How are you? I'm good. How are you? What I mean? Hello. >> So, what is it? >> Two and a half. And then I got that. You know, we didn't have one of these at science fair that I made out of spatula.
>> Thank you for your patience. A little technical difficulty we're working out here, but I'm going to call the meeting to order. We have a roll call, Mr. >> Miss Carter. Miss uh Dr. Jenny
>> uh Mr. Peters >> present. >> Dr. Resnik >> present. >> Mr. Slotman >> Dr. Stelliano >> here. >> Miss Williams Galliano >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Wonderful. Thank you.
The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of the
act, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by uh the Hopewell Valley, I'm sorry, the meeting published having the meeting date, time, and place thereof communicated to the
Hopewell Valley News, the Times, and the Tronian on January 29th, 2026, and February 26, 2026. This meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon Fios.
Please join me in the flag salute. >> I aliance 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.
I am going to forego my presence report for comments later, but invite Dr. Trice to make a um report. Can I get a first and second before Dr. Teresa's report to approve minutes?
>> So move. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed or abstaining? >> Seeing none. I I do have a quick report that I want to give, but we have a number of student presentations tonight. Um, we have some
performers that I'm going to invite. Um, Mr. Umstead up, I believe, is going to introduce him or a teacher. We're going to figure out who's Okay, so we're gonna have Mr. um, White. Just a moment, Mr. White. I'm going to get right to you. And you're blending in with the kids. I didn't see you back there for a minute.
And then we also have um our student representatives report. And I believe we have some other students that are here to speak to us tonight. I want them to be able to go first because the meeting can be very long and I know that you all have some important things to get to this evening. So, with that being said, I'm going to hold my report and we're
going to ask um Mr. White uh to come to the podium, please. Good evening, members of the board, administration, those here and watching at home, and especially to the singers in the Central High School choir program. I've had the privilege of
teaching choir at this school for 11 years, and hope choir is my career, my passion, and quite often my home away from home as we compete, travel, and present dozens of events each year. This choir program is a place of rigor, expectation, and commitment. And it's
also a place of love, support, and expression. I feel fortunate because the arts bring the world from the outside in to our classroom every day in every lesson. The words and notes and the stories behind the creation of our songs belong to composers and cultures from
all over the earth. But when students step outside of their daily environment, and navigate unfamiliar places, hear a different language and experience and understand the world, it makes them into a much deeper person. Bringing the singers of Hopewell Valley to historic
and important places is one of my passions as an educator. Each location is ingrained in our collective memories. We've shared our voices everywhere from elementaryaries here in Hopewell to Trinity Cathedral in Trenton, stages like the Grand Old Opry, the Martin
Luther King monument in Washington DC, and all the way to Basilica Santa Trinitita in Florence. The list goes on. Through these experiences, I've watched the students become independent, more empathetic, more aware of themselves and what they are capable of. And these are
not abstract benefits. These are lasting transformations. When I see alumni and their families, it is these exact travel experiences we reminisce upon most. For this particular trip to Italy, it took years of approval and planning and
$150,000 to fund the students who attended. The MTPA and choir families raised roughly 18,000 and applied for grants for an additional 10 to ensure all interested students could afford to attend. Many alumni donated. The
community supported our initiatives. Families believed in the goals and the impact of this experience will stay with these singers long beyond high school. Join me in celebrating these children, their courage, conviction, passion, and belief in what music and performance are shaping them to be in their lives. Help
celebrate them as bearers of our community's pride and excellence as they go abroad across the world and share their talents and humanity with whomever they meet or sing for along the way. and help me ensure that our Hopewell Valley community and school district know and
recognize that what we have done isn't ordinary, but rather extraordinary. >> Hi, my name is Elise Granzo and I'm a junior at Hope Valley Central High School. I want to thank the board of education for devoting time at tonight's meeting for myself and others to share
our experiences. HP Choirs had an absolutely astonishing time in Italy this past spring break. From the food to the culture to the concerts, the experience was life-changing. I have traveled abroad before with my family, but never in my life did I think I'd get to experience
it with some of my best friends and peers. It is one thing to travel, but it is entirely another to experience a beautiful country with people you share a passion for music with. I am of the opinion that everyone in their teenage or adolescent years should be given the opportunity to explore and discover the
world. School should be a place where this exploration is supported and encouraged whether it be local or international. I believe this because it gives an entirely fresh perspective on the way humans work, interact, and exist. These fresh perspectives can only often
be seen by seeing and experiencing new places. Equally, I believe that the ability to have traveled to Italy to sing was a once time once in a lifetime experience. Though I love to sing, I'm not pursuing it as my future career. So to be given the chance to sing in these beautiful churches was truly
life-changing. We even sang in a gorgeous shopping gallery in Rome unplanned because we simply wanted to just share the moment together. These are memories I shall never soon forget. Nowhere else in my life will I get the chance to travel internationally and sing with this group of people. I think
we've all learned so much on this trip, not just about art, music, and food, but about ourselves and each other. I will be eternally grateful for this opportunity, and I sincerely hope future students of HB Choirs will be given the same chance. Thank you.
Good evening, members of the board of education and to those watching at home. Thank you for supporting the choir program's trip to Italy. I have been singing choirs in this district since sixth grade. I am so grateful for this experience. It was by far the best trip
I've ever been on, and I wouldn't have gone on it without being part of the arts here in Hopewell. I had an amazing time singing in chapels, touring the coliseum in person, and making Italian pizza pizza in a restaurant in Rome. Learning about the culture was amazing,
and I loved walking around such historic places with my friends. This taught me a lot about other cultures and environments, which has impacted me as I come back to the US and see how we live here. Being someone who has never left the country uh before, I have never seen
all these different ways of life. It was really It was a really unique experience that I absolutely loved. As a choir, I think we learned so much by singing in different places. The acoustics in the churches allowed us to be much more in tune with each other and we improved greatly as a group. Thank you so much
for supporting this trip. >> So, we'll perform one song from our tour, something that the students really enjoyed. This is called Yumalo. It's a Latvian folk song. Please enjoy. You spiral. My
lord, you my lord. You my mother. You >> you got here another You are my you. You my lord. You my lord.
You my you my lord. You my lord. You my lord. You my lord. You my lord. My you You know you papa you
glory calling on Mary. You got you my Lord. You my Lord. You alone.
You alone. Thank you all for that incredible piece. Um, we're always excited to have our students join us and to share their talents. So, thank you and glad you're all home safely.
>> All right, moving on. Um, we're going to have our student representative for Miss Carvaline report. >> Is it on? >> Yeah. in the arts. Jersey and you just heard them about their
travels. We also celebrated our two wonderful vice Mr. Smith and Mr. your national assistant principal activities included a compliment challenge process and many shout outs to demonstrate how grateful we are for the leadership and commitment
to our school. Last Thursday we welcomed over 50 students for students enjoyed various activities including scout hunts arts crafts and additionally the HBCS environmental society hosted a successful brief
throughout the week students were able to participate in lunch and learn session which featured guest speakers and workshops focusing on sustainability and solution. They also built and planted our rain garden which we are proud to unveil on our HP students in AP environmental science and
yes club members dug and planted our fully functional garden. We are proud of all the hard work our students have chosen exams in the next week. We wish them luck on their exams and are looking forward to finishing their >> Thank you. Any questions or comments
from the rest of the board, please? >> So, I have a couple of questions. Thank you for your report. So, first of all, is this your last time coming here as a student representative? >> That's what I was thinking. So, I want
to thank you uh from myself. I'll let others think uh for doing a wonderful job. Um, I do have a question for you. One of the things we tried to start this year is to get you and I an opportunity to participate in some of our committee meetings. Did that ever come to fruition
for you during this year? >> Yes. I believe >> Okay, cool. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. I would love to see if you are available at the next meeting. We'd like to acknowledge both
of you. So, if you would come back and join us, we'd really appreciate it. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Thank you. So, we will see you one more time. Thank you. >> Okay. Now that we have our agenda straightened out, I am going to again
pass the baton to Dr. Theres for her report. Thank you. Um, but before I get into that, I'm going to do something a little out of order today. Um, normally we wait for public comment to happen. Um, we have a number
of items on the agenda tonight. Um, but I I think we have some elementary students here that wanted to make some public comment. And I don't want them to have to wait till the end of this meeting. As as wonderful and as riveting as this meeting is, I don't think my elementary students want to sit here until the end of it. Um, nor do their
parents necessarily. So, um, if if the board is okay with that, can we have uh anybody who's um an elementary student come up and make a statement if they have one? All right. Dear board of education and everyone here, why are you doing
this to me? I love it here at Bear Tavern. I also feel safe and happy here. I just moved here and we asked if we could just go to Hopewell, but you said that we had to go to Bear Tavern. But now you're telling me I have to go to
Hopewell. So please just leave me at Bear Tavern where my friends are, where Nico is, where I'm happy. If you make me leave, you are you are taking most of my happiness away.
Sincerely, Elanor. Do >> we have other students? No, there's no pressure. So, it just Do we Okay. Hope you guys don't mind. I'm gonna speak real quick. I'm Stephen Greer. I'm
a Bear Tavern parent. I'm not affected with the redistricting as far as like my children aren't being sent to another school, whatnot. Uh the district is awesome. Um whole reason we moved here. So, all the schools are fabulous. Seeing the choir perform just warmed my heart.
I can't wait till my kids do get into something like that. Uh so I just want to say that with the established families, if they could just please stay at at Bear Tavern and where they are because there the families have multiple children in there. Uh as you guys know,
this is a special place, special schools and um a lot of families bought houses for those specific schools. So, if we could just try to have them lead out their their educational career at the specific schools would be great.
>> They come to eat only one thing, >> especially if they have multiple children. Um Alice is this is my daughter Alice. She's in kindergarten. So, she's just concerned about friends that she's made moving off and
going to different schools. Um she wants to say something. So when she freestyles, I have no idea what's going to happen here. Um because I I told her that I was just speak to support the families in the community. >> I just want to say one thing.
>> All right. Say your one thing. >> I love Mo. >> Oh, okay. All right. So board families, thank you much. Have a wonderful day. >> Thank you so much. My name is CeCe and I'm in second grade
and I really want to stay at Bear Tavern because I've been there for like three years. That's great. Thank you. We are so sorry for all the feed sorry for all the feedback there on the mic.
We are so very proud of each and every one of you that spoke and then and for folks who may not have spoke. We know that your peers represented you well and we look forward to hearing what you have
to say as changes are made throughout the years of your career. We hope you always feel confident enough to come back and represent your opinion and your voice throughout your educational career here at Hopewell Valley. Anything you'd
like to comment on, Dr. >> Um, and I do I want to speak directly to the kids. Um, I am so proud of all of you and the high school students that spoke up in for the VPA and you all that came in here tonight and spoke up for your classmates. I am so incredibly proud of you. I would have never been
able to get up and do what you just did. Not even say a line of that. Even by the time I got to maybe maybe senior year, I might have been able to do it, but I'm telling you, much of my school career, I would not have been able to do what you just did. So, could you all give them just a round of applause? That was amazing.
