##VIDEO ID:JQRROItzzwo## for joining us this evening we're going to go ahead and start with a roll call Dr jovy here Mr capadia here Dr Liston here Mr Peters here Dr Resnik here and happy to be back at bar to Mr slotman here Dr Sanu here Miss Williams gallano here Dr Wilson we have a quorum Wonder 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 dis discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the hopal Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof communicated to the hopal Valley News and the times on January 7th 2025 this meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon FiOS the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education the meeting is being recorded for the purposes of Board review future reference preparation of the minutes and viewing on YouTube Bulldog TV and the school district website www.hvs.org members of the public who intend to participate in public comment we ask that you sign in prior to speaking this will assist us with our recordkeeping please join me in a flag salute i al to the of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands under God indivisible with liy and justice for all you want me to go first I need a first and second to approve the minutes for December 16th regular meeting and motion second as well as January 6th motion second all in favor I I any oppose or abstaining the minutes are passed moving on I'm going to go ahead and do the there okay we are going to go ahead and have our student representative thank you before before winter break we had our alumni day where over 25 recent hbcs graduates came in to share and talk about their post High School experiences with current seniors and juniors we also had the National Honor Society induction ceremony with over 100 inductees and last week the leadership Corp and student ambassador members helped out with academic planning night for the class of 2029 and finally many students wanted me to bring up the issue regarding smart passes at the high school this January the high school started implementing smart passes there were some struggles at the start of the implementation as many teachers and students felt frustrated with the system for example many teachers were frustrated with the no fly zone where students weren't allowed to use a bathroom for the first or last five minutes of class also students have been frustrated with the creation of passes if a student makes a pass they cannot make another pass for another 40 minutes this can cause an inconvenience for students and teachers as they have to override the passes however students and teachers have been adjusting to the new system as some changes have been made such as a removal of the noly Zone although issues regarding smart pass are getting fixed a majority of the students are opposed to Smart pass and believe it's overall negative implementation thank you thank you Dr would you yes and thank you for bringing um the concerns of the students to us um what she was saying if you all couldn't hear we've instituted at the middle school and the high school a new pass system called smart pass it's automated the students go in and generate their own passes teachers can always override and generate a pass like if students have taken their pass for the 40 minutes and they need another another pass for whatever reason teachers can override it just like with any electronic system there's bugs there's Kinks to this and they've already made some adjustments based on the noly Zone comments um be leaving before and after class uh that that grace period so we are working on it but we are we're excited that it's going to be a nice way to um know where our students are in the building if there's ever an emergency and real time you can log into the system and know exactly where every kid is or where they were on their way to which is not something that we had the system of before so say God forbid we go into lockdown for some reason a vice principal a principal even the police who work with us on our systems can go in and say there are three kids in the hallway one's here one's there and one's over here and then we know exactly who's moving in our buildings so continue to give us your feedback because you know we care about that um I was surpris if we didn't have kids coming tonight but I guess they put you just up to it right so I appreciate that but tell them thank you because the board is also their board and we we care about their feedback we appreciate it okay so we are going to invite you to of course stay with us this evening as long as you're able um I'm going to pass on my uh president's report we have a full full agenda this evening and I will make comments along the way as needed so I'm going to turn the mic over to Dr Tres I do have a fuller presentation I want to thank the folks that came here tonight for our tour and we will be talking about our budget talking about uh some of the the facilities concerns and plans that we still have in the works but before we do that I wanted to to take a moment um to acknowledge that today is the international Holocaust Remembrance Day today we pause to reflect on Holocaust Remembrance Day a time to honor the memory of the Six Million Jewish men women and children along with millions of others who lost their lives during one of History's darkest chapters as a school district we remain committed to educating our students about the Holocaust and the the vital importance of Tolerance empathy and standing against hatred in all forms by learning by learning from the past we Empower our students and and each other as as community members to build a future rooted and compassion Justice and respect for All Peoples we encourage our school Community to take a moment uh today to remember the victims honor the survivors and reaffirm our Collective commitment to never forget I wanted to take that moment and say that I know we have a lot of celebrations today um but today is that moment to remember so I wanted to to acknowledge that so as we move on in our ceremony um we are going to be doing some celebrations today um we're going to we started with the reception of our Educators and service people of the year who whom we'll honor today um we also have a surprise from our students that would like to come and give a little celebration for the board so our Bear Tavern students if you'd like to come forward and Mr Billy our principal of Bear Tavern hello many of you may have not may not know this but it is also School Board appreciation month so some of our students Mrs aurman had this creative idea they made little Planters and pots for you and they're GNA bring them on up right now guys oh they're coming back there's something for everybody dude thank you thank you that's awesome so these were made in uh Mrs Aman's art room and these students spent a lot of time and they put them in the Kil and heated them up and I want to thank Mrs arriman I also want to thank Mrs Hammer who is a pair of professional on our building because I know nothing about plants and she uh I basically said what do we do and she came up with this really cool idea so thank you and um to our board members I want to thank you very very much for um your dedication and service to the district as you know it's a u sometimes a thankless job but thank you very very much so and students awesome job students [Applause] that is the best acknowledgement ever I I am just so pleased anybody anybody is worried about killing their plant just bring it over here I've got you I've got you thank you students thank you Bear Tavern we couldn't have asked for a better acknowledgement um thank you for thinking of us so before we uh transition to our most important people to celebrate we have one more important person to celebrate he doesn't like to be acknowledged but the board is going to surprise him with the resolution so board president yes so a number of you have heard you know a lot of talk about budget and there is a individual who honestly humbles all of us with the knowledge that he holds in his head um and there is a particular award that for the last 13 years this school district has been honored by through the work of Bob and his department so the finance committee has a special resolution that we will read and vote on this evening yeah thanks so uh thank you so uh the finance can you guys hear me okay the finance and facility committee had a good idea that came from Dr Lon and it was around honoring as we as a community talk about budget and everything budget uh an award that this year only 31 districts out of the 600 in New Jersey received and I think it's important to read the whole resolution in full so we wanted to do this in honor of uh Bob KV so uh the resolution reads resolution recognizing the hall Valley Regional School District's receipt of the association of school business officials international certificate of excellence and Financial repor for the fiscal year ended in June 30th 2024 whereas sound financial management is critical to ensuring the health of the school district and whereas the hopel Valley Regional School District is committed to financial transparency integrity and excellence and whereas the business office of the hopo Valley Regional School District under the leadership of Robert kvita Jr assistant superintendent for business is responsible for the fiscal operations of the district and whereas the association of school business official international issues the the certificate of excellence and financial reporting to school districts that demonstrate excellence and transparency in financial reporting and whereas in fiscal year 2023 only 31 of nearly 600 school districts in the state of New Jersey received the prestigious certificate of excellence in financial reporting now therefore be it resolved that the hopa Valley Regional School District board of education does hereby recognize Robert kinia Jr and the hopo Valley Regional School District business office for the receipt of the association of school business officials international certificate of excellence in financial reporting for the year ended June 30th 20124 I'm going to stop reading because there's still more here but congratulations we appreciate the hard work that you do and thank you thank you thank you we do need a motion right we do pam pam please motion second all in favor I I any oppose or abstaining the motion the resolution has passed and again thank you I know we've embarrassed him a little bit but he takes this humbly and we are very lucky to have this fine gentleman leading our um business admin Department not at this we're to transition to at this point to Miss Smith who's going to present our service people and uh Governor's educators of the Year good evening Dr tce president Williams gallano members of the board distinguished colleagues friends and families tonight marks one of the highlights of the year for our district and the board of of Education each year the governor's educator of the Year program recognizes outstanding teachers and Educational Service professionals across the state who make exceptional contributions to their students nominees were put forward by their peers parents and students at each of our six schools a selection Committee comprising of an administrator staff members and a parent representative use the following specific criteria to choose this year's honory exceptional instructional techniques Superior ability to inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn respect and admiration of students parents and colleagues and the ability to Foster excellence in education as evidenced by ongoing contributions to the Improvement of student achievement and the learning environment at this time each of our building principles will introduce their winners from tolgate grammar school Melissa Lori [Applause] hello good evening and congratulations to all of our educators of the year I am honored to announce this year's togate educator of the Year miss pam weltz pam has been an educator at togate grammar school since 2002 and is taught fifth fourth and second grade prior to coming to Hopewell Miss wels taught in both Florida and Ohio in the classroom Miss wel is consistently prepared and is always looking for innovative ways to instruct all of her students she often gives up her own time during the day to have lunch with her students as a means to strengthen their connection even though she is years under her belt Miss wel Miss welt reaches out to her colleagues searching for ways to enhance her craft when she encounters students that are struggling she fiercely advocates for them differentiates her instruction and works non-stop until she meets their new needs Miss welz has a constant calm demeanor that rubs off on her students when they enter her classroom throughout the years she she has contributed to the school Community by running student government and working on the spirit committee she has also assisted with the school yearbook committee Miss wt's enthusiasm and dedication to her student is felt by all the families that she serves as one parent States my daughter often comes home jumping out of her skin to tell me about something excited that happens in class that day or to share something interesting she learned she's always eager to get to school the very next day another student shared we are class community that loves each other because of her congratulations Mrs wels [Applause] next we'll welcome Ms Nicole G and Freddy from Stony Brook Elementary [Applause] School good evening Dr T Miss gallano Williams hopal Valley Administration members of the board and Community I'd like to take a moment to congratulate all of the recipients it's an honor to celebrate our amazing Educators tonight it's my privilege to celebrate Mr Doug Morrison it's hard to believe that education wasn't his first profession because I can't think of him as anything other than a teacher he started his career in Trenton and then began his career in hopo valley right here in Bear Tavern in 2001 two years later Mr Morrison transferred to Stony Brook Elementary School and has continued to be a pillar of that school for over 20 years during his time at Stony Brook Mr Morrison has taught third and fifth grade Mr Morrison is the epitome of an inclusive educator he has the ability to connect with every child genuinely making everyone feel welcome he ensures that he knows words and phrases and students native languages and continually demonstrates an unwavering commitment to creating a supportive learning environment where everyone belongs and develops his compassion in all of his students Mr Morrison is dedicated to the profession of teaching holding his students to the highest standard and supporting them to reach their full potential his passion for teaching is apparent in how he knows and appreciates the strengths of each of his students as one student simply stated he makes us better as one nomination stated Mr Morrison continually encourages students to push their boundaries supporting to meet his high expectations and celebrating their successes along the way I can think of no better teacher to recommend for this award his students are lucky to have such a passionate and compassionate educator as part of their Journey Mr you're an integral part of our community both in and out of the classroom I am lucky to have you to be part of our school congratulations [Applause] next we'll welcome Dr Scott bratel from Hopewell Elementary School thank you good evening members of the Board of Education Dr tce thank you again Mr Billy for having us this evening um congratulations to all of our uh winners um again uh we are continuously impressed with the work that you do day in and day out um especially for our students so thank you very much um this evening I have the pleasure at Hope Elementary School to announce that our art teacher Miss Leah Anderson has been named our Governor's educator of the year uh Miss Anderson's creativity and dedication shines certainly in every project from organizing our peace Joy Love and Hope ornament that you may have seen uh in in random spots throughout hopeall burough um to designing our school's caling Corner which we now named at the lily pad her unbelievable bulletin boards that I wish were in the front of school but are in one of our great hallways alongside of um one of our side hallways showcase our our students uh gorgeous artwork inspiring pride and joy in all who can see them and we're just so proud and happy certainly that we have Miss Anderson here in the hall as a Hope Elementary School uh one of her colleagues uh noted that uh her Miss Anderson's class is a place where imagination thrives and every child feels valued and supported in her artistic Journey she expertly adapts her lessons to accommodate diverse learning styles ensur uring that every student regardless of their skill level has the opportunity to succeed and flourish and another colleague wrote Leah is an exceptional educator who constantly goes above and beyond never asks for anything but just to create a warm and inviting inspiring space for her students she's not only skilled at teaching art but also at just building strong relationships with her students encouraging them to explore their creativity and develop their artistic skills so Leia goes without saying congratulations thank [Applause] you and while I have the Board of Education here I fig this was my time I know Mr Peters left off a resolution I think it was uh it February 10th Monday February 10th we're going to um adopt a resolution making it Philadelphia Eagles uh resolution go Birds sorry [Applause] please help me welcome homeschool Advantage principal Mr Jay Billy and Resident Giants fan okay congratulations to to all our educators of the year um today we're going to celebrate Miss Mrs Lee fesm as a Bear Tavern Governor's educator of the year um Miss Mrs fesm has served as a teacher for the last 27 years in various positions and is currently working as an interventionist in our school her passion for helping children is evident in all that she does she's dedicated professional with a friendly face for our students and embodies the qualities of an exceptional educator her students and colleagues feel her kindness compassion and unwavering support in all areas of the school as an experienced and hardworking teacher Mrs fesmire is a true guide and Mentor she is always willing to help and share her wealth of knowledge her expertise in literacy has been instrumental in assisting young Professionals in navigating their journey in education empowering them to grow and succeed beyond the classroom Mrs Fel Meer is a driving force within our school community spearheading staff initiatives and fostering collaboration among her peers her commitment to Excellence and ability to inspire those around her make her a Cornerstone of our team we're so fortunate to have Mrs fesmire as part of our school family and we celebrate her remarkable contributions to education and the many lives she has touched here at bar Tavern congratulations Mrs fesmire [Applause] from timberlan Middle School Mr Chris [Applause] Turnbull hello Bear Tavern and good evening I want to say a very big thank you to miss Williams G galano and Dr Trice for the leadership that brings all of this together and tonight's such a special occasion um I want to again just offer such a heartfelt congratulations to all of our honoraries tonight because what makes our district special is the uniqueness of each of the corners of our community you know coming together to form this amazing district and the individual efforts that go into make that Community um are so important so congratulations and thank you for all that you did but tonight it's my privilege to announce this year's Timberlane Middle School Governor's educator of the Year miss Jamie Adler let's give her some love on that one but miss Adler is an eighth great English teacher who has served the hopwell Valley Regional School District with tireless dedication ceaseless empathy and irrepressible joy for over 20 years as a master of a craft in the area of English and language arts Miss Adler has been has The Uncanny ability to connect with students and Inspire even the most reluctant Learners she makes sure that everyone fits in in her class and that all of her students feel seen Middle School I don't know if you heard but it's a tumultuous time for many children but miss Adler goes out of her way to understand to connect with and to inspire every one of her students regardless of their ability their attitude or their Outlook she adoc she advocates for her students and encourages them to shine often calling their successes her proud mama bear moments but miss Adler can be seen in almost every fcet of the school's operation she advises the student council she's a leader on our Dei committee she facilitates our Saturday promise program and so much more not only is Miss Adler always willing to jump in and lend a hand but she does it with an authentic positivity and a caring attitude that one cannot help but notice and be inspired by her empathy and her genuine love for her students in our school is palpable Miss Adler was nominated by students by parents and by colleagues which is a testament to the wide range of her impact on our school Community she's incredibly Dependable creative resilient and flexible there is simply not a problem or a challenge that she does not meet head on and solve regardless of how much work or energy it takes she's Relentless in her support of the students of Timberlane Middle School one former student stated Miss Adler is the single most impactful teacher I had during my time in the Hopewell Valley School District she is one of a kind and is sort of a keystone in timberlane's infrastructure now as an adult myself I still appreciate all the wisdom Miss Adler has offered me over the years and I don't know that I'll be able to find someone who relates so well and so easily with all of her students anytime soon I honestly aspire to be the sort of mentor that Miss Adler was for me at such a p time in my life and a parent of one of our former students said throughout 8th grade I watched my child blossom into a confident and articulate young woman I credit this transformation and growth to the nurturing environment created by Miss Adler one of our colleagues said I cannot think of another person in the building who regularly hears from so many former students some of whom take time out of their busy schedules to visit her her deep understanding of middle school student paired with her hilarious personality and EXP expertise in the content that she teaches make her an incredible candidate for this honor and I think what makes Miss Adler more impressive is not what she does each day but how she does it she's got this unparalleled ability to be positive to be flexible and observant she's the first to jump in and willing to do whatever I need and the school needs she checks on others and makes a proactive impact every single day Miss Adler is the epitome of community of a community Builder at Timberlane and it's an honor to celebrate her as the 2024 25 Governor's educator of the year we are all grateful to work with her every day and she is incredibly worthy of this incredible honor thank you [Applause] and last but not least Trish Riley from Central High [Applause] School good evening and thank you so much for having me here to celebrate these amazing Educators I feel incredibly fortunate to work in such an amazing district with such remarkable people tonight I am lucky enough to introduce Jamie Toronto as the VCS educator of the Year Jamie has been a teacher in the wellness department at hchs for the past 24 years during that time she has not only taught multiple levels of traditional Wellness classes but she has also impacted hundreds of students through her work with the teen pep program the Adaptive Wellness class the step program and the leadership core program Miss Toronto was well respected both by her colleagues who describe her as a constant Beacon of energy enthusiasm and professionalism and also by her students Miss Toronto maintains high standards for her students and encourages them to prioritize well-being both in and out of the classroom as one student says she pushes you to be the best version of yourself the impact that Miss Toronto has had upon the students of hbcs is immeasurable and we are proud to recognize her as hbs's Governor's educator of the year [Applause] this evening we are also proud to recognize three outstanding support staff professionals from Hopewell Valley for their hard work and dedication to our district eligible candidates included power professionals secretaries custodians maintenance staff bus drivers van attendants campus safety officers and members of our technology department a selection committee including myself and the directors of facilities pupil services and transportation carefully reviewed nominations and selected the recipients based on the following criteria dedication to their job they are inspiring and they make a difference in the lives of Staff parents and students I know Miss Riley was so excited to be here she didn't even sit down so we're going to bring her back to the podium for the high school winner thank you for allowing me to join you again I am very excited to introduce Terry Mont as an educational support professional of the Year Miss Montana has been a power professional in hopel Valley Regional School District since 2007 she has supported dozens of our special education students since that time most recently as a job coach in our work-based learning program and she is known throughout the school throughout the district and now throughout the community for her patience her kindness and her humor M Montana's impact is not only limited to the special education students that she supports each day she also has a positive impact on her colleagues and on the school as a whole through her involvement in the hbsa The Garden Club and the hbcs faculty Council we are so appreciative of Miss Montana's hard work and unfailing dedication to the students of hbcs and we're very excited to celebrate her as the hbcs governor's educational support professional of the year [Applause] well welcome back Miss Nicole G and Freddy from Stony Brook Elementary School thank you again um I am so pleas pleased to announce Miss Carrie r as our very deserving winner of Education educational support professional of the Year here at Stonybrook M Ral joined Stonybrook in 2014 and has been an integral part of our school Community ever since and while she has worked in a variety of classrooms and settings she has spent most of her time in kindergarten she has left a positive impact on the many students she's worked with as one nomination stated the children adore her and that is because of her compassion and sincerely caring nature she is insightful and intuitive and always senses when something is going on with the student so we can explore their feelings and support them she always has the best interest of our students at heart outside of the classroom Miss R is always ready to help out at Stony Brook um she is a involved in our bus Duty she is always greeting our students with a smile and she is a supportive member of High School athletics often helping with many of their their games um I did talk to some of our students to share why they think Miss re is so special and one student shared that it is her smile every day I walk in the door that makes the difference another shared she helps me with my boots um and the last one just stated yay Mrs re I love her and I think that sums it up so we are lucky to have her here in our community so congratulations Carrie [Applause] and from our transportation office Miss tea Owens director of Transportation will present our last winner of the evening [Applause] good evening all as you know I'm the new kid on the Block so this is um first timer so this is about Miss Denise Ying who is a very valued bus driver in our transportation department she goes above and beyond for all of her students her co-workers you know she comes in a little earlier and she starts everyone buses especially those big buses to make sure we have them nice and warm for the children she's been a driver for over 40 years with us for three um not her first time in Hopewell she was a um driver in Hopewell when she was working for Rick bus company as well so she's very familiar with the area very familiar with the students um as the student that nominated her stated you know every morning it's good morning good night cuz she knows it's an intrical part of their day you know to make sure they're going in school happy you know they're the first sight outside of the parents so she does go above and Beyond so I just want to say congratulations to all recipients and congratulations to Miss Denise welld deserved congratulations to all of our honores this week this evening thank you for being here thank you for all of our guests and family who came out to support them and thank you for all you do for our district we are