oh okay thanks mat okay um okay uh I'll call the meeting to order please rise for the flag salute aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible thece
rud of ESS in the event of an emergency all people may exit right or left from this room and proceed to an exit door all doors will open from the inside the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced
notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the h board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the north
Jersey Rec record Herald News the board's official newspaper on January 15 2025 notices of this meeting indicating date time and place were posted publicly on the door of the main entrance to the school and filed with the clerk in the
municipality of hailen roll call please Mr sna Mr Keta here miss CAD here Mr Gman here M Mrs Johnson here Mr Martinez here Mr moxo here Mr
Ramadan and Mrs Isa here um can I have a motion to pass prior minutes second by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr MCO roll call please Mr yes Mr Peta
obain Miss C yes Mr Gman yes Mrs Johnson yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moxo yes Mrs yes can I have a motion to open
the floor to Citizens on agenda items only mooved by Mr Martinez second did by m all in favor okay the floor is open citizens on agenda items only anything uh Mr Pagani or Mr
Miller motion to close Okay so gizman seconded by Mr Martinez all in favor okay uh so moving on to committee reports um good evening everyone thank
you for joining us um so Mr Waka the board members and in particular our business administrator Miss Augustin have been quite busy since our last meeting um over the last couple of days there have been several committee meetings which chairs will
report on tonight uh of note is the school budget draft for the 2025 26 school year that Miss Augustin will discuss in a little while in reference to the budget draft I'd like to make a note that it was very beneficial for the uh finance committee meeting to meet to
review the draft with Miss Augustin on a day before the the board presentation um it gave committee members plenty of time to ask questions have discussions and kind of let everything sink in uh before the board presentation the draft presentation at a subsequent date so I
think this is the best practice that we should you know um Implement in for future years uh it was beneficial um regarding our Safety and Security meeting tonight I want to thank the H and police department for always being willing to come to the table to
discuss how we can enhance and improve our district safety measures and for their continuous support of our school and students they are an integral and in invaluable Community partner I also want to thank our Administration um including our vice
principls um our vice principal of Middle School our guidance counselors and oural counselor uh for all of their dedication hard work um and effort that they put into looking out for our students and making sure that they're
safe uh and learning and that's it for me I will turn it over to our chief School administrator Mr W thanks board president Isa um I have several different items that I want to communicate with this board uh to begin with at 5:30 we had our policy committee
U we reviewed several policies um most of these policies were just changes of wording specifically the modification to the HIV policy states that um if we're doing an HIV investigation and there's also a criminal aspect to it then what happens is we uh you know we would pause
the our part of the investigation while the criminal investigation goes on um the policy revision about smoking includes language relating to e cigarettes and dictates that if we have reason to believe that a vaping device is being used as a means to inhale
marijuana or any other type of drug that we contact local police to inform them the electronic device policy states that law enforcement agencies will only have access to our camera surveillance footage uh in case of an emergency situation so the word emergency was put
in um the policy about eligibility of Resident non-resident students states that HPS teachers are allowed to send their children to school at HPS but that non-teaching employees won't be offered this service uh please know this is not about HPS looking to favor um the
children of teachers versus the children of of non-teaching Staff instead simply this is not an option that we're allowed to offer as part the law uh unless we charge them full tuition lastly the cell phone device policy outlines that HPS will continue to look to allow students
to use a cell phone only if an adult staff member getes them permission we aren't looking to do a full ban on cell phones and we will continue to regulate cell phone usage the way we have been regulating it you know through our disciplined code of conduct item two in terms of personnel
I'm excited that we're going to welcome back Mr Mark Tech he'll once again be a a teaching member of our staff it's always sad when we lose really good employees um but it's always great when they they come back and want to work for HPS so we're happy he's coming back as of April 1st uh item three uh at 6 PM
this evening officer Guzman called for a security uh committee meeting present at this meeting were officers from the Helen Police Department the assistant principal spado counselor cosgro uh members of our Board of Education uh and our SRO uh the topics reviewed included
VAP detectors that we're purchasing for next year the SE seal initiatives discipline data um and any other topic related to you know student safety and HPS um item four is during new and old business I want to review with this
board a use of facilities requests for a local baseball team I'll present the facts as I understand them then I'll look to administrate this request as the board sees fit um and number five I also want to remind the board of two important events that are fast approaching uh on Friday we will have
our PTA East Coast professional wrestling fundraiser in the big gym the first match will begin at 700 p.m. uh the guys that run it they're a lot of fun and they they do put on an entertaining and acrobatic show for the kids so hopefully we'll continue to see the uh you know attendance grow at this
the deal we have with them is um they charge for their their tickets to watch the wrestling event but our PTA gets exclusive rights to sell food and and and bananas and pizzas to raise money that way um we're looking forward to this amaz oh additionally next Wednesday is our annual Tricky Tray and this year
it's being held at the ties uh we're looking forward to this amazing event I know that the PTA and I know that Miss fiorentino uh have been working very hard to prepare for this um and we're always looking for board members to call numbers at the Tricky Tray so if you're feeling it that night please let us know and that would be greatly
appreciated um and lastly uh I sent not board that our district will receive about $680,000 less in state aid than we had received the previous year um L will address this in her report and I will also look to answer any questions that
that board members may have about this information but that's it for my report thank you Mr W any questions for Mr waa okay I'm gonna turn it over to miss obson our business administrator thank you madam
president um the first thing I just wanted to mention like Mr Walker said about the Tricky Tray um usually the board does a group gift so please if you haven't or if you want to participate please reach out to me and um so that I can I usually go and grab the gift for
the board and we um you know send it off to the Tricky Tray and like they said the Tricky Tray is March 19th right next March 19th a week from today yeah so if you can get it to me by Friday so I can go this weekend that would be great right the other item that just came up
this week is our annual Workshop it's October 20th to the 23 um we um will initially meaning the central office will initially register every want to go and then if you don't want to go please let me know
immediately and we will take you off the registration I used to do it the other way before but I wasn't getting responses and then was like the last minute people would tell me yes or no so the group rate doesn't change regardless we still have to pay the price that's on the agenda of 2200 it's the same price
for everyone that goes so I'm registering everyone and if you're not going please let me know at a time and if there is a spouse or um any a partner that's attending please let me know we need that for the accommodations um the hotel accommodations and I'm also I
heard the message loud and clear I'm trying to get us all into one um location so that we can all be um in one location for traveling and you know just you know going to conferences and connecting um preferably the oceans
Hotel I've already had the ladies reach out to Oceans even though it's not open yet because I don't understand the minute is open it's already packed so we're trying to figure out and how to get ahead of that so but if you are not going let me know but right now everyone will be registered and everyone will
have a um hotel room okay um in addition the disclosure forms I'm still I have seven not started applications so we are going through qac and these are points
so I really need everyone to get on board and get this done so that we're not um during the Q process for this if you need help let us know um I know that two were returned we're looking into seeing what the issue was there but we
do have a significant amount that's um not has started and this is due um the end of this month right any questions on that yeah the deadline I thought the deadline was in April deadline is in March yeah end of the
month March 31st is so I thought it was in April April 1 okay Oh I thought it was the end of April okay okay got it okay so a few things on the agenda before I get to discuss about the
um budget I just wanted to highlight a few um resolutions that are on there um 13.1 we have the security VES this is the proposal for the architect who's working on the drawings and we're finalizing all those details um we went
through a quite a few different um ideas we went through different sketches and now I think we finalized on the um a design that we like and now he's just going through the details of I guess the wall the seel to make sure it's feasible
but it will be be an extension outside of the um location that um that's already existing so that anyone that's visiting will just be trapped in that one area before they're cleared to come inside so that was that proposal is the
Professional Services for our AR Tech um 13.2 is the Bergen County Co-op and for those who who are not familiar with co-ops the district participate with co-ops in order to have better purchasing um Power and also it helps us
to move a little bit quicker when it comes to um if items are over like you know certain bit threshold amount we can go ahead and without going out to bid or getting a second quote obviously we still do our due diligence if we feel like something is over price we will get
a second quote but joining a co-op or participating in a co-op gives the board authority to move forward especially like without any delay so that's you'll see different different co-ops we approve over the year the most of the co-ops are approved during the reor
meeting this is one we just joined just recently um 13.3 is the a fact facility I'll discuss a little bit more about this um during our budget um overview HB we discussed it a little bit more in the
security meeting too we're doing a few we're finishing up a few extra classrooms that still need to be addressed with haac um upgrade so this approval is necessary for us to submit the application to the state in order to
give us to go ahead to move forward so this is the first step in that process because it's um has to do with h and school Improvement we have to get permission from the school and um development of and I got some questions about semi on
13.15 um there was a few questions asking what the semi is semi is a state program that um the districts are um kind of obligated to participate with this program gives the district um
reimbursements on salaries and um any type of services that we provide for kids that are um part of the child study team um Department who are Med Medicaid eligible that's not necessarily mean that they are receiving Medicaid they're
just eligible for it and it's an incentive to districts to try to get those families to participate in the Medicaid Program if they have if they're eligible for the um benefits but this is not an option for us whether we have to do this we are obligated and they do um
they the state actually take a bigger portion of the reimbursement but we do get um part of it so but we do have to approve um we have to approve an action plan every year if we don't meet that percentage mark by the state the other item is our annual
preschool um budget which is 1316 the preschool annual budget OB it is tied into our um preschool Aid that we get every year so this is also an item that we have to put a projection of what it's going to cost us how much money we have left over um how much the
district is contributing to the preschool program and we have to get it approved by the board first and then we submit this along with the budget um application as a supporting document so we need the resolution to move forward with that um
13.2 um two one is a approval for a November transfer that was previously approved and November but I submitted the paperwork to the county and what it does is every year when we budget we budget in certain categories and when I
get requests for transfers I have to make sure that it is um justifiable and if it is isn't justifiable or if we need to go over in a subcategory we have to get permission from the county if it's over 10% for the
ma most of the time when there is a transfer most transfers are within the subcategories of when it was budgeted but sometimes for instance this particular transfer had to do with um transferring um money that was left over
in tuition in order to cover um um a consultant that we needed for a child study team this did have to do with a special needs student so we needed to use those funds in order to um um procure those services for the student okay so but we have to get approval with
transparency to let the know the public know that we did transfer over 10% in the original budgeted amount okay so it is coming from one pot into another it's not extra money that's being into the budget it's just not in the same category as it was originally budgeted
okay and the biggest item is the budget preliminary budget so I am going to walk everyone through these numbers if um I don't know if there's any questions regarding what I already said before I get to this piece I just had a couple of questions um so for the group rate for
the workshop so it's of you know it's a flat rate um if PE let's say like only half of the board members go do you get any reimbursement or no but it's still works in our favor you know it still is a discount if if everybody if more
people do go yeah yeah I think you I think it's up to still more economical to do the it is definitely more economical yes okay question I had related to that is I don't want to go for four days anymore but like is there is it is there a discount to go for just
two days or something like that or the only adjustment that will be made is on the hotel but not on the registration the hotel you yep for night anybody else have any questions for Miss Augustin Madam president yes can we really take a close look at that
um MBA in terms of if a board member or any member of the school Community is going to only be able to say two nights it's a lot cheaper than we're paying for the entire forn nights so I mean do are we doing that or only for the hotel accommodation of registration is set for