You already have a skill that a lot of adults have to work on, which is self- advocating, which means you are able to stand up for yourself when you don't like something. And while the school district, you know, has to make changes and do things that we don't like to do sometimes, know that you are heard today
and that your kindness and your leadership is going to follow you wherever you go. And Nico can follow you wherever you go because he can travel. He does take his show on the road. Um, and almost all of our schools have therapy dogs. So, you're going to have new friends, new therapy dogs. Um, while
I may not be able to make everyone happy and get what you want, know that we're going to we are going to make sure that we're with you every step of the way. and we'll make sure that your friends can visit you and that you can see the people that you care about no matter what happens. So, I thank you again for coming. That was amazing and we hope
that you continue to come talk to us because it matters what you say. So, thank you. So, I'm going to go ahead. Yes, I'm going to right into Yes. Uh, can everyone hear me? I just won't touch it again. Okay. Thank you. I don't We don't
have the best mics and these are newer. Okay. So, go ahead and dive right in. Okay, so we have a very packed agenda tonight as as you all know. I want to apologize to you right up front that we did have some problems with board docs. That is the online platform that we use
and a lot of district use to house our agenda and all of the information that goes into a board meeting this evening. Um so we will be talking about the achievement report. We had that report officially. Um the board had some questions as did the community about our
performance at some of our schools. Um, Miss uh, Dr. Plites is going to give a follow-up presentation on that tonight. We have our final budget adoption uh, discussion tonight as well. In addition to all of the regular committee reports and the consent agenda and all the items
that need to be approved so that the district can pay our bills and and and adopt policy, revise policy, all of the things that we do to to manage the district. And then it's followed by an executive session with a very important staffing decision that we're going to discuss. Um I I know that those of you
who were able to peek at the board agenda agenda before the system crashed on us is that um we have a very important member that's sitting in the DES right now that's going to be leaving us here at the end of the the um the school year. Um so we need to talk about that that uh plan to replace that key
person which we'll talk about in personnel and I want to give that the full attention because it's worth honoring and we need to do that in the right way. So, I say all of that because I know that there are still some concerns out there about redistricting and about some of the safety uh things
that have occurred of late at the middle school and the high school. So, I'm going to just say some things upfront. Um, but I want to also say that we are going to be talking about these things in separate forms. One on the 6th and one on the 7th. the redistricting form
for and it's really intended for families who are affected by uh by the redistricting. Uh and those folks have already been contacted. Um those folks are the ones that we are inviting but anyone can attend. Don't think that I'm I'm deterring anyone from coming. Uh but these are some of the items that we will
share. Those students who are in those affected areas may stay in their schools if there is a program that is only offered in that school. We have child study teams. We have school nurses. We have counselors. We have duplications of almost all of our programs in all four
elementary schools and they're supported. That's IEPs, 504s, INRS plans, medical plans. We support those things and those principles are talking directly to your new principles. The counselors are talking to the new counselors and so are the child study team. We are fully equipped to support
most of those things. And we have programs that only exist in some of the buildings. Those students cannot move. and and part of uh how we've always operated is we try to maintain siblings as well um based on parents what they would prefer right because it's it's
tough sometimes managing kids across elementary schools when they need to access programming um so we make those accommodations and the child study team uh Miss Donardo Dr. Hoffman are working directly with those families. If you have a question about that, certainly reach out to your child study team and
your principal and we're working through those things on a case-byase basis. But if those students program is offered in the new school, those students will be moving to the new schools. Um, and we are going to continue to collaborate to make sure that students have tours as
you like before the end of the school year. The principles are contacting each one of those families that are moving to a new school. They're are going to be inviting you to those end of those year celebrations. If you want a tour to just come in, they'll make themselves available and that will be happening throughout the summer. The PTO's will
also be uh making themselves available to welcome you and to make sure that you feel welcome and part of that school community. Next slide, please. So th for those of you who can't attend this this webinar, I will record it. But for those of you who are here, I wanted
to just cover a few things. the district has a fiscal responsibility to manage enrollment. And throughout the conversations we had about the need to to um run a referendum to get ourselves more space, I I talked frequently about the need to redistrict and the levels of
redistricting that we needed to do based on whether or not we were able to pass a referendum and build and if we didn't. Throughout the last year, we have been doing micro redistricting and buses have been zipping across the district as people have been moving in and as class sizes hit the max at Bear Tavern at
Stonybrook and we always do this at Tollgate and we were moving kids across the district and we literally had buses zipping back and forth which was not efficient. We had and and it's costly. We had students that were on buses longer than they should have because of the way that students were coming into
the district and we didn't have the opportunity to redistrict in the middle of that fully. So, we knew that we had to do this and I I said many times that we had to do this and I tried to be as transparent as possible about that. So, the there's articles in the newspaper that exist there. you can go back and
revisit those webinars, but these discussions were had and they need to happen because I can't continue to support this financially and I also have a responsibility to not keep raising your taxes and we still have students that are moving here. So the numbers
that you saw for that drove our decisions a few weeks ago were the numbers set in time. We looked at the geography of the area, the bus routes, and how those routes need to run most efficiently. And this was done with a professional demographer who does this
work for a living and they've done this for other districts. So we did that work. We had our bus uh supervisors look at these routes with those demographers. We had our principal sit down and look at the different scenarios that we had of moving students geographically. One of the things that we required was that
all stu schools had a balanced number of enrollment as best we could. We looked at the geography where certain neighborhoods were. We looked at how could we consolidate and optimize our bus routes to not continue to add routes knowing that we must continue to add
them as more students move into this district in the existing development that is not full and in the anticipated ones which the demographer had access to that are predicted in both burrows. So those were what drove this decision. We didn't just kind of say we need this
many students. We looked at the geography and what is the minimal amount of moves we can make and make those move finally and not move people again. So that was the intent of the moves and that's how these decisions were made. Um we also needed to make sure that there
was equity in the programming that was offered in all of those buildings and if we couldn't move a program could the school itself accommodate those influx of students. So as we looked at certain scenarios, Tollgate can only take so many students, right? So we had to look
at scenarios that took a whole area. Tollgate can't bear that. We looked at those numbers and we said, "No, we can't put 90 kids in to tollgate. So that doesn't work." Um, so those are all the things that we looked at as we were making this decision. and those students that want to stay, can we accommodate
those students as well? In addition to making sure that it doesn't cause us to split more sections unnecessarily, meaning you've bumped my class size up to the point where I have to add another teacher, which costs money that we have not budgeted for, right? So, because it
might be a set number when the kids move in now, but as kids move in, if it hits 30, I have to split that class section. if there's certain number of special ed kids in there, I have to split that class se section and add a teacher. Right? So those are all things that go into come into play as we make this
decision. And then also that we need to be consistent and make sure that we're enforcing it equally. Right? So I know that folks are saying, well, what if we drove? What if we got our own bus? Yes. And then that still creates this class size inequity, which is what drove us to this decision in the first place that
community members were asking for multiple times during the referendum. They were like, "Are you going to look at redistricting?" And and really responsibly, we had to. Economically, we had to. We're going to have a a meeting tonight where we're going to adopt a
budget that is above what I want to have to bring to this community. If I were to just say we're not redistricting and everyone can stay or you can drive and I keep ballooning class size and I have to keep adding teachers, I have to raise that percentage on what I'm asking the taxpayer because I can't fund it if I
don't upfront plan for that money. That's where we are right now and we're already looking at a substantial impact on you. So that's those all those decisions are what went into determining the attendance zones, the equity, the transportation, the enrollment, the
impre the projected enrollment based on the demographers's work who oh by the way his final his last report was in 1% of what actually h happened after that. They gave us a really good prediction. So all of that I'm using and still not knowing kind of what's out here. So I'm
not moving kids again. if I could do my level best. It may get a little cramped, but we do have space coming. Fifth graders can stay if parents are willing to drive them, and we're working um with those parents whose students have special needs. So, any other questions
or conversation about that, I please encourage you to come to the May 6 um event. Um that will be a Zoom webinar. I will record it. um thank those of you who have been emailing me and that um redistricting um email address because we're collecting those questions and
we're going to also make sure that we cover those in the webinar for those who can't attend. I will record that and send it out. I'm not deterring you from making any public comment tonight, believe me. But I don't want you to feel like we don't care because you're stuck in a threeminut window and we're going to have to say you have two and a half
minutes. We have 3 minutes and there is a complete forum where you can have as many questions as you want and I'll stay as long as you want for that. Um, so I just wanted to get these things out there for those who are already here and maybe can't come to that. I just want to um jump in here and
recognize that the district has created a giant puzzle and in any any effort to piece all of our amazing families and pockets of
neighborhoods together in a meaningful way and keep our kids cohesive. They're they have done a herculean job honestly in and really keeping our kiddos at the heart of it. Um you know we know change
is hard and we know that you know we're we're looking at everybody all at once while trying to focus on individual kids and individual families. So recognizing it's not comfortable to change, but
again acknowledging the work that the district has taken to piece this together. Everybody is not going to be 100% happy and our job as parents is to work with uh the district to help our
kids adjust. We have an amazing group of administrators in every single one of our buildings and they are excited to invite our new kids and to um help them work through the process of change. So
just want to again acknowledge the work it took and accept also that there is some disappointment throughout the community. So, thank you um for working with your kids to help them navigate what might be an adjustment in the in
the coming year. >> U the other um issue I wanted to touch on was the um middle school um high school lockdown. Again, I've created an in-person forum for this one that will happen on Thursday the 7th. Um, I didn't want more much more time to pass before you were able to talk to your middle
school, high school principal. The police chief will be here as well um to answer any questions. And this will be held in the high school, not in this room. It'll be in the pack. Um, all the rooms were booked and quite frankly, the pack is much more comfortable. So, that's where we're going to be holding that um session. Um, and I just wanted
to touch on these things while you're here in front of me tonight. Um, the district does not go into lockdown unless something serious has occurred. and there's a real strong suspicion of something, whether it's an environmental issue in here, something with our building, or something we're concerned about that might be a threat to our
students and staff. Um, when a investigation is ongoing, we're not going to release as much information as the community would always like. And this is a still an open investigation to try to determine what that item was, how it got into our school, that item that that wasn't found in the school. We're
trying to determine how it got there. And so, that's ongoing. In an emergency, we will not answer phones or emails or the door because we are in a crisis situation and we are worried about our students and staff and trying to manage something that we are not sure in what direction it's going to go in and people
may be in danger. So, that's not something that we can do. We can't respond to your phone calls, emails, and I'm going to do my level best to try to communicate with you as quickly and as as efficiently as possible while also navigating the police's direction on
what I can say and what information I can release. We did find a glitch with our communication system. 98% of my emails to you all, and I have over 4,000 contacts between here and the middle school went out. They went out anywhere from five minutes to 20 minutes
depending on, you know, just your server, your service, my service, all of that. And we're working through that. In terms of the text messages though, I only had a 71% rate of delivery. Um, as we're doing the analysis with the folks that provide us
our platform that sends out these messages me messages to you, a good portion of that is parents that have gone into our system and turned off notifications because I know we email and text you quite a bit with the Friday focus with principal newsletters, all of
these things. Some folks have either inadvertently or on purpose turned those off. It also turns off your emergency messages from me. Um, we have some of you may have uh blocks on your phone that don't let unidentified callers come through. So, if you haven't programmed
the school number in there, then you're blocking the call. Some of those were the ones that dropped. So, we're during our um presentation, I'm going to have information for you and sheets that will walk you through how to do that. There's an app that you can download from Apple
Apple App to G that will go around all of that where I can push out a new um a notification directly to your phone and there's something you can text to your phone to just open that up for your phone. So, some of this are things that we can work through in the future. Um, but again, I want to make sure that you
come to that meetings because we're going to talk about what we do in an emergency, how you can expect to receive communications, and there's layers of that, even if you're not getting my text messages and emails. Um, cell phones, because I know that's a question for parents, this the the new cell phone
mandate and what that means in this in the course of an emergency. Um, you know, whether or not we're going to respond to doors and all that. Um, I'm also going to talk about the security protocols and uh give you a quick overview of that and then discuss any questions that you have. This is not
going to be a recorded session because we're talking about school safety and I don't like to put that out there for the world. I just don't. So, you're welcome to come and anyone who can't come, please let me know and I'll set up a private meeting with you and I've already uh done that with some parents. So, u um as uh Bob puts up the form so
you can take a picture because I know I gave you a lot and I'll send email reminders out as well as um we will be sending a questionnaire because unlike the redistricting email address where I'm collecting questions. I don't have that mechanism set up for the middle
school and high school. I do have a Google doc that I'm going to send out so that you all can share your questions ahead of time and then also we'll have an open mic where you can you can share some questions the night of. Um, but I did want to say that I wanted to acknowledge tonight that, you know, you're carrying a lot with you as you
come in this room. Um, we don't live in a vacuum. The world is under a lot of pressure right now. Uh, between the conflicts that are going on globally, the things that have happened over the weekend that we saw happening at the correspondence dinner, you know, there's
the the way that uh the economy is, the the extra pressure of bills and all of that that exist on all of us. And then you have the pressure of this lockdown. You have the pressure of redistricting and having to navigate that with your children. There's a lot that you are carrying as parents. And we hear you and
we feel it and we carry that with you into into this work that we do. I also want to validate the the that um that as these costs rise and the talk of pilots and payments in lie of and all of this and the local water piece and then we're talking about the budget tonight. This
is a lot and I know that we are here with you and here to support you as best we can. Any decisions we make as difficult as they are, we do on behalf of all the students. And I'm thinking about all of my children, all 3,500 of them. And I was there with you as was my
leadership team who was in those buildings with your children making sure they were safe and not knowing if they were going to walk out and return to their families. We take that very seriously and I'm grateful that you trust me with that work. And so I know the world can be a scary place, but
we're here to support you and we know that you're here and you're with us, too. And I continue to appreciate you collaborating with me, you bringing your suggestions and feedback. You even yelling at me when you're not happy. I have I take it all in because this is an
amazing community and I came here because um I knew it was a good place and you just prove again and again that it is a good place and I know you're going to continue to challenge me and I might have to sell say something that you don't agree with and I understand that and know that I appreciate that and
I want to continue to have that collaboration with you and I thank you for for being there for your kids. So that's that's my report. >> Thank you Dr. trace. With that said, we're going to go ahead
and move on to uh supporting our schools report with Dr. Pitis. Hi everybody. Um, we want to take time tonight to ensure our community has a clear and accurate understanding of recent reporting and how it connects to our
district data and work moving forward. Is it okay this sound? Okay. Um, our goal is transparency, helping our community understand both the reporting and the full picture behind the data. Throughout the last few months, we have been talking about a recent NJ.com article that was published. We did a
deep dive into our gaps and had supervisors and principles attend the ed program seal committee to talk about their analysis and next step. This presentation is essentially a collaboration of the all the presentations that were presented on this topic.
Bob, the NJ.com article presents information that is technically accurate but somewhat incomplete without context. What's often missing in public reporting is how heavily rankings depend on comparison rather than actual student
performances. Two schools can improve at the same time and one can still drop in rank. That nuance is critical as we interpret the results. Bob, what's important here is not just what is measured, but how it is combined.
Because everything is converted into percentiles, we are essentially being ranked against every other district in the state on each measure measure. That means our outcomes are influenced not only by our own performance but by shifts across the entire state. This is why we place equal emphasis on internal
data when making instructional decisions. This is where misinterpretation often occurs. A change in ranking does not necessarily indicate a meaningful change in student learning. For example, a cohort with slightly different needs or performance patterns can impact
growth scores. Additionally, because this is a single-year snapshot, it can mass consistent multi-year progress. That's why we always look at trends over time rather than isolated events. When we step back and look at the full picture, what we see is a district that
is performing well and consistently preparing students for the next level. Our strength lies not just in outcomes, but in the systems we have in place, strong core instruction, aligned curriculum, and a focus on foundational skills that carry forward into more
advanced coursework. At the same time, this analysis helps us pinpoint where growth is not keeping pace relative to other districts. That distinction matters. These are not areas of weakness in isolation, but areas where improvement needs to accelerate.
Identifying these trends allows us to be targeted and strategic in our response rather than broader reactive. I'm going to focus on two buildings within the district and those were identified with an overall lower score as compared to the other buildings.
To better understand what's driving these results, we conducted a deeper review at the building level, starting with Timberlane Middle School. This allows us to move beyond surface level data and examine specific instructional patterns. Overall, our students have a strong
foundation in reading and analysis. This is a major positive. As standards become more rigorous, the work shifts deeper to I'm sorry, the work shifts toward deeper thinking and synthesis, which is an area of growth. While growth indicators may fluctuate, internal benchmarks show
meaningful progress in key grades. The benchmarks we use assess grade level reading. Strengthening our interdisciplinary reading is the first step to strengthening our reading and argumentation skills. The percentages noted on this slide are from the fall and winter benchmark and represent the
percent of students who are scoring at or above grade level. So, for example, in our winter benchmark from seventh grade this year, out of the 254 students tested, 68% of them are at or above grade level. And to just to give you
some comparison, the national comparison for this benchmark is 64,000 students and 42% are at or above grade level. There will be a final benchmark that will be be administered in the May time frame. Dr. Pankos, the supervisor of English
language arts, has identified key areas to focus and strengthen in the coming year. Her instructional actions include continue with internal benchmarking, collaborating with teachers to engage in meaningful data analysis to drive instruction, promote instructional strategies that promote student
engagement and sensemaking, and provide teachers with professional development opportunities along with discussions with other grade levels to ensure all standards are taught with fidelity. In math, the data tells a slightly different story. Students are able to
perform procedures and solve problems, but we are continuing to push toward deeper conceptual understanding, specifically ensuring students can explain why their solutions work, not just derived at the correct answer. That distinction is increasingly emphasized
in state assessments. Our data shows that students are strong in foundational math skills, particularly computation and procedures. However, state assessments require students to go beyond getting the correct answer. They must explain the reasoning, apply concepts in new situations, and solve multi-step
problems. In response, we are shifting instruction to focus more on conceptual understanding and mathematical reasoning. We are also increasing the use of open-ended multi-step tasks and aligning instruction more closely with the NJSLA expectations. These shifts are not just about testing. They reflect
best practices that support deeper understanding and long-term success in mathematics. To support these shifts, we are taking several targeted next steps. We are strengthening the use of our professional learning communities where teachers analyze student data and adjust instruction collaboratively. We are also
reviewing our curriculum to ensure key concepts are introduced early and reinforced throughout the year. In the classroom, we are focusing on tier one differentiation using small groups and targeted supports to meet student needs during instruction. And additionally, we are aligning classroom assessments more
closely with state assessment expectations. So students are regularly practicing these types of tasks. Overall, this is a coordinated systemwide approach focused on improving student outcomes. At Togate Grammar School, the focus is narrower but equally important. The data
points us specifically to writing as an area where we can strengthen consistency and growth. One of our key ELA priorities is written expression. We are focusing on strengthening writing instruction through consistent rubrics and meaningful student feedback. We are also
reviewing our curriculum and resources to ensure alignment with expectations and collaborating scoring across classrooms to ensure consistency and clarity in how student work is evaluated. As we bring this together, it's important to remember that rankings are
just one lens. Our focus remains on what is happening within classrooms and how we can continue to improve student learning experiences. Ultimately, this data confirms that our system is strong, but also highlights where we can refine our work. Our next steps are already underway and are
grounded in a consistent approach using data to inform instruction, align practices across schools, and provide targeted support where it is needed most. This ensures that we are not just responding to rankings, but continuously improving outcomes for all of our students.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Pitus. Are there any questions from the board at this time? I have a question. This this might be a question for tonight. It might be a conversation to have um in the committee
as well. That's also fine. Um first, I really appreciate this. I think this is a great presentation. I think you did a great job of highlighting so many of the strengths that we have in our academics while identifying areas that we can continue to grow. And I really appreciate that. Um I'm I'm wondering
right not as an educator but just from like the board member because we get right state testing results like once a year and it's of course by the time we get it right it's it's much later not because of us of course but because of the state. Um are there um more kind of
short-term indicators that we can also kind of look at that might give us more insight on kind of how this plan is working. Um yeah, thank you. >> Um so I don't know we there isn't one where we can compare like do short-term
evaluations to us to other districts like it's more like on an annual basis but that's why we are really um promoting the benchmarking three to four times a school year. So um we recently adopted at the in in ELA um common lit
and there is we are looking to put in a benchmark in place for math at the secondary level. >> Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Anything? >> Yeah. But to um Dr. Plitz's point, we are going to really struggle with this in the next year or two because this is
a new assessment they're rolling out. Um so I would just uh ask parents to be to be patient with it. Um you might get a score from out of this test that you that you don't expect to see that your child's performance. Don't be alarmed because when they roll these things out, they're glitchy the first time around.
