Oops. I call to order of the Highland Park Board of Education hybrid workshop voting meeting at budget adoption for today, Monday, May 5th, 2025. The New Jersey Public Open Meetings, Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of
the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In compliance with the open public's meeting act, the Highland Park Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting setting forth the time, date, location, and location to be submitted for publication to the Home
News Tribune and Career News and posted on the board's website at least 48 hours in advance of this meeting. Members of the public who wish to address the board will be given the opportunity to do so before the board adjourns for the evening. May I have roll call, please? Dr.
here. Mrs. Salon here, Dr. Dr. Pixley, Miss P here, Dr. Miss Daniel here, here we will now recess to executive session.
Be it resolved pursuant to the Sunshine Act NJ Njsa 104-12 and 13, the Highland Park Board of Education will now meet in close session to discuss discuss HIPP and personnel. These exemptions are permitted to be discussed in closed sess
session in accordance with NJ SA 10 col4-13. Information regarding the board's closed disc closed sess session discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists. I move
that we recess to executive session. Second. All in favor? I. That was rough. No, I don't I don't know where she is. Okay. Uh we are going to reconvene to regular session
or motion. That's a motion to reconvene to regular sessions. Second. May I have roll call, please? Dr. here. Here. Here. Dr.
Pixley. Miss Truce here. Dr. Stoman. Miss Daniel here. Miss here. Here. Okay. We'll stand for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Um, we had several communications since our last meeting. um few requesting information, transfer
card, headlice policy, music start times at the middle school, um and middle school band. Um the next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes for the hybrid workshop voting meeting and executive session for March 24th, 2025 and the hybrid special voting workshop
meeting minutes for April 10th, 2025. I move that we approve those minutes. Second, Dr. Batty. Yes, Miss Cruz. Yes,
Dr. Miss Daniel. Yes, we're going to move on to our student representative report. Hi everyone. So, Irving has been bustling busy with awesome fun and learning opportunities. Last week,
Irving celebrated um their wonderful administrative assistance for all um they do at Irving School each day. And our kindergarten students enjoyed their trip to the state theater to see Under the Magic Moon last week. Our preschool and kindergarten students love the
petting zoo that came out on Friday. Uh this was a great opportunity for learning and we are gracious to the PTO for supporting this. We started off the week of teacher and staff appreciation with a breakfast and we are thankful to our families and their generous donations to stock the lounge for the faculty and provide gift cards to rattle
off. There are fun activities planned for the week and we are lucky to have the best most dedicated staff. Our preschoolers will enjoy their walking trip to the HP library starting this week. They will learn all about how the library works with Miss Karen. First grade will visit the Turtleback Zoo on
May 14th and this trip is always a fan favorite. Kindergarten and first grade registration is underway and we have drop off days on Wednesday and Friday this week. Please make sure you pass along this information to anyone you know who has students living in Highland Park. And finally for Irving, our
preschool orientation for all new families will be on May 30th and more information will be sent home to our newly enrolled families for next fall with the details. All right, so for Bartle, this week is teacher appreciation week. Uh, Miss Knap, Miss Baldzone, and the PTO will celebrate the
staff each day. Um, this upcoming Friday, May 9th, is field day at the high school um for Bartle. A big thank you to Mr. Stark and Mr. Roy for planning a fun day for the Bartle students. On Monday, May 12th, the students will participate in an anti-bullying dance assembly. And the fifth grade students are going to Camp
Mason on May 20th to 22nd. Um, the second grade will have their field trip to Liberty Science Center on May 22nd. And on May 29th, the fifth grade will walk to the middle school to learn about a day in the life of a middle schooler in preparation for their transition to middle school next year. Um also NJSLA
math testing will be will take place this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Now going on to the middle school. Um the week before spring break was full of energy for the school. Um during spir week, students had a blast participating in themed days like pajama
day, twin day, and color wars. Uh the festiv the festivities wrapped up with a high energy pep rally celebrating our spring sports teams and a friendly grade level competition that brought the whole school together. Uh for science NJSLA this Tuesday um the 6th and Wednesday
the 7th is the science NJSLA testing for eighth grade students only. Sixth and seventh grade students will have delayed opening tomorrow on Wednesday and should report to school by 9:45. It's also teacher appreciation week for the middle school. Um, they've got a fun-filled lineup planned to celebrate the
incredible staff. The PTSO is helping to make it all happen. We have a theme of where in the world is Carmen Castel Brady who the teachers have to find through clues and prizes and her counterpart Henchman Dain who stole the hourglass. Um, eighth graders have a permission slip. Uh, the permission
