seven to 10 higher rates of suicide just by having a gun in your house. So, it's possible um that if security here
is not armed that a bad thing will happen. It's possible that if security is armed, they might prevent something bad from happening. They might not be able to prevent that bad thing from happening. I will absolutely accept. I think the credentials were read out
earlier that our security staff are tremendous. They have they're professionals. They have all the qualifications you would want. um all the training that you would want, but they're and they're very highly trained, but they're also human. Human beings have bad days. Human beings make
mistakes. In the major study of all the incidents of gunfire on school grounds, 18% uh of the shootings were unintentional. Guns that are left around or guns that were used in a way that was not how they were intended. So, I just want to point out that having the gun in
the situation can have downsides as well. Thank you guys for listening. >> Thank you. >> Uh Kevin Carroll, whole court, uh tough decision ahead of you and please communicate to the public as this goes
forward, the choices that have to be made by bringing in or not bringing in armed guards, budget issues, what has been sent to the county already, how that would have to be revised. Uh the cost everybody will say I'll pay anything for my kids. We had someone
earlier say they didn't want their taxes to go up by 5%. It's going to go up. The cost that compared to unarmed to armed will be a big difference. They need to hear that. All of our security guards I see at athletic events. I see our BA at
athletic events. That will be an additional cost if you bring in armed guards because they cost more money. Um where is the town in this? Why can that be there be a joint uh shared services agreement with the town to pick up half the cost if this is a direction you as a
district want to go? I believe they would fall under the authority of the chief of police and they would be in charge of armed security guards if they would be in our buildings. Where do our security guards stand? Do they want to carry a gun? Do they want to be armed in
that situation to protect our kids? And also, please share the amount of training that goes on for educators. Your children in this district are cared for by educators. As an educator myself, I probably would put myself at risk to
make sure my students were safe. And we do that daily, yearly, every time. But look at your post evaluation. Be truthful. Be honest. Hold people accountable. share that with us as a community so that we know our kids are
safe and a good place. And come next year, if there are no cell phones 6 through 12 in kids' hands, that will eliminate miscommunication that gets put out there. Because when we are all on our cell phones communicating and bringing uh different stories and false
information, that only makes the situation more chaotic and more confusing. Parents should stay home, trust the people in charge. I'm sure when the police were on site, they took over the scene. They might have told the kids to come back into the building.
They might have told the administration, "We're going to clear half the building and then work on the other." Those are all things the public doesn't know, and you may not want to share, but it needs to be said. I am sure everyone on site from state police to local police did
everything they could in the moment to keep our kids safe. So you guys filter everything, but like you're going to do with your strategic planning, make good decisions that are thought out, not emotional, not emotional because of our kids safety, but because what's best for
this district. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Hey folks, Scott Meltzer, 59 Abington. Uh first and foremost, uh thank you for all that you do. Appreciate it. Uh and to our law enforcement as well, thank you for your response. Um I support
armed guards at at the doors. Uh I'll tell you that right right now. Um I love the fact that when we moved to Glenrock, it was this quaint town, sleepy Glenrock. Uh great schools and and it still is. Um but the town itself is not so sleepy. We live in a town with two
trains, lots of commuters, lots of people coming in and out of Glenrock. Um it may not be an applesto apples comparison, but we have a recent example right here in town. Think back May 21st, 2024,
shooting at Wild Memorial Park right behind my house. Active shooter. Kids right nearby. Parents, kids terrified, running for their lives. Think about that in a school. Think about what would
happen if someone died there. Chaos, horror, concern. We can avoid this. You can act now. Think about this. Think about the future of our children. Thank you. >> Thank you.
Are there any uh other members of the public that'd like to make a comment? All right. So, I will close Huh? Well, I'm just going to close public comments. I'm Okay. Um I'll close public
comments at 8:43 p.m. Uh thank you to everyone who's shared uh tonight. um as well as those who have sent in emails. I also like we're all members of the community. So although as board members we really really try not to participate
in the Facebook com uh conversations just because of the dual nature of our roles both being on the board as well as being in uh the community but we do read and I do appreciate that um this is this is a very very challenging uh topic.
It's It's not one that we've avoided having the conversations. So, I know I' I've read a lot of things about like, you know, like trying to figure out how to sway and things like that. That's that's not the that's not the board that you have in front of you. The board that you have in front of you is listening.
Um is, you know, conversing. We're sharing information. We're sharing perspectives. We're sharing experiences. Um you know, like you have two people here that are that have military um backgrounds. Um you have two three three
three people. You have three people that are um e educators and administrators and a whole host of us that have other life experiences that we're bringing to the conversations. So, we're listening. We are doing this with respect within each other as well as with with you. Um
you know, we can we can only control sometimes what's within what's within our grasp u within the school. So, it's really hard to make um decisions that are um and I I'm just going to speak to like I took notes while we were uh talking. So, it's going to be hard to
control, for instance, safe storage of weapons at home just because we don't have the ability to go into your home. So, we take that in terms of um maybe programming and things like that that we that we encourage with our students and like ways that we can um work together with the police department and the
burrow to bring um additional awareness. Um but we're doing as what we can uh at at the school level. Um a lot of times there's also an assumption that uh we get more real time updates than than you all. Um I definitely I can speak for
myself like I did get um an early notification not not necessarily before if it came out on Facebook um but I don't necessarily get continued in uh updates at the same rate that you might expect because I know that for instance
Mr. Venus and all of the um administration are actively involved in a situation that I really really really do not want them to be distracted and have to worry about about what I think or feel or things like that because that we do have um a security plan that's in
place that is supposed to basically take a mind of its own. So when you know a certain circumstance happens um there we do these drills that allow for everyone to kind of know where they they should fall in line and absolutely do things sometimes um occur outside of that and
that yes that's the reason why you have the afteraction report um which is still uh is still going um is underway um the lessons learned from that afteraction report there's going to be a report to the board there's not nec necessarily
when I say not necessarily a report to the community, some of the questions and the things that you all have been asking aren't necessarily things that you can get in the way that you want to hear it. You want to know, you know, what what's the protocol with this door? Where does this group of people go? where does that
like a lot of the movement of the students, you want to know, you know, um a lot of the internal policies and a lot of the the reasons why people go this way or that way. Sometimes those are things that even the board can't necessarily know because those are
things that would put um expose um expose or increase the risk um to our our our children. So we are um actively trying to figure out and and and work with our administration, work with our police force, work with the burough and
OEM to try and make sure that you know whatever um gaps there may be within our plan are shored up so that uh we can um make sure that our our children are safe and that's regardless of a decision about arming our guards, right? That's
something that we're doing regardless. Um so that is to uh talk about public um transparency. Um I also do want to say thank you so much for highlighting uh the security personnel and all of the skills that um we you know extremely proud that they have. Um there are
different you know variations of of um you know what it would look like to arm our uh guards. they, you know, whether they're sleos or um or school law enforcement officers or um resource officers or, you know, like how they
carry or whether they carry. Is it concealed? Is it somewhere else? Is are they in the school or out of the school? uh the costs associated all of those things there there there's a lot of um when I say conflation meaning like a lot of different uh parts that many of you are putting together that isn't
necessarily how it could look here if this were to go on. So just please as we're looking through this process just imagine that you know we are trying to figure out that if we are if we make a decision in one way or another way what the costs are what it would look like um
what things uh you know based on the community impact like what things that uh we need to know um and what a policy change would look like if we have to go in that direction. Um um and I did appreciate that uh the
person who mentioned about the phones in schools and even just the idea that you know we have a a a state change that's coming up with regards to phones in schools and I think um you know we're used to having for instance our our high schoolers having phones and our middle
schoolers not and that's also an adjustment that's going to occur with all of us as parents um to our children not having phones in schools and how this incident might have looked because the same time that we were going through this, many other schools in the state of
New Jersey either had uh you know other drills or they had u like swatting incidences um at the same time that we were experiencing them on uh the 13th. Um, again, I'll open it up to um any board members. And I would definitely
always say that a lot of times you you hear me speak because I get to, you know, speak for the board. That's how um, you know, they elected me or nominated me to to do that. Um, but we all talk so much that I don't want you all to believe that their silence is
means that they don't, you know, care. All of us have really really spent a significant amount of time uh, talking. But I do understand that you do want to hear their voice. Um, uh, Mr. Cohen. >> Yeah. To to that point, I wanted to reject the comment that was said about the board members. Everybody in this
table, uh, cares mostly about the safety of the kids and most of us had kids in the lockdown and some of us were outside of the school checking what's going on. So saying or thinking that if one person speaks on behalf of the board, the
president in this case means that we don't care or don't do anything or the maximum that we can do to protect the kids or care about the kids. You're totally wrong and I'm sorry about that. >> Okay. uh Christine and then um Liz. >> Uh this might be the same vein, but I
was just going to clarify to um the the community member who just mentioned, you know, you had offered and invited us to all speak before and I just wanted to clarify that we had just come out of a one-hour closed session where confidentiality was stressed and I think
you know that that weighed on how we reacted and I you spoke so well that I think you covered a lot of it. So our our lack of any comment at that time is not a reflection. It was just we had just come out of an hour uh closed session that stressed it that confidentiality.