I'm not sure what this adaptability of this test will look like for some students. Um, so, uh, be patient with it and know that your kid may be, um, if they underperform on it, it's not because necessarily they may not be just not used to the platform or the way they're asking questions. So, give yourself a year to kind of look at it
and see what kind of information we get from from the test when we ultimately get it. But, we do have lots of benchmarks in place to assess for these items because these are items that students continue to underperform. Um, and not just our district, but other districts. And yes, I can come up with
the right answer, but can I explain why I got how I got there? And additionally, they show them problems where somebody worked the problem incorrectly and they have to identify someone else's mistake or articulating their answer. Um, so that's some of the things that we can have to continue to work on uh with our
students. So what I just heard is the students are learning to work in a different manner because of the way the test is now being delivered and that the questions look different. Right? It's not just solve this problem.
It's looking at the problem and saying what might be wrong with it. >> Yes. And that this adaptable test they they're not even getting the same test item. So, the student might start out getting a question and and if I get if I get it right, I I won't get that may not get that question again. If Miss
Williams gets it wrong, she might get that question three more times to see if she really doesn't understand the question or did she just make a mistake. So, as that test rolls out, I'm I I want to see how it plays out and how they're going to compare students to students across districts. And, you know, will the platform function the way it's
supposed to? when we went to NJSLA the first time around or park they were calling it, it didn't work the way it was supposed to the first time around. Um, so we'll we'll see. And we have students nodding back there because they remember it was blowing up. So those test scores were not that that uh always that valid.
>> Thank you again, Doc. Sorry. Thank you again, Dr. Pites, for that additional information. And I know the um educate edcom committee will continue this dialogue throughout the the year. Okay, moving on. Um we're going to move
to the public hearing um for the budget. And in order to kick off that process, I'm asking for a first and a second to move into the budget adoption process. First, >> second.
>> Okay. >> All those in favor? >> All in favor? >> Any oppose or abstaining? Okay. Seeing none, presentation is the floor is yours. Okay. I'm going to just flow through
some of these. Uh these slides are not new. We've um gone through them a few times. So we've tried to consolidate as best we can uh in the interest of time because we have covered this budget presentations um and and I'll show you that timeline here in the next slide. Uh our mission statements drives everything
we do. That's why I had that there. It's okay. You can move to the next one. And this is a calendar of the budget discussions we've had um at the um when we adopted the tenative budget on March 27th. Um, we did this a more in-depth presentation than we'll do tonight, but
we are going to hit the main points which are uh the impact on the taxpayers and what's driving our decisions. We will cover those tonight. Uh, but if you want to look at that more deeply, we do have that presentation posted when our board docs gets back up and functioning. I'm certain that that will happen. But
we are now at April 27th where we are um having the public hearing and hopefully adopting a final budget um that we can send on to uh the executive superintendent for approval. >> These were our priorities. Um one that we wanted to reflect our students first
in our mission statement. Um we had many students tonight that that that expressed how important their school is to them, the trips, the the experiences they have as students. those are our priorities in in our inaining the maintaining the integrity of those
existing priorities was where we started this work knowing that some of those things we were going to have to let go but how little of that could we do that would not impact our students. Um so we looked at how we can obtain uh maintain those as best we can and many services
that we offer as possible. We wanted to keep that rigor in our academic programming that meets and exceeds most usually the the what the state expects of us. Um, we also need to make sure that we're covering the cost of revising or adopting new curricula that the state require and they give us little time to
plan for that and make those adjustments. We have to meet all of our contractual obligations. Those teachers that we have, our support staff that we have, our administrators that that um keep our buildings open and running the way they should. And then we also want to make sure that we're preparing a
budget that prepares us for the uncertain future. um meaning that you know we're we're taking care of those items that we need to take care of in terms of facilities um and also knowing that we don't know what the budget's going to look like next year. So we need to be very responsible this year and
think about what may happen next year. And why I'm bringing that up is sort of like using savings in the bank cap that we're able to squirrel away from this year which is getting a smaller and smaller pot. I may not be able to save or squirrel away that way that money from next year's budget because it's
getting very very tight and we have no room to say I'm shutting down the budget. If you didn't buy those supplies, you can't buy them now. If you were going to do something that didn't you didn't do spend that money yet, you can't spend it because we need to save that for next year. That's what we mean
by squirreing away money. It's not we have some money we're hiding. We we literally shut down the budget when things start to to run out and we say teachers can't buy anything, principles can't buy anything because we have to think about what's happening next year or even getting through this year. And we'll talk about why that is in the next
uh couple slides. So the things for now that we uh the board said are priority and that they did not want to let go of is the wraparound services that we provide to students and families. The district pays for and supports mental health support
services for our students here. And that is something that we we don't have to do, but we think it's a priority. We feel it's a priority. We didn't cut that or or make any adjustments to that spending right now. I don't know if I will be able to continue to do that, but as long as we can, we're all committed
that that's important as well as athletics and providing afterchool activities for our students. That is important that students have that connection to school. And as long as we can support that, we will. Again, not something that we have to supply to students and families, but that's not I I don't I wouldn't want my kids to
attend a district that didn't have those things. That's your performing arts, that's your clubs, all those things. The board was was wanting to retain those things as best they could. Teaming at the middle school, we feel, is very age appropriate and important for their learning experience. It is something
that a lot of school districts get rid of and it creates a climate issue at their schools. Um, so that's something that we we want to hold on to as long as we can to maintain the cultures of the school. Anything that we had in place for that, we wanted to keep that in place. And then also we wanted to
maintain the district integrity and the reputation that we have. You go around this state and Hopewell has an amazing reputation because of the programs that we have. However, we cannot continue to run programs that are under subscribed and this not this is not the first board
who has made that u a requirement of our leadership team. If there something has low numbers in it, we cannot continue to run it. So those are some of the things that you may see that have been called away and and has been reduced or may be reduced over time because we don't have the students showing the interest in it
and we really have to spend money where um we have the the largest number of students that that are taking it. So the reductions that we have agreed upon is eliminating or or phasing out under subscribed programs. Right? So, we want to make sure that students have their
requirements to graduate and if they started down a path with something, it is not going to go away before they meet their graduation requirements. We will make sure that happens. But if it's undersubscribed, we may be phasing things out and those things will be communicated to those students that it affects very clearly and they'll know
what their options are to make sure they complete their program and it will affect those new students coming up, not the ones that are already engaged in those things for graduation. Um, we're also going to be eliminating undersubscribed clubs. Um, the this this building and the middle school, not the
ones at the elementary school because those are paid for by parents anyway, but the ones that exist in the secondary level, the middle and the high school, you all have probably over 300 clubs floating around. That's that many clubs. So, if they're undersubscribed, there's two, three kids in them. I may not be able to run that anymore, right? So,
we're going to be calling those um based on sub, you know, who's in them. um reducing field trips that we pay for the the Italy trip is not something that the district pays for. What we do pay for however is um parents raise money for that. Students raise money for those
trips. What we do pay for is those students who can't afford it. Those students that have demonstrated financial, you know, need and then the district owns those. So we want to make sure that we continue to honor that because a student should not be excluded from something because their parents
simply you know can't afford something a trip like that and we have mechanisms for those parents to let us know. Controlling cost through class size uh meaning you know we used to like carry these 14 15 16 class sizes. We can't do that anymore because that's getting too
expensive. We can't manage it especially as we continue to grow. Reduction in workforce. So we have um eliminated some positions mostly through attrition retirements and people that are are not going to be brought back to the district or people who have resigned. Um that is
how most of those cuts have been made where you will not see from this district like 30 teachers cut or all these folks. We did not go about it that way. We tried to let most of that happen through the natural course of people retiring or are leaving us in other ways
and breakage teachers and staff members who are leaving us. And you're fortunate that you have staff that stay here for years and years and years. They're at the top of the pay scale. We're going to be hiring people that are not at the top of the pay scale. That is one of the things we're going to have to hold to as much as we can knowing that the pipeline
sometimes doesn't allow for that. But but fortunately, we just went on several um job searches at these um these events. Um I've drawn a blank on what I'm trying to say. >> Job fairs. Thank you. We've been to several job fairs and we have a lot of
new teachers that are very excited about coming to Hopewell because we're smart and we take all the student teachers and they're in love with this community. They're in love with the schools and they're starting on step one, which we like. So, as long as they don't get poached by somebody else over the summer, we we have a great pool of
candidates that that are interested in coming to your district. So, I I believe that we will get the breakage that we need. Other uh agreed upon um reductions is curriculum writing and things like that will be called in except for those things that we absolutely have to do. Reducing the school level budgets has
already happened. Reducing departmental budgets have already happened. reductions in guest speakers and assemblies that we offer and and and um the ones that I'm going to have I'm working hard to find community partners to help us fund reduction in supplies and sub subscriptions um those digital
platforms that we offer uh to to help in the classroom reduction of staff through attrition I already talked about. So these are some of the unknowns and I'm going to pass this off to uh Mr. Kivita to share. >> Thanks. Sure. Um so this was uh this
slide was generated from uh many discussions with both the board uh in in budget retreats and in finance facility discussions. Um Dr. Trice has mentioned this um subtly before but I'm going to kind of put a hammer on it now. The
budget, we have a good budget right now. Um, but there are things right now in the world and in in the marketplace that are affecting our district that we just don't have the buffer that we would have ordinarily liked to have um health
benefit spending um in our district. While we are self-insured and doing much better than uh some of our our um sister districts who are in the state health benefits program, we're running probably 50% better than they are. the cost is
still increasing at 20 to 25% for next year. If it goes higher than that, there's there's very little buffer for us to deal with. Special education, we try to do the very best we can for those for our most fragile students. Um, but
the costs of out of district tuitions are are rising and the number of students that are being classified annually continues to rise. Um, we will we will always do what's best for those students, but again, there is no buffer. We've we've budgeted the students that
Pette knows about right now. If students continue to move in, we're going to have to to pivot and find the money in other areas, meaning taking from other areas to cover these energy. Um, we all know what's going on in the world right now. Energy is going to be extremely volatile
over the next several years. We are fortunate in that we bid out our energy services with a consortium of over 350 school districts and that we are locked in on certain po part portions of that delivery system. The commodity price
will continue to shift as it will for everybody. Um but we are protected somewhat and staffing. Um, as we talked about, we are trying to um identify breakage and and um budget and and bring
uh staff members in at that lower level um when we can. Uh as students move in, there may be situations where we have to add staff. Um but at the point right now, we are planning no additional staffing. So if things happen and we need to bring in additional staff, again, it's not that's not funded and
we'll have to pick it from other places. This is just something we wanted to make sure that the board and the public knew that while we feel very comfortable with the budget, there are some unknowns that could um affect us going forward. So, we we wanted to point out um when
the articles in the paper come out and say, "Hey, Hope got an additional 5.75%. That's great. Aren't you thrilled?" We are. We're thrilled. We're happy to get more and we're we're happy not to be the districts that are losing or or getting
flat funding. Um but that 5.75% is actually less than $400,000. Okay. Um it's lower than we got last year when we got 6%. Districts were capped at 6%. You
couldn't get more than 6% aid this year. So, while we're fortunate that we're one of the people who got aid, the fact that we didn't get the full six this year means that we could be facing a further reduction in state aid for next year, which is why, as Dr. Trice mentioned,
we're trying to build these budgets out anticipating what may happen two and three years down the road uh regarding state funding. So, we just wanted to point that out. 5.75 sounds like a great number in paper, but it's really only $400,000. And when you consider that the
average cost of staff members now is is running much higher than that, you're looking at three or four employees. Okay, so that's very important to understand. Um, again, talking back to to CAP and state aid, a lot of folks said, "Well, I
thought you had a 2% cap." 2% cap this year on our budget is about $1.8 million. The additional state aid was another $400,000. Just rolling over our salaries
from 2025-26 to 2026 27 eats up $1.6 million of that additional funding that we got through CAP and state aid. Okay, add that in 20 25% increases on health benefits when you're talking a $20
million expenditure in health benefits. 20% higher than that is a lot of money. obviously can't be can't be absorbed. >> Go ahead. >> Yep. >> Um and at this point there's there's
nothing we can do about the health benefits. Um a lot of folks have come to us and said, "Hey, my company uh you know, renegotiated this, told us they came in on a Friday and said on Monday you're going to have a different health plan that's going to cost you this much more money and this less benefit." We can't do that. We are governed by the
state of New Jerseys uh collective bargaining rules and regulations and the health benefit plans that they have prescribed don't expire until 2027 when we will probably be aggressively looking at that area of our budget. But until
then we can't do anything about that. Uh and again I mentioned energy costs rising. Um just those things, those simple things eat up more than the cap and the additional sty that we can that we can generate.
Again, we mentioned healthc care costs. Um last year's budget was $17.3 million. We used a waiver of $1.7 million. We are uh limping to the finish line regarding health benefits. Right now, we are um looking at trying to cover $1
million shortfall. Right now, we will be able to find it. We have, again, Dr. Trice mentioned it, we have curtailed spending in other areas to make up uh for the rising cost of health care. Next year, we're looking at a $20.4 million
spend um with a wa with a higher waiver. Again, we don't like to use that waiver because it just raises taxes to the community. But at this point, because of chapter 44, what I me just mentioned a few minutes ago, chapter 44 restricts what we're able to do fiscally uh
regarding health benefits, we we don't have the ability to negotiate better plans, cheaper plans, uh more cost-effective delivery methods uh until 1231 of 27. So again, things that are basically out of our control. Um, you
know, so this is what it leads to, our overall spending pattern. Um, if you take a look at at 12:00 and and kind of swing around to just after 9:00 at night, that's the salaries and benefits for all of our
staff members. Well, uh, more than 75% of our budget um, is just in the delivery of instruction to our students, which is where the money belongs. Um like when you go a little bit further to the green pie piece, that's the transportation to get our kids to
school. All right. Then moving forward to the operations piece and keeping those buildings open and safe and heated and cooled uh to the best as we can. So again, the money is going towards keeping our buildings open and educating our students.
