calling our meeting to order. We have a roll call. Dr. Genevacy here. Mr. Kapadia here. Dr. Lilliston. Dr. Esnik. Mr. Slottman
Dr. Stilliano here. Ms. Williams Galliano here. Dr. Wilson. We have a quorum. 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 expecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the Hope Valley Regional Board of Education has cause notice of this meeting to be published by having the
date, time, and place thereof communicated to the Hopeful Valley News and the Times on January 7th, 2025. This meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon fio. 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 for review, further reference, future reference, preparation of the minutes, and reviewing um viewing on YouTube bulldog TV and the school district
website www.hvrsc.org. Members of the public who intend to participate in public comment, we ask that you sign in prior to speaking at the podium. This will assist us with your our record keeping in the future.
Please join me in a flag. I'd like first and second to approve the meeting minutes for May 195 regular meeting. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed or abstaining?
Okay. Meeting minutes have been passed. I do not have a report. I'm going to table my comments for now. We are going to be uh talking about the referendum a little later. Um so I'll table my uh comments until then. But we do have some very special guests that I would like to
get to the podium because I know that you all have a very busy day tomorrow. So I don't want to keep you here very late. I'm going to start with um our director of athletic, Mr. Tripcker. If I could have the members of the tennis team come on in, stand against the wall here.
Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Trice, family, and friends. I am proud to recognize the 2024 and 2025 boys tennis team back-to-back state champions. Give them a round of applause.
Both of their seasons were a showcase of talent, dedication, and teamwork. But what truly stands out is their character. These young men played with integrity, treated their opponents with respect, and supported each other every step of the way. They represented HBCHs
with pride on and off the court. Their championship reflects not only athletic excellence, but a but the strong values we work to build in all our student athletes. I would like to thank them for setting such a positive example. I'd also like to recognize their leader,
head coach Dave Burchell. Dave Burchil was named the 2024 tennis coach of the year for the state of New Jersey. His guidance, mentorship, and commitment to character have shaped this team into more than just champions.
They are role models. Please join me in congratulating the team and coach Burchil on these tremendous achievements. Well, thank you very much everyone. Uh, it's a real pleasure to be here with this wonderful group of student athletes. U, as you know, we do
emphasize several things, but uh, our players are students first and athletes second. Uh, and all the lessons that they've learned on the court, uh, I think are going to carry through for life. Um, it's been a pleasure to coach
them. I always tell my players, it's just wonderful and you should look around and appreciate the fact that the people standing up here with you now will probably be your friends for the rest of your lives. So, uh, I'm very proud of uh, what is going on here at
Hopewell. Uh, with the support of my athletic director, Trip Becker, uh, the faculty, the administration, Principal Riley, they do a wonderful job supporting us. So the entire community can be proud of this team and this
program. And uh the best news is um all but one of our players will be back next year. So we're going to try to work even harder uh both on and off the court. So thank you very much and it's a real pleasure to be here.
I I think I think we have to pay Pat Riley royalties if I use that word three. So we'll just call it a triple play. Yep. All right. So, we'd like to bring the players up in no particular order. Uh, one of our super freshman is Amal
Periq. Congratulations. Amal is one of several players who uh had siblings play. So, it's great tradition. Uh, my next player is the only player we're uh one of two that
graduating seniors. Zach W. Zach is going to Gettysburg College and he's one of our captains. Uh next player is one of our most outstanding juniors. He'll be back. Another co- captain of the team. Uh he
uh and his partner both went to the state doubles tournament uh and they were among the uh 16 to 32 best teams in the state. Uh his name is Kaido Kaido's brother also played double cross.
Another one of our underassman who'll be back next year is uh our uh uh sophomore Luke Pre, one of our players. I'm sure you all know he participates in so much here at the school. Uh and uh will be back as a
captain next year. Manis One of our other department seniors who was on the state champion last year has been a twotime captain and uh is going to go next year to uh my uh one of my
wife's alma modders of Purdue University is home All right. Another player who will be a junior next year, but has been a varsity player for two years, an outstanding young man, another great student. Um, his brother also played on the team, was
a sectional champion, but this year it's Danielle Rizzav. Another one of our double players, his brother also played for me. Uh but an outstanding teammate of Kaido is Andrew
B and the is probably the most important player on our team. Uh he was the uh number one player on and he was voted the the most valuable player of he had to play the most
difficult uh opponent when you were number one and this is Mercer County and you play a schedule like ours played the most difficult uh opponent and uh he played with a lot of character courage and as I said team's most valuable
player because he made everyone better everyone got to play and he's your opponent because of this young man uh so I'm very proud of uh Ean So, thank you very much everyone. These are your high school twotime champions.
It's a very rare achievement and uh we're proud of our young men. Thank you. We also have our plaques and certificates for our coaches. Uh for our coach assistant, um Gary Gaul and I have to say a word about my
assistant Gary. You know, many teams uh have their coaches that are either their friends or their father figures. Here at Hopewell, we have two grandfather figures. That's what makes us so good. So, Gary's one. And again, we have our 2024 tennis coach
of the year. Dave Burchil. Thank you. All right. We hope to be back next June to see all of you again. We hope so as well. Congratulations to all of you. Incredible accomplishment. We're We couldn't be prouder. So, thank
you and wish you luck for another season. I also just want to add if I can my mic. It's all good. I uh I played tennis for for all four years of my time at the high school with under the phenomenal
leadership of Coach Burchil. Um all of the older siblings of these players, I played with them. So, it's like it's odd to see everyone and and you all are uh spectacular young student athletes and I'm I'm so proud to see the program under the leadership of Coach Virtual
achieve this level of success. And the one thing I want to say about Coach B is every year when we would finish our season and in that in between period when we would come back for for the next one, the first question Coach B would always ask us is, "Are you doing well in school?" Because like he said, we were
students first. And I know he stressed that discipline. He made us all stronger individuals, both as students, as athletes, and as people. And uh your legacy really does live on not only with your former athletes, but all the folks who got up there. So, congratulations
again. Not only is Coach Burchil a great tennis coach, he's also a great baker, apparently. Brownies are insane. Brownies. Yes, you're all invited to stop by for one. Thank you very much. We're going to take
a picture and take a quick break. I'd like to uh introduce Miss Riley. You have some special guests for us. I do. I am incredibly excited to introduce our youth advisory board. The youth advisory board is a combination of
students from both HBCHs and TMS who work collaboratively with their fearless leader. Where did he go? Oh, there he is. Uh, Mr. Romanelli to work with our local government on issues that are facing um the youth in our community.
They give up their lunch regularly to come to the conference room next to my office. They are incredibly productive, incredibly focused, and I'm excited to have them share a little bit more about everything that they've been doing. Thank you. Step up to the microphone. All right, here we go again. So, just to briefly
introduce ourselves, u my name is Manha. I am one of the vice chairman of the youth advisory board. I'm currently a junior at CHS and I joined the youth advisory board this year. Hello, my name is Pia Joi. I'm currently a 10th grader at the high school and I
joined the youth advisory board this year. Hi, my name is Siona Jane. I'm a sophomore at the high school and I joined the youth advisory board this year. I'm Tessa Goodman. I'm an 11th grader at the high school and I also joined the youth advisory board this year.
Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to let you know about the youth advisory board which aims to improve the community and the lives of Hope Valley Hope Valley's youth and give our town's future the voice to advocate their concerns about their community and their visions for a better hopeful
valley. So some of the main responsibilities of the youth advisory board include advising the township committee regarding issues of concern to youth in the community, providing service and leadership opportunities with the township committee. Thank you. The township department heads, schools,
civic clubs, service organizations, as well as informing and educating other youth of issues facing the township and opportunities for youth involvement in city and community affairs. The Youth Advisory Board hopes to foster community pride and make a lasting impact on Hopewell through advocating um
for youth voices. Last year um the youth advisory board re um connected and gained several new members um after a brief period of recession because of CO 19. Um last year the youth advisory board focused on revitalizing the
integrity of the Mercer County Library um because it's a really important place and like a student hub and a community hub where we study, relax and volunteer. Yeah. So as you can see here, these are some of the damages that we noticed to the library. And when we saw that such
an integral part of our community needed major renovations, we knew we had to do something about it. So our first thing we did was we advocated to the committee with a presentation and afterwards we met with met with commissioner McLolaclin and through her advocacy we were able to help fasttrack the
initiative to help fix the library and as a direct result of that uh recent renovations have started to the library including uh roof restoration which you may or may not have noticed since we achieved our goals of last year this year we shifted our focus to a more prevalent topic amongst hope's youth it
all started when we conducted a Google form survey which monas designed through This survey we we um it was revealed that 66.3% of students were suffering from excessive stress. We soon began to realize that this excessive stress was linked to a poor mental.
In fact, the American Psychological Association claims that the long-term activation of the stress response system can disrupt almost all of your body's processes, putting you at an increased risk for a variety of physical and mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.
What we also noticed is that 58.1% of students felt that their voices were not being heard. Um feeling like feeling like their voices were not being heard regarding the issues that they are facing in their community. Um this can lead to a long-term stress
response system and a feeling of hopelessness. Yeah. So once we identified these issues with the survey um we decided we wanted to create a solution that would not only engage students but also engage staff so that the solution we come forward with would be more strongly enforced within
our school. And uh we wanted to create a solution that would both reduce stigmas around getting help for mental health and we also wanted to increase awareness of the resources that are already at our disposal to receive mental health help because there are so many resources that students simply weren't aware of.
You might be wondering how this works. Well, first, Gia and I approached Miss Riley, the high school principal, with a plan. Upon further discussion, we landed upon a monthly Google form that will be sent out by counselors to students and rate their mental health. The counselors
can then utilize this data to decide further courses of action. The counselors also built upon our idea to create Google form QR codes to put on posters in bathrooms so that students who need immediate help can receive it. Along with this, in order to engage
members of our school community, we decided to create posters promoting self-care and positive mental health to put around the hallways. And these are the posters that we created. Moving forward, the youth advisory board aims to keep mental health a major focus in our community and our schools. Um, we
want to spread awareness of our advisory board and of mental health um by implementing social media. So, just gaining more insight to what students need and getting more insight into what we can do to help. Um, we also want to advocate for Hope Valley Night Off one
once every quarter, so four times a year instead of just one or Yeah. Um, yeah. Thank you. So, uh, thank you everyone for listening and we'll now open the floor to any questions any of you may have.
Anyone on this? Yeah, I had a question. Great job. This is a fantastic body of work and kudos to you guys for coming up tonight and presenting to this audience. So, uh, right, you're in front of the board of education. If you could ask us for one thing as it relates to student
mental health, what would it be? Um, I'll answer that. Um, so we are, like we said, we're in the process of creating our mental health check-in system. So, really just help in um, making sure next year once we actually implement this that it's implemented thoroughly within our high school. um
helping us make it accessible to all the students in the school, you know, allowing us to maybe send emails to students so that everyone has access to it or allowing us to put posters maybe in um special places so that it attracts extra attention. That could be something of use to us. Um like one avenue uh or
one example of this is I know that oftentimes in our high school we're not allowed to put posters up in the bathrooms but um posters that would be in the bathroom say in between like the mirrors that would easily attract lots of attention and um that would make it easy for people to notice that there is
a new mental health check-in system that they can use um if they do need help. So uh really just getting permission to do things like that next year would be um vital to us. Yes. Um, have you thought about how you're going to evaluate this program in order
to improve it? How would you do that? I'll answer again. So, um, well, we're obviously still piloting this program. So, I guess, well, the system would use a Google form and within that we would put feedback as
well. So, based on the feedback we received from the form, we could do that. And also um by assessing like students mental health after the um program has been implemented by like assessing if actual positive changes have been made regarding student mental
health. Um if positive changes have been made then we will go forward with what we're doing. But if we see that uh the levels are the same that we've already noticed then we know we'll have to reevaluate it and make some changes. Yeah. Since this is in collaboration with the
counselors, I think it's also really important to note that they would really be the ones analyzing this data and we would be altering the Google form depending on what data they need to receive. So, we would definitely be doing all of this in collaboration with them. Uh I just want to say uh this is a great
job and I I really appreciate all of the uh the data collection because it's really important for us to be making decisions with some some empirical uh numbers that we have here. A question I have is uh on the policy committee and in the community relations committee, we've been discussing over the last few
weeks the idea of potentially having board members give office hours directly to students. Um I think the slide that you have about close to half of the students that you surveyed feeling like their voices aren't heard is particularly alarming for me and I I
know that feeling and you know there are other students in the crowd today we've we've had in the last few months I would say some some greater student engagement um whether it's around smart passes or or the extracurricular fees that the board has added on like there's a lot of there's a lot more engagement from our
community and and our students and that's really been great for us to see we're very happy to hear that but I think we as a board should also be taking an extra step to go to you. Um, is that appealing to you guys as as a as a youth advisory committee, having us
have these types of office hours, whether they be in person or virtual, where students can stop in, talk about different needs and and issues that they're feeling in their day-to-day uh, experience in the schools. Yeah, I do think that would be really beneficial because as a lot of students
don't feel that their voices are heard. I think that collaboration especially with people uh who are superior to us and in the school board. I think that would definitely be really beneficial to us because that would bridge the gap where we feel like we aren't being heard
or if we tell a teacher they don't know what to do with that information. I want to add that I know um a lot of you already have experience in similar projects where you collect data about like the district and you make changes based on that. I know Drew specifically you've done stuff like that in the past.
So um really just like harping on the experiences you already have and how being able to have your supervision and leadership and helping us do that you know through like what you know works and what doesn't work that would be amazing. Yeah. So, first of all, a big kudos for me.
Uh, I'm impressed that you guys tackled probably one of the more challenging issues. I have people who are who know this stuff better than me. They've asked the questions that I had. Um, I will
definitely second groups comment in wanting to see the data. I feel like we as a district spend a lot of resources on mental health and um you know we're still seeing obviously um
that a lot of our students are struggling. So anything that you guys can do to help in that effort um will be awesome. Um, and the only thing I was going to add is we did have students look at data that the district has and
really provide valuable information to the board that drove decision-m most recently I would say last year that where there is a real change that happened as a result of that. Um, if you guys are interested in doing that, AP
stats for those of you who are going into senior year is both a course that will give you the tool to do that, but also um probably find the kind of the teachers that can help
you do that. I just want to um thank Dr. Trice for inviting us here. Here you can see this a very impressive group of students. Um we have um a bunch of other stu there where we have a total of 12 um students.
