Everyone, welcome to the May 1st, 2025 Hampton Board of Education meeting. I'm going to read the open public meeting statement. The New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend any meetings of public bodies at which their interests
may be discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Hamilton Board of Education has caused the notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, purpose, and place thereof published in the Hampton Gazette and the Press of Atlantic City and posted on authorized premises.
Roll call. Mrs. Bernado here. Mrs. Burns here. Mr. Koya here. Mrs. Donio here. Mrs. Fallon here. Mr. Fidala here. Mrs. Hunter here. Mr. Pa here. Mr. Shepon here. Mrs. Skola here. Mr. Thomas is
excused. Mr. Lions here. Rise for flexible to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Welcome. Good evening everyone. Um, we're going to have some presentations this evening. We're going to deviate from the standard agenda. I'm going to call up Dr. Tro, I believe, who's had who has some of her students here this evening. Talk about some of their stellar accomplishments.
Good evening everyone. Uh on the agenda tonight, you will see a letter of retirement from our longtime nurse, Mrs. Cindy McBride. I can't say enough about her. She's been not only a successfully through CO, but
a kind, understanding, and gracious woman who I also call a friend. We miss her presence at West and we wish her well as she begins this next chapter of her life. I would also like to acknowledge the retirement of our school business administrator, Miss Pretty
Mitt. We have worked together for many years, and you've been nothing but kind, professional, and dedicated to the Hamilton School community. You came in during a pretty turbulent time, turned things around, and your commitment and
support have kept us moving forward ever since. Thank you for everything. Enjoy your retirement, and we will see you at your celebration on May 21st. Our state testing will begin at the elementary school next week. We will administer the NJSLA to all students in
grades three through five. It is a challenging assessment, but our teachers do a tremendous job of not only instructing our young learners, but taking the time to guide them in becoming familiar with the actual logistics of the assessment to make sure
they're are prepared as they can be. And we have students that do very well. Although I spoke about them earlier in the year, we had the opportunity tonight to highlight and recognize a few standout students who achieved a perfect score on last year's
assessment. So, boys and girls, when I say your name, if you would come up and maybe just stand right up here. First, we have Kellen Frankle, who received a perfect score in math on the third grade New Jersey SLA assessment.
[Applause] Next, Jaden Rodriguez Jimenez received a perfect score in ELI on the third grade NJSL. [Applause]
And lastly, Mallerie Urex received a perfect score in ELA on the third grade NLA assessment. Yeah. You know what? Uh parents, if you want to come up and take some photos, you certainly are more than welcome to. And I I feel like Kellen, if if you want
to come over and take a picture with your grandmother, you probably should. You sure? Yeah. There you go. Congratulations again on your service. Now, in honor of the 150th
anniversary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival, members of our local Mount Carmel Society visited West Elementary yesterday to share the history and traditions of this beloved community event. Society members Joe Panalone, Lou Panalone Jr., Jim Haynes, Chris Austin,
and Franco Katana gave an engaging presentation on the origin and significance of the festival. As part of their presentation, students enjoyed the annual race of the sandwich video and fun and unique traditions during festival week. The Mount Carnival
Society also generously donated 25 books of carnival tickets, which were raffled off to the lucky students. The visit wrapped up with a fun pizza tossing contest complete with chef hats, mustaches, Italian music, and rubber
rubber pizza dough, which I was roped into. Uh, and not to brag, but I did win. Uh, we are grateful to the Mount Carmel Society for helping bring local history to the elementary students. And lastly, upcoming May events. Teacher appreciation week is Monday, May 5th
through May 9th. We have little acknowledgements planned for them each day. Our school has an outstanding teaching staff who give their all every day to make sure each student feels important, valued, and supported. They're truly the heart of the
elementary school. Our teacher of the year lunchon will be held for Atlantic County on May 27th. I will be joining Mrs. Lions to celebrate her outstanding accomplishment. Fifth grade lead culmination ceremony will be held on May 28th. and parents of fifth grade
students are invited in to see the ceremony and watch their child receive their certificate of completion. Thank you. [Applause]
All right. Um next we'll since we'll stick with the principal reports, let's have uh Dr. Oh, I'm sorry. Come on up. Come on up, Dr. Es. You're up on your feet. Come on up. Your students are here. I was not uh I know our students have important commitments they need to get to. They
need to get home to study and get ready for baseball and all the things. Thank you for letting me go next. I'm going to say my board report real quickly and at the end I have a quick presentation of some wonderful students and teachers we want to recognize.
Um, quickly thank you to Miss Jamie Dare for hosting our eighth grade dance on Friday, April 11th. It was a rainy and windy night, but our students line danced the night away in their finest attire. And the Paris caterers kept commenting how well behaved and polite
they were for eighth graders and can't wait to have them back next year. So, we're proud of them. Um, we also wished farewell to Mr. Paul Anugo at his final string fling concert on the HMS stage on Wednesday, April 16th. We thank him for his 40 years of making music in our
district and his presence is going to be missed in our music programs. We're going to miss his candlelight concerts, but appreciate all he's done to expand and promote our music program. Another fond farewell to Miss Barbara Prettyman. It was a pleasure working with you over
these last years, and I wish you a happy retirement. Enjoy. Currently, we're making preparations for the NJSLA, which will be held May 8th through the 16th. We encourage our students to get a good night's rest, eat breakfast, and uh take
their time uh using the entire aotted time, you know, that they're given. Um we have the band and chorus combined concert on May 21st in the auditorium. Always a beautiful show hosted by Mr. McGlaclin and Miss Arsenal. And that's coming up on May
21st. Later in the month, we have our eighth grade great adventure trip. Uh, Miss Miss Dare does a great job organizing that. Looking forward to June. I just wanted to announce HMS graduation is planned for Tuesday, June 17th, 6:00 p.m. on Capella Field. Next
week's teacher appreciation week, and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and recognize our amazing staff, teachers of HMS. true professionals come to work every day and make HMS a happy place to be. Um, I'm proud to work with all them. Now, it's my pleasure to
recognize two of those teachers who do an awesome job for a lot of years. I think Mr. Misara is like 20 years now hosting our geography B and the spelling bee. Um, Mr. M Jason Misara and Miss Kelsey Coyle. They challenge our
students through competition. They have high expectations and they're here tonight to recognize our winners. If they could come up and present our winners from our recent spelling and geography [Applause]
piece. Hello, my name is uh Kelsey Coyle. I teach sixth grade and for the past seven years I've also hosted the HMS annual spelling be which is a big event at our school. This year we had 30 of the top spellers in the school come
out for a competition. It is live streamed for all the classes to watch as well as any parents at home. Um, out of those 30 spellers, we had a very rigorous and exciting competition. And in the end, in third place, we had
Realel Kempa from seventh grade. She was And then unfortunately not with us tonight, in second place, we had eighth grader Chelsea Torres. And also unable to be here tonight was our top winner for two years in a row.