70% 77.8 There it is. that that number down there almost 78% of our budget is going towards the direct instruction um of our students. So what we are where we are right now our general fund tax levy increase which is what funds the the basic operating
expenses the the teaching the transportation the athletics the pro all the programming we do is increasing at 5.8%. through some creative um financing and planning, we have been able to reduce
our debt service budget, which is basically the the mortgage we're paying on the on the referendum from 2016 and the new referendum from 2024. We were able to reduce that so that the real impact of the 2024 referendum will not
be felt in fiscal year 2627. we will be earning significant amounts of interest on the bonded money and that interest will be going towards paying that new debt um not only for this year but a good portion of the second year's uh debt service payment. So we're able
to reduce the overall impact to the district from 5.8% to 5.2%. 5.2% will be the overall net tax impact um to the levy for for next year. What does that mean to the average homeowner? The
average home estimated at around $500,000 for each of the three municipalities. For Hope Burrow, you're looking at $2 um per $100 of assessed value for about $270 a year for the average home. In Hope Township, again,
$1.98 for an uh increase of $531 per household. and Pennington Burough would see an increase of about $370 for the average household. At that point, that brings us to the end. Um, and Dr. Trice and I will be
open for questions uh from the board uh prior to hearing from the public uh in their comment before we vote on the final budget. It's not a question but a comment for me and I'm going to try and make it fast because I
wrote a much longer letter in verse for those of you who are interested in the longer stuff but I will just reiterate what I said at the end of this. Um, if the state of the way public education
is financed in New Jersey doesn't change structurally, um, both the districts and the taxpayers who support them are going to wind up being bankrupt in 10 to 15 years. So, if you're really upset about this, this is
a state issue and it's not an issue of the state just sending more money to a district. It's an issue of the state allowing the districts to spend the money wisely. Um, so if you do care about it, find
your state representative, your legislature, your state, your your state senator, and let them know that they need to start seriously looking at fixing the way public education is being run in this state. >> And Alex, that's a really good point you've made up. I um I am have been vi
invited to a um meeting with the governor uh on the 12th of May to discuss the funding formula with uh other other um educators and and and folks who do what I do. I think there'll
be some superintendents there as well. So we will be meeting with the governor to discuss just what what you said. >> Can Mark and I come? Anyone else have com? >> We will not be crashing.
>> I'll take notes from you to bring in my colleague. >> Anyone else have comments from the board? >> I'll just make a quick comment. I think it's I think it's important that while we are all up here and you see us laughing and just talking about this, we
we take it pretty seriously in the sense that we as a board as a finance committee asked the administration to do their damnedest to not raise taxes the best they could. And I think Alex's position
and his what he wrote in Mercer Me did a good job kind of streamlining the thought process on how we thought about this number to try to mitigate as much disruption to the district as possible. It's why two years ago during the
referendum, right, uh myself was a very loud uh proponent of trying to get the different forms of government involved in this process because it does take a community to fix this locally and try to work together to do it. But at the end
of the day, I can't emphasize it enough. This is 120% a Trenton issue. And the only way that we are going to fix this is not going to be by cutting taxes. So for the folks that want to come to these meetings and tell us that we need to cut taxes. Cutting taxes means that we fire
100 teachers, fire 50 teachers, do things that are really, really not good for the community, for our school district. And it's not as easy as just doing that. I don't think anybody in this room likes paying taxes, right? Raise your hand if you like paying taxes. Nobody ever raises their hand when I say that. Right? But at the end
of the day, this is a problem that we are trying to manage locally, but it can't be managed locally, and we're just kind of working within the confines. I feel really proud that we've been able to get to a budget that tries to again minimize disruption, and I sincerely do
appreciate all the administration working with us and collaborating with us on this. But just understand, we do take this extremely seriously. We know that this is a very fragile um next 12 to 24 months. And it's not going to get any better, especially
locally, right? Um, but I would hope that as you guys continue to hear us say these things that you get involved, call your state congress people. They're the ones that fix this problem. We can't do it. Mayors of the township, right, or the burrows can't do it either. You
know, Dr. Trice and and her administration can't fix this problem because all they are doing is being dealt cards and then we're trying to shuffle the cards around the best that we possibly can. So, um, again, I just want to say like while you hear us laugh and just joke about this, I'm laughing because if I wasn't laughing, I'd be
crying candidly, right? That's just the reality of where we're at. So, um, again, I just appreciate you guys being able to work with us on this and try to figure out a way to make this as uh taxpayer friendly as possible while also making sure we're continuing to deliver what Hopewell Valley Regional School
District does. So, thank you. >> Yes. And there wasn't laughing going on during this work. I mean, we ran about four or five different budgets like starting at 2% and what that looked like going to 3% what that looks like 4% and and we we all really had some rolling around on the ground because, you know, we were trying to say, you know, we were
trying to really look at we're not going to have you all paying these high taxes and then you have a district that has nothing in it. >> That that's just I I just don't feel comfortable with that and that's going to affect your values of your houses ultimately and people are going to flee and that's happening in other districts and coming to yours quite frankly
because we have these things. And and Dr. Trice, I'll just add one thing and I'll share this with the public. Right? As the finance chair, my first request of Dr. Trice was come to us with a budget that's flat >> versus last year. Come to us with a budget that is
>> at 2%. >> Yes. >> And then come to us with a budget that works, right? That would work. And when I saw flat and 2%, my jaw dropped because it would be >> World War II. I'm going to say it that way. It would be World War III if we were to do that and we don't want to do
that right now. Right. So, we spent a lot of time doing this. Um, and again, it was not fun. We had a lot of a lot of good discussions, but we tried to do it the best we could, the more responsible manner that we could >> and we needed to look at it because next year I don't know that we can. >> Yeah. Try it.
>> Right. I don't know that we can because the state's answer to it and that's why we need your help >> is because we're fighting. Bob will be there. One of my colleagues will be there. We're sitting on our behalf as superintendent. We have been yelling at the sky down. But what their answer is, especially with an affluent district
like you, is, "Oh, we'll just tax the taxpayer." When that district defaulted down near the shore and said they were their board said, "We're not passing that budget." You know what the state did? They came in and said, "Well, we're giving you permission to do it anyway." Right? And so, so that's the answer and that can't continue to be the answer.
So, please, you know, any support you can give down there with the folks that you've elected uh to to represent you um and some of these governmental positions, um that's helpful because no, we're doing our part. >> Yeah. And and just to add a little color
to World War II, that means deep cuts, right? So the understanding just what what that really translates into when you go to flat or to 2% you're looking at deep um erosion of quality of
education and programming. So just want to >> and it's it's affecting districts that are neighbors of ours. I mean read the articles about what happens what's been happening in Flemington, in Montgomery, in Hillsboro, in Robbinsville, in East Brunswick.
um in Montlair, districts that have been very affluent districts for many, many years who are now facing unprecedented budget crisis. >> Just like we were talking about redistricting earlier, there are school districts that are redistricting. They're closing schools because they
can't afford to have them open. >> Middletown, Middletown, New Jersey is closing a second school. >> It's not good out there right now. So I I think the examples we're trying to share are not meant to
scare you. It is to help you understand the cont. We're clear about the context and the world we're we're working within. And we're also really really clear that we have the mandate from our community to support quality education
and and deliver with care. um a budget that is balanced and reflects the quality of our township, our homes, and all of those things. So, um that that's the main message is that we are really clear.
It's our job to do the hard work and we're fine with that, but it um I want you to understand the things that we considered along the way. So, um, if there are any are there any other comments from the board,
Jackie? >> Okay. Sorry. Okay. Um, with that, we'll move into public comment. All right. We're going to have an open public comment on the budget specifically. So, the members of the public are invited to address the
board on the matter of the budget for maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The
board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district. Um, with that, I'll just look to my timekeeper. Um, we have three minutes on the clock and when you get to two minutes and 30
seconds, you'll get the yellow side. Um, and then at uh 30 seconds or 3 minutes exactly, we'll you'll get the red comment and maybe a a little gavvel for a reminder for me. With that, public
comment is now open. Good evening members of the board and uh our Hopewell Valley Regional School District community. Um my name is Deon Nelson from Hopewell Township. My family and I reside at 48 Poor Farm
Road, five minutes from here, right up the street. Um, I want to be clear from the outset that we support the district's goals. We support responsible redistricting as it relates to the budget. >> Um, I'm sorry, sir. And this section we
will have the budget as it relates to the budget. >> Okay, just checking. >> And we understand the need to manage transportation costs as it relates to the budget. Our request is not to stop change. It's simply to ensure it's implemented fairly and thoughtfully for
students who are already enrolled in our elementary schools. This proposal to redistrict, it impacts once we consider the exceptions that already have been made. 21 children currently attending Beard
Tavern Elementary School. Not hundreds, not a systemwide shift, just 21 students who've already spent years building friendships, routines, and a sense of belonging in their school. Now, the district's policy regarding school assignment emphasizes
stability and continuity for our students that they should finish their elementary school that they started while allowing for exceptions. in the cases of efficiency and cost savings like the ones we're facing right now.
That balance makes sense. Tonight's decision is not about how that balance is applied because the question is not whether cost savings matter. It's whether immediate savings for this small group must outweigh continuity or whether both goals can be met through a more deliberate approach. We believe
they can. If transportation cost is the barrier, our families are willing to be a part of the solution. There are options that we've um come up with and we can work with the board on these, but centralized pickup
locations, voluntary opt-ins for families who are comfortable changing schools or family provided transportation for those who prefer continuity in Bear Tavern. These options reduce cost while preserving continuity for students who need it most. This is not a request that creates long-term
inefficiency. In fact, it preserves flexibility while the district ensures that reassignment decisions are applied fairly and consistently. And that brings us to the core concern, the arbitrary reassignment of currently enrolled students without a clear phase in
that should be addressed before irreversible steps are taken with the passage of the budget today. Adoption of the current budget eliminates the Bear Tavern bus routes B1A and B as well as B6 A and B and
creates one route to Hopewell Elementary in this place saving money. This small adjustment does save us >> sorry. >> All right. We just ask that you consider not eliminating that without resolving the question of redistricting. Thank
you. You can sign in. Yes, please. And again, please don't renegotiate or accept the renegotiated routes without considering. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any additional public comments regarding
budget? >> Uh hello, my name is Will Irving, 18 Harbert and Woodsville Road, uh in Hopewell Township, uh neighbor of Devon. And I just wanted to second what Devon was saying. Uh it seems a little bit ridiculous to pass a budget that cottifies
uh that cottifies transportation changes contingent on a redistricting that was dropped like a nuclear bomb last week. Uh no com no public comment, no public discussion. Uh and those and no vote should be taken that eliminates those
bus routes until you've heard from the public on the redistricting issue. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Josie F. I live at 18 Harbertton Woodsville Road in Hopewell also. And I'm coming up to third. The notion that you should not pass a budget that eliminates our school
our school bus uh routes without actually hearing from us. You have not heard from us. And so doing this now and then allowing us quote public comment is really disingenuous. So I would encourage you to hear from the affected families that we have gathered here
tonight before you vote on a budget that harms our children. Thank you. Any additional comments again on budget. We got more. >> Good evening um board um members of the hopeal community. My name is Galange
Nelson. Um I live at 48 poor farm road. Can I ask you to speak into the mic a little bit more clearly for folks listening? Thank you. >> Sorry. My name is Galange Nelson. Um I live at 48 Poor Farm Road in Hopewell Township. Um so I forth the motion um to
uh table the adoption of the newly negotiated transportation routes with Rick Bus Company and the related budget action until the issue of student reassignment is reviewed and resolved. Then move forward with a solution that reflects both efficiency and fairness. That is a balanced approach. a
responsible approach and the right one for students, families, and this community. Thank you very much. Okay, one final call and then we'll turn things over to Dr. Sharice. >> Yes, thank you. And I I'm sure that Mr. Kito, the business administrator, will also help who manages transportation. Uh
we examined the bus routes, the efficiency of the bus routes and the and the location, the geographic location of students and what the buildings could bear in terms of enrollment size based on the room and space in each one of those buildings when we made the decision. It was not arbitrary and
capriccious. And though we may have eliminated two routes that are going in the numbers, we will not probably eliminate any routes. We probably will be adding routes because the numbers that we used at the time are based on students that were already here. So, we
can reach out to you and say those who are living in these affected areas who already live here, you'll be moving to your new school. But it doesn't account for the preschoolers that came in and anybody who moves in past that point. We are projecting ahead for those. Do we
have space for those kids? Based on the projection of the demographer, you are still going to be adding buses, which is in the budget that will be adopted tonight for new students who aren't here yet or those who have been enrolling over the last two weeks. And there are enrollments happening daily.
So, it's not just those handful of students that you're talking about. It's the ones who are coming. So, if I decide that I'm not going to do this now and class size continues to grow, there already is an expectation that I have to
add staff and then I'm adding more staff because we're being inefficient. And that's what we saw in the last year where Bear Tavern had class sizes of 27, 28, 29, and then across town we have 12. and I'm adding a teacher that's expensive and that's the reason why my
budget is out is is spinning out of control now. So I hear what you're saying but I am thinking about the global budget because if I say yes you can stay and the class size grows beyond and and one of your building is already there. I have to add teachers that costs
money that you saw what that costs. So, it's not just the transportation, which I probably won't call any. I'll probably just reassign that transportation. It's a special ed student that moves in that needs to be put out of district. It's one that needs a special bus and now
those buses are over full and I need to add a van. It's Hogwell Park fills up. I need to add buses to pick up those kids that those buildings are empty now, but they will be full at some point. It's the new developments that's happening over here and over here, right? So, we're planning for things that are not
yet here and that are coming. The budget is compensating for as much of that as we can and that's what we're looking at. It's not a steadfast, oh, what if we stay? But there's still people coming and that's what got us in this position in the first place and that's why people
were asking us, are you going to consider redistricting? We have to. We can't continue to operate like this. It's not financially sound. is not fiscally responsible for not just the parents who are in this district but those who do not have students in this
district. So that's the reason why we have to make that decision on a more global le level that is not just about whether these buses are running or not and they will run and we're going to have probably have more buses than these by the time it's done. So, I'm sorry. Yes.
>> Yeah. I want to kind of uplift this and address a statement that was made which um kind of shows that there is a misunderstanding of the process that you guys have. The budget does not codify any of these
changes. Um the budget doesn't go down to the level of detail of bus routes. It simply allocates a certain amount of money for transportation. It allocates a certain amount of money for regular instructions.
It allocate it allocates a certain amount of money for special education. The budget it is up to the administration in working under our supervision, but it's really up to the administration to then
figure out how to use that money. So our adoption of the budget today doesn't codify any of the things that you talked about. Now that's not to say that the changes
related to the to redistricting will not happen because um as Dr. Trees pointed out, we don't have a choice. We can't have an elementary school in Bear Tavern with class sizes that are approaching 30
uh kids, nor can we have it at Stonybrook, which is the other place where we we've had similar problems while we have significantly smaller class sizes elsewhere. So, something is going to have to change somewhere. But we are not voting on those things today.
We're simply voting on this is how much money we're going to allocate to each of the major parts of our expenditures and where the money is going to come from which unfortunately is mostly from your taxes.
>> Can I just follow that up with a quick process question? So, in regards to the agenda tonight, we have the um budget approval and we have a finance committee report. And can we just get clarity where there kind of where that falls
within public comment? So um where people have the opportunity to comment. >> So this again this public comment was specifically on the budget itself. There will be an additional public comment
on anything where people can address any issue. >> Yeah. So, one after after budget adoption before the finance committee report and then one more correct >> once we're done with all the committee reports. >> Correct. >> Any anything else you want to say?