a better place because of all of you have a great evening yes you can we ask everybody who um was acknowledged for a quick picture out in the hallway you're losing we'll be back in just a quick moment this is a nice time for a bathroom break bathrooms right outside the door I think right right here yeah [Music] really you [Music] system exactly that's true bang and then so tired I don't want to Eid right he's the off9 Third yep we Saturday thematically appropriate like it what we got used to very quickly but [Music] now is it but it was uh part started getting can't go outside yeah um I I guess it's called it's kind of just south and my wife Y and and and I have to say looking like no land no land how little land can we find Hope um no not after living not after having it uh I had 1.2 Acres I was like I you glass land how little can you have in Pennington I think we have the smallest block you could possibly have for um yeah I I like if we're moving into town I little possible you got to do the SCH good job have you SE these numers recognition yeah you can I don't know said it was going to read it or not [Music] oh no thank you for public [Music] comment myshirt people wow all the people my people how many people signed in there is no such thing as a [Music] and we're back thank you all for your patience okay uh we are going to um accept the resolution um for the school board recognition of the month and there is a very long resolution even longer than Mr calavas so we're going to um it's attached to all of your electronic agendas and we're going to vote to pass it so I need a first and second to accept the resolution motion second all in favor I I any opposed or abstaining the resolution is passed moving on in the agenda to the um presentation for Mr Cav on the budget audit or the annual audit okay I will uh be brief um as part of the uh audit program that we have uh it is the requirement of every Board of Education to uh receive a report about their annual audit and any findings that were found um so we will go through that right now this report was reviewed in um greater detail with the full finance committee um uh last Monday so just to let you know that the audit process is not um uh a simple process we begin in June uh prior to year end with about two weeks of Auditors in our offices looking and doing payroll testing accounts payable checking our internal controls um they go they leave for a while they do some uh field work they come back typically October November period where they spend a good solid month um I know it's a month because people complain that they've taken over the conference room um so they are here uh for about a month of actual fieldwork they go through purchase orders they speak with each of the Departments they'll talk to Dr tce they'll talk to um folks in HR they'll talk to almost everybody in my office um separate from me that's how they detect fraud um if there was any um but there's a very complex process that goes through um a lot of detailed questioning a lot of prep uh documents that have to go back and forth a lot of questions that are asked so it is a very thorough uh process they also provide ongoing support if there's something that we want to implement the district and we want to know uh how that can be done within the parameters of state law uh we have those folks there to guide us through um any tricky accounting that we might need to do grants for example if we get a large Grant from an outside Source um they help us protect that money for that purpose okay um there are four kinds of audit opinions that you can get an unmodified opinion that's the best one you can get it doesn't sound glamorous but that's is the best one a modified opinion is if the auditor has to make changes to your books you don't want that an adverse opinion means you've done a lot of things wrong and believe it or not there are districts in New Jersey that do get a disclaimer of opinion which means the auditor can't make a decision on what your books look like because they are that bad um there are districts that get that we did receive an unmodified opinion I'm happy to say um which means that our district is preventing all of our financial statements the way they're supposed to be presented a lot of what boards uh like to hear is what is our financial status at theend end of the year U this is a very misleading number sometimes um it gets published in various newspaper articles we do not have $1 155 million sitting around in a savings account waiting to be spent um of that $15 million $1.4 million of it was purchase purchase orders or uh requests to purchase that went unfulfilled at the end of last year so we have $1.4 million of goods Services Etc that had not been finally fulfilled it could have been partially fulfilled it could have been on back order any number of different things were unexpended so that money has already been spent it's just not liquidated yet um of the 15 million 3.9 million was left over from the year before and was moved into this budget so that 3.9 million has been spent it's already been spent the maintenance Reserve is real that is money that can be used for maintenance projects that means things that are used to keep M um systems up and running on a daily basis not for capital projects it cannot be used for capital projects it's ongoing routine maintenance and it's there in case we have a problem during the year we may run out of money it could be used to replace a well pump because we've been talking about that recently but that's money that's set aside for that purpose capital reserve money is money that's set aside for major capital projects and it must be authorized by both Department of Education and the Board of Education it can't be just utilized by me if we run short on something or I want to use it for you know uh a pet project that that we come up with the entire board must approve it as well as it must be approved by the Department of Education the $2.5 million of allowable Surplus we are allowed by law to keep 2% of our audited expenditures in reserve for an emergency that truly is money that if something were to happen um we needed to hire 10 teachers we needed something happened we could pull that money however it does need board approval and it must be approved by the commissioner of education so the money cannot be just used because we as a board decide there is a rigorous process that must be gone through we must petition the commissioner there's a lot of backup documentation that must go forward and they canot deny the request if they feel that there's money in District um to cover the expenses that we want to use it for okay we are in Good Financial stead um with our with our fund balances um we'll be talking more about why we aren't using the capital reserve as we get into our uh referendum talk later on but this is a positive uh for us we did have one minor audit recommendation in 2023 24 um during the testing of our Student Activity accounts um these are funds that are run by the schools themselves uh usually it's Dollar in dollar out if uh Mrs Jones is collecting money for a field trip she collects the money turns it into the office they take that money that's collected and they go to pay for the field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo or wherever they're going um the high school has a lot of Student Activity accounts related to clubs and Athletics again Dollar in dollar out um the issue that we had on this one was um when they were dispersing money there was a required form that wasn't there it's our part of our internal control procedure that every time there's a dispersement there's an approval that goes through several different levels at the at the level of the school this particular form was missing um I this com it's not a a substantiative comment in nature um but unfortunately with Student Activity accounts they're very uh strict with those because they involve a lot of cash um so we this did not affect us we do have to do a corrective action plan I'll be meeting with all of the folks who manage Student Activity accounts um to just review procedures regarding that just some final comments I want to make I do appreciate the board um resolution earlier um I also they knowled me I need to acknowledge all the folks that help us get that report now I mentioned the the other folks and the other offices within my building we all work together to make sure that purchasing is being done correctly that we're following all the rules that are implemented by the state and believe it or not the audit encompasses more than just my office there's a lot that goes through uh Transportation with the drrs report um the Assa report which is done by the technology department and curriculum office um a lot of purchasing is obviously done by the curriculum office and we work closely with them on grants management so all these folks um have to do it and lastly the the folks in the Human Resources office there's a lot that goes on between U both of our offices related to hiring and Staffing um a lot of reports that go back and forth between the two without all of our staff members being focused on these items um our audits wouldn't be as clean as they are um we do have a lot of accountability there's a purchasing training we do each year to make sure all the folks are trained um and how to properly purchase through the New Jersey uh Department of Education it also helps us with our state guidelines the audit is a huge factor in our NJ qac report and we will be going through qac next year so it's nice that we have a nice clean audit uh as we enter that process um again the county superintendent also has oversight so again we're pleased with the results um and very thankful for the staff that we have here in District um helping us get there any questions from the board uh before I ask you to accept the audit and the corrective action plan yeah I was thinking about whether I should ask but and decided I will this is just having now been here for three years I've noticed that sometimes we say things and um some of the folks don't fully hear what's being said so I'm just going to ask you so the 15 million we don't have that no right okay and and then the other question I was going to ask you for perspective when that well pump broke in timberlan and we had to replace it how much did that cost just one well pump roughly Tom how much C was r2,000 for for the motor you but the whole the actual work the labor cl to 30,000 so it was 30,000 just one how much did the chiller cost at the hle elementary was that one point okay yeah 1.8 so these things can run you know that capital reserve two chillers and we're in trouble okay thank you any other questions seeing none need a roll call motion to accept the audit need a first and second to accept the audit first second second all is in favor okay all in favor I any opposed or abstaining the audit is accepted thank you we will go moving on to referendum yep I lost where's the SL show all right [Music] so we want to begin by um recognizing and welcoming our um Architects here they're here today to help us and they're going to talk specifically about the work that we have uh been talking to the board about they have not decided if they're going to go to referendum or not we are still heavily in discussion about that and part of that has been us talking with our architect about the the projects that were on the original referendum and um what has become a mergent problem since then before I get into that I am going to take some time to go through a um are you going to start with the architect first and then we'll go through the our budget yeah so after we talk about um the proposals for the facilities and maintenance repairs that that would be encompassed in a referendum if we decide to go that route again as as if the board allows us to do that which I highly recommend that that's the way to go um we'll talk about the budget which is a separate part of um concerns that the district has you want to go budget first yes no we can start with the architect we don't want to keep them all night so let's start with that and then there'll be opportunities for questions after the um presentation in comments yes up to yes George am I on you gotta get real close good evening good evening I'm George duthy with fhd Architects sitting to my left is Tom Quinn who's the uh director of facilities for Hall Valley Regional School District thanks again for having me here tonight here to give you an update of where we are uh since uh unfortunately the referendum Was Defeated uh to to tell you about some of the work that we've been doing and some of the things that we would like to just show to you to see the direction we like to head in and where the projects are now and and things that have changed since that time so just please bear with me some of this information you may have seen before I'll just tell you what the agenda is going to be for tonight of where we are right now our proposed projects two questions and again none of this has been decided right now this is just a proposal at this time everything you're going to hear tonight are just you know where we kind of where we are now and of course there's more work to do to get to the point of consensus and uh being ready to move forward again on a second referendum so again George before you you go on further uh after the we had the board debrief a finance facilities debrief and a board debrief on you know just what we wanted to to move forward what the finance committee charged Dr Teresa and I with as well as George and Tom was to go back to the projects and re um evaluate them based upon need okay what is a number one need number two need a number three need at after um George Tom and I and Rosetta had gone through and examined that we presented to the board a week ago um and which has put us where we are right now having done it um some things were pulled out some things were pushed in um and this is going to kind of give you the board the rest of the board and the public a chance to understand where we are um I'm sure they'll be talking about where we the decisions that were made uh at a later point but George go back to George so we're going to talk about the summary of those projects uh the overall costs what we would expect in terms of eligibility for State support and moving forward and next steps that have to be taken so just the key points uh there's consideration be given now to a November of 2025 uh referendum that will be during the general election it will not be a special election so that will be the opportunity to have the referendum when the other elections are held so that is the proposal since the last refer Was Defeated referendum was defeated the Board of Education facilities Tom Administration have gotten together and have uh listen to feedback from the community and we want to show you tonight the results of that effort the last referendum as you all remember was in 2015 which was almost 10 years ago so what's different this time well there were some additional eligible infrastructure projects that were somewhat costly that were added into the new proposal for the referendum those projects that were added in are eligible for state support okay so the state will pay uh for the their portion of 100% of the cost of that project which is around a third of the cost and we're going to talk more about that all right cost escalation unfortunately we did have to account for some additional escalation from last September to November not on every single project but certain projects we definitely did have to add that we took the synthetic turf fields uh over at aft out of the referendum proposal we also removed the toilet room and Concession building that was proposed for the high school two questions are now proposed question number one all critical infrastructure projects 99% of those projects are eligible for State support okay question number one must pass before question number two can pass we're going to tell you what question number two is about it is about the space for students at Bear Tavern and tolgate Elementary school and I know with the Bear Tavern project are questions about the pilot money I'm going to uh turn that over to dror trace to speak more about it you want me to talk about it now uh sure so and in terms of the um the pilot I know that that's going to be a question that's going to come up we have been in in discussions with the Mayors we met with them just a week ago um a mayor Kennedy's here today the other two Mayors couldn't make it they give their regards um but they we had a a promise again from Hotwell Township that said that they have committed to paying for be taverns addition um if the the mayor can sort out um some of the negotiation um struggles that they're having they left that meeting with that promise that they're going to pay for that addition and um if they can come to the agreement they're working with the lawyers now hopefully that we can have that answer soon and that would mean that would come off that question would come off the referendum so we're excited about the progress we've made and again they hold to their commitment that they are willing to pay for that addition so they're working through that with the lawyers okay so we'll talk about the proposed projects and the project categories first of all uh these are the critical needs projects these are not fluff projects you've heard these projects before in the previous referendum the building Integrity projects the roof warranties the roof areas that uh have expiring roof warranties but also roofs that need to be need to be replaced and these the roofs again that were not done in the last referendum uh so this will also provide an opportunity for future solar to be installed on the rooftops of the schools indoor environmental improvements and I know we've spoken a lot about those previously but many of these cannot be deferred any longer uh for reasons I think you've heard Mr Quinn speak of parts are impossible to get now uh the Technologies are so far Advanced that the systems have become obsolete uh Safety and Security obviously a big project security exterior doors interior doors replacement of the electrical service at tolgate elementary school that must be done we're also going to build space for students and some uh Renovations as well primarily at tolgate and Bear Tavern Elementary School there will also be some site improvements but again these are critical projects various Paving projects drainage Corrections and also some entrance enhancements such as at uh tolgate Elementary sorry timberlan middle school so next so question number one again it is the critical infrastructure projects 99% of these projects are eligible for State support and again the state will pay about a third of the cost of the project now uh the minimum the state supposed to pay is 40% but they don't ever pay the full 40% our financial advisors tell us that about 33% is the right number to use so that's the number we're showing you this evening and that's what the tax schedules are going to be based on that you're going to see affected systems at the end of their useful life require excessive maintenance and repairs obsolete poor operating condition Etc again question one must pass for question number two to pass so get 33% of the projects eligible for uh the projects that are eligible paid for by the state all right now I wanted to say uh the cost to replace the systems we're talking about in the referendum as I think we've said before very expensive projects very hard to do you you heard uh speaking earlier about the amount of money that the district has in reserves a large project like the ones that are in the referendum that would be very very difficult for the district to afford and would be a financial burden right and of course if you fix that project under an emergency you get no State support for that state support only comes to The District in the form of a referendum so potential disruptions to school operations right can happen so question number two these are the expansion and renovation projects you can see those at uh togate Elementary School and at be Tavern Elementary as well uh we talked about what will happen if these spaces are not constructed and we'll talk a little bit more about that but we are looking at larger class sizes potential redistricting reduction in space available for specials okay um and finding places to put services for the kids the districts now and not just toal Valley most school districts have increase the level of services to their kids right and we need space for that schools when they originally designed didn't contemplate all the services that would be provided to children as we do today and the need to continue to use the modular buildings so next please so we talked about Capital project planning and execution earlier the district continues to expend funds uh this referendum is dealing with a lot of stuff but there's still a lot of things that happen almost every day in the district every week in the district that funds have to be expended for because it can't wait so there are costs that have to be covered in the budget part of the the funds that we discussed earlier and emergency and emergent repairs caused by age wear and tear some of the items are original to the buildings when they were constructed and the very expensive project simply can't be covered as we discussed earlier these are just some examples I'm not going to go through all of these but these are just some of the examples on that left side there those are projects that the district was able to accomplish with their capital reserve funds over the course of the past several years some of those projects I know a couple of the projects we were able to get some support from the state and former Rod grants on those which was useful that was one other mechanism that is available very limited opportunities uh there are other projects that are just simply repair and emergency type projects on the right hand side uh and even now Timberly elementary school right sanitary line that was last one we had to deal with right uh so the district still continues to deal with these types of projects on a regular basis so if I could just pause here oh you're probably gonna say the same thing I'm gonna say Bob um but if we can just pause here I know that that question comes up a lot why don't we use the capital reserve or why don't doesn't the district save up for these ongoing projects we do save up for these ongoing projects and that's what's here right um us trying to get ahead and plan for projects I know that the the turfield at the high school that already exists that we went to repair and replace we repaired over the years there was money saved for that and there was also money that we saved to replace that turf field so I know that that was a point of contention for folks but once you put these things in they have to be maintained there's a schedule for things like our turf field for our tennis courts that are rubber based that have to be replaced every every so often and repaired along the way for our roofs for our um our rubber track all of these things that once we put them in for our students need to be maintained over time when we plan for them what we can't plan for is the emergencies right so that's why you have to keep a capital reserve because these emergencies sometimes can get in the millions of dollars and if there is an opportunity for a broad Grant or something where the state will actually give some matching we have to have the money up front to pay for that project we can apply for the grant we may get the money back we never get all of it that they promise us but we can we do do that and if we don't have any in reserve we can't Avail ourselves with those opportunities so yeah and that's a that's a great point I just wanted to point out that we did um we are doing this coming summer a rod Grant project that will be funded 40% by the state a major boiler project at Central High School we're replacing original boilers um in one of in one of the that's actually the majority of the heat that comes through the the original parts of those buildings but we are getting 40% back uh from the state project was pulled from the referendum because we were um concerned that if it did fail we wouldn't we wouldn't be able to get those replaced this summer so we do use our capital reserve um especially when we can get contribution from the state using our capital reserve without a rod Grant or or um contribution from the state means we're paying the entire cost of this and we'll get more into that later on and Bob again I'm going to be anal but I'm discovering sometimes things need to be repeated if we didn't have the full amount in the capital reserve to pay for those boilers would we be able to take advantage of the rod Grant if we only had the 60% would we be able to do the project we'd have to do it smaller we have we wouldn't be able to do it because the state wouldn't give us 40% until afterwards we'd have to we have to have the full 100% up front yeah you have to prove to them before they issue the rod grant that you have the local share and the same goes for what we're asking for for the referendum right right if we do approve the referendum the we have to ask for the full amount right and then we what the state gives us back will reduce the tax burden but what's going to be on the paper is the full am right yeah I I think that the thank you you Alex for trying to just add some detail and layers under this um I think what was floated out in the general population through the newspapers rather than going to the School Board website was a unfortunately a casual reference to the $15 million and really miscommunicated to the community what was available to the to the school district to use the other thing as you listen to U Mr Cav you see the complexities and the rules around each and every one of those line items within that $15 million some some of it's already spent some of it can only be utilized as uh Capital uh expense it all needs reproval and again I've said this a number of times but given the audience I'll say it again there were implications to behavior that was slanderous in my opinion and inappropriate and it unfortunately helped sync the referendum people had misinformation so the complexity of managing the budget and what's available for the the number of changes in our schools for buildings that are over a hundred years old it's a lot and I think um Bob and Tom quinnn and his um department they do a Herculean job managing this work we get a lot of um relief for using our own folks to do a lot of this work um so just I really need to underscore um as we talk about the possibility of referendum and the possibility of just big projects coming our way that we trust you as parents and community members that you're getting to the the website of the district for the right information and if you have questions about what is on the website please ask the information floated in public is inaccurate and quite honestly was not in good spirit and it it it really disappoints me because it left this group of people here feeling like they had to defend themselves um for really really all the wrong reasons and we're here for your kids and we give your time our time because we're committed to that so I'm going to turn that back over to you okay thank you so we'll go through the schools one by one just to give you kind of an overview of the projects and the ca so here's a Central High School where many of you know much work was done in the last referendum there's uh about a little more than $9.5 million peros osed there that's the remainder of those roof areas I was speaking about earlier that were not touched in the last referendum because they didn't need to be done at that time the 400 Wing which is a science Wing HVAC system needs to be replaced and Paving in the Solar parking lot and a few other select areas of the high school and that really is the limit of the work that's proposed this time uh moving on to right and again George the uh the roof area is to the to the lower right um folks still refer to that gym I I like to laugh about this but they refer to it as the new gym and that new gym is probably 25 years old now so that's why that roof needs to needs to be replaced and again these are not the roofs that were in the other referendum that happened almost 10 years ago uh we when a referendum passed there are strict strict guidelines that and that's why the language was so complicated in that voter question that you all looked at they're very specific about saying what the project is in detail and we as a district cannot spend that money on anything but that project and we have to do the project that we said otherwise Mr Cavita and I go to jail and I'm too much of a diva to go to jail all right that we're not doing that right so if we say we're going to do a project we have to do that project these are roofs that were not done in the original referendum it's rare that a