In accordance with the provision of the act, the Kennelan board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the suburban trends on December 28th, 2025. Posted on the Kennelan public library, filed with the burough clerk, and posted on the district website. Let's stand for
the pledge. All right. Mr. Eisener >> here, >> Mrs. Mrs. Leonard here, Mr. >> is absent, and >> here >> now the pledge.
We are going to begin with routine matters. Um, we have the approval of minutes from January 27th, 2026. Um, yeah. Can I have a motion to approve? >> Motion.
>> Any discussion on the minutes? Okay. Can you please pull the board? >> Mr. Eisenhire? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Gazer? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leonard? Yes. Mr. Pepe? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pearl? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we have our student representative Ly here with us tonight.
Thank you so much. >> We got a lot of stuff this month, but it's all good. So, might be a little long. At Kill School, students put on an two outstanding performances of Annie Kids earlier this month. We thank Kesha and One Voice Vocal Studio for making
this possible for our students. This month's theme in the Let Grow program was leadership, taking initiative. Students did a great job of demonstrating their independence and coming up with ideas and seeing them through. We thank Miss Baskinger and Mrs. Santagato for creating a beautiful
display in front of our hallway to show how students spread their wings through the program. A group of our second grade students just finished the engineering design club. This activity gave them the opportunity to come up with creative solutions to design challenges given a
set of materials. We also thank Kesha and Keranne Okconor of Learning Exchange for providing this club. On Monday, March 2nd, students will be celebrating Dr. Seuss Day. Lastly, Keel extends families um to join the I'd rather be reading event at the Kalan Public
Library at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4th. Sony Brook held its annual talent show on February 6th as students did an amazing job sharing their talents with their classmates. Thank you to all of the parents who attended. We'd like to congratulate three of our fifth grade students who were selected to
participate in the 2026 New Jersey Allstate Intermediate Honor Choir in May. Congratulations go out to Olivia Smith, Macy Messi, and Maline Casantos. The second session of the engineering design club at Stonybrook also just wrapped up. Thank you to Kesha for pro
providing these programs to our students. In addition to this, session two of the art club and chess club will begin this week with session three of the engineering design club beginning in March. On February 20th, students enjoyed a mad science assembly where they learned all about sound and they
also enjoyed the fourth grade dance. February 27th, our fifth grade kindness crew will present an assembly on citizenship and marches theme for our Let Grow initiative. Moving on to PRM, we'd like to congratulate Helena Palmer and Jacqueline Waller who were accepted to the New Jersey Region One Honor
Choir. These students were selected via audition from hundreds of students from Northern New Jersey. They will perform in a concert on Sunday, March 22nd at Clifton High School. The sixth grade students enjoyed their teen canteen on Friday, February 20th as well. Students enjoyed dancing, games, a giant
inflatable, gym activities, and food during the evening. Special thanks to the HSA and parent volunteers for making this possible. The seventh and eighth grade teen canteen is scheduled for March 6th. As well, advisers Mrs. Fabsic and Mr. Goff of the eighth grade overnight trip to
Gettysburg in Philadelphia held a parent information meeting on February 19th. The advisers shared the general itinerary guidelines, the rooming selection process, and other procedural information. This trip is scheduled for May 7th and 8th. Finally, PRM would like
to announce that their spring musical, Beauty and the Beast Jr. will be held on Friday, May 1st at 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 2nd at 2 p.m. in the KHS auditorium. On behalf of KHS, we'd like to thank our KHS Student Council for making everyone feel loved all week long leading up to
Valentine's Day. Next week, the National English Honor Society will support the I'd rather be initiative with KEL students at the Kilan Public Library Wednesday evening on March 4th. We'd also like to congratulate this year's Unsung hero senior student award recipient, Jacqueline Ley. Jacqueline is
being honored during a special countywide ceremony on Thursday, March 5th for a tremendous work ethic, dedication to su success, and accomplishments as a graduating senior. In the arts, the KHS musical Mamma Mia will be March 6th and 7th with showtimes
at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. both days. and the honors instrumental concert will be on Wednesday, March 18th at 7 p.m. This month featured many achievements from our athletic teams. Congratulations to fencing captain Juan Ramillo on his 100th career win, Paulina Shardikova
Scorsafava on winning first place in the 2026 and Jack girls wrestling championship, and the bowling team for being named North one group one sectional championship uh champions. We would also wish the girls basketball team good luck as they compete in their state tournament playoff game this
Friday. Please also note all 11th grade will take the NJGPA standardiz standardized assessment this week or the week of March 16th. Lastly, we have begun the process of scheduling for the 202627 school year. The counselors will be in touch with students and families
in grades 8 through 11 by the end of this week to schedule individual appointments for selecting electives and finalizing class placements. That was great. Thank you so much, Luca, for capturing all that data at all of our Kalan schools. All right, Mr. Mango. >> All right. Thank you, Luca. Thank you,
Mrs. President. Welcome, everybody. So, as some of you who were here earlier in CAC, I shared that um I would go slow during my presentation.