slips and payments for the field trips are due Tuesday, May 13th. Um, please be handed in to Miss Ay or Miss Carter by then. And lastly for the middle school, the ELA and Jessa is coming up on May 12th and 13. A letter with all of the
information will be sent to school. Now for the high school. Um this week is teacher appreciation week and we are excited to celebrate our dedicated educators with a series of thoughtful events organized by our wonderful PTSO. Just before spring break, we wrapped up spirited uh spring spirit week which was
won by the senior class. The week concluded with an incredible pep rally featuring our very first live rock band performance, a memorable highlight for students and staff alike. This spring, our high school sports teams have had a strong showing across multiple disciplines. The softball team
currently holds a 6-2 record and stands second place in the GMC Gold Division. Boys tennis has performed well with the 63 record earning third place in the GMC white division while competing against other mostly large um group three and group four schools. In track, the boys
team placed second in um the GMC white division with a standout performance uh from Robert O'Connell in the 800 meter um Costa Hansulus in the 110 hurdles and Marcos Hansulus in Javelin who each took first place in their event. Marcos Javelin throw is currently the farthest
in New Jersey this season. Additional top finishes came from um Sherro Sades uh who was second in the 200 meter and Julian Newton who was second in shot. The girls track team placed sixth in the division highlighted by London Atkins first place in the long jump and Connie
Zang second place finish in the triple jump. And that's all for the high school. Thank you so much. Are there any questions or comments for our student reps? Uh yeah. Uh Anna, it looks like we know
where you're going to college. Yes. So I'm going to the University of Michigan. I'm going to Western Michigan in Calip. Congratulations to you both. and uh we're going to move on to the superintendence report. Well, I'm excited to piggyback off of all of that
great stuff happening to uh celebrate some great things happening at Bartle. So, tonight I am pleased to um welcome Miss Jennifer Nap and Miss Brooke Baldone, our administrator from Bartle, to come up to the podium for our student spotlight. Good evening, everyone. Um we're always
excited to be here to spotlight our Bartle Dolphins and we always um select students that exceed our Bartle expectations of being kind, responsible, and respectful. So we always open it up to the staff at Bartle to nominate the
students that they feel exceed our expectations. And this time we had our nominations and we selected two Bartle students. This first student was nominated by Mr. B and I'm going to spotlight
Zaya. So, Mr. B wished he could be here because he was so excited to nominate you. Um, but I'm going to read what he wrote about you. Okay, great. Zaniah has been such a leader in music this year. Whether performing in school ensembles
or setting the bar in class, she models respect, kindness, and creativity to encourage her classmates to be their best. I'm proud that she's so involved in the music program and in peaks and
valleys. So, he really wanted to be here because he is has not stopped saying how proud he is of you this year in music. So, you should be proud of yourself as well. and Miss Belone and I are proud of you too. So congratulations enough to
Thank you. We also have another spotlight tonight. So, this student was nominated by Miss McGrevy, our media specialist. So, I'm going to be speaking about Emily Humph. So, Miss McGrevy wrote, "In January, I started a reading challenge for each
grade where there are about 12 books or series that she wanted the students in that grade to try." Emily finished the second grade list and then proceeded to finish the third and fourth and fifth grade reading
list as well. She finished before any fifth graders even finished. She is also a reliable, bright, and enthusiastic student in all other respects. So, we congratulate Emily tonight as well. That smile.
She makes Thank you. Thank you, Miss Nap and Miss Dalenzone. And congratulations to our amazing Bartle students. Sounds like some really great things happening and we're all really proud of you. And to your your your cheer squad.
I need I need some hype people if you can come back and cheer for from me. No. Okay, I try. Go, James. I love the support. That really warms my heart. So, thank you all again. Congratulations and you're more than welcome to stay for the duration of the meeting. However, I know our
administrators have had long days, so please feel free to leave. And thank you again and congratulations. All right, so moving on. Tonight we have a couple of things. Uh well really one under my superintendent report um is the final budget hearing. So I want to thank the
board and community for being flexible and changing our our meeting deadline. Um we are really proud to share that really excited to share that the state the NJOE did approve our tax levy incentive aid package. So it was a good thing we pushed the meeting back. So we
were able to adjust our final budget hearing my cheering funding. Um so we were able to adjust the final budget with the support of the tax levy incentive aid uh package. So that gave us a little flexibility. So thank you everyone for for being
flexible on a um on a Monday. So tonight we'll do uh the we'll go through the budget presentation. We'll open it up to questions. There is a public hearing specifically for the budget. Um so the first first public comment will be
budget only uh comments and then we'll move to pass the motion to vote on the final budget and then we'll move on to the rest of the normal board meeting. And now I'm just delaying till we get the clicker going. I don't know what else to say about it. Okay. other than All right.