the whole time that a person is there regardless of how they um attend okay understood the hotel any else okay take so tonight we are approving the tentative budget for um
our district the resolution on the agenda is 7.1 um the total overall general fund budget will be 2,205 182 our special Revenue fund is 2,
47715 and for our special revenues this includes our preschool Aid and it also includes all of the esa funds Title One title two title three and title four our total overall budget is 27 m612 897 with
a the um the amount of the tax levy is 6,841 796 and I am requesting and recommending that the tax levy is raised for 2% this year in order to cover partial or maybe a smidget of the
deficit that we have and also maintain the programs in the um you know personnel and everything that we have on staff so that is my recommendation for this year with that being said as I review the state a numbers
from the um 2024 to 2025 we did go down um about 3% in Equalization a and that um total value amount was three over um $300,000 which is the biggest amount of
Aid that the district does receive and the state did send out a notice that the most they would send out um dis um discount or not not really discount um decrease is 3% and they did us you know decrease us to the max in incl
the second item was um our transportation Aid we went up a little 1% we also um went down in um special education aid about 4% individually and then um s security aid went down
14% and our prese Aid took a significant hit of 20% altoe with a total value amount of $688,000 388 so I did a little um you know calculation on even if we try
to make up this amount in our tax levy in order to um you know just be on target with what we were getting we will be close to like 9% raising the tax levy in order to make up for that dollar amount so we as I said I'm requesting 2%
you know that is the um know I guess the fiscal responsible um way to go about um moving the budget forward with without any changes um we did look at the budget in detail and make sure that we we budgeted everything
we needed and everything that we are going to be able to manage going forward as far as our revenues that we um we um budgeted for this year we have over about $200,000 in miscellaneous in
revenue and that has to do with our interest we have like refunds that we get sometime from the previous year tuition refunds we get um refunds through our um workers comp sometimes we get um refunds through um any type of
Prior year um adjustments that is needed I looked at the revenues over the last three years and about two 250,000 was reasonable or of a projection that we can um actually budget for for this year we went over the state aid already but
um fund 20 this year we um I budgeted conservatively about 20% less that is what is recommended because also that is a federal program and we have to take an account where we don't know what those figures are until July so conservatively
we take off 20% and budget according into that and also I want to know even with the fund 20 items we do have about $400,000 worth of salaries that are budgeted there so I want everyone to be very aware of that too so if that
doesn't come out the way we plan it to be we have to be able to make those and have those conversations and make those decisions accordingly but I'm hopeful and I'm I've never had that big of significant dip with um federal funds but we are living in unprecedent times
um we talked about semi this um the semi program it went down 85% last year we received or predicted around $31,000 this year we're only um slated to get about 6600 that is a big
difference from a previous year we also budgeted for with our reserves so I just want to be clear because I know we've talked about reserves in the past and that makes us feel comfortable that we do have um money set aside and we should
we we were able to save up money and that's great but please understand that reserves are exactly for reserves and what they're slated for so for example our maintenance Reserve we budgeted about 450,000 for that because we have
some reserves to do that but they are that funding is only for required maintenance we can't crisscross the funds and use it for something else that Reserve is only to purchase or take care the maintenance required maintenance within the
district in addition we have our Capital reserves again we're budgeting 2. um million dollar worth of projects and those projects consist of the hbac profit they also consist of the fire law upgrade and we also um have
um as I remember that one really quick we have another project but the again Capital reserves are for capital projects even though there is sitting for us to use we only can use those for capital reserve we can't use it for
personnel we can't use it for special programs they're restricted for capital reserve it's great that we have those items available but I want when we're looking at the overall Finance understand our restricted reserves are restricted and they have to be used
particularly for what for those items um and we also predicted our extraordinary Aid again looked at our revenues from the past three years we projected that we'll probably get around $100,000 in extraordinary Aid and we felt that was a
reasonable amount to budget for our last Revenue source is our um fund balances this balance of $1 million um we're budgeted for that be um due to our recent order that allowed us to use
unassigned um money Surplus that was left over from a previous year per our audit and says that this we're eligible to use this as a revenue source so just explain what the unest um Surplus excess is again what during the audit
process um the auditor looks at all of our finances they looks at what we spent and there's a percentage uh that's taken from the actual amount of expenditures that we um we created from the previous year with that calculation we're allowed
to use any leftover funds from that year and we can apply it to the general budget so out of all of the reserves in the restrictive um category the Surplus fund balance is the only line item that we can use to budget and
balance our budget and it can be used for salaries or anything that the district need at that point so we did accumulate enough funding over the years to do that but the only concern with that I mean it is a positive is if we don't have that million dollars next
year and we have a decrease in state aid now we're down 1.6 but hopefully that's not the case we're being hopeful and we're going to continue to be fiscally responsible throughout the year while we're maintaining our budget and maintaining what we have now so
overall with the request to increase the tax le le Levy 2% our overall budget is 27 m612 897 now Mr Walker and I talked about this prior to um the state aid numbers
coming and we wanted to make sure that even though we are you know M asking for the 2% we want to make sure that the board knows what we're going to do to maintain our budget and not create any additional
um um expenditures that we can't handle in the future right so I just want to just um make a kind of rund down what we discussed so we're asking for the 2% to maintain our budget we're asking that
that's fiscally responsible as a district that what you do we discuss any type of position that we have we're going to make sure that we're replacing not creating new positions it whenever necessary
so when in the future if there is a new hire on the agenda we want everyone to understand a new hire does not mean necessarily that's a new position in the district it more we're going to replace positions but we're not going to create
a new position because we want to make sure that we are creating a atmosphere where everyone is the board is secure with the finance and and also our our environment our staff is secure that they will be here we don't want to over budget and over uh extend the budget any
more than we that you know you know where we are now so we're going to be replacing but not creating new positions whenever necessary now I like to put that disclaimer because if there's a a special n needs um issue where we have to expand a classroom and it's required
by the state we're going to have to do that okay but right now that is the plan to replace a replace an employee not create new positions so if are there any questions on that
okay in addition um we're going to um look to make sure some of the program academically or will continue the non-ac academic programs Mr Walker and his team
will go through that to see if it's um something feasible that we can continue but all the academic programs that was discussed that we're going to continue and I also stated that all the reserves entered are for reserves and there's
nothing additional that we can use for such as salaries and other areas for those reserves and and I also want to note that this the preschool program all of the fun2 items they run independently
they're not um buring the tax levy with that those P um programs are area that you see on the budget are running independently so we don't want to look at it as if we for instance our preschool salaries we have about $600,000 worth of salaries or that but
we're those are covered those are covered through the program so there's no concern there our title program like I like I stated before I budgeted 20% less but we still can cover the pro um salaries that are there so we're good
there so anything that is um for instance the family liaison programs like the Saturday um School The Homework Club detention those are all coming out of Title One funding so more than likely those programs will be able to continue
because they're there unless Mr Walker and his team wants to you know decide to do a diff go on a different route and kind of you know pick programs that are more um you know geared towards academics or you know that's that's their decision to make there but just to
let everyone know that those salaries are fine and I spoke about the um classroom programs um class um capital projects and um all the piping um project that was the one that I didn't um discuss and
we also have some classrooms that we're going to be covering through the HV program so overall again once again I just want everyone to understand that raising the tax levy 2% at minimum is the least we need we
can do here to maintain we have to make sure that we don't we don't fall backwards by not doing it this year and then next year now we're down 4% and then just keeps compounding negatively so I want
everyone to really you know ask questions let's discuss it but understand that this is important for us to move forward because we don't know where we're going to be next year we talked about this last year when we were at the budget table last year we
discussed this we said that there's a possibility that this can happen it happens so now we have to make sure that our community is secure that they can continue to have a good education and our teachers and our staff are secure that they can continue being part of the
HBS family okay so that is the overview of the tentative budget we will have the public hearing budget once the county approves it in April April 30th that will be our public hearing and you'll get more you know the big presentation but I just wanted to have a conversation
with everybody and let them understand that we have to be physically responsible with our budget and continue to grow it because because the state aid is going backwards we have to move forward okay any questions more
discussions I have a couple questions um so like you said we brought this up uh last year um guys did well for a long time didn't have to raise taxes we raised taxes last year how many one question was the first one how many new positions in the last
two years have we created I don't have that answer for you but we could get that answer for you I don't think it was that many creative I think we the top of my head within the last if the last two years is our time frame just the preschool we added we
expanded our preschool which is separate fund uh which is separate funded um to the best of my knowledge that's that's the correct answer and in the last few years I asked each time how many Cuts we've looked have we cut anything because I asked about it last year and
it was oh we have a really good relationship with the state and we always get state aid and I was here saying hey that's great until you don't get it and then our taxes have to go up and it's not a shot of anybody in the room no one here did anything negatively to cause the state a to go down but what
was cut or looked at being cut it's great we don't want to cut educational programs we don't want to people see people be fired I was Patterson Police Officer I got laid off I know what it's like to have go to work and be told hey I have a job but what have we looked to actually cut rather than say hey we
could raise even with cuts you're probably going to have to raise the taxes to 2% Levy to cover it because you can get further Cuts going on next year but what in the last two years have we even looked to cut have we cut a single project or done anything in terms of reducing the amount of money we're
spending we spend a lot of money it's $27 million in a one square mile dep it's a lot of money to be yeah so um the biggest part I can say is that a lot of the programs are things that we spend
through ESS we don't have that anymore all right so that is what you know some of the different things that were done through Esser that is not that's not budgeted here anything that we budget um specifically is rolled over to the title
one like I said The Homework Club the detention Club all those other clubs they're being covered under title one now so right now um I'm summer programs some of them I think we're keeping just one thing is you know answer your
question my goal is to grow as many pro grow as many you know programs as possible right so when we get year after year after year after year really good state aid and then you know Co was a terrible thing but we you know financially we received a lot of
compensation for it um we were able to add so many new programs now is there a plan of you know a priority of which ones if we had to make Cuts would go first absolutely uh there's certain things that you know we're we're not going to be able to offer that we did
that we off currently offer that we're not going to look to offer next year um and then as far as you know what what comes next to me the the programs that we've seen like a 13 coming off Co the next two years of state test we saw a 13% uh raise in ela and math and the
next year we followed up with the 4% on top of that so I think the programs that are going to put students with you with academic Focus like the tutoring or the boss program those are the ones I'm going to really put as much effort as we can that hold on to them and the programs where you know that benefit
students you know mental health and and and awareness and things like that so to me those are going to be the priority um and then we have documents about uh the recommendations from the parenty that we had you know I think it was a year or two ago um but yeah now it's a time where it's no longer time it's not times
of Plenty it's times where we might have to start you know cutting and there's a plan for that um what is at the top of your list to cut if any we talk it would depend how much of the programs for this current budget you said you had a list
what you would be able for this current budget there's going to be certain PD opportunities that we're going to you know look to go a different direction in um and if I could offer all the same programs that I've been offering with just those cuts and then after that you know we're going to have to rank and prioritize you know which student group