It's seventh grader Olivia Kiola. [Applause] Good evening everybody. Uh Jason Mahara Middle School. Uh first Mr. Fidal, I got to tell you I had you in class about
four or five years ago and already you're on the board of ed. So either we enter some sort of wormhole or that's one for all the meteor rise that you had. Time flies by. Mah, that's that's a that's a heck of a feat. Nice. Congrats. Congrats. So uh yeah, a few years before
Mrs. Alvino retired, a lot of you remember her. Uh finally, uh she started bequething some things to me as she was nearing retirement. One of them was the geography base. So I don't know the exact year she retired but it was somewhere around 2005 2006. So we've been doing it since then. Uh every year
we administer a qualifying test to every kid in the middle school all 800 900 kids. So they all take it. We generally take like the top 10 or 12 uh scores and then they advance to the final round and then we have our battles. Uh in the last couple years there have been some
battles and that's good to see and this year was no different. So, uh, the three these three dudes who, uh, are here tonight with their families, uh, were the last men standing. They already received their trophies at the end of the competition. Uh, but we want to acknowledge them again tonight and, uh, share their certificates with them.
First place was Nate Sosa. Second place was Evan Lyser. They and Evan are both in eighth grade. They were in the gyro beef before, so they're veterans. Uh, our third place winner this year was Phil Graasso, sixth grade. We're expecting big things from Phil the next couple years. I'll be
hosting I'll hosting another trophy. I'm sure it'll be first place next year. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. Come on up. You want to take a photo? Just come right up front. It's fine. Congratulations to our students. We're very proud of them. Thank you.
[Applause] All right. Next, we'll have Dr. So here. Good evening everyone. Our students jumped back into learning and routines this week after spring break and they
also had the chance to connect through some very special events. Yesterday, Heather Flame and Greg Capacio, high school teachers and coaches of the unified sports team along with unified sports athletes from the high school visited the ECE to spend time with our
students. Unified sports is a new program at the high school where students with and without intellectual disabilities train and compete together on the same team in order to foster inclusion and friendship. So, the high school students and teachers from both
of our buildings led students through some fun activities, including parachute play and an exciting game using yarn balls. It was very heartwarming to see so many smiles. Um, and this visit was a wonderful way to promote inclusion and raise awareness about the unified sports
program. Thank you so much to Miss Ala, Miss Flame, Mr. Capacio, and everyone who assisted with this event. We have many activities taking place over the next six weeks. As you can imagine, we have our preschool and kindergarten visits to Storybook Land
um, middle of May, first grade trip to the Kate May Zoo, and then we have our character reader day in early June. and also field day for all students will be on June 12th. In addition to all these activities, we have our transition activities which will be happening
during the first week in June. Preschool students will visit kindergarten. They will tour classrooms and discuss comparisons between their current and future environments. Preschoolers will end their visit with an ice cream treat in our cafeteria, which is very special
for them because they don't get to eat in the cafeteria just yet. Kindergarten students will visit first grade. They'll explore the different learning centers in the classrooms and first graders will share their journals and books with students. This visit will end with a fun reading buddy activity. Finally, each
first grade student has been paired with a second grade uh classroom at West. Their visit is scheduled for June 6th and will include walking around with West and some engaging activities with their soontobe peers. I wanted to acknowledge all of all of our teachers for planning such thoughtful transition
experiences. Smooth transitions are especially important in the early childhood grades. Not only do they give students a chance to meet their new teachers and peers, but these experiences really help students build confidence um and lay the foundation for a positive start to this next school
year. Um I also wanted to congratulate once again Mr. Anuko who had his final week this week. um and also Miss McBride um on her retirement as well. Such a wonderful nurse and person. Um she's been missed this year and we wish you
the best in your retirement. And finally, I wanted to congratulate Miss Prettyman on her well-earned retirement. I appreciate all of your help over the years. Um, I know how much you're going to miss working with me on the preschool grant, but I think you'll have other
things to do, hopefully not involving spreadsheets and Excel documents. We will miss you at our construction meetings this year. Um, but we do wish you much health and happiness in your next chapter. Congratulations. All right. Next, we have Mr. Matina.
Good evening. Um, so last month I talked a little bit about the students that came in first place at Stockton um, at the math Mayhem contest. So we wanted to bring them back tonight to recognize him obviously, but just as important was bring a teacher who came to me with the idea of taking the students there and
then volunteered his time to bring them. So I'd like to introduce up is uh, Mr. John Wilson. [Applause] Hi, good evening everyone. Um, so Stockton University uh for the past 12
years has hosted a math mayhem competition and unfortunately they hold it on a Saturday and it's very very difficult to coax high school students to give up time on a weekend to go to Stockton and do math for fun.