So, if there's areas of questions with the slides to the best of my ability, I'll answer them. Um, I'm really not before I I dive into this. To me, this is almost like a budget address. So, I am happy that I'm seeing some faces that
I recognize, maybe some that I don't. Mr. Janice, how many do we have online? >> 20. Excellent. So, um, for anybody who is here, if you have a question, I'm going to ask you to come up to the mic, say your name, your address, and you could ask it then, okay? Because that
saves us later under regular public comment on agenda items when nothing when it's not pulled up. So, um, real quick, just some district updates. Not that, um, you know, we've ever forgotten about the health lessons and the curriculum and all the the stuff that
went on in public meetings a couple years back. Here in front of you are the dates and the uh the optouts that parents have. So, it's just for parents. If you're not comfortable with some of those lessons or you want more information, obviously you could always contact your child's building principal
and they'll provide it. But here are the dates. So, you have that. Um some other dates to remember as Luca just shared our spring musical is March 5th through the 7th. Mama Maya, come on out. Um it's going to be a great show. Uh parental bill of rights policy. That's something
that the policy committee, the full board's aware, but the policy committee and I are working on. Uh it was a policy that was originally created down in Colts Neck, Freehold, Mammoth County that our board of attorney shared with us because we have some similar views as they do. So we're customizing that to
Kinnolot. So our goal is to have that up for adoption at our June public meeting. So it runs into our fiscal year, a new calendar year of July 1st. Our revised March board of uh board of ed dates, our preliminary budget is March 18th. Our
regular is the 31st. That'll be student recognition. And I'm sure that night this room will be packed. Um which I anticipate. That's always uh the best meetings that we have. And you know, unfortunately, Mother Nature, she she took us out yesterday. So that means school's in session Friday, April 10th
of the spring break. Okay. So my hope we already called a delay for tomorrow. My hope is that the uh early reports for next week don't happen and we're in school. But you know, at the same time, like I told my own daughter the other day, last year you had two days back.
The year before that you had one. The year before that you didn't miss any. So you got to take the positive with the negative. This is winter. We do live in New Jersey and this is the Northeast Coast. So unfortunately, we're going to lose days. But the reminder there, too,
is you are home. We're home. we're not here. And while I think one of the positive things that we did have for a very short period of time during COVID in 2021 is that superintendent and boards of education had the opportunity to pivot and use halfday remote in lie
of emergency days was a great thing. Um because those tweeners kind of like December 2nd, our first of the four emergency days, we would have been able to utilize that. Why they got rid of that, anybody's guess. I don't know. kind of like hip. I don't know where it
came from. I could understand it. Don't don't understand it now. So, uh, that's where we are. So, welcome. I know that folks are here for this update. 239 days. So, little bit of a backstory in case this is your
first time. Um, this is my fourth address like this. Boards of education are required by the state of New Jersey to create and approve district goals by which superintendents are evaluated annually. Board of educations are required to have
board of education goals which they evaluate themselves. And that's where as folks in the community, you're voting just like I do as a community member, oddly enough, here um for the board and that's what holds themselves accountable and district goals are what hold me
accountable and therefore the rest of our admin team. Um this one this year was was pretty um embedded in what we've been doing the last few years in our budgets.
So um if you have any just understand questions are not foolish. I will answer them. So I'm going to go one by one but as you'll find our goals there's typically multiple goals which are not typical of school districts within each
goal. So there's quite a bit quite a lot 239 days constitute July 1. So from July 1 till today, 239 days that the board of education, my office and all the other offices entailed have been working on
this to come to this point. So here we are, district goal one. As you can tell, there are five sub goals. So the main one is June 30, 2026. The district will have a coordinated
plan for implementation between PRM and KHS for the 2627 calendar year. So what does that really mean? Adjusted start and end times of the day, collapsing of transportation routes grades 6 through 11, sharing programs for eighth grade students, multi-use of staff, and
determining relocation of 8th grade to KHS. That's a lot. That was a lot of work that we've done to come to this point. So I'm going to take you through each one. So the adjusted start and end times that I'll be recommending to the board of ed for official board approval at the end
of this year part of our budget. You have Keel, Stonybrook, PRM, and KHS. And before I jump into it, I do want to thank uh Vinnie Chis, Sharon Woodruff, and Kevin in the transportation department. They've done a lot of work. You've heard me speak about this for the
last year and a half. something that Kennelon was not was efficient with your transportation with your routes with filling of the buses. So there's a lot of conversations that have been out
there. So when I look at the scope of the buildings and I'm looking at what does it really entail because right now our start and end times are so scattered the day never ends. So, as a parent, as a community member, and as a school district, because that's why we're here,
this is what we looked at. So, we moved back the high school. We moved up PRM. Those routes are consolidated 6 through 11. So, you see the drop off and start times. Now, part of the collective bargaining
agreement between the board of education and the KEA last year, which went into effect this year, gives us an additional 20 minutes of time at PRM, which now PRM and the high school are the same length of day, which thank you, Mrs. Suffford, and your
associates. That worked. So, this is what we're looking at start and end times. Now, to Mrs. Utell, uh, Mr. Mongan and the transportation team to their credit in the middle of all this they found we could consolidate
some more routes. So you see it's not as some people got me and run to me in Walgreens. You're going to hear me say this a few different times. Walgreens dry cleaner, Dairy Queen, wherever, right? Stop and Shop two weeks ago.
If it was so easy, how come we never did it before? Because like you, I was here online watching during COVID and all I heard was we don't have money. We can't and we couldn't get our kids in school. I didn't hear anything about finance.