school would do a school district would do a whole roof on a school it's just too massive of a project it usually is done in cycles and then we keep record of what what those roof C CES are and try to take them out as best we can okay thank you so Timberlane Middle School uh about $2.5 million again same uh story with the roofs areas that were not done in previous referenda uh the end of their useful life now a variety of indoor environmental improvements HVAC projects in the primary classroom in the in the classroom pods C and B andc the main classroom areas of timberlan they're going to be done the auction gym We'll have air conditioning HVAC equipment replaced that is the original equipment to the building very obsolete uh and also replacement of the chiller yes it's actually time to replace the chillers they're more than 10 years old right now so o gym Renovations will also be made we're going to try and make that space a little bit nicer uh replace the gym floor and some other work in there and make the improvements to the front entrance which I think we've spoken about before you've all seen the front entrance to timberlan middle school we just want to uh we want to enhance that improve accessibility uh take care of some of the deteriorated conditions moving on to the next oh go ahead sorry uh I wanted to speak real quick on the um HVAC work in the B and C Wing at um timberlan any of you that have children at Timberlane uh probably were aware that we had several failures over the last week when it was really cold we had coils breaking in the uh univ vents that left uh three rooms without heat so this is an ongoing issue that we're trying to correct be Tavern elementary school again Roofing uh deteriorated exterior doors that need to be replaced and you're going to see that also I think at Hell Elementary School uh the Breezeway uh area which is where the staff come into the building uh also will be uh will be addressed classroom doors in uh the classroom pods a through D will have um SEC glazing and some security enhancements made to those function and functional enhancements uh cafeteria Renovations adding some single occupant toilet rooms things like that are going to be addressed in uh the Bear Tavern project along with systems that you don't really see much but it's the shore pumping station that needs to be updated that needs to be replaced that's obviously a critical system connects to the Force main that pumps down to uh down to Ying actually is where it's connected that that needs to be replaced as well and obviously we need that system to be reliable and the staff entrance walkway cover so that's again about 10.2 million at be Tavern again eligible projects moving on to the next Hopewell Hopewell about 10 point just over $10 million almost 10.1 again the same with the roofing a theme Here HVAC and again these are the critical HVAC projects and equipment that are problematic very hard to repair and in some cases parts right Tom aren't even available anymore and Equipment really can't be repaired uh doas which is dedicated uh outside air system ventilation work will be done which is also contributes to comfort humidity control and Energy Efficiency as well by the way and that's a theme in all of the projects and a primary Wing HVAC equipment will also be upgraded as well again interior classroom doors and we're going to add two ADA Compliant toilet rooms to the kindergarten classrooms at Hopewell okay next Stony Brook again uh Roofing uh the flat roofs at at at Stony Brook will be addressed along with uh some Macy wall conditions that are causing leaks right now at ston Brook we're going to address those as well deteriorated uh exterior doors uh cafeteria the rooftop units again Stony Brooks 25 years old those units are Beyond useful life are giving us issues as well to put a chiller in because uh the geothermal system there after the amount of time the geothermal has been there starts to lose its efficiency so we're trying to plan ahead by putting a cooling tower in as we're seeing that system's efficiency start to drop a little bit every year uh and a drainage issue uh also at the rear of the school will be addressed at ston Brook there about $ 3.35 million okay togate elementary school again Roofing replacement of C deteriorated exterior doors HVAC doas again HVAC on the third floor of the building Safety and Security electrical switch gear that's a very very important project for togate that needs to be attended to and also some driveway improvements additional parking and pavement restoration will be done at togate elementary for about 5 point almost 5.5 million now question number two these are the these are the space projects the projects where we're constructing space for the kids right so bar Tavern Elementary School I think we've seen these slides before area where uh proposed addition will be built the Modular Buildings will be will be uh will be renovated uh and improved so District staff can move in there for for uh kind of uh the administrative portion and supports portion of the district and a 10 classroom addition proposed at bar Tavern this is the project that if uh we're so fortunate that we do get pilot money that's 16.1 million right there for the cost of the addition at Bear Tavern okay there'll be small group inst structure rooms toilet rooms and so on and so forth here you can see again uh this is Tollgate addition at the back of the building we're going to remove the modulars expand the parking lot just go back to the side plan please expand we move where the modular buildings are that's that red rectangle at the bottom we're going to increase uh the number of parking spaces by using that area for parking and we're going to make that driveway wider get rid of that congestion and then trou trouble with turning there and then we're going to construct a addition in the back and also of course we're going to bump out and replace the hard surface play and I think basketball might be back there that might be be Tavern but anyway we're going to replace the oh oh it's at togate okay right so that's part of that project as well and create a courtyard so there's the uh what it looks like blown up uh again bathrooms uh six prek classrooms self-contained 950 Square fet including an ada8 accessible toilet and that project is about eight almost $8.9 million 8.86 n million okay and and there will be some Renovations at toate as well we're going to uh relocate and renovate the nurses Suite uh it is woefully size now we're going to we're going to actually move it to uh the area that's marked as number one on the plan the old nurses Suite we're going to make into a small group instruction room and then we're going to make some enhancements in the gym area including adding a place for the gym instructor and a toilet room over there too for everybody to use uh since there's no facilities in that area so that project is about $623,000 so here's the overall here's the overall submm you can see question number one and question number two all of the values listed for each of the schools you can see that question number one those critical infrastructure projects that are 99% eligible for State support it's five 59 m28 th000 and then there question number two projects at baren new construction that's at $16.1 million and then for togate the N almost $9.5 million you can see your totals there 84,836 th000 uh those numbers may change a little as a state paperwork is submitted but uh that's that's about where we're going to be okay so here just seeing a breakdown again those total costs at the top and here you see the eligible uh costs uh for each and percentages for each of the projects for those of you who may not have heard it before new construction in New Jersey is based upon a formula that's based on what we call unhoused student students uh onh house students uh are determined by the state of New Jersey it's not based on what we think it should be or a number that it feels like it should be it's based on the area of the buildings divided by an area allowance compared to the number of students that you have in the district okay so you have very uh very few unhoused students in HW Valley and so therefore very little of your new construction is actually uh eligible for State support okay and we know that because we have to do that exercise when we make our submissions in the district's longrange facility plan which also has to be updated as part of this process okay so there you can see expected State share expected local share overall numbers so you'll see overall about 23.6% of both questions supported by the state in the aggregate okay moving on and then these are the tax impacts these were provided to us by The District's financial advisor by the way you can see question number one each of the communities hotall Township hball bur and Penington bur this is the average annual tax impact based on an average assessed value home which appears there on the top of the chart and you can see the impact hopeall Township 284 burrow 248 Pennington burrow uh 294 and then for question two same thing 184 160 and 191 and then the combined question and there they are for hotall township hall burrow and Pennington burrow that includes the 16.1 million at Bear Tavern which drops off if the pilot money comes through right so if we did lose uh if we did get a a contribution from hopal Township to cover the cost of the Bear Tavern admission uh you'd see about $15 on average drop in that total if we didn't have to pay for the bare Tavern addition right okay so just moving forward and next steps just a couple of slides here so what happens if the referendum doesn't pass well uh and probably I'm not the one to speak the best about this and Dr Trace probably board members may have something to say about this but impact on students and instructional programs larger class sizes more redistricting reduced Services which I think we discussed before failures of critical Building Systems which are going to be extremely costly uh to repair and the money that you saw that the district had it's capital reserve and Main Reserve will go away okay just because of the amount of money you're talking about for these these types of systems hey construction costs are going to continue to rise I don't think we're going to ever see construction cost come down ever again at least not my lifetime so I think that's something we have to be realistic about we've already seen some impact just just moving to November if if we move to November okay so next steps really uh working back from that November 4th date uh we do have to make the notifications to the county clerk of Elections for a general election it's 75 days the clerk has to be notified uh ahead of the election date and so we do have to get some paperwork into the state and make some decisions about submitting those projects in April and then a decision about moving forward with the actual referendum have to be done sometime in July by the board of education so that notification could be made to the clerk of Elections so it's it's a key thing that George is talking about there it's not um the dates are set if we do want to go to a November 4th election uh that would be covered it would be a free election for the district we heard loud and clear that folks were not happy that we had a special election um but the backdating of the projects it's 75 days back from November 4th that we must notify the clerk that we're going to do an election then it's what is it it 90 days 90 for the 90 days for us gets reviewed by the department ofeducation you have to back date again so if we want to proceed with the November 4th election we are on somewhat of a time crunch that we would need um to get the go ahead George to give George to go ahead to start to submit um he doesn't have to submit everything but he will have to submit some things because projects were broken apart and there's some new items that need to be submitted um but we do need to act relatively quickly if we are going to make make a date that's seemingly almost a year away so your your only opportunity to have an election that won't cost the district to have scheduled special election is in November the other referendum dates and there are four other dates that this and it's mandated by by law the dates when school referendums can be held and those other four dates are special elections which have to be specially scheduled for you and therefore there is a cost associated with those like there would have been in September with that referendum so November is your only opportunity to have a referendum that will not cost the district any extra money so at this point we we open it up for board discussion of the finance committee um wants to comment on the meeting or you know any any board member has things that they want to ask or comment on thank you I'll I'll defer to you can hear me right I'll defer to the finance Comm this is the first I'm hearing and seeing any of this so this is just my initial reaction it occurs to me that the the pilot issue should be the very first thing and What's the timing of that and how will that impact all the work that you all need to do because that that needs to get decided I feel like before you know we kind of talk about whatever's in the question too because that's going to have a direct impact and is that is there enough time for that to happen you know for us to be able to you know fix whatever it is we need to fix in order to to to get us to November so again um in our meeting with the um the Mayors they were committed to trying to negotiate an opportunity for hopwell to keep their promises to covering the cost of the new addition um but there were some other things that they had to work out and the lawyers are talking uh we let them know the timeline that we're on but if we don't hear from them um probably within the month we're going to have to move forward with this this proposal is without us having that pilot money um in place um there is an opportunity for them to do it in other ways and give us the money back after the fact that we would also relieve the tax impact in that scenario we have to bond out the whole thing and then they would just pay back for that portion after the fact um so that's it's not right so one of the other things that we that can happen is we start the process of getting the projects approved if by the time July comes and they give us money we don't put it on the qu we don't put it on the ballot but the project is approved and we can move ahead right but uh we're hoping to do it well before July right right we're doing right now is we're getting we're submitting projects to the doe for their approval they as as I talked earlier everything must be approved by the by the Department of Education prior to us being able to do anything so the projects would be going down there for their approval if we you know if if money comes available to us in some way whether it's a pilot or anything else is another major donation from a Community member we don't put the entire amount of money on the bond question we have some more time to determine that so so the way I think about it is there's the best possible outcome is we know where we are by our next board meeting but if we don't we're going to have to work harder to explain to folks why we're bonding the full amount but there is plenty of time for the municipalities to figure things out and hopefully come up with the money to cover the Bear Tavern addition I mean pretty much up until the point where we actually start issuing bonds to pay for it right so so there you know there's kind of there's the best possible thing and the next thing um I'm hopeful that things will get figure it out really fast I can only hope that's all I can [Music] do um Mr Peters did you want to share anything or you good oh go ahead thank you any other questions I I have a little Soliloquy if there are no questions so so here's my take on it because I said as we were talking to folks about the last referendum that um it's a my view was we were putting the question in front of the community and kind of asking them what kind of District they wanted to have um going into this discussion Dr thees has done a significant amount of convincing to have set my mind to a place where well there was so much disinformation that um folks didn't necessarily understand the full impact of what they were they were voting for and so I'm inclined I mean and we do need to have a referendum to maintain the kind of District that we have so I'm inclined to support it in the next meeting in the form if it's it roughly in a form that we're seeing it right now but I will say this on the record um if the voters in this District want to have a school district where kids learn from home and not in school on a regular basis and we've just had folks in Princeton where they had to close the high school if they want to have class sizes that are significantly higher than they're now with kids sometimes holding umbrellas over their heads because the roof failed and there's bra in if that's the district that the voters want to have if that's how this gets voted if we do go to referendum the the second time still probably going to be on the board next year and I will not be voting for a third referendum for us to do this again right we've had one round where there was a lot of hopefully that was my hope is that was just misinformation and people weren't paying attention to what the board was saying and I got hit for not providing a sense of urgency because I said the district will go on well it will it has no choice we have to have a district what people didn't listen to and I want to stress it it will be a very different district there will likely be quite a lot of close schools and learning from home and much bigger classes and if but if that's the decision of the voters of this this make I'm not going to head bang my head into the wall for the third time and do it again next year that's my little h on the subject medic say something sort of on on top of what dror Resnik just talked about is there any plan planning going on right now you know on contingency on what we will do if it doesn't pass I mean is that anything anything be well we do every day we keep working at it we put Band-Aids we try to fix what we can we go run to the most emergent problem um as I was going around to the pto's and talking to the parents um some parents were well the air condition hasn't been working and that's isn't that an emergency while it hasn't been working at hopeall elementary well we just had three classrooms steamed at Tim Timberlane and as a former principal of Timberlane years ago I remember having eight classroom steamed I remember having Sals break and flood flood hallways um the The Chronic problems in buildings as size uh when schools aren't properly funded and we'll talk about that in a minut minute when we transition to budget um it gets to the point where you're chasing these projects and trying to maintain the programs that you all have come to this district for and none of us no districts in the state of New Jersey are able to do it anymore with the 2% cap and with with the partial funding that we're getting we're all going to referendum some of you in this just in this community are receiving Princeton's uh Flyers Rob Robinsville has gone to referendum a couple of times West Windsor Plainsboro will be going to referendum um Lawrence is is also going to referendum they're facing the same challenge as we are and folks are starting websites complaining about it they're upset they they have their own campaigns going I get why people voted no taxes are high in the state of New Jersey it's frustrating I get that but I also get that we're going to maintain this that is the only mechanism that school districts have been left to do this work so I know that some board members may say no if there's a third time I'm going to keep saying this is the only mechanism you have until I leave um because it's going this is going to continue to be a problem I don't have any magic fixed for this I I don't want to call you and say that I have to close a school because there's smoke or something coming from a HVAC system like like um Princeton High School just had to face I don't want to have to close a building because it flooded or it has a festos in it mold or something like that like other districts have had to face um this is what we're up against and I don't there is no other mechanism that schools can Avail themselves of right now but are are we doing any kind of pre-planning in other words are we any thinking about a preparation for the lack of this money are you're just saying we're going to going to sort of that the answer is they do they do the work every day to do as much as they can and prioritize regularly Tom sits in on finance committee meetings every month he's probably lives in Bob's office um it is an ongoing problem so plan B is to continue to do the hard work that the district admin and Tom staff does I mean it's it's tackling them one at a time and there can sorry can I just oh sorry goad no no go ahead no Mike I I appreciate your question and um I think you know I appreciate your detailed presentation so much George and I think sometimes we lose the forest for the trees so I just wanted to reiterate a couple points so we asked Bob and his team to come back with literally the critical infrastructure projects that are going to fail this is infrastructure that's failing this is water leaking through the roof of the library right these are like bricks falling down into the pathway on the kids like this is stuff that we actually don't have a choice if we're going to fix it or not we don't have a choice I've been sitting through these meetings for what a year and a half now we have to fix this so the question of like the planning or where is this money going to come from to be totally blunt my understanding is it's going to come from cutting program and cutting staff because those are the only other options we have and so I just correct me if I'm wrong but I just want to be really really clear because I think sometimes we speak about this you know in euphemism but that's literally where we are right now yeah and in reference to what you're just said I what I'm asking is really what kind of educational processes are we going to change in order to we'll have to fix these stuff we can't let the wall the walls falling and the water fall into the door the floors but do we have we thought about and possibly ex U you know communicated what kinds of educational things will be impacted and how are we going to maintain as much of a an educational process as we can well we won't be and when we transition to the next slide deck right now we're just talking about the referendum there still is maintaining our budget our regular operating budget that's uh uh for the course of the school year most of our budget 82% of that are teaching staff um so what's going to happen is even with a referendum we are all facing the real reality that we have to cut programs that's that's also something that school districts are facing referendum and you have to cut programs because we can't fund it anymore it's the same thing you're facing in your own households when you go to the grocery store and things keep climbing eggs are $6 and $8 and all of that we're not immune from that either we're not getting any more money from the state probably facing a reduction of the funds that we get from them and things are costing more and more and more and more and it's outpacing what the district can bring in and and generate for in terms of Revenue so yes we are well we'll talk specifically about that in our next slide deck so thank you Dr Wilson I I just want to add in I I really I I don't want to fear Monger but I do really agree and want to reiterate with what Alex is saying you know we as a board when we were reorganizing classes this year in September there was what one kindergarten class that had 24 25 students in it and we got inundated with emails from parents about how those were too big of class sizes for our students and if if that's the expectation we have which I think we all agree on this board we we love the fact that hope well has such small class sizes and is able to accommodate the individual and unique needs of our students we have to pay for that and we have to pay for it looking forward um and and when you look at the next slides uh the next slide deck that that Bob's going to present the items on there that we are looking to find to cut to to be able to fund our not only our operating budget but to potentially be proactive in Saving are the things that directly affect our students learning and as a former student those programs you know charging money for athletics um whether that be cutting some of the AP curriculum those are the things that really touch all of our students and so I think we have to be cognizant as we're looking forward and and as we potentially bring this to to another vote in the referendum so sorry can I just say one more thing Drew just made me think of something else when I'm sort of watering the Earth here in Hopewell coaching soccer do whatever I do there's like two things I think I hear the most the first is school start time but that's near here or there to give everyone a chuckle the the second is classroom space here at bare taverns I guess my my question would be I I I understand when we're looking at the question one is there is there this more of a processed question is there room to sort of move those around because I do it seems like from what you said we're looking at question one is basically based on you know whether or not we're going to get State support for it right and question two is is the but that might not necessarily be you know kind of where the community's at some of these things I'm just wondering if there's an opportunity to sort of move the questions around you know based on on feedback so I'm going to be frank I didn't want any separation of the questions because to me um having parents vote Yes and then one school or two schools not getting what I feel like they need which is not having kids outside the building is not okay but I also know that some of the campaign campaigning that was against the referendum initially and this is from me listening to you all on a on a listening tour folks set out to specifically failed the referendum because they were not pleased with the the pilot and the additions and all of that um so we decided we were not going to let critical projects that we going to close our schools be affected by that this time um we would split the questions out so folks could decide is that something they really think is important but these projects we we just have to have we just have to have um and we know that those are also projects that are not going to be funded um by the matching um with the with the up to 33% really uh that the state could offer us yeah but the other the second question the two builds right that's the class sizes and I keep going there was the the the town hall that the administration held before the last referendum I I have this image of a member of a public standing up and saying that when she went to school here there were 40 kids in the class and she was perfectly fine with that so I'm not going to tell like I don't know what those numbers are going to be but that's the mental picture that I have right if we don't have space and if we don't have money to pay for teachers then the class sizes will go up I mean there's no other way about I I also sorry I want to add one last Point um as someone who works in the state and and knowing where the political willpower is for the next few years there is a push to redo the school funding formula in New Jersey and we have lucked out in the last few years with the amount of funding we got I think we had an we had an increase actually last year um and many of the districts that we look at as peer districts you know South Brunswick Hillsboro uh a bit bigger but but maybe not in our immediate uh vicinity in Mercer County a lot of those districts received substantial Cuts in their aid like upwards of millions of dollars and I mean some legislators came through and got some of that money money back others you know they had to deal with the cuts and work around it so we've gotten incredibly lucky and the fact that the formula will likely change in the coming years and because Hopewell is an affluent area we're likely not going to benefit from that funding formula change we we have to really consider the things that that we're talking about and and that is where the state is moving where whether we like it or not I guess I'll chime in and make a comment or two but I'll take a different angle so when I joined the board two and a half years ago I remember coming in saying I have three kids that are going to be in elementary school and I had one sole purpose in mind which was try to figure out the budget and I remember sitting down with Bob Kito at that time and Rosetta and in the first 30 