Mr. Canelis, if you can call a roll, please. >> Mr. Cohen >> here. >> Mr. Corey, >> present. >> Mr. Hayward >> here. >> Miss Parlamus >> here.
>> Dr. Poochie Bender >> here. >> Miss Stevenson >> here. >> Mr. Tang >> here. >> Miss Calves >> here. >> Dr. Robinson >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> All right. >> Miss Calv, can you lead us through the
flag salute, please? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Adequate notice of meeting in accordance with Open Public Meetings Act PL 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 as noted. The mission statement, the 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.
Can I get a motion to open the public hearing? Miss Stevenson, seconded by Mr. Hayward. If we um all those in favor >> I >> any opposed. >> All right.
>> Motion passes. We are uh in our public hearing. >> All right. >> Yeah. Go. You want me to or? Yeah. So, um Mr. Canelis is going to present mostly in on the budget. I'm going to jump in at maybe one or two slides, but
he's uh prepared this presentation for you and for the public to understand uh our budget in in a much greater sense of of what we've presented in the past month or two. Um nothing that we have that we're talking about tonight has changed as far as the draft budget that was approved in March. Um but this is
just a little bit more information for all of you. Mr. Kennelis, >> thank you, Mr. Vaness. So, everyone, welcome to our public hearing. Um, I thought we would start um, a little bit differently than we've started most of our budget hearings. Um, in that
sometimes when we talk about budgets, you know, we get caught up in numbers and economics, sometimes even politics. Um, and so I wanted to refocus us to look at what our budget really looks
like when it's executed upon. Diamond. He knows where the diamond 4 3 2 1 Good morning. I'm Austin on Monday and make sure you grab your Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. So, while that only kind of featured our middle school and high school, um there are amazing things going down in our elementary school. But these four people along with Mrs. uh uh Verbbleck uh
responded to a call on Friday and put this together for me on very short notice. So, um, thank you to them and, uh, I hope you get a little bit of an insight because in that video we saw many of the things that are in our budgets, whether it's technology, programs, our teachers, um, our
facilities, all of which were presented quite nicely um, in that video. So, thank you very much. So tonight's agenda um we're we're going to give you an idea of uh basically the the entire budget process uh the numbers
how we came to the decisions we came to what were the the the stressors that were in play what was the climate um what were the pressures where were the pain uh uh points of pain. So we want to go through it and and give you as best
an understanding as possible. So, and to do that, we're going to go through about 10 different sections here. So, first we're going to talk about budget objectives. Um, we're then going to have a brief conversation of New Jersey budget legislation, uh, which is very important to have an understanding of
because where we are is a direct correlation, um, with some of legislation that's come out of Trenton. We're then going to talk about what our budget process looks like and give you a 30,000 foot idea of our budget. Um we're then going to jump into revenues. We'll
jump into expenditures. Um we'll talk about the tax impact on the community. Um we'll talk about fund balance and reserves. Uh this is really where we're going to be talking about the financial stability of the district as we move forward. Um we're then going to talk
about our debt service fund and then we're going to talk about some multi-year financial planning uh to the extent that we can do uh long-term planning um at a school district. We're going to kind of talk about some of the things that are going through our heads um so that you can have an idea of where
we may be headed moving forward and then we're going to have questions. All right. So, these are our budget objectives. Um so, our number one objective was to develop a budget that was in compliance in the soft 2% cap um along with the associated cap
adjustments. So, we're going to talk about this at nauseium tonight. Um but that was our number one goal to to to to prepare a budget that met the 2% cap. Um our second goal was that we wanted to maintain all of our programs. Uh that
was very important to us uh from the beginning. Um we wanted to decrease our reliance on fund balance or excess surplus. That's that's savings in uh our budget years that is used to balance future budgets. Um and you'll see how
we've been systematically bringing it down every year which adds to the financial stability of the of the district. Um number four and number two are very closely um interrelated in that we wanted to maintain our class sizes
and we didn't want any impact on our current uh headcount. We didn't want any increase or decrease in staff and and and why they're inter interrelated because if we were to reduce staff, the likely result is a reduction in our
programs and we want to keep the programs that we have because we think that they are essential to the overall Glenrock experience on a on the class size um domain. Um right now we average between uh 18 and 19 students per class. uh in
our elementary school and we and we feel that that's important uh for our younger learners and we want to continue that. Um Dr. Vaness, do you want to talk a little bit about the next couple? >> Sure. So, uh, one of the things that we
talk about frequently here when we're talking about maintaining our high level programming and staffing are are some of the the non traditionally academic things like social and emotional learning, um, professional development for our staff. Um and and that tiered
instruction that we're talking about a lot, you know, that how are we supporting all students, not just the general ed, not just the kind of middle of the road kids, but our gifted and talented kids, our kids that need BSI and other other supports of of that nature. Um when it comes to like actual academics, we're also expanding our AP
offerings to include AP Chinese, AP Seminar, which will lead to an AP capstone project u class. Um AP business and AP cyber security. We we offer a tremendous number of AP classes, especially for for a high school the size of ours. You know, we we keep talking about the programming and and
the high level that we expect here in Glenrock and and and this budget provides for that. You know, we we can still be very proud of of what we're doing. Um I think you all see kind of in the news right now a lot of schools having to trim back, having to cut, having to cut bigger class sizes, things like that. And we're we're very fortunate to to have this this
responsible budget that that allows us to maintain what we have and continue to build on what we have. And I know that uh Mr. Canel will talk much more about facilities and infrastructure and all those kind of things, but that that's part of our our care also. We have we have older buildings here that we're we're making sure that we're we're
making maintaining and and making work as as long as we can. But uh turn it back over to you to keep going. >> Sure. So, we'll pick up on uh number nine. So, we we Whoops. We wanted to make sure that we had the uh required resources needed uh for the new science
curriculum uh that is being launched. So we make sure we have the resources for that. And we also felt it was very important that we continued our relationship with Sunday and the phonics program uh that we implemented I believe last year um if not the year before. Uh
so and we have cursive coming so we need to prepare for that as well. Um hopefully I'll be able to sit into one of those classes because my cursive is horrible. Um we also want to maintain the district facility initiatives that we started. So, uh, this past year we,
uh, approved phase one of an RTU replacement plan, um, where we're doing, uh, I believe it's four units, uh, this summer. Um, and we want to be able to continue that because there are still more that need to be replaced. >> An RTU is a >> rooftop unit. That's how we get uh, air
exchange into our buildings, both heat and air conditioning. Sorry. Uh, we also wanted to replace our bottle fillers. there's an opportunity where that may be funded by grants, but if we don't get the grant, we wanted to make sure that we could still do uh the bottle fillers,
continuing with phase three of our sinks and cabinet project. That's down at the elementary school, as well as continuing our painting uh four-year plan where we were going to be able to paint every elementary uh classroom and then put ourselves on a rotiss rotating basis so
that we always have nicely painted classrooms. Um the environment means everything as as our younger younger learners um come into our buildings. Um item 11 uh we actually completed before
the budget process started. Um health insurance is going to be a very dominant theme in my presentation tonight. And the very first thing we did was we we we investigated whether or not we had alternatives to the New Jersey state educators uh insurance plan. And so the
way you do that is is you get your claims rate. We got our claims rate to see how good of a pay we were and we weren't a very good pay at all. Um and we were unattractive in the uh in the health insurance space and so we were
not able to get out of the state plan. We'll talk more about that as we move along, but that was an alternative that we investigated back into the fall and determined that we didn't really have many options. And then last, I think any budget presentation should always make sure that you have some kind of stability on a go forward basis that
we're setting ourselves to succeed, not to fall. So, let's jump right into it and let's talk about some budget requirements in statute. When I came into school business, it used to stress me that everybody always
began with a a a source in the code and now I'm doing it. So, um bear with me. NJSA 18A1 17F through 37 and sequium is where you can file all of this information that we're about to present. The state of New Jersey has a 2% soft
tax levy cap. What that means is is that you can increase your tax levy by 2% above what it was in the previous year. What does that mean for Glenrock? It means about $1.1 million based on uh last year's uh budget of 54
$55 million. So, we have that million dollars that we could increase our tax levy, not the tax rate, the tax levy. Um, but the legislature also recognized that there would be time where we needed adjustments where costs would increase
at a rate that were not sustainable by the 2%. And so, there are about three or four of them. So, the first one is bank capped. So bank cap is really easy to understand is if you do not go all the way up to 2% the delta between what you
raise taxes to be versus what was allowable is allowed to be carried forward for three budget years. Okay. This year we don't have any bank cap in Glenrock. So that's not a part of our number this year. Um, if your enrollment
were to increase uh by more than a threshold set by the state, more students to educate, that's going to cost more. The state will allow us to adjust our tax rate for that. We do not have that in play this year.
The next one is a acred pension liability. If for some reason uh we were behind in our pension payments, which we're not, we might be able to get an adjustment for that. We are not in that position and therefore that's not at play this year. But what is at play is
an incredible increase in healthcare costs. So what's in front of you is the actual screen in the budget software. Um and it goes through the calculation of what you are entitled to take as a health
insurance adjustment to your cap. And essentially in a nutshell it says you can have everything but 2% of the increase in your premium and then you take that increase and apply it to last year's
budget. So in this case uh the state says that they increased uh 31.9% our insurance premium. So if we take 29.9% of last year's health insurance budget, that is our cap. So our cap is about
$2.3 million. So very simply, our health insurance costs went up $3.2 million. The state says we could take a $2.3 million adjustment on cap, leaving $835,000
to be funded by the 2%. Now, if you remember, I said the 2% is only $1.1 million, and there's $800,000 of that gone. So, how did we get to our increase on our operating budget this year? Well, if you take that $2.3 million and you
put it over last year's uh tax uh levy, you get 4.26%. To that 4.26%, you add the 2% that we're entitled to take, and you get a 6.26 26 percentage increase on the tax levy in our
operating budget. So that's where we are on our operating budget and it's completely driven by health care costs. So why are health insurance premiums increasing the way they are? It's the exodus of districts with healthy claim
rates from the state plan. So, if you remember when we were talking about objectives and I said we tried to uh get out of the state plan by looking at our claims rate and our claims rate is is merely defined as what we've paid out or the fund has paid out to third party providers divided by what we've
collected in premiums. Okay, the industry would like an 85% number there. We are at 130%. And because we're in the state plan, we don't get a lot of data about our insured souls, of which there's about
289 of them. So, we don't know what drugs that anyone is on. We don't know what the prognosis of some of the illness that may be going on. We don't know if it's going to be prolonged illness, short-term illness. Obviously, we wouldn't know names, but you could know prognosis. So, we really kind of
fly blind being in the state plan. So we don't know if that 130% is where we would normally be under normal conditions or are we in a spiked period of time and then that what might be followed by a valley. We don't know.
What I can tell you is is that we've been asking for our claims rate now every year that I've been here for the last three and it's always been in that 125 to 131%. So that's kind of where we are and that's unattractive to the current insurance markets for us to
leave and have our own plan. So the state plan is a conglomerate of bad pays and so therefore the premiums are high. Uh there's some improvements that can be made on plan design within the state. So
for instance the formulary is very large. It also includes GLP1s um for weight loss. Uh that is driving a lot of our cost that is also becoming available orally now which we think and our
insurance uh advisors believe that may increase the level of usage because now you don't have to give yourself a shot. So we could work on the formulary to possibly in uh uh improve performance. We could mandate generics uh drugs. we
could um work with our co-pays. So the co-pays on some of our plans have not changed in many many years. And if you actually uh apply the time value of money, they're actually in the hundreds of dollars of what like direct 10 was 15
20 years ago. So, we're not saying that we should have a couple hundred dollar co-pay, but we're just saying that those are the pressures we're seeing on the overall insurance fund and driving some of the increased costs. We could limit specialists. Um, so those are all things
we could do if we were in charge, but we're not in charge. We are uh really uh subject to what the state decides uh it wants to include or not include in its plans. Um, and then we just we we all see this and no matter what line of work
you're in, just a general increase in health care costs. They're rising. It's expensive. Um, you have prescription drugs that are skyrocketing as companies try to make back their research and development money. And we also have litigation that's obviously putting a pressure on our costs.