Didn't hear anything about space. Didn't hear anything about student enrollment and saw salaries and I watched. So, this is just a piece of where we're going. But this is the day. This is what
it'll look like next year. Now, starring end times, I would say in the next collective bargaining, and Mrs. Suffin, I'm throwing my cards on the table, but you already know this. I think it would be a good goal of the board and the bargaining unit to raise up the keel and the sc the uh Stony Brook time. So then
the district is all on the same time, not split. But this is as close as we could possibly get it. So if you look at the minimum day and I promised you that minimum days would change as well. Not that the high school would be like 5 hours and PRM would be four and 45
minutes and then you had these outrageous times of Keel and Stony Brook when when our little ones are getting on buses and the high school and PRM are long gone. You see how condensed it is. So I'm sharing this now so you have it
later. Please share it with your friends and family well in advance. It's February 24th. This is what we're looking at for next year. Start and end times. And in the morning, PRM will get dropped off first because middle school
students, they're still they're moving a little slow where high school students are a little more apt to get off the bus. And in the afternoon, really, high school kids, it's different. Who's driving? Who's in sports? Who's out the door? They move quick where PRM will maximize lining them up and getting them
out. So the high school get picked up first in the afternoon and then wheel up the PRM. So there you have those two things that I discussed last month in CAC and in public or in the December public meeting and it came out in my January uh notes to the community. Here's your half days.
Here's your full day transportation round analysis. This was a lot and again a lot. Okay, not nearly as simple as it looks, but if you look to the left of the chart, it'll tell you where we are right now and what that
cost is. And those are the contracted routes at the bottom, the 1,313,000 and change. That's what we're paying right now to the contracted routes, not our Kennelon bus drivers and Kolan buses that were responsible for maintenance.
This is just the contracted services. And that's the amount of buses we've been using. And so when the conversation had been going on about PRM in the high school and consolidating 6 to 11, conversation came back up about Keel and
Stonyberg because you can't turn it back once you see it. Let's start talking about it. And again, to Mrs. Utel's credit, to Mr. Mongan's credit, to transportation's credit, it just started conversation. That was it. So while Keel and Stonybrook weren't on the target
chart, they became part of it. And if you're doing it, you may as well do it in one fell swoop. So the savings on the right for consolidated routes isn't nearly what I thought a few months ago when I shared in a CAC that I thought our estimate
might be somewhere about $400,000. And that's because in the PM we have to contract back out because of the end of day. Our ends of day are getting very close, but we're still $70,000 to the positive. So if becoming
efficient and effective in all this transportation and consolidating still saves us 70, to our credit, $70,000 to the taxpayer dollar, I'll take it. you know, well done is better than well
said, and that's what we're looking for. So, that's more or less like that first stage one across the bow. And that's why in my alert yesterday with the severe snowstorm, I encourage parents, this is why we're paying for
busing. We're taxpayers here. Me, too. Buses are empty. Why use it? We don't need lines out up and down Bon Avenue and up and down Kav and that I have to get calls from the chief or Mr. Shivus is getting calls or there's bumper
accidents. Put your children on the buses because in a couple slides from now I'm going to show you something else about courtesy busing which might not be recommended but it's important to remember. It's one of those devil in the details.
And again, I can't thank the team enough for this work because it shows clearly that you always have options. You always have options, but you have to be willing to do the work. And you have to also at the same time, you know, for
the board and for me and for you as taxpayers, that's hard to swallow. Really is. academic and elective programs for eighth grade. So we tried we wanted salute we wanted to
give our eighth graders an elective opportunity. So I had some thoughts about the middle of the day and backed up to lunch and PE. Mr. Suda had a great idea him and his team about the start and end of the day. But the problem became
while good in theory and again I shared this in meetings just because you have an idea and it sounds good and sounds positive doesn't mean that you run with it uh until you vetted it out. We just couldn't line up the schedules between the middle school and high school. Now I will say that in last week's PRM student
council meeting uh where I attended with Mrs. Trumpetta with Mrs. Josephites and Mr. Suda and Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Kaser kids were talking about electives like culinary arts like wood shop
those are here they're not there so you know we might have been off because of the schedules but our kids are watching and listening as they always do. So that is not recommended for next year. Totally off
the table. sharing of staff challenging because of all the different start and end times and then you tie in the travel over from Stony Brook over here and on a good day typically I don't know Mrs. as you tell what do I what do I say 7 to 10 minutes it takes me and then if you get stuck
behind somebody it's like 15 20 you feel like you're driving forever so um but the sharing of staff this shows you how many staff certificated staff we could share right now that we are and where they are so to the credit to the building principles and to Mrs. Sudin
and her association and being flexible and working with us in the scheduling and the relocation of eighth grade. So, those were the two things that we were looking at. Put the eighth grade totally in when we're talking student retention and electives and the high school
experience or not. And then just student electives. So, this shows you what we had done. You know, we had done several meetings with central office and the admin teams. Uh we discussed it at CAC meetings. We held two meetings with the PRMHSA which were
very positive. Um we did have a site visit to Ridgeville Park on January 14th. Um that I I'll tell you definitely was informative because all we were doing is we wanted to see it in action. How does this work? And I'll say
it again. Richfield Park 7 to 12 have 1,200 kids. We have 479 in this high school. We have 1,200. Not one student in a hallway. Bathroom checks, order, respectful,
mindful. Seventh and eighth graders taking electives, doing it in cycles. Our two site teams from PRM in the high school were excellent asking great questions, legitimate questions, and they're, to their credit, they actually answered every single one of them to the point
that I was so impressed with the high school principal that I sent the board of education of Richfield Park a letter of commendation. That's how impressed I was. So, um, that was a positive. And then we met as a round table with PRM and the high school group. And again, to our
staff's credit, regardless that we're not moving ahead with it for next year, no matter what, if we have to in the future, and I'll dive into that, they said they'll make it work.