So, yeah. So, some of So, some of the um the stuff you'll hear tonight, you I know you've heard several times already, but just reiterating for those that may be watching for the first time or just need a refresher. Um our budget process aligns with several things. So, overall, our district operating budget aligns
with our goals and objectives, um the elementary and secondary education act, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the New Jersey Student Learning Objectives. for our planning process. Uh typically when one budget ends, the new the new
planning session starts. So as soon as as really as early as October, um once the school year gets started, we're actually in the thick of of budgeting um where we ask for requests and and uh figure out what the needs are. But the at that point by December to January, um
everybody's local budgets, the administrator's budgets are built. They meet with myself and Mr. Rosa to go through all of their line items, sort of figuring out what our needs are um and any kind of requests that come to us. In February this year, the um
department administrators met with the finance and facilities committee on February 11th. We had our um overview of our budget um on March 11th as well with finance and facilities and then um our board discussions. We actually had three this year. So, we had the preliminary
budget on March 17th. We had the tax levy incentive aid package um board meeting on April 10th and then tonight for our final budget hearing. So, I know I've said this several times, but I'll reiterate it again that when we plan for our budget,
um we plan in three buckets. So, our level one planning are legal requirements. So those would be anything that has to do with New Jersey student learning standards, special education, um multi- language learners, anything that are state legal requirements get
our first budget line, those are automatics. Our level two, which are required by board policy, those would be local budgeting items. That would be for example if we required more credits to graduate. If we wanted all of our students to take a certain class, if
there are requirements where we go above and beyond um as per our board policy that's written into policy, those would be required items for um a level two budget um to include in the budget. And then our level three bucket items are
not required but are high investments. So they might might not be in policy, but there are things as a community and as a district we really want to invest in and believe in. For example, our music programs, our mental health programs, computer science programming, STEM programs, anything that is above
and beyond, but it's not written in policy, but we believe in um is a level three budget item. So those three buckets uh are really important every year but uh more so now than ever because when we're looking at
budget obviously the legal requirements we have to do anything in board policy we have to do and then sort of whatever money is left over we can do for the the other um high priority items that we feel as a community closing the achievement gap with interventionists
things like that are are above and beyond the state requirement and board policy that becomes really hard when we lose money from uh from the New Jersey Department of Education, from the state funding formula. And so we really have to kind of chip away at what is most
meaningful. And I know there were some hard decisions that we had to make. Um, so not only was were there issues with our fiscal responsibility that came with the um state funding formula changing, which I know we've discussed several times, uh, we have our we're seeing an increased costs for students with
disabilities, whether it's locally in terms of um, our programming really out of district tuition increases, uh, transportation increases. So all of those we have to take into account. Um, as I know we've been saying a lot, our facility maintenance projects um are
extraordinary. Uh, as you will see tonight, we finally have a bid for um and pass for the Bartle uh construction that is of significant cost to the district. Um, you know, we're working on trying to update some of the uh bathrooms at Bartle. Just fixing
structural repairs um and maintenance can be costly. Uh we have federal and state mandates that are continue to come at us. Uh this year we're um negotiating with the Highland Park Admin Association. So their contract expires, so we have to think about fiscal um
outcomes that come out of that contract negotiations. Um we're always looking for ways to save money. So one of the things we did this year, which we do every year, is look at student enrollment. Um and then our needs. So we really are um you know looking at that
with a fine tooth comb to make sure you know that we don't have excessively high uh classes especially at the elementary level. So we try to look for balance in all of those things. Um and then of course you know analysis of factors that um affect state aid as well.
Great. So as we reviewed on March 17th at our tenative budget hearing um We really analyzed what state a h what happened to state aid this year. So the state made some changes in the calculation. Um they provide can you hear me now?
Okay. So the state uh the DOE changed the calculation of state aid. Uh they provided funding for the actual number of atrisisk students. Um they also used an average of the last three years of district income and property values and
uh they cap the they also cap the amount of stevia that could be increased or decreased because they used an average of the last three years. Our community's district income and property values really took a significant increase. Um
so the state when doing the funding formula when they did the the calculation um the calculation showed that our local fair share of $34,250,164 is actually higher than our tax levy um which makes our district
below adequacy about $1.3 million. Um, so this allowed the district to be eligible to apply for the tax levy incentive aid application. Um, I looked back for many years and I've never seen a district ever be below adequacy. You
were always typically above adequacy. Um, interesting enough, this year they also put a cap on how much state aid could be increased or decreased. So doing the calculation, they cap the amount we could decrease. So, we only
lost 3% this year. Um, however, we don't know what next year will hold. So, on um I think it was April 10th, we held um another board meeting to review the tax levy incentive aid application. Uh so,
with the board's support, it allows districts to who are below adequacy to apply for an increase in tax levy in order to satisfy the thoroughess and efficiency standards. Um the board approved on April 10th the submission of the application in the amount of 1.1
million55,000. This included uh curriculum upgrades of 72,000 an increase of tier three mental health services of $280,000. It included to save the media specialist, the part-time specialist at Irving, the full-time specialist at
Bartle. um a classroom teacher. The high school computer science teacher position was saved and it also included facility pairs facility repairs in the amount of $443,000. Uh the district's application
was approved on April 28th in the full amount. Um they also the state kicked in some aid uh of $50,000 uh they're giving us towards the tax levy increase. So the net tax levy increase to the community
is around $1,4,000762. Um this is actually contingent on the state passing their budget which happens and has to be approved by June 30th. So what will this uh increase plus what we had originally budgeted for um what we'll do? Just to uh remind
everyone if you didn't watch that board meeting um during the preliminary budget and the final budget things happen. Uh so um sometimes more so than than others and we had a couple of um uh new
unexpected items come on to uh onto our plate that are are costly um for the district that required us um to have to make those additional cuts. So they weren't actually part of the preliminary budget um when we had this conversation back in March, but um in between the
preliminary budget and today they they had come up on our radar um because we had um some of the that level one budgeting that was statemandated requirements um that were going to be very costly to the district uh that we have to budget for. So um what what does
all of this mean? So, um, same as the preliminary budget, we're still fully staffed with qualified personnel. Um, we'll be able to maintain our instructional resources, um, and update and align to any of the standards for ELA, math, science, and multi- language
learners. We're able to provide instructional programs, um, just with some slight adjustments uh, due to enrollment and changing student needs. Uh so for example though you'll see um on the uh budget tonight on the board agenda tonight a couple of reductions
enforced that was a result of a preliminary budget. Um but I will say that the the needs are being serviced. So we did a careful analysis again data driven and student need driven. Um so for example a reading interventionist at Irving we have two. So we're reducing
one because the numbers actually suggest that we can stay with one. And I think part of that is the work that we're doing with the OG training of our staff, tools of the mind and full day preschool that we're actually seeing um that we're closing those gaps early and hitting those targeted students. So we're
actually seeing less students um postcoid in intervention at at Irving. So we're really happy about that. Um so it doesn't mean that we're not having anything there. We are um but we're able to save in in that area. So that's how we're looking and maintaining some um
our programs and adjusting. We're able to um our needs are though still great at Bartle for um ELA and um math. So uh we're maintaining those two additional positions. Um with the budget, we're still able to provide courtesy
transportation for students on hazardous routes. Um and then changes from the preliminary budget. Um we're able to um upgrade our math uh resources with Envisions expanding that pilot out at the early childhood um grade
levels. Um we'll be able to like Mr. Rosa said maintain our urban and Bartle media center specialists, maintain the high school computer science teacher um and then maintain and increase our tier three support for mental health services.