minutes I said to myself oh my goodness everybody is in the same situation we are and nothing is going to change anytime soon and this isn't because of any decisions that have been made or not made by the administration here it has much more to do with what's going on in Trenton right now I think many people in the community realize that when we look at shared services holistically in hopo Valley Schools aren't the only issue Emergency Services fire department is another major issue right now that we're trying to deal with and they are equally at an impass why because money has to come from somewhere when you have Trenton give guidance Downstream to school districts that say that referendums are a means to pay your bills when you need to do things what happens referendums get passed and referendums have to be used this is a much bigger issue that we as residents of New Jersey need to think about on a grander scale at the Trenton level to figure out how we can actually afford to continue to fund our schools and things that we all love and care about in hopeall Valley at the end of the day whether we like it or not I don't think there's anybody in this room that says I like to pay taxes right I don't think I've ever met somebody that ever said that but we do it for a reason and we do it for the things that we're supposed to get out of it and part of what we get out of that is having a good school system which leads the second and third order of effects of home values and all of these other things I have been explicit in sharing my thoughts over the past year uh to the very vocally to be very candid uh in the community about the fact that this is a broader issue where we need to have Mayors involved I commend the administration for being able to get the Mayors into a room to have a question and frankly hold some of them accountable for what they have said over the past 5 six seven8 years the reality is is we have multiple lawsuits between the three towns in our community right now which is prohibiting their these two right up here to be able to make a deal that's the reality and until that gets done we're unable to be able to figure out from those Mayors where they're going to help specifically hopal Township so I would encourage anybody listening to this online anybody that's sitting in this room to show up at those meetings and ask them what's going on you've heard it here we have 30 days before we can really start figuring out what the next steps are they made a promise to Dr theres and Bob Kavita we should hold them accountable to that that's what they're there for that's what elected officials are for I would hope that as we continue to move through this process and as we see from the budget conversation we're going to have that it's not going to look any prettier right this is the reality of what we're in right now but we're not alone there are so many districts that are feeling this and Bob will talk about this I'm sure his business uh administrator official friends from around the state that have had to cut 50 60 70 100 teachers if you look at the news of what's going on in Tom's River their board wanted to shut down a high school this is very real problems that we're facing right now but we're not alone so I would encourage all of us to get vocal and get active when we're asking these questions but at the end of of the day the way that I see it and I'll be very candid we're hostage right now we want to be able to move forward and do stuff but we need to hear from the other Town's officials so we can get to that step thank you um I think that we have kind of covered the bases and also given you some real um shade and color about the budget so um we don't take any of this lightly these are all of the things that have been needed into the conversations over the last um probably the last year honestly but um we are a community that believes in education and we're going to figure it out together and we depend on Dr teres and her Administration to do that work and provide us with the information so we can make the decisions that we know you are going to support um with that said I'll also um move us into the budget discussion and understand that while there is a a link to these two things they are very they are still very different discussions and the mechanisms for managing the budget they're gonna we'll use some of the same terms right so I just wanted to I know I look over at Bob screen so um so I just wanted to point that out as we roll into the budget that you'll hear some of the same levers and things that are going to be pulled in order to balance the budget and moves forward but it is separate from the needs of the referendum because the items in the referendum are based on building facilities and infrastructure I will say um I I need to underscore this point one of the items that was raised in the last referendum as part of the misinformation is that there is some mismanagement of the facility's budget and the reality is that is most certainly not the case but it has been a common practice over the last decade or more to not go to cap and the reason that we didn't go to cap evidently was because we wanted to present the community with no tax increase or no TA in tax impact or a tax relief the problem is is that the if you don't go to two% cap and your expenses are going to um increase by 4% you're already 2% in the whole so all the times that we didn't go to cap meant we were digging ourselves in a deeper hole and where did we steal the money from our facilities and um maintenance budget so Tom has had the same budget for how many years a long time 10 years anybody have the same budget from 10 years ago here's the problem so when the information out there floating is that there was mismanagement the management was not in going to cap to at least get us Less in a hole so now we're here telling you this is this is the best time to dig yourselves out of a hole us to dig ourselves out of the hole together using the ref referendum as a mechanism so I just need to clear that point up so we'll close that a discussion around referendum you'll obviously hear more discussions in the future but we'll turn over to right before we do that um I just want to say we have a month for you guys to ask questions Tom and I Rosetta are here if you if board members have questions that you want to get you know you want to have a meeting you want to discuss it prior to the next meeting um we'll proceed with getting the documents that we need approved on on in February if the board just to have it ready if you have questions before then please let us know so that we can we can bring you up to speed if you need to be up to speed have any other questions that are unanswered and and there was a question from John that we also have that months to change the structure okay and to and to entertain comments and opinions and think about what the right we'll revisit again in finance facilities um in a few weeks when we meet but you know we need to if we're going to make it to a free election in November we need we need to act sooner than later if if you're not ready you're not ready we understand that our recommendation is to try to to to get out there sooner than later especially with a free election because my commitment is still to start building if we do get a yes as soon as possible and then get some of these critical projects started as soon as we can and that's going to take a long process as well um to to go out to bid and to find uh vendors and all of that to and folks to do the work for us so that's going to also take some time we transition to a budget discussion okay um so again our budget what drives our budget is our mission statement this is what you all said that we want to do for our kids um we always keep that in our the Forefront of our mind when we're making our decisions um Bob talked to you a little bit about the B budget calendar we started back in September talking about budget every year we start uh early in the year talking about where we spend our money in September uh curriculum instruction Dr plitz has shared some of the things that she was facing with uh making sure that she's meeting the state guidelines around cting curriculum to be sure that we align to the Core Curriculum standards that the state has identified um much of that she has cut now because we're very concerned about making our budget this year what does that mean we'll probably be writing some budget uh some curricula ourself we've postponed those things that we can but there's still going to be some obligations that we have to if we're going to meet our state audit that will be probably coming next fall in October we talked about our special education budget um educating our um some of our um most fragile students uh that is is a um something that we're very proud of Miss dardo shared the great work that she's doing making sure that our kids are in the least restricting restrictive environment which is here in Hopewell she's brought a lot of great programs back to our school district because we found in the past that we do a better job educate educating our kids in terms of academics and when kids need social emotional support or emotional regulation they were missing that when we were sending them out so those students that we can keep in house we've built programs for we've added preschool in all of our sites which we didn't have before and she just continues to do work um that really attract people to our district amazing work so we thank her for her presentation in December we had a general budget discussion to talk about um how the district is funded and we'll talk we'll give you some highlights of that today tonight and then in febru the February um through through February we're going to continue to have these talks uh tonight is one of those nights where we talk about you had a tour of Bear Tavern next board meeting will tour tolgate and will rotate around the schools I'll offer other tours to support our referendum discussion but we'll still be talking about our regular operating budget um which is apart from the referendum um because we are facing some pretty rough times this year that will happen through February um we'll have a work session in February where the board will decide what they're doing moving forward and then we have to strike a budget um by March this is we are meeting um we've met with two schools so far yes we'll be meeting with the remaining four uh schools three elementary schools and the middle school I no the high school um on their specific budgets they've present they've looked at their original budgets we're looking at and asking for some fine- tuning we're also you know working with Maintenance and Facilities again transportation to see where um any any you know Cuts can be made as well so we are we are looking very granularly down at our budgets seeing what savings we can find and so this is what I've charged them to do we've given them a number that we need them to cut and we're asking them to look at the school-based level because I don't want to cut from up above and impact kids in a way where they may know another way to tighten their belt right my job is I know I have to cut what's the least impact I can do to our children moving forward um knowing that next year might be worse than this year and the year after um I and we're just going to go ahead and transition to the next uh slides so our priorities again is to maintain as best we can the programs that exist in the service as much as possible what I'm going to say this is this about passports their decision to go to the 2% cap or not was their decision at the time as volunteers they made the best decision that they felt was appropriate at the time maybe they thought that things would change and that promise that that uh Mr kapadia talked about with the state reassessing how they funded the schools was going to change because we have been looking at this Cliff as Educators and leaders for over a decade and we've been fighting and complaining there's some superintendent nodding in the audience and going to the state and petitioning and talking to our we've even invited elected officials into our in our roundtables we are going to hearings and saying that we can't continue to maintain this we have hoped that this would get better and it's not so know that we continue to do that work but we are at the point now where I can no longer just say oh well we'll just cut from Mr Quinn's budg and keep moving there's no more cutting to be done right that now we're going to have to cut into some programs and that's that's very unfortunate so we're going to be talking about that we have to meet our our contractual salary and benefit obligations with the we do enjoy a a very small class SI here I know we see it creeping up especially here in Bur Tavern and some class sections and we've been trying to balance through tolgate and Stonybrook to keep those down we are not going to be able to keep class size down to where they are now on an average of 16 and 17 in a class that's really what we're talking about in a Kindergarten class of 24 by the time somebody leaves and goes gets all the extra help and all the things that they're getting there might they're really may be only 14 kids in a class we can't maintain that anymore with the budget that we have especially since we're in negotiations with the teachers union right now um and then we're anticipating that they would get a raise well-deserved raise um for their cost of living and then we also have the um raising uh cost of health benefits so we'll talk about that in a bit so here we go so Bob you want to tap on this one real quick and I'll just jump in so I kind of I wanted to break down the budget into two pieces obviously the two pieces of any budget revenues and expenses um Mr kapaia brought up the fact that the funding from the state uh has not been um it's been in very volatile the last several years we have benefited for the last seven years we've gotten a slight increase I'm not talking major dollars few hundred, a year over the last seven years we are at the highest levels of State funding since I've been here okay but as we'll see later it's like 6% of our total budget okay we'll get more into that later um I mentioned the 2% Levy cap everything that we do is going up greater than 2% all of all salaries districtwide are somewhere in the general area of 3 and a half% increased Health Ben benefits are double digit being double digit increased the state average health benefit waiver for next year is 14% we're not in the state thank god um State a we've been advised to to accept less to expect less this year we had a meeting with the county superintendent last week told him that would be devastating to our district to receive less to receive flat is a problem for us yes um we are we do have some locally generated Revenue we we do receive some tuitions both special ed and regular ed students come here and pay their way to come here our buildings are used pretty much 24 24 there seven days a week especially our high school um we are looking into charging athletic and co-curricular fees bringing them back after a 10-year Hiatus um and increasing our transportation fees to help balance our budget um these are services that are what's considered in excess of a thorough and efficient education that's what the state uses t& thorough and efficient these are above that those who are using them are are we're we're needing to charge for them and again the use of surplus this year's budget as I mentioned during the audit presentation has $3.9 Million worth of money we took from last year and moved it to this year it's not sustainable we're spending more of our budget than we ever had before because everything costs more so I am looking and and I I get the evil eye from a lot of times from my colleagues that I am trying to take every bit they give me money and I go I that's all I need more I need more to put aside everything costs more expenditures we just talked a little bit about that everything is subject to inflation um we want to do more in curriculum instruction we want to keep our programs up to date we want to keep the curriculum in compliance with State Standards it costs money to do that the state doesn't look at that they said well you should do this now then we have to write curriculum we have to implement the program Transportation mandated service for the majority of what it is but every year and it's been going up last year was a 5.8% increase this your state mandated increases this isn't just the contractor coming in saying is we're going to charge you more it's mandated they can go up 5.8% the year before that it was 5.7 this year it dropped it's only 3.6% but going up great than 2% Insurance both Property and Casualty Insurance which is exceeding 89% and we're in a pool with with 350 other school districts we joint purchase insurance that's going up 10% not 2% 10% health benefits the governor in 2011 I believe it was implemented the chapter 44 That was supposed to provide tax relief it hasn't provided tax relief our health benefits continue to rise in excess of 10% and we're doing better than a lot of folks we're self-insured we only pay we only pay the cost of delivering the coverage we don't pay premium so if we save money we get to keep it okay special education costs we've talked about that we want to bring our kids back in here our facility and maintenance budget um is flat it hasn't gone up but the costs have gone up Staffing is is within our salaries again 79% of our budget is Staffing All Staffing and benefits 79% of our budget is we're people we we hire people technology as you all know everything today has technology attached to it from from fire alarms to wireless devices everything has an addressable piece to it that has to run through um our system um our bandwidth due to State testing requirements is not what it needs to be so we have to do technology infrastructures because of this in uh you know influence of te of technology which is also on the flip side also increasing our electric rates because AI if you've read about it takes a lot more electricity a lot more chips to make it run so you know it seems like a great thing it's adding to the cost of our budget and lastly and not least the anticipated growth in hopo Valley we see it here I think uh here at at Bear Tavern alone it's 29 students since September have come here okay it's not and and they're just starting they're just starting there's un anticipated things that come with that and we love we love that we're having this growth but you can't predict if students will need special placements or what they'll need and they come with those special placements we're going to honor those we couldn't anticipate that um the way that the the development was laid out would be a TR a problem for transportation so we had to add additional bus routes just because we couldn't navigate the space in the way that we thought we'd be able to to navigate it will these things equal out at some point Point yes but what that's going to mean is that at some point the district is going to have to think about redistricting because I'm not going to add three buses that we can't afford if it just means this street or this section is going to have to go to another school it's something that hopwell has never had to face as a council Rock Mama new town we face it all the time they send us a letter saying your kid went here they went there I'm not trying to do this to you I'm going to try to make that work with people that are coming in and they're new we do that already with togate when it maxes out sometimes um folks move in and we say well you're going to Stonybrook um we'll try to work with parents as best we can to make sure that it doesn't affect you if you've been in in in a space for a while um but I don't know how much of that I'll be able to control for as it as we continue to grow so these are the things that will definitely be impacted this year class size will increase I'm just going to tell you that now I'm not going to be able to split a section because it hit 24 so it can go back down to 15 or 16 we can't afford that anymore so that class size is will come up and yes you can take a picture this is also going to be posted um we are going to eliminate courtesy busing unless folks can fully pay for what it costs for the seat because we cannot afford to continue to do that which if we're going to maintain all the some of the other things I'd like to um further reduction of supplies we've already been reducing and pulling in that's how Bob Saves some of the money he saves he shuts off supplies and things like that the amount of copies that teachers were able to make while that's that's something we don't want to have to do we're again we're trying to figure out how least to impact the programs that we offer phasing out world langu a world language probably this year based on uh the number of students that are subscribing to that world language is probably going to happen and we're looking at those those enrollments now elimination of Auto uh shop we always like to to be proud of our Comprehensive High School this is one that's going to happen naturally because I don't know that I can replace my um autoshop teacher he's retiring um the uh we used to get funding from the local trade school who used to pay his salary part of his salary we shared that we took the salary on they took they helped us uh support the cost of of keeping the shop up up um in terms of Maintenance um with them dropping off and saying they're not going to do that anymore um and me not being able to find a teacher to replace and I even went and tapped my son's autoshop teacher who's in retirement to come out and he said no so I tried um that's probably that's going to be eliminated this year um the district um funded fi trips will be Reign either eliminated or reduced um reinstating the athletic fee for extracurricular um years ago there was an athletic fee for the high school and the middle school I am doing this to keep from cutting Middle School sports which a lot of schools districts have done so we're going to hold on to them but we're going to have to there's going to be some charge of athletic fees which we're trying to determine there will be opportunities for those with financial need with that um that that has always been in place when we've had charging for trips and things like this so those mechanisms will be in place for those who who can't afford it um Rec re uh structuring our K12 exploratories offer offerings I'm not going to cancel any but we have to look at what we're doing and we may have to we may not have be able to offer as much as we used to but I want to keep all those offerings in place like your steam facilitators the music offerings uh the the AP and all the things that we offer we're going to have to do some restructuring with that um what I can say is we are not going to be running courses at the high school that are you know the middle school doesn't usually have courses are this small but we will be phasing them out as well if there's 12 kids are below in that course it's not going to run we can't afford to do that anymore and then also eliminating and consolidating some of our administrative positions um we're going to be looking at Ju Just overall even though as far as administrators go we're just kind of in the middle as a school district but we're looking at all the positions down in central offices and things like that to see what consolidation can we do um in those areas Transportation you want to talk about this one B yeah just again just going through some of the the major cost drivers and things we're experiencing we talked about the The increased um of the renewals of our our routine routes we we cons uh continue to struggle with driver and attendance shortages right now we're down Five drivers um we were fully we were ful fully uh um covered with drivers at the beginning of the year but volatility in drivers continues due to places like Amazon who are paying our drivers you know a lot more money to go and drive for them a lot of them are going to drive uh trucks for companies so to keep folks um employed is very hard right now fuel um and parts cost volatility is is there we are very fortunate to partner with hopeall Township and we do get our fuel much cheaper than the average consumer but again we have a a wide range where our buses go our buses run uh anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and they burn you know eight gallons a mile or uh strike that and reverse that but um it's we're using a lot of gas when it comes to that um we did add three new bus routes uh the other day we'll probably be implementing them here at at uh Bear Tavern to run to the elementary school and also to the high school to eliminate the overcrowding that we've faced since the beginning of the year we're adding a new bus route um in at Stonybrook again they run 70,000 each for those routes um courtesy busing right now we have 144 students but they're only contributing $59,000 to the total cost the cost is more that's about a $500 cost but we're looking at a the cost per seed is $1,200 almost so it's it's an expense that we we wanted to provide but it's becoming very costly insurance we talked a lot about insurance the volatility the market and the expectation that we'll have double digigit increases in both workers comp Property and Casualty and health insurance for next year and the thing with health insurance because of that chapter 44 law I mentioned earlier we can't even negotiate it he the governor implemented a seven-year uh in uh you know implementation of chapter 44 and it can't even be negotiated for another two years so what Bob is saying is when my husband and I um we had a tractor dealership for a while and one of the things that tanked him is he said we're my staff is going to have the same insurance that you have as a teacher and so the rates kept going up and he would adjust the co-pay that they were paying 15 you know $5 here it started maybe at 10 then it was 15 then it was 20 then it was 25 right we can't negotiate that with our staff that's something that our hands have been tied on that would make a big difference but we can't do it the disappointing thing in that is we had we had a great relationship with all of our bargaining uh units that we um negotiated together to help reduce the cost of health benefits and the the the what we had negotiated on our own without government interference was was saving us more money than what they implemented they forced on us so you know districts that were doing the right thing and helping to fray costs of health insurance were thwarted by this um this chapter 44 again we've talked you know a lot about facilities and maintenance tonight Staffing um again we're planning we we need to plan a budget increase it's we're we're a staff based or uh organization we are facing a national teacher shortage we are no longer able to um hire folks that are just coming right out of college um without them trying to shop I mean hope well was a destination and it still is for for many folks but for a lot of kids coming right out of college they want the best offer what's the the highest salary I can get and more often than not now Miss Smith is getting questions is that the best you can do I get it it's a it's a market Society but this you know we don't expect that anymore and we're losing staff members because they can go elsewhere and get um a better salary for them veteran staff never would change districts once a teacher had been with a district for 15 16 years they never thought of leaving they never would give up tenure to come to another District now the we we are required we've hired many teachers at the top of our salary guide not the bottom and it's when you get that difference from the a teacher at the high end of the guide retiring to an inexperienced teacher coming in that was way we saved money we could save two or $300,000 a year um on that so you know we are very concerned about the contract settlements we'll be working on currently working on two of the big ones right now um and others to come in in years in the next several years again I already talked about technology but technology is involved in everything uh that we do now almost every from from software to textbooks um you think everybody says don't buy textbooks anymore and uh just get them online well they now give you the textbook and they charge you for the online right that's where the expense is okay so we have done a lot to control costs again I've talked about health benefits we do continue to be probably a million to a million a half dollar is better than the state uh sponsored health insurance plan um I'm proud of what we've done with that and and it continues to save us money again special education we've done a ton uh with Miss dinardo and her team bringing students back from from high cost out of District placements when we do we feel we do a a much better job here um with our own staff we have reduce staff um