And then we have uh the way we determine what our employees contribution to their health benefits is. So we have chapter 44 and we have chapter 78. So under chapter 44 which is the newer of uh the the contribution methods you pay based
upon a percentage of your salary and basically everyone who's in chapter 78 they pay a portion of the premium. The state is forced everyone who started
working after July 1 of 2020 to be in the chapter 44 plans. The lower they were at when they first launched they were much lower cost and much lower contribution compared to the chapter 78 plans. So we have everybody being forced
into those plans and that was great until the premiums on those plans also began to rise in the double digits. So, as premiums increase, if you're only getting a portion of the salary of an
individual, you're getting less and less contribution. So, let's put some real hard numbers. Prior to January 1 of 2026, every time we ran payroll, we got about 18.5% uh contribution towards benefits. Now,
after the 32% increase in benefits, we're only seeing 13% of a contribution. So, costs are increasing and contributions are decreasing. Not a good place to be. Um, here in Glenlock, about
88% of our staff is on a chapter 44 plan, up from 60% last year. Well, why is that happening? Because the legacy 78 plans are so expensive and you share the premium. So they're migrating over to the chapter 44 plans where there's a
significant increase in premium but only a small increase in the contribution to that plan by the employee. So it's it's a real double whammy and and and it's it's not only something that here in Glenrock we're seeing. This is being
seen all across the state. Well, the good news is that chapter 44 sun sets on December 31st of 2027. I said good news, but it could be bad news. We don't know what happens then. Uh so stay tuned. Hopefully they the the
the Trenton can come up with a way that is uh a bit more sustainable uh for school districts. All right, let's talk about the process. Um and so the the process is driven by voice in that everybody has a voice in
our budget. It's not just uh some spreadsheet that gets developed in the business office. We work with all of our stakeholders internally and with the board to make sure that we have a budget that we feel is um fiscally responsible and addresses the needs of students. So,
we begin uh way back in late October and we provide all of our principles and department heads uh budget worksheets um where they build a bottoms up or zerobased budgeting and they tell us what they need to run their building with the programs that they uh envision.
Okay. Um during that time in October, the superintendent and myself sat down and we identified what are the larger initiatives that we wanted to accomplish in 2627 and how would we go about that including staffing levels and once we know what
our initiatives are and we know the programs that we want to offer, what is our um requirement in terms of headcount to meet that and then we cost out what those individuals cost us based upon our uh existing collective bargaining
agreements in November. Uh typically around Thanksgiving, uh the budgets from the department heads and bud and principles are due and we begin to review those. Uh we aggregate those into our total budget
and then we begin to add in the non department head areas, things that are really controlled by the business office like insurance, like out of district place placements, uh substitutes, aids, things of that nature that really don't necessarily fall under one department
only, but kind of span the entire district. So we put that together and then in very late November we had our first budget committee meeting and what we did at that meeting was is we gave a bird's eye view of what we thought the cost drivers were going to be and what
the net impact was going to be on the levy. We were pretty darn close um in November uh because we knew what was coming in terms of the healthcare increase that took place on January 1 of 2026. And so we pretty much were able to
give folks an understanding of where we were going and what were the in assumptions that we were making in our budget to move forward. Um, we then put together uh our proposed budget internally over the winter holidays. And when we came back, we had budget
meetings with all of our principles and department heads where each one of them then had to defend the budget that they presented to us. And we also then gave them some insight on some of the central office type uh expenses that they were
be um allocated. So, how many substitutes they have, how many lunch aids they were getting, how many uh onetoone aids they were they would have in their building. Once we approved their budgets, uh we then had another budget committee
meeting uh where we went through with a bit more specificity of what was into the what was in our budget, what the tax impact was going to be, what we had cut to balance our budget, um and how we thought it would move forward from
there. Um in February we gave the entire budget to the board of education for their review. And then through the month of February we held what we were calling micro budget meetings with um different groups of uh um board members um and
going through the budget in a very granular level and trying to explain where we were and why we were there. Uh that brought us to our tentative budget approval in March. budget was uh passed and we submitted it to the uh
county for review. Um in April we got back that uh those budgets. Um I'm happy to say that Mr. Van Nest once again on the curriculum side got a hole in one and I got my first hole-in-one on the operations side meaning that the county did not have any comments for us on
anything we did. Um and now we're here tonight to approve our final budget. Let's talk about 30,000 ft. You have to start with enrollment. How many kids, how many students are we going to be educated? And our enrollment is essentially flat at around 200 students.
That's where we've kind of been since I've been here. It also sort of kind of uh uh tracks very well with the demographers report that we had commissioned last year and sort of it projects our uh enrollment over the next five years based upon developments in
town, survival rates, and things of the sort. So, we're we're right we're we're right on track of where we believe we should be. Um, and that's flat with our biggest uh jump in any one school being Hamilton at 11 students.
All right. Very high level. Our operating budget, as I explained to you, has is gone up 6.26%. 2% everything 4.26% health insurance.
We do have another tax levy and that's our debt service levy. We're going to talk about that a little bit more in detail later, but basically that are that is our um borrowings on long-term bonds that supported various capital improvements over the year. We currently
have two bonds that are outstanding. Because we had the opportunity last year to refinance our 2016 refunding bonds, we were able to lower the debt service levy by about $200,000. And that's why
you see a negative 7.66% there on the total levy. When you combine the two, you get a net levy of 5.62. That is what total taxes in Glenrock will be increasing next year. And again,
we're above the 2% cap, but all costs other than health insurance were balanced within the 2% limit. Some some key budget drivers here. Um we could see uh state aid, which is the money we get from the state of New Jersey to run our programs, is essentially flat. We got
about another $50,000. Um you can see our health insurance surge of third uh $3.17 million. You can see uh we do have some budgeted capital uh improvements um which are those rooftop units I had
explained earlier, the bottle fillers, our cabinets. Um th those are the those initiatives that will be collected or were collected via previous year's taxes and have no impact on our current taxes. Um, we saved some money on outof
district students this year. Uh, we have 11 fewer students, special ed students that are going out of district and that saved us $73,000. That is the key to balancing our budget this year because with that I was able to almost recapture
100% of the health insurance $800,000 that I needed to recoup. So, thank goodness we had that. And that's a a very unpredictable number year by year as our students flow through the system. We have students that move, students that graduate, students that come back
in district. Um and so we we the cards broke in our favor. Um and and we took advantage of that. Uh you can see that $200,000 I told you about uh in savings of our debt service. And there you could just see, you know, when you look at what does that 5.62
uh% really mean? Well, it's about 3.4. 4 million uh in the operating budget offset by the two in the debt service for a net of $3.2 million or 5.62%. So anyone who have ever taken an accounting class um of which I've taken
many um there is the accounting formula whatever you do to one side you have to do to the other. Well it's the same thing with a budget. Whenever there's an increase in expenditures, there needs to be a simultaneous increase in revenue or some savings to offset it. So in a
nutshell, compensation, what we pay our people, went up $700,000. That's on average three and a half% imputed in our collective bargaining agreements as well as what non-affiliated uh employees received. By point of
reference, the Northeast average wage increase for the period March 25 through March 26 was 3.4%. So, we're right on track in terms of regional real salary growth. Okay. How did we fund that?
Well, we funded that with our 2% tax levy increase of $700,000, right? Leaving $400,000 left. Well, we had talked about our $800,000 share of insurance. That's the remaining $400,000
we had on our tax levy plus $400,000 of our added district savings. The remaining $2.3 million of insurance, well, that is recovered by us taking advantage, full advantage of the health
insurance cap adjustment for $2.3 million. And lastly, all other costs, programs, extracurricular activities, uh, athletics, buildings and grounds, you insurance, utilities, all increased about $400,000 net. And the way we
financed that was through the remaining $300,000 that existed on the savings of our out of district students plus $100,000 in a whole bunch of areas where we were able to save money when we were going through the budget on a line by
line basis. So, the insight here, and I'm going to keep saying it and saying it because this really is a story of two budgets. We were able to balance our budget within the 2% and it's only those health insurance premiums that drove us above the 2%.
All right, let's talk about revenues. Um, so, uh, unfortunately, uh, Glenrock bears, uh, the cost of 85% of your total school budget. uh we don't get that much state aid. Uh our state aid is about $4
million uh up$1.28% or $50,000. Um and then that's, you know, we were happy that we were essentially flat and we didn't receive a decrease. Could that change in the future? It could. And we'll talk about that a little bit later when we talk
about risks. Our capital reserve withdrawal of $3.2 $2 million. The vast majority, I think 2.9% uh 2.9 million of that 3.3 are two 60tonon rooftop units that will be going here in the high school with the balance being our
bottles and uh sinks and cabinets. Our fund balance, we kind of talked about that earlier where we're systematically decreasing our reliance on excess re uh excess surplus by $100,000 a year. It's down from 1.4
million to 1.3 million. And we have our local uh revenues. That's a hodgepodge of of different things from uh our our our our shared service with North Halen. That's about 571,000 of that. A contribution by our community school.
We're very lucky to have the Glenrock Community School that contributes towards our operating budget, $250,000. Um, we have some non-resident uh tuition uh for there's one high schooler and about 15 preschoolers that
pay uh uh into our out of district uh tuition. Um, and then we have fees, whether they be athletic fees or extracurricular fees. Those rates have stayed the same, but we just normalized them to what we've actually been experiencing as opposed to the budget. So, that's another $200,000 up 50,000
from prior years. So, and then we Oh, then we have our maintenance reserve. I forgot about our maintenance reserve. Maintenance reserve was started back in the 2425 budget year. Um, we started it with $100,000 and we've been using $100,000 every year
to finance our painting project. So, once we're done with the elementary schools, the the idea is then to take that and bring that $100,000 up here to the high school and get every classroom uh and and common area painted up here as well.
So, state aid, let's just talk take a brief uh dive into that. And we can see that we get about $3.1 million for special education. We get about $400,000 for security, $200,000 for transportation, and then extraordinary aid, which are the costs for special ed
um instruction beyond certain thresholds uh that we get back from the state at a percentage uh on a percentage basis based on the state's uh budget for the year. So, typically it's it was as high as 90%. I think now it's kind of dropped
into that 75% range. So we look forward to actually that's due on May 23rd I believe. Uh so we'll be getting that number pretty soon. All right. So now let's talk about expenditures. So where do we spend our money? This graph hasn't changed in
years. Our number one place where we spend money is on salaries and you could see it right there. Um we then our number two is health insurance benefits. And if you look at the big difference between the black and the red is that exact increase that we've been talking about
uh tonight. Capital projects. The reason why you don't see one from last year is last year we did not put our capital projects into the budget. We appropriated the funds by board resolution. This year we did a little bit different. We put actually built it into the budget so that you could see it a bit more clearly and more
transparently. The fourth driver is our added district tuition levels. followed by our aids, followed by I'm sorry, uh custodial, that's Aramark, who does all of our custodial services, um which we are in year one of a 5-year agreement with
them. Our extraordinary services, which are our aids, transportation, which is uh specialed related. This is transportation to and from uh school for our special needs students. B&G. Um, that's our next one. Followed by
utilities, building budgets, fringes, insurance, and technology. The interesting number on there is that if you added up all of our building and department budgets, it only adds up to about $1.4 million. The Pi graph is also a fan favorite. Um, it basically demonstrates that almost
88% of our total costs are fixed and their discretionary is only about 7%. So not a lot of money there for us to have any kind of flexibility with. And that chart has basically remained the same with a discretionary spending on a
downward path of about a percent a year. Let's talk a little bit more about health benefits because it's the dominant cause driver and let's see what's been happening to it over the last couple of years. So if we go back to 2022 23 uh we were in for 5.6 6
million included in the budget that we'll hopefully approve this evening. We have 11.4. That's 104% increase in what? 1 2 3 4 5 years. Incredible. That's not the slope we want on that line. And unfortunately
the early evidence is that next year effective January 1, 2027 that we are again looking at double digits probably consistent with what we saw this year. So the budget actually has the 31 a.5% increase that we actually saw plus
another 30% for um January 1, 2027. Along the side there you could just see all the other components that run into uh our overall benefits so to speak package. Uh health insurance is clearly the dominant factor there. We have PERS
uh pension contributions. Those are non-certificated staff. Uh we pay for their um pension contribution uh every year and that's determined by the state. I point that out because it's a risk moving forward. That's a percentage that
the state dictates to us. And so as the state's budget goes, so too does that percentage that they allocate back to districts. Social Security, that is again the PERS or non uh pensionable um
earnings of our employees that we pay. The social security on our certificated staff is actually paid by the state and not presented in our numbers. Um, and then you have that all other category
which is tuition reimbursements and uh insurance waiverss uh workers comp and things of that nature. So you could see all in we're about $13 million on employee benefits. All right, instruction and programs here
you could see basically uh the whole kitten kaboodleoodle of what we're spending our numbers on. But I can tell you that that number there only increased $456,000 of which $367,000
our salaries. Again, back to that we're our costs are not increasing at an uncsurmountable level other than uh health insurance. And just uh the insight there uh
salaries uh year-over-year make up 81% of the total variance. These are all of our support services. And by the way, the the the categories that are in front of you and when we post this presentation and we post our user-friendly budget hopefully tomorrow
there, this is the way the state breaks down costs on the user-friendly budget. So you can see exactly where uh our variances are and what our budgeted amounts are. So on support services, we have a variance of about $2.9 million
entirely due to health insurance. There are some other increases and decreases that actually offset each other in there. The one standout that I want to bring forward to you is buildings and grounds. Um we talk about saving money and trying to cut back. So the buildings
and grounds budget is up uh what is it 4.4%. that is entirely utility costs and property insurance. What is actually spent on buildings and grounds is flat. And it has been flat since I've been
here. And the reason why it's flat is because in an attempt to save money, we have brought more and more jobs inside to be completed by our maintenance staff as opposed to being contracted out to third parties. Um when we hired our new
director of buildings and grounds, that was very critical to us that we bring even more projects in house. So we're continuing to do that and we're very proud of the fact that our BNG budget is flat in spite of all that um is going on with inflationary pressures as well as
our aging buildings. All right, the slide everybody wants to see. There it is. On the average assess home, which comes out of the tax assessor's office of $596,000, the tax increase is $528
a year or I think $44 a month. If we want to talk about tax rates, the tax rate is typically established by the um tax official in town. We using some inputs that we got from the municipality tried to estimate what it is as we do
every year. We use the same uh estimation uh model that we normally do. And so we could say roughly that this year the tax rate will be about 2.4% compared to 2.3% last year. Giggles and
grins. We know that many homes in in in Glenrock are worth more than $600,000. So, I wanted to give you the calculation on a $1.5 million home is uh $1.3,000 a year.