Um in addition um so you'll see we already talked about the Bartle structural repair. We'll be able to um include in our budget for some of our facility improvements um the Irving renovation for an additional preschool classroom. 40% is funded by the state grant. That construction work will
happen start probably over the summer into next year. So we will expand one additional class to the 2627 school year. Um, we're able to increase security cameras at high school and middle school, replace a really old and outdated heat pump at Irving, the fire
alarm panel replacement at the high school middle school, um, some bleacher repairs at and maintenance at the high school and middle school, and the door hardware system at Bartle and Irving. Um, in addition, we're able to set aside some funds for supervision for in
district after hours public facing events. So, that was been something that we've been talking about at the safety committee meeting was uh we've been doing really great uh things to increase our safety and security during the school day, but things have come up recently at after school public facing
events that required some attention. So, we're able to to um provide a little bit of that support. So, we'll go on uh to the finances. Uh so taking a look at our revenue snapshot, the proposed uh budgeted
revenue is presenting a 6.06 general tax levy increase. This includes um the normal 2% increase of our tax levy from last year. It also includes about a healthcare adjustment
cost about of about $280,000. And as I mentioned earlier, the tax levy incentive of roughly a million dollars. Um the budget also has a line item for that tax levy incentive aid that the that the state is giving the
district um for taking the tax levy incentive of $50,000. You'll notice that our state aid was decreased uh 3%. Um we're projecting extraordinary aid to be $1 million. This is an estimate. Um, our
aid is not known until July of for this year. The aid is not known until July 2025. We're currently working on the extraordinary aid application which is due at the end of May. Um, other local sources and interest which could include interest income, uh, tuition, uh, the
pilot money from the bureau, enterprise activities, and refunds of prior year expenses. We're trending a little bit lower because we're we're not going to have as many out of district students from other um school districts attending our school district. Um and we're
projecting a decrease in interest income. Uh the federal aid or semi program, this is a dollar amount that is determined by the state. Uh they recently changed the the way they're funding uh the semi program. So you'll see a a huge decrease. Um we're also
budgeting for the utilization of capital reserve to fund um the BART structural repair that's that's needed and also the port our portion of the urban alteration of for the prepaid classroom. 40% is funded by the state for that project. Uh
we're going to be using $80,000 of maintenance reserve and $10,000 of emergency reserve and we're projecting a surplus of 1.4 million. So, our overall budget increase from revenues from last
year to next year is uh 7.11% or $2.9 million. Moving on to expenditures, uh you'll see that um this has all been updated with a tax levy including the tax levy projected expenditures. uh regular programs of instruction is
decreasing slightly um by $25,000. Our total special education uh instruction is decreasing uh 5%. Um I think there's a shift between that the programming and the out of district
placements. Um total bilingual instruction or education is increasing 7%. Um the total co-curricular athletics after school and summer programs is increasing 11.88%.
Um the supplemental and at risk instru instruction is decreasing 7% uh and total tuition overall is decreasing uh $36,000 or less than 1%. Attendance, health related and other
support services and guidance are increasing about 5%. Special education support services is increasing 10.93%. That's directly related to the tier three mental health services. Improvement of instruction, staff
training and media services is decreasing about 8.9%. I think there's a shift in the administration between health um between curriculum and athletics. Uh school district central IT and administrative cost is increasing
3.89%. Uh the operation and maintenance of plants is increasing 9% which is including all of those projects that we submitted for the tax levy. Uh student transportation services is decreasing about 2.8%. Employee benefits overall is
increasing 8.27% and that capital outlay is the capital reserve um transfer is increasing significantly because of that var structural repair and our uh transfer of funds for charter
schools. So that that's something that's given to us by the state is increasing about 21%. So, what does this mean? Overall, the estimated tax impact on a 6.06 tax levy increase um the average
assessed home value that was given to us by the CFO um is $481,500. So, the impact on taxes overall, including the tax levy increase um and the tax levy incentive increase is for
the average homeowner going to be $7,999.37 annually. That's an increase of $4861 over this year. Any questions? So, we'll open it up to questions or comments. Uh thank you so much. Quick question on
sorry get back to the slide on the expenditure slide. Nope sorry on the yes on the expenditure slide the total supplemental at risk instruction decrease of 7.12% is specifically due to the um removal of the
reading support. It's actually um that I have a note that it's actually due to the reduction of the one Irving interventionist that was dig that's how is it that student transportation decreases how do we how do we get a
decrease in student transportation service so we we have less students going out of district however the cost of sending those students out of district has increased So, the the transportation, we're projecting a 5% increase, but we were
able to um have some savings like of $80,000 um in transportation. So, that resulted in a negative 2% I think. I just can't stop looking at that 21% increase to transfer funds to charter
schools. Yes, me too. Yeah, that's our highest percentage increase. Yes, we have we're projecting 23 students attending charter schools next year. I will say one of the things we do
require every year is residency um uh reports from uh our charter. So every year instead of them rolling over in our student information system year to year, uh they don't roll over and they have to come and always show proof of residency every year. Um that's something we try
to do to mitigate um to make sure that they are actually living in Highland Park. Um so sometimes we're able to catch a couple here and there that uh that that don't because they don't bring their their documentation or they're not residing in Holland Park. So we try to do things to to help mitigate it. But
um yeah, it is% it is. I do believe though a couple of I know a couple local charters that have closed uh due to low enrollment. So I think there's this fluctuation you know happening. So I mean all we can do is hope that we can offer a better product.