or Student Activities you know that's going to be a thing too the other part of this too is you know we we signed for a very long time I think that this the teachers contract the salary guide it it probably wasn't the strongest salary guide you know in county or
probably towards the the bottom of it I I think that the board invested in a a very fair contract with the teachers um but you know when when we vote for a four-year contract that you know both sides feels is in the best interest you know we're locked into those numbers now for the entirety of that Collective
bargain process so you know I could cut programs at the same time like if we really have to make up money the the only way to really make up money that's significant is going to be to layoff staff um that that's to
me the route that I if we have to go there we have to go there right uh but I prefer not to because I think the more adults in the building that are doing good things for kids that that's the best thing for us um but you that that that's the only way to make a big time of if we had to is every position that
we currently have needed yes so I have a question as far as um being proactive and the reserve funds that's being proactive right so every time we put money in that Reserve fund that's something that uh we can go to
because that's not restricted right so that Reserve fund and and we we built it up so no I I the reserves are specifically for there three C categories of reserves that we have we have capital reserve
just for Capital project maintenance Reserve is just for restricted maintenance we have emergency reserves for a specific emergency which does require County approval and it has to be for unforeseen circumstance right so we can't use that for salaries but we could
use it for those designated categories right so that is a form of being proactive is having those reserves right I mean it's not going to help a person's um job if that's the um question you're asking what we could do which we did this year
is we were able to use the Surplus excess Surplus fund balance to balance the budget so we do have the opportunity every year in June to um make sure that part of the um fund balance is um healthy so that we can use it as a line
item to budget our budget so that has been helpful for us for the last three years and I just want to make sure that we just understand that's also um it's calculated at the end of the year according to what we spend and whatever is left so that's a it's a form
of Aid that's unpredictable too yeah you know but it's our own Aid that we're kind of creating right so so it is being proactive you know it's not I know I understand that it can't go towards salaries it can't go to it's restrict so you can't you know uh use it for
anything but it does go to our to balancing our budget and then we can we have the advantage of using it as Surplus if if we're able to for the% only 2% carrying over we have a Max of 2% we can um put into Surplus every year and then every wa a minute then the
remaining balance is restricted into c um Capital maintenance and emergency but we do have a percentage that we could use towards salary that's only if it's available it's not a guarantee okay okay yep thank you go
ahead Mr Gman I just I understand the the conversation very important we have to plan ahead um but let's be clear the Hing public school district is in a good stable financial situation right you know um and that's clear we're
still 100% debt free um even the time we didn't raise taxes for five years straight because of state aid um coming in and so on and so forth strategically putting money away to do that school expansion we can go on what we have right now is the bare minimum they cut
our state aid what are we gonna do just roll over not g to roll over on this we're gonna go down threaten we're going to fight for the money that the school district deserves so we can look after our children you know so with that being said I'll bring something up on the new business I want to do a uh I want to
propose I want to make a motion for resolution we want to hand deliver to our state senator Benji Wimberly our assembly woman Shaman and our assembly men alab Del aiz um we have to fight for the money that our children deserve can't just roll over on this we
need every penny every penny counts so I I have a question Mr Gman about that because we did talk about this a little bit last suay at the finance committee like in terms of lobbying so is that possible to Lobby just for a district and not Statewide absolutely that's what
we're elected to do we're going to lobby for our district for for State funding for State funding other districts have done it that they've been cut and they've lobbied and they've gotten their money as long as we put I'm not saying that is anything is guaranteed yeah but we're here to fight for the best
interest of our children our school Community um and as long as we can in my estimation articulate why we need certain funds for okay I think we have a good we have a good fight um and again we're in a we're in a very solid fiscal
situation right now um despite despite of our our state being cup our Capital reserves are healthy which is probably why our state a got cut let take a look at our at our Capital reserves about involment and um it looks at the different categories
that they give that's what they look at I don't I don't know look at our cap sure you know but we've always been told be careful with the capital reserves because but those Capital reserves let's be clear have been strategic put away that's how we were able to do so many projects we strategically put money away
so why should we be penalized because we've been fiscally responsible the last several years you know so we have to we have to we have to keep fighting and we have to count on Mr Walk and his team to come with a plan to this board that we can all agree on to continue moving this District forward I think that's where I
think that that's my my that's uh my two SS thank you and just to be just to clarify right um the last five years that we didn't raise uh taxes we kept our our our citizens uh Pockets full for those five years and a year or two that
we raiseed 2% we divide that over the last seven years it sents uh to to what's really being charg to the homeowner or the citizen paying taxes in in houses it wouldn't really hurt them or us right I live here too obviously I don't want I don't want an increase but
uh if we have to for our children's sake and to make sure that the classes and the teachers are kept uh here I think it's fair ago it's different from today the egg and and I think yesterday during the
finance team um meeting committee meeting we discussed I was explaining to everyone what bank cap is and you brought up a good point so being that we did not raise the taxes for five years the state does allow districts to um
Bank cap the money set aside in case there is a need to raise the tax levy over 2% now the money doesn't realize until you put it on paper and you go through the whole process of approving your
budget but in your packet there is a um sheet that tells you how much Bank cap the district does have and is allow to raise your tax um Levy over 2% without going to the voters so and it's we have
almost a million dollars in Bank app that is um um stored away on paper for now and it realizes only when the you know the district gives us a charge but it does expire every year so you only
can save up three years at a time so whatever we have in um from 2022 23 which is we're not using that that will expire and it just continues okay so so this is
something we need to watch too absolutely yeah Madam president um so yeah so just just for the record um I don't want to put you sp you don't have but um I understand what you're saying we have new board members we have public in your estimation do you feel like the
H and public school district is in a healthy financial situation right now you have to be careful obiously I I'm always thinking okay as of today but I'm always thinking for you know because even when you met me that was the first
absolutely yeah so I'm not only planning for today I'm planning for tomorrow tomorrow okay so I don't like what I see today okay I know that we cannot do this next year at all we cannot have a
decrease of $6,000 $600,000 at all then there's going to be real serious conations all right so this is not something we can do next year so we can maintain because I told you that this year this year the way we are we cannot
maintain next year so if we raised the percentage to 6% let's say how much how much uh we weigh would that that be so if 10% is $932,000 so that's about $400,000 so I
mean that's raising the tax levy to about yeah I was I was thinking of 2.5 because 2.5 keep us health or or jobs honestly I would like to clarify
possible again it's not an attack on anybody I appreciate the work that was done before I was on the board I am not advocating to see people be laid off however my fear is and I expressed this last time is that everything everyone is saying is through rosecolor glasses we
as you stated we're living through unprecedented times 87% of the district's budget is a gift from the state like I explained last time where at any moment it can be gone and we can end up like East Orange with no money
and devastated and it can happen that fast and all it takes this is with a education friendly Governor With Friends of the town on you know assembly State Senate and our Aid was still cut the
fear is that what happens when it doesn't go that way in the next election and you have someone who doesn't care to spend everyone else's money for the town of hailen that that's my only fear and it's very Cavalier to say that 2% is not going to hurt somebody because you don't know other people's situation that's not
like I'd rather I would rather cut programs if it was a savings where we wouldn't have to like I don't want to raise people's taxes you guys did a great job not doing it for a long time I understand that that may be something that we have to do I'm not advocating today to say hey let's start firing people and laying people off because you
devastate families and the problem will compound and the school has done well like you said without the co money everything else we wouldn't have been able to build this extra stuff for the school all those jobs are uh pre- jobs which are protected under this other funding so like I do think we have to
the answer I got when I asked was what have we looked to cut and there was no there was no answer which means we haven't cut anything so since the time I've been on the board and you do a great job and like the amount of work you put in it's not a shot at all like I come off aggressive so but that's
unacceptable like if any if I'm at home and I don't have money we have to cut we have to look at what can be saved and the answer of oh it's only 2% don't worry about it well was only 2% last year and it's only 2% and then oh hey great we have this Bank cap people can't afford US it's only 2% here but that
Manchester is going to raise your 2% and Town's definitely going to raise you 2% because it never ends they never cut it when's the last time they cut your taxes so I do think we should look at reviewing what can be cut if there's anything and you're going to end up having to raise the taxes anyway because of the situation we're at and you don't
want to compound the deficit next time but I do think there has to be a look at cuts and there does have to be a discussion of jobs but I'm not advocating for people to lose their jobs but you know has to be real situation because they could cut more you could they're talking about getting rid of the Department of Education
you could end up with quick 87% of your money gone and there's nothing you can advocate for it but like you said I think our friends in the state legislature will be happy to help us however there might not be any money there to help us so to your point Mr Keta last night at the finance committee
we were talking about cuts and what's going to have an impact you know what what kind of cuts are going to have an impact like cutting a little program here a little program that there is not really going to have a big impact what's going to have an impact which is what we
all don't want to do would be cutting salaries um and you know so so we were talking about strategies that we could do to try to create Revenue um so I mean being a school
there are only amount revenue for that amount yeah let me hear me out so there being a school there aren't uh huge streams of Revenue you know so but there are certain things that we could do like facility
rental um the um what else did we have here the um the grants for fund to fund certain programs and then using that talking about the shared services with Transportation like those items we're going to be making sure we look at that
we are you know on the favorable side of that you know but the facility rentals I've seen it firsthand that does work you know it gives a sense of um um cash flow that you could use for a particular fors so I think that is something that I
think we discuss getting together to talk about like putting um pricing and you know making sure that um we are you know charging the facilities um fees appropriately for whatever you know whoever wants to rent because that is
what schools do to create Revenue you can use that for particular programs that you might want to F so it's not just a matter of where we can cut it's also where we can create some Revenue um Madam president have a question for
superintendent um we can obviously talk about this all night it's clear that we have to prepare for the future um Mr Waka um of top of here we happen to know how many uh how many teachers how how many staff members are let's say due for retirement and time
obviously sa money toan yes we've had a couple staff members either you know tell us they're going to retire or formally in the the letter to the the board office or just kind of say hey Mr Rock by by the way I'm gonna leave at the end of this year um so we might get
some breakage there the problem though is with the teacher sords like it used to be like you could you know if a teacher worked for 20 25 years they're a pretty high step and then they they retire and there's so many people looking for teaching jobs where you you naturally hire the next person step one and then you know have this big breakage
with the teacher shortage it's it's become almost like an arms race trying to to to hire staff where by if I hire someone on step one and they they do agree it's not going to take them very long before they realize that they could make a lot more money going to another
District um so that's kind of everything's getting more expensive and I also think too that I I don't know enough to know the ex's andos of what tariffs are going to do to our budget but not everything we buy is bought from from America I'm sure a lot of the stuff
we buy is from overseas that might add to an extra expense um I think that you know I'm always going to look within a a Year's budget to get as many positive and and instructional and helpful experiences and programs for kids um and
then you know when we plan the next year's budget we we we plan based on the facts that we're presented with in this case it's a $688,000 reduction in state aid so I'm going to look to do as many important things for kids as possible um and it looks like right now
that we're we're going to be able to do that uh L's point and M Mike Point's accurate that like we can't keep making $688,000 Cuts every year without there being you know the end result of less Staffing like that that's that's just
how it's going to have to be um but you know I'm looking to maximize you know as many good things as we could do for the kids in the community next year's budget and then you know go from there and if we have to have a year where you know we we do have to lay out lay off some staff members because of another two or three