There you can see our tax levy in our general fund of 3.4 offset by the savings and debt service of 200,000 for a net uh $3.2 million. And there you can see total levy that includes both the operating budget and debt service at $61
million. And down below on the black, you will see just another rendition of the fact of we're at a 2% except for everything related to health insurance, which makes up the balance.
This is a 15-year trend on our tax levy increase. What's interesting to note here is that you if you start up at the top at 1213, you could see a period of no increases to small increases through 206. And then you begin to see it
starting to rise 2.3 299 and then along comes 1819 and you got hit with a 6% increase close to where we are today. Um typically what happens in periods where maybe you had bank cap is you were able
to delay using some of that allowable cap into those future years. Sort of kind of kicking the can down the road a little bit. And Glenrock has been uh financially managed unbelievably well by both the board and uh my my my pre my
predecessor um Mr. uh Render Connect. So to put us into this position so then we went up 6% right and then we look we have a period of 2.48 still high above the 2% but coming down 175 175 109 again
we're generating bank cap and then boom 3.42 42 23 24 okay that was not the year I started I did not do that budget but that was when we began to see the increase in health benefits which then
continues with the 34 388 and now the 6.26 again offset by the uh debt service levy which is sort of kind of fixed that's voted on uh by the community and and just kind of stays there. um our
responsibility is to make sure that we have the best interest rate on that debt and that's why we refinanced this past year. All right, let's talk about our balance sheet or our fund balance in our reserves. This slide speaks to the financial stability of the district
moving forward. So, first, we've talked about this a couple times now, is that 3.2% 2% of fund balance that we're reducing $100,000 every year, making the district more and more independent of that savings. We see our capital
reserve. Our capital reserve began the year at a $3.7 million balance uh in closing out some projects that had been ongoing. We were able to refund $1.1 million into the fund. Um, we estimate that we'll add another 700,000 to the
fund at the end of the year from surplus. Um, less the 3.3 that's included into the budget. So, we project a 63027 budget of about $2.2 million. And if I was a betting man, I would say it's probably going to be even more than that
as we move along. Our maintenance reserve, um, again, it it started off at 100. It came into this fiscal year at 527 $525,000. Um we estimate that we'll contribute another 300 uh in June of this year. And
then there's the budgetary $100,000 for our painting projects bringing us to a projected balance at 63027 of $725,000. And probably the most important number out there to the stability and the
financial security of the district is what is known as unreserved fund balance. This is the ultimate rainy day emergency reserve. It's capped by the state at 2% of your operating budget expenses and we are proud to say that we
will be at that 2% um threshold uh in our budget. And there down below you can see uh two of the fields and the track that we've recently done with our capital reserve. Constantly improving our facilities and making sure that we're offering the best possible program
to our students. All right, multi-year financial outlook. What are our risks? What are the stabilizing factors? And what are we planning for? So the key risks, health insurance has to be number one. We already know it's going to go up double
digits probably in the neighborhood of 30% for 27. What else is going to come down? What will be the plan design changes? Will there be plan design changes? We just don't know. That's our biggest risk. Um state aid uncertainty. Um in the
newspaper, you might see a lot about uh folks revisiting the the the school funding formula, right? This is the second year that it has been fully funded by the state budget. There are winners and there are losers. Thank goodness we have been a winner adding
about $150,000 a year until this year where we only got about $50,000. Some districts are losing millions of dollars every year based upon the formula. So there's a lot of call uh out there for
Trenton to revisit the funding formula. I will add that this funding formula which went all the way up to the Supreme Court took years to finalize. So, um I wouldn't hold your breath, but who knows what's happening. We talked about PERS
earlier. Um PERS is that pension contribution that we at the district are responsible for our non-ertificated staff. Um that's a percentage that is dictated by the state. So if the state budget is in trouble, you could
anticipate that that allocation will increase and it has increased every year. Enrollment changes. We don't have a ton of development in town, but we do have some development. What is that development going to actually result in students in seats? So we'll see what
that means. And do we hit the thresholds that allow us to take an adjustment in cap in light of the increasing cost because of the increasing number of students or do we not hit that threshold but see more students come in and have to fund those incremental students out
of our existing budget. So that's something that we're we're very um uh zoned in on. And then lastly, while it's last on the list, it's probably the one that keeps me up at night are the aging buildings. Um, and we'll talk a little bit about how we're kind of trying to
plan there. All right. What are our stabilizing factors? Well, our stabilizing factors is our debt service is declining as a result of our refinancing. So, that's great. Good for us. Um, our community school is vibrant and still able to produce a net profit
that we're using as a contribution to our operating budget. Our unrestricted fund balance, as we just said on the previous slide, is at the maximum possible level. allowed by the state, which is a great thing for us. Our administrative costs are controllable
and are consistently below the north northern region's budget cap. We also have two collective bargaining agreements out there, both with our GREA, that's our teachers, and our GRAA, which are our principles and supervisors, both of which run through
28 and 29, respectively. So, we have some cost certainty in the near term. We know what those numbers are going to be. We just need to know how many teachers we're going to need. So, planning ahead. So, while aging building is the last on the key risks,
it becomes number one on the planning ahead. The board was gracious enough to allow me to contract with our architect and preparing a revised longterm long-range facility plan. And what our architects have been doing, they've been visiting all of our facilities and
accumulating all of the projects that we could possibly need over the coming years. Um, we sat down and went through the schematics of all of those, uh, projects. uh last week. The uh architect is in the process of now estimating the
cost of those projects and we'll be able to report back hopefully to the board by Memorial Day and and either set a course for completing some none or however we think we need to uh progress. Um we're going to continue to review our our our
health insurance options. Um, it very well may be that at some point with escalating premiums that our claims rate goes down, right? It could happen. If it does, we will be out there shopping our plan for
something that is uh equal or better than what we have at more favorable rates that maybe are just based upon our claims rate as opposed to the aggregate. um in what I like to call the plan of last resort, the state health plan. Um
addition, an expansion of the district. So, we have our prek uh now housed down in uh the lower level here at the high school, a fantastic facility. The kids are wonderful to see walking around the buildings. I I think they they did a pep rally for our uh AP students just
recently, which was quite interesting to see. Um, and so what do we need to continue the development of that program? As well as our autism program is moving from our elementary schools up into our middle school and high school. And there are certain things that we're
going to need like a life skills room where we can teach our some of our special needs students how to live on their own, clean their clothes, make their bed, make dinner, things of that nature. So, we're in the process of starting to envision what that looks like, what are the resources that we'll need for that, and when we need to have
it completed by um we're going to monitor our enrollment and be ahead of the curve as opposed to reactionary, but maybe be able to be proaction. Well, that's not really a word, but but be proactive in how we um assess what
our needs are going to be based upon uh enrollment. And lastly, you know, it's the dreaded referendum, and we're way ahead of ourselves here because our debt doesn't uh mature until 33 and 34. But we have to start thinking
now about what we may want to do then when the existing debt comes off of our books and we might have an opportunity to replace that debt with no increase um in our tax base. So, what are the facilities that we need? What are the
facilities that we want? What's possible? What's not possible? And that's a really long-term uh objective there. But if we don't start talking now, it's going to be 33 34 before we uh realize it. And God willing, I'll still be here with the district. So, that's
good. Um lastly, let's talk about the debt service fund. Um this again is where we house our payments on existing debt that was used to finance capital projects. So, our principal payments for next year are about $3.1 million. Interest is $953,000.
Debt service aid, we actually get assistance from the state to make our payments in the amount of about a million. And we then have the balance which comes uh from the taxpayer via the tax levy of $2.5 million. Um, just as a
as a note, in 2019 when we did our referendum, they were able to do the projects in the referendum at an incredible savings. And that savings has allowed us to apply amounts bonded to lower our principal payments.
So, for the last couple of years, we've been putting in excess of $500,000 to offset our principal payments, which has saved uh the taxpayer money there. um that is going to continue um through the 2829 budget and then we'll sort of kind of uh
used all of the savings that was generated by those projects. Um below you could just see a recap of our 19 uh school bonds and our 2025 refunding bonds um and some statistics on uh what we were able to save by refinancing this
year. And that concludes my presentation. If there are any questions, I will gladly entertain them. >> Thank you so much, uh, Mr. Canelis. Um, you know, it's it's been consistently more difficult to have these
conversations and, um, I appreciate the visual display. Um, I will one second. and then we can do the Okay. All right. So, um the format will just
be um any questions um by board members and then I'll be able to open up the um uh public comments. Um do you have your hand up, Mr. Corey? >> Uh yes, I did. I was hoping this would
work. Um so, yeah. Thank you. U before I make any questions, I just want to say we've had an incredible amount of challenges faced uh this year as a district and the committee worked hard to try to understand all those questions um and how they should really fit into
this. Uh Mr. Canelis, I want to say that this presentation u is something that I wish we could have seen earlier uh in the year. I think you guys it it really it it hits all of the the questions that I know the trustees and the questions
we've heard from the community have been uh been asking about. Uh there are nuance and details that of course are uh very hard to put in here. But uh I want I want to thank you for putting this together at this level uh and this um and this breath. It takes a lot and I I
despite being pretty tired, I um I'm finding myself paying attention to all the values uh that that's in here right now. Um that that said, I don't have a further question. Thank you. >> Any other board members have comments or questions?
Miss Stevenson, >> just a comment. Thank you, James, for very thorough presentation. And I also just want to thank you for acknowledging the past boards and the past business administrator. I think it was their due diligence that set us up for this. I mean, when you're looking around, we're one of the few districts that are not
laying anybody off. Um, which I think is a good thing. So, I thank you for for your work. >> All right. Oh, go ahead. >> Just say uh I'd also like to say thank you to Mr. Canelis. I've been through probably 25 years of multiple districts budget presentations
and budgets and seen all of them and this was by far the most comprehensive and uh clarified so many things for the public. I hope lots of people are watching online tonight to uh benefit from this and uh it is a difficult position we're in and we're doing the
best we can and I agree uh you know with what you said Karen that you know thanks to previous BAS as well and boards and uh this is a well-run district. So thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Um, seeing no other uh questions from board members,
I'm going to open up um public comments on the budget hearing. Um, you um can state your name and you have three minutes. Um, it is 8:26 p.m. and we are open.
>> Is comment only or ask a question? >> Um, uh, it'll be comment only. Um, that you can always forward questions. Um, but >> so I'll just state my question. >> John, there's a button. Press it on. >> Press the button on the microphone. >> Forgive me.
>> Thank you. >> Right. It's all new since I was here. John Cole, 57 Young Road, Glen Rock. Um, uh, since the budget is in excess of the 2% cap, I presume there will be a vote a
p this will have to go to the public for the additional 3%. or do I not understand correctly? >> Um, okay. So, I >> and you don't have to answer now because I understand it's not Q&A, but that's something I'd like to understand. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Um, if it's green, >> okay, I have questions as well which I can follow up by email. Um, I understand the facilities are being reviewed and you will share the findings during Memorial Day with how much things are costing. I'm worried that this is going
to balloon quickly in the coming years. I'm curious whether what how we're going to fund those efforts because one RTU two RTUs are not going to make the districts whole. Um, my second question is I know we are searching for the new superintendent. I'm hoping for an update
soon from the board and we have had discussion about having retired police officers to safeguard our schools which I'm hoping the board will clarify or if there has been any update on that. Um do we have allowances to cover those
additional costs expenditures um in in the budget um when the board makes a decision? Thank you. >> Can you uh just state your name? >> Uh my name is Jinglu and I um I live at 34 Fairview Avenue. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Sanjie Ori, 131 Fair Mount Avenue, Glenrock. Uh, thank you for the presentation details. Uh, liked it. I wish you could have shared it in the previous meeting, but that's fine. Uh, couple of things I I think uh the the
numbers are like huge. Uh the only thing I I'm I I know you explained everything why the numbers are going up, right? what you did not explain like how what steps did you take to
reduce this increase right we we we piling everything on 30% increase on uh healthcare cost some of the savings that you you talked about we were able to do and I I was able to see the number uh we
initiated custodians uh outsourcing and the community was up in arms like we cannot do this like because we want our own custodians you know we took that steps we brought saving I did not hear any other savings initiative that you are considering right now hey this is
what we're going to do now this is we working on or this is a we going to work on next year so whatever the $3 million that you add to the existing uh fund that will be the next year and then 2 or 3% 4% whatever the increase is our taxes
will sky skyrocket um community school uh you again mentioned it was restructured when I was on the board of ed again the I'm not hearing any initiative from from you guys this
is what we are doing to save the money I was here last time and I did mention that uh we are the current board of ed is you're violating your own class size policy which says 22 too. Just because you think 18 or 19 kids in elementary
school is a good idea, there is no um uh like research why you have 18 or 19, why not go to 14 or 15? Like you if you look at the Ridgewood or so other neighboring school, they have 22 23 kids uh in the elementary school.