No that's you know that increase is due to uh to an increased number of students or the or the cost per student or a little bit of both. I think it's number of students. Yeah, each charter school charges differently
and twice a year Lori works with Jodie Parsons to confirm the number of students. Um, all the charter schools have a deadline to submit their student names um twice a year in the fall and October and around this time of year.
And then Jod and Lori work together to diligently go through the list to make sure that they are resident and um that they do meet all of the requirements. And then once it's um certified, then the state um issues the cost. Um but
they also project they also tell you what you have to project for the next year. Okay, with no other questions or comments, um that completes my report. So now we can go on to um the public hearing. All right. So this public
comment is specific to the 2025 2026 budget. The Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments on the 2025 and 2026 budget only. Board policy number 0167
establishes and regulates the right of the public to participate in public meetings. There's nobody in person. So, Angela, how many people do we have online? 16. If there's anybody for public comments on the budget, please
raise your hand. Okay, I'm just going to say it one more time in case people are, you know, listening and doing things and, you know, washing dishes, whatever. Um, if anybody online is here for public comment on the budget, uh, please raise
your hand and Angelo will help you come off mute. All right. And with no hands raised, we are closing the 2025 2026 budget public comment. You have to read it all. That's great. Okay.
So, now we are going to move approval of the 2026 20 I'm sorry 2025 2026 district budget. Um I move 12A. The resolution is written
in its entirety. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but um the resolution basically covers everything that Denise went over in detail. Um so I'd like to move 12A. Dr. Batty, yes. Miss Cassell Dunn, yes.
Dr. Coleman, yes. Is Dr. Pixley online? Miss Cruz? Yes. Dr. Schoolman? Yes. Miss Staniel? Yes. Miss Bardman? Yes. Miss Gourney. Yes. Okay. We are now moving to regular
public comment. So this can be on any um so the public Heiden Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has has reserved this time of your comments. Um if anybody online has a comment for general public comment,
please raise your hand and Angelo will let us know and unmute you. Okay. And with no hands raised, we are going to close that public comment. We're now going to move to board committee reports and recommendations. Um, Dr. Batty, you're first with
curriculum and instruction. All right. um curriculum instruction had an offline meeting because we met on the day we usually did um with another budget meeting and then uh twothirds of the committee were traveling for work.
Um so uh we had an agenda sent out and and could ask questions. Um so we we um on the agenda was a bookshelf grant. Uh this is a partnership with the SPAN uh parent advocacy network. Um and uh
they'll work with us to conduct a brief pre-ervey about um parental engagement around literacy, host workshops for both parents and teachers on early literacy and crosscurricular um connections. Uh and award a $500 grant to implement an
action plan which can include purchasing books, games, literacy um materials and so forth. Um we also uh the schedule B committee also recommended the creation of the Spanish club. Um and so that was uh also
an agenda item. Um data analysis around the cell phone survey both with parents um and students um uh was there. And then finally, uh, field trip approvals, um, included a
century play at the state theater for students with special needs, visiting the Zimmerly Museum, tours for students who will transition to new schools in the fall, uh, and a dress rehearsal for the spring concert. That is it for
cook. Oh, um, well, you should stop for discussion or Okay. Um, oh yeah, okay. Um and so in terms of um voting items, uh we have
approval of the field trip requests that I just mentioned, uh approval of HID reports, uh approval of a number of uh job descriptions including assistant principal, supervisor of curriculum instruction, supervisor of counseling, health and wellness, athletic programs
and sports medicine administrator, um executive director of personnel, executive director of curriculum instruction, Um there's also an approval of aou with the college of New Jersey. Um that's around um a STEM fellowship
that's funded by the NSF Robert Noise um teacher scholarship program. Um and finally approval of home instruction uh students. So there's three students and that's it. Any questions? Okay. Um, equity and excellence. No
update at this time. We'll be meeting uh next week. All right. Finance and facilities. We met seems like an awful long time ago because we meet again next week. Um, we met back on April the 8th. Um, mostly everything that we talked about is now
um part of this final budget. We talked at that time about the tax levy and the changing of the budget and so forth. I'm not going to go into all that because we got the results of that. Um the only other pieces that we talked about at that meeting, um we had the
facilities project update, baseball field work is underway. At that point, gates and fencing had been installed. Once the season is over, the rest of the work will be done. Once the our sports season is over for our students, um at that point, um things probably have
changed, but um for the greenhouse, bids were coming in too high. We have a total of $200,000 in total to complete the project. So, John's been working on figuring out how to how to make that happen, but right now kids were coming in too high. Um, and and at that time,
he spoke about that the foundation repair work around Irving School was going to happen over spring break uh to excavate to get the water to stop the water that's coming in there. Um we also had at that point
um a report from our afterchool program um and uh Colin comment at that time we've learned more since that the subsidy application process was moving very slowly um at that point we had um
15 subsidy agreements I don't know that we've had very many more since then we also spoke at that point and I shared with the board my minutes earlier that the afterchool program is working. We've come to learn it's working at a significant deficit because of the hiring that was needed to be in