years of bad numbers then then that's what we have to do that year and it's going to be my job to plan for it and then and try and make that go as smoothly as possible but you know everything runs better when you have adults that are good in the building with kids yes sir any other questions
um I would like to Havey make sure that we need every single position that we havea is um Jen are you on there um the attorney Jen
Osborne Jen could you is that something could you speak to that can you take oh she's muted yeah Jennifer Osborne this is um our attorney Mr Marino this is his one of his Partners Mr Marino is in court today so he can't be
here she's still muted she's still muted muted we try to chat ask her to unmute can you hear us Jen Osborne yes she's just muted there you go okay sorry I can hear you but I I was
muted by the person controlling it um sorry yes I can hear the question of bringing in um an outside vendor so to speak in order to audit the district to determine if you um if all of the positions that you have are needed is
that the question yes okay so that that is possible I mean of course that also costs money um in terms of bringing you know that outside Source it it's also something that can be done you know IND District in terms of uh you know looking
at you know the your your class sizes your overall student enrollment um you know teacher schedules staff member schedules uh to see if there is sort of a better way um to arrange things which will also kind of
tell you um whether or not you're sort of appropriately staffed or you're overstaffed it could show that you're underst staffed you know in looking at that as well yeah okay thank you so miss are you asking that in terms of the
budget and cutting salaries to so I think we all agree that we don't that would be a last resort and if I understand you correctly Miss Augustin we're not there right now we don't need to do that right now we are there we are there she just said two is the bare
minimum well minimum not maximum we can raise more yeah and have a more cushion if we wanted to but the two the 2% minimum is actually fair if you do the math no it's the bare minimum Madam president can we can we express
board members we should have speak over each other nobody should speak without permission of the uh the presiding yes that's yeah please one at a time um okay so well I don't I don't think we are there
I think the The Cutting salaries cutting um you know staff is a is a last resort and and with the 2% % tax levy we can maintain what we have right now we don't want to cut stuff we don't
want to cut PE teachers we don't want to do that that's a last resort we don't need to do that right now if we lose funding again as Mr W said as Miss augus has said we may have to make those tough decisions
but we don't have to do that right now that's that's not I don't think that that's going to help the situation if we got to a point where you know the budget could not like the zero some we couldn't get to balance the budget with our current Staffing then I
would have to to reduce it um there's no indication that right now we're at that point um I think the Miss cernis point you know I know it's a totally different District but you know last night I voted to raise out my taxes to 3.9% because I think there is something to be said
about you know homeowner's property value is is somewhat tied to the reputation of District services that a District offers and I I think it it's you know as a board member I want to you know let let's get as many nice things for the kids as possible um and I I also
wanted to do that because I don't hail in public school is heavily relying on state aid it's like it's like 30 or 40% or something might really highlight that um and I think it gives you more certainty as to what your budget is going to be like any given year if
locally you have you know more and more control of it um you know I think that this board should factor and also things like people that are on fixed income um you know it's you know we're looking out the best of the kids but the kids are still part of the community so you you don't want to look to price people out
with with taxes so I think it's for this board to consider um you know that that's why I I was comfortable advocating for the 2% which to be honest I don't think there's going to be and maybe Jen you've heard other wise but I don't think very many districts in the state if any are going to do less than
2% um and I think now with the back the back half I think you're going to see a lot that are going to go over 2% but I would be shocked if there was even one or two or three districts that they're going to do z% tax increase moving forward anyway Madam president yes Mr G
um and I'll report this on the security but at the security meeting I asked the administration for a demographic study um to see where hen's going to be at in 10 years what's our involing going to look like what's the population like Helen has grown so much it's between the
2010 census versus the 2020 census I mean we have more residents in North Halen for the first time in history um with that being said we have to trust our our school administration to go back to the drawing board and come to us with
the plan you know um so and and I think that's what we should do we should trust RBA We Trust our superintendent to go to the drawing board and understand that the work starts immediately the work has been going it's been going on and come back to I
recommend they come back to the board sooner than later with a long-term plan to see where we're going to be at down the line um otherwise we can be here on what we should cut I don't think this is the form of the time to talk about what we should cut should well I asked for a
audit I didn't ask for anybody to cut so the audit would say we have we have an audit we don't have didn't you get it no an audit to see if every position is necessary that's what I ask for it's not cutting
anybody it's just to see whether or not every position is necessary in this building after that then we can go we can proceed but for now we have to see if every position that we have currently
is needed well as um Miss Osborne said that something that could be done in District and that's something that Mr waa you said that's going to be one of the things that we look at we're going to look at programs we're going to look at um you know like this the whole
notion of um not creating any new positions just replacing maybe um you know moving staff around to fill different certification requirements Mr wer are you opposed to
if if board agrees to bring in an outside and through your studies to bring an outside agency to do a yeah I wouldn't I wouldn't even know where to direct it to to find that but if if if there's a resource that you know I wouldn't be opposed to it at all I think the word the word needed is is a key
word here and that like the board approves in May the position control roster so it's my job to to fill that position control roster um if we had a you know a year where we couldn't make the revenue me the the expenses then I
would recommend to this board that we minimize the physici control roster and and shorten it um you know if the word need like we need to meet fate like you know free to appropriate public education that's what we need to make um it it becomes a little more difficult
when you have to predict what what special ed needs or what you if you have three or four families move in with you know severe medical or or mental needs that's going to change your whole budget especially town like this where we're not that where you know one or two or three families moving in with certain
needs that's going to change things so you know but with that position control roster would be for me to you know if I we didn't believe we could make Revenue meet expenses then we'd have to look to most likely uh make that shorter than it is anybody else before we move on to the
next agenda item sorry we're still in committee oh well the next the next committee oh no actually so you're done okay so okay so let's let's go back thank you Miss Aus
um and you know so so you will present this draft um so we're voting approving the resolution I have to submit this to the county next week okay so the resolution is 7.1 not this many so okay so need um can
I have a motion to um you don't have to do it right now oh you you can go through your committee reports and then um when you get to it well it's actually oh I see yeah okay right okay all right so we'll vote for that after the
committee reports okay all right so let's go then to personnel and management agenda items only okay um curriculum and Technology Miss pado agenda [Music]
item um policy and public relations Mr CL we had a brief meeting um I thank Mr Waka and the rest of the members of the committee for uh coming out we had a clarification on some questions I had mainly um with that uh agenda items on
okay uh security and safety Mr Gman yes Madam president um I just want to say um as a longest servant Bo member here um we we've been here before um we were times were scary we didn't know where we were going State AG was cut and we
persevered and it's and it's not like it's not about the rosecolor glasses Mike but I'm going to remain positive you know um and we're going to see what we can do to move this District forward we've done it before and we're going to do it again as long as we stick together
we will get through it um as far as security safety is concerned we had a very productive meeting I want to thank Mr Waka our business administrator Mrs Augustine our um social emotional learning counselor Mrs Cosgrove our vice
principal Mr spado detective Sergeant Joseph leunes our technology department was also present as well as Mr Keta and Mrs Johnson uh we talked about an array of things uh relative to school security uh mainly we discussed a memorandum of understanding between law enforcement
and school officials um and with that being said agenda items um I do have one request if I make uh during that meeting um Mr spado spoke about all the mediations have been taking place in in the Helen Public
School District to to drive down assaults and any fighting or quarreling amongst the student body it's a very very um inciting uh draft and I would ask that Mr wer if you can share that with
the rest of the board that yeah okay it um we talked about you know educational the informative aspects of the board meeting I I think you know if we invited Mr spaz to come and kind of present that I think that would be a topic that the board would like would benefit from
hearing yeah and actually the list um that um Miss Cosgrove gave us with all the activities that was something that we talked about that we had be you know requested for a future meeting uh like at one of the past meetings so if that list could be shared of all the
activities that would be good too for the other board members to see mad president Madam president steing my thunder um but yeah absolutely uh Mrs cosgro spoke about all the social emotional learning initiatives from 2024 to 2025 to it's an awesome list here and
again I would appreciate if that would be sent to the rest of the board that's another position that was created but um it's my understanding obviously that was I think we use fund that was fund for emotional learning coach um so yeah a lot of great things um uh the baate
detectors uh Auto auto uh Auto locks for certain doors that we have to wrap up some technology uh uh initiative with uh security cameras uh the the front door security project um and that concludes my reest thank you
very much thank you Mr griman um Community engagement M quad agenda item okay and finance and physical plant Mr mow uh we met yesterday went over the budget as VA just discussed other than that agenda
item and pay some bills okay thank you um Miss quado State and County um there's not much to report uh Governor Murphy did make his annual budget address um he also extended the previous la
which was signed in December through uh January 30th for the uh posting of public notice uh so he extended that to uh June 30th um the assembly education committee did approve instruction on cursive
handwriting for the next school school year however it is unhold because uh the Senate um the Senate budget and Appropriations Committee has to review it so that's on
hold for now we haven't heard anything but that is possible that next year the students grades three to five um will have to have cses um studies again and then they'll learn how to do a signature because no kids know how to do a signature no I look forward to that I actually like that and that's all I have
okay thank you um Miss Osborne anything for attorney report no report okay thank you okay so then let's go back now um personnel and management Mr
BisMan I'd like to move the items on the agenda relative to personnel and management but before we do that do we need to pass a tenative budget first yes uh I'd like to move the tenative budget just keep in mind that there's 2.6 $2.6
million in here for capital projects for classroom HVAC replacement roof rooftop HVAC upgrade fire alarm upgrade pipe replacement $2.6 million something we want to reconsider something we
can you only can use that for capital projects what be consider you only can use that for capital projects understood but in terms of obviously Finance bettered everything um is something we want to hold off on or
ready to go on this I'm ready to go on it I don't have discuss we've been discussing this I move thetive budget can I a second okay so moved by
Mr gizman seconded by Miss quadr roll call please Mrs CER um Mr Keta no m g yes Mr Gman yes Mrs
Johnson yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moxo yes and Mrs is yes okay uh okay so now we'll go to personnel and management Mr Gman like to move 8.1 through
8.4 moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr mville roll call please Mr 86 8.9 um Mr Keta uh abstain from 8.1 uh yes for
us miss CAD yes um Mr Lesman can I change um the 8.8 that's also start Mr G yes Mrs Johnson for
8.9 is that up to 20 hours or is that like set that would be the maximum amount of hours for that no 8.9 Mr Martinez yes Mr MOX yes and Mrs
yes okay uh curriculum and Technology Miss Quad um I want to move 9.1 through 9.8 so move mov by mad secondly by Mr Martinez roll call please Mr obain from
9.2 no for 9.4 and 9.6 Mr ker I have a quick question on 9.1 uh again I I seem to ask every time um Mr Man is a shared employee to the best my recollection seems to be on every agenda for a another professional
development um is it possible that maybe Manchester could sub money out of their budget to they are invoice 50% of whatever that's the shared service agreement okay all right I vote no to
all M yeah Mr Gman yes Mrs Johnson yes Mr Martinez yes Mr maxel yes Mrs yes policy and public relations Mr clam
I'd like to make a motion to move 10.1 and 10.2 move move by Mr CL seconded by Mr MZ roll call please Mr Sona yes Mr K yes M
yes Mr bman yes Mrs Johnson yes Mr Martinez yes Mr maxel yes and Mrs yes we don't have anything safety engagement skip down to finance and physical plant Mr
Mo motion to move 13.1 through 1321 so move Mr mosow seconded by Mr Martinez roll call please Mrs S uh no to 136 and yes
sir Mr K uh yes Miss cadr with the recommendation to abstain from p500 431 correct um abstaining from P 500 431
and yes everything else maining from 13.19 and my vote is yes are you abstaining from the P set and I'm obstain I'm abstaining from uh po 405 and 501
okay Mrs Johnson yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr yes okay so moving on to new and old business M president yes Mr pres um on the new business um we make a motion to