So, it's not always about schedules. It's about what's best. So not recommended for board approval and that's goal one. So there were five subsections. Is that pretty clear for everybody?
Anybody online? Mr. Johnelli like I I tried to really make this as clear as possible when I was explain you know presenting to put it together. All right. District goal two student achievement. Again, three sub goals, A, B, and C. A,
I'll start there. Implementation of a freshman academy. That was really uh the vision of Mrs. Thomas when she was an assistant principal in Hacketttown where I was superintendent. She was at the high school at that time before she was promoted to elementary principal. And um we brought that concept to Mrs. Alawal.
Actually, Mrs. Alawal's taking her own turn and a twist in that to a freshman seminar. So I could say here and now that I know that there'll be a lot more information coming forward from Mrs. Alawali because that is a buildingled initiative outside of a district-led uh
it will involve our parents. It will involve uh freshman students next year taking a class in a course once a week during lunch split with lunch. And uh I think that's a positive move uh for our young people in their um assimilation
into the high school and then in life with culture and things because look school is built for kids and kids make mistakes. So it's our job to educate them the best we can as often as possible and move things forward. So I look forward to Mrs. Alawali's plan coming to light. Uh the next two,
development of a junior high community within KHS, obviously not recommended. You can't do it if your eighth graders aren't here or seventh graders. And the potential schedule changes for grades 8 through 12. We're not going to do it. And again, what we found in in our uh
research is that a lot of the 712 buildings are straight block. Some of them have some hybrid rotation, but that's also enables max certification of staff and that's where that plays in. Okay? Because when you're rotating,
every day is different. When you're straight, you know exactly where everybody is. So, I understand the concept of first period and last period. I've been that teacher teaching in that schedule. But it's also called the job and it's the job we sign on for. So, um,
but right now, not recommended. District goal three. And I think this is the big one. And there's a piece in here that I'm really going to slow down if anybody has any questions on what is presented. Not on whatifs, on what is presented.
So, Stony Brook School. Now, I'll say this a few things. In 2020 when I was salute when I was watching
some of the meetings all I heard was masks. All I heard was we're not one to one. All I heard we can't every turn. Didn't
hear anybody from the admin team speak. Didn't hear anybody from the board speak. heard one person speak and it was always I can't. Now I'm somebody that does. 2021
was about the health curriculum. Didn't hear anybody talk about finance. Nothing about budget. Nothing about building improvements. Nothing about anything. 2022 an opening comes. So I figured at the
very least I do live here. I chose to move here like everybody else that migrates to Kennelan that isn't a lifer. Let me at least get in the room with the board of ed and share what I know because my track record speaks for itself. I don't know the depths of it,
but let's have the conversation and if I'm lucky enough to get the job, I guess I'll find out. And here we are. So 22 23, you never heard me talk about Stony Brook. 2324 with our our one contested board meeting
where we had a lot of riffs. You heard me and you saw me show and share the numbers because you cannot lose sight of numbers, meaning enrollment. You just can't. And once you see something, I'm the kind of person that
when I see something, no matter what it is in life in professional or personal, I don't change. It's hard to walk away. So when you fast or you back up, you go in reverse. Last month we're in a CAC meeting and I'm sitting there.
Somebody says to me, one of our parents, "Aren't you kicking the can down the road?" You know, for those of you who really know me, I think you know I'm not that kind of person ever. I don't kick things down the road. I deal with them head on.
And that's exactly what I'm doing right now because as painful as it is and maybe on my mother's side of the family, people just ripped off the band-aid and we get in those conversations at the table. Wasn't always fun, but sometimes you got to do it. So, this is where we
are. And as you can see at the bottom, I'm not recommending it, but the numbers at the top speak volumes because our budget is very heavy. It's hard to hang on to it. And what
we've had the last three years is this riffs now replacements. And that's not a negative because as you're losing enrollment, you should have lost the school, right? That's how that works.
Restructure admin to fit the needs. That's what we did. And then last year, we drew down. When I say we, I know I'm the non- voting member, but obviously I'm going to speak. The board voted
to take the health benefit waiver and the bank cap, $757,000. What that did doesn't call for a board uh for a town vote. This isn't a referendum. Districts have the right. Governor Christie changed things with his 2% cap some 16 years ago,
and we drew down to stop gap that hole. But what that did was raise the tax levy from 2% which we can do legally on a vote to 3.9. You cannot continue to fund the budget taking and sliding dollars. We all know
in our personal lives if you do that with credit cards and you're trying to play shells sooner or later you're going down. It doesn't work. So when I look at Stonybrook, last year's just turn on the lights, shut them on, shut them off, $522,000.