compliance to get licensed by the state. Need to hire considerably more staff and that has um impacted um that put us into a deficit. We did earn the licensing that we intended to do um but we now realize it's come at a cost of about
$200,000 in employees in salaries basically. Um so Dr. Cesca and Mr. Rosa have been uh looking for ways imple implementing ways to try to mitigate our loss as much as possible including you'll see on the agenda that will remain the assistant manager position um
and they've been working along with Colin to try to do what they can to get the county to move more quickly in approving these subsidies. If the subsidies were to be approved that would certainly help our bottom line but that's not not happening. is both coming
in slowly and also a good percentage are not being approved for very for a variety of reasons. Um Mr. Rosa is working with our auditors to discuss the options to cover the deficit that we have for that program right now. Uh including we do have some
money in the retained earnings from previous years that we could potentially put towards this deficit. Um and then in addition in finance facilities and and follow-up meetings we're looking at other options. um for the future and how to sustain our before and after fair
program which is very important to us but um the options that we're looking at are consider considering to go out for a RFP and to consider once again to look for an outside uh program to come in and manage our afterchool program an outside
organization to come in and manage our afterchool program. We tried it two years ago. We decided to at that time keep it in house. Um and um while that's we we've accomplished quite a bit in those two years in terms of getting licensed in terms of getting
having a program where students are safely supervised with staff that's trained, it's we're learning now it's coming at a significant financial cost as well as a cost to um district administrative time and resources. So um we're still looking at the RFP
possibility looking at uh the issue of raising rates the cost and benefits of the licensing you know that we thought was was um very important and now we have to review the cost and analyze that with the benefit of licensing. So um so
that's all coming under has come through finance and facilities and uh through the board in general with more more to come on that. And on the agenda tonight we have the approval of our bill list
um travel related reimbursement. Um uh we're voting on the contract for effective school solutions to provide professional development for our prior professionals. Oh, actually they did this. This is a retroactive pay on that one. Um other professional
services um including a pre-prom assembly speaker, some pass through um professional development um and for ourselves a clinic with the middle school band, the lead you
workshop um and a group to uh help us with bilingual evaluations for child study team. We also have on our agenda the approval of a safety grant application that we received an amount of
$2,400. Um and I believe that was kind to go towards uh after school security support I think for some of our after school public programs. Yeah. Um acceptance of um the sustainable Jersey uh grant for schools uh for $2,000 for
Bartle. Um some other non-public pass through uh technology purchases for um for one of our proial schools and another one there's two of them technology purchases that's uh seven and eight we have uh out of district tuition
for a McKenna Vento student this was um back from 2223 the South Brunswick um has sent us the bill for um a bedside instruction for one student um and we had a
um a bid for the Bartlett School bathroom project that that came in too high. So, this is to uh reject that. Number 11 is to reject that um proposal. And number 12 is a master
special education tuition agreement with the Ed Services Commission for um five years going forward. Um some other we have we thank very much the Highland Park Educational Foundation uh for all these grants for our school district. Um it's a lot of
wonderful opportunities are providing our students including our outdoor education um some clubs you can read through the list peaks and helping out with peak peaks and val valleys mentoring a lot of our important lot important diversity and
wellness day. So we thank them very much for uh supporting our programs. Uh last we're coming to the approval of the proposal for the uh prek additional prek classroom while altering cafeteria at Irving.
Um and we have the we have this is a proposal for the architecture right for that it's architectural services for the for that alteration. And um number 15 is the uh bid for the Bartle uh structural repairs and that
one is $1,417,000 uh to uh get that work finally done. So that is finance facilities. Are there any questions or comments? Okay, move right on. I did a great job, I guess.
Okay. Um, and I will go over the personnel agenda items. Um, so number one for personnel is the approval of reduction in force. This is for following positions. um one behaviorist, one reading interventionist
at Irvate, one seal health teacher at Bartle Elementary, and then one athletic coordinator at the high school. Um numbers two through six are non-renewal of employees. Number
seven is a non-renewal for reduction and force. Number eight, you will see um attached to the agenda a very long list of reappointments for the following year. Um so that is for reappoint of
staff. Number nine or is for the leave of absences as listed. Number 10 is approval of resignation. So we have um John McClean, um Jennifer Rosley,
Janet Barren, Chelissa Hazen, Michelle Duca, Michelle DeMarco, D'vorah Dieter, and Dana Kessle. Thank you for your time here. Um we have number 11 is the approval of some appointments. So, welcome Miss
Thomasino for our art teacher at Burle. Um, we have a new occupational therapist, Julianne Pieros. Um, a learning disabilities teacher consultant. Um, Nicola Ska. Um, Mr. Robinson is sticking with
us for a little bit for some extra support in central office. Um, Mr. Prey is with band camp this summer. Uh, with Bayer for teen treatment and a few other staff for teen treatment. Miss Gerlock, Miss Claremont, uh Amber Davis, April
Tyler. Um Miss Young is a onetoone profess power professional at the middle school. Um extra compensation for track and field. Wendy Jagger um for the bilingual parent advisory committee night presenter. Um some coverage for AP
exams from our guidance staff. Uh Mr. Behringer also to assist onetoone parah for um orchestra the middle school. Um some volunteers for newcomer family night. Very excited about that.