Not all of them can be here. They're right in the middle of final exams. So um this is the representative. I also wanted to thank um who uh David Chait is our liaison on the township committee. Um he couldn't be here tonight unfortunately. He's traveling um for
work, but he wanted that he he did want to be here. Um he actually really has helped us over the last couple years lining up guest speakers. Um we've met with um county commissioners, a bunch of the department heads within the town. We
met with the Mercer County Commissioner last year. Um so he's really exposed the students to a lot of um what government is out there and how they have a voice and can make change. and the the change at the the Mercer
County Library is can attest to that. I also wanted to say um they identified this year as as mental health as a big issue. Um we are going to probably we'll have some new members next year, but we're probably going to continue that next year. They're really enthusiastic
about it and saw that it was a real issue. So you can look look forward to that next year. So thank you for your leadership. Oh, and Manos here is a double double duty
tonight is tenn and the captain of the tennis team next year. So, well, I saw this impressive crew present at the U um Municipal Alliance and I said, "You have to come hear what you're doing." I knew that they've been meeting all year and our schedules always conflict. So, I was happy to finally get
to see you present and I said, "You have to share this with the board. It's amazing." Um, as Mr. Kapati has shared we are going to be having office hours next year that we've already arranged with Miss Riley. Um we would love to to hear um more of what students um are are needing um to see that we're aligning
our programs to what your needs are and your feedback on how we really really can help. Um, and so I'm looking for plenty of opportunities to collaborate. And I would also suggest that you think about collaborating with the hope squad. We just started this year um, thanks to a community member that put us in in touch with someone um, that brought hope
squad and they could probably help also with some of the data collection that you need. But thank you for all of your work and I I congratulate you on on your presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Riley. Okay, we're going to move on u the
agenda to the referendum discussion. um the board secretary. Um as you go through the presentation, I'll jump in as as I need to. Um but I just going to give a little um a preface saying that the finance and facility committee have been working very closely um with uh Mr.
Kvidita and I to identify the the most um pressing projects that we are proposing to the board um for this uh proposed referendum vote for November. Um, we were charged with finding the most critical items that needed to be replaced, things that we were going to
face, a critical failure in our schools, and perhaps close a school as a result of the failure. And so, we paired down the list. Um, we thought we were pairing down the list, but as you can see with the cost inflation that's happened since our last referendum vote, um, the the
numbers haven't changed that much. We pulled some projects off that could not wait because we had failures um that happened at a time where we said we couldn't wait any longer. And then there were some emergent projects that ended up having to be added to the list. Um we
uh Bear Tavern folks, I know that you have asked us to look at a couple of things. Um there's a playground that we're exploring uh alternative uh revenues to bring to you and also we're exploring and got have gotten quotes on a parking lot because we know that
that's an issue for you as well. Um I am working on that uh right now and to see if I can find an alternative to that. But our real mission was to find to bring this the cost down as much as possible and to really bring this question to the community with those those items that are infrastructure
first and then the two additions that we're going to talk about um Tollgate and Bear Tavern to deal with the growing enrollment that we're facing here in the district. So with that being said, uh Mr. Kipid, I'll pass it to you. Okay. Thank you. Um so just for the board and
the public's um understanding tonight uh the board is uh finalizing we're be discussing the final list of projects that will be submitted to our bond council for the creation of the question. Nothing we do tonight binds
the board um until next month. Uh actually we by the a August 20th um is the deadline to submit to the clerk. they do need time to get the um everything written up and uh in the in the proper format for the county clerk.
Um but we felt that uh July is when we want to set this uh due to the timing of getting everything to the county clerk. So tonight the board will be deciding on what qu or what the questions projects to be put forward um to be voted on
finally in Jan in July uh for submission to the county. Okay. So tonight we'll be looking at those projects, our timeline and the current cost summary uh based upon all the different work we've been doing since um September when when the
referendum unfortunately went down. So uh the first thing we were asked to look at by the board was what was removed from the initial uh referendum. So what has been removed is the ADA accessible restroom and concession building at the uh athletic complex at
Central High School. has been removed. Um there is a primary uh HBAC replacement at Tollgate. Um that is being done uh this summer uh by district staff. Unfortunately, we won't be able to get uh the 40% funding by the state
on that project, but we couldn't wait any longer on that particular project um due to its its current state of inoperation. And the uh third project that was removed was the new synthetic fields at the at aft. So those three projects have
been removed from the current referendum. Um the board also asked us to look at what possibly could be added uh since the timing of the striking of the last referendum to its failure to now. Um some other things have have risen to the surface. Um so there's been
some additional um HVAC work that was identified at Bear Tavern. um some failures in some classrooms there and the office areas um have have failed since we struck this. We not weren't anticipating that, but we've placed those on. Um some additional steam
boiler work and a conversion from steam heat at Tollgate, which um if you're familiar with steam heat, once that steam gets going is very hard to control or to turn off. um converting that system to a hot waterbased system which is a lot more efficient and easier to
control at Tollgate. Um and then renov additional renovations to tollgate that was raised by their administration and staff to create a um more effective nurse area um with bathrooms uh an additional small group
instructional room and then a PE office again with a student bathroom there. the um the situation at in the bar in the in the off in the area there for PE and nurses suite needed to be addressed. Um we brought thought that that uh raised
itself to the the forefront. Again, also in the cost and we'll address those later on. Um is additional year or more that's passing between uh getting these projects completed. So an additional year of escalation um had to be placed project.
So um after a lot of deliberation the board has decided to move to two questions. The first question uh which must pass for the second question to be considered. Um but the first question will consist of all of those things that
are near failure uh and critical needs. Those include the building integrity issues, roof, the roofing replacements, the door replacements at at many schools, the drainage issue at Stonybrook, um, and the front office, uh, the front entrance upgrade to both Bear Tavern and Timberlake. Again, the
front entrance upgrades are not aesthetic. They are, uh, to deal with some safety issues on the grounds in, uh, around those entrances. again critical systems H a lot of HVAC upgrades throughout every school in our
in our sending area and then a sewer pump station renovation at Bear Tavern. Um we we are a run a very small what's called a very small water system at Bear Tavern. We are not on public city or public water uh sewer or water. We maintain our own sewer pumping station
and that um really needs to be renovated to to modern standards. There is an interior door replacement um project going on at Bear Tavern and Hopewell Elementary School. Those doors are um they meet safety standards. They
all lock for lockdowns and things like that. The real enhancements for that uh regard fire uh really fire prevention um and and maintaining a secure fire uh door should that ever happen. Um again, improved space for for
students. uh the auxiliary gym at uh Timberlane. Many of you may have been there today for the for the stepping up ceremony, but that is the last uh unairconditioned space in the district. Um it is used frequently daily by our students um both during the day and after school and felt that space needed
to be brought up to to moderate standards as well. Again, some additional interior renovations at Bear Tavern and some toilet room renovations at Bear Tavern and Hope Elementary School in the in the preschool kindergarten areas where um there are no um there are no ADA accessible bathrooms
there. There are bathrooms but they do not meet um modern standards for ADA accessibility and we need um we felt the need to do to address that. Again, uh some a major paving uh issue underneath the the Hopal solar lot and a
driveway improvement at the front loop at Tollgate. This isn't not the side loop. We'll talk about that later in question two, but the driveway loop at Tollgate has been um on the list for many years to get done. We feel that is becoming uh a safety issue as well with
the with the pavement cracking and the potholes that are there. Okay, so that's question one. um addressing a lot of those critical infrastructure issues. Question two is space both at Bear Tavern and Tollgate. Bear
Tavern. The additional 19,000 square feet is designed to address the incoming enrollments um in those uh developments around that that Scotch Road area. Um the Tollgate edition is to bring
those all of our students inside the buildings. Um there is growth that we may be able to push towards uh Tollgate from the Stony Brook area. Um Stony Brook is also receiving a great deal of students from the area behind Shopright and Federal City Road.
We are looking to expand there as well. Um, for a long time now, probably for the 20 plus years that I've been in this district, we've tried to address um the removal of that modular building that has housed u our smallest, our tiniest students, our our pre-K programs and our
kindergarten programs. And it just it's time that we bring those students inside. It will also address uh the need for additional staff space at Tollgate and uh bathroom availability uh to both staff and uh
teachers. that will also include a parking expansion, but the parking expansion is part of it. Um, it also includes a recommendation from our local uh law enforcement and uh first responders that a roadway that circumvents the building
uh be installed and that would widen that area and allow our emergency vehicles to trans uh to be able to trans uh transport around the building. So, those are the two questions um are that are being proposed. We'll go
further into detail on each question as we move forward. We'll go back to to question one about a $9.6 million renovation. You can see there in the in the uh right hand side of the slide, the areas of roofing that need to be addressed. Um this is where, you know, a
full circle comes in those areas of roofing. um the what we call the new gym, which is not really the newest gym, but it's the new gym is is being referred to. And the pack um were the were built in the early 2000s, probably the 2000 referendum. Um and they are,
believe it or not, close to 25 years old now. So, that roof needs to be replaced. Again, we mentioned the repaving of the solar lot, which is in upper leftand corner of that building, and um the 400 wing replacement, which is that kind of
wing that shoots off at a diagonal in the far left corner of the building that uh was built in 1995 and it's the original HBAC system in that uh area. Um again, so we it's not like these uh these all these things have given uh
their useful life to us. Again, there's not much being done at Stone uh at the high school. A lot of it was addressed back in 2015 with that referendum. The remainder of the roofing areas So, Timberlane, there is that front walkway that needs to be addressed. Um,
it's hard to tell in those pictures, but when we did the tour last month, folks saw that there is a lot of areas for trip hazards and and eroding concrete there. And that facade that you see in the upper right hand corner of the slide um is starting to crumble as well. And we've removed um some of the brick
already. The rest of it will probably come down over the summer by our own staff. But again, roofing needs to be done there. You can see the far uh lower right hand corner of the slide, but that far left on that whole area of roofing needs to be addressed. The gym floor, we
mentioned the air conditioning, but also the replacement of the floor. Um parts of that floor have been replaced, but the damage from water leakage from um HBAC units in the ceiling on there. Um pipes breaking and getting into the
floor. Um we've tried to do the best to replace that floor over the time, but right now the entire floor needs to be replaced due to damage that has been um gone through there. And then a lot of HVAC work in that building. And one other thing at Timberlane that's
being uh also addressed is a secondary well pump. um to avoid a well failure. There'll be a second well pump there. Uh they'll run a lead lag where one will run for a while, we'll run the second one just to keep them both working. But we don't want to have a situation that
we had guess two years ago now uh where in the uh we lost the well pump and and we're lucky to find a replacement motor um that took probably six, seven hours to replace. So we don't want that situation. we must have water uh to run
school. And again, this is a situation where we run our own water there. There's no public water or sewer. Um we run our own well, sewer system at that location. Moving to Bear Tavern. Um again, um there's some some areas there. You can
see in the upper right hand corner is the deterioration of the u the metal foundation there. just over time it it it that area was was done the best we could do with maintaining it. It was the moisture excessive moisture that runs up against that area as well as the rock
salt for years of clearing snow and melting ice that that caused that area to rust beyond beyond repair at this point. Um again we mentioned the sewer pumping station a lot of HVAC work there and roof areas you can see in the pod part
of the building the on the lower left lower lower part of that building is all that needs to be re-roofed. Um and again adding additional bathrooms uh for staff. Moving on to Hopewell Elementary. Um
this is a lot of HVAC work. The interior doors here again is is the priority and we mentioned that the uh kindergarten restrooms to provide the equal ADA accessibility there. But a lot of HBAC work. Uh in the wings you can see the arrows going through those red
highlights all need um updated air conditioning systems. Stonybrook um again our newest building our newest building is approaching 25 years old. Um that main part of the roofing area all needs to be replaced. Um we are going to add to this building
a chiller. Um you might recall that this building runs on a geothermal HVAC system. However, after 20 plus years the cooling ability of those wells there are wells that there and they pull cold water out of the ground and that
water helps to cool and heat the building. for for heat it works just fine right now. But for cooling um we are unable to in this environment of of warming the the temperatures are um greater now than they were when that
building was first built and the for the ability for that uh geothermal system to keep up with the excessive heat both in the fall and in the spring that we've experienced and as well as the summer. We run a um our uh our ESY program is is
very often run out of that program that we need to have a auxiliary system to help those hottest of days address that. So that's what's being done at Stonybrook Tollgate. Again, the vast majority of
the roofing uh virtually the entire building being addressed there with roofing and then the third floor will be will have some additional work being done um for HBAC work. Again, that driveway in the front loop as well there.
Okay, moving on. This is now stepping away from question one, moving into question two. These are the additions. So there'll be a 10 classroom addition um that will be equipped for preK and K classrooms with bathrooms. Do they have
to be used for preK and K? No, they can be used for anything. But given um you know a lot of the needs that we see, we're bringing as me we're bringing in more and more uh preschool students in both regular and special education and we wanted to have the ability to put
those students um where they best can be educated there. We need them for other We can obviously use them for other things, but it gives some additional space uh to that to that building with the growing population that we see there. There is the proposal for a
second floor there. We don't believe we need that at this point in time. Um but there is going forward if we decide to do something in the future that we could easily add on second floor there. kind of gives you an idea of what we're looking to do at Bear Tavern. The area
in red are the trailers. The the per they were permanent trailers um housed up to eight classrooms um going back probably 30 years before Stony Brook was built. Those were regular ed classrooms. Um, we have done a lot of work to those
over the years, resided them, re-roofed them, re-aired them. Um, but given the day and age that we they just they aren't suitable anymore for um full-size classrooms, they are they're smaller than than what we would see inside the building. Um, and with the way
instruction has changed over the past 25 to 30 years, they're just not effective anymore in what we're doing. We um plan to maintain those to keep those on as meeting rooms. There's always a need for meeting rooms in the district. Um office
space could be used. They used for office space, but they um they will not be used for students. Hopefully, this passes the area in green. Question. Uh sorry. Um by state ress, how long can we leave the preschool students in those
trailers at Bear Tavern? defer us to believe one more year. Okay. The area in blue and green um is the area of the new uh where the new addition would go. There'd be a breezeway uh near the top of that green um area for the for the addition in the
back. That green area will be an enclosed uh courtyard. It won't have access from the outside, but it will be a green space uh inside the building. to be used for for uh construction if so desired. But we that's where that's where it'll be going.