when we can when we see class sizes that are creeping too low um we don't we just replace those staff members but it's becoming harder and harder to see um reductions in staff just because we're we're starting to hit that that upper limit that Dr trece um talked about again technology we've we've done everything we can to economize um we are paying significantly less for our broadband service and neighboring districts due to the the skill of our department and the creative thinking that they've done but we're running out of that we're our bandwidth is just not being able to keep up we do Cooperative purchasing whenever we can as I mentioned we're in a health uh Consortium with 300 plus districts we are in purchasing for supplies and equipment with hundreds of districts four or 500 districts in in various state run co-ops and also privately private state run co-ops to save money um and again our Technical and Professional Services all run through co-ops whenever we can um again facilities we do we've been able to do things inhouse we have a a skilled staff that saves us hundreds I'm not joking hundreds of thousands of dollars annually because they can do the work without having to go to an outside contractor so we talked a little bit about this before 92% of the funding of your schools comes from local funding whether it be property taxes local revenues that I am able to raise and the use of surplus and the use of surplus is really coming from property taxes that we haven't spent but again the burden is on US state funding is about 7% of our total and the federal government spending is about 1% um most of it goes to special education tuition and our title grants which deal a lot with um training of our staff and students um Title One is our most um economically challenged families that's where that money goes but again our title money is $80,000 if we're lucky um and you have to spend it in a very specific way the same with idea so these aren't kind of funds we can move into other areas if we'd like they're very prescriptive on how you can spend those funds exactly again we are um still working through numbers um with Dr Tes and her team um almost daily we're meeting now thinking about ways to find savings um we're planning on a a deep dive um board retreat in February to go further into detail a lot of the things that we're discussing right now involve Staffing and um we don't want to share the exact Cuts until we've actually figured them out um because we don't want to get folks upset um or alarmed if we if we are just thinking about something and we're not to the point of making those actual Cuts but comments and questions from the board are are um open now I just want to share that um your board is a board that works in committee most of the work that's done through finan and facility through our education program decisions and policy are done with a smaller group of the board that kind of hash things out this board years ago decided that this would be the one thing that we do in full committee because that's how transparent we want to be when we have these conversations with you um I've been here since Dr Smith the former superintendent was here and he was jumping up and down about these things 13 years ago when I got here because we saw that fiscal cliff coming and we kind of kept holding it together um we are there we're hanging on the cliff with our fingernails and um so when I say at this time I know it's said well they've said it in the past and they've kind of worked it out we can't work it out anymore um and the board's willingness to do this in full court is is important um because that's how much we care about this community um and we want your feedback but at this point if I have to cut something it's not something that a th000 public comments are going to help I'm going to still have to do that because I don't know how I can't hold this together anymore with the funds that we're getting again Dr tce mentioned this earlier this is happening and I think Drew uh Al alluded to it um this is happening all over Mercer County um we are having uh budget meetings countywide uh with business administrators to discuss what they're doing to help cut their gaps everybody has an issue right now I've had colleagues in East Brunswick have to cut 35 teachers um last year because they thought they were getting an increase in state aid and they were when they got the number on in February um were shocked when they were cut millions millions of dollars Robinsville is struggling because they were flat funded okay so this isn't unique to Hope well um I just sent the our uh Dr tce and and my colleagues at a at central office Jackson um Township is closing a high school not because they want to because they don't have the funds to keep it open any longer and that is the been the message from the state if you can't keep it open then close it and increase class sizes we are not getting sympathy from the state the county office is very supportive of us they're hearing what we have to say but they're saying you know there isn't much that we're going to have this is coming from the the governor and we hope for good news come February 27th I believe the date is so we've heard a lot um this evening about concerns around class sizes uh particularly here at be Tavern where the class sizes tend to be larger um than other elementary schools in addition to the new students that have been coming in and and are likely uh to continue coming in and right as you've mentioned right money has to come from somewhere there's no easy solution here where we can just go out and WR increase you know number of classes um and double them can we can we share a little bit with the community particularly here at be Tavern where we know we're going to have incoming students next year right we're we're at classes now in kindergarten that's 24 you have a few additional students you're now talking about right 25 26 kids in a class plus what is can you talk a little bit just about the process when we look at next year and we look at kind of what do we think we're going to have class sizes as we look at enrollment what is the process that that could look like behind the scenes in term of determining the number of teachers needed and and the number of classes needed well one we already have been looking at that and bear tavern's class size is not up 24 in every class you're hitting sections and that's because we already have been rerouting some of those students to Stonybrook right but Stonybrook is also getting the carryover from tolgate if there's growth at hopeall elementary will have to figure that out right um so right now we we are already trying to shift stud students here and there based on who's coming in but I have no idea who is coming in if a a parent a family comes in there's 10 kids right I can't predict that we're doing our best to try to to guesstimate based on the on the um the demographic report but you know folks said well you know in a house with only two bedrooms there won't be that many kids well there might be 10 right um I know that I started out in a little condo when I couldn't afford a bigger house and we moved into a bigger house right and kids were doubling up in rooms so um we do we're doing the best we can to iict that and move them around but we're going to we're just going to run out of space is what is what the reality is Tollgate can't take any more students they're tiny teeny right and they're and they're already taking some of the overage of students because of some of the special programs they offer there that aren't in other buildings right and then hope well Elementary is too far away sending kids from over here all the way over there would be cost prohibitive and we may not even be able to find a route and you can't have kids on the bus over an hour because they're coming from here and you know how we're spread out geographically so we're considering in all of those things and class size will go up everyone's going to be facing that I can't promise that oh we hit 24 split it I can't do that anymore that's what we used to do and we were just looking at our class sizes and a lot of our classes are still mostly at 16 and 17 kids in a class still so it's hitting in certain area it's hitting in certain grade levels it's hitting in certain areas but it's not across the school district yet that's that's the challenge will it get across the school district if they keep funding us this way yes yes so yes to go further we I and I mentioned it earlier we did add three bus routes um as of last week they I'm not sure if they're running yet but they were approved tonight well they're going to be approved if we ever get to the the agenda but um that should alleviate some of the uh students who are now guming from shop the shopright neighborhood they've been coming here um that those students are now going to be shifted over to Stonybrook to help alleviate some of it but the the long-term solution is um we're going to have to I mean the state is expecting class sizes to go up um they are higher here but you do have some classes that are still below 20 so you know when they talk about class sizes in the state of New Jersey I have my friend in in Brick they have 3540 in a class so times are changing the only way to say is times are changing we're going to do what we can to move small redistricting around but again as Dr Tre said it doesn't to take students that are coming from you know the Scotch Road development and ship them up to Hope Elementary it just doesn't make sense any other questions from the board okay seeing none we're going to thank you Dr teres and and Mr CV I know that was a lot to go through um do we have any old business items agenda huh do you have something Mark no I just said back at the agenda oh yes I'm going back to the agenda okay thanks okay with that said we are going to enter into our first public comments um I'll you can I I need to make an announcement and then you can proceed members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name name address and municipality before you speak and in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take the matter up opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by The District administration in addition to saying out loud your name and M address and municipality we ask that you sign um your name at the podium public comments are now open oh one one other piece of direction from the timekeeper yes hi I'm your friendly timekeeper um when you have 30 seconds left I will raise the yellow and I'll try to make eye contact that you've seen it and then at 3 minutes is red and just a reminder cuz um we know that sometimes 3 minutes is not enough um you do only have three minutes but there is two public comments you are welcome to come back for a second 3 minutes public comment is now open uh this isn't working this um bring another one can you can I okay I appreciate it yeah I got that's all right okay um so do I need to tell you uh what my name is uh through the microphone yes oh okay I'm Michael Kelly and I need to tell you my address right oh okay it's a 233 Pleasant Valley Road and C Titusville is that is that right that's it Titusville is okay okay um and what else do I need to say it good oh okay right so um anyway I want to thank you guys all for your service it sounds like you guys are you know really qualified and you really care about what's going on and um I know it's really easy to uh you know give a lot of criticism but you guys actually have to make the decisions and run everything uh so I appreciate that um uh yeah so I uh you know I this is the first one of these I've ever been to um the main reason I came was the class eyes issue um I mean Bear Tavern has these big class sizes and I heard a rumor that they're going to get bigger it sounds like that's right I don't know how you expect us to uh accept that uh when not all uh class sizes are as big in the district as ours are um so um wh why can't the other elementary schools take on more students like why why do we have to uh Bear all these uh big class sizes everybody question and answer questions at end it's not interactive that's correct all right well still okay uh yeah anyway I uh I'm concerned about the class sizes here so I have three minutes you can use all of your three minutes or whatever you don't have to it's just all right well uh okay so what are your what are your uh thoughts and views on AI what do you plan to do with that also you you said you mentioned something about uh AI running up electricity are you running like on Prem AI in the district I after everyone's okay all right well I guess with the remaining three minutes class sizes class sizes class sizes definitely don't want those going up in Bear Tavern class sizes class sizes class sizes don't increase the class sizes in Bear Tavern please uh definitely appreciate you all though thank you for all you do all right I got my timer here Mark bovenizer hope burrow um I'm not here to talk about the budget or anything I really picked the wrong night to come to talk about the smart pass but I'm going to um so I have two daughters we've been here since 2006 uh my one daughter contracted a disease that uh she cannot control um her bowels so I you're this isn't interactive so I did a I watched her create the path which takes minutes then you can only go in the 200 Hall then you if there's two girls in line you got to wait seven more minutes each and then you have to wait 40 more minutes to go to the bathroom that's not possible with someone with inflammatory bowel disease Crohn's and Colitis for people who don't know what that is and she missed school today because she didn't want to deal with the smart pass what do you have for disabled children I just I don't get the smart pass it's it's uh could say a lot of things but it's not favorable to disabled children uh and not only that her disease is affected by stress um you know the Crohn's and& Colitis Foundation has an app called we can't wait there's 250,000 places around the country 32 states have legislation for bathroom access public at any time and it's really ridiculous that you're having these kids and again she doesn't 's probably going to yell at me for coming up here to do this now that everybody knows she has Crohn disease but I encourage her why don't you she's starting a Crohn's Club at the school the high school and I'm going to ask her to work with people and of course there's going to be abuse right there's G to be kids oh I got Crohn's I got Crohn's I want to you know Skip the smart pass thing because there's probably really good reasons for the smart pass too um but I said look you got to find a happy medium uh everywhere we go we do Crohn's walks every year at the at Northern Jersey at Asberry Park there are a lot of kids that have cron and kidus tons fact if I took a poll here I would say quite a few would raise your hand that has a family member or friend that's affected by Crohns or colitis uh you know this doesn't help her tomorrow in school um you know I I ask you guys to do something fast and I'll stop in two minutes and 30 seconds thank you just to help um speed things up I did put the book The signin book over here to the side of the podium so if you're up next you can sign up I did sign in a little while ago so I think that should be no problem just wanted to let folks behind you know all right Aaron grer 26 Dublin Road Pennington um so hello so I wanted to start by thanking all the amazing teachers who were here tonight I don't think they're here anymore rightfully so it's 906 um but I really just want to point out their hard work their dedication um it's unmatched um what we receive in the district and I'm so incredibly thankful especially for the teachers here at Bear Tavern um and the teachers are one of the reasons I'm here right now um I'm going to follow my script and I might come back up my family moved to Hope a little over two years ago specifically because of the school district we wanted our two girls to have a strong foundation in a nurturing environment that prioritize both social emotional learning along with academics I'm here tonight to express my utmost concern with the growing class sizes at Bear Tavern I've taught in neighboring school districts for the past 14 years I know from experience that class size Matters not only do students feel the negative impact TA of the larger sizes but so do the teachers when class size grows students receive less of what they need because the teachers cannot provide the same attention to individual students the expectation for teachers today is astronomical guided reading groups small group um strategy groups conferences meeting 101 IEPs 504s parents like me it's a lot it is a a lot and I just can't help but worry that our teachers are going to leave because they can go to another district and I know there's problems everywhere but I did it I left where I was after being somewhere for a very long time to go somewhere where I felt appreciated and in a setting where I felt the students could learn best so when looking at the growing class sizes at be Tavern it's extremely concerning for me as a parent and educator what's even more concerning to me are the inequities that are becoming ever a parent across this District how can some schools in our district cap class sizes at 18 and be Tavern have class sizes today right now at 25 students if class sizes are already at 25 in some grades it's certain that the class sizes will continue to grow as the new developments continue to be built what are we going to max out at numbers today at be Tavern kindergarten classes are 24 20 24 and I believe 25 students oh goodness as opposed to class sizes at Tollgate of 17 17 and 16 21 18 and 18 at Stony Brook and 2120 at hopal elementary that is a huge inequity for our children here last but certainly not least the teachers the reason I'm here um the expectations are high am I done okay I'll be back don't worry thank you hi my name is Robert G uh 800 rid Drive in Pennington um I uh I think you know number one I want to thank the board everybody here I know um you know really appreciate all the work that you've done definitely also want to thank all the remaining teacher uh that works in Bear Tavern also uh the principal everybody here that works at be really want to appreciate uh my appreciation as a parent uh I have three kids in this school district one of them actually graduated I have a fourth grader uh at Bear Tavern and I have a eighth grader at timberlan Middle School um you know I think there's going to be a lot to be said more about class size but I'm definitely concerned uh my mother is a teacher my wife is the teacher um and so I definitely agree with um I think Aaron who who brought that up but actually I'm here to talk about um uh the AI that was brought up before and I want our kids not talk about the energy cost that's going to arise because of AI but rather I want our kids to be competitive and participate in the new AI era that we're about to Embark if not already embarked um I have a you know my my wife and my my wife and I we run a parent run robotics team for my boys as well as a few other boys in the school district and um we were fortunate enough to participate in the State uh first Lego League competition and it was eye openening in terms of uh what other schools are doing in terms of feeding their High School robotics team from not just Elementary but really what matters is the middle school so really I think what I would love to uh propose and and you know um have the board consider is you know obviously today we all talked about facilities and budget which for sure um you know is very critical but I really want to bring to the attention that of course we need warm place you know and and a safe place for our kids but at the same time I think we need to prepare them for um the future that is coming to us and so I would love for the incoming budget to have a consideration for some sort of school run um robotics team that will feed into our high school team which I know we already have one but in the Middle School um you know I as a parent I I I try to uh sort of get as many kids involved as possible to you know just get robotics involved at elementary school to to middle school but I really think that looking at other school district who have you know they have multiple Teams Parent run and school run at their District I think that we should um do that as well at middle school so that we can give our high school kids um the best chance and and you know expose them before high school in robotics and that's all I have thank you so much hello I am Cheryl sarnowski nine Hunters Ridge um in Hell Township so Robin iron basically neighbors um I have a daughter here at bar Tavern and a son who will hopefully soon be joining this school um I as well as many other parents here have a concern about the the growing class sizes and the growth in general at Bear Tavern um I did a little bit of um number crunching um and it looks like um bear tavern's growth um keeping the I guess the graduation grades the same has increased 10% in our school um compared to 2% to the rest of the district so obviously we're growing here more than other places uh we talked about class sizes and my first question was what what do we consider a small um class size because that was something that was mentioned as important I think I heard 1617 um but here at be Tavern excluding prek um it's about 21 so we're pretty far off from that 1617 number I also want to know at what rate um or at what class size does it get to be too big where are we going to cut that number off I hear that we have class sizes already at 25 half way through the year is that going to continue growing or is there going to be a point where we say 30 is too many or is it 40 is too many or maybe 40 is not too many um and that's something that I want to understand more additionally um I saw that in the maybe referendum um there was talks about a Bear Tavern addition um but also that we were going to change those trailers um into I guess more staff offices if we're moving those classrooms into this um expansion how many classes are we actually adding what is the net increase in class in classes since those prek classes are going to be moving over um finally something that I always um have to mention is I'm very concerned about the the safety here at Bear Tavern particularly when we have um schoolwide events or um evening things um the parking lot here is incredibly small which leads people to have to park on the street there's no no sidewalks no Street lamps no crossing guards um it seems like a very dangerous situation and as we're expanding the school it's just going to continue getting worse um which may have to cut down on those types of events or you know hopefully not lead to any issues and that's all I had today thank you so much hi um Jackie Luan winding brookway in Titusville um not a fan of public speaking but I'm going to go closer um I'm going to go with something that I think John hit on um you're speaking to us like we don't want the referendum to pass we're um the ones impacted most by it I don't know what's going on with universal preschool but now you've lumped it with that so again you're screwing us because if people don't want Universal preschool they're not going to vote for the Bear Tavern expansion right so that's proposal two which is Tollgate and Bear Tavern so I don't see how you're not doing the same thing again um the only other thing is at some point you said 24 kids in a classroom where 10 of them are going somewhere else and our teachers only have 14 kids that's not true um I don't it's not fair to our teachers to say that um maybe in certain classes there are kids that are pulled out I doubt it's 10 at a time because I don't know who the person is that's taking those 10 kids but it's just it' be appreciated I guess if it was facts that were stated because we're trying to make decisions based off that so all it does is upset people and then they don't vote for what you want them to vote for and I'll finish uh hello uh my name is Will Carter 401 SK Street in Pennington and uh I'm Emil bakis hope bur so we're just going to reiterate some concerns that a lot of students and even some teachers have had on the smart pass system so I'm the class of 2026 Junior president and uh I feel like I represent my class and a large portion of hchs students um about the smart pass system that was implemented over winter after winter break um it's created some serious concerns and while the sentiment of uh the change is understandable regarding safety uh the system itself is not fair for to students and you know it's proven to be ineffective and inconvenient to students overall uh the smart pass system does not overdo the simplistic and well-known system uh that replaced a simple sign out sheet uh it makes it difficult and frustrating to complete simple tasks such as you know talking with with a teacher during recitation printing filling up your water bottle and especially going to the bathroom and that bathroom issue is the main concern that many students have a maximum of seven minutes is permitted to go to the bathroom uh and after you do anything like I went to go print and then I couldn't go to the bathroom for 40 minutes even though they have nothing to do with each other um it is also in order to go to the bathroom during math class I have to take out my Chromebook open class link and then sit and wait for the queue to go down to one that I can use the bathroom that is distracting and it takes away from learning in class time while um while steps like amendments to no fly zone are undoubtedly a step forward they do not Mark the end of student uh campaigns against smart pass the over complications inefficiencies and violation of privacy that smart press creates overrule slight Security benefits these benefits offer small if any changes to track our intended location so that we may be found during drills or actual emergencies however smart pass obviously is not tracking student movements once they have created a pass um if a student wanders from their intended destination smart pass offers no assistance for finding them thus a simple and coste effective um system like a sign out sheet um will offer the same Security benefits that smart pass will Pro provide um and we're spending I'm aware to my information uh or to my knowledge we are spending you know thousands of dollars on the system too and we don't spend any money on a sign out sheet so um these sign out sheets will not involve the over complication of technology or another program having access to student information we hold on to the belief that the system does not justify the cost or the time and privacy of the students high school students should have the trust to go to the bathroom and teachers should be able to devote their time to doing their jobs effectively rather than monitoring us like Elementary School students we feel that it is ineffective inconvenient and distracting to pull out your Chromebook open class link and wait in a queue all while trying to learn during class we feel it is a breach of student privacy to have another program with our personal information we believe that going to the bathroom is a natural function of the human body and not something to be tracked in this dystopian way we strongly advise that the protests continue and that students uh continue to sign uh physical and online petitions some of which have well over 300 signatures um to voice their concerns and make a stand and smart pass at Hope well there are a lot of signatures out there like I'm holding one with over um about a 100 signatures and then there's ones online with roughly almost 400 signatures from students teachers and um parents uh I feel feel like it is in the best interest of the entire at least the high school to either remove or make some serious changes on the smart pass system thank you just for fairness um we did double that time to Six Minutes in case people were in case people were timing well done gentlemen that's a tough act to follow there um Dave Strat 23 diverty Road um hopel Township um my message tonight is for the board uh I first reached out to the board in April of last year regarding the unexpected elimination of kindergarten assistance without prior notice or discussion the lack of transparency and clarity about how these positions were being redistributed was alarming and coincidentally now we have 25 26 kids in the kindergarten classroom how nice it would it be to have those assistants at this point um about a month ago I sent an email with concerns regarding our school district's policy on lice in both cases there was no response from the board and I heard Mr Peters mentioned to contact elected officials in hopal Township about the budget well you're all elected officials representing Us and nobody has even acknowledged my emails so I have lost faith in this board that they're representing the interest of our community if you can't even communicate with us and