have our Madame secretary draft a resolution um perhaps the finance committee can uh review it and take it to the board uh vot it up or down to be delivered to our to Senator to assembly Representatives our honorable mayor and
counil um explaining uh our fiscal situation and the need for the state to fully fund our schools if anybody has a second I would really appreciate second okay so uh moved by um Mr gsman
seconded by Miss Johnson do I need to reiterate or do you do you have it um the resolution that Mr I have it and I can listen to it on here but I would like a roll call for this yeah of course absolutely okay so let's do a roll call
um Mrs CNA yes Mr Keta yes Miss CAD yes Mr gin yeah I say we start here and uh sounds like our Administration has a lot of work to do um and together I feel we're going to get through this my personal opinion my V is yes Mrs Johnson
yes Mr yes Mr moxo yes and Mrs yes and thank you Mr gizman uh for that proposal uh anything else for new an old business yes so I I want to bring up um I got a
request from a a Community member uh for use of facilities uh in the application said either uh after school or on a weekend uh like morning between 10 and 2 o'clock I know the after school for spring is going to be impossible because
our Our Girls that field and then there's no light so once it's dark there there's no baseball um but um so it would likely be for just the weekend um and I think that the application showed that there's expected between I think it
was 100 200 students so something like that we we' probably if we said yes to this we we'd have to get a custodian to open the door and 200 people leave garbage need to clean it up so if you guys do look to move forward that's I would recommend charging at least the
custodial fee um but I just want to bring this to your attention and have the board directly as to what what you want to do actually I just wanted to ask if if uh would that be an instance where we can uh make funds for the school with
by renting out the you could choose to so we have uh one Community organization a soccer team or soccer club and they I I believe we don't charge them for the use of facility one day after it's one day a week they go to the gym and they they practice um I think that you know
if it's probably wise for this board to look to make it uniform where either you're going to charge local groups or you're you're not or you're gonna create some whatever kind of pricey plan you wanted to create um question I'm sorry so the soccer team is it like contracted
where they're GNA for a certain amount of time they're going to be so we we allow the soccer team to come to the small gym I think it's one I forget which day of the week but it's one night of the week um their numbers are are significant smaller um and when the custodians are already here to begin with so that's why we haven't charged
them um but that program seems like it's growing as well um So eventually we probably get to even though kids were now like you're you're taking custodian work that could have been for the school to you know to your program so it looks like they're trending that direction um I think that with the baseball thing you
know if we have that many kids I really I would encourage the board to to charge at least the the fee of the the the custodial um and if there's any facility usage as this board would look to want to put in then that's it's your facility so you know it's have this board which I
have a question all right um so when we say used of the field the baseball field outside the softball field right over there yeah the softball field so it's my understanding that HPS students the Wildcats they use direct center field
the B the boys do yes so is that field not playable for to HPS I mean is it playable to have Team there correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is the rof field is that alter in fielders is that grass also that it's grass so I feel like this this is an all dirt
that's where the girls just about the same I the girls use it for the softball and the boys use it they usually practice on the um on the pony side and reason I'm asking this because we already have a high school I mean uh HPS team look at the coach back there right
okay HPS team and then we also have the rec team so what outside program are we talking about to add another team into the Wayne I mean into the um helding it's uh it's called the Royals um I know that um the application been dropped off
I don't I I don't know enough about the structure of the program I don't believe M you might be able to correct I don't believe it's through the rec program but it's no it's not the rec program because I reached out just to find out so the uh the point is that with two teams already
with the uh R team and the HPS team where would they play I mean what's like is it a travel team it can be a helden team because we have the helden Warriors we have the wild cats right Mr you're in the board record you might be able to
answer the question as it's it's his own thing just like South soccer it's his own it's his own so it's a travel thing because it's not a held travel meaning you get kids from all around from other towns
here here in um here in in um helden The Warriors are all helden kids held in Residence because that's the taxpayers held in Residence and we had kids that were grandfathered in for Prospect Park because the league belongs to the
Patterson oldtimers Youth Baseball League which your kids were part of it right back seven years ago or so so now we've had two teams so I mean did so it's I'm just trying to find is it representing heldon or is it representing where they're playing at is
it I don't believe it's representing is it liable for us to have them use our facility for if they're playing games in other towns I I don't know if I could speak towards towards what the liability is but I I know that it'd be this
essentially a private group that has you know ties to Helen but it's not representing helden um is looking to use a baseball facility for four hours so the kids are from which that's I can't guarantee you that I I could tell you where each kid can we
find out more um do we have the space where the time for them to use it it would have to be in a if you if you guys said yes it would have to be in a weekend because we use it between our after care and then the the girls softball that Field's going to be used Monday through Friday okay so if you use it on the weekend will it require
security and will it require uh uh extra manpower to maintain it clean I'd have to open I'd have to open the school the campus that would be at least at least the hourly rate of the the custodial and the right the custodial so maybe should just if that's the possibility the the
email just for just what I saw I saw something about it online it said like a clinic I don't think it's a travel that could be wrong I don't think it's I think it's like a baseball clinic was what the way I read it was it's more of like a baseball clinic the way I don't know I could be the way I read it the
way I read it is the kids that are warriors right down and they have no Warriors those are the kids that they're recruiting for the Royals so that'll take the kids from Resident which also makes a confusion for the residents too
because it's not under the helded umbrella because I looked into that we don't want to hurt one team to another but they have their own in teny and they went through the burrow right they went through the burrow I know Southside because I know when they first started we we had to share they I got a schedule
of the field time actually when lla was playing that's when southide started her daughter that's when sou started another point is that we don't have a a helden soccer team we have a school soccer team hpsa but we don't have a helden soccer team and the helden Warriors have been
there before my time from what I understand can't make a suggestion can we make a uniform policy going forward on how do this like this way you know we're not here until you know just going forward make uh make
a uniform policy on how to go about renting out the field and who what who gets charged and what doesn't get charged because there are certain situations where while yes there is Bud you have to be ENT like you said you have to there's sometimes where you don't need to charge people Madam president yeah so this is
my personal opinion um again I'm a uniter not a divider um I'm all about share services so let's say um I feel there should be one team for the burough of Hing one team and if
another organization wants to more clinics and things like that I'm full complete support um if there's any issues amongst coaches I think what needs to happen I need to get to into a room and to settle it like grown men and women and and then we move forward um
for the best interest of our entire school instead of dividing children's Children's are part of this team or that team you know what we need to we need to lead by example you know we need to lead by example um and that's what I that's what I firmly believe in I would love to
see I don't I think I think that this concept I think is done in good faith I think um folks is uh hearts are in the right place I get it but I feel that they need to they need to get in a room these coaches they need to figure it out that's just my personal opinion and
don't put the H in public school district middle in the middle you know um they need to figure it out if anybody wants WR clinics Southside Soccer that's a that's a for-profit organization that's that's completely different um and I and I agree with Mr pet I think we should have a uniform policy that if a
for-profit organization is using our facilities it should be charged as a matter of fact I think we should keep that kick that to our legal I think honestly under the law we should we must charge yeah I I think if we have to incur an expense we should
definitely make something so maybe maybe it's actually it's actually a good thing that this came up because maybe we can draw something like Mr GLA suggested perhaps a uniform policy for our district and and and they will uh encourage uh our coaches to work
together and figure out their differences and move forward you know that's just my personal opinion I think with a simple conversation they can they can definitely figure it out you guys should definitely figure it out caros because this is it shouldn't come to this come
it shouldn't come to thisor application for facility use this detailed it was like a two-page document okay so it's just to use the facility right it's not like who's using it like are we looking at recruitments and are
we just looking yes or it all boils down to what it is it's it's your it's the H of public schools facility and the board's gonna decide if if they want to move forward with using this facility for this purpose for this group that's
that's I guess what the question is here so and it's not an agenda item so we're just discussing it tonight so figure it out another time well it's not well I don't want to just kick it down the road I mean I think we should decide whether we want to put this on an make it an
agenda item for the next meeting I don't know Madam president I don't know if uh I might be wrong but if someone formally requested I think it should be put uh put on the agenda and if they went through the process to formally uh request the formal decision
should be made you know so for whatever the next meeting or whatever I you know I think everybody would want that if they went through the process so I just want to take you back off of him too um if it is brought up in the next maybe we should have more information you know some of the
questions that were asked yeah Madam president and hopefully between now and the next meeting all these coaches could get into a room and they figure it out yeah I'm keep saying that you know sure okay uh you know
I that I agree I mean just um out of c a courtesy you know we should put it on the agenda for an upcoming meeting and then we can vote and we can vote we hopefully we'll have more information and and then we'll vote as everyone will vote as they see
fit um so um I guess I'll make that request to put it on the next agenda I can reach out to the organizer ask for more information I I can't control how how much we get back but you know whatever is shared that'll be shared but
again the my same my question is still the same so if we can lease out that field why are we playing on a road Street field why do the boys play their games on road Street I don't know I think that's been happening since before I got here I don't know the the Genesis
of why saying that this group can play on Ro Street well I mean if they go through the B yeah everything is through the barrel nothing is me I'm you know I'm just a commissioner on the board of education here whatever however my coaching that's
that's something separate so but right now it's just a matter of those those are the questions that are being some somewhat asked if we can play here why can't we so not
yet I think I think we need to come up with a long-term plan for athletics in our town it's very simple the school district takes care of the young kids the burrow takes care of the older kids it's very simp and one uniform way and we may have some kids that go on to be
the next Michael Jordan or the next Tom Brady or whatever you know we don't need to we I don't think we need Division I think coaches need to get in a room who's the head coach who's the assistant coach so on and so forth there's multiple different teams there's Pony there's there's what is other ter
no but that's the Warriors I don't know about the Royals this the Warriors I don't know about the Royals I know what we've done before and that's been that's done 25 plus years ago I I didn't started here so that's already been going on so that's just my personal
listen let's put it on the agenda okay and then let's try to get more if we can get more information and then and then anyway and then we'll go from there okay you guys no I was saying instead of just adding it to the agenda can we table it
and have a a conversation that like outside executive session yes you can't have you can't have more than five board members there's no it's not on the agenda so it's not going the table now we would we would I mean we would
put it on the agenda for the next meeting and then if conversations not with a quorum want to happen between now and the next meeting can I can I make a suggestion can can we kick this to the the extracurricular um committee let them
vet this let them talk to these coaches see they let them talk to the chair of Recreation over there and come to us with you know with a plan or suggestion or something so we can so I believe that's Miss quadr right we need to get Mr we need to get
Mrs spado involved for mediation like what what do we need to do you know mean this you know you guys vote no and I vote Yes I just want to see it I want to know you know how to do it please yeah so you know it is appropriate for the
commune engagement so miss quadrado if you could um you know maybe Mr Waka if you could get some information I'll do my best to get you the information I'll get you the contact information gent or then and then you know hash it out with
your committee members and then come to the board with a recommendation and then we'll vote on it and it'll be an agenda item okay all right great motion to open up the public second okay so uh wait but was there
anything else for new and old business no no no not public yet not public yet is there anything else for new and old business I do I just have a question again L I'm so sorry to bother you again with this but I'm just wondering about the electronic payment for certified angels and after school program so I did