Are your class sizes lower because you're reducing because of the the the you know the type of not the type of like you know the the the number of students who have different uh uh needs and that's why your class size is smaller are you I'm not hearing anything
I'm only hearing expenses uh there are still you know there are people like us our kids are not there we're also taxpayer we're also funding I think we need to come up with some plan to see these are the new uh initiative we're talking we are hearing I did not hear
about uh SRE which is uh energy solar energy uh renewable energy credits that we have how much is the credit did you sell that what's the price on that where is that money I didn't see that in the saving plan so
I I think you guys doing your best but it's not enough I think we're trying to have a you know Just trying to please the the parents here without taking any constructive uh plan uh looking it into the
restructuring of the the staff optimization in the staff. Um it's just spending uh which is uncontrolled. I think you guys are smart enough. You guys have very different diverse experience. you know, you got to look into some opportunities that saves us
sometime uh some uh some money. Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um 8:32. Uh, see no additional members of the public. Um, we can close our
public hearing or clo Yeah, we can close our public hearing. Um, right. Um, so at this point I would like to ask um, Mr. Canelis, there were a few questions that were just came up um that you highlighted in your presentation if you can touch on those.
>> Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Robinson. Um so first was the question on the vote public vote because we're over 2%. Um as we uh went through in the slides there are four adjustments that you could take to that 2% uh uh soft cap. If you fall
within those four you do not need to go out to the public for a vote. If we were to uh increase the budget for reasons that are not within those four categories then yes we would have to go out for a vote. Uh you're welcome. Um uh
to uh uh the person that had questions about how are we going to support uh those needs that come from the revised long range facility plan. Well, one thing we can continue to do is to budget and prioritize where we put money. But I
think really the answer there is the last bullet on our future considerations and that is to start putting together the plan for 3334 of how we would uh launch a referendum
to hit a lot of those um items. Uh cost for security. Um so when this budget was initially crafted it did not have armed uh security. Uh but I have gone back into the budget and I do not foresee an
issue find finding and funding the incremental increase that'll be there. It's not so much. Uh it's about $3 an hour for each of our security guards and about seven or 7 to $10,000 in insurance costs and and and
some other uh sunundry items that might have to be thrown in there which uh we don't think is really going to uh add up to much um to the question about savings. Um so I I I think we have addressed that actually and highlighted
it in B&G alone. Um, if we look at what the building costs are over the last couple of years, they are astronomical. You know, price out a piece of lumber, a 2x4 four years ago to what that 2x4 costs today, there's a significant
increase. We have kept the B&G budget flat. So, we have absorbed all of those inflationary pleasures that occurred through COVID and have kept that BNG budget flat by bringing jobs inhouse. We also this year we purchased a 52 or 54
passenger bus. Um as a result of a not a great situation but an opportunity um we are going to use the that that bus to offset some of our transportation costs for athletic events. So we anticipate
that that bus will be running almost every day from September to June uh in in each season. So that is going to be a considerable savings there. Um our hope is to then expand that maybe add two buses so that maybe uh I think right now
we could probably transport anybody but the football team and the marching band. If we had two buses, we could probably uh do everybody and then maybe even begin to do um like trips and things of that nature during the day and save parents some money on the costs that
would need there. Um uh you we we are also constantly looking for uh what I like to to talk to Mr. Vanast about nibbling along the edges. You know, cuts that maybe you don't see but begin to add up. So, for instance, uh last year
we did a Verizon uh audit on our POTS lines, which are like the old analog telephone lines. Uh that audit produced $35,000 in savings, right? So, boom. That's for us. This year, um coming in September, uh the board has approved a
new copier lease. That new copier lease once we get to the full savings of it will save us $30,000 a year. Um so, we're always looking for those. we take full advantage of um -ate and making -ate is a national program offered by
the government for technology spending where we get uh money back on say our broadband uh subscriptions or on technology that we purchase. So we're we're certainly pursuing those uh to the fullest extent. Unfortunately, the SREx
that you mentioned, um the district purchased outright the solar panels and those solar panels are beyond their useful life. They are currently only producing about 1% of our electrical
consumption. So there are no SREs to Srexs aren't being generated. Okay. So the the the the plan, right, um in the near future, right, is to possibly enter into a power purchase agreement whereby
we could replace the the panels on the building uh but not at our cost and we won't own them, but somebody will and then they will offer us in return discounted electrical rates for a period of time. uh that seems to be the best
and most economical way to uh finance solar uh at this point. So, we're certainly going to continue to look into that. Um we just uh uh uh oh, actually later on this evening, we'll find out the results of our reverse auction on
natural gas. Um we we we came in at a net increase of about 8.1% over year-over-year where most of us are seeing you know double digits closer to 20% on their natural gas bills. We'll have cost certainty for 3 years or 36
months at that 8.1%. So we are we are moving in a very calculated fiscally sound uh manner. there just isn't that much to save unless we begin to talk about headcount
and we we continuously look for for ways to save but you saw it it's 88% of my total budget is you know salaries and benefits. That's really the place and and and if we were to receive that direction from
the board, we would obviously look into those areas. But there's not a day that goes by that we are not looking to save money and I think I have answered all the questions. Yes, I believe so.
>> All right. Um I need a motion to close the public hearing. Uh, Miss Calvade, seconded by Mr. Tang. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed?
>> All right. >> Motion passes. >> You um I need a motion to approve resolutions B1 through B2 as listed below. >> Mr. Hayward, seconded by Miss Stevenson.
>> We need a verbal on this. Oh. Um. Oh, okay. Um I Well, I guess calling roll if you can, please. >> Well, I mean, yes, >> we can. >> We opened it up earlier, but you could
open it again. >> If you have, would you like to say something? >> Yes. So, the previous or the initial vote uh was 5 to 4 and I don't know when was the last time. It was um 5 to four in Glenrock, but I was hoping that the
numbers and the and the four votes will be heard and there will be any some change between the two periods. Unfortunately, that did not happen and therefore I have to vote no. Um this is not a criticism and I think I said it last time and I it's not criticism of
administration or Mr. Canales. It's a criticism of the board. it's our duty and it's our responsibility to look for saving and to push for saving and cuts and so um I don't believe that we did it. Um but again thank you Mr. for all
the the hard work and appreciate all the things you >> can we call roll please >> Mr. Cohen, >> no. >> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward,
>> yes. >> Miss Parlamis, >> no. >> Dr. Poochie Bender, >> no. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> no.
>> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson. >> Yes. >> 1 2 3 4 5. >> Motion passes. >> On to our um next order of business, which is National Teachers Day. Um I
will need um a motion to approve the following resolution um as we will read it. Um, I'll start off with uh whereas teachers make public schools great and >> whereas teachers work to open students
minds to ideas, knowledge, and dreams. And >> whereas teachers keep American democracy alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship. And >> whereas teachers fill many roles as listeners, explorers, role models, motivators, and mentors. And
>> whereas teachers continue to influence us long after our school days, our only memories. And >> whereas teachers mold future citizens through guidance and education. And
>> whereas teachers encounter students of widely differing backgrounds. And >> whereas our country's future depends upon providing quality education to all students. And whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons, evaluating progress, counseling and
coaching students, and performing community service. And >> whereas our community recognizes and supports its teachers in educating the children of this community. Now, therefore, >> be it resolved that the Glenrock Board of Education recognize and acknowledges
the impact of teachers on our lives. >> Can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Mr. Cohen, seconded by Miss Parlamus. If we could call a roll, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes.
>> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes. >> Miss Parlamus, >> yes. >> Dr. Poochie Bender, >> yes. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson.
>> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> All right. Can I get a motion to approve the following resolution as it's read? Whereas children are the future and by investing in them today, we are ensuring our world for tomorrow. And whereas all
students have a right to have their health needs safely met while in school while in the school setting. And >> whereas children today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in schools. And >> whereas school nurses are professional nurses that advance the well-being,
academic success, and lifelong achievements of all students by serving on the front lines and providing a critical safety net for our nation's most fragile children. And >> where school nurses act as a liazison to the school community, parents, and
health care providers on behalf of children's health. And >> whereas school nurses support the health and educational success of children and youth by developing and providing programs in leadership. And whereas school nurses are members of
school-based mental health teams. And whereas school nurses understand the link between health and learning and are in a position to make a positive difference for our children every day. Now therefore, >> be it resolved that the Glenrock Board
of Education joins the National Association of School Nurses, the New Jersey State School Nurses Association, and the Bergen County School Nurses Association in celebrating and acknowledging the accomplishments of school nurses and their efforts of meeting the needs of today's students by
improving the effective delivery of health care in our schools and shows gratitude for school nurses not just on May 6, 2026, National School Nurse Day, but at every opportunity. throughout the year. I need a motion to approve the
resolution. We have um Dr. Puchi Bender, seconded by Mr. Tang. >> Uh can I uh do roll call, please? >> Mr. Cohen? >> Yes. >> Mr. Corey? >> Yes.
>> Mr. Hayward? >> Yes. >> Miss Parlamus? >> Yes. >> Dr. Coochie Bender? >> Yes. Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson, >> yes. >> Motion passes.
>> Thank you. >> All right. >> Sure. So, I'll be brief with my report today. I I do want to congratulate teachers for uh National Teacher Day tomorrow and the nurses the following day because uh the work they do really really truly is is important and and it's it's why we're here. And one of the
great pleasures of my job is I get to go into classrooms a lot and see the the real good work that that's happening. Uh the video that that James showed earlier, I think gave you like a little peak into kind of what's going on here at the middle school and high school and and it's it's just great stuff and that's led by by our teachers and it's
led by, you know, the students are supported by our nurses. It's wonderful. It's it's a little bit sad in my world that we're doing NJSLA testing and AP testing during this week while we're while we're doing that because that's not really what drives us as teachers, but but it's one of those things. So, um
last week we had uh NJSLA testing up at the middle school high school. Um it went went smoothly. I think they told me we have about a dozen that need to do makeups this year, but that's that's a really good number. Um kids are showing up and and taking the tests seriously, which is which is what we want. the
testing is happening this week at the elementary schools for NJSLA and up here at the high school we have AP testing going on right now. So, so there's a lot of lot of important stuff going on right now. And then the last thing I just want to say is is congratulations to all all of the teachers who are being reappointed today, including the I think
the count is 32 teachers who are going to be earning tenure in in the fall, which is fantastic. We're we're proud to bring them on again and continue working together. >> All right. Thank you. Um, so one, um, we
received, uh, an email. I just want to kind of highlight this because it is one of our teachers and and this was kind of like a a nice special thing. >> Hold on, I'm just pulling it up right now. So, um, this this afternoon I I received
an email um about, uh, Mrs. um, Rebecca Tell, if I can share. Um, I thought it was uh just a really nice uh special touch. Um, hello all. I just wanted to make um you aware of a teacher who went out of her way to cheer on my daughter in one of her last softball games as a
senior at GRHS. Mrs. Rebecca Tel was the second grade teacher for my daughter and son at Central. An outstanding teacher and a very favorite of ours. On this Friday night, I walked past the dugout in Waldwick to watch my daughter play. And uh she yelled from the dugout, "Mom, Mrs. Tal is here. She came to watch me
play." um on on this Friday night on her day off um Mrs. Tel went and and witnessed um a student game and it had a very positive impact on um the student in in question and and perhaps u many of the other students around and it was
just really a nice um a nice touch that uh not only Mrs. tell, but many of our teachers do, and we're really appreciative of our educators here, and um I'm just thrilled to be able to share that uh that news in in person today.
So, thank you, Mrs. Tell, um from the bottom of my my heart. >> Yeah, she is she is wonderful, and she is one of our elementary coaches. She's at um Central Hamilton School, so she's absolutely one of our great teacher leaders and just just a wonderful person. >> All right.