>> Yes. >> Um Liz and then >> thank you Dr. Robinson. Um first I just want to say the events of the Friday before last were terrifying as a parent and as a trustee on this board knowing that there would be a reaction like
we've seen tonight. Um, I do thank each and every one of you for showing up. Um, and each person who wrote to us, all of us have read those emails and heard your comments. And for me personally, I think I've learned a lot more about what
happens um in security and and military activity and things like that than I ever wanted to learn in my life. But I came here to learn and to hear from all of you because my personal opinion about guns doesn't really matter, right? and I am surrounded by people who have various
experience and that's one of the things I really appreciate about this board. We're very diverse in thought and we're not here for just political purposes, right? We're here because we care about the kids in this district. And so whichever way this decision rules out, I
I just want to impress upon you how seriously we're all taking this and how much we genuinely care. And I know you do, too. So, thank you for showing up for your children and for the community tonight. Really appreciate it. >> Okay, I want to echo the sentiments that
have been said here uh with one added piggyback uh that we all I can think I can speak for everyone if you haven't said it already. We all read all of the emails. Uh, however, I think that it really needs to be noted that you don't think that we are not reading them
because only one voice responds and typically that's either the president or the vice president on behalf of the board. So, if we don't respond to you individually, it's not that we haven't read it, it's that the we basically just um resort to having one person answer all of our emails. So, please don't
think that we don't care. Uh I'm going to tell you as a retired uh chief school administrator, you know, we might lose a little sleep over the budget at that budget season, but there is nothing that keeps school officials up every single
night at one point or another is that safety and security for students and staff. So please um you know, it's it's a very very very tough emotional it is emotional. parents um realize that while you're all going through emotions,
teachers and staff are are you know are dealing with it as well on the inside and trying most of them I would like to believe are trying to put up the front to keep the children uh feeling that everything is okay, everything will be
fine. It's it is a tough task to be in charge of that that group at that time. Again, I I applaud all of you for showing up and and taking the time out of your um you know, precious time at home with your families to come here and express your feelings. And this is not a
partisan um issue. This is an issue that we care about kids and we want to do what's right. And I want to thank everybody for sharing their stories um you know because it really does make a difference. Thank you. Hi, I also want to um thank everyone who
emailed us, people who came out tonight to speak. And again, I'm going to echo what my fellow co um trustees have said. It's not a partisan issue. My feelings on guns are put aside and we have to do what's right for our children and to make sure that everybody is safe. That was the the big theme tonight was the
safety of our kids. I do not have a child in the district. However, my children have been in similar situations and it is terrifying. So, I would like to thank everybody who led that day. Um, including our teachers. I have I am a retired school counselor. I know it's
like to be in there with kids and it's not you have to hold it together yourself for your for the children that there. So, I would like to thank them for that and hearing other people's perspective I think makes all of us better board members. Um, and I really do appreciate the people who who have shared their
personal or professional um, experience through gun safety or prosecuting because I think it gives us a lot to think about and I appreciate that because I think everybody up here, I mean, I know everybody up here wants our kids to be safe. Everybody in this room
wants that. So, I really do appreciate everybody who took the time to come share their thoughts with us. I'll also just say one other thing is that um you know like we're always looking to enhance our communication with our both our law enforcement
partners as well as our burough partners and um one of the positive things that also came out of um I don't know like the when I say the AR like the AR I did in my head um was that
things worked so much more smoothly with regards to communication with um like even between mayor um communication between our um law enforcement, it was a lot smoother than it has been. And I understand that um there there have been
challenges over the years. And I would just say thank you um for working on that and making that a priority to the point where um we are able to share things and share knowledge and share um best practices and and try and figure out how to move uh this district
forward. So um you know the the council president um Amy Martin had shared with me that she thought you know from her perspective things were so much more smooth than they had been um in the past and I just wanted to share that. So, thank you.
>> All right. Um, if there are no Yes, go ahead, Joe. I I'll just say that that I feel like everyone said it all uh to to put it together. This is one of the more sensitive topics that we discussed. The board has gotten things wrong and has gotten things right. Boards before us
and boards after will find that same uh same folly. Um, tonight I think what we all heard was the community come together and give uh give extremely serious feedback in an extremely professional and courteous way. And that gives us the the ability to to consider
what we have to consider and make sure it's done in the right right and most professional most effective uh planning process. I'll speak to some of my military nerds. You all know what pace planning is. It's redundancy. One thing is that if you have one, you have none.
If you have two, you have a backup. And I think we've all come to understand uh what we just did was a incredibly valuable exercise. Um one of my children was one of the children in the field and his biggest takeaway was he was bored
for two hours and I just left it at that because that's the best thing I could hope for in an in an exercise like that. So we were all lucky in that regard. So sorry you two gentlemen went through all this. Thank you for it all. and uh we have a lot that we've definitely learned
and are coming together on. Thank you. >> Yeah, I just want to say um my opinion I think feedback's gift. So I appreciate the feedback this gentleman provided to us. I think your feedback actually worked otherwise we we didn't talk so
much. I want to thank you. Well, I guess we're all going. >> Yeah, I know you don't want to be left out. There you go. >> Um, yeah, of course. Thank everybody for uh their parts and their uh points of discussion. I think we're going to take
everything into consideration when we discuss this. A lot of valuable points have come up tonight. Um, I personally have worked in schools for 25 years as well. So, I'm well familiar with security as as many of us are. Um, special thanks to the administration and
the teachers and the students for going through this and handling it as well as they did. Every situation is different and there's always an AR after these things and we always learn from them. So, we are learning, we are working with the administration and uh I look forward
to the future discussions here. All right. So, I would say the next steps um for this, we do have to finish our AAR process is still under um underway. And so, Mr. Van Nest um uh still has uh more meetings to go through
before that process is complete um before he's able to share anything that he may be able to share with the board um and or with the community at large. Um during that process, we'll also be um you know like continuing to take the
feedback um and as well as look into um what options if any uh that we need to take with our current uh guards. Um so more to follow. There's no decision um that is made today. Um and I'm just
thankful for all of your presence. Thank you. Um before we continue on to the uh next part like the our regular meeting um I'm actually going to um make a motion for a recess five minute recess.
Um any you know do I have a second? >> All right we have a second by Dan. All right we're in recess. Five minutes. All right. Um, >> back in session. >> Yes, we can. I get a motion to
put this back in session. Um, Dr. Angela Pender and Mrs. Cal seconded. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Perfect. >> All right. Um, so on to our regular business. Um, can I get a motion to
discuss uh G1 through G5? Uh, Liz Cal, seconded by Miss Stevenson. Um, questions, comments on G1 through G5. >> On G5, I just want to say I'm excited that we're moving forward with our
process to find a new superintendent. Um, we are voting to approve a contract for Kathleen Helaw. If anyone has not watched, we did the um interview for the search firm that it's on our on our
channel. Um I would suggest watching it and I'm excited to start working with her. >> I echo your excitement. Um all right. Oh yes, Joe. >> Just want to say on G5, people can't see behind the scene. Dr. Robertson spent so
many hours calling references, talking to so many people. I really appreciate how much time you putting into this to give us the information that we need to make the right decision. Thank you. >> Thank you. And and thank you for your patience because I know that um it took
a lot to to get that information while uh a lot of other things were going on as we know. Um so um I'm I was working 70 hours that week. So um it was a challenge. Um so thank you for
your patience. All right. Um, Mr. Canelis, you can call roll. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes.