talk to the administrators they like the way things are right now but we're looking to do something different because of the tracking of the invoices and such they just weren't ready for it right now okay we do have the face news program we're just trying to figure out
what's the best method for it okay thank you I have um something that I wanted to discuss with uh Mr wa and board um I want to uh open up a discussion about
communication uh there are a lot of um events that happen in HPS and a lot of people are not aware um I don't feel like a lot of uh things that we have like uh the middle school dance and the things that we have plan for tomorrow in
this Library as well as the dinner and the show are being issued to the parents where they actually know so that they can actually come out and be with the community so I would like to get some type of improvement when concept so just as you were speaking I
was just thinking of a few venues that we have already we have hailed and happenings we have the Facebook post that you usually do weekly are parents can parents listen to the morning announcements because I know like we can so anybody can listen to morning
announcements okay is do you have any other suggestions ofoc there's mass emails we use for like events so so like rooc calls are more for like um like not emergencies but things that come up the hand happening is an important document and that's
being snail mailed to every house and that's going to have all our important stuff I have suggestion so like my calendar syncs up with the school calendar so every time that I look at my phone I see that there's a PTA meeting or game or something is it possible to add the events to the school
calendar our event should be at our SCH calendar like the calar on the website when you say calendar the calar like these events like here PC um HPS oh the one on the website yeah so like automatically that comes on my phone
because I synced it so maybe we can add the events here so that we we have we C we have a bunch of calendars that you we use I I think maybe Bill we could talk about this but if it's possible to to find a way to sync the activities to that part of the website that if we can do
that all right very good because then we're then we have like the website then we have social media then we have uh hard copies of helden happenings going home we have um the morning announcements that people can listen in
on so um and then if there are any other suggestions you know the morning announcements gets about 40 views a day it's not very successful the which every single one of our students watches it it's about 40 views yeah but
like I'm talking about the parents they got to be involved we need to find a better way toate to the parents or maybe we can add that like a fly or something just to remind them I agree Miss Ser sometimes I
do hear like oh I didn't know about this I didn't know about that that sometimes you do hear that and I guess things do fall through the cracks maybe uh with the social media Mr wer do you have assistance with that obviously you have a lot of students uh a lot going on in our school district the have somebody
that could social media well social media that's a lot of times if something from the burough comes I'll either get a text or I'll get an email and they ask me to put something up um if teachers or staff ask me to put something up you know I approve it I'll look to put it up there um I like the idea you had about
the calendar being synced on the the website um you know the purpose of the the boarding announcements is for the students and it's successful um now if if if the advocacy is going to be to to kind of promote this to to all the
parents can get on some kind of email subscribe list or not not a paid subscription but some kind of email list where they get the morning announcements deliver to them the email um that's something we could look at um but yeah that that's the real purpose of the the B ANS I believe last year we spoke about
something similar where parents were complaining that they weren't receiving the emails and that was because they had it on spam or they had it blocked there was something with a user setting Ander right so it's not that we're not sharing their information it's that maybe a lot of them have certain
settings put up on there and that's why they're not receiving them well I mean we're always open to suggestions so if anybody has any other I think we have uh the calendar suggestion was a great suggestion we have several different
venues that you know that we the school the district communicates with but any you know open to suggestions so if anybody has any suggestions additional you know let share them and if not tonight if you think of it later you know we can share it at a future meeting
or via email you know it's a it's a YouTube channel basically the morning announcement why not send out an alert to have people subscribe to it that way they get their alert on their phone yeah sub what you say like just just an alert for the parents subscribe
to the YouTube channel did we do that I know it's done but it like it needs to be reminded I guess we could we could set we could send it out again and hopefully want to be part of it um one last on um I know one of the main
reasons we pushed for the parenton through the federal federal funds was to handle help handle things like this as well so is that something is that a is that a resource that I can bring it up with her I know she's done a really good job working with the preschool and the kindergarten registration for next year and kind of walking parents through like
every stuff of it is a kind of tough process especially if it's your first kid in the public school system um you know I can ask her how to help help promote you know it's I I think it's it's I think it's aggressive the district to you know we we we we look to
make these noring announcements as we know it's a middle school and elementary school but we try and make them look as nice as possible um I know Miss Pepin works really hard on that we we try and get we sent the email I guess last year at some point saying hey every parent you know click on this you can see exactly what's going on every day um you
know I've been at board meetings where I've had you know Bo president guban say to be I'm getting too many complaints about too many Robo calls coming out right um so like but maybe you're not doing enough anymore walk I don't know if I if we get a plane like get the
beach where they gives you like the wood restaurants on sale but there's there's gonna we keep trying and we we see that you know certain events kind of have a better turnout like when we do the kindergarten graduation everyone's goingon to be there if we do the Winter concert like that place is going to be
packed um if we go of a you come to a soccer game after school you'll see a handful of parents that'll be there like but the away team usually has more parents um it's you know it's a this is just kind of what we want to look to improve and and promote as much as we
can I think we've tried to whole bunch of different vehicles to do ways to do that um yeah sorry um I think that's it's true about the the calendar on the website definitely once that thing gets filled with our all our special events I
that's going to be great but also can we create create a tab on the website like for I don't know helding a helding happenings tab I know that you can get to it somehow but maybe make it easier to see upon she said the same documents that you get in the mail you know put a tab that says here's this month t a copy
of yeah it used to be called like backpack something like a electronic backpack or something um and that had basically all the things that held was in held happen the front it says digital backpack it's still there a digital backpack that was it yeah maybe we'll to
promote that more yeah yeah maybe it's just a matter of like reminding people that these things are out there and that these are active venues of communication where they can find out what's going onad just a suggestion about the digital backpack so in order to find it you have
to go through one tab to go down and then look is there a way maybe we can have it like a banner or something on top here for digital backpack if there is me that question gentlemen that are okay are we good are we good another
thing too uh we are approving a lot of uh snacks and food that are that's in the school I wanted to see if we can possibly uh um go into that food policy where uh we can start bringing back um food into the school as far as parents
and birthday parties and stuff like that goes I don't see why we have to um purchase a chip for double the cost by doing it through the cafeteria instead of just the chips so the chips or the cookies or the juices or whatever that
we that for for any type of like birthday party or Valentine's Day or whatever it is that this school has so I want to see if we can start so I think and Jen if you could if you could kind of illuminate us a little further you know we're part of the national school
lunch program and and our kids get 100% uh free breakfast and and snack and um and lunch um when we buy this extra snacks for the kids from the cafeteria that's you know
those snacks that they sell are going to meet where all the regulations of there for the national school lunch um as far as you know I could just go to shop right and get you know frozen yogurt ice cream because there's some kind of allergy in that then you know we're given that and then a kid gets sick and you have as
many kids as we do eventually it'll happen um but Jen what can you walk us through what what our options are with that so I mean I can tell you what I know sort of off the cuff and and we'll need to look into it further if if there are additional questions just as you've already said
there are there are sort of minimum requirements with respect to being a part of that program so with that any food that's served needs to meet those minimum requirements so it makes it difficult to bring food in from say another source when it's not getting you know sort of vetted through through that
process um whether there is a way to do that we would have to check for you um that I couldn't speak to right now ask question mad president Y and that that's even for if uh student is
because the thing is the school is while it's being served at school if it's being brought in by a parent paid for by a parent and given out by the kids the only it's only being touched by the teacher Distributing it would that not something that potentially could be a loophole where the school's not actually
serving it as a school it's we're talking about cupcakes at kids birthday for kids birthdays so they still at other schools here could it could potentially be a loophole what I'm saying is I couldn't speak to that in this moment as to whether it
is okay I mean if if that's something that um you can look into or you know Mr M could look into um you know I know that one of the reasons why the school moved away from like the birthday celebrations was because it was taking away a lot of
instruction time well was also too like you when a parent brings in muffins or or cupcakes right um if they they baked it at home I won't know we can't be sure what ingredients are are in there um and you know
does it's not like you you every parent signs off in waiver saying I I agree that I'll allow my child have cupcakes brought by some other kid's parent like that's that's not something that you know a parent would would say yes or no to I think when we were kids with your birthday your your mom or dad gets you
muffins or so cupcakes and you bring it in and that's that um but you know the the method we're doing now is is a way to you know still get the kids something but you know abide by a procedure that allows for every kid to get free lunch
and free breakfast a free free snack yeah of course we were going to do whatever you know we we have to whatever law we have to abide by and and you know having that that the free uh breakfast and lunch um maybe the if if it were if
we were able to work it out maybe not birthdays because that does become like a time constraint but like the the parties like that the PTA does you know they used to be able to send them for like the Halloween party that like the December holiday party well makes it harder the district too because like
when you know the PT parents are great and they definitely offer a huge service um but like you know certain events like they they want to you know give the kids you know I'm not going to look to search and I'm not gonna look to pat down every PTA parent that comes in and say are you hiding this are you hiding that uh but
you we know some gets gets by um I think the district right now is wants to be in a position where we've made reasonable efforts to make sure that we abide by the national school lunch programs mandates because it's a high priority to get every kid free breakfast lunch and and stack um if there's a work around
I'm not opposed to it um it would save me from having to do six birthday parties tomorrow read books and sing songs you like doing I do like that but it's I sweat um yeah that's that's where we're at okay okay all right understood okay anything else for new
and old business okay um can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens okay so move by Mr Keta second by Mr Martinez all in favor hi hi okay
before I see we have a few guests here if you if whoever would like to address the board um please state your name and your address you have three minutes um and then uh the board will uh address any comments if if they
choose after everybody has spoken sit okay sorry um lauren4 West Jersey um I'll say with um so there's a lot of things going
on in my head that just just transpired I'm not understanding why snacks are given for birthday parties um because that's a lot of money when you when you're getting when you're getting snacks I'm thinking because I'm a school teacher the snacks are for the lunch
program The Breakfast program if you have an after school program not understanding why we are buying extra snacks for kids birthday breaks I don't get that so that's number one number two um Mr Gman I understand you know you
were talking about the coach day I get the coach day um but what I'm suggesting is that you put this the um item on the agenda but that person needs to be here to discuss his or her program not to
have something emailed and having Mr Watcher sit here and talk about something that he has no idea you know what his the person's program is about if they want the program here in hon that person needs to be here in public portion at that time when when that
agenda item comes up and they need to speak about it so this way you guys can vote on the issue the the rightly okay so that's the second thing number three um Mr watch I get that you know
because I'm a school teacher and when it comes to the kids we want all programs to stay it would help for me though as a hailen resident to see what every program is how much the programs course
who is um position has positions that are using exra funds how much does that cost so put that to the another you know line item so we can break down the positions of the Ester funds because when these federal dollars go
away they're they're not gonna have a job and you know that's not going to be a a layoff per se from us it's just going to go away you know so we need to know who that's going to affect the
other thing is if title one goes away right that's gonna be a big blow that's breakfast lunch program the grant the federal grants that we have um so again it would be Hub us to
break down and say what are these line items who are these teachers don't you don't have to name the teachers names you could put initials and say what their salaries are so we can have a breakdown of how much we're spending in salaries how much we're spending for