Um, so in addition, um, we rolled out the website, uh, this this week. We just rolled out the website, a new website, um, which we're hoping will be, um, much more streamlined for, uh, for our community. Um, I had a chance to
download the app myself and I I was able to look at some of the things at Central and actually put them on my calendar um, where my daughter goes to school. So, I thought that that was um, also well executed. But I think that um with any new roll out if there's any glitches or any things that um people notice or
think that have an opportunity um to be improved um please do share that feedback with us um as we test out the roll out. Um but you know again thank you so much to Miss Top Hopsonburgger with all of the work that she's been doing over the past year if not year and
change um to to get this done. And I know this this is something that uh she had mentioned when she first came on and I'm glad that um it was able to be done. >> Yeah. Yeah. She did a great job rolling that out. It did go live on Friday and um yeah, as as you said, if there are
any things that that we can't find, some things got moved to a different department. We created a few things to sort things out. So, it may take a little bit of time to to find the things if you're used to it like I just go to the right same spot and and all that. But if if there's some trouble navigating, reach out and we we can make it we can make it more streamlined and
and make it more user friendly. Absolutely. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Um I know a member of the public um had asked for updates with regards to the superintendent search. Um as stated in in the last meeting, right now we are deliberating what the search calendar
looks like. So yes, we do have a company that we've hired, Miss um Kathleen Hawa and um uh search like a a calendar framework has um been delivered uh to us and now we have to create that calendar
and again a calendar is a guideline. It means that you know these are the kinds of things that we are either striving for but you know life uh throws us curves and so we adjust left and right as needed. So that's where we are. Um on um right now she's looking at um
implementing a survey system so that the members of the public can provide input into um uh you know like the types of things that you want to be able to see in uh the the school district going forward. The types of um things that you want to see in our next superintendent.
Um there will be an opportunity for a uh public session as well as the survey that will be open. Um the tentative date for that is um uh May 21st. Um and that's uh the opportunity where students
or staff or um as well as uh parents and members of the community would be able to provide input depending on the time frame, but that would all be published um once confirmed. Um and then then it's an ongoing process. So, you know, like we're looking forward to participation
from the community, from all members of the community, um from uh you know, GREA members, Ga um our parents, our students, our members of the community who may not have children in in in the school district. We're looking forward to robust participation from um everyone
and helping to guide that document so that we make sure that um when the the board is you know sitting down and considering candidates over you know the next you know several several months and and onward um that we are you know
keeping the things that you are presenting to us in mind um to make sure that this uh next individual is a a really strong fit for the community. So looking forward to everyone's participation on that process. Um at
this point that's all I have so far. Um so we will open up um the next Oh, >> can I just add to that? >> Okay. >> I think that um it would be important for the parents, the community to realize that there to watch for the website because more information will be
following through the website. Am I correct? >> Um I think it'll be so there will absolutely be um information on the website. Um, but I think that in terms of like the the date and stuff like that, I think there will be a direct blast that we'll put out um as well like an an a district uh notification so that
people make sure because I know you especially with the new website that it might not be fully seen that way. Um there uh like information absolutely will be shared um about um the if there's an interim or the actual posting
for a superintendent. Um there will all be popup information as well as on social media and I uh you know we work so well with um with the borrow. I I will definitely share the information with the borrow to see if there's a way that that information can be shared in
um their like newsletter and things like that just to get like as wide dissemination as possible because as you know like we don't have access to their list serve but um looking forward to like sharing it out as in in as many places as possible.
All right. Um, our public comment session is going to be open here at 8:55 on board action items only. Um, please state your name and your address and you have three minutes. Again, this is for bo board action items only.
>> For all agenda items. >> Um, for action items >> agenda or agenda. note for the resolutions >> or anything for which >> yes >> for anything for which there will be a vote on tonight so action items only
>> there'll be another there will be another I imagine you want to talk about the renaming >> it would be best to wait for the second one for that >> thank you >> all right seeing no members of the public um for action items we'll close
that at 8:55 Five. All right. On to our personnel discussions. So, assuming there's no other old business or anything, I can just move to the Okay. Um, can I get a motion to approve the resolutions for P1
through P14? Miss Cave, seconded by Mr. Hayward. All right. Any questions or comments on P1 through P14? All right, if you can call roll, please. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Corey,
>> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes. >> Miss Parlamus, >> yes. >> Dr. Pooie Bender, >> yes. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you.
All right. Um I'm actually going to go ahead and skip to um the motion to approve a resolution for G1 and then I will also then bring up um just something with regards to board committees. Well, actually, no,
that's going to be on the governance. We put that on G. All right. Um can I get a motion to approve uh G1? Miss Parlamus, seconded by Mr. Cohen. Any questions or comments regarding policy 0155.
All right. Well, I look forward to moving towards committees with you all. Um, if you can please call roll. >> Mr. Cohen, >> yes. >> Mr. Corey, >> yes. >> Mr. Hayward, >> yes. >> Miss Palamus,
>> yes. >> Dr. Poochie Bender. >> Yes. >> Miss Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tang, >> yes. >> Miss Calves, >> yes. >> Dr. Robinson, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, so under governance, um, I wanted to talk about
like a board committee planning because, um, now that, you know, we've just approved um, 0155, we need to kind of come up with a a scheme for like how our meetings are going to go and what they're going to look like. Um, again, just like we stated at the beginning, you know, we're
not trying to when I say add add more and more and more um meetings or let's say make this laborious and and and meet in in that manner. But I think that in order for us to get our our business done and make sure that we have a regular schedule with the various
committees and um to figure out the naming of the exact committees and like all of those things um you know like I would like uh some feedback. So I'd given uh like I would say probably within two months or so just kind of like a general um framework of like the
the the types of committees or the names of committees that we would want um and how many we want and things like that. I'll just re um send that out again and I would like um input there so that we can you know really formulate what committees those are, what the meeting
um schedule may look like, come up with a meeting schedule, make sure that it's um meeting our intent and then um you know go from there um so that we can make uh we can make the change um over time. All right, any questions, comments?
Okay. All right. Um uh as well I would like to know kind of like what your thoughts are on a board retreat. So part of the aside from like our standard you know like summer um goals session um I would
like to do some sort of um like board retreat again. um you know and I say again because like I've wanted to do this kind of retreat for a while but like also have a a a third party come in and and help us um be more effective at
governance at um you know board conflict resolution and and various things. So I one I wanted to get um your support uh to investigate that. Um I asked Miss Hela if she had um any knowledge of of a variety of like individuals that that
could come through and speak to our board and lead us through um a retreat. I had spoken about like I had asked um Cornfairy um who they do leadership trainings and things like that to a variety of sectors and I had you know like just had a preliminary conversation
and and that was outside of our price bracket. So um wanted to know like what your thoughts are on on perhaps getting an outside you know company that maybe specific to public education um in that sector. Um is there support for that?
>> Just like a straw poll. Yes or no? Okay. All right. Um so I'll I'll I I'll like since >> Oh yes. Thank you Dan. >> Is that to me? Yeah. Thanks. Um I I think what we did last year was I appreciate the effort uh that you put
into doing that. Um um maybe sharing some specific achievements you want to accomplish out of a out of a retreat uh would be helpful to get some ideas out of the board ourselves. um you know, we we know each other quite well and um ice
breakers aren't aren't necessarily um something that we need to do, but I think um what we had we had a presentation a couple meetings ago where we talked about, you know, the ethics. I think things that are really actionable uh and
and tractionable uh for this group uh would would be the most helpful uh in in a retreat. So just if you want to share agenda items, I know it's your agenda, but I'd happy to kind of give feedback on on that as we get towards the date as my little comment.
>> Absolutely. Um I can definitely say that um uh you know like part of part of the superintendent search process and some of even the questions that we had um maybe even after some of the presentations were done you know at the time of that we were hiring. It was kind
of like well is this a is this a place where the board you know can potentially come together and you know really work towards like uh uh you know our objective which is hiring the superintendent. Um out of that I know Miss Hawa had expressed that um you know
like there were various places that we would be able to be aligned and I was looking for a board retreat um specifically to help us along being becoming a better board and then allowing Miss Hela to like focus specifically on um anything with regards
to superintendent and then just like drilling down to actually like board business. um as a uh board retreat. We had a few years ago we had um a board retreat in this room. Um I think
it was over the summer and we did have um somebody come in and deliver um information through a variety of groups. There were members of the community, members of the HSA, members of town council me like variety of things. Um I thought that that was very beneficial at the time. We talked about kind of things
that were maybe a little bit strategic and um got a sense of understanding like you know like some of the different things that go on in the building. That's not necessarily what I'm looking for for this next retreat. Um for this next retreat I would like to focus on
somebody that knows from a like board perspective like how we could work more efficiently. Maybe that's NJSBA like um um the presentation that we just had that spoke about uh you know creating that kind of like
code of what did she use? What word did she use? Um the rules like the the board >> conduct. >> It was like no there was like whatever. >> Yeah. But you guys know what I mean. Like she said like we could work on
something like that. like so the I think that the the exact agenda will be you know defined as well based on the expertise of the person. So I will provide a variety of people and then you guys can you know uh help me decide who
who it's going to be. All right inp cursive and summer work. >> All right so a couple things to do with instruction and programming. So, first is cursive, which um is back apparently.
So, Governor Murphy signed S 1783 in January before his term ended. And what it does is it mandates that schools re reintroduce cursive writing for grades 3 through 5 effective September of 2026. And um
so we we've been looking into how to do that. And and I asked the very real question of I mean we're hiring teachers that are younger than my son right now and my son doesn't know how to write in cursive you know are are we sure that our teachers know how you know so I of course he also didn't become an
elementary school teacher so maybe he's self- selected anyway so um what we need to do is is make sure that we're we're geared up to to be ready for this and um so our elementary supervisor Nicole Hirs uh put a put together a committee of of folks to to look at various uh
handwriting writing programs. Uh the committee included some elementary teachers, um an elementary coach, um a teacher of um LLD learning language disabled, a couple occupational therapists because you know this is their specialty, you know, hand eye and
and how how do you form letters and such and um and she was on the committee too. So they reviewed several different programs making sure that they to see what fit best with our our school and our dynamics and also to make sure that they they will meet the the law the letter of the law.
Um sorry couldn't resist. Um they re reviewed several programs including handwriting without tears, denelian and zer blowser. Um they they had a matrix they they did all the evaluation of that and chose handwriting without tears. Um it looks like the the strongest things
for it were they just really appreciate the instructional design of the program. Um the accessibility inclusivity of it was was ranked very high in their in their scoring and they feel like the ease of implementation and kind of the technology that comes with it works works really well with what we're doing.
So um we're going to have on the agenda for your approval next meeting the contract or the the purchase order or whatever it is uh with handwriting without tears. Um, we're going to sign on for a five-year agreement, which um lowers the price per year considerably,
uh, which is what we want, but they also will bill us annually, which is what he wants. Um, so everything's good here. Um, we're also going to contract with, uh, professional development during those PD days in um, September to make sure that our staff are familiar with
with how it how it works and maybe if they're like my son, teach them how to write in cursive for, you know, crash course in a day. Um, again, he's he's working on a farm right now. He's not doing cursive. I don't think the pig cares. Anyway, um the the way we're going to roll this out because um it's
grades three, four, and five is what the program is for. In the first year, we're going to have grades three and four both teach the third grade curriculum, right? Because those fourth graders won't have had anything. And the fifth graders will do the fourth grade curriculum because the three is probably
a little too juvenile for them and they'll be able to catch up quickly. And then in year two, everybody will be on their regular thing. The price quote that we have does include the fifth grade materials, even though we won't use them till the second year. Um, the direct instruction of it is is pretty
minimal. We're not doing hour long handwriting lessons. It's it's pretty short mini lessons, which should fit nicely into our literacy flex period, which is built into the school week for elementary. Um, and then daily practice can can be picked up during various
other times of the school day, including the wind period or um other kind of literacy blocks. So, I I think it's going to fit in. Okay. Um, it's just a little bit a little bit strange to to have this on our radar, but this is where we are. So, um, like I said, we'll
have it well, there you go. Um, we'll have it on the agenda on the 18th for your approval. Okay. Uh, the second thing for instruction and program, Mr. nest. I was just going to comment that I that I >> Sorry, I hear a voice, but I didn't I was speaking. Sorry. >> I was just going to comment I I applaud
that effort very much coming from um having to train my children how to figure out how to do a signature. All these kids don't know how to do signatures if they don't know cursive. And you sign things your whole life. So, this is a great skill set.