>> We have a close to public hearing and then vote. >> So, I needed a first and a second. Oh, well, sorry. Um I with with comments made to and no additional comments on budget in particular I will close officially close our public comment
section um and then we will proceed. We don't need the first and second again. >> No close the public hearing a formal closing. >> I just you close public comment. >> That's what I'm asking first. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Looking for Robert's rules over here. Um, I do need a first and second to close uh the public hearing on the budget. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I.
>> Any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none, we move to vote. >> This is a roll call. >> Yes, Jackie. to tell the public about the process of
the budget, how we've been working on this for months and that it needs to be approved to go to the state. Um because I think several people who are here haven't been through the entire process and I think it's important for
them to know that as a board we're on a time schedule that is done by the state and that attending previous board meetings is important. >> Thank you Jackie. That's fair. Um just
um for those who may not have heard um Dr. Genevese is on on the line, but pointing out that we are subject to a timeline in which our budget once we approve it goes to a governing body above us. So, because
there's a deadline for that, we we are on the clock basically to pass a budget that then gets reviewed and and Bob gets a lots of questions about it and then um then it gets codified. But this process is part of a schedule that
needs to be adhered to. >> All right. Anything else? All right. >> That's pretty good. >> With that, we are on roll call. >> Motion. >> Okay. First and second vote for um to vote on the set agenda.
>> Motion. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. Okay. Uh, Miss Carter, >> pass or accepted. I don't What is the right term? >> Yeah, just yes. >> Yes, it's a yes.
>> Dr. Jenny, >> yes. >> Mr. Peters, >> yes. >> Dr. Resnik, >> yes. >> Mr. Slottman, >> I >> Dr. Stellanu. Yes,
>> Miss Williams Scallaniano. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Second public comment. >> Okay. As mentioned previously, we um do have a second public comment and this one is in fact on any matter. Members of
the public are invited to address the board on the 20 sorry on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. And of course, please don't forget to sign in at the podium.
Uh in response to any comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administration. Again, reminder to sign in um prior to
speaking. Public comment is now open. Hello. Uh my name is Dr. Tina Young, 52 Poor Farm Road, Hopewell Township. Um first, I appreciate the tough decision uh tough position that you are all in when it comes to the budget. you need to make some very difficult decisions and
you will face backlash no matter what you do. Um, so speaking of backlash, I'm here to talk about the redistricting. Um, I am the one who coordinated and sent the email on behalf of the 13 affected families last Thursday. I have two children at Bear Tavern. One is in
fourth grade and one is in second grade. The fourth grader may be permitted to stay at Bear Tavern if we provide our own transportation, but the second grader does not have a valid reason among the list of exceptions. My younger one has been at BT for four years, starting from the Peach program in the
trailers. BT is his second home. He has his roots here, and it saddens me that he is being asked to leave in order to make room for other students. My doctorate is in bioatistics, and I am encouraged to learn that the administration makes datadriven decisions. So, I would like to talk some
numbers. In an earlier version of the website, you had a map that included numbers of affected students. This has since been removed. And I'm sure the public will want to know why relevant information is removed from the website, but let's put that aside for a moment.
Luckily, we saved a copy of the original map here. Here we see that 34 students uh are moved from BT to Hopewell and 22 students from other elementary schools to BT. All of your points, Dr. Trees, makes perfect sense except for the fact
that there are 22 students moving back in. In this large circle in this northern part of the map, there are 24 dots representing the families of those 34 students to be moved out of BT. We've talked to the families of 22 out of the
24 dots and learned that eight students may qualify to stay. That means there could be anywhere from 22 to 26 that would actually leave BT and up to 22 coming into BT from other schools. So, we don't understand the rationale that
redistricting will ease pressure on BT and balance enrollment. Um, and we don't think that could be substantiated if the exchanging of students across the district is near equal swap and will ultimately free up a total of about four seats at BT. In addition, with the
exception of the incoming fifth graders for whom we would need to arrange our own transportation, wouldn't buses still be needed to transport students who stay for IEPs and other reasons? Wouldn't you then need to send two buses down the same streets, one for IEPs going to BT and one for everyone else going to
Hopewell? Wouldn't that present more of a busing burden and cost to taxpayers, not less? So, if enrollment at each school is nearly the same before and after redistricting and bus routes are equally or more of a burden, then what would be the rationale of uprooting our children and putting them through so
much stress? Is the administration reconsidering the redistricting plans if there's no strong rationale or no rationale at all? And for my family, why would I accept that one child can stay at BT and the other has no choice but to leave?
Thank you. Good evening. Uh my name is Jo is Dr. Josie Foss. I live at 18 Harbertton Woodsville Road uh in Hopewell Burough. My husband and I moved to Hopewell Valley in 2015, two weeks before our older son started kindergarten. He's now a sophomore in this building, having
attended Bear Tavern from kindergarten through fifth grade. Over those years, we came to know the district and particularly the culture of BT, which was, we thought, values-based and supported the whole child. So, when I got a text from my neighbor G last Saturday afternoon that said that she'd
received a letter in the mail telling her son DJ would be going to Hopewell Elementary next year, I was honestly confused. I immediately went to my mailbox and found a copy of the same letter. In one sentence buried in a page of text, I was informed that my
8-year-old son Spencer, who has happily attended Bear Tavern his whole school career, would instead be going to Hopewell Elementary next year. I reread the letter looking for something that would explain the why. Why was my medically fragile child being uprooted from the school and community he loves?
The letter offered no answers. When we told our son the news, he immediately burst out crying, begging us not to make him leave his friends and teachers. By that evening, he was in full breakdown. We reached out to Dr. Trice. We asked for an explanation of the decision-making process. She responded
that it was based on data, a profoundly incomplete and unsatisfactory answer for two parents who are themselves public policy professionals. We wrote back explaining that our son has a rare condition called pans pandas that causes among other things uh debilitating
anxiety and how critical it is that he have stability. The exact opposite of what this decision would create for him. Her response was, and I quote, "The nurse at Bear Tavern is very familiar with your child's case and will connect you to your new nurse. All of our schools have highly qualified nurses who
are able to address Spencer's needs." The school nurse is not the one holding my son's hand all night so he can sleep. It's me. I'm the one doing that. So that's my situation. That's why I'm here tonight. Every one of the affected
families stories is different. But we all felt blindsided and hurt by your decision. And apparently so do a lot of other members of our community. I started a petition, this petition, and I'll leave you a copy so you can see
it if you haven't already. Started on Wednesday. We have 248 signatures already, and we're just going to keep going. And those 248 people, they're all sorts of people. There are parents at Bear Tavern and other schools who aren't affected, but don't like to
see members of their community harmed. Retired neighbors who know our kids and their friends and want what's best for them. and plenty of residents of Hopewell Valley who just don't think that their neighbors should be treated this way. Every one of you sitting here tonight is here because our community
has entrusted you not just with our children's education, but with their well-being. What you've done up until this point has broken that trust. And all we're asking here tonight is that you take actions to earn it back. Thank you.
Sorry. Good evening again. Uh my name is Will Irving. I live at 18 Harbert and Woodsville Road in Hopewell Township. My wife's at Hopewell Burough. It's actually Hopewell Township. Uh my wife Josie just told you about our son Spencer and our situation. I teach in
the public policy program at Rutgers University. So I'd like to talk mainly about the policymaking process used in arriving at the redistricting plan. I do not question for a second that a demographic study is a good starting point for the planning process. But forecasting enrollment growth is not the
same thing as managing that growth smartly. And an incomplete policymaking process inevitably results in questionable policies. A demographic analysis should have been but one element in a process that included soliciting input from stakeholders, especially those most likely to be
impacted. In last October's discussion of the demographic analysis, Dr. in fact said, quote, "We're going to communicate a lot with the parents before we make moves." Of the many affected families we have heard from, none were ever contacted before this
decision was made. Difficult decisions of this kind should represent the best possible choice and be based on clear priorities. It is not clear what alternatives, if any, were considered in this case, and the primary and perhaps sole consideration appears to have been minimizing the duration of bus rides for
students new to the district. We welcome these new students and recognize that they too deserve to benefit from the rich educational opportunities our schools provide. But the social emotional well-being of the current Bear Tavern students seems to have been at best a secondary concern in this
process. The district's plan to help ease their transition into the new school seems oblivious to the fact that the adverse impact on our kids results not from fear of the new, but rather from being torn away from the friends and school community of which they have been a part since at least kindergarten.
The rationale for a decision of this importance should be transparent and clearly communicated. As my friend Tina Young noted, instead the district re reacted to our protest of this plan by removing important details from the redistricting web page. A transparent
process also serves to ensure that decisions are free from even the appearance of bias or favoritism. For example, when it might seem that boundary lines have been drawn to shield the families of schoolboard members and municipal officials from the undesirable consequences of those decisions, thereby
ensuring that those best positioned to question the plan have no personal stake in doing so. Where transparency and stakeholder input are lacking, there should at the very least be some avenue of appeal. The superintendent has made clear that no such appeals will be considered. We recognize that these are
difficult decisions for the board and superintendent to make, but this plan was made without input from those affected, without consideration of key priorities, without transparency, and allowing no avenue for appeal. It is profoundly unfair to the students of Bear Tavern, and it is not clear whose
interests is it is designed to serve. As a result, it damages the very reputation of this district that has made it attractive for families seeking a highquality education for their children. You can do better. We can do better. Thank you for your time.
Good evening. My name is Rob Worther, residing at 46 New Road in Hopewell Township and I'm the proud parent of three children at Bear Tavern Elementary. Two third graders and one child just starting Peach. I'm speaking tonight on the same topic that everybody
here is talking about, redistricting. There are alternative solutions that we should be considering and discussing as a community and make available outside of board meetings before reassigning students to new schools. and we'd have that conversation now before the school
year ends and it is too late to course correct. So respectfully, the real question is not simply how many students will be moving in and out of each school. It is what the net enrollment relief will be once the full plan is applied and the dust settles. Not 5 years from now, but today after
accounting for all shifts and accommodations. And if that benefit is modest, we should ask a simple question. Why impose major disruption now for minimal immediate relief, especially when the benefit comes years down the line if there at
the very significant human cost? Were lower impact options considered? Have we reviewed the other transportation options that we've been discussing? grandfathering existing children so that there is minimal impact. Phase transition approaches or
reassessing next year with real enrollment data after the final developments are built and everybody has moved in. Families are not asking the board to ignore growth pressures or do nothing. We are asking that all reasonable
options be fully considered and vetted. These are real children, real families, real school communities as you can see here, not just numbers on a map. We cannot ask our children to have negative impacts on their psychosocial development
at if at all preventable. And this is I ask the board tonight to slow this process down, review the actual benefit of this change and the specific problems that we are trying to solve and work with this community on alternatives that protect our students while still meeting
district needs and to specifically delay this implementation until these be fully vetted and an equitable solution be reached for everybody. There's still time to get this right, but that window is closing quickly. Thank you. Hi, my name is Tegan Jones and I'm 8
years old and my name my address is 104 Wants Road. When I first found out that I am being forced to go to a different school, Hopewell Elementary, I was devastating. It was the saddest day of my life. It's not fair that some people get kicked out of their school. I was
about 3 or 2 years old when I started school. I went to BT. I've been there ever since. I have my friends that are family to me. And I won't get to wave at my teachers in the hallway. My friends and teachers are sad, too. I don't want to leave. And I'm sure that 98% of the
34 kids are probably sad, too. I bet that you won't want to leave your school if you were forced to go to another school. I have family there. BT is my family, and my family is BT. I don't want to leave. That was my daughter, by the way. I'm
very proud of you, Tegan. All right. Hello. My name is Kristen Jones. I live at 104 Wamansa Road um in Hopewell Township. I'm the parent of two children, Tegan, age 8 in second grade, and Kaylee um in kindergarten. She's
six. Both have been here since preschool, age three. Um they have both been redistricted from Bear Tavern to Hopewell Elementary. Um so my youngest child, Kaylee, has an IEP and because of that she's permitted to stay and remain at Bear Tavern. Uh under district
policy, her older sister, Tegan, is allowed to stay and we are grateful for that. However, even though both of my children would attend the same school and be picked up at the same time and from the same exact location, my child without an IEP, Tegan is not guaranteed
a bus, a seat on the bus. So, I have to ask, how is it possible for a child to be officially enrolled in a school permitted to remain there but not be accounted in transportation? What exactly are families expected to do
in this situation? Arrange separate plans for siblings to go to the same place at the same time. That makes no sense. Or absorb the burden ourselves so the district can reduce transportation costs. Or are we going to be forced to move schools together so they get
guaranteed busing? And that's more than likely what's going to happen. Um or we can send our kids to two different schools and then two different district buses will come to our same home and go in two different directions which does not seem like an efficient
use of transportation or our money. So, I'm asking for greater transparency around transportation planning and costs. More than just the pie chart that we saw that was helpful, but I'd actually like to see the breakdown um specifically the pause uh the cost per
bus route and how students uh assignments factor into those decisions. The bus situation and potential redistricting for our whole community um is genuinely upsetting for all of our family. When I told Tegan, she hyperventilated
and did so sincerely. Um, it's not just logistical inconvenience. It changes daily routines, creates uncertainty, and add stress to something that should just be straightforward, just going to school. I would appreciate some explanation and empathy on this matter. I've heard from
several people, it is getting old. Hearing that children will in It's getting old. Hearing that children will endure and bounce back. Of course, they are resilient, but resilience should not be used as a justification for avoidable hardship, especially when that burden
falls unevenly on a small number of families. When decisions create preventable stress and disruption, resilience becomes a requirement rather than a strength. Our children should not have to prove how adaptable they are just to make this policy work.
Thoughtful planning can and should reduce these impacts before they reach our home. At some point, insisting they'll be just fine starts to sound like less of a reassurance and more like a discernment. Our children are not variables in a system to be adjusted.