well federal funds for food um and those exra funds that I was talking about because no no one wants to wrap it up Miss I Will's nobody here to um no one wants to
get rid of any everybody had a ballot Point here so Mr Metta I heard from missa and of course my coach Carlos okay um everybody has a valid point but we have to think about how we
are really going to look at a budget I can't figure this out without knowing numbers I'm a numbers person I need to see them than thank you uh Charles for I'm gonna
be real quick so um hel resident so I commend the ba for putting this budget together the thing that I'm disappointed in that process is that she's required by a certain date to submit that to the county and to the state when the Federal
numbers if they come won't come until July August something something like that which makes really no sense because that's not how you should be doing the budget and I don't know why our elected officials on the state level haven't had
conversations with our federal elected officials to change that process because it's like you're making a wish for things and then oh by the way it's not coming okay then what now now you you put
everybody in a position so the other thing I'm hearing everybody and I'm I'm glad you're thinking okay we didn't raise taxes the way that I'm a Patterson guy first Patterson used to Kick the Can down the road every year and for maybe
10 years we stayed at 36 million okay right now Patterson's at 70 something million when they should be over a 100 million night Jersey City in nework and that's why Patterson right
now is facing a 100 plus deficit that they have to try to close so my son never went to school in hen but I paid taxes for the two children to go to school in the ELD as some lady said to me years ago well I
don't see why I have to pay for um School tax I don't have any children in the school system and I said to her ma'am when you were going to school people didn't have children either but they wanted to make sure that the students became productive citizens in that school system and she's like oh
okay I understand that now I don't have a problem I I hear you're having a um a school baseball team softball baseball I don't know I I don't know how you're getting your funding but as someone that's part of nja and your School District staff is as well it used to be
called Pride now it's called pep there's a fast program where there's funding based on the amount of staff that you have where they could write your Grant I sponsor football team boys and girls baseball in patteron boys and
girls and the way that they made it for me made it a lot easier I you said do all this craziness I can write a check to each team as a sponsor for 2500 okay so talk with whoever is your
um president or of the Union here and let them reach out to they should know something about it to um see if they can get some guy money it might be different but I'm pretty sure it's still about 2500 based on what they have the other thing is um
we have to become creative I'm gonna do that when my son went to um St Anthony's inthorn every year we have the feast and we did many things we raised tons of money um you're having your Tricky Tray at the ties I'll
be there but the thing that I learned best in St Anthony's is one year they had their tricky trade in the gym I didn't think it was going to work everybody bought their own
food everything they walked out of there with all kinds of gifts white tell honey bring the pickup truck okay I they raised money without going to a a a venue and I didn't think it was going to have I thought maybe 10
people the place was packed they had it in their gym so that's another option where you're taking away that overhead and things like that and people had their tables with the cand off all all that stuff done up for themselves and their friend so we can get creative and you might want to think I don't know how
the town Carnival and the police Carnival work but if that's another option because St Anthony's did that too and it was the parishioners and the parents that did the food concessions ran the games money stayed and went to
the school so there's a lot of way 600,000 I wish we only had that problem in patters you know but you're right and I've gone to Trenton many times I'm planning to go to NJIT to speak for
um school buildings the SDA before the assembly and I because I don't want to drive to Trenton that's I think that's the Senate one in in north and the Trenton is where the other I don't want to go down there but you can do these things and we've done that we've loaded up
buses so commission gbin is where that get your parents and and you go down there says look we we need this money okay you have to do maybe you won't get all but maybe you'll get some
maybe they'll give you half and then maybe you can find a way to raise the other half and then you're you're good but that's that's all I really want to say thank you Mr F yeah thank you oh wait and I do want to say something about the calendar right because we are
hail in residents and we don't have kids you know our kids were um the only way I found out about the Tricky Tray is because I found out through people on this board right I would think that other Helen residents would love to
support right but it's really hard to find the information when you aren't when you don't belong to the school so we have to fix that part too yeah I think the calendar um is a great idea and I think that you know that would well even if you don't sync it with your
calendar on your phone if it's on if if it's on your if it's on the school's website then anyone can see it so um but let's let's hear the public you know before we start addressing things um Mr
um H you you've been here baseball coach wild cats so to clarify the issue of why we have to use a grocery field for baseball it's a safety spaces scheduling issue uh what we have here is a great softball field they put down brand new dirt last year that's
great for the girls it cannot be converted to a baseball field for the boys because it's far too small and basically the size of it especially with the fencing once again too small for baseball uh today was day one of Tri outs day one of four for the
season if we use that field all the windows that we have for the new Wing would have been blown out by Bas balls because that's where they're hitting they're hitting left and all those windows would be broken there would be baseballs on gr and there' be a lot of baseballs in yards right Ro stre is
perfect for us the high fencing they have Nets up there plenty of space even with pro street we do have baseball players that hit the ball all the way to the far offense so it works out very well for us and we're very grateful for the town for allowing us to use that and
another issue is the schedule we got two teams last year they're both High successful and we can't practice on you know one field you know we did trials last year one field but now thankfully the town opened up groceries us early so have got genuine trials for baseball
awesome than again but once again uh between the building and where the battery box we also have after school program the playground we have basketball court kids are out there we do have people watching them but as
closely as they can watch them baseball travel faster than hum so we we don't want anything to happen there so we made a decision to use roadfield and jam baseball field a great one that very thank for appreciate it so that's why we
use Ro Street and once again very thanks for clarify thank you anybody else like to address the board yeah me okay state your name your address and you have three minutes Christian I'm the owner of Royals
baseball softball your address please I'm Christian sah I'm the owner of Royal softball baseball Chris S to your your address oh 45 year I'm sorry okay um so I'm giving girls us SP in helden they only have jading um so me doing this it be a te- coach pitch
softball for 4 to 12 years old and baseball four to 14 um we're kind of building off what we did last year I have over 20 coaches um we're just um we're we're in the Wayne League this year instead of Pon why Wayne because it's safer and better for the kids better opportunity for my kids
too they even sh me tournaments where I could put my kids to Showcase in front of high schools like Don BOS the Poland schols like that um I'm all about doing what's best for my kids uh that's always the image that's the reason why we expanded and we're going away and we're going to play for Royals um I'm also
giving girl a sport the only thing they haven't held in is cheerleading or Southside Soccer um so it's opening more doors for our girls I also have a coaching staff for them as well and U any questions you guys had because I was watching over on
the screen you guys ask me but yeah we're doing the same new um but same staff a lot of the kids that we're getting I heard Carlos say yes we got a lot of the kids from our championship team going forward most of the practically all the coaches from Warriors we all love we're going to the
RO just speaking truth right now I got I got other the reason why we want to use health and public facilities because we are getting a lot of kids from health and public especially in the younger ages um from that four to eight Rings they don't really have much going on in here especially in health and
public health and don't really have much Sports going on in general the only sport they have that's associated to them was baseball and uh now I'm giving health and softball and more girls opportunities and things like that so it's like that's really what the goal
was here um we're just expanding I'm just doing what's best for the kids I came to help in public I went to Manchester I walk these same streets I came these same hallways I was a prefect here I was a three scort athlete here they don't have a foundation for baseball here really or softball there's nothing going on for
them mostly KT guys is usually the seventh eigh graders but there's nothing underneath that actually builds and going up you won a championship last year I was one running the prog I called we we made adjustments and everything and yeah we won the
championship it's the truth and now we're leaving to go the Loyals and I'm just doing I'm not I'm just doing best for the kids I'm not really with the politics things like I'm just and really a conclusion to so you guys have any questions concerns I have
over 20 coaches okay thank you Mr Mr T right okay wait wait let's close out the floor let's close the floor and then we can that's everybody right okay uh mve oh is was there anybody online who
had okay okay so moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr Martinez all in favor okay uh well I I'll address a few things first and then you know Mr Walker
Miss Aon if you want to jump in um the so miss fera regarding the the budget and the detailed budgets so I was looking through here uh what Miss augus present now that this is not detailed like drilling down to you know specific
teachers names but there's a lot of detail on here um you know I don't know if this that's something that would it's tentative so that's why it's not public the way um we we don't want and it has
Personnel stuff on there so we don't to send it out too quick um until we know it's approved by the county so once it's approved by the county our public hearing is in April then we can talk more detailed on that so right now this is just a tentative budget that's what we're approving until it goes through
the county ba scrutiny and executive um superintendent um you know review and then we can talk a little bit more granular but we did get through to the granular part with the finance team yesterday we went Page by Page they asked a lot of questions and you know we
talked about the tax lever we talked about Bank app and um you know that's the way this board is made up through committee so we went through the committee first and we're bringing it to the um table to be voted on okay sh
to one minute I just wanted to just clarify what you were just saying so when the when the real budget comes in right um and I know there's Personnel stuff and you we normally we put
initials and we put salaries or whatever um moving forward if something has to be cut there'll be more of a detail so I can see what was uh user fund what came
from Esser funds what the what the uh salaries are what the other funding from the state federal that's what I wanted that's what I wanted yeah and I can tell you I think I mentioned it earlier there's at least four salaries that are in title one right now and then we have
our after school programs which is in title one and then we have about six salaries in preschool right now the $600,000 I'm mentioning we have about $370,000 in title one but the programs weren't I don't know how much the
programs are so for instance let's say um there's a computer program that the kids are using that right now we could cut from because we don't need that program because we have to cut funding so maybe that's $100,000 per say I don't I don't see that that's the stuff that I
want to see yeah so I I think I also mentioned that we have in tile fun the um after school program detention and it was um to detention after the school program and it was another program I think even some of the title maker space
programs are under title four so those are the um programs that are now being covered by those that we will only have to cut those particular programs only if federal funds are cut corre but right now we're good because traditionally
they give you about 80% of what you had from the previous year and that's what I budgeted for so I'm hopeful and confident that they will at least give me the 80% and that's what I budgeted for yeah okay and to your point um one
second to your point about um the person who is putting for the facilities uh request that they should be here well he's here so he just popped up yeah so go ahead Mr CL um I would like to make a request if
that's possible going forward like an actual why n budget because again like I said she makes a great Point um it's you this is the third budget that I'm voting on and we're voting on a $27 million budget and after two years in a row I've asked what has looked at being cut and
there's nothing and if an average person without a financial degree looks at this this is meaningless it's a $27 million budget that you're and it's not through it's not through any fault of the business she's amazing does a great job like there's a lot of information but like to the resident's point I can't go
through here and look at certain things like there's there's a general breakdown but you're asking people to vote on a 27 or 37 million budget and I doubt anyone in here was able ble to read through all this and know exactly what they're
voting on and what could be cut and again like I just like to reiterate it's unacceptable that my question was can what has been looked at to be cut in two years and the answer was a non answer well from and not not So Much from the business administrator but that's more directed at because I I do ask a lot of
questions and it seems like when the answer is not what you think I want to hear I don't get any answer but to that point I I want to reiterate what I said you know what are we cutting that will'll have an impact it might have to be teachers it might have to be know it
but we're not at that point but you are because you're asking for more money you're at a point where you're asking for money on a hope and a prayer that the rest of the funding doesn't get cut the federal government tomorrow can say you get nothing and all the begging and pleading that we can do and all the all