>> I'm sure Governor Murphy is happy. I I I think Yeah. Yeah. I have to add thank you for opening the door for that. As a former elementary principal for 13 years and then into the superintendency that was a must. We never stopped and I am so
happy to hear that the state has decided to correct the mistake that was made. >> Okay. Um moving on, the second thing for INP is just kind of give a heads up especially to those folks that are that are newer to the board. Um every year we
have considerable amount of work that happens over the summer that we bring teachers in for for curriculum writing for example to write cursive curriculum for the year and you familiarize ourselves. Um there are updates to standards frequently from the state um such as uh the science standards are
being updated this year. Um and so we have to do that and this work is led primarily by our supervisors the the either the elementary supervisor or the subject supervisor and um we bring in but we bring in teachers to do a lot of the work because it's it's really valuable to have their their hands on it
and their voices heard and and and their expertise as part of it. Um what happens is about now a few weeks ago um I shared with the the supervisors and directors you know the same spreadsheet that I always do which is put put forth your requests who's coming in how many hours
do you need all of that um and we budget for it every year and then it's it's a an issue of kind of prioritizing and and people you know aim high with their requests and I have to talk them down a little bit. Um, some of it we're able to do during the school year, um, which is
especially, uh, think of a high school teacher after the AP tests are done, like we can pull them from class for a day and work on some of these things, but a lot of it really does have to happen over the summer. Um, so so we'll be doing that. So that'll probably be on the I think we usually have you all
approve that in June, but I just want to give you the heads up that that we're we're already talking about that moving forward with with what are we what are we prioritizing right now? and I'll I'll get that to you as a draft probably at the June cal and then you'll vote on the June 18th meeting or 20th or whatever that is. And I think that's all I have
for INP. All right. Thank you so much. Um seeing nothing in special services. Um if we can go on to management and community, are we able to actually discuss the um renaming first um instead of the policy? Because I know like Mr. Cory just texted
me that he has only a few more minutes on his um battery. >> I don't mind at all. Okay. So, um last meeting I gave you a report that summarized the committee's work. So, excuse me. Just to recap, we had a request uh from community member uh John
Cole to um consider renaming Central School and uh the board put together a committee. We met um we met twice as a committee online. We hosted an in-person session. We did a survey. And so, um, I gave you a report last meeting that
summarized the committee's work and and there are a few things that I really want to just emphasize again that there were strong participation in the survey. 417 people responded, which is which is a really positive number, right? Um, too often I think people if they're not really interested in something, they just don't fill out the survey. So, uh,
we we we see that there's real interest and real real uh some passion behind this. Honestly, um overall, if you look at the 417 responses, there is support, the majority supports renaming Central Elementary School to the Thomas L.
Hawkins Central Elementary School. Um but when I started pulling the numbers out a little bit more, looking at uh folks that are currently at Central, meaning the parents of current students or the current staff or teachers there, versus those who identified as not being
currently at Central. There was there was actually a big difference between those two groups in that the folks currently at Central do not want to rename the school and the folks who are not currently at Central do by by a wide majority. So we as a committee didn't
come up with a like thumbs up thumbs down vote on this because we really believe that the board needs to weigh the perspectives and the significance of those both of those groups. Right? this is you you are the board representing this community and and it's kind of a decision that you have to make about do we value the general sense of the
community or do we value the the people who are in the building or it's really up to you and so that that's where I wanted to just leave it with you and um and let you let you speak about it. >> Thank you. Um I'd like to start with uh Mr. Corey since he was our representative um to this committee. Uh
Mr. Corey, if you have a moment. >> Yeah, sure. I I'll I'll be succinct and I'll say I want to thank some of my colleagues on the board as well who uh also participated in u so it wasn't it wasn't just me we have a bit of color across the the committee um Mr. Ves, I
think you you pointed out the the data uh very well that it does it it doesn't show a clear direction uh between populations. Um I I have to step back and realize that as a as a as a board, as a school district, we are but a small
portion of the community. Um but this is the portion of the community that we represent. Uh I I do see let me say I' I've met one of Tuskegee airmen. I know somebody who would survive the Pearl Harbor attack uh as a black serviceman and I'm very honored to be uh to know
that this is something that the community considers and values. Uh when I think of the policy that we created not not to name buildings but in order to establish a process and to make sure that we're doing this in a a fair and
responsible way. Um what I was looking for out of the committee was clear direction in a recommendation and I did see uh clear interest but I didn't see a clear direction uh for what the committee should be able to recommend to the board. Um you know the board as we
just uh established committees uh we're trusting on those committees to be the the detailed eyes and ears on specific issues and uh my my sense out of this committee was that this is something that portions of the community value but it's not something that we would want to
do necessarily to the the key part of the community that we're actually representing meaning the the central school community. Um I'll go I'll go off script and outside of my role. I'd love to see something in town specifically to address this, but it wasn't abundantly
clear to me and that was the uh threshold I was looking for that this is the action that needs to be done at this particular location at this particular time. Those are my my my thoughts and I think not representative of the entire committee but I that was uh my role to
be on this committee on behalf of this board and wanted to be very clear uh with all that for all of us. So that's my uh that's my statement. >> Thank you. Um does anybody have any questions for Mr. Corey even about the process um within the committee or Mr.
Vaness or anything like that? All right. Um any comments or go ahead. >> Okay. So I am not opposed. Let me start off by saying I am not opposed to naming anything after anyone especially for
such admirable um folks. However, I do bring uh to light that it is an extremely complicated uh situation to rename a school building right down to something as what may seem as insignificant as letterhead. It also
goes into postal. I think that there are so many other um just as admirable ways of um identifying someone who is deserving of such um you know such a statement. And I think that one way might be perhaps if the school does not
have a gym named after someone, maybe the gym could be named after them. Maybe a wing or um I think that there are many ways to, you know, just bring to light those that have served us and served us so so eloquently well. Um, but I think
that naming the school, while I'm not against it, um, I just feel that I think that it it's a tremendous undertaking and I think people need to understand that it is a huge task to rename a school. >> Thank you. I also went through it with a
private school that went to become a it was a private school building and we had took it over from the ele from made an elementary school for the public school and that was trying to get it straight even with UPS deliveries was insane.
>> Thank you. >> I just have a question. I don't know if you um have an answer for Greg. I should have thought of this sooner. on the state level because all the schools are named. Do we have to go through a process to have it officially renamed on a state level? And does anybody know
what that process looks like? As Ed shaking his head, yes, >> been through it. Yes, you have to submit it to the state and formally change the name of the school and it goes on your state reports, etc., etc., etc. >> So, there it's not an overnight process. It was probably probably part of the
LRFP I think somehow related to that plan which is an official state document and has to get submitted and approved by the state and come back and >> from a mechanic standpoint that's >> miss parlus
>> uh I have two points one I believe on the cost that um Dr. Pooie Bender is referencing the survey did um Mr. Cory, correct me if I'm wrong. There was an individual who was willing to donate the estimated $12,000 costs that would go into the renaming.
Is that accurate? Is there a committed person for the costs or would there be? >> There was somebody who volunteered to start the fundraising and he volunteered $1,000 towards that estimate. Um that that was at the public meeting. Somebody offered that.
>> Okay. Um, and then I also is it not possible to do a phase in on some of the costs like the letter head you can just use up all your existing letterhead and then move to the new name when you go to reorder to minimize costs. Is that also feasible?
>> I just don't know how long the process takes. Perhaps you have a better understanding because I don't know from start to finish how that would work. >> I I have not renamed a building so I I don't know. But I I believe all of these things are
possible. Yes, we can we can burn through our letterhead and we can Yes, I I agree. You know, all things are possible. I just don't know what the time frame for any of that would be. >> And was was it regarding the letterhead? >> I'm sorry. >> Oh, and then I just also wanted to give more of a landscape picture to this
whole thing. I did take a look at what the landscape looks like in Bergen County for schools and the naming and you know I said how many schools actually are named after somebody and as it turns out in Bergen County high schools are not typically named after anybody. It's elementary schools and
it's 60% on average of elementary schools in Bergen County are named after somebody. Now of that about 90% are named after white males. And then you start looking at um further more who's
the minority look, you know, and from there it's a very small fraction who are actually named after minorities. It's um on average about 3.5% of elementary schools in Bergen County are named after a minority. So if you
take a look at that number, 273 elementary schools, you would estimate about 10% are named after minority. But that's not the case in Burton County. Only two schools in Bergen County are named after minorities in of elementary schools from what I could find. And
that's in Englewood and in Leonia. So here we are with, you know, a really um unique opportunity to name after someone quite worthy and from Glenrock. Um I would say um he would represent if we named it, it would be a 0.07% 07%
representation in in Burn County to name an elementary school after a minority figure, which I think is a pretty unique thing and kind of cool. >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> So, as a veteran, um I respect the
efforts and I I respect the I appreciate all the work that has been done and and the will and the the the idea behind the community of making the change for u for a hero and u and somebody who was part of the community. That mean said as as a parent
in central school I I see the data and uh I see um what the parents in the schools are are saying and there's a clear objection to that. I did not see um the factors from the school coming in
to talk to us, not the HSA, not the administration. There's no push from from the from the centers community, and I think this will push something on a community that does not want it. Uh I I do like Angela's
ideas of calling it wing or or the library. there's other ways to honor uh the person and I think that's the path that I would recommend. >> Thank you. >> So I feel like there's consensus on
doing something to honor and recognize a worthy person. Um, but I think given all the other conversations that we've had tonight relative to the budget and priorities and things that are happening, I just don't know that I would be well I know I wouldn't be in
support of putting resources towards something like this at this time. I would support doing something in the community in the broader community. I think that that would make more sense. Um, and that's how I feel at this point in time. Thank you.
>> All right. And just a comment on um you I'm not opposed to naming auditoriums or libraries after somebody, but I think if it's somebody that the town wants to honor and we feel should be honored if it's in inside the building that way, if it's in the auditorium or if it's a
library, not every student is going to know that person. And if our goal is to have everybody know who this person was and their historical significance, I think it has to be outside somewhere outside. You know, if the town did something, if we, you know, if we're not
going to agree to to rename the school, I think the more people that can learn about him, the better off we will all be. >> Thank you. Um, just one second. I'll I'll be right with you. Um, Mr. Mr. Mr. Corey, are you able
to as a liaison to the council even uh uh talk about I I guess talk with the the schoolboard liaison and kind of get a sense of if if there would be a possibility to coordinate with the the borrow on something um just so that we
could have that uh information come back to us as a board um as our as part of our continuing discussion. >> Just to clarify that you're saying my role as liaison to town council. Yes. >> Okay. Um, sorry, I didn't I wasn't aware
of the appointment. >> Well, I am I am I am the leazison. >> Yes, I am. >> Oh, so it's RAB. Okay, that's why. Okay, my >> Yes, >> that's it's because RAB it is late. It is late. I've been >> It's late here, too.
>> I I will I will with the with the town council. Um, but in in since I've temporarily deputized in the role, um, we don't control uh things outside of the the the school district here. I think kind of
>> yeah, >> dovtales into what I was saying before. Um, I I did hear that somebody was interested in making a generous donation. Um, though $1,000 isn't anything to turn away, it certainly doesn't go as far as it used to or might
need to. Um it it's outside of our role to to solicit donations and name the the town's public library, but that uh but given the budget constraints, that might be a philanthropic effort that that the entire town could get around. Um and but it's not it's this is not something that
our policy allows us to to discuss. And frankly the um the the process that we went through of renaming the school didn't really didn't really give latitude because we followed our own rules to to then uh provide alternatives um of say a library or a playground and
uh Cameron I really like the idea of something outside as you pointed out somebody has to go inside the building to see this and we can do this uh things can be done in a way where they're public a public invisible um but uh anyway the if the library could uh could
fill part of their uh their their budget challenge this year through uh through some type of uh process like this the the town public library that uh uh I'm saying that would be fantastic I think that would be uh you know value a creative opportunity for the town uh in
that way uh that but um this is a a challenge here u more that we um that we don't really have that that latitude to touch on other than just kind of talk about Thanks. >> Yes, agreed. Um I think that the the
goal is really just having the the the having the conversation, communicating. Yes. Um our official policy was was created with the goal of of us having a process if this request should come to us, but also being the board, you know,
we're able to uh talk about things that, you know, we're passionate about. And through this process, we've also gotten to learn um a lot more about um the outstanding human that Mr. Hawkins um was. And so I think just like what Miss
Calve said and what many of you have already stated is that we do want to find a way to honor him um and learn more about him and have that be part of the threat of our community and have that be something that uh you know not
just central students learn about but maybe something that uh members of the burrow can learn more about. And I think that we can find a way to um do that if not through this specific policy but maybe in coordination with um administration and um our burrow
administration. Um, so did did you want to say? >> Yeah. No, I was thinking about like there's some towns and some streets there are sections are named like it's a subname after a people and so because central school is in Maple which is a
generic name could be um a subsection of the street could be named after Mr. Hawkins. So that that could be a solution that the address square. >> Right. Right. Right. So so that that could be a perfect the solution with with the town if they agree to that. Yeah. So, I I look forward to um I guess
getting creative here. Um I part of it is that you know, like we still do have our public um comments section on on this portion of our agenda. So, you know, we want to hear from any members of the community that um want to speak on this um you know, like to make sure
that our decision is informed through that. Um but um looking forward to I guess the the next step, whatever that is. All right. Um so we'll we'll continue the you know like we'll take the information the members of the public will have the opportunity as well
to write in and then I think that by the next um you know board meeting whether on the agenda or through old business um we will conclude this part of our um inquiry.