>> Miss Palanis, >> yes. >> Dr. Coochie Vender, >> yes. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Excellent. Thank you. And I'll also say
with uh you know G2, our HSAs are amazing and they are always providing um for our our school. Um and I'm thankful. I know uh there was a member of the public earlier who spoke about like looking about agency
donations and they've always been our partners and and so we're thankful for that. Can I get a motion to discuss uh to a motion to approve resolutions B1 through B8? Mr. Corey, seconded by
Miss Stevenson. All right. So discussions B1 through B8. Mr. Cohen, first I want to make clear that most of the tax increases due to healthcare cost increases. This is the state. This is the fault of the state which is not working to address out of control
healthcare cost. There are clear solutions to the problem. However, it's easier for state elected officials to ignore them and let the district deal with tax increases that act than actually fix the problem. I would encourage everyone who is listening and watching to reach out to our elected
officials and ask them to work on a solution. Second, I want to make sure make it clear that I'm not against raising taxes. I understand that due to inflation to fulfill the goals of the district, taxes must go up. However, that doesn't mean that we need to raise taxes without looking at the budget line
by line and making sure that all the expenses are needed. And unfortunately, we did not do that. Although we've asked multiple times, Glenrock spends 12.2% of its budget on administration, the third highest in Bergen County across INJ districts, the second highest among
small districts, second only to Hokus, a district that it has less than 700 students. There is no reason for this the less level of spending. It is our responsibility to make sure that everything we do is to m minimize the tax increase while delivering on our district mission. And unfortunately, we
did not do that. And therefore, I'm voting no on the B1 and the proposed budget. >> Mus. >> Um, so I I just want to speak a little bit to the budget as well. I have a little bit of a different angle, but first and foremost, thank you to Dan for leading the budget subcommittee which I
served on this year. A lot of work, very challenging year and Mr. Canelis did a lot of work as well to he met with all of us. Uh we had so many meetings to go over these numbers and um I appreciate the time that was put in. One thing I didn't, you know, realize before I stood
stepped on the board was um you can feel like a internal obligation to approve a budget because you could be like almost like a binary choice of if I don't approve the budget I'm not supporting education and as well you can also feel a sense of um you should take the
maximum allowed from the state because if I don't take it I'm I'm letting it go. So you can kind of come to a quiet norm of always taking always approving the budget and always approving it for the max amount. Um and you know as the
public may or may not know this year we're going above the 2% um we have an extra 4.26% that that we can take uh for the healthcare waiver. And so that leads us to allow for 6.2% that we can take. and the proposed
budget that we're voting on tonight uses that full amount. So, um we're in an environment where we're now effectively paying a $1.40 for every dollar of salary. And it's not a one-time spike. It's not a hiccup. It's um something that looks like it's a trajectory. It's
probably going to be worse next year and continue to be worse. So looking at this budget, I I take a step back and I look at the baseline of it and the numbers and expenditures compound year overyear. And if we fully utilize the maximum
increase this year, I I worry that we will find ourselves in an even tighter position next year. So it is it is not easy to vote no on the budget, especially when you're sitting on the sub the um the finance committee subcommittee. But I am I am voting no unfortunately tonight um in
consideration for the district. All right. Okay. I'm going thank you uh Christine for putting out all the detail that you did and uh for everything that you both said. Um I do want to echo thanking everyone for all the time that they spent. There was a lot of time that was
dedicated to this. uh it is no surprise that the rising cost of the health insurance has come with a tremendous burden. This is largely of course as you know the result of state level decisions that were intended to reduce costs but
have clearly not achieved that goal. Instead these expens expenses continue to grow and are increasingly being shifted onto local taxpayers. In my view, continuing to pass these costs along to te taxpayers does not solve the
underlying problem. It simply relieves pressure on the system without addressing um its root causes. At some point, we are going to need to acknowledge that this approach is not sustainable and begin demanding real solutions rather than temporary fixes. especially since
it is my understanding that next year our community will be undergoing having our homes reassessed. Late um this afternoon, a colleague of mine sent me an article uh from NJ.com and it's titled the 30 New Jersey towns with the
highest school tax bills. I'm sad to say that we are number nine out of 30. Um I I don't believe that this budget has room to be uh has been scrutinized as closely as it could have been. Um and
you know as a retired educator, former school chief administrator, I have lived through periods of belt tightening times where spending was examined line by line and only ex essential expenses and protecting student programs were what
were maintained. Those experiences demonstrated that uh fiscal discipline it's hard and it takes a lot of work. So here we are, we fast forward to 2026 and um we're facing financial strain
again without clear evidence um that we have really done our due diligence unfortunately in my op my opinion not I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone else just my opinion. Uh so for those reasons I am going to vote no. Um, go ahead.
>> Um, so first, thank you very much to James for putting together all the materials required. Thank you to the committee for doing the work to ensure that all of us were informed about what was in the budget. Um, as an HR professional who's seen a lot
of companies just slash and burn and cut things um, taking a look at what in fact they're doing and what types of people they're letting go of, right? So, some of the knowledge goes out the door. I recognize that this is a challenging
year for a budget, but again, if I look at what the what the business administrator has done, there have been areas where money has been saved and so we're still under that 2% cap if you take out the expenditures for healthcare. So, I'm not sure why we
would penalize the teachers or the students in this district for the mistakes that are being made at the state level. That just doesn't make any sense to me. And I think that, you know, in my experience hearing from this community, people move here knowing that
they're somewhere within the top 10 of the state for school taxes. That is no surprise to anybody who lives in this town. So, for that reason, I'm going to vote yes on the budget. Thank you. >> Go for
>> um I concur. Uh thank you to James who's spent countless hours in the last month putting all of this together and his team and his office and the entire administration. Thank you to Dan who's uh led the uh committee and I was on
that committee as well. Um I work in schools as I mentioned earlier and this is a problem everywhere. This is not a Glenrock issue. Uh there are no new programs in this budget. There is this is a a tightened belt. There are things that we're not doing that we could be
doing. Um and I I agree with Miss Calv that the it's not right to penalize, you know, staff for an issue that's a state issue on something else. And that should be the last resort. And maybe we'll get there next year. I don't know. I hope
not. But for now, the fact that we were able to do this without uh hurting staff um is amazing and I will absolutely be voting yes. As a side note, I was in Hocus this past week uh talking to the superintendent and they almost did the
exact same thing. They have a 2% increase plus a $3 million second question that they approved. So they're they're they put it out there and they also put a great uh video on their website. So I encourage everyone to go take a look at it. And it led to
something like they would have to have cut 28 teachers to make up for that uh 3 million deficit, what they're calling a deficit or difference that's caused by the state insurance. And I think that's
that that's important to understand. And you know, you ask why we have the higher taxes and we have a very good school district here. You know, we we are rated highly and the kids do well here and people know why they come to this town and
we've never had an issue with our uh house, you know, house values going down and that kind of thing. So I think it's important to maintain the existing quality of the program and I I fear any cuts would cut into the quality and
you'd be seeing larger class sizes and lots of uh unfortunate effects. So for that reason I am absolutely voting yes. >> Thank you. Um before we go back around to everybody, I just want to make sure that
we have the opportunity for everyone to have a first talk. Go for it. >> I too like to thank James and uh Dan for leading us through this and I did I really appreciated the small group meetings that we had. I will say mine was not probably pleasant for you James
but we had a robust discussion and um I went into it and I was like this is crazy. Um, but it's healthcare. You know, if you read any stories of any other district, everybody's in the same boat. In speaking with James and with
Dan and in that small group, there are places we have tried to save money. If our operating costs are still at 2%, things have things have gone up. I look at your own heating bills. Mine doubled in those cold months and I don't keep my house warm. Um,