Yeah. Uh I Well, basically the blue classrooms are um the full-size classrooms. The the other areas are small group instructional areas. I believe the lower pink spot is the bathroom. Um and the
upper space is again office office uh areas. And the reason I wanted to bring this up is because there's a devil in the details and there's information about the square footage and and the 10 classrooms and and all of that. The
expansion, the proposed expansion is more than just 10 classroom. There's additional small instruction space, which again, if you're talking about special, uh, education, uh, preschool kits, that's going to be really valuable. Um, and there is some
additional space that we're going to be getting out of it. And then the other thing I think you may want to point out the little dashed rectangle inside every single classroom is that the bathroom. Absolutely.
And full size uh fulls size ADA compatible uh restroom facilities. housing cost and they're bringing out another and also who also
as well beyond what I'm looking at class going up to manage our general budget but don't have to put that. That's what So, I just want to kind of that there are three very specific things that we
kind of layered on top of the referendum. one is um an additional requirement that is being studied and I want to be clear that we anticipated that there might be a
possibility of additional students above and beyond what was projected. And so the design provided initially was had a potential for a second floor on Bear Tavern.
This is separate and distinct from the referendum. I want to be clear. The second thing that was um kind of layered in there were any agreements about this additional space or more
money. I I want to be clear, it does not affect the referendum as uh Mr. Kavita laid out. The point about um
potentially how long our kids can stay out in a the um trailer spaces in each of the properties. In the midst of planning from a safety and security perspective, it was deemed
critical for us to bring our students in. Hence the design and plan that has been presented. During our year on the referendum, the state has come out with a mandate to
move kids out of any of these exterior building slashtrailers. So plans are already in progress and so I want to again kind of carve out that
conversation although it does impact the timing of when we need to bring our kids in. The plan would be simplified by the passing of the referendum because what will happen is they say
preschool needs to move out of the trailer. So, what you're we'll end up doing if we don't have the space is moving other kids out there and moving the preschool in. If it's not safe for my preschoolers to be out there, I would argue I don't want any of them out there. And that's something that I've been pushing for a long time is getting
away from these outside modules uh with the way the weather's getting and also with school security. Kids need to be inside the building. So, um please I would encourage you if you have questions around these items in
particular, please I encourage you to ask them at the podium. I think it's important that folks understand the compounded effect of these items um and and how they distinguish the referendum from other decisions.
Again, second uh also on the second question is an additional or smaller addition to tollgate. Um again to alleviate uh that outside space where we have students um but also to provide some additional space um that other the other elementary schools do have um that
that Colgate has not for years. They do have a nurses room but it's not to the level of nurses rooms at at any of the other elementary schools there. Correct. Um, again, the big focus on this from
from our perspective was bringing those students that are in that that outside space inside. You could see it there. Um, that area that that dotted area red is where those buildings are. Um, and we look to bring those in a similar addition similar to
what is being done at at Bear Tavern. the breezeway from that back wing to a area with an enclosed courtyard as well as a uh a new playground area or new blacktop area with the students will not be short chains on a black top.
We'll be pushing that area back out onto that that property. Okay. So again, a quick comment for me on that one because you mentioned parking. So back to a previous. So I think it's pretty clear that when
we re it's not that I mean Pgate does need more parking, but that's not really describing the inclusion of the parking lot there. When we remove that building, something has to be there, right? You're not going to leave a hole in the dirt, right? So you're going to build
something there. So that creates an opportunity to alleviate that parking business situation. But we're not going out and kind of adding a parking lot in as an extra
project into Colgate or anywhere else for that matter. Right. Correct. The parking lot is more of an the parking line. So like a lane. It's just an extension of the widening of the driveway for emergency vehicles.
And there you can see the additional spaces. Um the the area two is where the the nurses suite would be going into uh one actually one is in the front. The area number two is in the back where uh
the new wing would be. So, just the timeline where we are right now um discussing tonight where we are after all our discussions that led us through the the fall and the winter. Um July 25th with the board's approval, we
would go forward and submit to um the county for approval. Um we are another caveat that goes along with this is in the bottom down there number four. Um we are waiting for what's called preliminary eligible cost letters from the Department of Education. We have not
received those yet. Um we are uh in the this is with the it's called the heranging process where we call them daily and say um when when do you think we might get those? Um last year I think they came 10 days prior to us needing to approve but they did come. Um but we
hope to get those sooner than later so that we can prepare the question. Um that becomes uh after that becomes the engagement with the community. um coming out to local events, having forums um where board members and members of the
public can engage in a dialogue of what we're doing and why. There'll be many events at each school uh throughout um probably starting late in the summer and and and continuing through election day. But we hope to um get out and engage with folks, voters, hear what they're
saying um and for them to hear what we're trying to do to better the schools that that you're that your children are attending. Again, that that critical date of November 4th uh this year for the vote.
Okay, the cost summary. Um we've been able to separate the question into two parts. That first part would be about $58.4 4 million. The majority of those projects, in fact, all of those projects will uh we
anticipate receiving state share maximum 40%. Okay. Question number two, uh which are the additional uh pieces, the additional uh the additions to both Fair Tavern and Tolgate. Um unfortunately, only 4% of
those projects will receive state funding. Question one and two combined uh 84 million 235 which is few million down 3 million down from where it was before. It's not um significant as as uh Mr. Resnick said at the beginning of the
meeting. Um but it is down a lot of that was co was also caused by cost escalation that we expect to experience fitting process go through. All totaled um 70% of the projects are
eligible for state funding on that. They were able to pass projects We're not like all Okay. Um, just one point on there too as well. It would be nice if the state um
gave us their share up front. They don't. It's paid annually during the budget process. Um, they do um it it is subject to to appropriations. I've not seen uh recently where debt service was denied a district, but they do uh make
you put the money out up front and they pay their portion of debt service uh each year during the budget process. Yeah, I got it. Yep. Yep. So, um just so we'll take it through. So question number one um if it was to pass the uh
the impact to the local taxpayer um based on today's assessed values uh would be 278 per household uh 243 per household in Hobo Burough and Pennington Burough 288 per household. Um if we were to add question two,
question two were to pass without pilot funds. Okay, that would uh take the impact of 462, 403, and 479 respectively. Okay, again, based upon current terms, that's 20 bond. Going forward,
if we were to get pilot funds for the $15 million project at Bear Tavern, it would drop the impact to 345, 302, and 358. So a savings of around $100 $100 plus change in each of the municipalities
if we were to get pilot funds from local. Do do these numbers assume that we received the 40% state share? Yes. For the eligible cost. So that's already worked into the
already worked in. Okay. And regarding the amount that each uh household would be changed in their taxes, does it happen all at once or because we're not bonding everything all
at once, does it happen? So, this is this is annual. That number that 345, 302, and 358 would change on an annual basis based upon percent shares um and how the the tax portion is in each municipality. It'll be around that, but
it won't that won't be the number each year. It will change slightly about every year. But if the if we're not bonding all at once for all the projects, then
does it immediately hit? No. And I mean, no, it was like Right. Okay. Okay. I see what you're saying is if we only borrow 30 million for Yeah. It would all be it would all kick in eventually. And and I the reason I was asking that question is because a lot of times when we see a number as a community, we're
expecting that that change and then something else will happen. And the assertion is it it's another test when in truth it the compounding effect of the bonding cycle and also the uh
numbers that get adjusted by the county. Now, depending on what the market does when we actually go to bond, if we got if the rates were better than 4%, we bought it all. We wouldn't want to take I think the last time we did it, um it
was 30 30 something million dollar bond. The rates were really low. In fact, we've in the time since that bond, we have not been able to refinance because the rates we have are already lower than be able to refinance. And that's another thing that that you can do is if you do um happen to strike a higher rate,
you're obligated by state law to monitor and refinance um when a when a savings achieves a certain percent or financial people monitor. We have refinanced over time. We haven't had to with the last because the rate.
Great. Thank you. Any other questions from there? Another question that came up be um another question that came up from Pam earlier today was um as we move further into presentations to the public, we're going to we're going to give away for folks
can calculate the actual tax on their home instead of just the average home. Yeah, I think that's really important, right? Because these are numbers that are being calculated based on the average annual household income and we know there's a huge range, right? Yeah.
Assessed value. Assessed value, excuse me. um the SS value, sorry. Um and we know there's a big range. So that doesn't necessarily mean that that's going to be the impact on every single household. So one more comment I wanted to make. I was keeping
notes early all the way. In the beginning, you said we removed some project because we just had to do them, right? Um and then we added some project because uh the board wanted to add them. Um, that's a very soft way of putting
it. I think we've always had a standard that you only we're only going to put projects in there that um really do need to be done. Just new stuff comes up, right? And what and obviously even if we
pass the referendum, stuff is not going to stop coming up. But we have a huge backlog now that's going to fail. We can't clear it out of the budget. The idea is the referendum has helps us clear the backlog and then assuming nothing
really catastrophic happens. We should be able at least for a while be able to kind of handle things out of there. But the projects that were added are not a one. They are the projects that um our administration
really believes need to be done. In fact, uh Bob knows painfully that we there were things that um they've advocated very strongly that we should do there and we we've asked them to take out because we said yes, they should
really be we should really get them done but they're not must haves and so they don't belong at least as finance and utilities committee we didn't feel they belong in this particular the measure of course was if this
failed, would we need to would we be able to keep the schools open or would we need either close part or all of the schools? I mean, an example of that is what's going on at Bear Tavern right now. Um, we've we've um we've lost the decent
portion of air conditioning in both the office and some instructional space there and we've um scrambled and there's portable units in those um rooms. They're not they're not as efficient. They're not as effective. They're they're noisier. Um but you know, in
this day and age, it's hard to say to uh folks that we're not going to have air conditioning for the rest of the year. It's it's become the accepted mean around here. Not when we went to school. Perhaps we we suffered through those last days of June, but now, you know, we have to find ways and it's just not um
it's it's not feasible to run portable units anymore. Well, the other example is in Colgate. I know you kind of said, "Oh, we just need to build a normal the nurses office and and and a normal bathroom." The current staff bathroom, the one and only staff bathroom at this
point is on the other side of the building. And if that fails and the gate bathrooms have been failing at a fairly good clip, if that fails, the staff no longer has a bathroom. Yes. Yes. And the speech office, I believe,
is a storage class. And something else I I think I I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up is is there there was a lot of clamoring um in the fall for the district to um use all of its capital reserve in in funding the
part at least parts of the referendum to reduce costs. Um the reason why we don't and why we use it so um judiciously is next summer we're already planning on uh repairing a sunken sewer line at Stonybrook. We would we wanted to do it this summer um but we didn't have enough
time to plan it especially with ESY already scheduled um for Stonybrook and the fact that Bear Tavern does not have appropriate air conditioning for that particular area to run ESY there. Um, so we'll be taking money out to this
Capital Reserve next year to fund that sewer repair. We have a um water tank at Bear Tavern that needs to be replaced this summer. Capital Reserve will be funding that. Um, so it's these types of projects, these emergent more emergent projects that we have to address on a
more um last minute I don't say last minute, but there as they come up, we plan for them and we're going to use them. we need to have that reserve of money or we're going to have to take it from instruction. Well, I'll I'll make a stronger statement having now been this
is my third year on the finance and facilities committee. Um, and so I think I've kind of figured out a little bit what's what, right? What this is my personal take. What Bob was really talking about is a very small
savings account that has just enough in it to cover, you know, maybe two of these projects that we absolutely have to deal with ASAP.
Um, we can't wait for something like a referendum because the referendum always is several years, right? It would be if if Bob came to me and said, "Look, let's just let's just drain the capital
reserve." I would say that that is irresponsible. We need to be able to deal with at least one emergency, maybe two emergency, especially given the history of the district having um facilities
emergencies at about that case. So, if Bob had come and said, "Yeah, no, let's just do what some people want and drain the capital reserve," I would say absolutely not. that is um that's a response. So um that would be a no for me if you wanted to do well we wouldn't
do that in our households right we have bud we have savings for emergencies and we need to do that as as school district as well um we use alphabet soup a lot in school districts he's been saying ESY that's extended school year or some of our special needs students need to go to
school into the summer and get learning beyond uh the the regular school year uh because they they have learning loss that happens over the summer if they're out the whole summer. Um, so you have kids in the building in the hottest months of the of the of the uh year and we need to have air conditioned and a
lot of these students are medically fragile. So it's not an option to like back in the day not have air conditioned. It it really isn't. We have medically fragile students in our buildings uh year round. We are very inclusive district and and those students are here with us. So no, that's it. That's it. So at this
point I figured we'd open it up if there any more questions to the board. Anything else? Is there a different way of I get to um but a different way of answering the question. Is there anything that you've
learned over the last few weeks that is important for the community to understand as you educated yourself? So I actually that that ties very perfectly into what I was going to say. Uh I so I've been talking about this
referendum with neighbors and families, family friends and and my own direct family members for the last two years now. Uh I joined the board about a year and a half ago. I would say finance and facilities is definitely the part that I am least familiar with and least comfortable with. Um, my dad, who is a
real supporter of our district, voted yes on on last year's referendum and plans to vote yes again on this year's gave me, I think, a really good analogy that I think is helpful for all of us to understand as we move forward with this referendum. I think if we think of our school
district as a piece of technology and it comes in two pieces, it's software and hardware. The software that we have is our operating budget that we have every year. It is some of the best uh software that we can have in the state in the region um in terms of what we offer uh
for accessibility for the quality of education that we give our kids. And we have some aging hardware and in order for us to meet the quality of our software to continue to deliver the educational experience we want to give
our students, we have to match it with improving our hardware. Um, and and that's really what this has been about. I think if we continue to uh avoid and and fail to recognize the importance of our capital infrastructure, we're going
to see issues in our ability to deliver a quality education to our students. We just talked about it. I mean, Bob showed the the physical maps of the new classrooms that we're adding at Bear Tavern. If those are not approved, that's going to be larger classroom sizes for our kids. that's going to be
straining our incredible staff who now have to deal you know with teaching 26 students instead of what we're normally accustomed to around 20 and and it becomes it's it's it's you know we're asking not only our staff for a lot but we're also asking for our students to
then have to deal with those pressures. Um, and so I think when we, you know, it's just important to recognize that these two things, I think we, we try our best as a board when we're explaining our budget to separate capital expenses from operating expenses. And it makes sense, but for the sake of this
referendum, I think we should remember that it's intertwined when we uh continue to avoid improving our hardware. It's it's going we're going to have an issue where the quality of the educational services we're providing to our students is going to see in the
medium and long term some some real damaging consequences and um I just think the analogy has stuck with me and you know I know a lot of we're asking a lot of community members to process a lot of information and you know we we on this board this is like what we do in
our free time and um I don't expect any of you to be doing this in your free time. So, I think when you're talking to your neighbors, um it's important to to try and simplify things. And to me, that analogy has stuck in my head. And I I think it's it's really potent for
understanding the situation our our board is in. Um we give some of the best education in our school in our in our state. And I think um we've got to match it with our with our capital infrastructure. Thank you. That's a great analogy.