Okay. >> All right. Cell phone policy. >> Cell phone policy. Okay. So, as you know, also before Governor Murphy's term ended, he signed into law about cell phone usage in schools. And
we started working on that about what implementation would look like at the middle and high school. As you know, currently cell phones are banned in the middle school from the when they get here till when they leave, but it's more complicated for high school students. So the initial information from the state
indicated that we would not be able to comply with the mandate by using the same policy that we use for middle school. We'd have to do something more restrictive. Um so what we looked into, you've probably heard about them. They're these pouches that a kid puts
their phone into and their smartwatch into and then they lock it and it's a I guess a Faraday cage. So it it's inoperable at this point. They keep it with them. Um, and the only way they can unlock the pouch is through a like a super magnet like you do the a
department store little thing that they have to undo to get the tag off your clothes that you buy. Something like that. Um, so we got quotes from we we talked to some of the reps from a couple different companies. We got a quote. We were about to start processing it. Um, and then we got a notification from
Strauss Esme that basically said we need to hold off a little bit. So um, this is what they wrote. They said that the NJSA's 183640B indicates a policy policy shall at minimum prohibit non-academic use of internet enabled devices on school
grounds during the school day. However, the recent guidance for schools on the student use of internet enabled devices published by the New Jersey Department of Education in January of 26 on page two indicates in bold, quote, "At a minimum, schools must prohibit the use of school of personal internet enabled
devices during the entirety of the school day for students in grades K through 12." End quote. They continue. Strauss continues saying, "There have been discussions within the state that the statute was intended to only prohibit the non-academic use of internet enabled devices during classroom instruction and non-academic
use of internet enabled devices may be permitted by a board for age appropriate students during certain times during the school day such as study halls, lunch, and other non-instructional times. It is believed the inconsistency between the legislation and the DOE guidance is
going to be addressed in a communication to school districts from the state in the very near future. They say that this is a significant issue that needs to be resolved before the board review process. Strauss Esme is ready to release a new policy and regulation guide addressing student use of internet
enabled devices as soon as clarification is provided. So, we don't want to spend the money on these pouches until we get that clarification from them. Um, especially since uh but I I did want to bring this up that these pouches are
like $30 a piece. So, they're not cheap. For all of our middle and high school students, it would be about $42,000, something like that, which we are we don't have in our budget. Like so it'd probably be something like we do for the
technology fee where the parents need to pay the $30 and that $30 would go for sixth grade all the way through senior year, right? It's not $30 every year, but otherwise it's I mean it's a big chunk of money. So we don't want to spend that. We don't want to talk about it. We want to move forward until we get
much clearer guidance from Strauss because if if it's if it's that we can do something very much like we do at the middle school now, which is in your lockers, turn them off, da da da, not have to be this restrictive, but still be have a policy that restricts cell
phone use, right? Then we'll go down that route. If we have to be as restrictive as the initial guidance is, then we're going to have to go down the route of these pouches or something. So that's where we are. We were hoping because we thought we had to do the pouches. We're hoping to process the PO right now because I think there's going
to be a shortage of these pouches in a few months when everybody figures this out and we wanted to get ahead of the curve, but we also don't want to spend a lot of money on pouches that we might not need. So, that's where we are with cell phone and we're we're just waiting on the state as as often is the case. Christine, yeah.
>> Would the $30 fee be optional because kids not all kids have cell phones? So, it would be optional in the sense that if you don't want to pay it, don't bring your phone, right? That that is how you're opting out. You're not going to have a phone. Um, and we always for
something like this, the technology fee, prom, all these other things. For folks that that $30 is a hardship, we find ways for that. We we we have we have fundraising and such for those kind of things. But absolutely, if you opt not to because your child doesn't have a cell phone, we're not going to collect
$30 from you. Certainly. So regard I totally understand but regardless of the device or not the the law will say or is saying that in class there's no cell phones in high school. >> Yeah.
>> So the only question is what happens between classes like what's the in >> Yeah. how restrictive it has to be and if it's if it's shut off the whole day, we pretty much have to go down this road of pouches because otherwise it's it's just really hard much harder in the high school to monitor that.
>> Mr. Pendes, could I interrupt? Um, is this for all phones or just smartphones? >> This is for all internet enabled devices. So it would be smartones and watches and any of the devices that
somebody could communicate with or connect to the internet with. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. >> And my understanding is the pouch is big enough for both your phone and your watch. >> Perfect. U I just wanted to announce that um thank you all for uh enabling me to be able to participate tonight. I
have uh 3% left on my on my uh device right now and I just letting you know I'm going to have to drop out of out of the call at this time uh due to no purpose other than the fact that my device is failing and again thank you for allowing me to participate.
>> Thank you for joining us. Uh first I think it's fiscally irresponsible of the state to push this on us in the time of constrained budgets etc etc to spend any money on pouches to hold a device in my mind is just
ridiculous. Um I do agree with no cell phones in school and no cell phones in class. I you know if there were a way to if we could do what we do in the middle school and just not allow it and have some sort of disciplinary repercussion we'd be done with it and and anything
beyond that I I think is is silly and hopefully they will get smart and change that law very quickly before the policies come out because I I >> I think >> I'm avoiding it where I am we were talking about it it's
>> to your to your point Mr. pay. I think that if if this is the path we had to go down, we could manage it here because we're a fairly small school and we could manage it. I schools of three or 4 thousand students, like I can't imagine the the unlocking of each of those things each day. Like it's just the
logistics of that seem >> and you can cheat them, right? Kids are bringing two cell phones to school now. They find their old one, they put that in the bag, and they keep the other one in their pocket. None of these systems are perfect. So, >> and the magnets, we know how they bypass it with the magnet. It's almost feudal.
I think a stronger code of conduct might uh solve the problem. >> So that's where we are. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you for that update. Um on to fiscal management LRFP.
>> So if you aren't tired of hearing me, you will be tired by the end of this. Um, a lot of this we kind of talked about as part of the budget process. Um, so the long range facility plan update, we are in the process of getting all of the projects uh, estimated out by our
architect. Um, we hope to have something by uh, Memorial Day weekend uh, to share with the board and then we can begin to lay out a plan uh, moving forward. Um, very pleased to announce that our reverse auction on our natural gas uh,
was very successful. If you remember, you approved a strike price of86 uh and we were able to get that price down to 789. Um that is reflective of an 8.1%
increase on our natural gas and that is going to be for a 36-month term. Um things that are going to be on our next agenda. Um potentially there will be 14 time and material bid awards. Um, this is what we've been talking about uh for
the last couple of meetings and where the board was kind enough to uh approve a a resolution um pleading with the uh legislature to reconsider S3041. Um but uh it doesn't seem as if that is
being heard. So, we have uh initiated the process of putting out um time and material bids for all of our public works projects that are that could come up during a year so that things can be addressed as quickly as possible. Um we
will also have two contract renewals on the agenda. One for DNM transportation. We kind of talked about this, but on on those athletic runs that DNM is the uh basically does the the the the majority of our runs. Um so we expect that
renewal to come through and that would be at the consumer price index approved by the state for transportation. Um and then the other renewal will be our uh Pmptonian food service. Um and that is also constrained uh by CPI. So hopefully
we will have both of those resolutions uh for your approval at the next meeting. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Canelis. >> All right, on to operations, the school security update. So like even so just to start that off
and kick that off um I you know like the email that had gone out um last week uh in coordination with um the school and um police. I'm just going to say thank you um you know like for sending that. I I I know that I might not answer all of
the questions that the uh community has asked um but it was kind of like one of those first steps um as part of this discussion as well. >> Yeah. So, when talking about school security, you know, there are there are things we can share with the public and there are things that we we keep secure, right? That's just kind of how it has to
be. But, um, there are a lot of questions and let me just kind of back up a little bit. Um, on March 13th, we had that swatting incident here at the middle school high school which was, uh, you know, we we've talked about it a couple times at the March 23rd meeting. Um, I spoke about that and talked about
how we were reviewing our internal uh, procedures and reviewing how we coordinate with the police department. Um, and culminated with that letter there of I know it doesn't have as many details as some folks would like to read, but but that's kind of the nature of security, right? We don't show all of
our cards. Um but also behind the scenes um you know a lot of folks came out on the 23rd to talk about uh about security and and a number of the people who spoke spoke about arming our security guards or having armed uh
guards here and uh some spoke against it. And so uh Dr. Robinson asked me to to start having conversations with administration and with staff and just trying to get a feel for in in the building where where are we? Where do we land with this? And so so that's what
we've been doing over the last month and a half or so. So I've been having a lot of conversations with Rob McCrory who's our director of of security. Um I we've had with him and and Mr. Canelis uh conversations with the Glenrock Police Department. We've I've had conversations
with each of the building principles and various other administrators about about this notion of of should should our security guards be armed and um I talked with the president of the GREA, Lisa Thomaselli, and and asked her to to
reach out to her staff to to the staff here as well. So, she did a survey last week of of the GREA members and um and I'll just not bury the lead anymore. Uh, in general, the staff and administration
support arming our security guards. Uh, but we have concerns about the roll out and ongoing communication. Um, when pled, a lot of the staff members said that they would feel safer if there were armed security in the in the building.
Um but they also and and and I share some of these concerns and and I um about uh what does that do to the culture and the climate in the in the building in the in the schools to have children around that. Um the school climate impact is is the most divisive
issue with views split between increased safety versus concerns about student comfort and trust in the school environment. There are worries about accidental discharge. There worries about, you know, those kinds of things. Um by and large though the the majority of staff and administration feel that um
the schools would be safer and don't have significant concerns about it. Um I'm going to point to Mr. Canelis real quick to talk about if the board were to decide to move in this direction, what would be the the best fit for our district because there are various
opportunities that schools can use for armed security. uh and he'll just kind of run through kind of the list of them and what what would probably fit best here in in Glenreck. >> Thank you, Mr. Vest. So, so just so we're all on the same page in terms of
the nomenclature. So, there there are two kinds of uh police presence in schools and one is a SRO or school resource school resource officer. This
is a full-time uh police officer that is assigned as their primary responsibility to be in the school district. Um they report to the chief of police. Um there is a cost sharing of the officer's uh
salary and benefits between the district and the municipality. The second type is is is often called a2. Aso stands for a special law enforcement officer and they are also sometimes called class twos. These are typically
retired police officers who are working on a part-time basis for the police department providing security in schools um in the courts, things of that nature. Um they have all the powers of a police officer including the ability to be
armed as an SRO would because they are in fact a police officer. um as well as making arrests. The third option is um an expansion of what we have here today.
So today we have security guards. All of our security guards are retired uh police officers and from various uh different branches of the police across the state. Um, and that was a very
intentional hiring practice on our part in that we wanted our folks to be able to be armed if the day ever came that the board decided that they wanted to arm security. So, um, Mr. McCory has
gone through um at times what has been a very difficult process of hiring security guards uh because we wanted retired police officers but they weren't carrying um so but we have assembled a a really uh stellar group of individuals
that uh provide security in every building to here up at the high school middle school um for our students. So what we would recommend being that this has been um the the the the natural
evolution of the um job description would be to arm our security guards who are in fact um uh you know uh able to provide such services um while being
armed. Uh in particular Mr. McCory if I'm wrong uh correct me their Sara uh card which en enables them to be um firearm carrying security um and that is what we would recommend given the
infrastructure that we have and the ability to pivot from where we are to wherever the board would like us to be in the future. >> Thanks Mr. Canales. So, the last couple things I'll say to the board and if if you have questions for me or James or
just this is the beginning of a conversation in public is that if if this is the direction the board wants to go, you know, by all accounts, it it needs to be done carefully. It needs to be done with the input of lots of stakeholders, which is why this is a discussion item today. We're not we're
not making decisions today, but this is a discussion. um that the board needs to listen to the community and give the adi administration time to develop procedures and allow time for communication with families with uh staff with all that. Make sure that that all of the things are in line and um we
we do believe that timelinewise if this is the direction the board wants to go we would aim for a September implementation starting the year in this direction. So that's what I have for you. >> Um thank you. Thank you both. um thank you for providing that information. I
think that um while this has never like this particular subject has never been um you know like on our agenda in the past um what the board has done and previous boards have done is uh you know like uh seek to get a security survey.
you know, we did um talk about the different things that we could do to either um beef up our security in the school district and a variety of things um that have occurred over the course of uh several years. Um so being here now is not really um I would say surprising.