So last year I tried, wasn't very successful. uh you know, scheduling conflicts, sports, everything happens. This year, I was able to, I don't know, twist enough arms, get six students to come out with me on a Saturday to do some math. Um, and, uh, to to tell you
the truth, I I was surprised as anybody as at the outcome of this. Um, so the structure of the competition is, you know, they invite students from all over South Jersey to come in and, you know, engage in friendly combat with math. Um so there's an independent competition and then they break off into groups of
three. So we had six students um amongst 80 students in the individual competition. And not only did we have three students place, they all ranked first. So uh two out of those three students are here with me tonight. It it
would be wonderful to recognize them once again. Sean Fidala Very good. We have uh Stephanie Villa Royale with us. Um unfortunately Smith could not be here.
Uh but give him a round of applause too because he deserves [Applause] it. All right, that was great. Um, on a Wednesday, April 16th, we held the poetry cafe. It's run every year by Miss Audrey Grace. It's a great event. You
have a bunch of students come out that are brave enough to, you know, read their poems that they wrote in front of an audience. It's a great family event. It's a really nice time. Audrey Grace does a great job with it every year. Next Thursday is a spring band concert. Kind of culminates the music program at the end of the year. If you have a
chance, please come out. Next Thursday, 700 p.m. Next Friday is the junior senior prom. The event takes place on May 9th. The prominade takes place here at the high school and then the students go down to the Sherin in Atlantic City where the actual event takes
place. The week of May 19th is 9th and 11th grade NJLA testing. Okay. 9th grade is for the ELA and math. 11th grade is for science. The um assistant principles and guidance department have been working for weeks on this to make sure that it runs smoothly and uh and I'm
sure it will. And then to end on another cool note is every year the students take what's called the New Jersey state seal of biiteracy assessment. And what it is, it's an assessment that recognizes students who demonstrate proficiency in English, English, and at
least one additional language. And we had the most students ever this year qualify to receive the seal of literacy. We had 41 total seniors that came up proficient and 23 total juniors that came up proficient. and they'll receive that seal and that goes on a transcript.
They can use it on their resumes. It's a really cool thing. Um, our world language department here is fantastic. The teachers work extremely hard to get the students ready for this and they're led by Miss Amy Claus who does a awesome job leading that department and um she's
so student centered and is a very very hard worker. So, congratulations to them, to the students, teachers, and Miss Claus on that. And also, Miss Prettyman, congratulations on your retirement. you're part of the process that hired me twice. So, thank you very much. And I was here the first time when you took us through some really hard
times. You navigated us through it successfully and we really appreciate that. So, thank you and congratulations. [Applause] All right. Next, we'll go to board member comments. Um, I'll start to my left with
Mr. Fidala. First, before your comments, I saw on the school Instagram account today to make your college selection. So, congratulations. Thank you very much. Good luck. College in New Jersey next year. So, on to your report. Yeah. Uh, good evening everybody. Um, today our seniors had their college decision
day. Um, great to see everybody commit to all their colleges. Um, we are currently working on our spring spirit week and the pep rally on Friday. And we're also coordinating an event for our seniors to do a walk through of the West
and the ECEC. Uh just to kind of, you know, see where the time has gone. Um and just look look back on all the memories. Uh and that's all I really have to report. Thanks. Thank you. And congratulations on your
selection. On Monday, May 19th, Mayor D. Donado and town council will be honoring our business administrator, Barbara Prettyman, at the town council meeting at 7 o'clock. So, I encourage all of you to go if you cannot make this meeting this evening. Um, and I want to
congratulate you on your well-deserved retirement. Uh, one thing I was very pleased about when I read the committee notes from the different committees that met is that the fieldhouse is being cleaned out and turned into a universal place for all
sports. So, I would like to thank Coach Lancetta, Chris Sako, and anyone else who was involved in this decision. I think it's a great move towards equity for our male and female athletes to be able to use this space. Um, and I know that there's an agenda item on the
agenda for new equipment as well. So, good job, guys. Um, I'd also like to recommend that a few years ago, we held a parent meeting. Um, I believe it was hosted through the guidance department. Um, and I think it was a year and a half
ago. And I'd like to re recommend that we look into doing that every year. Um, recently I've had a few conversations with parents and I've also had my own experiences with my children. Um, and I think it would be very helpful for
several reasons. The first is that um, this year my son is going to be he's a junior, so he's registering for senior year and it's especially helpful for parents of high schoolers and eighth graders to understand more about the curriculum. and the guidance department
does a good job letting the students know, but I don't know that that information is always translated from the student to the parent. And I've talked to a couple parents that felt that way. Um, so one recommendation that I had in addition to having an evening event was to see if we could do a ROOC
call or something that would go out to the parents that just say, "Hey, this week of March, whatever, the junior class is registering. Be prepared." because I think it's very helpful for students, for parents who want to get more invested in what their children are taking to have those conversations ahead
of time and then that if they have questions, you know, they can work with the guidance counselor beforehand rather than finding out after, you know, having those conversations. Um, and I know that a lot of other parents have talked to me about things that happen at other
districts and I think that's something we could do more. I was even thinking that we could even move it into like break it out freshman, sophomores, and maybe junior seniors because I think even hearing from strategic planning the other evening, there's so many topics
that parents are interested in whether it be dual enrollment, virtual high school, the difference between CP, honors, and enrichment. And those are three things that I learned at the session two years ago. I think it was two years ago. Does anybody remember?