But some might say, "Hey, that's not a lot of money in a $48 million budget." Okay, fair. But it's $522,000 and keeps going up. Look to the right. Enrollment dropped since 2014, 19%.
Go down on the financial data. Now, I will not speak to staff. Stony Brook staff is has all been raced legally. I did meet with them personally. I'm not talking about positions directly,
but you could see where we are in the LRFP. We have about $16 million worth of building needs alone. And on tonight's agenda, you'll see Mr. Shivus' recommendation of what was that 66,000 for security
surveillance and then uh Miss Lawler, what's that? Another 38,000 for a piece to a boiler to make it run in this godforsaken winter. >> Yep. >> No, just Stony Brook. Just Stony Brook.
So, we still continue to put good money into bed. Now, if Stony Brook were shuttered, you're talking about that 500, that half a million or more immediately you can breathe. And then you're looking at
staffing. I'm at 16 to the tune of 1.2 million including health benefits. Now, that number can vary if the board ever chose in the future to tell me and direct me to do move in this direction. Could go up, it
could go down. That all depends on those variables. Who stays, who goes, people retire, people resign, people move for higher jobs. All that changes the dynamic. And I I don't have a glass ball
to look into, but right now we're at 16. So when you take that out of the PCR, the 1.2 million, which remember now annually just goes up, it doesn't go down, plus that, you're at 1.7.
That's a lot. Plus the building, plus the transportation. So those are the numbers. And again, after tonight, I will not speak of Stonybrook. We have a lot of work to do in front of us. And when a goal is not even being recommended, I'm
not going to discuss it no more. The information is there. It's up there. But I think again, the devil's in the details. So let's go a little bit deeper. What does it look like without Stony Brook? This is what it looks like.
PreK, kindergarten in Cisco. On the top floor, we have seven classrooms. The board of ed owns the building thanks to the town as they did years ago before the Christy cuts when kindergarten was solely upstairs. Keel School will become one to three. PRM is grades four through
six and the high school would have that junior high component 7 through 12. We gave you the estimated enrollment based on our current ASSA numbers which I shared back in January. And here's some good news, some more positive news.
A, I've done this before. And B is you still have space at PRM. So for anybody that would like to say, "Well, what if this?" or want to throw the wild card or what if that, if this even ever happened.
Well, as you can tell, 362 students in PRM, PRM's capacity is 539. You haven't seen that in over a decade. It's not coming back. There no highrises being built here. You're in the Highlands.
You're not knocking down little houses on five acres and building three or four homes like you're in southern Bergen County. never going to happen. So there's plenty of space on top of if you were really in a bind. Keel
school in 1994 when it was built was supposed to on the back side where there's a little bit of concrete go with either eight additional classrooms or some trailers, but at the time the board at that time said, "No, we're not going to do it."
You have plenty of space if Stony Brook were somewhere else, not in our universe. Just so you know, that's a fact. So that's what that looks like, enrollment. And we took the time to do it because I know parents would ask
those questions. And that's also why we included who's where. So those 737 students in the high school would represent four through nine if it was in 2829. And I'll get to that in a minute. And which grades does this impact? Current kindergarten would be the first
grade to stay at Keel. Current grades one and two would be the first cohort into PRM. Four and five would be part of that 7A group into the high school. And the high school, the current freshman, which my daughter and our board, our regular
board president, Mrs. Donaldson, her son, are currently freshman. And as I said the first day I walked into Kennel and I told everybody I would not make a decision for your child no different than my own. That's what it looks like when we're talking about things.
Now let me go back. No, let me go forward. With realignment comes advantages and comes challenges. So what are some of those advantages and opportunities? cost-effective and efficient use of
staff. Because one thing's for sure, if the board of ed directed me while I'm here to move forward, I will scour every certification. Classrooms are not condominiums. I know that's not popular to say, but I've said
it before. And just because somebody on staff hasn't taught a particular section or grade or what have you or you know a uh particular language arts 2 in the high school, you're certified to teach it. You can
teach it. The job is the job. I will use every certification to that advantage because when you're making those kind of lateral moves within district, that's the opportunity to really do it.
So cost effective efficient use of staff safety and security all literally a campus field kill right into the high school transportation and revised consolidation K6 we'd move away from the K5 go K6
one less student building for transition for a district our size our kids they go through four buildings that's a lot whether it changes or not still a lot trust streamline focus on campus and facilities and maintenance and upgrades.
One less building. I just shared that with you. $16 million. Now, what are some of the changes and challenges? Well, parking could be a change or a challenge. Use of the keel grass in the back.
Sixth grade time adjustment. big one that I was asked during this process a couple months was fifth and eighth grade trans uh traditions. Obviously, some things change and I know when it's your child or it's that first
class, I get it. I know. But children are resilient. They move on sometimes parents can be the worst enemy of things like that. KHS rotation versus the traditional. Now, I'll say I said this to our site visit team. I'll say it here. Won't say
it after tonight. Superintendent reserve the right to change any schedule they'd like. It's not a board vote. As long as you're in the contracted minutes. Let's understand that. Let's also understand building principles reserve the right to change schedules so long as they're in a
contracted minutes. Mrs. Alawali and I did not change the high school schedule. Mrs. Alawala and I did not force eth grade electives. because we listened and we heard. But if we moved in a certain direction,
then it might be different if it's in the best interest of the district as far as budget and opportunities for our students because the rotation limits the opportunities for students. And then the last one, traffic flow.