Your time is up. Your time is up. Your time is up. Your time is up. I'm trying to be respectful. Your time is up. If I could um if I could just say a word just real quick and I know we have a
somebody else coming up. Again, I I did explain at the beginning of this board meeting that the confines of this threeminut buzzer was not going to be conducive with that. And so I understand that we're not cutting you off because we don't care about what you're saying. This is just the structure of a regular board meeting. So I apologize that we we
have to cut you off at three minutes. Good evening. Uh my name is Emil Bakis Hope Burrow. Um and I'm a senior at Hope Valley Central High School. Uh la two Fridays ago on April 17th, our school went into a lockdown that lasted around 4 hours. We followed directions, stayed
where we were told, and trusted that the adults in charge were working to keep us safe. For that, we're grateful. But now that the situation has come and gone, many of us are left with questions that haven't been answered. As students, we experience these events firsthand. We're the ones sitting in classrooms, hearing rumors spread quickly, and trying to
make sense of what's happening in real time. When information is limited afterwards, it doesn't just leave us curious, it leaves us anxious and unsure about our safety and security at school. We understand that there are limits to what can be shared. We're not asking for anything that would compromise security or an ongoing investigation. We are just
asking what we are asking for is transparency wherever possible. A clearer explanation of what happened, how decisions were made, and what steps are being taken to prevent similar situations like this from happening in the future. Communication builds trust, and trust is essential in a school
community like ours. When students feel informed, we feel safer and more confident in the systems that are meant to protect us. So today, I'm asking respectfully, can you help us better understand what happened last Friday? And can you commit to keeping students more informed is if situations like this
occur again? Thank you for your time. >> Hello. Good evening. My name is Andrea Hanley. My name is Andrea Hanley. I live at one Hunter Ridge Drive in Hope Township. A few weeks ago, a week before the lockdown, I called Trisha Riley after
there was a video being sent around showing two adult-sized teenagers fighting in the hallway. I noticed some teachers were in the middle of it trying to help break it up, as well as security guards. My question to Trisha at that time was, why are we not finding out this information, and why are we not
getting word on these fights breaking out in school? This is not the first one of its kind. As I've seen another video around Christmas time, she let me know that there is a threshold of information we are piv privy to and a fight in the school is not information that needs to be rolled
out. Apparently, as a community member, a graduate of this high school, and a parent of children in the school district, I would like to know as well as a lot of other people. It's disrupting to our children's education, and it's putting our teachers at risk. A
lot of them are my friends, family, and they live in this community with their own children in the school. I also told Principal Riley that one of these fights could lead to a knife the next time or a gun coming into this school. That topic will be discussed on May 7th, as we've
all heard the rumors and yet to hear what's actually occurring from that shutdown. Our security guards are not armed, nor are our teachers. We don't have metal detectors, although I'm not saying that we necessarily need them. I just want to know what discussion thus
far has taken place amongst the board. And then Dr. um Trice I believe came to the board. Patricia Riley had told me that maybe that did or did not happen. But what happened when Dr. Trice came to the board and what did that discussion look like? The world is changing as you
said Dr. Trice and I want to know if we are prepared because I have a child in middle school and I'm not sure I'm going to be sending him here. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Suz Pollinsky. On Friday, 4:17, 2026, Central High School and Timberlane Middle School were in a lockdown for several hours while
administrators and law enforcement investigated a suspicious object. I'm grateful to the faculty and staff who kept our kids safe that day. Some of the students I've spoken with since said they wish they'd had an opportunity to share their experience of the day. So, I'm hoping to do that on their behalf. Next school year, a new group of
students will receive training in Alice drills, building freeze, and lockdown procedures. I hope some of the student insights regarding communication will be incorporated into those future trainings. If you've never done Alice training, you might not be familiar with the intensity of it. The acronym stands
for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate. It's modified for different grade levels, but it's a drill in which students practice how to prepare the room for and then to attack an armed intruder. At certain ages, I remember my kids being gleeful about these drills. Mom, I got to pick up the
fire extinguisher and wait by the door to hit him with it. These moments can feel fun and silly, but it's quite the opposite on days like Friday where everyone can tell it's not a drill. Students say that on Friday it started with a building freeze, which is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff for them. You need to stay in the room you're in until given permission to leave. It's what would be used to keep the hallways clear
to clean up after someone gets sick. After a time though, students were told that the situation had escalated to Alice. And in accordance with their trading, they barricaded the doorways with filing cabinets, tables, and chairs, moved to one side of the classroom, and stayed quiet. After some interval, the door and the barricades were pushed open by what turned out to
be an officer. In many rooms, however, students and even teachers did not yet know whether this was an intruder. The Alice protocol, as understood by students, is for the group to attack anyone entering the room. While it seems based on some students reports that some teachers did receive and share the
information that it was safe to allow entry, others either didn't receive it or didn't communicate it to students. Thus, there was significant confusion and fear as classroom doors were being pushed open. Try to imagine how the scrape of that filing cabinet moving across the floor as the door was pushed
open would sound if you were one of the students or teachers who still understood there to be a potential active threat. The I in Alice stands for inform. The alstraining.com website reminds that quote real-time information saves lives. Sharing accurate, timely details with those in danger, such as
the intruder, location, or movement, helps guide decision-making. End quote. On Friday, different students were vastly differently informed. Going forward, they hope there will be steps taken to asssure that information is disseminated to teachers, then shared with students in a standardized,
consistent way by the teacher in their room. On Friday, it's important to remember that the Alice protocols meant some students had their phones or Chromebooks in hand, but others did not. Some parents forwarded students the blast email that they received, followed up with text or emails, but others did not. The students I spoke with reported
that there was no corresponding communication to students, which meant that even in the same classroom, remember, many classrooms are still observing silence. Individual kids were working with different information. If someone does enter a classroom, the expectation is that the class will simultaneously attack the intruder as a group. Whatever feelings any of us may
have about that, it can only be effective if everyone in the room is working with the same information. Going forward, the students I spoke with hope that at that attention will be given. I'll go with the second. Thank you. Someone. Hello, I'm Chris Sturgis. This is my
family. We're the Sturgis Abbott family. We live at 261 Lambertville Hope Road in Hope Township. We're new to the district this year. We're very excited to start in Hopewell Valley. This year, we've had a lot of fun getting to know
the community, getting to know the resources, and the wonderful, wonderful programs that we are offered here. When we were considering moving from our old town, Hopewell Township stood out for us because of the small town feel and because the school district excellent reputation for putting students first.
The care and attention that all three of our children have been given this year has been a breath of fresh air coming from an our old school district. We're reminded daily of how lucky we feel to be part of a community that goes the extra mile to ensure that the students are given the tools to succeed. However,
now with the redistricting, our trust has been broken. When we moved into our home, we were under the assumption that we would be going to Hopewell Elementary. But during the registration process, we were informed that we would be going to Bear Tavern Elementary because elementary school buses do not
cross Route 31 for safety reasons. Apparently, next year they will cross Route 31. After spending the last eight months as a new kid struggling socially in Bear Tavern, our daughter Eleanor has found a small group of friends who bring out the best in her. Peers who allow her
to be her goofy self and accept her for who she is. A shy, anxious, rule following comedian who has the biggest heart. She has finally found teachers, counselors, and other grown-ups who care for her emotionally and academically. and you're now telling us that she's going to be torn away from her safe
space with no say in the matter. How is this a child- centered approach? How is making her start over as the new kid going to help address the district's larger problems with overcrowding? The numbers do not add up. Taking away 34
children than adding 22 children. How do these numbers justify families that are being torn apart and children who will feel the ramifications of these decisions for years to come? We are appealing to you, the board of education, to stop this redistricting. The consequences far exceed the benefits
for the families being affected. Thank you. Any additional comments? Oop, sorry. Seeing none, I will um pass them back to Dr. Theres to make comments. Um >> Sure. >> kind of a long list.
>> So um yes, but much of it is is um about the redistricting. So I'll address that um first. Um again, the reason why we took the numbers down is because the numbers you're misinterpreting. At that snapshot in time, we looked at
the geographic area first. like moving a whole development to Bear Tavern. Moving the section that's closer to Hopewell Elementary than it is to Bear Tavern to Hopewell Elementary. Geographically, that's closer to Hopewell. That's that
that slice. And if you look at the map, you can even see I'm I'm sorry, you had your comment. >> You can see on the map it's over here and Hopewell Elementary is over there. >> So, we looked at the geography of where the students were. Then we looked at the
students that were within that geographic area and said, "These are the numbers that are there." Since then, students might have decided they're leaving. Parents have already bought houses and they're moving to other parts of town. Students have enrolled. So, you're setting your hat on a number that
is that has already shifted. And we're talking about geographic areas. It's not so much the numbers. It's like this these geographically should go here. And if we're going to balance these numbers so that all the school districts are all the schools in the elementary are impacted, this is the best way to do
that and be efficient and use our buses and yes, we have to move students. We don't want to do that, but we are doing it in a way that looks at the geog geography of the district first. I know that folks wanted to have forums about this. No one is going to want to be the
one to move. So, I have forums and then parents find a new way to draw the lines where they're not moved, but somebody else has moved. This is not an ideal situation. This is not the situation where I'm redistricting and I'm moving whole grade bands of students, where I'm deciding whether or not I'm going to
make one school K to three, make the middle school something else. That's not what this was. This was balancing the numbers because quite frankly as students were enrolling and families were enrolling even though the districtricting the way it was set up before the attendance zone said they could go to be they had to go to Bear
Tavern they couldn't because Bear Tavern already had class sizes that were ballooning in that grade level. So we quickly moved them to Stonybrook then Stonybrook's class sizes are ballooning and then we quickly moved them to Tollgate. That's happening in real time and you have buses crossing the district. So,
one of the questions was why would you let my child stay? And I'm not going to talk about students individual records because that's not my place to do that. A parent may do that, but I cannot promise someone who is not there receiving a program a seat on a bus that
I that is fixed and these are small vans. There might be room now and I will allow that to happen if there's room. But the moment a student moves into that area that is supposed to be in that attendance zone who needs an IEP and is supposed to get transportation, I have
to boot that gened kid off of that bus. So we will make every effort to let your kid ride the bus, but I can't guarantee that we won't have students move in and that have a right to that seat. So that is the reason why I can't guarantee that blanketly, although we have always done that for students. Even before the
redistricting, if your child needed a special program, we've made those accommodations for the siblings and if there's room on the bus, we allow them to ride the bus. If there isn't, then as long as the parents are willing to provide transportation, we make that happen because we know that's a lot to manage. Is there anything you wanted to
add with that, Mrs. um Dernardo? So I I just I guess I'm really um and I'm going to speak on behalf of the board because I know they won't to imply that we drew lines to for board members. That was not the case. We divi decided the geography
of it first and then we looked at the people that were within those zones to see who lived there. And quite frankly, some of the board members assumed that they were moving because of the way the map looked. But that's not the way it fell out in the in where the buses routes run and and the where the cut off
line was. It had nothing to do with where board members were. So that's not how we made our decision. The decision is made based on the geography. And yes, the numbers may be staying the same, but the development where those students live, the street where those students live, the section where they live are
being sent to a new school and that will stay. This is not the first time that this has happened in in Hopewell. When they built Stony Brook Elementary School, there was a group of parents that needed to move to that school and all these conversations and things were had as well and they moved and they had a wonderful experience because quite
frankly all of our schools are br have brilliant admin administrators, brilliant staff, support staff. We are here to support your kids. It's disingenuous for this public to say that you didn't know when you were blindsided. We talked about this throughout the referendum. I have been
getting emails up until I announced what those zones were after because we were still calling through them and trying to do this the best way, the most judicious way. When are you going to release the new redistricting? When are you going to tell us if you didn't know that was coming? How did you know to ask me when it's coming? So, we knew it was coming.
We're just not happy with what the answer is now. And I'm sorry that you're not happy about that. I can't fix that because I So you're suggesting that I move it to someone else or I do something inefficient or I do things that don't aren't cost-effective and
then now that percentage that's now 52 is seven or eight or nine. I could easily raise the taxes and then run buses everywhere. But that's not what's efficient and that's not my responsibility or role. I'm not going to go back and forth because that's not what this forum is. That's why I asked
you all to come to the webinar. Right. I I'm really I I don't want your kids to be upset. I'm sorry, >> but but the change change ma'am is something that we have to teach. >> There's comments from the floor. We will have to remember >> change is something that we have to help our kids manage as well because I can't
always say yes. I can't always say yes and they're not and folks aren't always going to get a yes when there's change. So part of teaching kids to manage life and st is managing the change when you have no ability to to do anything about it. >> So um I'm I'm going to leave it at that
and I'll open to board if anybody wants to add anything. I I I don't mean to be rude. I want to be respectful to everybody, but also shouting back and forth is ineffective communication. So, um, please don't do
that. That that is setting a tension that's unnecessary. I'm I'm just I you're gesturing at me as I'm speaking. So, what I'm trying to say to everyone, what I'm trying to speak to everyone is
that I don't we won't cut you off for the need to just cut you off. We're trying to make sure everybody has exactly the same amount of time to communicate and that we hear folks. The other thing is we understand I have a
child who has been redistricked before. I moved to Brandon Farms. It is not fun and yes it is. There are lots of things to talk about it but I'm not here to share my story as much as to say there
is clear understanding about the impact and I also am very very clear that individual cases have not been forced. There has been a discussion. I know based on the emails that have gone back and forth with the district
administration if you don't feel your issue has been addressed for your particular case the doc Dr. trees and and as well as um the principles and uh
I'm sorry, Miss Dinardo will happily take your information to have further conversation, but this isn't this isn't to ignore individual cases. This is to say that there are people that will need
to move to accommodate grades and a lot of different factors. So, what we can do as a board and as a community is work together to create an experience that feels good when it can.
So, again, I'm speaking as a mom who has managed through a transition twice. once to Bear Tavern. My child did not go to school with any of his neighbor friends. Not one on our street went to school with him and then we moved again two
years later. So when I say I am not a particular case, I am a common case. When a growing community exists and then grows, change is definitely going to happen. And I have experienced the
discomfort and all that goes with it. So, I don't take any of this lightly, but I also reject the um the accusations that are being um presented
because there is work being done on a care by basis. If again, if you are unheard, I appreciate you going directly to those individuals that I mentioned previously. Any other comments from the board?