So thank you for volunt uh for coming to work that newcomer family night. And then number 12 is the approval of transfers. Um, so Miss Claremont is uh going to be transferring to the reading interventionist borrow elementary school
position in September. Miss Naiden and to the uh elementary classroom, Mr. Gervin is the full-time teacher of social studies at the high school and Michelle Daly as the teach uh teacher in Irving Primaries. And those are for September. And number 13 is the
appointment of the 2025 2026 doctoral master's level psychology practicum students for the teen center. And those students are listed on the next page A through H. We're very excited to have you as
well. Okay. Um for policies and regulations, we have one policy regular uh ready for first read. Um this is the public policy that we were um revising to include remote participation of board
members. Um then we also have two policies for and regulations for second reading student smoking spectator conduct for intelle scholastic events and then the regulation for students smoking as well. And that concludes personnel and policy.
So we will now proceed to a our third public comments I find it. Okay. So the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and reserved at this time for your comments. Angelo, how many people do we
have online? 10. Okay. Anybody online for public comment, please raise your hand and Angelo will let us know and you can unmute yourself and share. And with no hands raised, we're
going to close public comment. Okay. Now we'll move to board action items. Curriculum of instruction. Uh I move items 1 through five. Second.
Dr. Bey. Yes. Miss Cassaldon. Yes. Dr. Coleman. Yes. Miss Cruz. Yes. Dr. Stoman. Yes. Miss Staniel. Yes. Miss Bardman. Yes. Miss Vorhei. Yes. Uh finance and facilities. I move items
1 through 15. Second. Dr. Batty, yes. Miss Cassald Dunn, yes. Dr. Coleman, yes. Miss Cruz, yes. Dr. Schoolman, yes. Miss Stanium, yes. Miss Bartman, yes. Miss Borhe, yes.
For personnel, I'd like to move numbers 1 through 13. Second. Dr. Batty, yes. Miss Salun, yes. Dr. Coleman, yes. Dr. Pix, oh, sorry, Miss Bruce, yes. Dr. Solman, uh, I'd like to
abstain on two through seven and vote yes on the rest. Sorry, Miss Staniel. Yes. Miss Bartman, yes. Miss Vorhee, yes. And for policies and regulations, I move
number one and two. Second. Dr. Batty. Yes. Sorry. Miss Cassell Dunn. Yes. Dr. Coleman. Yes. Miss Pruce. Yes. Dr. Schoolman. Yes. Miss Daniel.
Yes. Minman. Yes. Miss Vorhees. Yes. Okay, that concludes our action items. Are there any boards leazison reports for today? So, Oh, good. Okay, so the human relations committee or commission
has been very busy this spring and there are a number of exciting events and opportunities. Um, there are three fraising events coming up in June. Uh June 4th is the Caribbean American Heritage Month flag raising at 6 pm. Uh June 11th is the Pride Month flag
raising at 6 PM and June 19th is the Junth flag raising at 5:00 p.m. All of these events will be held outside at the Highland Park Community Center, rain or shine. Uh there's may be an opportunity in the works for our artistic students. Um, the commission's considering
revisiting the completion of the the gratitude tree that was started last spring and summer. Um, and if they can find a location, they're asking if there are any students who would want to volunteer to paint a mural. Um, and I'll keep you all posted on that. Uh, the commission is committed to promoting
cultural awareness through monthly features on their social media page highlighting the diverse communities within our town. If you have cultural traditions, stories or events that are often underrepresented, please reach out to the human resources commission. Um the
commission would love to help share and celebrate them. Um the commission's also seeking more volunteers to join the commission. So if there are any teachers, staff, parents, I'm not sure about students yet, but I did ask and I will find out and and make that more public. Um, if anybody wants to
volunteer, reach out to the com the commission chairs, uh, Pauline and, um, Dr. Moyesa. Um, and their email is HRChpo.com. I'm also going to give all this information and flyers to Dr. Seuss because she should put it in our um,
board bulletin and weekly um, weekly message. And um also if anyone wants to join the next meeting for the human relations commission, it's May 21st at 7 7:30 p.m. via the Google link on
hpbro.com. And if you have any ideas you'd like to present to the commission or want to volunteer but cannot officially join the com the commission, your voice is also encouraged and welcome. That's all. Thank you. Any other liazison reports? I have a report
from the board of health. um they shared this with the burough council but thought that the school community might be interested in the measles vaccination coverage just so we'd have an idea of how that's going in New Jersey and also in Highland Park. Um so they have coverage rates from 2023. I guess it's a
little behind on accuracy there but um for the MMR which is measles mums and reubella the vaccine rate among children in kindergarten um in the United States was 92.7%. in New Jersey was
93.2%. Um, and then just the general vaccination coverage for all vaccines for children in kindergarten, that gets a little bit more local. Middle Sex County was 95.6% and Highland Park was 92.9%. So, just some info. Um, and then
there was also just a question from student congress. Um, they asked about how the vape alarms are going. They said for the from the students perspective, they seem to not be very effective. That's the comment from the students. So, um I don't know if we can speak to
that at all if we if we've heard anything about the vape detectors in general, if they've been working well, not. But that was I don't know, but we have a safety committee meeting tomorrow, so we can ask for updates tomorrow. Thank you. Okay. Um Dr. Dr. Pickley's not here, but
um the CPAC fundraiser is June 13th. Um at Penos, uh it starts at 5:30 with video game contests and then 6 o'clock is honoring special education heroes and then at 7:30 is music. So save the date
for CPAC fundraiser. Again, it's June 13th. Um and then I think that's it for these reports. Yes. Okay. um president's report. Um we are almost at the end of our cycle for central leadership team
meetings. So at our next meeting, we should be able to pro provide you with an update on um our discussions around the cell phone policy um and uh and regulations and thinking about what we're doing. So basically what's been happening is we looked at the data from
our surveys. Um we've been talking with um the representatives from school leadership teams that are on the central leadership team. They take back our discussions, share it with their staff, then they come bring the information back to central leadership team. So, it's a bit takes a little bit of time.