if you've been told by administrators not to communicate with the um public that's a problem you are elected to do that you're elected to represent our interests allow me to share a little bit about myself so you understand my perspective and what I bring I hold a doctorate from the University of Virginia as well as degrees from Virginia Tech Sunni posum and Carlton University in Canada additionally I completed graduate programs in educational leadership from George Washington University professionally I've served as an elementary teacher vice principal and for the last 10 years an elementary principal in a blue ribbon K5 school for those of you who may not be aware hopeall schools currently permit students with live lights to remain in the classroom these children then continue to travel home on crowded buses exposing additional students and staff furthermore parents are of exposed children are not even informed when a child in their class is dealing with a lice infestation when I inquired about this policy I was told the decision was based on CDC guidelines what I have yet to hear is a clear rationale for why primary AE children take a walk out in the kindergarten playground take a walk when first grade students are playing tell me you don't see their heads together that they're walking arm in- arm due to these failed policies my daughter has contracted lice twice and at Great expense both at time and dollars we dealt with this issue my wife now panics if I scratch my head inadvertently she also spends 30 minutes every morning putting my daughter in braids in applying Rosemary or peppermint spray how is that okay with this board and this Administration Dr Theresa's response to my concerns did not address any of the critical issues instead I was simply told this policy aligns with CDC recommendations there was Zero consideration for the well-being of other students families and staff who were impacted by this decision I'm going to pause here and finish the second part um during the next public comment I will recognize that while I had no response from my substantive emails to this board Mr slotman and Dr Sanu both reached out and responded to my email asking for more time tonight and I appreciate that this will be to to be continued thank you [Applause] okay it's not going to go let's see stop watchat all right uh my name is Caitlyn Stradic um also reside at 23 Dey Road um I'm a mom to one Bear Tavern graduate two current Bear Tavern students and one future Bear Tavern student I typically leave the public speaking to my husband but I felt moved to speak tonight on behalf of our Bear Tavern teachers because what is being asked of them currently is simply not fair many Bear Tavern classrooms including my son's thirdd grade class shout out to miss Machado who's burning the midnight oil here with us um she has 24 students in her class Miss finegan has 25 um and tolgate third grade classes maintain class sizes of 17 and 18 students regarding that I think some transparency would go a long way with the community and we were told at the Bear Tavern PTO meeting that you visited Dr trece that the reason why tolgate has grade levels cap due to is due to smaller classrooms in an old building however I think that everyone would like to know how you decided on the these numbers because there's a big difference between 17 and 25 I.E square footage per student for togate versus Bear Tavern I'm not sure how many of you on the board or Administration have a background in elementary education but I do I taught for eight years in the element Elementary setting prior to staying home to raise my children a pretty solid understanding of what the job entails making connections with students differentiating instruction communicating effectively with parents are just a few aspects of the job that get significantly harder as the class sizes get larger let's go back to my son's classroom at 750 ft with 24 third graders also I want to mention none of those 24 students leave the classroom at any point in the day with the addition of more students teachers will be forced to remove their carpets in their classroom which currently provides space for Community Building read alouds Interactive Learning in grades kindergarten through third grade is it really fair to make five through nine year olds sit in desk all day long it certainly isn't best practice I understand the budget is tight and hiring more teachers is difficult with all the facilities in need of attention it I voted yes for the random for what it's worth so but with all the new development zone for Bear Tavern it's creating a very inequitable educational experience for our kids the time to address this is right now togate has classes capped under 20 due to quote space limitations and the new registrations in quote full classes are sent to Stonybrook why not be proactive and send the new registrations from the Scotch Road or shoppr development to Sony Brook now rather than waiting until we reach a Breaking Point and redistricting which will uproot families like us who are currently established and settled at Bear Tavern I know Transportation costs were cited as a reason that this idea was shot down yet we've added three new buses at 70,000 a piece so I'm not sure where the savings is by having them go here instead of Stony Brook anyway lastly we're fortunate to have many exceptional teachers at Bear Tavern but they aren't going to want to stick around to teach classes with 30 kids when they could teach a class of 18 elsewhere Bear Tavern teachers and students deserve better and we as a community deserve more transparency and better communication for the decisions made at the district level that seriously impact our children thank you good evening I'm Kate lions and I live at 77 Harton Mount Ary and while the mailing address is Lambertville it is hopeall Township um my I could not say as eloquently as everybody else has said the concerns about the classroom size at bare Cav but what I'd like to hear from you guys is how you're going to convince the community not only to vote for the referendum but to show up for the referendum I don't know the numbers off the top of my head but I was astounded at how low of a turnout it was and I was also astounded at how what I I heard about online and what I saw in the community were signs against it there was no never anybody who was campaigning for it who was informing the public the benefits of of it all we heard as the board has already outlined was misinformation how will we how will you guys inform the public correct misinformation and what can we do because we do want to work as a team we do this is a group of supporters who want that referendum to pass how can it pass when nobody's showing up and all we hear are sound bites of how terrible it is and how there's aspects of it that aren't necessary so I'd like to hear how we can help and what you are going to be doing to convince the public to show up and vote for the referendum for our kids thank [Applause] you hi uh Sam Klein 100 Bradford Lane hopeall Township uh kind of echoing what she just said I think perceptions reality and unfortunately in today's world the facts don't always matter so if you know the pilot money doesn't come through and you have that tack to the referendum and everyone's kind of seeing that I don't really think it has a chance of passing again despite what we all may want and what you guys outline is clearly necessary I think a lot of the township perceives that developers got a break and they're just going to get away with more while Mayors are bickering and no one's down with that that's not great uh on top of that uh speaking out of pure ignorance of how you guys do your bidding for all of your projects some of the costs that you guys displayed for things like six tennis courts being $685,000 on existing courts that the grounds level it's not like you're starting from zero I don't understand how that's possible as someone who has I worked at Tennis Channel I traveled the world I've been to every single major tennis court on Earth multiple times how could it possibly cost that much I don't know and then how does that translate to other projects so I don't know if there's a level of transparency in the bidding or the contractors you guys use I know famously government projects get ripped off by contractors guys who paved my driveway at my last house said as much when they get government contracts they're like yes we're in the money uh so I don't know if that's happening to you guys and if there's more rigor needed in the process of figuring out the appropriate vendors but the $685,000 on the courts is the one thing that alerted me like maybe there's something going on there maybe you guys there needs to be some additional process or I don't know it it just seems out of hand based on that um and then totally unrelated we saw a survey come out for Universal prek which I think is a great thing for the township to Aspire to it doesn't sound like maybe that's realistic in the short term based on all the things you guys outlined but a lot of my friends who have kids who aren't in the district yet because they're zero to three had no idea didn't get the survey so I was wondering how we can get it to people who it's the most relevant to down the line families who are planning to have kids or have young children0 to three uh so that they can plan accordingly and at this point you guys are just collecting data and seeing if there's interest last part on that is I know there's a potential grant money from the state so I think people who are filling out that survey would want to have some idea of what it would cost and how much it would cost if the grant money does go away so they can make a full informed decision thanks [Applause] okay okay um any more questions on this round before we okay it's up to you you can you could go sorry I've never been to one of these before so I don't know how this process works um Melissa chin bangu I live at two State Park Drive here in Titusville um the way that the potential I know you keep couching it referendum is going to be there'll be two questions the second one obviously everyone here cares very deeply about because it relates to Bear Tavern I'm curious how given the poor communication that surrounded the first referendum um I'm curious how you guys are going to make other parts of this town care right because this is a quote Bear Tavern issue it's a quote Tollgate issue but it's not right it's the entire District's issue and I think people might say yes to question one and then check out right because it's not their issue it doesn't impact them so I think it's really important that you guys figure out a way to address that um and you know I think the same thing applies here to the class sizes I'm not going to reiterate what other parents have said I think they've done a really great job and you guys get it and hopefully we'll have some answers for us because we're all here at 9:30 at night because we do care um but again it's not just a bare Tavern issue right like you you got to figure it out right like for the entire District you got to figure it out like you can't just keep piling kids into Bear Tavern and think at some point that's not going to create a Stony book problem right like we're going to max out at some point and then kids are going to go to Stonybrook and then you're gonna have pissed off parents at Stonybrook and then somehow that's GNA overfill right so there's got to be more communication from you guys across the District of hey hopeful Township our planet Bear Tavern is to cap at this number because it's just not fair to these teachers and these children it's not fair to the people who are maintaining these schools right it's it's more wear and tear on everything but our choice at Bear tan is to cap at this which means Stony Brook you're getting this and the reason we're doing that Community is because of XYZ like that communication hasn't happened we've just borne the brunt of it all and that's just not fair hi Allison lthy five State Park Drive Titusville um I was concerned looking at how the question is being phrased that part one part two and it really feels like the necessary repairs Renovations and expansions with Bear Tavern are kind of being held hostage with this pilot situation which is creating a lot of the inequities that we're hearing about today so that's my main concern and I'd really like that to be considered more thoroughly with the district thank you [Applause] okay so we have um a number of issues and I think that the best way to address them is to let you comment on the poor issues around class size and um also there I I we'll wait we'll hold off until the end some of the smaller um single individual comments yes I'm going to try to to go through um okay so I'm going to start with the pilot um as um Mr Peter shared and and all of us have shared we have been in several meetings with with uh members of the um of our municipalities leadership we've met with the Mayors and that is all I can do it is not my pilot is not the district pilot I can't impact or answer any of your questions about the pilot I can't stop them from coming they are allowed by the state of New Jersey so that's something you have to talk to the leadership and the municipalities about you have to to talk to the state of New Jersey about I can't impact that all I can do is continue to Advocate very rigorously for you all and I have been I'm not one to mince words with you all I I'm very um I and I hear we're not transparent I started this presentation about budget saying that class size will go go up I didn't say be tavern's class size could go up would go up I go to all the classes some classes there are a lot of pullouts I'm saying this about kindergarten we have not got done away with all of our kindergarten Paras we still have kindergarten Paras we actually are above the state adequacy on Paras we have more Paras than districts around us have it's we have so many Paras it's hard to staff and we get questioned by the state every time we go to budget time why do we have such high numbers of Paras so we have to be more efficient because one I can't staff them and two I can't afford them so we do have pairs that are shared through rooms the primary grades are a priority I'm going to try to keep go down as low as possible but when I say class sizes go up 17 and 16 are not going to be anywhere in the district that is how we're figuring out how we Bal balance a budget with a $5 million hole in it right now that is tied up in teacher salary and if you don't have space to begin with there's no there's only so many places I can split to if you don't have the room so you need the the the rooms that we're talking about in the addition and we may even flood over into the space where we want to turn in offices because this is the way it is in the state of New Jersey and I know that this is hard on teachers I don't like it either but I you'd be hard pressed to find any District that are going to have these class sizes Mr Resnik ran the numbers he said why is this so high he's a numbers guy you have all the fiscally responsible people on your on your facilities Finance board and his data dive outside of what we were telling him was our class size is small compared to most other districts why is that because they can't afford it anymore and they've already started increasing their class size we are all facing this because most of our budget is in teacher is salary and benefits I'm doing the best I can to split classes but 25 and 26 is what you're going to be seeing probably next year across the district not just at Bear Tavern across the district as much as best I can um to togate when I say that they've hit that occasionally they've hit 23 24 and then sometimes we've had to close it at that point we've had that happen at a grade level what I what I don't like for Hope well is it's going to happen across all grade levels and across all schools because we just can't fund it anymore it's just at that point I just want to underscore the balancing is already happening Dr tce mentioned as people come in they are not if the classes uh size is high they are already being moved to a different school so it is it is being managed as best it can the other issue though as mentioned as well is that we can't control who comes in and where they locate so the first assessment is if they are in the natural Bear Tavern area they're going the this class that that child is going to move into is being assessed and that that is unfortunately not something we can predict so the transparency is after the fact so I just I I really want to ask the community to assess how quickly they expect information to flow in balance with the information as it's coming to us there is no holding back there is no lying about the numbers there is just what's being managed as it comes to us and then it comes to you and there's no there's rarely a gap so that spreadsheet that was put together is the thing that they look at on a regular basis before any decisions are made where to assign a new child in this school district and the the other thing that is important to note is that the when we have a tough decision we have to look at busing that is Our obligation so it is balancing a number of things and I I get I I fundamentally understand I was raised by Educators multi generations of Educators in my life so I get it and I have done a lot of work in schools so I am not um challenging you on your concern what I'm asking you is to balance what is available as options to this school district under the circumstances nobody wants to have big class sizes nobody signs up for giant class sizes but it is being made every single day as every new child comes in and you have families right where one child might be in a a class size that's too big and their sibling is younger and a grade below might be a class size that's okay are you going to split those kids there's a lot of decisions so I ask for your grace in some of this we are looking it at all and if there is a more these people are not more creative than you could ask for so again I'm not asking you to not be upset I'm not asking you to not challenge the school district but I guarantee you that this body of people are looking at every possibility to manage it along the way we have a unknown we have building houses being built we have no control over the pace of which they come in or are being filled or even sold so we're managing and I mean I'm not I'm not manag managing our Administration is managing and we we as a board support them in managing and we get it's frustrating but we're all kind of flying a little blind so a little Grace and feedback in a natural way is important but there is no lack of transparency and there most certainly is no deception involved in the numbers so what we're going to be doing this summer is looking at again we're probably going to have to redistrict to one alleviate the pressure that's on you but again I'm going to have to increase class size everywhere to be able to continue to afford this to try to stop adding buses because as much as we would like school start time that's 30 routes when we researched this the last time I can't afford to add one more route these routes that we added we didn't budget for so that's a struggle in and of itself um um another question was about the the prek we are not sure that we can do Universal prek we are just in the preliminary stages of looking at the grant money that's available if it's an opportunity to bring that to you it would be something that we're only going to do if it's free in it's full day that's one of the requirements anyway that it's full day and that we have the space already we're running into the wall with the um just the just the the the quick survey we did and we have a way to project those who aren't here based on existing class sizes um that we would need 30 classrooms I don't know that we can come up with 30 classrooms even if they fund some of it which they're only going to fund some building I was looking at that is this is opportunity for me to bring in funds that can help us with the expansion on bare Tavern and bring Universal prek so now what we're doing and Miss dardo is doing and Miss plitz is working on is they're meeting with outside vendors where some of you may already be paying tuition to see if it's something that we can offer outside of the school district where you don't have to pay for it so we're working at ways to alleviate the cost to you in the best way we can because if there's a grant out there I'm going to figure out if it's something that they're gonna that we can get in here in Hopewell now it's hard because they consider us in fluid district and a lot of times they say no but I'm going to apply to everything and all they can do is say no to me so that's why I asked about Universal prek in terms of the referendum yes there were a lot of signs and a lot of um campaigning against us a school district's hand is tied when we go to referendum with sharing information we can only share information and I'm not supposed to be overly coercive right in selling it to you I can say this is the information it's up to you we pushed tonight what we were supposed to be doing and I am going to push because I know how much you need this as a district I'm going to push that what I can't do is hang up signs I can't go on social media and fight I need parents to do that and I'm so grateful that many parents have signed up as I've been going around to these pto's and they've offered to help me with the campaigning you can put up signs you can do all those things I cannot um so that's the reason why I wasn't able to jump on Facebook and argue with them and all that or put out my own signs I'm not allowed to put them up so we'll do what we can to to to get the information out I held many of these last time um folks didn't come and I understand that you all are very busy and now that it's like a crucial thing that I'm glad people are listening I'm still not sure that we'll convince you but I'm going to keep asking because I know this is one of the only ways we're going to get ahead on these projects is if we if we try to go to referendum I I do take the feedback about the two questions I mean I think that's feedback we have to listen to and the the facilities committee will will um discuss the two separate questions on the referendum um so we we'll take that back to committee and um hammer through the the risk profile on one or two questions I like one question um I I do too um and then I just there's um the parking wasn't there parking as part of that project too um Bob for Bear Tavern there I thought there was one um that we were going to look at that okay so we let's just talk to the to the um to the architect about that I don't know what if what could be done about that that's a question we'll we'll explore the parking I felt like we were going to look at that so somebody asked about the cost of the tennis courts yeah we'll get back to that I'll get back to that just um I want to make sure that I don't miss um as I go through this somebody asked about the cost of the tennis courts and they were expensive and they weren't sure that they they cost that much yes everything costs a lot more than it costs than uh the projects we do at home um we have to go through certain vendors that are vetted um and we go with low bid believe or or not the district has to go with the lowest bid where you have contract contractors come to your house I don't know about you but I try to get the mid middle of the road we're not allowed to do that we have to go at the lowest bidder um and that's just what things cost in schools nothing is is inexpensive and we do have to build in a certain way so just to also clarify in terms of there were additional work that was not just surfacing it was actually drainage and also around the tennis court so it wasn't the entire court was ripped apart and restarted from scratch the reason why they had to be replaced was because there was water that infiltrated Under The Sur the uh courts and had to have a whole new drainage system the other thing that drives up cost for school districts is prevailing wage we're required by law to pay prevailing wage and take the the lowest responsible bidder I would say we could talk more about this in like committees but I think you know that was something that came up in the last referendum of people right if if I only see this description in this number and then I start to have questions so it might be something we should look at in terms of right any of those areas that might have descriptions being really clear like what all is included in it um kind of with a second look I think that's a we we don't want to lose a referendum because people don't understand how much work is is actually going to be done thank you um there was a question about I think I covered the class size I'll get back to the AI there was a question about the lice um I did respond to the parent email in in um quite extensively when I got the email and especially from a fellow educator and someone who's a school school building leader and you know the lice policy has been in place since I've been in the district um I was a middle school principal so we had lice incidents too but we didn't have them to the level that you know happened at the elementary at some point um but we've been dealing with this this way for a while and I after I got the email I said let me go do research are we doing what we should be doing is this is this why are we doing this and so I looked into the policy and I saw that we were following guidelines from the the U pediatric The Academy of pediatric from school nurses and what the expectation is from the New Jersey Department of Education and the New Jersey Department of Ed so I called around some districts are doing it the oldfashioned way with the no so-called no-nit policy the state is so adamant that that's not what we're supposed to be doing they put out clarification last year saying you should not be doing that I went further and I called the executive superintendent of Mercer County who quickly showed me to that page and said this is what you're supposed to be doing you're supposed to be following the policy that you're following now which is alert families when someone has lice in a classroom we don't say specifically we alert the classrooms I'm sorry uh we're not we're not we're not going to we alert the classroom to let them know that there's an incident we're not going to let you know the student if it happened in a classroom and you've identified it to that classroom the nurse if they've identified someone who has it specifically will work directly with those parents to remediate the lice the child goes home that day the child keeps ATT the family keep working with the nurse until that's remediated and that's how we do it the days where someone had license you were sent home until you had no nits is not what this guidance is from the state and that's what not what we are should be doing so the executive superintendent said that's what we ought to be doing and you're following it and he was interested to know just what district wasn't and I didn't share that with him and I also called our school doctor as well our district uh physician to say okay let me just go this one more step and he said the same thing sent me to the same page and said you're not you there's no no nit policies anymore you're supposed to be following this and this guidance came out because districts aren't following it so that's why we do it whether we like it or not this is what the guidance says this is what the recommendations are and that's why we follow it that way um I know it's a nuisance I know it's horrible I remember ringworm going through my family all right it's it's a hard thing to remediate but that is the guidance that we have to follow and I did send that long answer as well as all the guidance and and I did research it and that's where we are that's probably why the board didn't respond because I did respond um in that long research email and I didn't do it kneejerk I really did dig into it because I wanted to make sure that we were following Beck's practices I I do value that that came from you um as an educator but that's that's really not what we're supposed to be doing anymore um I'm going to move to the um AI um yes we encourage AI in this District we don't encourage kids to cheat with AI and so we're working very closely with the policy committee to develop an AI policy um there is something that has been released now um from Strauss made some lawyers and policy writers that write a AI what Bob was referring to is it's overall the energy that drive that cost associate with running AI period in the country he's not talking about here specifically in the school district um so yes if you're not teaching a kid how to use AI appropriately and adults if you're not using it appropriately you're probably not saving yourself the time that you ought to be able to saveing save right they are it is a great