Was it two years or a year and a half ago? Either way, it was very helpful. But I've also talked to a few parents that have students that are about to graduate. And I was thinking that maybe we could do something for juniors and
senior parents where we had representatives from like New Jersey Stars. Um guidance counselors who could kind of address the college search. um even having the athletic director there to talk about you know some students are
looking for postc college um sport activities and that process but almost like there's so many things that I think our students need in addition you know having armed services there just different options and I I think it's you
know as more and more parents more and more other districts are doing that and I know Ocean City and mainland and I was actually going to talk to Mr. Matina, they do virtual admission where they combine with another school. Um, and I just feel like there's so many options
and it's overwhelming and the parents that I think do it best are usually the ones that have more than one parent. So, it's like, oh, how did you know all that? Well, you know, it's because I learned that with my first kid, so now I'm doing a much better job with my second or third. Um, and so that is just
one, again, one thing that I think they do a really good job, but it's just a suggestion for ways that we can do an even better job with that. And I'd love to be involved in any committee or anything to help with that. Um, and then lastly, one thing that I also brought up
and I've spoken to uh some friends at other districts is a simple thing, but I'm wondering if we really promote an absentee phone number to our parents the way I know I spoke to Rose. She said that in Waterford they do that. Um, for
example, if my son is sick and he has I don't think to call the school because I know it's not going to be an excused absence because I'm not going to get a doctor's note if he's like literally just, you know, not feeling good and I, you know, for an upset stomach. But it
would be helpful. I know a a friend of mine said, "Oh, yeah, she notifies her school when she has a sick kid." And I didn't know if I just missed that and I just wasn't doing that or if we would notify ahead of time and you know keep
notes because I know that Waterford like you make note and I know we talk a lot about ways to handle absenteeism but from a parent do any other parents on the board here do that we call in the elementary school see west and east have numbers to call we
call the office and then in middle school I believe we don't in high school we we they don't require that so we don't call what I'm saying is post it as like advertise it as like an absentee phone number so that it would go directly to the district so when we know kids are going to get be out.
Well, here they usually have our attendance taken. I usually get that phone call by like 87 in the morning. They call too, but usually I'm always like, well, I feel like I should let somebody know that I know he's not skipping is what I'm saying. You know what I mean? And I know it's not a
doctor. I think it's one and we get the call. So then if we thought our kid was going to school, then we call the school and say, "Hey, there's and that's that's where the I I think that's what it's for. I think you know what I mean?" Like Yeah. I just know that I know you guys do it a little differently, don't you?
We have a person, you know, it's number two, child's name, teacher, date of absence. And how does that helps the district? Sometimes we get off the the call list. Oh. calls don't come out till late. Our
calls weren't going to come out around 10. Well, our our attendance office is is is prompt and on time. But I think Luke, what I would say is that for me, I've gotten the letter sometimes that said, you know, my child is in danger of missing too much school or or you know,
you can only and a lot of those times I'm like, well, I legitimately they were I had legitimate reasons. They do that if you're excused though, too. U Kelly, they do that because if my son had 14 absences and like 10 were
excused, but we still get they still have to send the letter. Yeah. All right. Well, maybe it's not a good suggestion. That's all I have to report. Thank you. All right. So, mine's not going to probably be as long.
Um I don't have any suggestions um or complaints. I think everybody's doing a pretty good job. Um, I want to thank um the short time that I had with Barbara. Um, I really hope you enjoy your retirements. Um, I wish I got to work
with you longer. Um, but I'm looking forward to working with Carissa as well. Um, Mr. Anuko, Miss McBride, um, thank you very much. Enjoy your retirement as well. And to all the students that were here today, very impressive. Um, keep up the good work. Thank you. That's all I
have. Thank you. Just going to echo the the same thing that um Mrs. Skola said. Just um wish um Mr. Renuko and M and Mrs. McBride a happy retirement and thank Mrs. Prettyman so much. Uh I'll
speak as a negotiations chair. I put so much I we all did, but I know I especially put a lot of trust and faith in you and and it you were just an easy person to trust and I appreciate that because you did your job and you did it well and you advised and you told me no
sometimes which was what I needed to hear and and and that and you just did an amazing job and every year it just the our you know audit always reflected that and I just am truly going to miss you have um as our as our business
administrator but wish you all the best. Thank you. I I will echo that also. I have always you know had great faith in you and trusted your uh and trusted you and I know I always teased you about having an
eraser on your pencil. So now you can use a pen. You don't have to use that pencil. You can just write it and not worry about it. Um tonight on the agenda we will be um renewing n
um summer curriculum workers also u our staff our wonderful staff and um I can't believe that it's almost the end of the school year and we're looking forward to what we would be doing next year. Also we will be recommending Rachel Higgins.