Any other comments or questions? in the board. Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and move on to our first secretary is requesting we take a drop poll. So, just all those in favor of moving ahead
with this particular model. One question model. So, we're we're just taking a straw poll. We're not This is not a vote. We don't vote until the next meeting. They're just trying to get a temperature gauge. Yeah. So, it's okay. We're going
to do public comment, but Sorry. Thank you for the clarification, Dr. Genevesei. So, if you had to vote today, those in favor of the two question referendum approach. Anybody would oppose or abstain at this
point? Absolutely. Okay. Very well. Thank you all. Now, we're going to move on to public comment. Members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a
maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up
at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administration. Members of the public who intend to participate in public comment, we ask that you sign in prior to speaking at the at the podium. This will assist us with our record keeping. Public comment
is now open. And hi, I'm your friendly timer. Um, you will see the yellow when 30 seconds is left and you will see red when your 3 minutes is up. Hi, my name is Charlie Mott.
I came here to thank Miss Goolan, Mrs. Donardo, Bel Donardo, and her boyfriend, and of course, Dr. trees for coming to the Special Olympic Summer Games opening ceremonies at TC&J.
Please excuse my breathing. I love to see my teachers and board teachers support me, the other athletes, and our coaches. I hope next year all of Hope comes to see us.
Uh uh the first weekend in June for summer games is my favorite time of the year, even better than my birthday. Um it would be cool if our students volunteered. I would love that. The
scouts came out to help and a troop and hope came out to help. It was awesome. Thank you for coming. Thank you, Charlie. Hi um Sylvia Kosus 7 White Drive in Pennington. Mr. Capatti, I want to thank
you for sharing your opinions and views on US immigration in your personal capacity and not as a member of the board in May. My question tonight is about a procedure or policy issue. When a board member identifies themselves as
speaking in a personal capacity and not as a member of the board, what does that mean and how is that governed? Um, is that a special or privileged public comment time? Is that afforded only to board members? And does that board
member have unlimited time to speak? Members of the public are limited to three minutes. Mr. Capadia spoke for 4 minutes and 48 seconds. 1 minute and 48 seconds longer than a member of the public is permitted to speak
by the rule of law. It seems inequitable. And so if you could clarify those rules and regulations or policies that apply to the board as members when they're speaking as a member of the public
immigration and immigration policies are complex and difficult topics. My illiterate grandfather immigrated here by ship in 1899 at age 15 and arrived at Ellis Island. Abiding by the law of the land, he
submitted to the rigorous vetting, medical testing, and requirement that he had a job before he was permitted to join his widowed mother who had immigrated six years earlier. It took him 15 years to become a citizen. The
the negative comment for people from Eastern Europe at that time was boh or hunky. As with all complex issues, there are diverse opinions and ideas that need to be heard, critiqued, and evaluated to
generate policies that take seriously both the human dignity of the migrant and the rule of law that take civil authority and justice seriously. In his book just immigration, Mark Anto stated,
"The rule of law is not an ancillary attribute of representative government. Rather, it is the moral foundation of legitimate governmental rule based on consent. When a significant portion of
people disregard a law, this failure not only undermines a specific statute, but can also call into question the credibility of the government's ability to ensure compliance with the law. I would ask you to follow the law. We have
an executive order. Governor Murphy gave us executive orders. over 300 of them uh about eight of them regarded COVID. People lost jobs. They had to get vaccinated. Children were masked unnecessarily.
Please follow executive orders. Thank you. Hello everyone. It's been a while. Um, my name is Julie Cesery. I am at 26 Washington Crossing Pennington Road. I have a soontobe second grader and a
soontobe kindergartener at Bear Tavern Elementary. Um I'm here tonight to share with you um the mission of the EcoPTO which is to gather and act in service of you which stands for youth and earth
well-being. Um I am super proud to share that as of today we have submitted our request for official recognition from the district as a PTO group. Um, I'm super proud of the work that we've done
this year. Our active membership has grown. Um, and we want to really share our gratitude for the support that we have received from the district. Many of you have um shared your time with us and uh
bestowed upon us your experiences and wisdom and encouragement for our fledgling organization um as we're navigating some very unfamiliar waters. So, um, thank you and
we are all looking forward to collaborating with the district and everyone in the community to support you. Thank you. uh Emil back. So I just have a couple questions about
what you guys have just gone over with the referendum. So I understand why obviously in the last referendum or the one last year and of course for this one now you guys have split into two questions. I have a question about that though. um when you split into two questions, I
noticed that for the second one to pass, the first one needs to have passed already. And my question with that is I can see from uh the presentation that there are the uh that there are needs on that second question that must be met.
For example, you guys are being advised by uh local fire fire departments that you guys that something needs to change to allow uh full access around Tollgate. And then at Bear Tavern, there is need for uh students to get out of the
trailers, I believe, in a year. And to limit your ability to do that um to to have that very especially because question two is cheaper and may be easier to get approved. I was just wondering why question one needs to get approved for question two to be
approved. Um I had a second question kind of related to that. Um, I'm a junior here and I don't think I've ever been in a classroom at any level that had a personal bathroom in it. And I was just curious why we're adding all of these rooms. We're adding 16 total
classrooms. Why each one of them needs a its own personal bathroom. Uh, my final thing quickly was or relates to timelines for this. Obviously, a lot of this is stuff from both questions that if it got approved, it's not, you know,
snap of the fingers and it happens. And so, um, what are the time frames expected for all these different projects if and when they get approved? Thank you. Hi uh Matt Holner for Old Washington Crossing Road. So
near Bear Tavern. Uh like the question on the bathrooms for the the referendum itself. uh similar question where one of the upgrades looks to be the fact that yes we're not on uh I guess public water I guess we call it right public septic
so then to say that we're in dire needs to do things like we live on septic as well where we're worried about a septic pump cleaning out the the septic system itself um so I was curious why a decision would be to add a bathroom to every single room on top of something
that already isn't public uh utilities uh and really what benefit that adds and if that's a I guess a regulatory requirement with the fact it's prek and k I don't know the rules I can't really keep up with how the government's handling anything anymore. Um I think
from a a presentation to the public um I'm always trying to follow along a little bit on why something passes or fails. So, I'm just trying to understand then from this time around, were there any lessons learned, any key parts of it that anyone through investigation found
out why the referendum failed besides maybe some clever uh billboards around town, but I'd be curious to see like if there was certain points that really were the the main holdup. uh if those are still in or out. Um really what was done or what's planned to be done to
really lean in on those topics to convince people to maybe vote yes uh or the people that had voted no to to change their mind because at this point really what you see is I'm just paying more money um without really maybe a clear reasoning of like there's 26 kids kids in a classroom or you know maybe
higher. We're trying to educate kids and we maybe even understand the analogy where maybe in, you know, 15 years from now with a classroom that size, maybe they we shouldn't be wasting their time learning technology. Uh they might not be able to even comprehend it. Um
uh another question I had was really around the presentation to the public. Uh I know that the plan is to really once this gets approved, then you lean in on community buildup and support. Uh, I'm curious where the thought process is there, unless maybe I missed it along the feedback up to here of like, hey,
we're going to propose these questions. Where's the initial feedback of like we added three items, we removed three items. This is what's being locked in. Because if you lock something in in timeline here of July, right, or July, August, once it's locked in, then you're
just on a campaign of if you're on a losing ship or like now you're just trying to convince everyone to go with that versus really getting the initial public feedback. Well, I guess that's where we're here, but you know, the room of how many people um we're just curious to see like what's what's normally the
process there uh from this cuz I'm sort of new to this. I have a kid coming into kindergarten and another one following it up. So that's where for me Tavern is kind of the interesting state point, but was just kind of curious of where those lessons learned came in, how to make sure to improve that communication, what
information is there. Thank you. Um, hi. Um, I'm Heather Irish. I'm not breathing too heavy. I also would like to thank Miss Dinardo Rosetta. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see you. You were parking your car. I
know it's crazy busy. We're probably with my husband parking her car. Um, Bella and her boyfriend and Miss Gullen comes every year since Charlie was three years old, right? Three years old. Um, I also want to take the time to to thank
Seth who's here from Mercer Me who um, Kate Ham took um, the opportunity. She she took advantage. She just rolled with it and reached out to Seth and he reached out to all of all of us coaches.
I ended up going to Hopewell Police Department. They did a tour for our athletes. I'm with Hamilton now because Charlie, he plays baseball on Miracle League Baseball. So now I'm a coach for Hamilton and all
his friends are there. So he loved he loves that. And he just all of our athletes when they see someone that they expect dad or other sisters like oh you know they walk
in it's such an incredible event as you both witness but when they see someone that they did not expect when they saw you and then he found out you apparently well Charlie saw you in the stands waving your towel
you you know, amongst all the people there. So, um, it was talked about all night in the dorms that we get to stay in all weekend. So, um, but he was telling his his other athlete friends and it's just such an
enjoyable event. I really encourage you, I know it's a year away, to come to opening ceremonies. Jackie then comes to the events and watches. Charlie unfortunately had casting done on his foot and he had his cast taken
off two days before his event started. You can see he's in a brand new race that he had to get used to. But our um the oath is I I will win, but if I cannot win, I'll
be brave in the attempt. So that's what you are. and he got that in his head and did great all weekend. So, with a positive attitude and I I just think that everybody should try to
make it the fireworks that you all got to see and thank Special Olympics for that. And um you really should try. I also would like to put on the table that the prom be changed to another date because two
people got changed for a dance in a dorm one time. He is now okay. He's now his age and I got to push for it. So, thank you Can you hear me? My name is John
Edwards. I'm resident Pennington Harvard and Road by way of background which might be useful to you. I'm the proud father of two children in this district who have succeeded remarkably well since graduating and that's an important part of why I'm here. Um I have a PhD in
economic actually an undergraduate degree in economics and history from Princeton and a PhD in economic history from Michigan State University. And I'm proud to tell you, not that it's relevant here, that I am the current uh world correspondents test channel.
Um that's exciting. It is my feeling that we all are part of a social contract when we move here. Whether our children in this district and they receive a phenomenal education or after they've graduated we're still
part of that social contract. The problem that we face right now and it is a shocking problem is and it's not your fault at all is that that social contract has been broken by what the hopeful township committee has done with its pilots. the new residents who are coming in with
with kids are not paying directly into your coffers and assisting your budget with the result that existing members of the community have to pay for those children. Um, I have been going to township committee meetings for a very long time and you go and you ask your question,
you get an answer perhaps, but you can't enter into a dialogue. So, here's how the dialogue plays out over months. Uh, they claim that they had a mandate for affordable housing, which is true. They didn't have a mandate for their pilots. Pilots are not mandated. That was an
option. When forced to acknowledge that the pilots were not mandated, they indicated that they needed them for incentives to the developers. But there are lots of townships. Westwinds is a perfect example, and they don't believe in pilots because of what they do to the school. They say that they will forward to the township every single dime that the
school district is entitled to. The truth is that the township committee is not required to forward a single dime of the new tax revenue to the district. And why is this important? Why do I oppose the $16.1 million fiasco that they're offering? And I want you to pay attention to this. It turns out that the
300 that the recent pilot which is being contested by both of the burrows, it's a total this is not a small amount of money. The word pilot indicates, oh, it's just some experimental thing. No, this is $300 million over 30 years. $30 million and they're offering you 16.1
million. All right. This is pennies on the dollar. If this had not been a pilot, you would have been getting about $160 to $170 million. And some of the issues that are being discussed here today wouldn't need to be discussed. You'd be flushed with cash as you should
be because of that social contract. I have much more to say and my time is almost up. And I'll simply tell you that the $6.1 million is pennies on the dollar compared to what they ought to be paying you. And it's a political gimmick because that lawsuit whether or not it
goes away they owe you that and I owe you frankly a lot more. I'll speak later. Okay. Come on up. I promise I will sign in. I just I don't want to lose where my pen is and so if I
leave my finger. All right. So, uh Brian Kavanaaugh and I live in Hopewell Township. Uh first I want to thank the district for supporting the Junth Freedom Ride that happened this Saturday. Um both with the facilities at Hopewell Elementary in Toli. Uh it was
cold and it was wet, but those riders really appreciated the food in the bathrooms. Uh so I want to say thank you Dr. Trice for showing up. I don't know who was at Hopewell Elementary, but for all the Hopewell Valley members who came out, that was very appreciated. Um, regarding the referendum, I just want to say in Tollgate, I'm very
grateful you're including the new and updated nurses room. As somebody who um knows firsthand the fact that there isn't a bathroom in that nurses room, I know the logistics that we had to go through every year, including often having to close the nearest bathroom to
the toll grade cafeteria. So, I think that's really important. um addition to that um to that question. Um also it's my understanding that the Tollgate PTO built an outdoor classroom behind the trailer. I see that the trailers are
being removed and I'm curious whether that outdoor classroom uh has if they have if you have plans for that. Um and can we make that available during construction if that's going to be a multi-year construction process? And finally, sorry for bouncing around.
I know I only have a few seconds. Um, in her in Jessica Nordell's book called The End of Bias: A Beginning, she sorts several studies done with police departments that showed the benefit of on-the-clock officers, spending 10 to 15 minutes on mindfulness as defined as
time spent observing without critique. In doing so, it reduced the violent encounters and unlocked new creative solutions in their uh the policing of those communities. Um I'm given the youth advisory board's uh focus for the next year. Um I was wondering if it'd be
possible if one to two minutes could maybe be taken from each class um which I think would give 10 to 12 minutes across the um if acred across the day to give students an opportunity to be mindfilled and maybe help them in their mental health.
Any other comments? Okay, seeing none. Okay. Okay. Charlie Mus. So all I will
Um I know the board secretary um was was trying to research that as you were speaking. Oh, you do have an answer now. Okay, go ahead. Public during public comment. there is no specific there's no limit in board policy under board authority.