so that is it's good that it's kept at 2% even with the cost of inflation going up. We bought a bus with money that we already had. We will be saving money next year in transportation. We have a new copier contract that is going to be saving us money. We have Verizon. We did something with them that's going to be
saving us money. My concern was that if so I didn't I didn't like the numbers in the beginning but when I stopped to think about it and had conversations with people my concern was if we were going to cut it would be things that would adversely affect our children and
I didn't want to do that. Bigger class sizes are not good for our kids and they're not good for our teachers. Losing staff would not be good for our district for our kids or for our staff. I do not have children in the district. So,
but I care about every kid that comes in here and I do care what's best for them. We pay taxes here. My taxes are going to go up, but that is a sacrifice that I'm willing to make in order to ensure our schools stay where they are or even get better. You know, we have a lot of high
expectations in our town. Our parents expect programs for kids, AP classes for kids, sports for kids, the the extracurricular activities, the robotics, the the um the kids that are in the play. We have so many opportunities in a small town and I don't want to lose that because I think
that's one of the things that makes us very unique. So, I will be supporting this budget. Okay. All right. So, I'll go now. Um we worked so hard one. So thank you um thank you James, thank you Dan, thank
you to all of you um for participating in this process. I've been on this board this is uh you know my sixth year and I know more about the budget just through this budget season than I've known about the budget um any year prior. Um and
that's due to the hard work um that you put in James um explaining what would seem like simple concepts that I didn't I thought I understood in a different way than um reality. Um what we are dealing with this year is uh the
compounding effect of yearover-year massive increases in um health insurance. And it I've been watching what's going on um like many of you o throughout the state where all of these individual boards are meeting and then
you have the community members that are coming in and everyone is angry because they're like see this is a this problem that's a that problem and we're all just like pointing fingers. Meanwhile, we don't have the ability to control the uh cost of uh health insurance because we
are enrolled in the um state health benefit the state uh the state's um education health benefit program. We don't have the ability to leave that program because of our claims rate. Additionally, even if we did leave that
program, there's no guarantee that um the rate increase would be would not be substantial. um especially after that first uh negotiated year, all of these districts around us are dealing with the same problem. Um but what is unique is
uh the population that they're experiencing the problem in. So we have uh yes, we have we are a wealthier district. Um yes, we have uh different sets of needs here that might make it more favorable for us to be able to weather this storm compared to other
school districts. There are many school districts all around us every time we turn around and are looking in the papers that are having massive health def health math massive deficits to their budget which require them to essentially lay people off in order to
close their budgets or reduce programs in order to close their budgets or change the change their direction in order to close their budgets. What we have here is a system where we're not looking to cut specifically to change our budget. We have a balanced budget that was presented to us. So, thank you
again for a balanced budget and not even just a balanced budget in this year, but the the work that has been done years prior to deliver us to this place where we're able to say, you know, thankfully we can afford the things that are not only we are prioritizing as a board, but
that the community has asked us to prioritize. If we are changing the direction, like again, we have a balanced budget. So, if we're saying that we need to change the direction and we need to dep prioritize, I don't know, programs or um staffing or decrease or
or change, you know, like what we want our school system to look like, you know, be to to balance future budgets, then we can do that. But it doesn't always look like a dollar for-dollar increase, like, okay, well, we changed this position and now that money goes into this pot. It doesn't always look
like that. The best thing that we can do aside from, you know, maintaining the the the the programs that are necessary for our students to achieve um what they need to achieve is uh to not make um reactive uh decisions with our budget
and to make sure that we are solvent for years to come. That I'm not cutting today and then next year I have to cut even more and cut even more and cut even more in order to be able to maintain a budget. like I I I do think that if we don't pass this budget, um I think it's
my personal statement is that it's irresponsible. I do think it's irresponsible. So, you know, everyone will have their their own, you know, pieces to say. I know, you know, this this is just the the tentative budget. So, yes, it does go to the county. Um
but you know when we have that full um uh presentation in May and everyone is able to see how we arrived um here I all of the line by line comments the budget has been in front of us and if aside you have everyone has the ability to go line
by line and and then make their their statements for what things that they would like to see cut. Um I mean you all I'm not going to speak for you. you you I've heard various things um in terms of what what suggestions were made for um
for for changes within the budget, but then they aren't necessarily in alignment with the direction that we're saying that we are asking for within even our our goals for the district and things like that. So, it just feels like a backwards process for us to make cuts and then figure try to figure it out as
opposed to we have a healthy budget, we have a we have a healthy district, let's figure out what we want to do to make sure that you know it continues to be. So, I can go on, but we have a May presentation for it. Um, so is there
anybody else that hasn't gone yet? Joe, go ahead, please. Yeah, I could talk about my uh my thoughts. I also want to thank everybody why James works so hard. I I we spend so much time with us. We as I personally ask many dumb questions, right? I mean you on the board. So I
like I appreciate so much effort. I also think it's very tough job you have to be able to to present a balanced budget. But I think my I raised my concern before is I understand what everyone's saying we don't want to sacrifice the
education 100%. But there's mass is mass is always a line like to what extent what is the number you're willing to sacrifice. Six six% is if 6% is acceptable how
about 7% 8% 9% 10%. this could happen next year, right? If 6% compounds six% year-over-year, what is that? So, I think I think we can just blindly say we don't want to, right? In order not to
sacrifice quality education, we can't take any cut, right? This I in my opinion there has we should consider how much if if we approve this budget, I'd like to to say we think 6%
is acceptable but seven is not. Then next year we go seven will say it's not. I I I don't have that >> with that with that. I mean um and I I'm going to actually encourage that this is a fluid conversation here. >> There is there would be a ceiling
because we wouldn't be able to just turn around and say that we can balance our budget by by just add living on like say three extra percent is what I'm comfortable with this year. Next year it's like five or what like we can't it's not possible. it you the the cap is
that is is determined by the state is based on what the state thinks that they they and James I might ask you to actually um state how do they determine if you know the the cap like it's not just like an arbitrary number
>> so the 2% tax levy cap is a soft cap what I mean by a soft cap is that it can be adjusted in certain circumstances Those certain circumstances are increases in the health uh state health
benefits that exceed 2% increase over the prior years health costs. Um increases in enrollment. Uh there's another one for um like an extraordinary item uh that that that may come up. We
don't h we have no bank cap. that is the last uh avenue that a district has to go above 2%. Um and bank cap is opportunities in preceding budgets where you did not raise your tax to the
highest level that it could. Right? So it's a it's not a hard 2% tax levy cap. It's it's soft. And those are the three four items that can allow you to go above 2%. Our district does not have any
bank cap and the we we don't have growing enrollment. So the only thing that we would ever be able to adjust our budget for above 2% are healthcare costs. So to Mr. Tang,
it might be seven next year, but it it would only be seven because health insurance went up five. because we can't move above two and that that's just where we are. It's just the 2% and the
caps exist because when the legislature put these things into code they recognized that the 2% which by the way started off I think at four if not higher um is just not a realistic cap.
So they had to give outs when enrollment was increasing or health benefits went ary and and that's where we are. I would echo Mr. Cohen's statement about uh you know pleading with Trenton to do
something about the state health benefit plan because that's what's hurting the taxpayer. I I think I'm not saying that Trenton was uh nefarious in in their passing of measures of chapter 78, but
it isn't saving us money. And we are we are suffocating and students are going to feel the wrath of budget cuts that are a direct result of increases in healthcare which is beyond our control.