She will be the fourth grade replacement and you know we welcome her. Michael Sucks who is going to be our new industrial arts um replacement for Mr. Cody Danielle Capuchio who is going to be our speech
pathologist and welcoming back Mrs. Spec and it's true all roads lead back to Hamilton. She was on our staff before and we're so happy to have her back and
all of the new people also. Um, that's basically all I have. All right. Thank you, Mr. Good evening, everyone. Uh, coming out of buildings and grounds, I'd just like to talk about two items on the agenda real quick. Uh, the first one is,
uh, number 43, and that's to award a contract to Fred M. Shone construction for the ECE increased building and parking area stormwater basin project is in the amount of $365,125. Uh this project is something that this board of education and prior
board of educ educations have been working towards being in compliance with the pineelands for quite some time now. This project will bring the district back into compliance with the pine lands. So, we will be out of what we call Pineland Jail. Uh the the other
resolution is just below it, number 44, and this is to approve the award contract to Enterprise car sales for the purchase of two Chrysler minivans in the amount of $43,000. That's for both of them uh based on lowest quotes. And
these vans will be used for out of district placement transportation. Uh besides that, I also would like to congratulate the uh staff members that are retiring. Uh especially Miss Prettyman. Thank you for uh helping
us, helping me, especially uh I know that I could be a little difficult to deal with sometimes and patient, but I can tell you, Miss Prettyman always was always there. Gave you the answer whether you wanted to hear it or
not. She didn't sugarcoat anything. and uh I appreciate that and wish you the best of luck. Thank you. All right, Mr. So, we had our second strategic planning meeting uh last Tuesday night. It was very well attended. We got into some of the nuts and bolts of it. Got some great
ideas. Our third meeting is coming up quickly in May. It is May 19th also. So, mayor did some bad planning there. Um, but we will be doing my third meeting where we'll get to the end of the process and then the board will take it
all in and develop the strategic plan to move forward. So, uh, it's been a great experience and we look forward to it. Uh, I'd like to congratulate all the retirees and for Barbara, I I can't tell you how many times Luke and I walked out of that office uh, with our head between
our legs and said, "Man, she's tough." But, you know, she had uh, everybody's best interest at heart. She kept us uh out of trouble in more ways than one. Um she's one of the reasons why we could do a lot of these capital projects that we've been doing the last year because,
you know, she helped us when she came here. This district was in pretty bad shape and people don't realize that. And she's the catalyst that got us on track and into the position we are financially. And that's it's very important. Um you know, and just for the record, Cararissa has already told Luke
and I know twice. So, you know, we keep we keep a running count of this. So, you you you picked a good person to replace you, but we're going to miss you. Luke and I know where you live and we'll be stopping by. Well, uh, Mick, if you notice, I didn't say that I'll miss you because I still have her cell phone. She
got I saw her. She had two phones. That's right. And we know where she lives. We know where she lives. We'll be there. All right, Mr. Sh. Thank you. Summer physicals will be July 23rd
with Dr. Falconee for athletes. A second date will be determined at a later date. June 13th is field day for West students. It is also the color
run. Middle school graduation will be June 17th. High school graduate high school graduation will be June 18th. In sports, want to congratulate Cole Bagnell for recording his 100th career
hit versus Rancokus Valley. Congratulations to the girls lacrosse team for earning their first program victory versus Atlantic City. Congratulations to Aubrey Ellis
for her 100th career save in lacrosse. I'm sorry. What was it? I I apologize. Lacrosse. Lacrosse. I'm sorry. Congratulations to Yeah. Right. I had it
right. It says lacrosse. It does. Congratulations to Greg Clark for being awarded the Kenneth and Kathleen Edwards Memorial Scholarship at the Coaches versus Cancer game. Also, congratulations to Gracie Ravenamp
for throwing a perfect game versus Alma. Currently, the baseball team is 10 and4. The softball team is 13 and4. The boys also uh
made the uh a prestigious tournament. It's called the Diamond Classic, which has all the all the uh best teams in all groups and they play in one tournament. And and I mean this
tournament I mean some coaches would rather win this than than the States because this is all the best teams from all five groups, four groups. And Hamilton got a home uh a home game which is huge.
Um, so, uh, good luck to them. I want to congratulate Mr. Nco also on his retirement. And yes, he was here when I was in school and I'm very old. Finally, my Barbara.
This is pretty. Barbara, he's getting you now. I have to thank you. I have to thank you for all your help the past nine years. You truly are the best. I wish you nothing but the best in your retirement. And can you please tell
Cararissa all the little things that you do for me, please? That she hopefully she will continue to do. That's my report. Great. This sounds I just want to congratulate our retirees. I want to
thank Barbara for all of her help here on the board. I appreciate You always had a smile, kind words to me, especially when I was new and you know offkilter coming in in the middle of the year. I appreciate you always making me feel
welcome. And I will echo you know Greg where I said you know I forget to do the forms that you filled out for me. Yes. I would appreciate that you Uh yeah, I would like to start with the
fact that this morning we had a sending receiving committee meeting. It was very productive and I want to thank um Mr. Ramsey for including the administration from both Falsam and Waterford. It was
very productive and I think we have seen the light as far as where we all are on things and coming together was great. get us all on the same page. Um, I also would like to extend congratulations to Shawan. Thank you, Mr. and to all of our
students tonight on their academic achievements. And of course, Barbara, a special thank you for uprighting this ship. Thank you. All right. Uh, in a few moments, we will have the uh what we call a meeting
within the meeting where Mr. Ramsey will do the budget presentation. It'll be an opportunity for the public to comment on the budget specifically and then we'll have public comment as we normally do in the board meeting. Um, in addition to that, I'll comment briefly on a few things. One, I'll certainly congratulate
our retirees. Uh, specific to Mr. Ryuko, I know a lot's been said about his success with the music program, specifically the strings program. uh as a parent more than a board member, it is really remarkable to watch your 5-year-old pick up a violin uh at school
and, you know, stand there with with their classmates and have a a little show for everybody. That is really something they'll see and and it both of my kids got to experience that and so I'm happy both that we had someone like him to put that program together for us
and have so many kids experience it. Um I'll I'll add my Thanks for our departing business administrator, Mrs. Prettyman. Uh, you know, one of the things I think about a lot and folks have talked about tonight is, you know, when you go through instruction about
how to be a, you know, to lead and in business and different things, they talk about managing up, right? How do you manage your supervisor or how do you manage people that are above you on an organizational chart, you know, how do you do that? And Barbara Freeman's an expert in managing. No worries. She's