Um and in in terms I know that you made a lot of other statements about policy and and that sort of thing beyond the school. Um as a school district we do have memorandum of agreements with the local police and federal and law
enforcement. Um I must identify any warrants as being official warrants before I give them any information about any children. and that's my responsibility as the custodian of your children when they're not with you. So that is the rule period. Um so that that
is our job and it it is not the school's job to kind of know who's documented who's documented or who's undocumented. It is against the law for me to solicit that information, but I am in compliance with any um agencies that come here. Um but they need to come with a warrant and
there's a process. I'm not going to give any student information out until I determine that that that information I mean it's a legally um binding document. I would do that with any of our law enforcement um because that is my requirement. Um in terms of the ECOP PTO
um thank you for your proposal. You all went out and um put that proposal together and took the three steps um that a a organization that wants to be considered a PTO with a school district must do. And I have asked Miss Plitz to put that on the education program
committee agenda to take a look at. Um I'm thinking that's the committee that needs to look at it based on the work directly with students and curriculum and those sorts of things. And so we're going to be inviting you to the meeting uh next month to share your proposal with the uh board and we look forward to
hearing from you. Um in terms of um we had a question from one of our our favorite students about the two questions. So yes, the two questions are very important. What I don't want to happen though is we're building additions and then I have to send kids home because something failed in the
main building, right? Um so the the the first question really really are critical issues that if we don't fix, I may possibly have to close a school. I've already gotten close to having to close schools based on failures in those systems. So those are like mission
critical. Um, the other things we could live without. It's going to be crowded and tight and not fun, but I can't live without air conditioning and water and all of those things. Um, bathrooms are required in all preschool and kindergarten classes. Now, I know that some of our older kids, even we had to
go down the hall and find a bathroom somewhere. It's now code that we have to have bathrooms in preschool and kindergarten classroom. So rather than not have enough rooms that comply, it's better to put the bathroom because a fifth grader can go into a classroom with a bathroom. A kindergartener cannot
go into a room without a bathroom. Um so that's the reason why there has we put that we're putting the bathrooms in there to make sure that we're in compliance with the with the lower grade. Um the timeline of these projects, we're hoping that to start some of these projects immediately in the spring. It's
going to take some time to go to bid and to find um uh contractors to do the work and we're hoping by that summer we can start some of the works on at least one of the additions. Mr. Kvidi, do you want to add anything else with that? The additions will not happen uh next summer. The the planning um the the the
design of the actual building is very complex and the timing will not allow us to get that approved. What we do hope for next summer is to tackle um the vast majority of the roofing um the door replacements and perhaps some of the
HBAC work but the additions will the additions are minimum two years out. Okay. And with the tollgate that gives us time to which taps another person's question um I can't remember the top of my head. Um Mr. Colner um about I I
answered your question about the bathrooms. Um that the um someone asked about the playground. It will be moved. That was Mr. Kavanagh. The the playground the the outside learning uh area that the PTO paid for will be relocated based on where the PTO wants
it moved to and that will begin. We'll move that before we start eliminating the um the um portable the module buildings out there. So that will be relocated. Um moving to uh Mr. Cner's questions. Um, we have been on a listening tour all
year, starting right after the failure of the first referendum. I've been visiting every school, every PTO meeting, listening to what uh folks didn't have a stomach for the last time. That's the reason why we removed the accessible bathroom/consession stand from the existing turf field and the
turf field that was recommended for the other area um where the the AFT field. Um and other than that, folks said loud and clear that they they were full support of us fixing those critical infrastructure items. Um they also
shared that the communication needed to improve. So we have had tours of the building at every board meeting. We've moved board meetings around the schools. Um we have tried to publish more information about what we're proposing. We've really tried to to really really um get out the word. I've expanded my
communications committee. Um, but a lot of it was just really to Mr. Edwards point, frustration with the pilot. Um, so I will say and and you're absolutely right, Mr. Edwards, about everything you're saying. However, we can't as a district impact any of that. Municipalities have that mechanism. It's
a legal mechanism that they can use these pilots here in the state of New Jersey. Um and we can't impact anything as far as they're deciding what to do in terms of going uh to use a pilot to solicit a building and whether or not they give us the funds that that they
get from those pilots. We can't impact that. What I am not in the position of doing is if someone's offering us money for something I have to do anyway, I can't sort of say I'm not I don't want that money. I want a larger number. If that's what they're offering me at this time, it would be irresponsible of me as
a superintendent to tell the board not to take it. and wait for wait for the bird in the bush when I have something possibly in the hand. Right. So, we are continuing to negotiate beyond that 16.1. Um but that's what we have right now as a promise and um they are working on
seeing what other projects that they can maybe take off off of our list of other things that we have to do in this district. Um because this is just some of the projects that we have to accomplish um to get our buildings back where they need to be.
Um, let's see. What else was I missing? I think I hit on everything. The mindfulness. Thank you. I knew I was forgetting it was over here. Um, we have had a mindfulness initiative initiative in the district for quite some time. Actually, the former superintendent
brought it here. We do have mindfulness breaks and movement breaks all the way up through 12. Are we better at it K through five, maybe six, seven, than we are in the high school? you know, yes. Um, but we do have a campaign. All of our teachers have been trained in it,
and we do dedicate specific days to to wellness and mindfulness with our students. But yes, that's an opportunity that we need to expand for our kids. Think we got them all. One other note, um, there was a question about um, septic at Bear Tavern. We are not we are
not on a septic system at Bear Tavern. We have a a sewer system that t that taps into the the uh the public sewer system that takes it down um a long way down to Jacob's Creek Road, but we um
it's not a it's not a septic system. But I guess then just so people are then going to be used even though it's not a septic system they're holding tanks and things like that just because of the distance and we are responsible for those things all the way to Jacob's
Creek right so so when you talk about tanks those are not septic tanks but there are still tanks on the ground that contain last year we did have a break in our sewer line that we had to Yeah, Dr. Resnik, did you want to add anything
else about this? Well, Dr. P said a lot of what I was going to say, but I wanted to address uh Mr. Bagot question because I think that's a very good question. Then Dr. Edwards made his comment and I that kind of uh so I'm going to steal
Dro's analogy because I love it. my personal take and why I am supporting the two question structure with the first one being required. We're talking about hardware. The first
question deals with just keeping the hardware working, right? If if that hardware breaks, then software doesn't run at all. It's we also will hopefully get the 40%
uh match from the state and I'd love to get it and it's also a list of questions that you could that I think most people should be able to look at and say that's stuff that just needs to be done independent of the
issues that are being caused by the pilot. Now you could say we would have had more money, right? But it's independent. The second question, um although I am supportive personally
of the fact that we need it, there is a lot of um I do recognize there's a lot of anger in the community around the way pilot is being handled in Hope Township. I live in Pennington. I have my own
choice words that are not for this meeting uh about that but you know I also have to look at it as a board member and say well but we still have to go ahead right and so my only request to
you on that one and to every community member is um don't direct your anger at people that have very little leverage over what right
and but because of that right that goes back to Mr. the bag of question. That's why I'm like, okay, we got to pass the first question. That has to that really has to pass. Otherwise, we are at a serious
risk of having to close a good portion of a building because the list is so long, right? I can't tell you which one of those things will go wrong, but they're all fairly high likelihood. in a list of so long that by law of large numbers something will break beyond our
capability to deal with it out of the budget. The second question as Dr. reset it will change the way our district looks and feels to a significant extent if we can't get those spaces but we will be able to continue functioning right
and so that's why going in and and and part of the two questions I think is also listening to the feedback from the community that's why we split it but that's why that first one is a must have I hope I gave you some personal
perspective on Go ahead. I just want to address a couple comments. Uh first to to Miss Mott and Charlie, I just want to say thank you for personally inviting us as board members to this uh to the to the Special Olympics. Uh I'm sorry I couldn't attend. I personally my brother
was getting married over the weekend, so I was a bit busy. But I appreciate you uplifting the event to us directly and I hope to be there next year and I'm glad that things went uh with with a great success. It sounds like um and and great job as well, Charlie, for your continued
participation in that. Um to to Mr. Colner, um about lessons that we've learned. Um I think this is something me and and John talk a lot about on the community relations committee. I think we as a board oftentimes do point to some of the external factors that
happened in last year's referendum. And I think it's also important for us to take accountability um for us, you know, struggling a bit to meet voters where they were at in terms of communicating our case for the referendum. And um we're trying our best this year to
really revamp in those fall months um a more proactive outreach strategy um whether that's back to school nights um trying to be more present in the community ourselves as board members um because I I do think we we came a bit short last year. So, in terms of a lessons learned, I I think that's one
thing we're trying to actively push for. Um, and then, uh, lastly for for Miss Kosis, um, I just want to be clear, when I spoke last month, I I specifically said I'm speaking in my personal capacity and not on behalf of the entire board. That's a there's a distinction
between that and speaking as a public commenter because the reality was is I was sharing a personal story and I was there was definitely some political elements to what I was sharing and I didn't want to assign those uh uh political elements to my fellow board members. Uh so I wanted to draw that distinction and I do also want to share
my appreciation for you sharing your uh family story uh with with the public today. Um, and I I also want to add uh the discrepancy in speaking time of three minutes. Um, there have been plenty of times where we as board members, whether it be discussions
around finances or the referendum, we have spoken well over that 3minut mark. Um, in in our own personal capacities talking about our own views towards the referendum or towards the budget. So, you know, it's it is about consistency. we we've done that before, but that's
part of the role of being on the board is we have a little bit more leeway to speak during discussion and when things are passed. Um, so I just want to give that insight and hope hopefully I answered your question a little bit there. Um, but thank you all for all of your public comments.
Anything else from the board? I just for the record um I also appreciate um the suggestion on having more student volunteers at the Special Olympics. So I want to make sure that we got that down
in in our written comments. I thought that was a great idea. Wonderful. End it. Okay, with that we are going to go ahead and move on with the agenda. The public
comment is now closed. I need a first and second to move the consent agenda items um for approval. Motion. Second. All in favor?
I. Any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none, consent agenda items are passed. Does anybody have any old business items? Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and move on to
committee um updates. Starting with finance and facilities. Um Mark couldn't be here today, so he asked me to give the finance and facilities update. Uh we do have
two items that we're going to need to vote on. Uh one is approval of athletic bus runs for 202526 and I'll let Bob speak a little bit more on that and the other one is a
fairly routine one but we do need to vote on it for acceptance of of donation. As far as our report from the committee meeting, uh we just discussed the vast majority of it because the vast
majority of it was spent on uh discussing the list of items for the upcoming referendum and uh and kind of going through the details of that. The only other report that I have in mind is
uh we did have the usual facilities report uh which was uh and we had one of those happy rare occasions where there were no new major issues to report and
uh and the ongoing uh the various ongoing repairs that are going on are going fine or they're going to plan. So, um, that was the only news. And with that, Bob, do I need people I need a first and a second for each one
of those or do we do them together? All right. So, I need a first and a second to approve the athletic grants for 2025 2026 uh bus contracts. Um, and the acceptance
of a donation. And once we make the motion, I'll let Bob fill in the details. Okay. Uh so, Alex had asked me to to um I guess there's been some some talk in the community about uh our student athletes being taken to and from
contests uh in coach buses. Um we did a bid uh which we opened uh on March 20th, 2024. Um we requested five hours minimum
uh of buses. We got two bids. We got one from Stouts for Seasons Company and we got one bid from A1 Limo. Um the Stouts uh A1 limo or Stouts cost was $725
per bus. Um they would provide four buses in the fall, four buses in the winter, and two buses in the spring. That doesn't do it for us. Um they didn't actually meet the spec. We actually asked for more. We actually asked for more buses in the bid. A1
limo, their price was $728.98 per bus. Um, and they had a cheaper mileage adjustment, meaning if you went if you go past a certain mileage, um, it was cheaper. There was $8844
compared to $145 mileage adjustment for stouts. Um, A1 limo was able to provide us with five buses in the fall, five buses in the winter, and eight buses in the spring as to where we need them the most. So, all in all, um Stouts wasn't really um
compliant with what we asked for and for the additional $3, we were able to get exactly what we needed from A1 limo. Unfortunately, um we got no other bids from any of the other bus companies in the area that may have used a standard yellow school bus.
So, did we send the request for proposal out to all? It is advertised and it was sent to all of the companies that we do business. Right. So the so what you're saying is the typical school bus companies didn't even bother bidding them on. So they may not have the ability. So a lot of the company the
years passed this is the second year that we were able to um have a bid. We years before that we always had a bid. Um for the period of time from COVID till last year we were unable nobody would bid on it. they didn't have the
capacity, the driver capacity, the bus capacity to do it. Um we were felt very fortunate last year to get um a company to bid on it. The bid price is is not different than not much different than quoting it, but quoting it means you
have to quote on a daily basis. And that is very stressful for the transportation department to not know on a given day whether or not they're going to they're going to have a bus st uh A1 is required to provide us with those buses every day. They can't cancel. They've got to
find a way to provide those buses. So, um, again, unfortunately, they are coach buses. I think our kids like them, but we we didn't get we didn't get school buses to bit. Any questions on that? And then the donation I'm just going to
read is for one portable Yamaha Yamaha portable grand piano. Um we do not need a roll call. So we can do um all in favor I
any opposed or abstaining. Okay donation is accepted and the contract also moving on anything else Dr. Resnik
uh not on finance and facilities. Okay. Does that come next? Um, no. We're going to go ahead and move on to personnel and um Smith will be giving us an update. So, I know Mark's not here, so I will be
speaking for him. Um, can you hear me? So, we met right before this meeting and discuss uh the personnel appointments. Um, we have new appointments for next school year. We have uh those staff who are going out on leave, all non-rep
renewals, including transportation renewals. This is the season that we have to do that. Uh you'll see a lot of summer work, so our kindergarten camp, ESY, our power professionals, and all the staff who will be working um in those capacities. You'll also see the
ECA appointments. Um because the MOA needed to be uh ratified this evening by the board, you'll see a lot of the positions for summer work saying pending ratification of the HBACBA, which is why the pages came out so many. So we
apologize for that. Um next month you'll see them with the actual salaries. Um we discussed PDM rates. We uh had discussed that a few months ago in our personnel committee and then you'll see them for the next
school year. The employment contract for the cabinet. You'll see the contract for NJ Stride which is the consortium group that we are a member of um in New Jersey and the MOA.