Okay, it'll be a little I get it. It's not the end of the world. We'd have to work with chief. We need some PD presence. Not our class threes. PD two times a day on the streets. Not a big deal. I think we could work that out. Um
maybe a cutth through in the back of Cisco to Keel behind the playground that loops up. Maybe we would need our architect. We need our engineer. I'm not talking about a major road. just a small black top road that parents could use
dropping off or exiting staff that it's closed down and it's only EMT, fire, law enforcement. That's it. They know they're the only ones that could come through in there. So, it's not something on the weekends that one of our community members could just, oh, I'm just going to go for a free ride. No,
it's not that. It'd be a private road to the board, but for that use. So, I don't know. Maybe remember it's all hypothetical but obviously I've thought about it. So advantages, opportunities, changes
and challenges that comes with the that comes with this. So what does all that mean? I just spent a lot of good oxygen and energy telling you this isn't recommended, but here's what it means. You have multiple things happening right
now that I know for some folks in central office they get upset with me when I talk about years out because they feel that I'm rushing their lives away, but it's true. In 2829, you have a very unique set of
circumstances. You have the KA contract sun setting. They'll be in the last year of that contract. You have the KAA. Now, I know we're still negotiating, but it'll that contract will get solved sooner or later. I'm
confident. That'll be the year it sunsets. And then you have mine. And I would never recommend in the later times to make a move to a board of education if you have that kind of environment because that for the board is enough for
a year. Trust me, outside of just managing the district. So, the way I operate is you have a plan whether I'm here or not, but somebody will be here. We have a budget that's upcoming that we're really going to work
hard that we don't have to lose programs. We don't have to have any riffs. Maybe we have a non-replacement here or there if somebody decides to retire or resign and we feel like, you know what, I think we could swing this in schedule. You know, Mrs. Trumpet is a a magician with things like that.
maybe, but we're working real hard for that and not calling down on a health benefit waiver that we will have available because all that does is stretch the tax levy and increase our taxes here in the community above the 2%. But it also it's fake money. It's
like the COVID money that the governor gave us during COVID. And what did districts do? I didn't do it where I was, but a lot of you saw it all around you. districts throw it in, fund the budget, and then when the money is gone now, now what?
How you managing your budget? You're not. That's why you saw Lincoln Park, you saw uh some other districts down there, I don't know, I could go on and on where superintendents were getting walked out, non-renewed, BAS getting walked out, non-renewed, boards being changed in one
election. Those are the reason that's how you get there. Poor finance. So, um, this is what it would look like after tonight. I'm not talking about this anymore, but the board has the information. You
have the information. So, when we come back, should they consider it in July and they tell me, "Hey, Dave, I want you to go look." And they make this a goal for me, you can rest assure it. It is 2728. We'll go to three Bergen County
high schools, 712s. We'll go visit Mrs. Thomas in her Creskill where she's going next month as a superintendent in September with the same site visit teams, PRM in the high school. I won't change it up. New people want to come on, they're more than welcome, but we'll keep the old teams, too. Um then we'll
go to um Emerson and Park Ridge, one in October, one in November. We'll have all that information and data. And by February of next year, the board would have to make a decision because from that point on, if they said yes and called a resolution
at this very meeting a year from now, that gives us a year and a half to budget appropriately, to plan accordingly. At the same time, I'll say this, and I know this won't be popular, but this isn't a popular position. It
gives everybody in our organization an opportunity to make their own choices because once the board if they say yes or say no if they were to do that I'm not interested in who wants what it's a directive and this is how we work so
anybody who wasn't happy then they have a choice I respect it somebody wants to retire okay I don't want to move or I don't want to get put in that building or buildings get moved no problem admins don't like it because their jobs have changed too no problem.
I get it. That's the kind of leader I am. You can't appease everybody. Directives are directives. So, that's how that would work. And it would start 2829. Gives everybody ample time to make their
own choices, parents, students, staff. And then the question becomes, if it happened, well, what do you do with that property? Well, you have options. I like options. The board could sell it.
That's one good option because Lord knows we could use that money and put it in surplus for all these buildings that need upgrades. Board could rent it if we found suitable renters, special needs, charter school,
private school. You can do that, but obviously the devil in is in the detail in those contracts. We had a joint committee meeting with the town a few weeks back and I I shared this with them as well. I've been hearing about a community center for
about eight years that I lived here. There it is. Because if that school shutters, nobody's going in it, including wreck. We're not going to be responsible. We're not going to send our staff there to clean it like that. We're not housing
it. It's lights on, lights off. We mow the lawn. We'll move the snow two days later, right? It's not an emergency landing. We're not that kind of school in Stonybrook for the town. And we manage it. We make sure we don't
have mold. We make sure everything's operational. But that's it. It's building check two, three times a week. That's all it is. So, if the town was interested, again, devil's in the detail and they would take on the cost because we're not going to pay for something that was shuttered,
they'd have a choice. So, that's a good or you could just sit on it if that's what you want to do. But go back a couple slides when I said you have room in PRM. And for those of us parents that had
kids here in 2021 and we weren't here six feet and you had all this space, if you didn't use it then, why wait? The time you needed to use the space with staff and students should have been
in school. So, when we're talking about test scores and we're talking about achievement gaps and we're talking about rankings that I listen to everywhere I go, what do you think happened when our kids never came back to school for a year and a half? They went back to school in a lot of other places. They didn't come back to school here. So,
we're still catching up. We're making gains, but we're still catching up from that. And you had the space, which is why my smile fades because I knew now I'm here. So that's really the whole Stony Brook
saga. Again, it'll be a board decision in the summer. If the board doesn't say go for it, it's over. They say go for it, I'm going for it. 100 100 miles an hour, I'm going for it.