>> Can you address the lockown issue? >> Um, we're we're not done commenting. I'm asking about any comments on topic A. >> I I was going to try to speak, but I don't know if this microphone is >> of course >> going to uh go along with it. But
anyway, uh I'll I'll go a little bit uh further on a personal I'm very sympathetic. I as a child had to got redistricted from one school to another. This, you know, a very vivid memory of me of of elementary school. My parents actually moved us several states away
between seventh and eighth grade. So, if you want to have a rough time, move to a new school when you're in eighth grade. And, you know, you'll certainly, you know, uh, make friends quickly, I guess. But, I just want to mention I'm very sympathetic to that. I really appreciate the comments. I really appreciate
everyone that came here and spoke tonight. I I I I know Dr. Trice's and her team are doing the absolute best when it comes to this redistricting plan. And you know, I just want to say the other thing I want to mention as well is I've seen especially online a
lot of comments on social media really looking at the new developments and sort of vilifying those families and those children as you know a part of the problem. Th those folks obviously they have nothing to do with pilots or any of the other dis any of the other discussions that we've seen in the last
several years here. They they moved here for the same reasons the rest of us. They want that Hopewell Valley Regional School District education that, you know, we've all come to know and appreciate. So, I just want to, you know, get that out there that, you know, we've seen so much of that. Those folks,
those those kids, those are our, you know, those are obviously our constituents. Those are the people that, you know, we are here to represent. So just just had to be clear that you know we really shouldn't be vilifying those folks. They're just as much of a right to go to the to the schools here in our
district as anyone else. So thank you. >> Thank you if I missed a comment. >> So um >> on on social media. Sorry. I've just seen some different comments on social media to be clear. Not here >> and understood. So um I'm going to move on to some of these other um statements in here because I think they they're kind of um linked together. But I just
want to end on this one uh thing with the redistricting is that I I'm I'm certain that students and their parents will work together to make sure that playdates happen and you when you have friends and you still live in the same community, you'll still find a way to get together and meet with your friends,
everybody will be at the middle school and high school together, those friendships aren't going to go away. And I know that parents will will honor that. And I I appreciate you fighting for your kids, right? I'd fight for mine, too. And I I don't know that I'm going to be able to give you the answer that you want uh at the end of this, but
I hear you and I I I did my level best and we'll continue to do our level best to try to make sure that everyone in this district has the same equity and the same access. So, I'm going to transition now to the talking about the lockdown. uh the students may not have
all the information in the lockdown because I I don't I have my specialist here who my safety specialist here who was boots on the ground when this happened. We are navigating a crisis that we don't know how it's going to evolve and it was a real risk in here
what we found in this school and so we don't know if that's going to escalate and it's something that's dangerous or not to the point where we we we have a some something that got even worse even quickly more quickly that is not something we can communicate to students because the students might be involved
in that right the teachers did get have communication with what to expect and when a a classroom is in lockdown. The police identify themselves and they have methods to do that to let them know students know they're entering you. They may not have all of the
information in that time because we cannot give that to them. We give the teachers the information they need to make sure that they're informed to make the decisions that they do in their classroom. And the police were on force. No, we don't have on on um on on
location. We may not have armed guards, but I'm going to tell you what you did have. You had four different police departments in this building within minutes. Minutes they were in this building and then minutes later they had the state police in here bringing more resources. You had a response time that
other districts would envy and I had every superintendent in Mercer County reaching out to me asking me what they could do to help. So you have the support you need. Yes. This board always discusses me metal detectors, arming guards, all of those things very
expensive. We continue to discuss those um and we talk about the change in culture that can create the cost to the district. Would it have prevented what happened this case? Probably not. Will it prevent all the cases? Probably not. Do we still review them and try to look
at different ways to beef up security in this building? Absolutely. And we continue to do that. Um we will continue to give you information about our safety protocols. We won't give you everything because that puts us at risk. that puts your students at risk. We have to make
sure we keep everyone safe and you may not have all the information, but what you will have is frequent communication about when you your what dismissal will be and what's going on. You reporting to the scene or take or listening to rumors from your students who don't have the information, things posting on Facebook,
passing those things along don't help. And that so that's one of the ways that the community can help and students can help is not to spread gossip. And that leads me to this fight. On average, the high school has maybe three fights a year that's going on every year for the
past 10 years except for COVID because nobody was in the building. This is a new age. Kids videotape with their cell phone the fights and they post them online. What happened differently this time, I think that I haven't felt in a long time, was adults and students were
passing that video around and commenting on it and all of that. We have never advertise discipline that your children are receiving in this school. There are students that are suspended for fights. There are students who are suspended for having um illegal substances in my
school, weapons in my school, things like that. We tell you the things that are high-profile that cops were here and we had and it was a scene and you need to know why that happened. We have never told you about kids individual discipline. You would not want me to
tell you about tell people about your kids discipline. That is not something that's open for public consumption. You have over a thousand kids in this building and two or three fights a year maybe you get to four is not unusual for a school. As a matter of fact, it's it's
quite low. It's quite low. That's going to happen. Students are not going to use their words. Adults don't use their words sometimes and get into shoving matches. And most of your fights here been been in in school districts where they have lots of fights are really just a shoving match. Maybe somebody gets one
hit off, maybe two, and it's over. And we classify all of that as fights because we don't tolerate anybody putting their hands on anybody here. So, it's not some mass new experience of a lot more fights. That's really not that's not true. You you really don't
have any more fights than you've always had. But handing around videos and asking for videos of two young ladies who or somebody's child was not okay. So, that was not something Miss Riley was going to send out and she wasn't going to advertise that two kids were
suspended for breaking the rules. We don't send you emails every time somebody does something here. That's private information that the parents have, not something that the community consumes. So that that's why that wasn't put out in an email to everyone or, you
know, kind of kind of this announcement of something happening because it's not unusual. We do report out on it when we report our safety and security report. So you see the number of fights, the number of, you know, people that brought something to school, those sorts of things. Um, we do advertise those. Um,
the question of, you know, was it drugs and all of that? No, it wasn't. We would not lock down a school for students having drugs. That's not something that we would do it. If I'm locking down the school, there's a threat that we're concerned that kids are going to get hurt or the building is in some sort of
situation where part of the building is not usable or there's some threat in the building. So, that's the only reason why we would go into lockdown. It never would be something as is like, you know, somebody having something they shouldn't have in terms of drugs in the school. Um so again um and I would like students to
come as well if you'd like to come to that um to that forum. I I would love for you to come to that and and we want to hear all your questions and chief can share some of the some of the things that he has to do with protocol. He can also give you his feelings on some of the the things that we talked about like metal detectors, arming the guards and
all of that. We all have very healthy conversations about this. We run tabletop drills all the time with all of the first responders there and and staff and our csos. We practice this all the time and until you actually experience it, you don't know where the gaps are
and we find the gaps and then we debrief and we fix those. Um, so we we're constantly working on this and we want to hear more from you on on your feedback as well because that helps make us better. Miss Smith, is there anything else you'd like to share? >> Okay. Um just a comment on the
communication. I I think it is important to note that there has been Dr. Trees mentioned some communications out uh as breakdown but I think that there is still work being done to uh look at the
whole process assess the process overall and address any communication concerns that may have risen that may not be known at this point. So, um, we'll make sure we loop back on anything in that
realm. I think the the other piece that I do want to underscore in Dr. Trice's comments is that um, yes, we do have a universe uh, that we are living in with
the tool phone, right? The the phone. Um, my my worry is for our children. Um they are they are children. There are very few you know kiddos in any of our buildings
that are over 18 and for um occasional reasons they that may happen. But these are all children who are being photographed. And so I just appla implore the community in being present to the fact that any information that
you're sharing is about a child. And we wholeheartedly have worked as a board and with along with the administration to make sure that there there are no things that happen in our school that are punitive in in as a regards to
discipline. We we take them very seriously but we want it to be a educational process involved in discipline as well as um understanding that there were repercussions for actions.
That being said that supersedes all things related to videos being circulated about the community. Though we can't control that, we really implore your help in in slowing that down. um because that's somebody's child that's
being um passed around. Um and for kids who make mistakes um we want them to recover from them and move on um to be great citizens in their schools. I think we I think we caught everything.
Okay, with that we are going to um close out this public comment section. Um just want to check in with the board. Are there any old um business items? Seeing none, um I would like a first and
second to pass consent agenda items. >> So move. >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed or abstaining?
>> Okay, seeing none, all consent agenda items are passed. Um we're going to move on to um expeditiously move through the committee updates and um most most uh of them have consent and agenda items. So hopefully
it'll go quickly. Um but that said, I'll toss the baton to Alex and um Mark. Hey Bob, can you take finance for updates and we'll let >> I would love to read the minutes but
they're they're stuck in board docks. >> Oh right. >> Um trying to recall back what we discussed. We discussed >> um >> how about this? Can I do the ad cell committee and you guys can use the time
to find the minutes somewhere on the finance and we'll go back to finance. Would that work folks? >> Okay. Again, plagued by uh some technology with >> your written notes. >> Okay. So, we'll go ahead we'll come back to the finance and facilities
uh >> and go ahead and move on to All right. So, we had a couple of items on the education and um SEAL committee in the meeting. Um
we had um I would say probably um a relatively light agenda. Um but we discussed the following topics. Um, there was a proposal for a band trip to Disney over the fall break. Uh, for
I I think some of you may remember this came up previously in the previous years at least once if not twice. Um, and we've said no for two reasons. One was the timing. Um, and the second one was the cost. Um
this new proposal comes at no cost to the district. So the parents are going to cover all costs including the cost of the teachers that need to travel with the kids and uh the PTO's
will figure out ways to cover the cost for students with whose families cannot afford those costs. And then the timing is going to fall over the fall break when the NGA
um convention is going on, also known as a Jersey week in Disney. Um so um the number of school days that the students are going to miss is going to be minimal.
So between the um the the the the sort of the much better timing and the no cost to the district um there were no other concerns from the committee. Um we had Dennis and
I want to make sure I got his name right. Uh me again. >> Jeff Jeff Loch. >> Jeff Loch. Yes, I apologize. I stutter on certain sounds sometimes. Um, they came to us to discuss how uh the
district does content and website monitoring and filtering. Um, and it's really uh focused on concerns about students using Chromebooks for non-school related activities. Um
Dennis sort of discussed what the capabilities um are in the district tools. So we do have capabilities for monitoring and for blocking. They are not perfect. Um they're also hampered by the fact
that certain uh websites and resources can be used for both educational and non-educational purposes. So anywhere where kids go to do research um that becomes problematic.
Um one recommendation that came out is the need to hold a parent education workshop both on the tools that uh the district has and the overall um topic. So Dennis and his team will plan on
doing that and we discuss start of next school year as the timing because you know by the time if he tries to organize it this year will be at the end of the school year and I don't think anybody's paying attention at that point. Um and
then finally we discussed um so uh the Opel Valley Youth Advisory Board um had a proposal for a night's off survey to be sent uh to um the community well to
the district community. Um so there was some um improvements uh that the committees suggested. Um but generally I think mostly we were um
okay with the survey and um the one thing that was highlighted by the committee is the process of actually running the survey is an educational opportunity for the kids that are putting it together and running it and
sort of understanding both the running and then processing the results of the survey and understand what's going on. So we wanted to make sure that um while that this was being done that that educational aspect of it was kind of
maximally taken advantage of. And then last but not least, we need to do a climate uh survey as in school climate not not uh not earth climate survey. This is something we do every year. Um I
think this year it's going to focus on the changes that are going on in the district and early May was discussed um as a timing to allow folks to really understand what's going on in a district
some of the concerns that we had today and um provide their responses in those surveys. And that's it for the at least that's it for my notes. I don't know if I forgot it. >> No questions. Okay. Um, let's go back to
finance and facilities real quick. >> Yeah, I was able to >> Yeah, I was going to say I spoke very slowly to give you a lot lots of time to find those. >> I got the notes. I have the notes here as well. So, um, the switching to finance and facilities. So, uh, like
normal, we met about 10 or 11 days ago. Um, and typically at these finance and facilities meetings, we get updates on some of the facilities items. So, one of the facilities items we talked about was the loss of the water pressure at Bear Tavern over the last six weeks. Um, the team was able to look like we can get it
all under wraps internally, which is good. Um, there's some work that needs to be done. Without going into too much detail, these notes are available. You guys can take a look at it. Um, additionally, there was a generator at Tollgate where a motor sees that we were able to get uh addressed and uh the order the motor was ordered and we're
hoping that that has already arrived and been addressed. Um, and there was an additional item here around some maintenance tech where we're going to do some cost savings with a new vendor which is always great as we've been asking um the administration to do. Um, we did get a technology update from Dennis, um, on some phone and laptop
savings, uh, $100 a laptop. Um, and that was able to help us avoid a two-year delay, uh, on that advanced order. Um, there's also some discussion there about the five-year lease cycle of those and allowing us every 5 years between hardware and software or 10-year cycle
to be able to cycle that out um, for cost savings along the way. Um, other items we talked about, um, we are still waiting for, I think, an update on the conversations with Hope Township. I don't know if there's been any more updates there.
>> Are we still waiting that? >> You said we're still waiting. >> Yeah. So, we're still we as of right now, we are still waiting um for the agreement with Hopeal Township for funding from the uh pilot program. Um, we would welcome that agreement at any point uh whenever they are able to get
it to us. Um, we also as a committee just spoke about a way to be able to get more proactive with all of the different forms of government. I know that um our president of our board as well as uh Dr. Trice are going to be taking some proactive measures with Hopewell Township, Hopewell Burough and in
Pennington Burough to get some regular cadence on calendar with all of them um just to be able to make sure we keep that dialogue open. As we know the next 24 to 36 months is going to be um interesting. We feel like it's required for us to be able to do that. So those
meetings hopefully are uh in scheduling route at this point. Um anything I missed that my fellow finance committee member would like to add? If not uh I'll take any questions. We can keep the meeting the meeting moving. >> U just real quick to close out the
generator motor was um did come as planned. So >> fantastic. Thank you. >> One point that you kind of glossed over. Uh we've been holding the technology budget flat for many many years.
Um that's not going to be possible anymore. Um the technology costs have in the past year have been going up faster than healthcare. So
>> yeah, I think that's great point. Um, Alex, not only uh prices but also the the length of time. >> Yeah, that there's uh not to get too much into it but AI is causing significant supply chain disruptions.
So um costs on anything that can be called a computer have gone up 30 to well they are going up let's say 10 to 20% per month and the lead times that used to be you know 3 to 6 months to
build something complex um are and well under three months to just buy something are going up to as long as two years. So as we um necessarily continue to buy technology because we need to
refresh things um that this is going to impact us. >> Thank you. Okay. Um moving on then to uh personnel. >> Yes. Thank you. Um we have a large personnel packet tonight, but I'm just
going to highlight a few things uh for the board. Um the first is we do have um in the packet this evening a revised job description for our education technology instructor position that's just been updated uh prior to being released. Um so you'll see that we have a list of
some appointments. Some of those are as always seasonal appointments such as our upcoming AP proctors. Um also want to give an acknowledgement to Miss Smith and her team for hiring a new um subset of subs including paraprofessional subs
which is wonderful and so great work on that from the job fair. We appreciate that. We always need more subs in the district. Um and and finally want to um officially recognize uh Mr. Robert Kolivida, our assistant superintendent
for business and our uh board secretary um who has given us his official letter of resignation. Um for those of you who don't know, Bob has been with the district from 2002 um and has done incredible work here. um
you know at a time where uh many schools are struggling uh with their books and with their finance um I think one of the things we're quite proud of here at our district is our state audit every year um and how well and the um
acknowledgements that we get in that process and that is certainly because of the work of you and your leadership um and so we will have um future opportunities as well for each of us to to thank you but I wanted to acknowledge all the work that you've done for the district. Um Bob will remain with us
until July 1st. Um but wanted to again officially acknowledge that. So thank you, >> Bob. I'll have a lot more to say, but I'll hold it off till the June meeting because this one's going to run long. Anyway, >> we're all writing our dissertations on
why we want Bob to stay. Um, I also say that he is retiring officially. I'm sure he's got some big retirement plans, but we didn't just accept his resignation. It was his retirement.
>> Thank you. Thank you, >> and I just wanted to add that um this is a huge loss to the district. Um Bob uh has been here for years. He has over 31 years or 30 years 31 years in education. He started out as a teacher in the
classroom. So, he had a real understanding of how to protect what means the most, which is your children. Um, he's leaving us in a great financial position where um the way he's been managing this district is exceptional and the reputation of Hopewell for that
specifically is all over amongst the BAS in this state. They are rare. There's not it's not easy to find a a BA that you can trust or that has this level of expertise, but he is connected to those individuals through his association that know where the good BAS are. And you're
well positioned as a district that people will want to come here because they know they're coming into a good situation that Bob has left. and we are going to do our due diligence, my my team and the board to make sure we have someone that has that level of of promise um as we move forward to to try
to do our to try to fill some very big shoes. We're all going to have a big dissertation on on Bob. So, I'm not going to embarrass him anymore. Um and I don't know if you want to say any words yet or you want to hold that for June. >> Just a a few words tonight. I there's more there's time for us to to talk more, but I I you know, a lot of you
just said a lot of nice things about me here, but I have had the ability to work with a ton of wonderful people and board members and superintendents over the years. Our current team right now, um you know, we really work well together and we will go through walls um for each
other to get things done. um my staff. I've had um staff members there for 15 to 20 years working alongside me and and they're the ones who help me do the job that that we're able to do. And um this has been a wonderful place for me. I
came here 24 years ago. Um I had dark brown hair at that point. Um and it's just it's uh I'm going to I don't want to get misty here, but it it's been a very special place for me. Um my daughter when I told my daughter
I've I've in her lifetime I've only worked here um and and uh now I'm I'm retiring from here but I really appreciate the support from all the board members I had from from you know 2002 on and and a lot of members of the
community have reached out and it's it's again it's been a very special place for me and um I hope to finish a a lot of the work that we started um and and put you in a good position with a with a new person u shortly.