Yep. The MOA for the HVA which we discussed in second session. pretty much it. Need anything else? No. Okay. Okay. We need a motion um first and
second to move and pass or accept these personnel action. Motion roll. Dr. Dr. Genevacy. Yes. Mr. Kapatia. Yes. Dr. Lilison. Yes.
Dr. Resnik. Mr. Slotman. Hi. Dr. Stilliano. Dr. Wilson. Yes. Miss Williams Galliano. Yes. Motion carries. Wonderful. Okay. Moving on to Edcom. Dr. Resnick. All
right. Uh so we had a a shorter than usual meeting. Um so we uh we looked at the summer reading list for the high school um for fine books. Nothing
nothing extraordinary to uh to approve there. We had the steam um the elementary steam exploratory teachers um or rather we had the overview of the steam exploratory program and discussion of what's going to be happening to it.
Unfortunately, the program is getting impacted by the cuts that we have to make. So, we're going to be going down from four teachers who are dedicated to steam exploratory to two. Um uh so we
kind of discussed some details about what the impact of those budget cuts are going to be. Um Dr. Pelitzus uh talked about curriculum writing. Um she worked with the teachers. They were able to do the
curriculum writing during the course of the year. So we're going to save some money this summer by not having to pay for curriculum writing. that is a kind of a one-off savings. It's unlikely that we'll be able to continue to do this to do it this way next year or or in the
future. So, we'll have to come back to that. We had uh what I have to say is a very very well thought out and extremely attractive uh sbatical application from a teacher. Unfortunately, we're I mean sbaticals are very rare
anyway and um the committee felt that given the financial position that we're in now, we're not really in a position to pend uh the sabbatical even though that that application uh was a very very good one. Um
and um then we had a report from the teacher leaders. Um and just a reminder for um for the board um teacher leaders were brought in or that position got
developed I think two years ago. um based on significant requests from the teachers across the district that they needed help uh with uh both um aligning on how they teach things um across
across subjects across elementary schools um at the elementary level. So for consistency teachers needed uh teachers felt that they needed help uh uh uh with um their professional
development in adopting uh new techniques that they're coming out um in in adapting ways to address um the kind of the barrage of things that they had to learn. First with the pandemic, then with the AI um they really felt like
they had a lot being thrown at them. So we developed the position of the teacher leaders. they came in um I think last year was kind of the report was kind of it's the first year we're getting um and they were trying to uh figure out
exactly where they fit in this year. They came in with a very good structured report for all the work that they've done with uh uh with uh the plan for next year. I think the committee was
impressed. uh we talked about um you know measuring the value that they bring and kind of being able to uh demonstrate uh the value that they're bringing. But I think to the three members on the
committee it was pretty well there were only two of us in attendance but it was pretty clear to me at least um that um there's significant value that they're delivering to uh to the teaching staff that's actually interacting with kids
and uh that's about it questions and there are no actions for us I think to vote not a question, just a comment. Um, I had the opportunity to attend the teacher leader presentation and it was
just so impressive to me how these folks are, it's not really just about promoting consistency, right? I think what was so clear to me is that they are these hubs for best practice innovation within the district and sort of diffusion of innovation and they are
lifting up teachers who are really demonstrating skills exceptionally well and positioning them as peer leaders among other teachers within the district. And so to me, it was just so clear that what they're doing is bringing huge value in terms of getting
evidence-based practice out there and really allowing teachers to learn from each other and then bring that back to their classrooms and their kids. So it was it was fantastic presentation. All right, awesome. Thank you. Moving on to community relations.
Hello. Hello. Uh, we met a couple weeks ago and I think Drew was there. Dr. Tre is there. Unfortunately, Jack is not. So, we'll make sure that is not the case moving forward because obviously Jackie Dr. investigation. They bring many great
observations to our committee. We met and candidly spent the preponderance of our discussion on the referendum and a lot of a lot of the many things that we've heard today talking exactly about that. I know this is my editorial
comment. I know it's a community relations committee. I often feel it's the communications committee because so much of what community relations does I think is related to communications. I'm wondering if that might be something we might consider as a name change at some point in the future, maybe communications and community relations
or something like that. But so much of what we did discuss obviously was a referendum and all of the different ways that we are going to look to engage the community between now and the fall starting now obviously and there'll be a whole different host of of ways that
we'll be doing that. Dr. has set up a referendum communications committee and I know some folks in this room obviously are serving as part of that but I think we would be more than happy to have additional members of that committee as we meet. So anyone who has spoken is interested you know Dr. Trice is
certainly taking additional members of that committee. So you know please raise your hand if you're interested in in learning more about that process. So that was the that was the bulk of the conversation obviously about that and then you know we talked a little bit before about all the different events I think that we'll all be participating in
as we get closer to November and that'll start you know very soon in the near future and you'll be seeing many of us all around town. We did not talk about office hours but we have in the past and I strongly support that and I thank you for bringing that up earlier. I I
mentioned head shot at some point too. we should probably do that as well or maybe just you know a team photo to put up there so folks can can put our names with our faces when they uh are out and about around town. So that is like I said bulk of what we discussed is obviously referendum and ways that we
can better communicate that with the public question. Um, so one of the comments that that was shared during public comment is really about how we can sort of take the temperature of the community and sort of understand what are people
talking about, be able to respond to it in real time, be able to ensure that we are um creating constituting a referendum that is acceptable to the community, meets the needs of the community. So, can you speak a little bit more to this sort of I forget exactly what we're calling them, but
this extended group of uh community folks who are going to really help us in um communicating out the referendum and how they're bringing information back to us. So, we'll be meeting with them periodically for them sharing and they've already been emailing me what's
out what's kind of out there and what and what what kind of information that we need to to correct. Um, we've also equipped those members with um, talking points that they they can have. I'm going to be emailing them now that we have our our question almost finalized saying these are these are the answers
to the some of those questions that I know that you have reoccurring in addition to asking them where what capacity would they like to help with. Um, we posting things for us on social media. I know everyone doesn't follow my social media page or if you do you pay may a little bit more attention to other
other sources. I can't post there, but some of our community relations people can. Attending community- based events and and sharing that information at a table. Um, and also, um, you know, giving me those things that I'm not that I might be missing on those other social media streams that that I'm not aware
of. Um, what really, um, impacted some of the referendum that were around us that passed were those community members writing their own op-eds and and putting their own uh, opinions out there as well. So, they'll be helping in all those capacities, I'm hoping. um in addition to bringing friends. So, if you
have friends that are willing to help as well, um we're going to be looking for folks to join the campaign. I just want to add to that point. Um we often don't get everyone from the community, those parents that, you know, that may maybe don't have kids or some
of our seniors who also have um kids that are out of the district already. So any folks that have ideas on reaching those individuals in the community, it's important for us to feel like people are
contributing, getting their questions answered and also feeling like they are fully engaged in the the social contract that we talked about. I have a couple of thoughts actually sent a little message.
But um I was wondering if it'd be possible to get student involved in in the rejection of these ideas. I was thinking about I used to used to be involved in what what are called radio plays in Los Angeles and we would u we would have these
fanciful kinds of ideas played out. We could use students to do that. We could also have a an art expedition of of and in which kids showed their their understanding of of all the things that are need to be changed in in the school.
I mean there there's all sorts of kind of creative things in which we could get the kids kids involved and and the more that we get the kids involved the more they're going to be talking about. Thank you. I appreciated uh your suggestions with the art. I didn't even consider that. We do have a group of
students that have already taken this on by themselves. We technically can't kind of recruit students to do this. Um, but they reached out to me and asked for the presentation um because they wanted to push the referendum themselves. And also voting. Uh, Mr. Kapati and I did go meet with all of our seniors, explained what
we were going to be doing with the referendum. Again, we we asking for their vote just like we're asking for the rest of the community members. Um, but also urging them to register to vote period. Right. I was very disappointed with the low numbers of students that we have that are registered to vote, especially since we make that available
to students. Um, so that's one of the things we're pushing them to get involved at the at the local level. Get involved even when you're going away to college to mail and vote. I'm all my sons I was on my sons about it too. Um really exercise uh the democratic process, not just the big elections, but
the small ones too. And and the referendum is one of those things. Um but we have a group of students the um honor society of um social studies that have taken this on as one of the things that they want to do this year. Okay. Anything else?
All right. Moving on then um to uh seal. Yeah. Um so uh we had a a a great meeting. Um it kicked off with um invited guests
from our special education department. Uh Dr. Beth Hoffman, uh Karen Rut, and uh George Needam who run the different levels of our special ed. Um, and uh, Miss Donardo uh, gave them all uh, a
thank you and so did the seal committee. Um, I want to add to that that they have um, an amazing leader in Miss Donardo who um, doesn't always get well I actually I think get credit but not the
right amount for the level of support and advocacy that you give. um not only to our special ed students but to all of our students. So I just want to add to your thank you to them our thank you to
you um for running an amazing uh program and department. Um with that being said, we talk about all the amazing things you are doing. Um we uh we're celebrating the first year of the hope squad coming together. Um,
we've got funding next year to pilot Character Strong, which is for those of you who don't know, it's our SEAL curriculum, but um, we've been piloting tier one supports, which is basic supports that all students get. We've got money to do tier 2 interventions, so
those students that need a little extra help, um, we'll be able to support them, which is amazing. Um we also talked about our restorative practices. We've got um a parent university that's
going to be happening on um learning about IEPs and for uh 504s. Um I also want to do a shout out. We had um an amazing program by uh Jordan Toma.
So, thank you to the Shrive PTO for introducing us to that speaker. Um, I was able to attend a part of that and um the impact on our students was just amazing. Um, all of our high school
students got to hear him speak. Um, and I was up in the top uh those of you who might know what the pack is like, I kind of sat all the way up in the top so I could look down on the students. Um, and it was amazing the interactiveness,
the students like really paying attention. Um, and you could just see them um, engaged and listening to that message, which was a really powerful message on resilience and that school is
challenging, you know, and it's challenging in so many ways for so many different students. um and just his story of resilience. So um that was just amazing. Uh we also talked about our field days.
All of our elementary schools have field days uh every year. Um and we in particular talked about Tollgate's um model for that and how they have the fifth graders lead their field day. So, they're fifth graders all year long,
plan the field day for the rest of the student, and then reflect on that um sort of teamwork and collaboration. Um, and we just thought it was a really great model um that Tollgate has and thinking about how we might be able to
get that model to our other schools. Um, and I think I hit everything. Any questions? Thank you, Dr. Jenki. Moving on to government relations, Mr.
Kapatia. Awesome. Uh, the government relations committee met on I believe it was June 10th. Um, yep. We met on June 10th to continue discussing our um, mission of
expanding our relationship with uh, local, county, and state government. Um, I'm very excited to share a major update on our first ever FY26 budget request. Um, at the end of May, Senator Shirley
Turner submitted a budget resolution on behalf of the Valley Regional School District to appropriate $125,000 for an ADA accessible playground at Fair Tavern. Uh, the temporary budget resolution is number 526 if anyone wants
to look into that. Um, as a reminder, the current playground at Bear Tavern is not ADA compliant. its wood fiber surfacing, lack of ground level activities, and outdated design is not inclusive for our littlest learners. Moreover, the playground is slated to be
removed as a result of the planned expansion to Bear Tavern. Uh so for this reason, we have centered ADA compliance as the most important aspect of the new playground. Um this has been one of the government relations committee's uh major projects over the last six months.
It's taken months of outreach, meetings, and advocacy with our legislators, and I'm incredibly grateful to Senator Turner's office um for submitting this resolution. I also want to thank Assemblyman Varelli and Assemblywoman Reynolds Jackson's offices and their staff who have been helpful to myself
and the district as we've navigated this initiative. Um this is the first time in our district's history that we have submitted a line item budget request to the state legislature. Um, so I'm just very grateful that our legislative delegation has been incredibly supportive um of this endeavor. Um, and
I'm extremely grateful to Senator Turner for submitting this not only on behalf of our board, but on behalf of the Bear Tavern community and to further accessibility in Hopewell. Um, as a reminder though, this is by no means a guarantee for the funding. Um, but this
is the most we can do as a board um, to get this included in the FY26 state budget. Um the legislature and governor must agree on the budget by June 30th and there's some speculation that the budget will be fully approved by the end of next week. So we will hopefully have
an answer um by Thursday or Friday if we were able to receive this $125,000 allocation. Um, in the meantime, for any interested community members, I'd be happy to share a template of an email thanking Senator Turner for her budget resolution and urging our assembly
members to co-sponsor the budget resolution. Um, this is a community effort and I welcome any support. Um, on the local government engagement front, we rescheduled a meeting with Mercer County Executive Dan Benson to discuss opportunities for crossdist collaboration aimed at combating
segregation. As I've reiterated in previous meetings, um Mercer County is one of the most segregated counties in the state of New Jersey along racial and socioeconomic lines. Um and it's especially worse in our public schools. Um so, you know, there's a whole host of
negative effects it has on our students relating to development, socialization, and success after uh they graduate. So, we want to be proactive in this conversation and and see where the county executive will be willing to collaborate. Uh the committee looks forward to meeting with County Executive
Benson uh I believe on the first week of July. Uh so next steps include following up with the LD15 legislators to co-sponsor our FY26 budget resolution, meeting with County Executive Benson to discuss school segregation Mercer County, and lastly hopefully getting
legal insight into establishing government relations as a standing committee. Any question? Yeah, just a quick question and comment. So, I mean, thank you so much for taking the lead on moving that resolution through. I think we're all so thrilled and so hopeful for
that. I just wanted to make one small, I think, correction because I did ask Bob this question before. My understanding is that the current playground is ADA compliant. So, we are in compliance with the law. However, it's not ADA accessible. And so, that's the challenge
that we're facing right now. Compliant, but not to the extent that it should be. and and the the play elements do not they're not acceptable. So to the latter but no but not to diminish anything that's
been done which is absolutely amazing. I just that has legal implications. So I wanted to make sure that yeah we were clear. So we're complying to the letter maybe not to the spirit. Yes. Perfect. Okay. Um, any other comments or
questions? Good to clarify. All right. Thank you, Mr. Kavadia. Moving on to policy, Dr. Lton. Okay, great. Uh, so the policy committee met on June 3rd and we reviewed two policies and one regulation that are up
for first reading tonight. So, can I have a motion and a second to bring policy 140, educational equity policy and policy and regulation 9320, cooperation with law enforcement agencies, up for a first reading.