told me no to my face. She's yelled it at me. She's wrote it to me in emails and text messages. And she's told all of us in the board meeting. She's told the board president, the board vice president, the town council, the the county office, the state, the board
attorney. It really doesn't matter. Um, you know, she's she's got the answers and she's going to explain it to you. and that's she's got no problem telling you and that's why she fits in so well in Hamilton because that works here with
people. So, uh we'll talk we're going to have a little gathering there and we'll talk more about some other fun times. But I just want to publicly thank you for your hard work and for all the help and all the things you've done for all of us. Um in addition just a little bit more about some of what's been talked
about tonight. I know Dr. Tro got up and spoke about the program that the gentleman from the Mount Carmel Society provided yesterday at one Soy Elementary School. Although I was not able to stop in. I know a number of board members did and I heard it was very very wellreceived. The students and the staff
very very interested and encouraged and really excited about the presentation to hear more about the culture. Um, and as a both as a board member and a parent, I am very very proud of the fact that we teach local culture as a part of our curriculum, uh, both at the elementary
level and up through the high school level. Students that go to school here are educated, uh, you know, well-rounded, but also learn about their community and the important things in the community and what makes this such a special place to grow up. So, really proud of the work that our staff is
doing to integrate those things. That concludes my report. Uh, Mr. Donio, before I kick it, Mr. Anthony. Yeah, I I don't have anything to report to the public, but I do want to u wish Miss Pman the best in her retirement. Uh, we've been sitting next to each other
for a lot of years. Um, and I uh have appreciated uh not just your cander and your um diligence and your productivity, but also um and I think I can say this because I've practiced in so many other communities. uh this
board, this school district, Hamilton, and by extension Waterford and Falsam are all very lucky to have had you sitting in that seat uh doing the hard work that you've done for years. I can say that without reservation that and often times a
business administrator, some of the best business administrators, right, they're seen but not heard, right? because they're in the background doing all the hard work, all the accounting, all the things that have to go for what is usually the largest institution in any
community. And um it truly is a testament and I think the best compliment that can ever be given to someone on their retirement is that you're leaving this entity in a much better place than it was when you got here. So congratulations. Thank you.
This is great. Well, thank you everyone for all of your kind words and and it has truly been a pleasure for me to be here. I thank you for um allowing me to have this position for all of these years. And I want to thank my staff, the
current staff and any prior, you know, staff members that were in my office. It's been a team effort. It's not just me. It's always been a team effort. I hope that they have always felt like they were part of the team and that they were acknowledged and and felt, you
know, appreciated because I couldn't have done it without them, without you. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so next we're going to have the first public comment for port portion. This is the public comment for the general agenda. So, anybody in the
public, there'll be two of these for the general agenda. Anybody in the public wishing to be heard, come up to the microphone, give your name and address. Uh, there'll be a second one at the end of the meeting for the general agenda. Seeing none, we'll move on from that. Now, we'll go to the meeting with I'm
sorry. I thought she was getting up. Not yet. Not yet. I'm sorry. That was not. So now we're gonna now we're gonna have now we're gonna have the meeting within a meeting which is the the budget the
required budget hearing. So I turn over to Mr. Ramsey. He's got a presentation to give to talk about the budget. [Music] Thank you, Mr. Lions. It's my distinct honor to present the 2025
2026 proposed budget for the Hamilton public school system. And like every presentation that I give, I start off with the mission statement. I could tell you guys a lot of time and effort goes into preparing a budget and you cannot
prepare an effective budget if you don't know what the mission of your school district is. And our mission is to provide it in partnership with the community provide educational opportunities that inspire students to achieve their full academic, social, and
civic potential as they meet the expectations of the New Jersey student learning standards in all grade levels. It doesn't matter if you're a student at the ECE. It doesn't matter if you're a student at the Warren Soy Elementary School, the Hamilton Middle School or
Hamilton High School. That is the mission. We want you to reach your full academic, social, and civic potential. I have a picture of our board of education because a lot of time and effort goes into preparing a budget with
the administration, with Barbara Prettyman and her business office. and with the board of education members as well. And I am blessed, you know, to work with everybody up there. Um, I've known a lot of the board members prior
to becoming superintendent. This past school year, I have an opportunity to get to know everybody a lot better and know I can tell you we're extremely lucky to have them serving the community. Who are we? Um, Hamilton
Public School District. We have four schools. Uh we're a prek to 12 school district. We educate students from Folsam in grades 9 through 12. We educate students from Waterford Township
in grades 7 through 12. And I already mentioned we have four schools. We're also an inner district school choice district. We have 220 students who attend our school district on a state funded program. And I'm really proud of
the fact that we have in-house services. We have our own custodial staff that works for the Hamilton School District, our own maintenance staff, our own transportation department, our own food service, our own techn.
some school districts that go and try to contract out, you know, it doesn't always work out so well. Uh we have people that are invested in Hamilton in this community. Student enrollment, I just wanted to show that the enrollment in
Hamilton is steady and consistent. You know, we're not a school district where, you know, the size of our district is getting smaller by the year. You can see we're very consistent. If you look at the students at the early childhood
education center, the elementary school, the middle school, the high school over the last three years, you're going to see very subtle changes in enrollment. We're approximately 3,300 students, sometimes a few more, sometimes 10 or 15
less, but we're always around 3,300 students. Enrollment by subgroup populations. This is who we are. This is what we're proud of. This is what makes us Hamilton. You can see our subgroups. White, Hispanic, black,
African-American. We have American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, one student, and two or more races. That's us. That's who we
are. Enrollment by subgroup populations. You can see how many females we have in the district, how many males we have in the district. Our economically disadvantaged students were about 40% economically disadvantaged. And our special ed
population approximately 14 15% special education, which is pretty much the state average. That's a a good number. When you develop the budget, you do a lot of research. You're doing not a
lot of careful analysis. You get a lot of input from a lot of different stakeholders. And you got a couple of things you got to take into consideration. You certainly want to maintain your academic programs. You want to maintain your faculty and staff.