So it's not it's not an arbitrary number, right? It it's directly related to like for instance if if for in if for instance next year you know like let's say we had a 30% increase um on health care this year next year I don't know
let me just say 45%. We're we would potentially be at the same exact place. So if we make cuts this year, next year the increase somehow is like 45% in the the the rate. We're still at the point of making this exact same decision except we have a
smaller budget base budget and now we we self cut like we didn't we we already had the you know our 2% or less we actually had a less than 2% for everything else aside from healthcare. We absorbed some of the health care cost and then next year 45% increase in
health benefits. Okay, we we cut all of these things last year. What else are we cutting this year? Because as a board, we're saying that we're uncomfortable with this arbitrary number. So, you know, I'm sorry, Dan. Go for it. >> Thanks. I I wanted to let everybody
speak and then kind of give some centering comments because uh this is the first committee that we've really operated on. So, I took that as my role of responsibility to model a behavior that I hadn't seen before with the school board and listen to everybody's uh comments, concerns, questions, and if
questions or statements were unclear, refine those questions into something that was actionable. U full-time job, it seems that um we you said it, we should be going to Trenton and making our uh making our case. I
don't know that approving or disapproving a budget really puts us in a position, but the nine of us are only nine votes. There's nine million people in New Jersey. So, that's the message that we should be sharing out is that this is not sustainable at the state level. Um, we talked about a we talked
about a cap. Um, I also to point out the last couple of years that I've I've been on the board as long as Karen has and I've never seen this level of detail in a budget review. So, put it on my uh side job to make sure that we at least had the opportunity to see things
whether we liked it. Frankly, none of us should because this is a tough challenge. Uh but at least we understand it. Maybe not to the maybe not to the context that we accept or uh relate to in our own professional environments because this is public finance and it's
just something different. Um, I I work in long-term infrastructure investment and you just cut 3% off your operating budget every year. And that's not something that really works here. The state has put in this arbitrary cap of
only 2% every year. Of that cap, 75% of it went towards a healthcare. So, dollar for dollar at the end of at the end of this budget proposal, only 0.5 or so percent of our budget increase is actually going towards
programming, supplies, other things that aren't just completely an an increase for the um for the insurance. We should all be livid about that. But in the meantime, we also have to weigh the pros and cons of cutting cutting other resources. Mr. Canelis saved us a couple thousand
dollars on uh printing. And sorry if I came across strong on that before, but it's just something we can't get away from today or tomorrow. It's, you know, something t tactile for the students. other environments um in the past couple years. And I want to point out something
I think is the success of this budget cycle that we haven't really identified. There's no capital improvements in this pro in this budget. We have previously funded some pretty great improvements for the district and we've done it out of our out of our piggy bank when
there's other ways to convince the the public who came out and forced tonight and showed us that they care when they're listening to what we do to care and support what we want to do. There is no new press box at the football field right now. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen next year. And we don't control that. And I don't
think we should be funding that out of our operating budget that's capped at 2%. So if referendum's a dirty word, you're going to hear a lot more dirty words because that's a way to con convince the public that they understand what's actually happening and those are the ways that you improve the school
district. In in my view, this is the most robust budget conversation we've had. And I think that's why we're all kind of uncomfortable with it because we actually got into the the dirt of it and saw what what works and what doesn't work and what we don't like. I don't know that we can do much else to change
things without taking services away. And if you think anything other than the teachers are the most important thing in the classroom, you have three minutes to say that to everybody. Not us, but we have more than three minutes. But that's like that's the bottom. That's the last thing that
you can pull out of the classroom. We can we can cut paper, we can cut projectors, we can cut smartboards, but we're down to the to the people that convey the thoughts and ideas that we're trying to instill in the minds of the students that we're sending off into the world. So measures of last resort are
certainly on the table in the future. I think we've actually planned a balanced budget. Uh Mr. Canelis was consistently at the school 8:00 p.m. many many week nights when I was picking up my kids from wrestling practice. Uh I wouldn't
be staying that late at at work if I didn't have to. But he and he doesn't have to. So he's working um as hard as he can for us. I again really glad that people had the opportunity to see all of this. really glad the the opportunity to ask questions and I really genuinely
respect and want to champion what you've all said about challenging the the thing the dynamics that are pushing against us all but this isn't a ush versus us type of dynamic. It's just we have we have to fund the schools.
Um, yes. >> I just want to point out one item for clarity. Our tax levy is made up of two pieces. There's an operating budget levy and then there's the debt service. Our
operating uh budget levy is going up 6.26%. When you factor in our debt service, which is going down, way down, by approximately $23,000, that reduces the net tax levy increase
in totality to 5.62. So, I just want to make sure that that's clear. And that's down because the district uh was able to get some favorable rates in the U bond market to refinance some of our debt. Uh I just want that to to be out there that
that was yet another measure. Yes, we were required to do it by by by by law. Um but we we got it done in time for the budget to save the money. Uh so that I think is something that just for clarity
the increase to the net levy is 5.62%. >> Absolutely. Thank you. So this is the oldest scare tactic in the book. Uh you say, "Hey, you can't cut taxes because you want to cut teachers and you want to catch cut
services." If anybody here thinks that Angela Christine and I are looking to cut teachers or make bigger classes, they clearly don't don't know us. We have suggested and we have looked at suggestions on how to reduce the cut the
tax increase and the there was no response. I would say the the there was clear disregard of of what we suggested that the only answer was we're not changing a horse in the middle of the race. So the reality is that we did not look at everything and then at the end
you just saying hey you're just trying to cut teachers or or classes. So I just want to make sure that everybody understand that that's not what we suggested and my point exactly hocus is a bad example. So we do not want to compare us to hocus the there's
increased costs that are are extreme both on a hocus and in our district. So, I'm talking in our district. We have places to cut cost and reduce the tax burden. I don't think we're going to get to zero. I'm never asking to go to zero. I'm not saying we should go to four, but
there is a spot that we have to look at and and we are elected officials and it is our job to look at every line and to evaluate everything and we did not do that. >> Okay. Um so during the microbudget
meetings that we had um one of the things that you mentioned that you wanted to adjust was um where we were doing our spending on special education as like a as a as proof that we had I don't know been wasting money um
provided that that that data and and that wasn't I'm just I'm just curious because like the other part >> No so no that is I'm just saying I'm asking because you said your agenda. >> No, no, no, no. That that that was not the special education was not connected to the budget. My my point about special
education is is my understanding that we're spending >> in your email you did say that specifically the >> So here's what my what I want to say in special education we are spending money on legal instead of actually spending money on helping the kids. This is a concern that we heard from many parents
and and and I personally I'm seeing that and so my concern about special education is that the district is falling out to spend more money on uh lawyers and fighting parents rather than putting the money in special education
services. So that's why I'm trying to understand the cost of the uh special education and and the cost of um uh legal. It is not connected to trying to save money on special education. Just to clarify.
>> Okay. So I I'll take that clarification because in one of the emails you specifically stated that that was the reason why you were asking for the information for the budget. Um, but you were provided that information which you do you acknowledge that that you were provided that information the the exact
line item for legal fees with regards to the year-over-year for the past I I mean I I've shared it even at the meeting like that I and I sent you the email that showed you the exact line item because if it if we're talking about line by line we all have access to
the same lines in the budget. >> Okay. I I I Okay. All right. Fine. But I shared it in the email. I I shared I shared it I shared it actually at the meeting. >> Yes.
>> That discussion is not going to >> as a point of clarification. Mr. Cohen received line by line with every account that we budget to in the budget. What he is referring to, I believe, is the breakdown of the legal
bills by special ed case, >> but that's a separate conversation. As far as it relates to the budget, you have every line that we budget to and what exactly is in those lines as we spend them.