Um, but our next meeting is coming up. Um, and so we should have a consensus on how we'd like to move forward. Um, so stay tuned for our next meeting in what is it like two weeks. Basically, two weeks. And then for uh board committees, uh what you'll see are updates. Not as
much the policy so much as the regulation. Um when we when I looked at the wording of the policy, it didn't seem like anything should be adjusted. It's the regulation that needs to be adjusted. So um that's what we're doing as part of that central leadership school leadership team work. So once
that is all um inputed in there from the recommendations, it will go through committee uh for review um and input as well. Um so we're we're we're close one more meeting and I think we'll have it locked up and then it can go through committee. The hope is that it'll go through first and second read between
June and July. That way in August the shared messaging can go out. Uh we have a whole communication rollout plan as well as part of all of this. So all of that will be discussed in committee and then shared publicly. Um so that when that comes out um you know we'll be able
to be uh full speed ahead with any implementation and changes to that policy and regulation for a September start. We are close. We are very very close and it's very exciting. Okay. Um any old business? Um yes. So
sorry I just had a two quick questions. Um first on the athletic coordinator position of a high school, could you kind of provide what's happening with that or where the responsibilities are going to go? Sure. So what we found was that um in a like I said a deep dive
into the budget um the position itself so there's a lot of moving parts. So, there are pieces of if you've read the I don't know if you read the job description for the I gave it a nice title and now I have to remember what it is. Hold please. So many of your things. Yes. Um
athletics programs and sports. Yes. Athletic programs and sports medicine administrators. So, what you'll see is several different things under there. So, we have an athletic coordinator who essentially now is part-time. So part-time basically managing all the athletics and then um a couple
miscellaneous things and and then um uh teaches part-time some of the issues because that staff member is part of a collective bargaining agreement. It really limits the position on what they can do. So right now the principal so the the job is actually divided up
amongst several people. So, the middle school principal, the high school principal, the athletic coordinator, faculty managers. There's a schedule B position called faculty manager. And so, there's a couple of people that get approved to do that because our athletic coordinator is also a wrestling coach in
the winter and can't get to do everything. So, divides up the job into a bunch of other people that we pay as well to do that job. Um and then uh some of the nursing and all of that work falls under the current job
description of director of um ed services. So there's a lot of moving parts. Um it was brought to our attention from that program that they need more support because the couple of people that run all of that is not
enough. Um, so and of course when job descriptions are updated, it's a collective bargaining agreement situation. So we have to renegotiate what that amount is. Um, and so when we had gotten a deep dive into that with the feedback that we heard that people
um, I can't really discuss much in personnel, but some of the feedback we got was that there's just some burnout from that position um, and from what is really needed for it. So, in addition, we heard um we've had to hire several athletic training groups because they
are not servicing our students and our student athletes. And that's really disheartening. Um you know, when we look at things, if you go to our website, some of our stuff is outdated and antiquated and it's just a lot. Um and to have more people do this job, it just
didn't seem fiscally responsible. Um, so when we were looking at making some adjustments to the leadership team, um, part of it came out of this uh, role when I did some uh, research into other districts that they have this new combined role of athletic trainer because we can't ever hire a full-time
athletic trainer. It'd be very hard to find a part-time athletic trainer. So, what we're doing is morphing it together. So, we will have So, we're going to be looking for someone very specific, needle in a haststack, but I'm very confident that we're going to be able to find that position. So essentially it's somebody who will have
the degree and um qualifications to be a certified athletic trainer that also wants to do program administration work you know with scheduling the buses and doing the athletics and athletic programming and and you know and then that way they can do the work on the physicals. They can be the coordination
to our district doctor, work with the nurses, make sure our AD machines are updated, right? All of that, the sort of medical background is sort of paramount. And then, you know, of course, administrating um you know, all of the athletics and stuff like that. So, that was sort of the impetus of of trying to
figure out how we can better um within our really tight budget, how we can better service the students. And we thought that would be a really good model. So, we're really excited about that to really move our athletics, you know, in a forward thinking position. So, it kind of came out of a lot of
different conversations. Thank you. You're welcome. And I've been excited. I would hope that maybe there's some athletes in the room that might want to serve on a committee to hire uh for that position. So, if anybody's interested, email ksusa hbschool.net and we'll put you on the
committee. Any other new business? I'm sorry, old business. Okay. and do business. I just want to take a moment to thank uh Christina and Denise for the credit and their staff for the incredible amount of work it took to get this uh budget together. The tax levy alone was we
think we had a two week they had like a twoe turnaround from the time it was we came out three weeks maybe a tremendous amount of work and now we are fortunate enough to be able to do a lot more um with our district this year because we have that additional money and uh and in general it was an incredibly comp
complicated budget. I can't understate it by saying that. So, thank you for all your hard work and your teams as well um for getting us here. Second. Thank you. Okay. Um I move I move to ajourn.
Second. All in favor? I thank everyone.