You want to maintain a lot of the resources that you use. We have real time uh student management system which is our student database. We use linkic benchmark management assessments. We give these linkit assessments from
kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade. We have that we use. It's individualized for formative assessments. And again, you know, language arts programs, math programs, science, world language, social studies,
you know, you want to all that has to be into the equation. You have contractual obligations and meeting with Barbara Prettyman will sit down and she'll talk about contractual obligations for our faculty and staff including you know
rising cost of health care factors into the budget and certainly ongoing maintenance within the school district. You have four buildings uh all the buildings are pretty much 20 years old or more. You know they need maintenance.
We want our buildings and grounds to look pristine when people ride to our schools and people come into Hamilton. All of that goes into the equation. So the total proposed budget for next school year is
73 million 515,760. That is next year's proposed budget. If you take a look at that pie chart up there, you could see that approximately half of that money comes from state aid and the other half comes
from the local tax levy and tuition, which is our students that come from Waterford and our students that come from Falsam with the Hamilton tax levy. And then there's some other, you know, sources of revenue as
well. How does the money get spent? Well, more than half of it is for, you know, instructional, which it should be. Um, about just under 20% personal services, you know,
counselors, nurses, you know, child study team members, uh, you know, occupational therapist, uh, physical therapist, you know, all these additional services. Uh if you take a deeper dive into it, you could see the
transportation expenditures, the operating cost, uh at a district tuition, uh you know, administrative cost are under 5%. That's how the money spent.
You can take a quick snapshot of 2022 23 uh 2023 24 202425. I'm not going to, you know, sit there and read you each number from each box, but you could see, you know, as far
as the total budget, it does, you know, go up each and every year. Just like your expenditures at home, you know, they do go up. One thing I wanted to say, these numbers are from last uh June 30th. We do have
some surplus money. Okay? And I'll talk about that real quick. The first thing you'll see on the bottom is excess surplus. It's 2,739,696. And that excessive surplus is used to lower the tax impact on the local
community. And Barbara Prettyman does an amazing job, you know, moving money around to lower the tax impact in the community. The second box you'll see that $7 million, $333,399 in capital reserve. That money
is used for major projects. For example, the addition of the ECE um building expansions, the new roof. You need a new roof um in a building, storm water basin projects and
improvements. And last but not least, you have the maintenance reserve. And that money is used for maintenance. boiler repairs, plumbing repairs, fire alarm system repairs. You know, the heat doesn't work in a building. We got to
get that going. So, there's that. I thought it was important for the public to see the state aid allocations over the past seven years. Uh, if you go back to 2019, we were receiving $3.2
million in state aid. It was the equalization aid. uh you know as little as you know of 2022 23 we received 3.7 million uh 2023 24 2.4 4 million. And something happened
last year. We only received $133,000 of aid. And this year, the Hamilton School District lost $427,000 of state aid of state aid. We did do very well with our prek money,
but we did lose state aid. basically budgeted for the 2023 24 school year, the Hamilton average per pupil cost was $16,000 six $16,583. The state of New Jersey average
per pupil cost was over $20,000. So the board of education, the business office, you know, they work extremely hard to to provide a world-class education, you know, while being fiscally responsible as well to
the taxpayers. These numbers are from the 22 23 school year. I'm using numbers from the 22 23 school year because that's what's readily available right now uh you know from the state department of education and I wanted to show the
taxpayers in Hamilton when you look at our per pupil expenditures we spend the least in Atlantic County per pupil expenditures 2022 23 we were at 14,526
6 per pupil. You could go down the list and look and see what, you know, Egg Harbor spends. You could see what Lynwood spends. You could see what Northfield spends. Uh you could see I'll go on
another slide. You could see what, you know, Pleasantville, what Greater Egg, what Mainland Mainland's up around $22,000 per pupil is what they spend. So you're getting an amazing product and
you know we're doing it in a fiscally responsible manner. What is adequacy? Uh the state of New Jersey will often talk about adequacy and adequacy is the number that the state believes that school districts
should be spending to provide a thorough and efficient education. Right now, Hamilton is spending low adequacy according to the state of New Jersey. Um, you know, we believe we know our schools, we know our students, we
know our community better than the state of New Jersey and we know what works in Hamilton. So, you know, we're we're proud of that. We also participate in a number of programs to minimize expenditures. We're
in the Atlantic Cape May business officials joint insurance fund for all insurance to get the cheapest insurance that we could get. Uh agreement with the town for SRO's. Um cooperative pricing agreements
with local school districts so we could get things at a cheaper price. Cooperative pricing agreements statewide. and certainly the -ate program. So what is the proposal right
now? The tax rate in Hamilton is 1 $143. $143. The proposed tax rate for the school system is $145. What does that mean for a house in
Hamington that is appraised at $200,000? That would be $40 over the course of an entire year, which would be about $3.33 a month um
increase. That is the proposed budget for the upcoming school year. Um any questions? Thank you very much. And before I end, I certainly do want to congratulate all of our teachers who are
retiring. And I do want to congratulate Barbara Prettyman. Uh I know she showed up in the district in 2006. Barbara, I was here in 2006. Um, and I had the ability to work with
Barbara in a few different capacities. I was a young, much younger assistant principal when she came in. Uh, Barbara was my business administrator when I was the high school principal for 15, 16 years. And I absolutely loved working
with Barbara this year as the superintendent of schools. I know Barbara might have thought I was crazy and now she knows I'm crazy after working with me for a year, but a lot of laughs every day, but I do know, you know, you know that how much she loves
Hamilton and how much time and effort she puts into her job every day. And I think everybody knows we've had one of the best, you know, business administrators in the state. And she's going to be missed. Uh the whole town's going to miss her, but Barbara, I'm going to miss you, too. So
congratulations on your retirement. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Ramsey. So this is an opportunity for the public to comment or on anything related to the budget because as we noted, it's a hearing within a hearing. The board will be voting on the budget through the
course of the regular meeting. I don't see anyone approaching the microphone. So we'll close the second of two, sorry, second of three opportunities for the public to be heard. And Uh, Mr. Ramsey giving additional. Yep. Okay. So, now we're
going to go to the the agenda. So, we're going to go to finance items number one through number six. I will entertain a motion. So moved. Mr. Shepone first. Mrs. Burns second on the question.