timesaver but it hallucinates it doesn't give accurate information sometimes you you need to it's a great way to spark ideas but I still want kids to be able to research and write on their own right so all of those things are marrying together and um we have our media Specialists and our teachers embracing how do we teach kids to leverage AI to to make their lives easier to make jobs easier to do um but also know the information and know if the if what AI is kicking out is accurate or not accurate and still I need to be able to write a paper by myself and site appropriately so all of those things we are working on um you asked asked about a um robotics class at the middle school there was a robotics class at the middle school at one point um we do have it on the books it it's a a balance of having a advisor who's willing to do it we do pay the advisor to do it um and then having kids of Interest again we will keep any elected uh extracurricular you like as long as parents are able to help fund it now because that's not something we we're going to be able to just continue to fund um on our own because robotics is quite expensive but there is one on the books that the middle school that wasn't uh running at one point um it may not be running now for a lot of reasons I'm I'm guessing probably because of lack of an advisor um because we still have that in place talked about class size talked about AI smart passes I want to get to that for the kiddos the disability issue in the smart passes so um as I stated early on um when um Miss Lee was here our student um a representative of the board there is always a teacher override and just like always there always exceptions to the rules we have students and Mr Nardo can share that have individual uh education plans or needs or health needs they always get special treatment and if they need that please your your nurse would know that your uh principes would know that and those arrangements will be made for those students who really do have those needs yeah so especially with regarding um medical conditions and I actually know this firsthand because my son had a medical condition and a 504 plan here um 504 plans that's why they're in place so if you do have a child that does have a medical condition condition they should speak to their counselor and work through um the process and that 504 plan will provide the accommodations necessary to support those medical issues um so um to the young men that came and spoke I I was so proud of you for getting up and speaking up for yourself please take your long yes give him a round of applause please take your list of Miss um Riley she is going to present to the board who's already asked for um update on how that's going um she she knows there's some Kings um the smart pass exists in other districts she saw it in some other districts that it's working well they're just rolling it out it's I know it's shaky but she does value your opinion that's why she fixed the the U the zero no fly keep tweaking it we're going to keep tweaking it and make it work um the old paper wasn't working that's why we went to the system and yeah I know people are going to not maybe be where they're supposed to be but the good thing about hope well kids is 99% of the time you are where you're supposed to be so as long as we can account for you and we have a way that's automated to do that not paper because if if we lock down this being able to open a computer which um our our Hopewell Township Police have access to and and so do the Pennington police then go run through a hallway that might be locked down and go get this is not the way right so we this will work but I we need your feedback to make it work so keep giving us feedback and we'll keep tweaking it until we get it right right I promise you that did I get everything there's always an override too even if you don't have a medical problem if you really have to go your teacher can generate that for you so make sure that the teacher is generating a pass if you really need to go you don't have to go through that 40 minute wait if it's if you got to go medical or notes feel oh um Bob what was the net number of classrooms in that addition 10 10 um N I don't I mean we're not using we're not using the trailers for regular Ed so I'm talking about the the the one the addition how many classrooms are going to be 10 new classrooms but there's no net because there's there's no regular Ed being used in the ab okay thank you how I'm not sure how many are in there for for for preschool a six okay thank you so net four I I just wanted to make a comment um that well I'm going to say when we go back to referendum um please so board members were not allowed to campaign so we're not allowed to go out in the community and say but we definitely can if a Community member comes to us and asks for clarification like why are we replacing the roofs we just replaced we can say we are not replacing the roof we just replaced so we can talk about misinformation that might be out in the community but we can't go on Facebook we can't do that so I just stress come and talk with us talk with the district um because we can give real information out we can't Advocate which I I know it sounds so silly like why why wouldn't a board be able to Advocate but that is the law we're not allowed to C pain but we can tell you real information so please if you hear something out in the community come speak with us and then you can tell your fellow community members no that's not true so on on that I'll because I had a comment on that so one of the things picking up on that one of the things we have to sit through every single year and it's in public meeting last meeting so you can go and Washington video is the ethics training where we're told explicitly the board acts as a board members not as individual members we are ethically legally prohibited from speaking on behalf of the board except through the board president which is why when you send and you as a public school principal can check this in your District when you guys send an email to the board you will usually only hear back from either Dr Tre or the board president that doesn't mean we don't read it that doesn't mean we don't uh take that information into account and sometimes folks will go and ask you for more information but in most cases unless there's a simple factual answer right like why are you repl placing new roofs the factual responses were not right other than that we cannot respond to were legally prohibited the and it's the same answer to why weren't we out campaigning for the last referendum because as much as I would have liked to I do not relish seeing my name in the in the paper having been censured for doing something that is illegal so unfortunately we are in this state on many of these issues I find it extremely frustrating as you can tell right but just because we're not responding doesn't mean we're not listening we're just not allowed to respond you will usually get one response from either Dr Tre or uh Miss Williams galano that is the way the state of New Jersey set this stuff up oh so that was yeah but no they're in the background saying what is up with that life policy why didn't you do this and why didn't you do that and could you answer this question they're they're petitioning for you in the background though they are not permitted to do that and then since I grabbed the mic then I'll make a second comment which is unrelated to this which is um on I know when I say this to you this is going this is not the room to say it but I will make you promise that as we have these board meetings in the other three elementary schools I will make that that same statement if we do not build additions this will not be a Tollgate and a bar T problem I sympathize very much with what the administration has to do with the immediate influx of of students and I cannot fault them for the struggles that they're having but but my expectation in the long term is that there will be Equity between all four elementary schools on class sizes so if we don't build all four elementary schools will suffer that is my expectation for what's going to happen because there has to be Equity between all four Elementary School yeah well but it's going to be the extent of suffering is going to be Amplified significantly there is this much suffering or that much suffer suffering but it will be in the long term spread across for all four elementary schools I know I'm just I just want to say I want to say this again because you're not hearing me class size is going up across the district because we can't afford to do this anymore period so this will be this looking like this all over hope well 2526 and we already are rerouting folks to start making that happen but next year it's it's going to be very real it has to be I can't continue to do this we can't we can't continue to fund this and there won't be a district in the state of New Jersey that is not facing the same thing this is just where we are that's what I'm trying to make clear this is just where we are I don't want it to be like this I hate that I hate it but I just don't I can't I don't have a money tree out back I don't have any more ways to cut besides Staffing that's where the money is okay I just wanted to I wanted to quickly add um firstly just for the students if you're still here thank you so much for your perspective I think all of us as board members can try and understand the smart pass system but not being in the classroom is is a different experience so I can at least commit that I'll be definitely pushing the administration to really re-evaluate what that looks like in our classrooms um I will say for for the referendum Communications I I really want to Echo what Mr Resnik was saying but I I will also say now being on the community Relations Committee for this upcoming Academic Year uh we definitely want to push the envelope on what is possible in in engaging alternative media sources and making sure that we are spreading the message as loudly and as clearly as possible against the misinformation that we're going to expect again this time around for the same referendum uh last year a lot of that miscommunication came on online platforms like Facebook um sometimes in local news sources where we do have limited abilities in in what we can communicate but I can tell you as an individual board member who oftentimes toes the line on what I'm able to communicate publicly um we're going to do our best to make sure that we're meeting you where you're at and while I understand what Mr resik was saying about and I'm sorry what what Miss jovis was saying about you know coming to us with an issue we can clarify it then you go back we also do have a responsibility to come directly to you meet you where you are and to just be more proactive in communicating so I do want to express that as someone who's on the community relations committee I know Mr slotman as the new chair is is very committed to making sure that we're spreading the word as much as possible but we are unfortunately Bound by some pretty not wellth thought out and uh not not very phenomenal case law that limits our abilities to speak freely so um I just want to give that perspective as a community relations member and and someone that really was frustrated by the amount of disinformation misinformation about the referendum and frankly I encourage all of you to look into who funded that disinformation campaign because it it was extremely frustrating to see you know former leaders of Our Town come out against the the very institution of our town that not only unifies our three municipalities but also serves you know our our most important Dem graphic which is our children so that's all thank you um can I just make one or two comments here I know we all want to keep going but I like to it's important yeah it is it is um so I'll just start on a couple quick items so the smart pass really looking forward to hearing more about this kudos to the young guys that were here keep going um I mean I I'm going to probably put a Line in the Sand here you're going to have to convince me really hard that this makes any sense just being very candid I don't see a world where we should keep doing this for a lot of reasons I don't typically do this publicly but I'm going to say it just right now I'm looking forward to hearing about it more I may changed my mind but I don't see it right now um regarding the life situation I think I've talked about this in the past maybe two years ago about what sort of opportunity we have to talk to the state about doing something outside of their guidance I think we should maybe have a conversation about this more don't know how that looks but I would encourage us to talk about it I and I'm not looking for Applause when I say that I'm just thinking about my own kids here to be very candid um regarding the budget piece um I'm I'm just going to make this statement and I know there's a lot of emotions about it right now but you know this is a uh back to what I said before this is a money problem right this isn't a we are never going to balance I'm just going to say that there's no balance here I would call it harmonization maybe but we're not going to be able to balance so someone's going to feel like they're getting the short end of the stick here no matter which way we cut it I mean there's not going to be two ways around it and I I think it's a a tough conversation that we're going to continue to have but we need to have it and I'm glad that we're all talking about it I'm glad that you guys are coming out and talking about it uh there are short short-term fixes sure um I'm a hope burough resident I'm I'm the loan representative of Hope burough I am the beneficiary of a class of 177 and I've already told my town that we're going to 25 right cuz we know we have to and nobody's happy with me about it but it's just unfortunately the reality that we all face and the challenge that we look at is if you look at how we do a budget we don't have enough money coming in to pay for our bills that's what it comes down to and yes 90 some odd percent whatever the percentage is 87% comes down to curriculum comes down to programming comes down to teachers which is why we're all here because we care about them we care about our kids we care about us getting a good education but we're going to have to make some really tough freaking DEC decisions over the course of the next six months and we're not going to have people be happy with us and I've told the administration I'm willing to walk out and have tomatoes thrown at me and talk about it because I'm the finance chair so I'm going to be the guy that has to hear the most about it but I'm willing to do that for the sole purpose of saying that we all have to collectively come together and say this isn't going to be equal it's going to be far from it someone's going to get the short end of the stick and this is only the beginning right so this is a for warning for the community of like this is only the beginning the last thing I'll say about the referendum I hope everybody who's a Hopewell Township resident here shows up at the Hopewell Township meetings and you guys share your feelings about the pilot program because it is important you guys have to go there go to these government meetings show up to Hopewell Township tell them how you feel right that's the exactly they are we know that but from the township residents you guys can help that out because that does play into as Dr Tes said our discussions with them about getting a commitment back which we have not yet to get so I would encourage you guys to do that because you guys have passion I love it so that's all I want to say thank you thank you um again I Mark your point around the dialogue the discussion A+ for for the passion and the commitment and the focus of details and the numbers um and we're going to have to continue to work this conversation together together but just trust trust trust that there is a zillion moving parts and really amazing intention and it's not going to always look balanced but there is a goal at the end of the at at the end of this to try to move things as information or as families come in the last thing I'll say about the referendum and communication there is um has been you use of the editorial page to say things that no one else can say that is unfortunate because that is a great deal of source of information in addition to them building a website and doing all the things that are counteractive to what we are doing people were being sent to their website not to our website so in terms of transparency know your source and also know that every communication we send if there is a press release that goes out we send it out to all the news sources and they choose whether to pick it up or not so be clear that editorial page is the same page that did not post our public our press releases that's not fair to you but that's the facts and I'm saying this because you need to understand the complexity of not just our communication challenges but how much we need the community to really come forth in in this round all right can um saying I gotta add one more thing I'm sorry okay I can quickly um I will say one another to give uh both Dr Tes and our board president credit when we did use uh when we did end up sending out mailers that were very helpful and colorful we were criticized for using taxpayer dollars to send out mailers so I will say that um And in regards to what Mr Peters talked about with showing up to the hopal township committee meetings I'll offer the alternative perspective of also showing up to the Pennington burough and hopeall burrow meetings the the lawsuit is initiated by one side and that happens to be in this situation the buroughs and we're not here to debate the merits of that lawsuit but it would be uh we'd be remiss if we were not mentioned as a two-sided issue and it's important to to make ourselves heard to all the parties and while we don't have uh you know legal commitment in terms of hopeall Township dedicating pilot funds to hope to to hrsd we do have several instances of written commitment and Mercer me and other local news sources from the mayor saying that uh they will end up using funds to specifically hit this uh this Bear Tavern expansion that we've been talking about today so um just want to give that perspective of of not only looking at the township and and balancing out to look at also what the bur are up to I know it's tempting I'm sorry it's my job okay we are going to close out the public comment uh section just joking um all right we are going to I need a first and second to move the consent agenda item motion second all in favor any opposed any opposed or abstaining okay consent I uh consent passes um sir do you need to say more yeah so um in the interest of talking about how our finance facilities committing meeting went this this uh past month I think we mentioned about 99.9% of everything we discussed uh it continues to be a top priority we'll continue to talk a lot about it happy to answer any questions from the rest of the board all right anyone anyone we have one we have one thing that we have to do okay right what is it dis is accepted the donation right yes we have to do a motion to pass an acceptance of a great donation that's on the agenda here for an outdoor learning Pavilion so can I have a motion motion all in favor I I any opposed or abstaining from do accepting the donation donation accepted great just explain what it was was oh okay so the donation was uh two two one from a local family one from an anonymous donor to be used to support uh actually the building of an outdoor learning Pavilion at Hall Elementary School um so both of those donations were much appreciated and then there's also an anonymous donation of about $2,000 to be used for lunch account Deb to uh that's owed by families in the community uh somebody donated which is fantastic so thank you very much to all those who donated just so you know we we did uh surve the principles and for seeking out families in need and not just applying it to General accounts but looking for families in need it's fantastic whoever did that thank you okay moving on to Personnel who's the chair okay hello again so uh this one will be I think a quick one uh we did not meet this month uh but we did uh which is very typical for this time of year just given the the new committee actions and what's taken um if you take a look uh on what's on roll call uh we are accepting some retirements and we always appreciate that uh Miss Miller um and uh as as well as Miss Benavides Benavides thank you thank you for that as well as Miss Nelson which is great so we really really appreciate all three of them and I'm missing one more I'm so sorry uh yeah Mr Cobb thank you uh I am not doing good on this tonight my apologies uh Mr Cobb as well so we always appreciate uh that and really really value the time that these teachers bring to the to the district and uh we wish them well in their in their retirement uh we also have typical extracurricular appointments as well that uh we have on there any questions okay we're gonna have a motion here to be able to uh do this forward I give a motion motion motion great second fantastic roll call Dr jenavy yes Mr kapadia he's not there Dr Liston yes Mr Peters yes Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman Dr Sanu yes uh Dr Wilson yes Miss Williams gallano yes motion carries wonderful moving on to edcom all right so um I'm going to apologize to all of you but uh I this will not be as quick as marks uh we did manage to get an atcom meeting in it was uh uh short but very productive one so I have a couple of things to talk about thankfully they're all good news so um we had a review of the TMS math enrollment what is Dre he really cared about um so um just to provide a little bit of context um we went through a process of review for how students are placed in the various math tracks for regular needs math so this doesn't impact the special needs kids um and we really wanted to make sure that the majority of the kids were on a track in middle school that would still leave them the option of taking AP Calculus should they want to do that at at the high school that was not the case previously uh We've made some changes as far as um what the requirements were um to place essentially into algebra a in seventh grade uh We've also made some changes and made explicit what the waiver process is for uh parents to be able to wave their kids in and we reviewed the numbers and basically we seem to have gotten to the point that we were looking at the the majority of the kids between algebra a algebra 7 and math 7 are in algebra a which is that middle track that kind of gets them to AP Calculus senior year if they want to get to so there's no requirement but they have that option in fact I think the majority I I think more than half are in that uh track so good news the changes that we made had the desired impact we talked a little bit about the grades and whether we're seeing a lot of kids doing poorly as a result of this and that's not the case there's a little bit of a gr differential but it's within what needs to be expected so this seems to um have gone well we're going to be monitoring this um next we talked about the um uh uh the extent to which agriculture is introduced throughout the curriculum from um elementary schools through high school so exposure and education about agriculture and the context for that is dual um this kind of came about from two things that we want to do one is expose kids to um altern to careers that are alternative to kind of a traditional I'm going to go to college uh track uh especially given the number of farms that are present in the district at the same time we were looking for a way to get our kids more involved into what's going on in the community and again it's a it's a great way to get them out into the community uh Dr pit has provided us a very good list of everything that is already being done so we are kind of in a good place already in fact I asked her to share that and go through it in this meeting meeting but given that we're at um like past 10 p.m. I'm going to revise that I'm going to say would you mind emailing that to the whole board um um they're are uh they're looking at proposals to um on how we can work with local farms to have uh people who Farm in the community come in and talk to our kids about it um also then going beyond that and kind of getting the kids out to the farm that's a little bit more difficult logistically there is costs involved there is costs involved there are some farmers who are just not comfortable with having kids on their working farming facilities so that second one we're going to look into a little bit more um we reviewed um a book list for uh for a uh hope Squad program which is really a program that helps kids deal uh with with emotional issues good book list um no issues there and about half of those books we already have in the district so very minimal impact in terms of what we have to uh to do there we looked at the updated course of study for 25 26 school year that's pretty routine there's no real huge differences between um the current school year and the one that's upcoming um we discussed I I I think every committee discusses issues that have to do with what's coming in the budget uh we looked at the tentative agendas for our meetings for the rest of the year no changes were made smart pass will be discussed in the upcoming February committee meeting and then last but not least we had participated in an ETS study um and I'm going to let Dr pites add the details of what the study is about but the result of that studies it was the paper that was published summarizing the results was highlighted by edutopia as one of the 10 most impactful studies of 2024 so it was U um a very positive thing that the district was able to participate in and I'll hand over to you we don't have anything that we have to act on so just very briefly we uh collaborated with etss a few years ago and they had run a study um looking at um grades I believe it was three five and nine um and they were they had given students uh math problems and they were trying to to see the motivation um that students went through as they entailed harder problems um and so if you if you Google utopia's 10 most significant studies um in education for 2024 it is the first study um and it's called a simple tactic for warm Defender so I highly recommend checking it out building problem solvers yep that's awesome that's it any questions from the board all right seeing none we will move on to um community relations there's looking forward to meeting yes perfect right okay moving on toal we did have a very short meeting um where um we we briefly talked about Hope Squad which is up and running in all four of our elementary schools it is a uh suicide prevention program that is peer-to-peer and in the elementary schools um it's really about um supporting emotional well-being um so that is fantastic that it is up in running in our elementary schools um uh our board member uh Dr Wilson also shared his goal and priority um of assessing our seal programming throughout the district so we're working on an effective way uh to collect data to determine if oural program um is effectively reaching the goals that we have set um and then just uh you know our uh ruers clinicians our air doogs and all of the different mental health supports that we have in the district uh continue to support our families and staff um and we continue to do so and so that was seal awesome any questions from the board okay seeing none thank you um moving on to policy oh sorry my bad um any from climate action my Committee of one um I did not meet with myself or the teachers actually that headed up I'm really not a committee of one there are teachers that support um but we did not meet this very good thank you moving on to policy Dr llon okay so the policy committee met on January 22 we welcomed our newest Committee Member Dr styliano so welcome glad to have her on board uh Dr tce gave a review of the policy review process and then we reviewed policy 5701 academic Integrity policy 5710 student grievance and then we spent a little bit of time discussing the district's policies around communication with the community um so I'll just start briefly with the latter which is the communication policy um so what we shared is that the board doesn't currently have a policy around the administration's communication with the public or the school School Community um when an incident occurs that may affect the school Community uh the district has cleared with our attorney that we can communicate with the community that were aware of it and can't speak about details and provide resources uh we did discuss the benefits and drawbacks of putting um such a policy in place um but ultimately the committee felt that each situation is nuanced and that a policy would really constrain the ability of the administration to communicate depending on the unique nature