Okay, great. So, first up, we have policy 1140, which is our educational equity policy. So, this policy ensures that the district has educational equity policies in place in compliance with state law and that we have an affirmative action officer and
affirmative action team in place to ensure that we're implementing requirements in this area in accordance with state law as well as a professional development training program for staff on educational equity issues. So, this was last revised by the board of
education in February 2017. Uh so we have a couple small revisions to this policy that you'll see in the agenda. Uh so the first is that we've removed the list of protected categories and have just cited back to the state code uh which holds an expanded list of
protected categories. And part of that is so that we don't have to constantly update this policy if the language in that state code changes. Um, we've also made additional revisions to integrate minor updates from the updated administrative code and relocate
information addressing our comprehensive equity plan C. We discussed that at the last meeting um into the policy guide that's specifically focused on that plan. Um, you'll also notice that the title of the policy guide has changed. It's been updated um to educational
equity policy from affirmative action program. So, I'll stop there and see if my policy colleagues have anything to add. Okay. Any questions or comments about this one? Yeah, I have a question on this one. So, and the way I'm going to ask you this, I'm going to make a
statement and my question is, is that statement accurate or not? Um my statement is if I were to summarize this, our policy says we're going to comply with all uh state directives in this subject
area. Period. Correct. So that's an accurate statement. We're not right. State and local Yes. laws, regulations, directives from the Department of Education, etc. We're complying with the
law. Correct. No more than that. No less than. Is that an accurate statement? Is that an accurate summary of what the policy says? No more than the law. No less than the law. Just the law. So, so currently what what we share with
the state and local police department is information. What are you talking about? The equity policy. Oh, the equity policy. Yeah. The equity policy is in compliance with the Jersey New Jersey state law and the protected categories outlined per state
code. Yes. Correct. Yeah. I thought I was on the other one. That's why I was like, what are you talking about? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions or comments about that one? Okay. Uh, so next up, and I think this is what Dr. Trace was referring to, we
have policy and regulation 9320, which is our cooperation with law enforcement agencies. Um, so this policy and regulation lay the groundwork for the school district's cooperation with law enforcement agencies as it relates to issues around controlled substances,
alcohol, firearms, and other weapons. It also lays out the regulations around law enforcement activities and operations on school grounds in accordance with our uniform state memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement officials. Um so every year all school
districts in New Jersey are required to review revise when appropriate and adopt this MOA. Um this policy and regulation were uh last reviewed in 2022. Um, so we've revised this to include a couple of new requirements from the MOA. So the
first revision provides the superintendent or design with the option to designate a law enforcement unit for the district. Um, for our district, this is both Hopewell Township and Pennington Burough Police. Another revision to the regulation addresses handle with care
program. So the handle with care uh is a program which requires law enforcement officials to notify the district when a student enrolled in the district witnesses something traumatic outside of the school. So the revision states that the superintendent or the design will
designate a point of contact for each school building who's tasked with receiving these notifications and in our district I believe this is Miss Smith who then shares this information with school principles. Um, one thing that we discussed in committee is that there is
quite a great great deal of confidentiality around these notifications and even the school principles are not told necessarily the detail of incident just that it occurred so they can kind of check in with that student and how they're doing. Um, the last revision that we have here is that
the policy and regulation have also been revised to include the language cannabis and other drugs as marijuana and cannabis are no longer a controlled dangerous substance, but still do trigger the district's responsibility to notify law enforcement if a student's
found to be under the influence or in possession. So, any questions or comments about that one? Okay. So, um, all in favor say I. Any opposed or abstaining?
Okay, great. Um, so now we'll move on to second reading. So, can I have a motion in a second to bring policies 5512, harassment, intimidation, and bullying, and policy and regulation 511, eligibility of resident, non-resident
students, up for second reading. second. Okay, great. Um, so the committee did not receive any comments or revisions to these the policies or regulation um based on first reading. Um, we did have a chance to discuss them
in depth at that time. So I will just ask now if anybody has any uh comments, revisions, questions about these policies and this regulation at this time. Okay. So Bob, I think we're do a roll call vote.
Dr. Resnik. Yep. Mr. Slottman. Hi. Dr. Stelliano. Uh, not present. Dr. Wilson. Yes.
Dr. Genevacy. Yes. Mr. Kapadia. Yes. Dr. Lil. Yes. And Miss Williams Galliano. Yes. Motion carries. So, um, this policy I'm going to just point out because it's important. It's a
big shift in the way school districts used to do things. Um, we have operated this district and most districts in New Jersey with a so-called senior privilege. Meaning, if you were a senior um with us in November or the early on
in the school year and your family moved, the superintendent had the discretion to let that family of that student, that senior stay. We've also extended that to all the terminal grades really at a grade band, 8th grade and fifth grade. We allow those parents to let as long as they're willing to
provide transportation, let the child finish the year. Um the New Jersey Department of Education no longer allows us to do that. Another thing that we used to do is if you had a house under contract, building a house locally, and the house was going to be open to you
within the next couple of months, we would let your child start here. We would take a tuition check, but we wouldn't cash it. Um, provided that you moved here within those 60 days or, you know, with within the timeline. We can't do that anymore either. So, you can't physically move into the district, then
you have to pay tuition. So, that is going to be a big shift in the way that we used to do things. Um, believe me, the superintendents are not happy with it. Um, but that is what we have to do moving forward. So, I'm going to really be um pointing that out because a lot of folks are making decisions to move um under the assumption that their kids can
stay if it's their senior year or eighth grade or fifth grade and we can no longer do that unless you're willing to pay tuition. And on note, it needs to be noted um the reason for this, believe it or not, athletics. Sorry, I I wasn't going to ask a
question, but now I have to because this is puzzling. Recruiting. What they'll say is come here, we'll wave the tuition for a year and you your your you know your student can play or finish out the season.
not what's what in best interest of students who may be graduating in three months or two months. As Mark who is not present points out, this is not the venue to complain about it. I want great. Moving on then. Um any new business items?
All right, somebody's over here moving my agenda items as we're using them. All right, we're going to um need a first and second to approve the agenda. I'm sorry, the board calendars for June and July. Motion.
Second. We always we start with the easy one. Uh personnel on July 21st at 6 PM. Okay. Um do we want to do finance at our traditional 8 a.m. Monday morning the week before July 14th? We got sure we
have vacations involved. Okay. The policy is already scheduled for I think the um um Dr. Siliano uh June 30th, Monday at 8 a.m. Government relations. What do you think?
Best policy? What? At what time? Uh, on 7th at 12 p.m. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed or abstaining? I thought Okay.
Anyone have any new business? Okay, seeing just another second reminder that uh petitions are due July 28th for the three open seats that we have on the
board. The seats are two three-year terms for Hope Township and one three-year term for Hope Burough. Okay. So, those again, those petitions are due to the county clerk in Trenton by 4 PM
on July 28th. Um, petitions can be secured online or in my office. Okay. With that, we are now moving on to public comment. Members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes
during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is
researched by the district administration. Members of the public are to uh who intend to participate in the public comment are reminded to sign in prior to speaking. This will assist us with our record keeping. Public comment is now
open. Hi, I'm Heather Irish Mott. Um first I wanted to ask about the buses. Um, it's always intriguing to me to know Bob
Civo, Mr. Calvido. Um, who what is the qualification for taking those buses as I am getting my daughter ready to get on a yellow bus and drive an hour and a half to Downing Town for
competition. So, I thought maybe there's reasons. Um, so I wanted to ask Jackie, thank you so much for adding the volunteers or mentioning it. I spoke to there's several counties that participate and I
spoke when I when I we have to line our athletes up and get them in staging. There's about 12 volunteers just there. So I talked to them so that one of our athletes doesn't turn around and run or whatever.
Um, they're from like 2 hours away to 3 hours away. I found one that was close by and I don't I didn't speak to every volunteer, but there's so many people here and you can do like a day. It's not staying over. So,
it could be done. I'm just honestly I'm just tired of trying to email everybody. So, I I stopped this year. Um, and thank you for mentioning Jordan Toma. For all of the elementary people, they'll never
know, you know. So, Jordan Toma, um, I think the four of us were there. Um, he wrote a book called I'm Just a Kid with an IEP. I suggest you read it because people who aren't really familiar with
why special ed is that important. Um had a tough life and he's having a grand life now. Um just a kid with an IEP. You can get it on Amazon. Uh you can also see him on
Instagram. Instagram. um is I'm just a kid with an IP on Instagram. He's great. Um uh I think the C I don't know if you were talking about the campers, Mr. Kita, that are at or somebody are at
Bear Tavern, but I'm kind of hoping they aren't there anymore because my se my boys 17 year olds ago were in those campers. So, if they're that bad, I'm kind of hoping Charlie was in one, too. Um, but I don't know if they're
still there. And they may have been saying Tollgate. Um, the group of students who came, awesome. I know. Um, Tom Smith had started a great thing here. When you're a family with someone who has u mental illness, it's tough. It's tough
on everybody in your family. And I didn't want to talk about it when Charlie was here, but it's tough. All I'm going to say thank you. Good evening, Kate Ham. I would like to also publicly and personally thank Seth at Mercer for running a piece about some
very special athletes, coaches, and volunteers in our area. As previously stated, Special Olympics holds a very special place in my heart. Our athletes love to see familiar faces over the course of the weekend. So, we have already floated the idea to have the
unified club and Best Buddies to register as volunteers throughout the weekend as they are able next year. I invite you all board members and staff members to do the same. Neighboring districts have found a way to support in district special Olympics programming. While I know the budget is tight at this
time, I would ask you to keep a file in the back of your brain to consider a line item in the budget for a district sponsored Special Olympics program. I too am eager to hear the trajectory of the work by the youth advisory board as it pertains to mental health. As you may be aware, I've been a huge advocate
supporting the mental health of our youth. If feasible, I would be grateful to participate in any discussion or collaboration with the district hope squad and the youth advisory board. Tonight, I heard the district's presentation and the board's support for a two question voting mechanism for the
proposed referendum to utilize the analogy provided by Mr. Kapadia and described by Mr. Resnik. The first question is the hardware, the must needs to function and the second question is the software or the operating system. Well, that's what you said. Utilizing
that analogy, what if Bear Tavern and Tolgate used a different operating system from that of Hopewell Elementary and Stonybrook? It has been tossed around in the public that those not directly impacted by the additions may not support a second question. By separating this question, are you
pitting half of the Hope Valley community against the other? Was there ever true consideration for one question? Because we are one Hopewell Valley. It's evident the needs here in the district. It's evident the needs of the district, but fear exists specifically in the Bear
Tavern and Tolgate communities that two questions may be using the analogy pitting an iOS system against an Android system. I wanted to make sure to clarify I'm not angry at this board and I really do hope that the referendum passes and my wife
and I will be voting for it. But there has been there was certainly a tremendous amount of disinformation the last time and I witnessed it firsthand seeing folks talking about the pilot and wondering why the township was the words you were that I heard were stealing your
money. And although I wouldn't put it personally that way, I can understand why people came to that conclusion. And the same forces that were busy at work last time are been busy at work again. This article is so full of distortions. And I just want to focus on one of them,
and that is that should you receive a $2,500 and change rebate on the pilot. First of all, the reason for a $16.1 million referendum is because last year the state legislature passed a measure
that actually allowed townships like Opal Township to bond in support of you because otherwise, you know, the township committee might decide, I can't imagine it, that they want to support you for a year, but they can't commit the next township committee and the one after that. But by through a bond, they can they can actually do that and commit
future township committees to to provide that support. There's no way to do this that way. More importantly, what this does is this actually takes $2,500 in revenue coming from new residents and giving it to old residents, which is just about as unfair and immoral as anything that I can imagine. And just
and and worse than anything that that we've witnessed thus far. Um, you need to get out in front of this obviously, but you shouldn't have any trouble, it seems to me, because this is just this is what's the word I'm looking for? Trash. Um, and it's sad because these
are former mayors. I'm a former mayor and I feel an obligation when I get up here to speak the truth um and not to distort the record. Finally, one last thought and that is to Dr. Trees, but to really all the members of the board, you're completely correct. You take what you can get, but the reality is that
that $6.1 million offer is pennies on the dollar. It really is a a ridiculously small amount. I don't know what happens if Pennington Burrow and the Buroughs actually prevail in that lawsuit. I hope they do. It's hard for me to say that as a former mayor that I'm rooting for the
Buroughs to succeed in a lawsuit against the township, but it actually speaks volumes about where we are as a community, as a crisis, that we've got burrows suing the township. That was unheard of in my day and and now it's perhaps even necessary. Um, I do think
that that suit will prevail and you should give some consideration to what the impact will be on the district if it does. Um, as far as the 16.1 million, my last thought, please urge the township to give you a more credible offer. The 16.1 million is a pittance compared to
the money they're taking in. And here is my last thought. Right now, across the way at a meeting that's at this very time, I wish the meetings were not at the same time. They're giving themselves a doubling in their salary. I don't know if anybody here is aware of that. Um, their mayor is going from 6,000 to
14,000. And that is that money is coming from that money is coming from pilot revenue. Thank you. Silia Kosas 7 Wel Drive in Pennington and thank you for clarifying the difference between
public comment and speaking as in a personal capacity. Um I assumed to both meant the same. Um, I'm here on another issue tonight. It's competitive athletics. We've heard about athletics in schools. Um, in California,
a male-bodied student athlete won the state gold medal in the girls triple jump and high jump, and a male-bodied pitcher used his genetic advantage to help the Minnesota girls softball team with their state championship. Girls in states across the country are being
forced to make a choice. Compete against male athletes in girls only events or walk away from a sport that they've trained for their whole life. This is happening with the full endorsement of this board of ed, our state athletic
officials, and Governor Murphy. Objections to male-bodied athletes participating in female competitive sports are not rooted in any malice against a student who experiences gender dysphoria, but on the principle that favoritism
towards gender ideology should not take precedence over the reality of biology, fairness, safety, a law that women fought for in Title Nine. Female Olympic medalist Chiron Davyy said that
inclusion of males in women's sports has meant invasion, injustice, and ultimately exclusion from our own category. It's a longestablished principle and fair and that fair and meaningful competition is achieved by grouping
athletes into different categories based on age, disability, sometimes weight. 18 year olds can't compete in the 12 and under league and heavyweight boxers can't fight featherweights. These divisions protect competition, safety,
equal opportunities, and fairness. The same principle should apply to the sexes. Keeping men out of women's sports is not anti-trans, but it's pro-women and it's pro- truth. Should a male-bodied New Jersey student athlete
be potentially become the women's state champion in the triple jump or the 100 meter butterfly? There is an executive order to protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in fair and safe sports. Our district has complied with
executive orders in the past. Governor Murphy again had eight with CO 19. Many parents request that the board revise policy 5756 to read. Transgender students shall be permitted to
participate in competitive athletic activities in a manner consistent with their biological sex. Will the board revise policy 5756 to reflect that biological males cannot participate in women's competitive
sports? Thank you. Neil back is hope. Um, so obviously I go to Hopewell, but I actually go to Hopewell half day because I'm at Mercer County Technical School in the morning uh in the building construction program. Um, and while I do
have uh some some things to say about kind of the way that uh the relationship between Hopewell and Mercer County Technical School runs, uh, my main point that of me speaking right now is kind of that's just a a preference for that. And
the the the reason why that's relevant is because I can only take four classes at Hopewell each year as opposed to eight because I'm only there half day. And so meeting all of the graduation requirements is a challenge. And it's a challenge for me. It's a challenge for every uh student who where if they go to
Mercer County Technical School or they're compete or are uh completing college programs for half the day only have a limited amount of class slots. Um my point for this regards uh AP statistics and according to I'm on
nj.gov right now. their state requirements for mathematics um algebra 1 or the content equivalent, geometry or the content equivalent and third year of math that builds upon the concepts and skills of algebra and geometry and prepares students for
college and 21st century careers. Um because AP because algebra 2 is a prerequisite for AP statistics, to my knowledge, AP statistics meets that third box for the that third set of five credits. uh for math. However, AP
Statistics uh does is is categorized as an elective math at Hopewell and so therefore while meeting the state's graduation requirements, it does not meet Hopewell's graduation requirements. this uh policy uh limits all students in
in uh minimally, but a student like me in particularly where I'm already trying to manage different uh manage challenges of essentially graduating in three years uh getting rid of eight total classes over the course of my two years here uh
or four years here. Um and I tried working with um Mr. Wolfing, the head of the the math department here to to fix that. Um, and that didn't go anywhere. And I was just curious if that if that is something that can be looked at. Thank you.