Mrs. Bernado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes, Mr. Koya. Yes, Mrs. Donio. Yes, Mrs. Fallon. Yes, Mrs. Hunter. Yes. To order items 1 through 17. Um, one through six. Oh, one through
six. Yes. Mr. Po, yes. Mr. Shepon, yes. Mrs. Skola? Yes. Mr. Lines? Yes. Motion carried. Next, we're going to do finance items 7 through 19. I'll take a motion. Motion. Mr. Koya
first, Mr. Shabon second. Mrs. Bernado, yes. Mrs. Burns, yes. Mr. Koya, yes. Mrs. Donio, yes. Mrs. Fallon, yes. Mrs. Hunter, yes. Mr. Pa, yes. Mr. Shipion, yes. Mrs.
Skola, yes. Mr. Lions, yes. Motion carried. Next, we'll take a motion on personnel items number 20 through number 38. motion. Mrs. Fallon first. Second. Mrs. Hunter second.
Roll call. Mrs. Bernado. Yes. I'm going to abstain on number 30, please. Mrs. Burns. Yes. I'm sorry. Where did we end? 37. 38. 23. I'm going to abstain also in number 33.
So it would be 30 and 33. That just be those that may have a conflict. Um 30. Wait a minute. Yes. Yes. That's it for that group. That's it
for that group. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Spurs. Yes. Mr. Koya. Yes. Abstension on number 30. Mrs. Donio, yes. Mrs. Fallon, yes. Mrs. Hunter, yes. To order items 25 through
30. Mr. Pa, yes. Mr. Shipion, yes. Mrs. Skola, uh, yes. Abstain number 30. Mr. Lions. Yes. And abstension on number 30. Motion.
Yes. Motion carried. Okay. Next we'll go to program students and miscellaneous items 39 through 41. Take a motion. So move first. Mrs. Burns second. Mrs. Bernado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Koya.
Yes. Mrs. Donio. Yes. Mrs. Fallon. Yes. Mrs. Hunter. Yes. To 1441. Mr. Pia. Yes. Mr. Shipion. Yes. Mrs. Skola. Yes. Mr. Lions. Yes. Motion carried. Now we'll go to the addendum. We're going to do finance
items 42 through 44. I'll take a motion. Motion. Mr. Koya. First, Mr. Kia second. Mrs. Bernado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Koya. Yes. Mrs. Donio. Yes. Mrs. Fon.
Yes. Mrs. Hunter. I'm sorry. Mr. Pa. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Skola. Yes. Mr. Lines. Yes. Motion carrying. Next we're going to go to personnel items 45 through 47.
Mr. First, Mr. Shion. Second. Mrs. Beronado. Yes. I will abstain on number 45. Please. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Quy.
Uh, yes. Mrs. Donio, yes. Mrs. Fallon, yes. Mrs. Hunter, yes. Mr. Fala, yes. Mr. Shapi, yes. Mrs. Skolen, yes. Mr. L, yes. Motion carried. Okay, that takes us to the end of the
published agenda and the agenda. Now is the opportunity, second opportunity for the public to be heard. Anyone wishing to address the board, approach the microphone, let us know your name and address. You can be heard. Good evening, Board of Education. Mr.
Ramsey, my name is Carrie Speizzial. My address is 4001 Aberdine Lane, Blackwood, New Jersey. And I want to express my appreciation for my new role here as the transition coach and uh job coach in the
school district. It's awesome to see so many familiar faces um just here, you know, in this meeting and um I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back. Thank you. Yeah. Good evening. My name is Rachel Higgins
and I wanted to come here tonight to say thank you to all of you and express my heartfelt gratitude um for allowing me to officially join the Hamilton School District family. I've been a substitute in your district since 2017 and I've met
a lot of your children happily and the outpouring of warmth and support that I've received from not only the administration but the teachers and staff of this district um has been humbling and
uplifting and that is the reason why I'm so excited to be here and I'm really excited to see what the next part of this journey will bring. So, thank you all so much and good evening. Thank you.
How you doing everyone? Thanks again. Uh Mike Suds, 3313 South Pinewood Drive, Hamilton. I just want to say thank you for the opportunity and I'm looking forward to next year's school year. All right. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, I just had a very quick
sidebar with Mr. Lions. Um I would want to just make sure that I have the authority to actually ask the the uh business business administrator board secretary to mark actually an extension if it's ultimately deterred based on those various advisory opinions that
those with relatives in the school district should not have direct voted on either of the assistant superintendent because of any type of direct supervisory role. So, in that regard, I want to make sure that's okay. In regards to those individuals who were um who had to recuse themselves out of the
superintendent contract for me to then mark that as an abstension as opposed to a vote that's on me, not on you. All right. So, that's the I don't need any action. I think it's the same individuals, but I don't know if it'll apply because of the
supervisory roles of the two different assistant superintendents. So, I appreciate the confusion in that regard. It's okay. All right. So, there being no further action, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. Mrs. Mrs. Hunter, all in favor?
All right. Thank you everybody.