>> You sure you want to leave? >> Every third word. You sure? >> Okay. >> With with that um anything else that you wanted? Okay. So, we do need a first and second to approve the appointees
and unfortunately accept the retirement of uh >> so moved. >> Second. Deep sigh of sadness with the second. I understand completely. With that, we need a roll call.
>> Mr. Peters. Well, I mean, you can't pick one out. >> All of the appointments. So, all of the appointments and resignations are retirements. Yeah. >> Just saying. >> Okay.
>> Dr. Resnik. >> Yes. >> Mr. Slottman. >> Yes. >> Dr. Stilliano. >> Yes. >> Miss Carter. >> Yes. Dr. Genevvesy dropped off. So, Miss
Williams Scallaniano. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> That was hard. I know. All right. Moving on to um our next EDCOM or do you want
to >> definitely not? I think we already did, but I could talk about community relations. >> Probably went out of order. My my apologies. Yes. >> I will be I will be super brief. Slapman, please. >> I would invite Dr. Sanu. I I'm trying to remember who was there. I I know Mr.
Kapatia is not with us tonight, so I know he'd have a a really terrific government relations update, but in his absence, we'll do our best to provide uh that update for everyone. We did meet a couple weeks ago, had a great discussion
about a few different items, many regarding many different communications issues and and those sort of things that we'll be seeing uh coming forward in the coming weeks and months that Dr. Trice had already uh spoke about. Today we talked briefly about the student survey
that is con I think is still open as of this moment in time for checking in on the possibility for schoolboard elections and and everything that's going on with that. So we're still waiting for that survey to be closed till we get a you know a certain percentage of folks who have actually
responded to that. And I know we talked a little bit briefly about some of the possibility for uh budget submissions moving forward like we did last year. And like I said, I'd invite I don't know if you have anything to add that I've missed. And of course, without Mr. Capedia here, we don't have the uh
government relations chair, but that was our last meeting. And and u invite anyone else who was there to please add anything that I might have missed. >> Um I think yeah, you it was very thorough. The only thing that was missed was that um Mr. Gapati and I are working uh we had the ask last year to the um to
the state about the playground. This year we had an ask for air dogs um so we that we can run additional cohorts. I know that there's been fundraising also to support that and some other mental health work that um aird dogs does. Um so we we now are heavily recruiting puppies to be trained uh to be added to
our our our stable. Um we're hoping that the um state will also help us as as they are looking at at dogs uh now. Um, and we are the, you know, the phenotype for that. We, we've shown them that it could be done for the example. So, that's the only thing that wasn't covered. So, we'll see. They might say
no, but I think that we'll still be able to run at least two cohorts next year. >> Awesome. Thank you. All right. Um, moving on to policy. So, the policy committee Oh, I'm so sorry. Dr. Lilin is not with us, so I'm
reporting out for the policy committee. The policy committee met on April 10th. We were joined by Miss Riley and Miss Smith. We reviewed two policies up for the first reading today and three policies and three regulations for second reading. Could I please have a
motion and a second to bring the policy 1642.016 leave and policy 3125.01 employment of nonrepresented employees up for the first reading. first.
Anybody else? A second. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Wonderful. Here we go. The first reading is the policy on sickleaf. The background on this is that in 2024, the board of education adopted policy and regulation 1642.01
to align with new language. It laid out in state law addressing sick leave requirements for school district employees. So this policy includes sick leave requirements for teaching and non-eing staff within the district. At the time we abolished the older sick
leave policy for non-eing staff members. However, the policy and regulation which addresses the sick leave for teaching and staff members was not abolished. So the policy committee was recommending that we add some additional content to abolish the policy in second reading
today. That content we propose to add is related to the transfer of sick leave to and from employment from other public schools. That language was originally in the policy and that allowed for our staff members who had previously been employed somewhere else to transfer up
to 40 days of unused sick leave in case of illness or injury. That provision does not apply to staff who are previously contractors but not employed directly by the schools in New Jersey. So that's the additional content. Employment of nonrepresented employees.
The background on this was that we revised it in 2009, but it had historically laid out procedures for recruitment, evaluation, compensation, leave, and benefits for employees who are not covered by collective bargaining agreements unions. These include, for example, staff who worked in
transportation, safety officers, staff and accounts payable. Most districts eliminated this policy and instead addressed these issues through a handbook which allowed for more fle flexibility. When those updates needed, they would go in the handbook. The policy committee is recommending we move
towards a similar model with the understanding that any significant changes to the handbook would be brought to the personnel committee for first updates and then second approvals when necessary. So to that end, this policy is revised to re reference the manual
for issues related to employees that fit within that classification. All in favor say I. Or any opposed or abstaining. Can I have a motion and a second to bring Oh, I'm so sorry. I had
moved on. So um I want to make sure I get it right. It's my first time. Have some grace. So um so these this is the first reading and those are the changes. So I need a yes and or a no for this to move on to second reading. Are we in
agreement? >> All in favor? >> I does everybody understand what they just Okay, it goes to second reading. >> Yeah. Any any nazs or abstaining? >> Okay. Seeing none, proceed.
So I have some material for second reading. Can I have a motion and a second to bring P and R235 library material P and R 9130 public complaints but revised.
PNR 2530 resource materials revised for a second reading and to bring policy and regulation 3432 sick leave for the second reading. We want to abolish that one. >> So, a motion and a second, please. >> Motion.
>> Second. >> Thank you. >> So, with second reading, as a reminder, we're bringing these policies for the second reading today concerning the implementation of the Freedom to Read Act. The Freedom to Read Act is a state law that became effective December 2025.
It requires districts to it requires districts to abol adopt a policy and procedures related to the curation of library material and established criteria for the removal of existing school library materials and to provide protection against attempts to
censor school library material. PNR 2535 library materials a new policy and regulation that was developed in response to the provisions of a law the freedom to read act 2025 and the corresponding DOE guidance. The policy
and regulation public complaints 9130 and policy and regulation 2530 resource materials have been edited to defer policy and regulation 2535 on issues related to library materials specifically and where appropriate to
align with the library materials. Based on the comments received during first reading, the policy committee integrated this. It addresses the process where we settle complaints. In the first section, we added language clarifying a teaching staff member should acknowledge the
receipt of a parent or caregivers's complaint within 48 hours and should copy the supervisor or principal on the email. In the section A4, we increase the amount of time that that person could request an informal hearing in front of
the board of education. receiving the superintendent's response from three days to five days. And then the third item is the regulation 2530, the resource materials. So we added language to ensure that the superintendent's
periodic review and replacement of materials should include a review that ensures accessibility of that material to all learning levels. >> So could we do a roll call vote? We must.
>> We must. >> Dr. Resnik. >> Mr. Slottman. >> Yes. >> Dr. Stilliano? >> Yes. >> Miss Carter? >> Yes. >> Uh, Mr. Peters?
>> Yes. >> Doc. >> Uh, Miss Williams Galliano. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. I just wanted to add one. Oh, you have one more. >> Okay. I just wanted to add one more thing and thank you uh Miss Cotter that was wonderful. Um there was some confusion and there was some emails
questions about the public complaints. The revisions that we've made have not changed public complaints. So members of the community who are not considered under the freedom to read act um having a vested interest. The Freedom to Read Act is very specific about the libraries
and the books that exist in our school libraries and in the classroom libraries. Um that doesn't speak to the any other complaint. So any other complaint that you may have if you're not a parent still goes through the regular process. You can still submit those as as you always do. Um but this
is just changing the language based on the law that was passed for library and class library books, not not anything else. So you you can still issue your plaint complaints even if you're not a parent or you don't have a kid currently enrolled. If you're a student who's not currently enrolled, you you can still do
that. You still need to be a community member for that. >> Thank you for clarifying. >> Okay. Thank you all for committee updates. I I know it's um
great deal of your additional time. Um, so I would like to move us on to reviewing board calendars. So can I get a first and second to uh approve April and May calendars?
>> Motion second. >> All in favor? Oh, sorry. I do have yet. >> Okay, let's >> All right. DZ1 personnel May 18th at 6 PM.
>> Oh, we have retirees. >> You have you do 5:30, 5, whatever you >> All right. 5:45. Vicki, >> you want the 11th? I can't. >> Yeah, she can. >> I'm going. If you could take the 12th,
I'll take the 13th >> if it works. finance on the 13th. >> Yeah. usually. >> You have policy and gov and community relations. Which one are we doing?
>> May 15th at 8. set a date for a date and then adjust if we need to. She's I think we're set now. We need to adjust. All right, we have all everything scheduled. All in favor? >> I
>> I >> Any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none calendars are passed. there in are there any new business items? Seeing none, um we are going to go to
our final public comment of the evening and um this is on any matter. Members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality in
response to your comments. The board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matters researched by the district administration. Timekeeper um rules still apply and
public comment is now open. Do I sign in again? >> No. >> Second time. >> Okay. Okay. My name is Tina Young, 52 Poor Farm Road, Hopewell Township. Um, you've heard from many of us who are affected
by the redistricting, about 10 of us. This issue has certainly garnered a lot of public attention, and many families who previously were not involved with these affairs are now paying attention and asking questions. Many of us, including myself, are attending this
board meeting for the first time. And unfortunately, I think all of us um are walking away from this meeting with more distrust than we first entered. So, please consider that if the district does decide to move forward with the redistricting plans after today's
meeting, this could reflect poorly on the administration's reputation and erode the public's trust. Many of us voted in favor of question number two to increase our taxes intentionally in order to expand BT, not expecting to be
displaced. And although redistricting was mentioned in the fine print, many of us still assumed that it would be for new families coming in, not grandfathered families. As voters, many of us do feel misled. I think this will make it harder for the public to vote in
favor of any future budget votes that the district may propose. So, I hope you seriously reconsider the redistricting plans and potential future ramifications of ignoring all that you've heard today. Thank you. Hello. Hello again, uh Will Irving, 18
Harbert and Woodsville Road in Hopewell Township. Uh I just wanted to follow up on my last comments uh that were obviously very popular with the members of the board and to address some of the response. If it seems that I was insinuating that anyone on the board
influenced the drawing of the lines to avoid having themselves enclosed in it, I was not. But I am glad that you interpreted it that way because the point that I was making is that a lack of transparency which was evident here certainly can lend itself to the
impression that that the plan that the plan was designed to spare uh to spare those officials in order to aver avert any opposition on their part to the plan. Dr. Trice, you've said that what should
I have done? Hold forums? Yes, you should have. maybe you would have had a chance to hear and consider some of the alternative ideas to the plan that we've ended up with. You indeed suggested at the 46 minute mark of the video of the
October meeting about the demographic uh the demographic study that you would be having extensive communication with the families. That never happened. What's clear is that no alternatives were considered and there's really no excuse for that. We did not misinterpret
numbers. We exact we understand exactly what they say and taking them down is not just bad optics. It's bad policy. Finally, to the board, you do not have to move forward with this plan. You can
go back to the drawing board and do better. You've heard here tonight not only emotional pleas from children, but legitimate concerns regarding the process and parameters of this decision, as well as meaningful suggestions for alternative considerations. And to to
dismiss these without consideration is an abrogation of your responsibility to our kids and this community. So I ask respectfully this time that you take Rob Worerther's words to heart and slow this process down and truly consider possible
other pathways forward. Thank you very much for your time. Hello again, Josie Fos 18 Harbertton Woodsville Road Hopewell. Um, I just want to echo what the other people have just stated. We would appreciate a transparent process. We deserve a
transparent process and this has not been one. You are giving us a quote Q&A on May 6th. How about you make that a conversation because you all give us three minutes to speak and then you get to speak for as long as you want and you get to interpret what we say in ways
that we didn't say it. And I'm not gonna Nobody said anything about the new developments being bad. We had a yard sign for this referendum. We voted for it. We were first in line, okay? It's not about keeping people out of our community. And it's not about blaming
the families or the kids. It's about wanting a process where we're heard, where a child is not weeping in front of you and you all avert your eyes. You may have been redistricted. And you know what? You recounted it in a way
that made clear it was not pleasant. So the fact that you all can just brush aside our concerns because you have a demographer doesn't make the first bit of sense. My husband sits two doors down from your demographer. Okay? And demographic data
is meant to represent large population trends. You're talking about 22 kids. Please give us the credit that we're smart enough to see the numbers. understand what they mean and engage in a discussion with you. So, if you're
going to come to us on May 6, you better believe we're all going to be there, plus a bunch, right? And we'd like to speak to you rather than being spoken at and being told that we can't understand your numbers and that you've been using logic that is beyond our ability to
comprehend because it isn't fair and is is not right. You're here to do your job. We're doing ours. We're working for our kids. We want you on the same side as us. This isn't a fight, okay? We chose to live here for the schools. We want what's
best for our kids and we've entrusted you to make that happen. And the fact that we don't show up to school board meetings routinely is not a bad reflection on us. Okay. Got here off of a bus working in DC, right? Okay. She
came to this meeting because it's important. I fly to Chicago at six o'clock tomorrow morning. I'm at this meeting because it's important. We all have a role to play in this community. Please respect ours. Thank you. >> Hi, Suz Pollinsky. Um, Cedar Brook
Terrace, Hopewell Township. I'm going to go back to where the yellow light went up and I started going too fast because I want to say the things that these kiddos asked me to say on Friday. It's important to remember that the Alice protocols meant some students had their phones or Chromebooks in hand, but others did not. Some parents forwarded their students the
blast message that was received and followed up with with texts or emails, but others did not. The students I spoke with reported that there was no corresponding communication to students, which meant that even in the same classroom, remember, many classrooms were actually still observing silence. individual kids were working with
different information. If someone does enter a classroom, the expectation is that the class will simultaneously attack the intruder as a group. Whatever feelings any of us might have about that, it can only be effective if everyone in the room is working with the same information. Going forward, the students that I spoke with hope that
attention will be given to clarifying how they should expect to receive information when it's available during these events and what protocols are in place to asssure that when it is available, it's communicated in a uniform way across different classrooms. And the last thing that one of these
kiddos said to me is until I was on my bus, I wasn't aware that I was safe. So everybody understands that there were long chapters where nobody knew if these kids were safe, but at some point it was known that they were and it was not
uniformly or consistently communicated. Um and so different kids had different experience. So I I hope that um we can help work together uh going forward to to take tips like that that the kids had for us and um and think about how how to
work them in. Thank you. Any additional comments? Okay, seeing none, um do you want to address anything from the meeting? >> Okay. Um what I will add again the
intention of the meeting was from the get-go was to have an open forum and agreeing wholeheartedly that this forum was not the best forum for dialogue. So the again heard and intended the the
seventh is planned and designed um as a form of dialogue um as well as as well as for the lockdown. >> This I'm sorry I had the dates incorrectly. So the sixth is for
redistricting and the seventh is for the lockdown. My apologies. Um but intentionally designed to be an open dialogue um um and forum which obviously this setting is not ideal for. Um any
other comments before we close public comments? Okay. Seeing none, um, public comment is now closed. Um, I need a first and a second to move into executive session. >> First, second.
>> All in favor? >> Any opposed or abstaining? Just want to once again thank the community for coming and um, look forward to seeing you in the May meetings.