>> And again, I'm saying that I agree that I agree and what I said is that the discussion about the special education is not connected to the budget. So, I think we're all in agreement. Okay. Um, one of the other things that you had mentioned was that you wanted to be able to budget for a uh, middle school
principal in addition to um, high school like as part of, you know, like your the your agenda. I just want to understand from your budget expertise how we would be able to afford that decision. Should
should we be able to go into that direction in the future? How can we cut our actual budget and still be able to afford some of the things that you're saying that you want to implement? >> Are we having the conversation and considering the options? Because this is
not an option that we considered or like we we're open to doing this. So, >> but in essence it is it because >> so here's the answer. Cut some supervisors and save cost. Okay. Here's the answer that everybody knows and it's the elephant in the room that nobody's willing to say. No, it's it's so
when we talk about making sure that we want to move towards the achievement that we're saying that we want for our children, we we're we're talking about the things that not even just this administration, but the the the oper this the place where we're operating from with our
current school district. We have supervisors, right? We do have supervisors. Many of the districts around us also have supervisors, right? So, when we're talking about what we want to do to make sure that we're upholding and maintaining a certain level of achievement and we're cutting,
it's different when you're cutting. Many of the schools that are around us that are cutting positions and that are eliminating positions and restructuring, not aren't restructuring from a a positive place. They're restructuring because they can't close their budget. And like so now we have the opportunity
to turn around and say where do what what what is the profile of a graduate? What is it that Glenrock wants to be? What where is our strategic plan? So we get the opportunity to take and look at a strategic plan for where we're going in this school district with the
resources that we have because our resources are our our resources are people. Our our product is people and we're investing in people. Like that's that is what we're able to do here in Glenrock that many other places are not able to do. And it's not that we're not trying to be fiscally responsible. We
are absolutely every one of us is trying to be fiscally responsible. You know, I I'm just saying that that just the idea that this is just a line by line thing. It's not even like that because you can't even just say that, oh well, you know what? I just want to eliminate one position or I just want to eliminate
that position. And then there's there's there's all kinds of different rules that maybe members of the public aren't necessarily aware of. Um, but those are the things that go into that decision. So, if we're looking at how we're going to move our budget going forward and what we're going to do and like
anticipating still next year, we are anticipating a 25% increase. That's kind of like what we're baking it in. And if you're looking at what our based on our current budget with a 25% increase, are we likely to still be at five whatever
percent even if if we reduced our budget and then had a 25% increase, are we still at 5.6% next year potentially. So then what are you going to be uncomfortable with then? Like what are we going to cut? Like if we cut, we would still then have to cut and cut and cut because we if we aren't comfortable
at 5.6% 6% this year. Next year, we're also not comfortable at 5.6%. Who are we cutting that? >> I am uncomfortable of raising the taxes to the maximum amount just because we can raise it to the maximum amount. That's one thing. The second thing is
Glenrock survived for 90 years without supervisor and we were like the top 10 districts in the in the state for many many years without that. The third thing is I analyzed the supervisor salaries compared the Glenrock because all the numbers are available and now it's easier to analyze. I compared all the
numbers of Glenrock to uh every other district. Our spend on supervisors is the second highest in Bergen County compared to every other district on spend. So there is you have to find the right balance. I'm not saying that we need to go to 0% increase, but I'm
saying we shouldn't go to 2% increase just because we can. That's my point. >> Um, so Dan first, then Karen. >> I mean, just because it's open discourse. Um, >> if if there's something that I if there's a word that I could use to
describe the New Jersey Constitution, its legislative actions and public finance in general, it would be dishonest because what what this what the rules that we have to survive under uh create is this world of exemptions across all of everything. So we have
this mandatory process whereby we're capped to a 2% amount which is barely keeping doesn't keep up with inflation but there's an exemption for this. There's an exemption for that. There's a lot of a lot of law that comes into place into the conversations that we heard earlier tonight and it's all the
the constitution of the state of New Jersey has written a negative covenant. It outlaws things and then provides opportunity for people to explore those possibilities through exemption. This is just the structure under which we're we're getting into. This is not supposed to be a law class. I am not a lawyer. I
am not your lawyer. So just please take that for for what it's worth. The challenges that we have are that we're we are the governance that we operate under is limiting our opportunities. I I saw your your your stats, Mr. Cohen, and
I just don't think they're representative of what the actual dynamics that you're comparing them to are. There's other school districts that take money and they they I wouldn't use the word hide, but they they allocate their budgets in a way that thing that things are certainly different. Take a look at our neighbors. Maybe we should go back to Ridgewood. They're only
increasing three and a half%. But then again, they own our water utility and they can backfund into their school budget. So there's an apple to a ocean of apples comparison which makes all of this really kind of incomparable. I I do appreciate your interest in trying to find these uh these numbers and data,
but please recognize we're all cooperative here and that the questions I asked you a couple weeks ago to say, "Hey, how can I take your your comments and your questions and make them actionable were unanswered, but they were they were they were honest. I really wanted to hear
them because I think we can go somewhere together to really knock this one out of the park in the next year or two in Trenton where these changes can be made." Not here. we really can't do as much as I think we both want to do here if I'm hearing you correctly. So that
was my comment if Dr. Robson wants to take back. >> Yeah, I think I'm just struggling a little bit with the feeling like there is this lack of trust in this room and it it almost pains me to to see it and to feel it because I know how invested
people are in our schools and in making sure that they're successful. And I think You know what I've heard us do in the last year, 18 months is to really try and craft a go forward strategy.
And I think there is there's just a lack of trust somewhere. And I would love to try and solve for it at some point, but I get the feeling that people have spoken to the fact that this has been the most transparent budget process in the six
years they've been around. And yet there's like this resistance to the idea that people have been given the information that they need to make a recommendation or make a suggestion. And I think the other thing that maybe on my side that I'm I'm struggling a little bit with trusting others is feeling like
this was part of a campaign promise. Um and but I'm I'm speaking honestly. We said we were going to have an open forum and I was going to finish what I was saying because I was respectful to you and I would appreciate the same.
>> One moment. How so? How how was >> Yes, you can. >> Period. End of story. I'll finish right there. I feel like it was a campaign promise and you're finding an opportunity to make it come true. Thank you. >> So, and then you're asking why there's no trust. Because anything that other
people say, you are going after them. You're making stories about campaign promises. You're making story about firing teachers. Anything that is not under your agenda, you're you're going after people. And then you're asking why is there no promise? You have to look at the mirror and understand why is there no promise? No.
>> Have you ever heard me give an agenda when >> Yeah. >> I'm very sorry, but you are going to have to take a look in the mirror. Thank you. >> All right. Um, so I Well, I mean, so since Oh, yeah. You did. You did.
>> Did you want to speak to Angel? >> Um, in our meetings with James, I think we all made it. I will say I know I said if I'm going to accept this budget, I have to be able to go out into the neighborhood, go about my business, go places, and
look people in the eye and say, "You know what? This was the best that we could do." It's not that James sat here and said, "Oh, I can make it go up this much. That's what I'm going to do." I don't think that is the case. It's what was needed to be done in
order to maintain the quality that our community has come to ac come to expect from us and from our staff and what we want for the children that come through the doors for the Glenrock public schools. So, I I don't think it's it's
fair to say it's just we did it because we can. I think that is the furthest thing from the truth because I know when I see people and my friends and most of my friends do not have children in the district and they still live here. I have to look at them and say, you know what, this was what the best that we can
do in order to maintain the quality of education that my children and my husband were the were the beneficiaries of and I want that for other people's children. >> Yeah. So,
uh, sure. So, when you're inputting your budget into the state's budget software, there is a cap on administrative costs per pupil, and you cannot go over your state average. I invite everyone to look at
the taxpayers guide um to school uh uh I think it's called school budgets and you will see a comparison of the state's metric for assessing admin costs of which supervisors salaries are a part of
and we are under that percentage in every year and you cannot submit a budget that is over that number. So I just want to just point that out.
>> Thank you. I would also say um you know like when we looked at various line items with regards to even salary. Yes, we have all of this inflation that's going on with um you know like individual salaries. Obviously the health I wouldn't even call what's
happening with the health insurance plan inflation that it's it's going towards insolveny. It is not actually sustainable. Yes, we do have um a problem that Trenton needs to resolve, but they're going to reach the point where they have no choice but to resolve
it because school districts all over the state are are are increasingly in arars. So, it's not going to be like a a whether or not they're going to have to fix it. It's it has to happen. Um so
while uh those salaries while inflation is going on while we are looking at the cost of our own electricity at home as well as here there are areas where we've even been able to maintain uh you know a neutral budget would you say like with
regards to um like buildings and grounds uh Mr. Canelis that there's it's been flat compared to uh the inflation. So, building buildings and grounds has been flat since I arrived here.
>> Okay. And there about $800,000 in in in cuts that were made and and again, I know that it's a line by line item that is in the budget that you pres presented to us. >> So, the way I have traditionally done budgets is that I put I create a budget
that has everything that we want. Okay. When we put that budget together, we had to reduce that budget by $800,000 in order to get us into uh con conformity with the tax levy caps.