So I share that honest and upfront as I do everything else. Popular or not, it's the job. But uh but that's where we are. So that's Stonybrook. Does anybody have anything about Stonybrook? I tried to just give you straight facts.
I'm a little tired from talking about it. Yes, Mrs. Ferretti. >> That's that's like I said, the devil's in the detail. I would not be recommending spending all that money. I think you got to find suitors that understand and what we're doing or what we're not. That's why it doesn't some
folks that I ran into in town since this conversation came up, you know, well, you could rent it out. You could to your point, you just you can't just rent it out. What if the mold comes back? What about the HVAC and that's why the first one right there
I said sell it. Got the space. Tell them you have space in those buildings, especially with Cisco on the on back on the game. Why? And if there ever was a great boom again
like you had in 2000, which I don't know if any of us would ever be here to see it somewhere down the road, you'd have more than enough money in your surplus outside of what the board and I have been doing since we've been working together the last three budget cycles. And you heard the auditor tell you um
that if you needed to go and build construction wise, you could. But I'd always say I know the word trailers like taboo and my board in Hacketttown didn't want to do trailers but one of our our parents that was on our committee called what they call it Lauren a learning cottage. It was fantastic. Teachers were
fighting to get out there. Kids loved it. You have the space and behind Keel School you can do it. Eight classrooms. Think about that. Eight that they didn't build and they you know they didn't do anything with. You have that space plus you got PRM.
Capacity is capacity. But again, I'll say it if you're not not anybody here. But you have to be willing to have hard conversations in life. Not popular ones, hard ones. And that's what
this is. So I know how it might sound, but um the board gives me a directive, I follow it. So yes, Mr. Y >> what? Good question. So what happens is over time when you have that decrease in
enrollment people stay in the same rooms numbers really drift down and space just becomes more available and you'll have classrooms that are operating in a full-size class 10 kids eight kids half
the day 15 there's room I'm not talking about grade levels condensing unless your numbers were so where they were like kindergarten is always the wild card. And a couple years ago, the board was committed not only to go full day kindergarten, but we um we put we placed
full day gened par profofessionals in the kindergarten to assist the gened teacher. So, you know, some might say if you have 103 like we have this year, oh, you should have, you know, six sections and break them up. Well, okay, hold on.
We could do 20. It's not the end of the world. And you have a power in there. And sometimes you even have a special ed teacher in there half the day. So it all depends. But I wouldn't be looking to go like, hey, if we have 125 and you have five sections, you're going to go down
to four. No, that's not that's not what I'm talking about. But you definitely have space. You have the capacity. Some of those PRM rooms are huge. So I don't know if in the old days there was like maybe a divider and maybe when they had the boom, they took the divider down. I
don't know. But if we got there, I'd figure it out. I definitely figure it out. >> Good question. It wouldn't affect us. So, I mean, I'll I'll say this and and this won't be popular. Community centers, turf fields outside
of school property, rec centers are not the job of the board. They're just not. That's a town thing. So, you know, I would always work with the
town to the best of my ability if Stony Brook ever in the hypothetical shuttered. But first and foremost is high school sports and our PRM sports and they have to figure something out unless it was a community center like I
shared and you got a kitchen and a cafeteria and a nice big gym that actually is can fit the high school basketball games and classrooms and there's a whole ton of things you could do rather than build one for $10 million.
So, um I don't know. Did I answer your question? Anybody else with it with with anything on those slides before I go to the next one? So, I I don't bore anybody to sleep. Okay. And this will be up on the website
tomorrow as well. And just so you know, capital projects, what we're doing either way, no matter what, what's on the board for 2627, it's under discussion. And now capital projects are a different line item. I know folks sometimes they say well how
can you you know you don't want to give a certain group of people a raise or you don't you know why are you negotiating this way or uh you know you have the money just you know enact this club you're doing all these projects. Projects do not come out of personnel.
I've said that a million times in 15 years as a superintendent. Please share that with anybody that talks to you that will listen. It is not a personnel line item. 85% of any school budget is personnel. It's your salaries, your
health benefits right out of the shoot. They have nothing to do with projects. It's two different line items within the budget. So 2627 for next year, this is what we're looking at. Keel paving of a walkthrough cut through to Cisco. Uh Mr.