Any other public comment? Hello again. Um, I want to thank John earlier for bringing up one of the points of Can you just remind me of your Oh, yeah. Hi, sorry. Uh, Matt Holner, uh, Old Washington Crossing Road. Um, I
want to thank John for bringing up the the newspaper article, right? Um I definitely don't have the education and wherewithal to understand really the the fight really going on with pilot and where I should be talking about that like township committee here other
places. Um, that's why I just want to make sure to I don't know if it's really a question, but it's more just like there's definitely confusion going on of like what is within realm of and it's bleeding into school district issues
where an article like that goes out, you know, it's classic. You can write whatever you want in anywhere really, but it's like how much of that is true? I don't know how much of that. So you're weirdly within a weird strangled or argument between someone that's upset
about how pilot funds are being used or what it's being used for the political side of that or not of you know developments in town. Uh and then how much of that really is directly impacted by a vote here for for money. Uh, so just one of the things around education
and and what I think just want to make sure is there as we move into the vote is like not everyone understands that or is going to go out of their way to understand pilot. I just probably spend years of figuring that out and I still won't know how that impacts that 16.1 or not. Um, but I think at the end of the
day most voters it's really comes down to driving down the street and seeing a guy holding a bag of money over his shoulder. I think that's what the design was last year. But uh it's really coming down to like how to really baseline that to the minimalist level of
possible explanation of like what actually is happening here for a vote. How much of that really is that question too now if we're splitting it? Um and really like what the pro like what the impact is for people voting uh school district or not, right? like the
residents outside school district or not outside school district but without kids like how to get them like you said earlier I really think there's just a battle of voter that's like I don't know really what I'm voting on and that's probably my ignorance as well but like you see different things in newspapers
which who knows who reads those anymore but you know you see that story and you're like I don't know that's even legally possible um but it's it's there right so no one's really there's not like it's quickly you know I don't have any social media presence, but like there's no one fighting back against I'm
not in the supermarket and someone's like that's complete BS or not, right? Um, so I just want to make sure like that's my question really is making sure like or comment is we need to kind of get I think it makes sense to get ahead of that for the average person who just
going to show up one day and vote. Um, I'll leave it at that with the yellow sign. Uh, so thank you for your time today. Thank Hi, my name is Brian Kavanaaugh and again I'm a resident of Hopewell Township. Um,
before the board considers uh to change its policy on trans athletes, I would uh encourage you all to listen to a September 23 September 2023 episode of a podcast that I find dear, uh, Pablo Tori
finds out. In that episode, uh, Pablo interviewed the single single trans feminine athlete in the state of Ohio that the state of Ohio was bringing its full legislative weight upon her. She
was the backup catcher, if my memory serves, on the junior varsity squad. I also remind the board the outrage that happened at the 2024 Olympics as differing reports came out about a
female boxer and the outrage that was generated then. I would ask the board to be gentle to think carefully about the individuals especially as the Supreme Court has just filed has just um
I can't words uh failing me has just responded that's not the right word but I can't find it um in two recent cases that the needs of the individual we need to be focused on rather than groups identified and um discard it against.
Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay, seeing none, you like to um the first um qu question and um if I can ask Miss M to clarify because I wasn't sure what she meant by the um the bus who's allowed to ride what
qualifications to drive a bus or ride a bus ride. So all of our Oh, so so if right so if we have buses that can run our kids here it's cheaper for us to run our own buses we do that
but in some cases we have the band going this you know group going that group going and so it's just you know that the band probably got ahead and got the buses we had here first and those are you know just what we have to pay the salaries of the bus drivers versus the sports that come later whether or not
you got into a competition that adds things so that that's how we decide typically it's during the week during the week we use contracted buses on the weekends we use our own buses yes so that help yeah thank you so it's availability there um we talked about the special Olympics um we do have um
the unified track here that and we will keep that in mind for special education Um, I mean the Special Olympics, uh, my former district, we had a Special Olympics. We didn't have Unified. So, you know, as we find more money, hopefully that's something we can consider. Um, I think both of them
there's a place for both of them. Um, I would love to add that. So, we'll keep that as a wishlist thing um, for the district. Um, I appreciate your support, Mr. Edwards. I know you always give us your support and you're fighting the good fight with the township. And this will kind of marry with that other question about, you know, pilots. The
long and the short of it and the quick answer is we have no control over who decides to have a pilot and we have no control over whether or not they negotiate giving us a percentage of their profits or giving us the 16.1 or like for Princeton 18 or whatever they
got there. It's really up to the municipality and we have no say in that. Um so the questions I'm putting up are things that I have to do for the district. This is what we need for the district whether they give us a dime or not. Will I keep fighting and and
negotiating and asking for more? Absolutely. Am I satisfied with only getting 16.1 or anyone up here? No. So, we're continuing to fight. Right now, that's the promise we have on the table right now, but we continue to meet with folks and we continue to ask for more
and we'll see what happens. Now, with the lawsuit, um what they're trying to um accomplish, one has already dropped out, so it's just Pennington Burough. Now, is that commitment for a percentage of the the pilot monies going going back? You want to add anything, Mr. Dr.
Resnik? Well, on that one, cuz I wanted to respond to other things, but in that one, yeah, I mean, and the reality is even the 16.1, it's a very conditional promise at this point. So, unfortunately, we don't even know if we're going to get that money that's or
if we're going to get it in time for us to be able to build stuff. Um I remain very hopeful but yeah I don't have anything else to add there. Well I I will comment um just to underscore when Dr. Tree says we will continue to
negotiate what that means is we continue to call the meetings we continue to ask for the funds we continue to ask for their uh further commitment. We in fact asked before our deadline of you know
submitting the questions. We will continue to meet and ask and meet and ask and we'll get what we get. Right. Yeah. So um I just want to clarify asking what when we say we continue to negotiate we have not relented
since this all started. The second thing I will say is you were at the meeting where Dr. Trice and I both spoke. We said that's a good start. We got a lot of heat from our other comments, but you know that we have been very clear about
our expectations and not putting this the school district in the middle. We I should say we also continue to remind the municipal leaders of a fact that somehow in their I want
to say um discussions of the issue they sometimes seem to forget. Uh people move here for schools. They buy property here for for schools. Um, so while they're discussing these
issues, which there's tons of opinions on, we just try to continue to remind them to not forget about the fact that people move here for schools. Um, how effective that is, I don't know. Um,
it would certainly be much more effective. The more people continue to remind everybody across all the municipalities that our property values and the reason this area is attractive to people is because of schools to a very significant extent
not only but to an extremely significant extent I think the better off we're going to be that's really our biggest leverage beyond that we're stuck yes there was a question about AP stats Dr. What's this?
So when the state gives us regulations like there's three years of math and they might stipulate what the math is and then it's a little ambiguous with the third as as the student mentioned that is when the district decides what they are going to count as the third year. Um I it's very similar for science
too. Um so that is why AP stats is considered an elective not a required course because we as a district have agreed that algebra 1, geometry and algebra 2 are the three required years of math that we as a district um condone
unless students have obviously completed those prerequisites. And I would recommend that you definitely take at least two of those before you take AP stats or you're not going to be a happy camper. Um because you are going to need those um those preliminary geometry maybe you can get
away with not having but you absolutely have to have algebra 1 and two to be successful. It is a college level course. Um but that it is a district decision that happened way before Dr. Blitz and I got here u but you do need that progression before you can take AP Stat. Um ju just regarding um the comments
around understanding the pilot and the comments in the paper. I I think it's important that we collectively are taking a very different approach this season around um being proactive with communication. We
have the challenge of having a monthly um publication in the Hopewell Express. Um but we will you will see more from us um more broadly uh individuals from the community that are supporting uh the the
referendum. You will see that in the hopeful express as well as Mercer. So we we regarding specifically the paper shortly thereafter Dr. Resnik published something as a
private citizen um and the interest will be to try to get that into the opal access as well. Dr. Trice and I also have a letter that will be going out shortly. Um and our finance committee is scheduled to pull something together. So
we are we are always um proactively trying to get ahead of the communication and quite frankly I'll say um this openly my commitment for us as a communicating
body around the refer referendum is not to go tit fortat because that is absolutely useless but to help people understand that their thinking is outdated. They're using old education standards.
Our structures for teaching, special ed, all of our programming looks entirely different. The state requirements are different. So, their thinking is outdated. What we can do instead of understanding that,
encourage your folks again, anybody you know who's conflicted trying to understand that information is to send them back the school district. If they don't see something on the school district website that answers their question, email. If they can't get to this forum,
then, you know, request that they they email. But it's outdated. It's not aligned with the way we educate. now. So, none of those numbers make a difference and they're using apples and or comparison. But I will say in terms of that document and some of the
arguments that stand out to people are addressed by Dr. Bethnik message the latest. So go back and look at that. And then as it relates to pilots in general, it is complicated. So please do not feel
like you are just um rolling around a ball yarn. it is there's is a lot of language um that's unique to education finance um and you know I would encourage you honestly to participate in
Dr. Teresa's committee because your um questions will help us simplify our message to other folks who are just struggling to understand what it's all about. So, um, I appreciate you immensely for standing up and asking
your questions. You're not the only one that is challenged to understand finance, school board finance and, uh, education finance, especially in New Jersey at the state. So, um, please, please continue to participate, continue to ask questions, but as it relates to
that that paper, what I can say is it's outdated. None of the numbers are relevant. Yep. If you want to understand any of it, go to the Mercer Me article from I think it was two weeks ago, Dr. Resnik
week and a half ago and um ultimately go to our referendum page on the school board and also Seth probably also a very good actual article as opposed to an opinion. He's in the same I think in the same issue of
mercy. Any other comments from the finance committee andor I've got so so picking up on the subject of mercy not that we want to promote you Seth but it does come out multiple times a week as opposed to once a month. So I think it's
a um and and and and on that article I think I didn't address the 2 and a half thousand because honestly as a Pennington resident I wouldn't be getting it anyway. Uh but there was some other numbers um that were listed there which are accurate but um are
as things can be with summary numbers uh can be interpreted in ways which I didn't want them to be interpreted in so I gave some additional numbers and some breakdowns and certainly if you're interested please go look at the breakdowns. Uh Miss I wanted to address
your comment. problem with analogies. People analogies can do as much wrong as they do good. But um I'll say this on your point on the second question. Um and I can only speak for myself. Yes, it
is a concern. I've said, I think in a number of meetings, that folks in the Stony Brook area and Hopeful Elementary um shouldn't look at this and go, "Oh, well, that's not our issue." Because we
will not have inequity in class sizes between the four elementaryaries. So, their class sizes will go up as well, right? It'll be a district-wide impact, but I appreciate that that can get lost. I think for me in my mind
you know why I prefer the two question structure I really question one is computer hardware is simply not working question two is whether we have enough hardware well if we don't have enough we can still kind of run the software if it
doesn't work then the software doesn't run so I want to make sure that whatever we have at least it runs Um, right. And and that's why at the end of the day, um, I am personally in favor of the structure that we're talking about now.
They're all very important to me. So, you know how I feel about it, but I'm going to go with the what the board asking me to do. And so, on the final uh question, and um it kind of touches on on two comments that were made. Um, we did just recently revise policy 5 uh756
in alignment with the New Jersey Department of Education's requirement, which is who we're beholdened to. Um, so I have to comply with that. The board has to comply with that and the um revisions that they required of the equity plan is aligned with that. Um, and it's what's best for kids. Now the
the the New Jersey Scholastic Association has mechanisms in place so that if if um Miss Lilliston and somebody that looks like Mr. Resnik shows up to compete, they make the decision that that doesn't happen. So we have a mechanism in place for that
already that they manage, right? If there's a complaint that there's an imbalance that they they address that appropriately. But we are in alignment to what the expectations are for the New Jersey Department of Ed for having students have access to to what they are
identifying as and those those things uh the association deals with and to date we haven't had an issue I don't think in the state of New Jersey so it's been handled. So that's um that's in response to those two um comments. Nope.
All right. With that, we are going to close public comment and I need a first and second to move to executive session. Motion second. All in favor? Um executive session will we will be
discussing um uh a residency hearing as well as superintendent evaluation. No actions will be taken.