>> Okay. Thank you. And yes, during our uh micro budget meetings, those are the items that we did go over and the things that we did go over. Um yes, um we are left with cutting programs and people next. Um, yes, you have expressed that
you uh have a desire to cut the supervisors and yes, we are saying that I think we're about to vote and then make the determination as to whether or not um the board wants to actively cut the budget,
the tentative budget. So, if we're ready Yes. >> I just want to uh there like my head is full right now swimming with so many different ious from so many great points that have been made here. Um, I struggled with my decision. I just want
that out there. Um, but there are districts out there that we know uh they got a full 6% added from the state and they're still making cuts in areas that they have deemed that they
could afford to lose without affecting student programs. I asked in a budget meeting um I I feel fiscally responsible. I needed to be able to say to the public that we did scrutinize and can we just come a little bit under what
they are the state is allowing us to take the max and there were conversations. It was a great conversation. Thank you. And then I got a um an email that reflected something very different than I had anticipated. I
wasn't expecting the email, but thank you for the email. So, when I saw something that went to a totally different shift, I said, "Now, wait a minute. That was not what we had the conversation about in our our micro
meeting." Um, so push comes to shove. I still feel that there is room without affecting programs for students. We have um levels. I I don't know. I forgot to ask you if we
start with a zerobased budget. >> Okay. I I unfortunately I never saw a presentation for a preliminary budget. So for me, the visual person that I am, I thank you for the sheets that you sent me. Um but it still wasn't enough for
me. uh only because like I said I feel that in my opinion I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone else I would have liked to have seen more areas different areas where we could have maybe just come down
a little bit just to say that we did do and I know you said that we saved $800,000 I respect that but there might have been more and that's the only thing that I have to say that that's the reason why I just felt that there were a couple of things that could have been
addressed that weren't addressed. Maybe in the past we spent too much somewhere else. I don't know. I'm not going backwards. I want to look forward. I outside of that this is going to be repetitive year after year. So, I wasn't looking for a massive reduction. I was just looking for something to be able to
say to the taxpayers. And yes, I do love our educational programs. Anyone who thinks that as an educator for 40 years that I don't care about kids if I don't vote for a budget is sadly mistaken. So those are the reasons why I mean I really did struggle yesterday. I was
saying yeah I'm going to vote for this even though it's not you know exactly what I had hoped for and then my head was going again and I said no I cannot justify when there might be might be a little room for something else. That's it. But I don't think anybody that's
here at this table would I I mean in the sport I would say that doesn't care about kids. So we can we all we all do. We're here. Okay. All right. Um additionally when and I'm just asking like when we say like a little room or a
little save it's like a little bit of what people are able to bring home food for their family. So when it's more than just like a little room or a little save like at this point we know that what we're talking about is people and so
you know I I just ask like because you said that there was potentially you know like a little bit more that could have been done or that you feel could have been done and I think that we were talking explicitly about like what those things may be you know like like there was a mention about about asking about
supervisors and things like that. So all of the asks that I saw that Dan made in terms of what we should have done with the budget differently than what we have presented were also asking for certain specific things. Yes, there were certain specific um requests that were
made um with regards to a specific group of people, but outside of that I I didn't I didn't see anything. Um so all right. Yeah. Again, for clarifying purposes,
our budget is balanced on 1.3 million of excess. So, what that means is is we can't balance our budget without throwing in savings. So, to cut and cut and cut and cut, it's just going to
create a hole. And the taxpayer is the beneficiary. Let me finish please. Of those excesses which goes to Mr. Corey uh is how we've been able to fund various improvements
without going the referendum way. And this that's just a a point of clarification not not a point of debate. >> All right. Um Joe and then we'll vote. Just want to clarification earlier com I
didn't understand you were saying the ratio of admin when you submit a budget cannot be above the average of the state I don't want to really understand it mathematically not everybody someone has
to be above the average for average to exist right >> so so what happens yeah >> is there are three averages that are put out by the state >> um for admin in spending and it is expressed as a cost per student. Okay,
we cannot put in a budget into the state system that puts us over. You just can't do it. There are places that may go over
that that number, but they can't put a budget in that does not conform with that cap. So, it's it's it's very simple. I forget what the number is. I think it was 43 something. I could be wrong on that. Don't quote
me. We are under it. We can set in our budget. It's just a fact. It's not up for it's it's not up for debate. It's it's it's a fact. We are below the number to be below the number. >> Let's say it's average is $100. If
everybody submit let's going to debate what's published by the state of New Jersey. Look up the taxpayers guide to school budgets and you will see all of the data explained to you on a macro and micro level.
>> Yeah, Joe, I had the same question. >> It's I I only understand that we really all nine of us need to go to Trenton and argue this together because it um the state gets to make its own calculations very often and too often including in uh calculations that go into the healthcare
exemption too. Not to change the topic, but um but the way the way I understood it is that the the when we budget under this average, other districts budget according to according to this average, but then also find a way to actually redirect other
nonbudgeted line items to that spend which may increase the average that average in the end. >> Yeah, >> it's still how can everybody be under the average? That doesn't make any sense. right there. Welcome to New Jersey. It's
>> the way things >> anyone can can explain this to a first grader. How can everybody's number be under the average? >> So, one happy to connect you with whatever resources that are necessary
for one us to talk about that in the future. No, but we're not explaining in one minute. How can everybody's number be below the average number? >> How's that mathematically? >> You can go. >> Maybe maybe just to help clarify. Um,
>> the state puts I I'd call it more like controls in the software if I think using the word average is not the right word. >> That's not my word. It's James. >> No, no, no, no. Let me finish. >> Just listen. Listen. >> Cost per student. Cost >> we can we can rewatch the video. Who
said it's okay? It's okay. >> You did say stop. Wait. >> Yes. >> Everybody, please. There are controls in the system that don't let you spend over a certain amount per administrator. Those controls are shown by average cost
per student. So, when you have a number of administrators, you multiply or divide by the number of students. There there's an average cost calculated for the district, not each administrator and calculated for the district
that you can't go beyond. >> So it's average. >> So So to say it a different way, if we hired 10 more administrators, we'd go way over that average and we wouldn't be able to hire them and we couldn't. >> So So now you're talking the average per student is divided by student number, not not average.
>> Don't quote me on the exact formula, but we can look that up. If you'd like to look up two different numbers, right? >> Correct. That's why you're thinking, >> but it's a control as opposed to an average. >> Right. >> So, Right. So, this is right. Yeah. >> The software puts a break on you,
>> right? >> A lot just happened just now. One, we really have to figure out how to treat each other better with better respect. Um, it's a it's just a must. It's a must.
It's it's difficult for all of us to be up here. It's difficult. And yes, we can we can absolutely highlight um areas where we think that we're differing and and that hey, if you think I'm wrong or I think you're wrong, like absolutely say it. I'm not saying don't say those
things. Um but being able to teach treat each other with respect and without condescension is a absolute requirement. And so, you know, like I won't put I I I if I was James, I would have felt a certain kind of way about what just happened,
right? So, just please consider how we treat each other, how we treat our administration, and, you know, act accordingly. Thank you. I'm ready to vote. I think at this point, we are all at the point where we're not going to be able to um,
you know, do more. Mr. Canalis, if you can, >> Mr. Cohen. No in B1. Yes to everything else. >> Mr. Corey. >> Yes. On the B items. >> Mr. Hayward. >> Yes.
>> Miss Palamus. >> No on B1 and yes on the rest of the B's. >> Dr. Poochie Bender. >> No on B1 and yes on B2 through eight. >> Miss Stevenson. Yes,
>> Mr. Tang. >> No on B1 and yes on the rest. >> Miss Calves. >> Yes, >> Dr. Robinson. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve
resolutions P1 through P10? Dan Corey. Seconded by anybody. Uh said, "Sorry, you are somebody. You are somebody." Uh, discussion on P1 through P10. All right. I would also um
like to go into a roll call, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes. >> Miss Parlamus, >> yes. >> Dr. Dr. Puchi Bender. >> Yes. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes.
>> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Motion to affirm the decision made in GRMS HIB 304215, GRMS HIB 3041000,
and GRHS HIB 304524 as reported by the acting chief school administrator during the March 2nd, 2026 close work session meeting. All right. Can I have a motion? Liz Calv
seconded by Ed Hayward. If we're able to call roll, please >> can you repeat the motioner, please? >> Uh motion to affirm the decision made. >> No, no, not the motion. Who was the motion? >> Oh, sorry. I was like, okay, >> I have almost got caught in this.
>> No worries. Mr. Cohen, >> I'm recusing myself. >> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes. >> Miss Palamus, >> yes. >> Dr. Pooie Bender, >> yes. Miss Stevenson. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Mr. Tang. >> Yes. >> Was the one we talked about last >> last week, right? >> Yes. For me, >> Miss Calves. >> Yes. >> Dr. Robinson. >> Yes. >> Motion passes.
>> All right. We see our evangelism suspension and hip reports there. Um, down to old business. So, committee structure. Um, this is the the way that I would like to look at the next like two meetings. Um,
one I sent out an email. Um, one of them had um a a proposal that u Mr. Cohen uh came up with and and then I also included um correspondence from Miss McNabola about the uh committee
structure that we had in the past. Also of note is that um in that committee structure they had a personnel uh committee and that was mainly um something that just really is not recommended um for the reasons that she
stated. Um I think that we can have like a I guess a brief discussion as to what we want from the committees and and yes um lead that discussion Mr. Cohen and um what would happen I think at the next
meeting at our cow meeting we're going to have a much more detailed um proposal for the committee and then come to a decision and then put that on the next um meeting. So go ahead Mr.