of each situation um we'll be bringing policy 5701 academic Integrity next month so I'm not going to spend much time on that other than to say that our district is working hard on an AI policy and that will accompany the review of 5701 as well um so we have one policy up for first reading today so can I have a motion in a second to bring policy 5710 student grievance up for first reading motion second okay great uh so really briefly this policy lays out the process by which a student or a parent can file a grievance with the school district um it's been revised to provide more detail regarding the student grievance process and in particular the revised policy requires written documentations supporting the grievance uh provides the timelines within it within which a grievance must be filed and also provides timelines within which district officials must respond to that grievance um so this policy would replace uh P 5710 pupil grievance which was last reviewed by the board in 2009 so um hopefully everyone's had a chance to review that policy I'll just say that in addition to the language that's suggested in bold here the committee is recommending a couple additional updates so the first thing is um the recommended timeline for filing agreement under level one and level two so to the teacher and then the principal was 5 days um we want to extend that grievance period to 10 days just to allow for more time for a parent or students to identify and navigate this process the second thing that we clarified here is that AG grievance should be submitted in writing at the first level which is AG grievance to teaching staff and we also did indicate that a building administrator can provide assistance in this process which we think might be important for families whose first language is not English in particular so I'll just stop there and see if anybody has any questions or concerns about this policy okay um so not this policy but the previous one you mentioned the uh starting to develop a policy on AI yes um and I'm sure you're already going to do this but I want to say it out loud AI is a great tool especially for our students with special needs and so taking that in consideration when we develop a policy I would greatly appreciate it thank you Dr Jovi any other questions or concerns okay all in favor say I I any opposed or abstaining okay thank you all right um we're going to go ahead and move on to calendars so I need a first and a second to put forward January February calendar calendars all right uh Personnel we'll start with the easy one February 24th at 6 o'clock how does that sound great let's lock it in all right um Finance I was thinking the 10th I'm not sure what time works for you guys anymore you had morning last time evening better of February February 10th I was looking at yes um let's see now I'm I'm honestly could um I'm okay whenever any opposition to a morning that day let's do it virtual yeah you guys want to do 9:00 a.m. sure works for me how about 8: a.m. how about 8:30 how about 8:30 okay3 sounds great is that okay Dr wison is that okay with you works for me Madam president is that okay with you that was it okay uh edcom hold on 19 at five for okay as long as can somebody check the negotiations calendar you're good negoti we don't have one sched done that yeah okay then we're good all right which one do you do you stack something with edcom something stacked with edcom or is it stacked withal all right Paula okay and community relations does that work which would you prefer I could do in the morning at 8 or I could 8:00 and then last but not least Pam policy the meeting is the 24th just to kind of play around that Vick's afterno Dres that for policy yes that works government relations what about the 18 18 330 all right all in favor I I any opposed or abstaining trying not to be cheeky with those okay uh any new business items no I wouldn't dare right now no there would be a lot of kicking under the table all right we are going to goad we're going to go ahead and move into our second public comment members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of a three minutes during this point of this meeting during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond to or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take up the matter at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by The District administration public comment is now open I'm back I'm so sorry I'm so sorry for all of you I just want to finish Aaron groger 26 Dublin Road Pennington um so I I just want to say I I feel a little hope I I do I feel a little hope that the the board is seeing the inequities that we feel that our kids feel I do I feel some hope please don't let us lose that hope because we're standing here today and we want to work together we do trust me I I'm here I'm ready to I'll be at that board meeting and you'll hear me complaining there about the money for the pilot program I'll do it but please don't forget about the be Tavern kids um this why I stay on script I didn't want to get upset about my kids but we're passionate we want the best for them and so I just want to kind of close with referendum no referendum the class sizes are increasing so we need to figure out what we're doing and I have the hope and we're saying we're going to do something this summer what are we doing what are we doing this summer to alleviate the class sizes here at be Tavern for me I'm not in all of this like you are but to me it made sense to look at a shop rate the development behind shop rate and that entire development go to Stony Brook I see that alleviating bus issues going to multiple places I would love to know why that doesn't work I'm here asking um because to me we've added three bus routes to Bear Tavern couldn't those three bus routes have gone to one development and then taken students to Stonybrook where they don't feel the class sizes we have that's my question um because if we're going to redistrict the whole District it seems like a lot of work when there are high populations of students coming in specific areas that I feel um it it I I feel like it's a solution clearly I don't know everything but that's what I'm asking about here right now um and when will the plan be communicated to us so we're going to make these changes when will we know because this is going to impact our kids and it's impacting our kids right now um just to go back to teachers really quickly yellow thing I got it um when a new student comes the amount of Assessments a teacher has to do on that new student is unbelievable so everything has to stop in the room for a new student coming in and I get it we we can't stop them but it's just here so I leave you with that I have hope I appreciate you I do I appreciate being here tonight I really do thank you and I really want to partner with you for the best for our kids here at be Tavern so thank you uh I I'm back here again too uh Mike Kelly uh I at 233 Pleasant Valley Road Titusville so yeah I was I was listening to all your your uh presentation tonight and it seems like our schools are falling apart our class sizes are getting bigger and all of our kids have lice and I was thinking well you know you know I told you before that class sizes are pretty important to me to all of us around here um maybe it would be a good idea if you guys would uh make public what the class sizes are I mean you don't have to list who the students are but let us know we could have the data it's in the agenda okay is it like all the class sizes or are they just like statistics about the class sizes yeah I I'm pretty ignorant but um I was gonna say so something that we can control though is uh this lice thing this is kind of insane I didn't know about this um uh I would like to know uh who really makes the call there is it the superintendent do you have to listen to some other person's recommendation these class sizes are getting bigger that's more density of people maybe these studies that they're sighting are for like teeny tiny classes where it's just like oh sure you don't have to worry about lies at they're one kid in a class or something like that or two kids in a class but you get like 30 kids in a little room and like maybe we should like think well maybe these studies don't apply the situation where we have these massive class in these little teeny tiny rooms and everyone has lice so if it's your choice then maybe take that into consideration um thank you Kate ham hope well in your response to public comment there are a few things I feel compelled to state to sit here this evening and say that you you as an individual board member cannot respond to emails is untrue earlier this month you all participated in ethics training where you were all told that you would not be violating any policies or potentially being censured if you reped to an email with thanks for your email I'll be sure to pass it along to the appropriate party I can personally say that I sent an email in November and heard crickets I was I resent it again at the beginning of this month and still nothing from any of you it would go a long way with the public to acknowledge them the smart pass as a parent of a CHS student I read and hear a lot about the numerous concerns kids are standing in doorways waiting for their turn to go so they can run to the bathroom and return in an allotted time students need to go to the media center to print for an assignment but can't create a new pass to go to the bathroom for another 40 minutes without a staff member overriding the request disrupting the continuity of the class I often hear that we're trying to teach our students to have a healthy balance of technology and this directs them right back to the Chromebook to go to the bathroom to the nurse to the media center or to another teacher for assistance during recitation I'm also curious to know what we're paying as a district to utilize this program lastly I often speak to you the board but I'd like to thank the public for coming out tonight to share their concerns and their their voices seeing a full house here this evening at one point 50 to 60 people to honor our District staff as well as convey concerns confirm that I'm not the only one with concerns though some of you may think that and others are starting to speak up something I heard repeatedly is something that I have stated over and over communication between this District the board and the community is vital for a successful homeschool partnership we are in a trying time and the future is uncertain it is imperative that all components of this community agree to be open transparent and respectful hello Cheryl sanowski n9ine Hunters Ridge Drive um hell Township I just wanted to follow up in some of my previous questions um so are any of the goals of the referendum to address class size or is it mostly just infrastructure type work that we're taking on um the kind of in regards to my previous question um so I understand that there's 10 new classrooms um in the addition um and if we're moving the six from the trailers into there that's an increase of four classrooms um and I just want to ask if that's actually enough classrooms to make a difference um particularly in be Tavern as we look at these new schools um perhaps we should be looking for more than four classrooms um n because who knows if we're going to ask for for we might as well ask for what we actually need um and then just as a I guess a comment um frequently I see information um kind of like out there on the internet um referencing the 60607 um District enrollment and how people say that it's so much more than we have now and that we should be able to make it work because we can make it work then um and I understand that there's a lot of numbers that go into there we talked about a lot of the special services that are probably now offered that weren't then and I think that to kind of I guess th that um for this next referendum that some of those things should be more um clear we should talk about what the class sizes were then what they are now I could only go back to 2012 in the meetings um where the class sizes were significantly less um but I think that that like those hard numbers would be really helpful for the people who keep saying but 0607 you know 500 more it it worth then why can't the the district make it work now so I think that the more transparency we can offer people the better it'll be and I really appreciate the slides that you PR presented earlier that really laid out each of those and I know Amanda um had mentioned um about listing all those things and not going a long way with the township and I guess for the whole district and I I fully believe that because I think that that in my opinion was one of the problems with the last referendum is that people didn't have that granularity and it was very high level to say it was this school or that school that needed some enhancements and that makes it really hard for people to trust your word that we really need things and I appreciate that you took the turf out that's all I had to say thank you uh Dave Strat 23 de Road Pennington um just a couple quick clarifications Dr theres talked about um lice a little bit there and she shared guidelines they're all guidelines none of them are requirements that's why many districts make Common Sense decisions for kids and I also say that the CDC recommended children wear uh cloth masks in kindergarten for 6 and a half hours during the school day they're being investigated for that there's current Senate committees on that about how they failed the American public they've eroded trust many of these organizations have made recommendations that are completely wrong and what we have to do as professionals is look through that and think does this make sense and what I didn't hear from Dr tce was one logical reason why children with lice crawling through their hair should remain in a classroom did anyone else I didn't um so with that said I'm going to finish this and I just do want to briefly talk about Board of Ed communication because I didn't even get an acknowledgement from the board president for either of the emails that I sent um and my board does respond with the public and they just put a disclaimer to say I'm acting in my capacity as a private citizen not as a board member not representing the board and they communicate they are on social media doing it they've been doing it for many many years and there's no issues so that is something that you can do if you choose to um what I would say is an acknowledgement is something that I think is fair I write a long email you don't even say thank you for your email appreciate the nothing and that to me shows you don't care about what I have to say now I'm going to finish this up as a school district it is imperative that we apply common sense and sound reasoning and not blindly follow guidance from organizations that do do not fully understand the challenges in elementary schools the current life policy is putting students families and staff members at unnecessary risk and Dr tce mentioned nit the no nit policy I'm talking about live lice I'm not even talking about nits I can live with the nits I don't love it but I can live with it I'm talking about live Li the current policy is putting students families and staff members at unnecessary risk in my experience other districts including my own make the logical decision to send students with live lice home to prevent further spread and also make sure that child with lice feeding on their scalp is cared for and the lice is eradicated seems logical right um New York City Public Schools follow similar protocol as do countless others because it is a responsible thing to do that shows you value the safety and well-being of all students families and staff allowing children with live lives to remain in the classroom is frankly neglectful any parent who receives a call from the school nurse informing them that their child has lice and then chooses to send them back to the classroom is acting irresponsibly yet hope Well's policy prioritizes these negligent parents over the safety and well-being of all other families children and staff I find this unacceptable and I challenge any of you on the board to say in good con conscience you would want your child sitting next to a child with live lights on a bus or in a classroom now I have some questions I'm going to skip the first one because we talked about communication would you feel comfortable with your child sitting next to a classmate with live lice are you comfortable with the fact that hope with families do not even receive notification of live Li and I know Dr Trace mentioned that we've received we don't receive any notification any notification are you comfortable with that I'm almost done here I have one more thing if there was not guidance for you all to blindly follow let's just say you had to use common sense would you Advocate to keep children with live life craw okay so please thank you all right so I'll be the last one then um I'm John groger 26 Dublin Road um in our lovely Town um so I just wanted to just repeat once more and I appreciate that there was uh some comment from the board saying that there was going to at least hopefully look into this further into the lice issue my biggest concern has already been echoed multiple times although it's you know best practices it sounds like through the CDC I think at some point that there needs to be more of a further discussion as already been kind of talked about because ultimately what's happening is it's taking more time away from our administrators from our teachers out of their day to try to handle these situations because it is constant unfortunately it continues to be multiple times all throughout multiple times all throughout the day um you know we're hearing about it secondary unfortunately because of how often it is we're not hearing it from the teachers because again we're taking further time away from other things that are happening but ultimately we just want to make sure that this is something that's being addressed further and I guess the my question is at what point does it become a situation where there will be further that's looked into because ultimately where we stand just can't stay status quo thank you I didn't use my full three minutes k I just asked his last question no no all right well check your head for life when you go home come andine yeah and we've cut we've cut people somebody that hasn't spoken yet somebody can read the question but you've already used your three minutes for this section or your your you've no you've already used your time for this correct ma'am hi so Melissa chin bangu to State Park Drive my sister left the room but these are actually her questions she was too nervous to come out um there are three kindergarten classro rooms at be Tavern one of which is an inclusive classroom my niece Quinn is in a classroom with 24 children and to be very clear about statistics no more than two children are leaving at any given time so that means that kindergarten teacher has 22 to 24 children you previously indicated I think when there was discussions about the Paras at the end of last year or sometime during last year that the Paras would return to the classrooms when the classes hit a certain size I'd be curious to know what what's that number have we hit it what's going on there um to correct the record Another Thing having to do with kindergarten is the parah that is in my niece's kindergarten classroom is not there full-time she's there for a large part of the day but she's definitely not there full-time so yes we have the Paras but they're not there in their full capacity as has been the case in past years so I just want to make sure that that is very clear and sort of as a tangent to that I think it's really unrealistic to have a kid gter teacher expected to to instruct 24 25 children with varying abilities varying preschool experiences some kids come in with no preschool some have gone to excellent preschools to teach them all how to read in their kindergarten year which is what the expectation is thank you um another fact my nephew who is in Miss finnan's class which is an all-inclusive which is an inclusive class excuse me um Miss fan who is here tonight which I think deserves a lot of credit for these teachers her Miss Machado and others who are here until very late in the evening that shows what these teachers are made at her Bear Tavern his inclusive class has 25 children of those again a fact for the record at any given time at most five of those children are leaving the classroom to be pulled out for instruction again 25 children five are being pulled out that classroom is never dipping down to 15 it's just not happening so I don't know where those facts are coming from but if we're going to be honest with you guys we need you guys to be honest with us and we can't just be aggregating data that on average in some special classroom and hope well 10 children are being pulled out at once it's just not happening here um there are complaints from other schools and this hasn't been addressed yet about inequities across elementary schools related to programs like field trips and other extracurriculars some of which are being funded by the PTO if other schools are going to complain that maybe Bear Tavern is doing the terapin program or doing whatever thing it is that they're choosing to complain whatever our field trips may be then you know we should also be heard about the fact that these class sizes are clearly inequitable um safety I just wanted to touch quickly on Cheryl's comment it is very unsafe when we're having big school programs here Halloween end of year whatever it might be so I do implore you guys to look into more parking here as part of the expansion um and just an idea maybe there's a need for Bear Tavern and togate families to speak at the board meetings occurring at other schools right maybe people at other schools are insulated from what we are dealing with here um I don't know who who wants to take that baton but I think maybe that's an idea that should be considered thank you okay Caitlyn Stradic back for round two uh 23 dty Road I'm just going to wrap up my husband's questions here with regard to the lice uh are you comfortable with the idea of exposing hopeall staff to the risk of lice by allowing children with active infestations to remain in the classroom these staff members frequently work one-on-one with students or in small groups uh question four if if there was not guidance for all of you to blindly follow let's just say you had to use common sense and professional judgment would you Advocate to keep children with live lice crawling around on their head in our schools knowing that challenges we face in elementary schools and buses with regard to physical space and especially considering the ever Rising class sizes A Bear Tavern if so please explain it's time for this board to listen to the community it serves I urge you to reconsider the current policy prioritize the safety and well-being of all of our students families and our incredible Hopewell Educators and staff thank you um I've uh already addressed the uh class size I appreciate you uh coming up and still saying that again class size is going to go up everywhere um I know some of you said a class inclusion class of 24 an inclusion class of 24 has two teachers in it a Pera sometimes multiple Paras that are students yes there are going to be classes that are going to hit 25 that don't have that I'm not going to tell you that that's not true but that is not the norm in the district right now it is going to become the norm because we can't afford this anymore we don't have enough money to pay our bills I hear what you're saying this is the same for everywhere West Windsor Plainsboro is doing this Princeton Robinsville school districts that are rank higher than us class size are already above ours already academically rate rated higher than us so yes class size smaller class size is optimal but you can do it with larger class sizes we're going to have to because we can't do this anymore we can't afford to do it anymore everyone's going to feel it though because it shouldn't just be bare Tavern someone suggested going to other schools um going to the their meetings and talking that's important because I think that everyone needs to hear what you all are going through I am concerned about the separate question because I don't want you all hanging out here um somebody asked should we go for more than 10 classes the building addition that we're proposing for the your for Bear Tavern will have the ability to build up a level but with all the other things that we have on that list I can't put that on there to start because we're already at looking at 84 million dollar but yes you will be shorted up to add on if the state we finally hit their their view of what's too many students and they give us money for that there is enrollment waivers we just haven't qualified for it yet because they think we can have 24 and 25 and 26 in a classroom hopefully they will give us some money for that at some point if we grow fast enough and then we can can go ahead and build on that second floor at um Bear Tavern we will look at the parking a lot um I don't know where we would room we we could find but we can have the architect look at that and do some problem solving um with where we could put a parking lot if that's something um that we can include in this Bild as far as trip Equity um that is something that I'm always grappling with with the District Parent Council which is representations from all the PTO some PTO are like like corporations they can raise a lot of money for trips others struggle to raise money for trips we're trying to shoot for Equity we're trying to get them to do something that everyone kind of does the same trips because it's not fair that you know hopeall element can raise a lot of money but Stony Brook can't right and that's and that's a difficult thing so we're always in Dr Plick and I are always working on trying to make sure we have consistent grade level trips for everyone but with the way budget's going it's going to be something that we're probably going to be trying to throttle back on because it's just um even when y'all raise money the bus the extra bus cost always fall on the district and we just can't really afford it anymore um I think I got everything and the lice again I've already addressed that in the board um I'm sure we'll be asking me more questions about it um but for right now we are following the recommendations we do not have a overrun of lice going on in the schools um some of you are saying you're hearing it secondhand because your kids aren't coming home with lice but all schools face lice challenges well I'm not I'm sorry Mr Billy's here I don't think we're have and I'm going to do one better than that um miss dinardo you are the one who super vises all the nurses and all the schools I I don't think I don't think we're facing Li some astronomical numbers it's just the you know the new but I I am going to look into and talk with the nurses I hear you um but you are the first to complain and in 10 years I've been doing this but I I hear you and I'm gonna I'm gonna look into this I'm sorry I don't think I don't think that's true that we don't care if someone is struggling paying for and financing you know getting rid of remediating Li this district has always stepped up and took taken care of and paid for and getting those supplies we can get we can get those supplies if you're not able to get them please let us know that we I know it's frustrating but so the last thing I will say um before we wrap up is that this is a dialogue but it is also not a exchange of information it's not the way that we can handle public comment so I know you're frustrated and I will not shout from here to you I don't expect that to happen here either because we can't each respond to you so I'll get your frustration um it sounds like Po will be responding to or get collecting more information and the board will expect additional conversation in committee and with the administration you are heard and I I guarantee you there are emails that I don't respond to we try to not all respond to everything because it's a lot but if it would make people feel better I will certainly say acknowledging your email when I know Dr tce is responding we try not to fill people's messages up with additional messages that are just acknowledgement but if that makes people feel heard we can absolutely do that but we will not expect the entire board to reply that's not in my opinion efficient or helpful so I can commit to you that you will receive an acknowledgement but Dr teres and I work together to determine who's going to respond so um I'll leave that where it is we'll wrap up public comment and I need a first and a second to move into executive session second all in favor any opposed or abstaining thank you all for coming we appreciate it and we hope to see you at the next schools um um PTO I mean PTO meeting board meeting