the wellp spirited letters doesn't mean anything it's a request you are asking for something that they can go no even with our friends in the state our got cut and everyone here knows that the people in our district in the 35th are friendly to hailen they're not we have
no opposition there's no bad blood with uh Senator Wimberly the assembly people they like H we have a great relationship it still got cut the maximum North hon got an increase and we got cut that's should tell you should be concerned and last year was flat so it wasn't cut but
it was flat so the trend is negative that's all understood understood but we are we really saying that we want to cut salaries you may have to for this budget you may have to if we do the 2% tax levy we don't have to cut any budget we don't
have to cut any uh person do you think the people in this town want to spend extra money they don't none of the people that live in town want to spend extra money to say they don't if you ask the average person when they're when they're alone if it's a 2% increase or somebody you don't personally know that
doesn't personally affect they're going to tell when I was getting laid off from the city of I had my union people look me in the face say kid you're better off getting laid off because we're not going to give up a dollar to save somebody's job that is the the actual true sentiment of most people if it doesn't affect them directly they do not care if
you ask the people that voted Us in you really think that people are like oh yeah it's only 2% it's only no nobody that owns a home in h that pays taxes is like it's only 2% people are sick of it it only goes up and our our grades only
beat Patterson and Pake $37 million and you're we're bottom District so it is a fact that public education is funded through property taxes it's state funding it's Federal
funding and it's property taxes I mean it's a fact I mean no nobody wants to pay taxes but it's a fact that's how public schools are funded that's part of the you know funding so you know 2% tax levy no zero would be better of of
course zero would be better but 2% is manageable and it will allow us to keep all the jobs I'm and maybe listen maybe at some point we are going to have to cut jobs but this year we don't have to do that if we raise the tax levy 2% and
audit clear an audit would be clear to figure out we could do this to put this in you maybe a different perspective federal government gives us $5.3 million for erer for Co um and each of the five years before
that the state of New Jersey is giving us almost an additional million dollars each year um of course I'm not looking the cut I'm looking to grow right like that that's what I'm looking to grow now a week or two ago I get noticed hey we're gonna
have to you know Reduce by we're gonna get a $680,000 reduction now it's not like I could have said well two or three years ago let's just be real cautious because we've already maxed up the maximum amount where we could we could give to reserve there you can't just put as much money to reserve as you want there's maximum
you know the max you can do so we're why would I look to cut until two weeks ago when I found out hey we're going to be down 680,000 so now I've in the back of my head I've always had a plan if we had to lose trim this much we had to trim this much here's what I do you want me
to announce now I'm not gonna do that because there might be people watching this that you know now of a sudden they're they're they're going to think that their job might be you know be lost um I think that it looks very very very likely that we're going to be able to
with a 2% salary cap uh with 2% property tax raise still be able to offer all the useful services that we have um and if we get another year where state aid is is lower well then you know then I'm gonna have to be much more aggressive
with with what I Look to cut M president yes Mr all I'm asking the board to do is can we have a little bit of faith in our Administration give them an opportunity to do what they got to do and come back to us and then everything you said I completely agree with you Mike give them an opportunity
though let them go do what they got to do let them come back to the board through finance committee up to the board then we take it from there let's at least give them an off we haven't even gave him a chance to come to us with anything any long nothing we just
got the state numers let them do what am I coming back to you with that's what I'm trying to understand okay you're exactly so the the superintendent obviously the this is what this is my recommendation personally the board several board members I think all of us are concerned about the future of our
district it appears right so they Mr Mr Keta M CNA they want to know what is the plan where can we come well I guess they want to hear from the administration should it come to to that point this is what I'm looking to do and this is why so my thing is let's give the
administration a chance to go to the drawing board this is our plan moving forward and we take it from there I think we're I think we're getting ahead of ourselves not ahead of ourselves in planning but ahead of ourselves is you know in terms of uh you know pointing fingers I I think that's very premature
right now so let me just make sure you want Mr wer and I to do not I guess you're saying order but just like a a look at the schedule and or the teachers to see if we're maximizing everyone's position right
that's the first one right now immediately all right so that's number one and number two you want us to look at all the programs that we have going to make sure um we can fund those or do we need to continue fund them I think we did say that we
were G to prioritize anything that is academic and anything that's nonacademic we may look at those I think that's what you're asking so both the that's exactly what I'm asking and I have confidence in both of you we hired both of you you know I'm confident in what I present
100% I can tell you that right now I'm very confident and to your answer yesterday I invited every board member to sit down and look at the budget itemized yes you guys have a summary right now because I don't want this public because it has people name but
yesterday the finance team had an itemized list of every person every item that was on every penny that was on his budget and I stay till 9 o'clock with Miss Cerner and she asked me every question in the book as she for you okay
so everyone at this board who votes on this budget had the opportunity to look at this budget okay right I just want to congratulate you miss a because this is what I do you don't have tog no no no I read the numbers yesterday we went the numbers yesterday and we had some back and forth as as for the numbers but the
fact that you budgeted for the next school year or for this year going forward with us not being OD hurting financially it speaks a lot because yes is it a concern for the future
absolutely is it a concern today I don't think so not based on the numbers right because we already had it in mind that it was gonna go up anyway 2% president I agree with Mr Keta I don't I don't want to vote Yes on this
2% at all I don't I'm I'm with you I'm with you 100% I just want to give I me personally I just want to see I just want to give I want I have faith in our Administration to lead to lead the way and uh prepare us for the future and unfortunately there's a lot of
uncertainty there and the only way to get through it is together not you know not pointing fingers none of that we got we got to work together with our with our teachers with our residents with our business own we all have to work together that's the only way looks yeah we may have some hard times ahead of
us again it's not a shot at the business vure however I asked this exact question they were given an opportunity I asked this exact question last year when I was the only person who voted no and Mr Gman you didn't even vote you left prior to vote
I was the only person that voted no and I said in the event that the state aid is cut where everyone said oh it never happened when I predicted last year because it was flat that the state aid would be cut and it got cut so what are we going to look what is the plan going forward the plan was let's just raise everyone's taxes the truth of the matter
is that was just the plan it's an unacceptable plan it's not the business administrator's fault It ultimately it's a failure of the board as a whole and it's failure of the chief superintend the chief School respectfully disagree that's fine we're allowed to disagree
but that the plan was in the event it gets cut we just raise taxes to cover the Gap and I didn't even know about the bank cap where we have a board member that literally said we could raise a six% and there's no care in the world like oh some people could lose their house over that I mean I'm okay but there's SE there's a lot of have you seen the demographics of our down
there's a lot of people that can't afford a 2% raise and the answer of we just raise your taxes is not a real legitimate answer because other at the police department so what is your suggestion where you want to cut I wanted to look
before the budget came before it's already voted on to be sent to see what programs could be looked at to be and I wasn't even saying to cut the respect why don't you take a look at the budget and and send some suggestions to the superintendent as what you think I think that's but again I I do want to just say
and we talked about this at length last night cutting programs cutting cutting programs okay everybody cutting programs here and there that's not going to have a significant
impact and we did talk about you know the the we didn't cut anything from last year to this year because that was all designated funding eser or title one or you know so as Miss Lon explained in her presentation yeah we have to be
proactive yeah and you know we we are and we always knew that we were never going to have that funding forever you know that's that's not like it was a big surprise or we weren't we said that last year and we said that every year that we had a zero tax levy increase we said
well this is might not be the case next year of course um I don't think that you know well I don't know I mean I think when you're submit this to you have to submit it by the 19th is that right yeah and I'm submitting it by Friday yeah and I
don't think there's going to be any major changes to to this right this is what you're submitting right so you know but for next year we can look at how how we're going to you know how we might deal with you know more Cuts or the same
cut um and start to be proactive now those strategies that we T talk talked about um and then yeah if we have to yeah then we would have to look at salaries you know um but right now this and and again you know property taxes
it's that's part of the public school funding so you know that's a reality so if we act now I mean I think it better because next year it could be worse and then you're G to have to potentially lay off even more people
I look for I'd rather if we do it have a private come back with the same information that I up so I had a question we still talking about uh the comments yeah yeah forward okay um so if
uh regarding the baseball if Helen won a championship last year no who won the championship tournament it tourname tournament for coaches of P no yeah we won okay you know so now so now a new
team has arised that took all the not all or most of the teammates that were part of that helden team where does that leave helden well that's what I wanted to discuss and question because still has a team helden has a league I don't know why people are saying hen doesn't
have a league but no no no not not saying that but U somebody did say that so I'm trying okay that's why I'm asking what happens to does well we can talk about this okay so basically um I'm
Sorry Miss Johnson finish no let Miss Johnson finish and then you H does have a league we do however fall under Patterson but we have a league if we didn't have a league then that wouldn't have happened the town wouldn't be you know sponsored or
whatever we have and girls can play girls so again back to my question if if if our team members from hen are now part of a different team called the Warriors well he said it he was he was
blunt about it yeah he he took the coaches and he took the students no that's say but saying that where does that leave helden so this is a topic for helden to figure out with hen's uh Sports uh recreation department
and um and and then I guess we can table this and have a conversation you know like say also um to back off of what um the G said you know hel doesn't have anything hel and maybe this is why because we
have to keep what helden has in helden right and support our helden teams right helden public school team a towns team and that's it I mean I want just he did mention it was for girls like the softball for girls like we didn't have a
girls team that he added He also mentioned the boys he added the girls to it we added it last year it was added it last year last year anding out of to so essentially if you're going to just have
Wayne and to their kids as well then they can be over there and then H them kids can perform in helding I mean we do want to likeand said stick together not divide the kids up um why should you
have to go to other towns to right we have a leag already and school um just for my sake and I have parents here that their kids play for me forever all right this is 25 plus years so the main thing and the and the biggest concern that
happened is that last year with the um uh CEO of the new program that's that's being sponsored and being put together is that I ran the program it's you know not my program I ran it through held it through the
burrow and basically what happened I've been doing this for the last eight years in held it so it was a lot of stuff going on and one thing that we can't do and poty doesn't allow it either is for us to take our kids and take them to
totala or Wayne you're not insured and that was the biggest Factor you're not insured you can't just go to play in Another league and don't have the proper Insurance mad president to cover for the kids I thought we I thought so discussed this before we did but he spoke in
public and we wanted to address it we wanted to address it but that's fine what we decided was that the um Community engagement committee is going to get together there so now Mr tahada did come he gave some additional information Mr WKA I don't know if you
said you were gonna reach out for I don't remember now what but I think this you okay so you you'll reach out to him okay so um just any other documents information that he can provide my thing is this healing kids that been playing
for the last two three years you just can't get up and just leave and if that that's what happens the parents need to know that they're not under the helden umbrella and I'm fine with that because I can you know I we always gonna be able to coach out of you know yeah the league
belongs to Patterson anyway the one we're in because they allowed us to use their insurance now to under them we are a held in team we're we're a held in team but we are grandfathered in and that's been going on for the last so miss m if you need to
reach out to M MCO or t to gather some information get together with your committee members and then come to to it'll be on our agenda for our next meeting come to the meeting with um a recommendation to the board and the chairman for and then we'll vote
and then everybody will vote as they see that right I really all right okay um yes I think that's it can I have a motion motion okay second okay
fa oh wait wait wait sorry wait Mr Mr Gman you have something else yeah no no I was just voting yes to a Jour oh yeah okay so wait let let me say it let me say it moved by Miss Johnson seconded by Mr col All In favor all
right thank you thank you Jennifer thank you