>> Thanks. Uh just to clarify what I did, I I looked at uh what we had as a policy and I looked at uh what other towns around us that has that have committees what they have and I tried to take the best of everything plus what Dr. Robinson had in her instructions. So I
try to put everything and and came up with that. After that u you send the old version of what they had. So I added it in the comments not to make a change. So I wrote um everything that I found that
was missing. I said note all the version had that. So we can add it. We can not add it. I I don't have any strong feeling about anything. H but here and then uh Parlame Mr. Palmus and and Stevenson had some comments and suggestions. Again open to everything or
any changes. Uh but just to clarify why I added the uh old version that's based on what uh was sent to us. >> Um the one one of the questions that I have at the bottom it said um like the agenda items for the committees
would then be determined by the chair of each committee. Then it feels like with all of the committees that we have it would just allow for it would feel a little chaotic. How how do you see that? What what was your thought process there?
So it also so two things one I just took and I looked at other districts and all of them had that um but again if you don't think that that's good for us we can take it out that's like the second part is it does allow for other board uh
board members of that committee to add suggestions and add and and and force their items into the committee. So that's how it addressed but if >> you know if we have no no if we have any suggestion I again I'm not married to any of the suggestion I just trying to
take the best of what I've seen in other districts. >> Okay. All right. Um All right. Anybody else any thoughts? Go for it. Um about the committees, uh the superintendent is noted in your
committees as having I mean creating or being a part of creating the agenda for the committee meeting. >> Did you note that? >> Yes. And the superintendent and the presidents are there's X factor like members of the
>> I think she's asking for >> they can put an agenda. Yes. >> No, for the committee meeting. >> For the committee meetings. So it should be a dual because obviously I believe the superintendent has a lot to >> Yes, it says that specifically the the agenda will be decided by the chairperson in consultation with the
superintendent. >> Okay. I just wanted to be sure that the superintendent drives a lot of that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And I guess um well one thing since you worked with committees James, right?
How how like I guess how did committees work there with regards to like decision- making like when when when decisions come out of committee how does that how does that work like if you vote if you if you disagree on something in the committee and then it comes out of
committee what what would that look like what is your it came out of committee work like if it comes out of your committee and >> I don't know >> I will preface my answer with Um the boards that I have had experience with
were typically on the same page. >> Okay. >> Things that came out of committee were considered uh essentially passed by the committee otherwise they wouldn't have made it out of committee and then they go to the full board vote.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. So from past experience um items that were going to be discussed in committee um a lot were generated from superintendent's intentions for future uh resolutions.
>> Uh maybe programs or staffing or um programs would be the best example, right? and and then if there were any kind of um surveys that were done that needed responses then it was the superintendent really who drove the
committee meeting. >> But then so I guess no I get that part. I think I want to know and kind of figure out a way to make sure that committees will suit the board going forward. For instance, let's just take today um
and like the arms arming the guards kind of situation. Say we had a different structure and we were in a in a a committee structure and we have um a sec a committee that also deals with security and then decides to have a discussion like the four people that
were in that committee. A decision was made. It comes out of committee. Maybe some of the people agreed with it, some didn't, but it comes out of committee and now gets presented to the board as the committee's recommendation. >> So, so the way I would have done it would have been that it was discussed in
finance because there's cost. It would have been discussed in personnel committee >> so that different board members are getting the same information from the superintendent. It might have been discussed. I'm trying to think in what other committees, right? That finance uh personnel.
>> But how do we how does the board deal with the conflict? How would the board deal deal with the conflict in that situ? >> What kind of conflict? >> Like if they if if you if it was your committee like when I say I know that there's overlapping things because it's going to be cost and like you have to share that information. But if the
decision to arm or not to arm a guard came out of your committee and say the majority said that they let's just say that the majority said that they didn't want to do it and maybe you're on the side that does want to do it.
How does that like when you're presenting? Okay, this came out of committee. The committee recommends we don't do something but you feel differently. Do you then >> special special committee then? No, I think I think what Somali is asking is if it goes if it's in
committee and it's not unanimously supported. Correct. And then it comes out of committee. >> Y >> how is that handled? >> Well, I think in >> correct is that what you're really the superintendent and the board president would have a dialogue of some sort because
>> but then as a board what do we do? Are we going to then you know like okay yeah you didn't get your way you you know like you didn't get your way and then it came it comes out of committee but but the process is that it was recommended because the majority in the committee said like this is the best thing
>> I don't think I would have it as the committee making the recommendation I think I would have it as the committee having the conversation and then having um >> part we had this conversation >> so then committees don't usually make recommendations as to what to do like if
there was a committee on like the middle school start, you know, or like anything. They don't make a recommendation or should >> we had it was more that it was coming out of the superintendent's office or because the superintendent really >> should run the >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> I think there's different types of
committees too. So like with late start, you might have an ad hoc committee that you ask to study this and come back with recommendations. So it could be either. >> Okay. All right. And that's a delicate one, right? So got it. Thank you. All
right. So, I guess like we'll take a look um at at the link that um link document that Bo has uh initiated. I think that we should all make comments and make um a proposed decision for us to then discuss at the cow and then the
cow meeting will actually like determine what that document is and then it'll be on the you know first read you know second read uh scenario. Any questions? All right. Um, so new business.
>> I I have another >> Oh, go old business. >> Oh, go for it. >> Um, I would just like to ask Mr. Van Nest if he could give us an update on I know you had some exciting findings or updates on the later school start time. Um, if you can share that with everybody.
>> Um, as I wrote in the email today, um, I had a meeting with the chief of police and his staff. Uh, Mr. McCory was there to talk about um traffic patterns and crossing guards and those kinds of things. I had another meeting scheduled uh with administration to talk about, you know, our next steps in that
committee, but we had to cancel that because of an illness and so we'll get that rescheduled as soon as we can. >> Thank you. Right. Um so our next meeting date is April 6. Um and then uh we will open for Oh, go Oh, yes.
>> Sorry. I have some new business. Cool. >> Um, I wanted to suggest that we perhaps take a photo for 2026 of the board that we can put on the website. I thought that would be nice. We had it last year and and it might be appropriate to do
it. So, maybe we could schedule that at some point. >> Yes, if we can if we can schedule another picture. And then I also wanted to just follow up to an email I sent to the board and um it was a very busy week last week and I
had overwhelming response of zero. Um but I had watched another board of ed. I guess this is what I do for fun these days but I watched another board of ed and they had this is for the um video team the media team. Um when they had a break like we had you know today at
today's meeting our screen goes just totally black. And my suggestion, and I was hoping that maybe you guys thought it might be um a nice addition, is instead of a black screen, having the screen have a QR code that goes to the
agenda that of the meeting that we are actively in or go to um our website or list, you know, who's on the board of ed and who our BA is and who our superintendent is ra anything rather than a black screen just to give it a little more context and make it a little
bit more interactive for the people whoever the few people that do watch our board of end meetings you know they can have a little bit more context any thoughts since I didn't get any >> um I guess doesn't sound uh crazy to me did did
anybody see the the email or whatever um I guess I'll bring it to uh I'll ask you to just take a look at the email and see if it's something that you know Yeah, if I get I I thought I read it. I thought it was a good suggestion, but I
think with everything else going on that it just immediately >> No, no, no. I didn't I'm not criticizing not not left. I'm saying that's a new med, you know, just >> I can I I don't know why it is, but I can't seem to finish a sentence. I'm just struggling with I speak and
then all of a sudden I'm spoken over. So, I really wasn't done speaking, but thank you for the suggestion, and I do feel like it's something that we should put on a list, but prioritize it appropriately. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. So, we'll find out more
information about that and then um get back to you. All right. But we'll have I'll find out a date for the picture and then we'll go from that. And then I think I mean Typically, this would also be a little bit of a communications thing. So, I think asking um you know,
like Tara like what that might look like or what what I don't know if that's like a thumbnail on our like because we we use YouTube so I actually don't know what that even would look like. Um so, >> Dr. Robinson, it's typically done by the yearbook staff when they're starting to
prepare the yearbook. >> Okay. All right. So, more to follow. All right. So, on to our second of two public comments. If you're able to name yourself and your address and you have
three minutes. I don't see anybody. 10:34 open and closed. Um, and now I'm ready for a motion to adjourn. Um, Karen seconded by Ed. All those in favor?
>> I. >> Any opposed? Crickets. We are adjourned.