Um uh but uh I think that the board has a lot of information to be able to figure out what the next appropriate step is and that is why we're here today to like formally um discuss it. And so again, I just want to make sure that everyone realizes that this is while
there's no safe spaces um you know really in this world and but we hope that our school is as close to that as it can be and um that does carry through to this conversation tonight. This is not a political discussion. This is um you know just us weighing one our
responsibility as board members as well as um our own personal and family beliefs um as well as you know just generally what we think um the board should do uh going forward. So I want to just open up um the floor for you all to
share your thoughts. I think that um it's an unfortunate time uh that we have to actually even think these things through. Uh because as you know I'm a lot older than I think everybody sitting around this table. Uh we didn't have to think about this when
I went to school. Schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues were all safe places. However, that's not the world we live in today. Uh I do believe after serving many years with having um I will call them
a form of police officer in our in the buildings that I worked in. It was um a comfort for staff and it also became part of our uh family, our school community family. they became part of us and the kids looked up to them just like
back in the day when the police officers they may even still do it today and on the streets and towns uh give out the their baseball cards. Well, you know, children are very um resilient and children are very open-minded more than I believe adults can be and I think that
they will gravitate towards this figure of authority and respect and also appreciation. So I um I I am glad that we are at this crossroad thinking about this and uh seriously considering because I think it's something that today's times you know we really do have
to move forward. >> Miss Parlamas uh so you know I think the community as a whole has spoken up and I I encourage the community to continue to do so. I was surprised when we first started getting all those emails um you know how
many were yes and how many were basically no and and I did a little unofficial tally and it was almost split which was surprising to me. Um, but I, you know, I think the community is listening and watching and and
appreciates um the due diligence that we're doing and I'm glad that we're moving forward to get to um a final resolution on this and um you know it is I echo Dr. Pooie Bender's sentiment that it is unfortunate times that we live in but um you know we have to act
accordingly. Miss Stevenson I agree it is unfortunate time that we have to have this discussion. Um my biggest concern or one of my biggest concerns would be the training that would be provided because there's a difference between you know working out
with the general population then with students and we have students that have diverse needs, diverse backgrounds and I just would hope that there would be training so the officers would be um understand maybe if a kid looks like he's being defined perhaps not you know
anything to be escalated or anything like that. So my concern would be the training that would be provided and I think it would be nice if we just kept the guards that we had because they probably already have relationships established in all the schools with the staff and and with the students and with
the parents. So I think that just to keep that continuity I think is an important thing. >> Thank you. Yeah. So the idea of having um armed professionals in the schools is something that um keeps me up at night. Certainly something that I am constantly
uh thinking about and thank you Miss Palamus for doing the like unofficial tally. I did something similar. Um, and realizing that I feel like there's no clear decision that I could just sit
with and be like, "Okay, this isn't going to weigh heavily on my heart." Um, I think as a mom of teenagers, I drive around a lot of kids. I've surveyed a lot of those kids and I haven't found a student who has said to me, "Yeah, I'd be excited about that." But what I have
heard is that they do have trust and faith in the security guards that are in the school now. And so I agree that it was a good setup that we had with the policy and the way that we're able to possibly arm these guards and keep them
as the people who um who are carrying if that turns out to be the case. Um so again I think it's I feel like we're failing children in a way. I there was um Mr. Adrien Hunt
Davies who was here um and he spoke very eloquently and you know I tend to agree that I feel like we have a great community here and we were kind of holding out against all these other communities that were like yeah let's you know arm arm the uh security guards
in schools but again uh my personal uh opinions you know do not override my obligation um to this community to do what I think um folks are asking us to do. So just
wanted to share very deeply and honestly um how I'm feeling about this topic. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh yeah, I want to talk about about this as well. Um >> can you bring the mic um closer? >> Closer. All right. Thank you.
>> Still closer. >> All right. There you go. Um as I think some of the community members I spoke previously I think I don't have anything really new to say
but I share the opinion is I I there is no empirical evidence with control study that has shown arm security has stopped shooting all the studies showing the results
statistically are either neutral or slightly negative, right? I don't think it's it's hurting it. The negative probably not a causal relationship. It's probably the more dangerous school, the more likely
they're armed, but nevertheless, the no study ever showed u there's a it does help to stop the shooting. So right as some example
I compare number two two states Texas where the at least 10 school shooting in the past few years I I have found but two of two of them are very famous with over 30 people killed
was New Jersey zero as as much as I can find and I I don't find any school shooting in New Jersey uh history of the state. Does that mean New Jersey schools are better armed than Texas?
I don't think so. Right. Um no. I even want to go on and say at the risk of being criticized of being critical, I think the evidence shows it's because New Jersey has a better gun control laws than Texas.
Uh so yeah. So maybe right one more minute with some probably everybody knows right the famous school shootings in the past 1999 Coline 13 killed there was a IR what was it
right officer at school armed uh Santana High School 201 two killed arms killed security guard. Marshall County High School 2018 to kill arms security
guard. Another famous one, Marjgerie Stoneman Douglas, 2018, 17 killed. There was a SRO at school. Then Santa Fe High School, Texas. Again, 10 killed with two
armed officers at school. Then Rob Elementary, uh, Uvaldi 2022. Everybody's familiar with that. 21 killed, right? There were 376 officers eventually responded and waited in the hallway.
Um, yeah. So, I just don't see impirical empirical evidence that armed scyard helps. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> I have a long version and a short
version. Which one do you want? whatever. >> It's 957. >> It's 957. >> Well, I mean, >> I guess we'll be discussing this over the next few meetings, so I won't give you the long version right now. But there there there's reasons all this is happening. There's reasons more people
are thinking about this. And as a guy who's worked in schools for many, many years and works with security people directly, um, it matters. I mean, seconds matter in an incident. you're preparing for the worst moment. Not the best moment, but the
worst moment. And the more prepared you are, the better off you are. Um, I can go into detail about all these statistics and all the other things which I will not do right now, but suffice it to say, we're going in the right direction and I think we should continue to research this and move
forward uh with arming our security professionals. >> Thank you. Um, so I know I've had the ability to speak on this um a few times now, so I don't think I I really have anything additional to add. Um, thank you for
providing um the information um that was asked and then some. Um I would also like to I guess at the next meeting if we could even talk about uh the the more details about the cost um that would be associated. Um I I understand just
preliminarily that it's um different than what we had anticipated um in in the in past discussions. Uh so I look forward to getting an update um with with true data um and then continuing the discussion and I think at some point
we will have a um formal vote uh which is what the U board has asked for. Um it is also noted that our policy doesn't necessarily need to change. Um I think that if anything uh we could we would
have a resolution or not res regulation um that would outline additional details um than than what it has now. Um so more information I look forward to receiving it I think and looking forward to discussing it with the board.
>> And Dr. Roberts, for the sake of the community, can you just outline a little bit about the timeline that you were just alluding to with the formal vote or the more information? >> Um, sure. I can if you can again. >> Yeah. So, I think um we will certainly
for the next meeting have more of those cost details that she was asking about um that I can get to you. Um the June cow is on May 1 f June June 1st where I think we will have further discussion of this and then hope to have
some sort of um board resolution on the June regular meeting. I keep saying the 18th but I think it's actually the 20th. I'm not really sure. Um but the second June meeting is is probably when we'll we'll ask for the board to make a decision. Um that will enable us time if if we're going to change things to to
work on it over the summer and put those things in place. And if we're not changing things, then you know that's a good end of the year discussion time. >> Does that suffice? >> That's great. Okay. All right.
>> All right. Um and then any liaison? Um >> yeah, the federated. >> Yeah, federated federated meeting is this week. I know. Um uh there is a link that's out for those that want to
attend. All right. And on to our um public comments. Um at 10:01 we will open up the meeting to uh general public comments. You can state your name and address and you have three minutes. Mr.
>> Can I just applaud the public commenters for waiting three hours to come and speak? Oh, it's okay. >> This might be a record. >> Aside. I get it. >> Is it on now or did I just
>> turn on now? Yeah. Sorry. Um, just before I say what I plan to say, I have a set of alternate charts. Um, uh, if you care to look at them, I'll
just put them here. the the thing that people read statistics differently. There were 417 respondents to the survey. It was 1.9 to1 roughly 2:1 in support of
the naming. If you if you break out the central school respondents, there were 102 central school respondents. Slightly over half of the central school respondents were opposed. 55% of them.
There were 56 of the 102 respondents. It was not an overwhelming communitywide opposition by central school. They were split on the issue. So, uh, personally,
I'm inclined to look at the overall that 61% of the 417 respondents favored it. But what I had wanted to say, and when I run out of time, please tell me,
if you rename an auditorium or put a plaque on the wall, you're privately commemorating Thomas Hawkins. It's private because it's closed. It's in the building. Nobody sees it who doesn't enter that building. While he certainly
deserves recognition, we have the opportunity to do something more significant. Amending the name of the school is a public statement. It rises above being memorializing and it becomes symbolic.
It speaks to who Glenrock is, not just who Thomas Hawkins was. We all know that red lining was real for more than a hundred years, which is why there was such a concentration of black families around Broad Street. Give them the
houses next to the railroad tracks. This guy, a black man and a product of our school system, went to that specific school in the late 1930s and he beat all the odds and was accepted to medical school. Think about that and what it
says about the Glenrock school system. He deserves an auditorium just for that. But then he volunteered during World War II and joined the military. Against all odds, he became one of the limited 1,000 sent to Tuskegee uh for training.
Against all odds, he became one of the 300 sent to Europe to fly. And against all odds, he became a flight commander. There are many amazing stories of veterans. And for my money, every one of them deserves a plaque on a wall and a
hell of a lot more. No other building in town is named for a Glenrock alumnus. I think the symbolic meaning of doing this is so significant and will speak so highly of Glenrock that we should settle for nothing less.
At this moment in time particularly, the world finds itself at the most unsettling situation in my lifetime. Heroes are hard to find. We have one. And he sat at a desk at that school.
Thank you, Mr. Cole. Thank you. >> Thank you. As a proud 1964 sixth grade graduate of Central School, I'm here to support the name change to
honor Thomas Hawkins who attended Central School and died giving his life to our country for our country. What most people don't know is that many of the planes that were flown during World
War II were very dangerous. Thousands of young men died just learning how to fly them before they even made it to go into combat. I do hope before you make the decision, you read Thomas Hawkins history to know
exactly what he did for our country. I did go ahead copy the history and I will leave copies if you haven't actually taken the time because I agree with the comment that many people don't even know who he was. I'm a past Glenrock Board of
Education member so I know firsthand how difficult decisions can be. However, this decision in my opinion is an easy one. Most of the people who disagree with the
name change said their reason was tradition. However, over the years, traditions change as times change. It was always a tradition for our pink bank to remain pink in town for 70
years. And now we have a gray bank. I worked for that bank 56 years ago. And the name changed because when I was there was people's trust. Names change all the time.
Even though it is gray now, people might still refer to it as the pink bank and people may still go ahead and call it central school. Several years ago, I gave up my teaching
career to move out of Glenrock to be with my husband when he was transferred to Chicago because thousands of people did not want his company Macy's to change the name of the city department store from Marshall Fields to Macy's.
And he had to go out there and straighten that mess. So I am very well aware and I understand when people don't like name changes because of tradition. Please understand we would be not taking
away the central school name. We are adding a person's name to the school who we should be honoring for what he did for our country. In naming the school Thomas L. Hawkins Central School.
All four of our elementary schools will be named for extraordinary individuals and not just three of our elementary schools. I thank you for your consideration in this matter and I really do hope more
people in our town will really read and take the opportunity to understand what we're trying to do here. Thank you. Thank you. >> Good evening. Um I have two comments to make. One is about the school calendar.
Um the other is about security. Um I emailed the board a few times about uh the calendar issue, but I think emails get lost. I want to make a statement here. I would like the board to consider making the Luna New Year a district holiday officially and I know next year is Saturday but it will come into
importance um come in the coming years. Glenrock has many families that from East Asia and recognizing this day would acknowledge the cultural heritage of our community and support students to celebrate. It can be a teaching moment as well for many of our families to learn about their cultural traditions
from East Asia, especially as we teach chi Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language in the district. So, and this aligns our calendar with the practice of several neighboring districts. So, it's not a huge ask. Um, I know emails get lost, so I'm here to make a public statement about that. Um, the second
part I want to touch on is about security. Um there is a lot to be um a lot not said in the joint statements which I understand but I would like to make sure that the the fields outside the school the playground outside schools are being secured. The
playground for the young prek kids are right outside of high school riding the plane view and to me it's very concerning that someone could walk up to the playground and threaten our kids. Um there's lots of miscommunication as relates to staff and students that are outside the school during the incident and I want to make sure the school board
is is making sure that there is enough oversight and supervision to make sure we have adequate policy in place. I'm in full support of having armed retired police officer in school. But I would like to hear more about outreach efforts, how we're going to introduce them, how we're going to educate our staff and especially our kids young and
uh older to learn about their roles. Um I found the study that Mr. town uh cited t play flawed and not realistic to consider. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh seeing no more members of
the public to make comments, um we'll close our uh public comment session at 10:11 p.m. All right. May I get a motion to adjurnn? Dr. Puchi Bender, seconded by Mr.
Hayward. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right, we are adjourned.