Mongan shared with us that there's some, you know, some stuff brought to light for parents. Obviously, we have a lot of parents between Cisco and Keel. No problem. Uh at PRM, we will have AC. We'll finish that. And uh some new electrical paneling, and Mr. Burroughs
is doing that. And uh paving walkway across the street. Mr. Sapio brought up for our students who are in first period math and geometry back in the high school to have a walkway just so they're not walking in the wet grass cutting uh cutting across. KHS is the big one.
culinary arts. That program will be operational. That's phase two. Um we're going to relocate the art room, boys and girls bathroom ren total renovation, their original outside the cafeteria. Bathrooms in this high school, they've seen better days. Trust me, all of them,
including the staff one, long overdue. So, we're going to actually phase them in the bathrooms for the kids and our staff. So, that's phase one. Um we're looking at the uh the uh scoreboard and the flag pole.
We're going to have a walking path behind the snack stand to the locker room and to the practice field. We're looking to extend outside and learning space for students at the cafeteria on the back side that'll also include a coverage area. So
like let's say if it's misting or whatever the weather kind of is, our kids are outside kids. They like to be outside. So during lunch or even in a class, teacher can bring them out. They could sit underneath the patio to be a metal structure off the building. We're not talking about knocking down the
walls. You still have the glass with the opportunity for fans and electric and lighting. So when you come down that back way, that whole wing right there, aside from Mrs. Alawal's uh new cult stuff that she has all over the place for the cafeteria and tables, it'll all
be new. That's what we're looking at. And um we're looking at right in this room phase two for the auditorium electric and lighting upgrades. But then if you go on 2728 you see PRM
boiler replacement KHS finalize here bathroom renovations too boiler replacement athletic hall of fame and then districtwide HVAC because that never goes away. And then if you're looking to 28 29, we're looking at the
Cisco kill playground and upgrades making it legitimately prek to three to lower elementary. The library media center and PRM that too has seen better days. That needs to
be totally upgraded. Continue on with the bathroom renovations at the high school. Now our funding options outside of our regular cap reserve. You'll notice down there 7126 to 63029. We have another health benefit waiver. That's because
our health benefits for the next budget for 2627 went up 16.5% plus 7% in the dental. That gives us a waiver of 1.178 that the board with just a board vote can draw down on. That's not my
recommendation to the board in this 2627 budget. I think finally push has to come to shove and we have to manage one way or the other. That's not to say in the next couple of budget cycles if the board wanted to draw down on it because of something that's inherent projects,
that's a different conversation. But that's not for today. That's not for next year's budget. Absolutely not. We need to stay at 2%. Our taxes are higher enough as it is. So that just I just wanted to share that with you. You'll see that in the prelim
as well. But um and in 2627 this hasn't been officially voted on, but we have been discussing it quite a bit already. Facility assessments. Now this was another goal within the goal. Um meetings with the district architect
happened from last summer till January. We updated the LRFP. uh we brought it to the NJ DOE following that uh that that process at the November public meeting. Miss Lawler presented and we do we are working with an EIP energy savings
improvement program to see if now districts how that works. If you apply and you receive you still are responsible to put up your cost of the project first. You have to show them you have the money and then you are refunded. So, we're working with PSEG on
that and um we're hoping to get some more information as soon as we can. So, if there is a chance with boilers and HVAC, that's why you'll notice on the slide before we slowed down with boilers and uh HVAC with the exception of the window units like we did here at the
high school this year for PRM because you need to have cool air. And sometimes, I know I'm old school and window units, they serve the purpose. As long as our kids and our staff are cool, that's all that matters. Especially on days when it's hot.
Culinary arts program. I'm not going to read each flip to you, but you could see that timeline and process. A lot of work. And we were fortunate enough when we were in Richfield Park, we were in their actual uh culinary classroom at one point at some point in the in the uh the
walk through. And then Mrs. Alawal uh shared with our architect, you know, some of her vision and that's how some of this came to light as far as what the classroom will actually look like. And we are getting we're receiving a lot of good candidates and resumes. So, I'm excited for the
program. The acoustic upgrades are right here. So, we're hoping early March that it'll be finalized. And multi-use of uh turf field. So the architect did come out which started in August we we well July we talked then it
went into August October January and you could see as it flows they estimate that if we wanted to have a multi-use turf field where our practice field is where it's grass on the other side of Spiros the turf they're saying 2.5 I've done it
before and in this day and age I did that well before co and all the prices went through the roof I'm going to say three million Because when you're talking lights, you're talking drainage, it's all in. I'm going to say $3 million. We did actually as well uh
share that with the town in a joint meeting that that might be something they'd like to look at and maybe split costs and then that solves the problem about turf fields up at KRP. 1.5 1.5 we have an interlocal agreement. Now you have everything you need right
here. One false swoop. It's an opportunity, but we'll see. Time will tell. That is not, you know, that's not recommended for next year. It was my job to get the information. Board goals. This will be quick, I promise you. So, board goal one, let
grow. Mrs. Scalia, thank you. You did a lot of work. I know you're here tonight uh with Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Utel and Mrs. Mongan. Uh Mr. Mongan. Um this is what we did. This is what's been achieved from the committee. It derived out of CAC. It's been two years in
process. So, it shows you everything that the board was committed to. So, you know, like when parents and community members grab board members at their children's games and they talk to them for a whole half and they're there to watch their children and they don't get a chance to see their children and then
they have these ideas and it comes to me. We put it all together. I say that like that because that's the reality of how things happens. You know, everything happens that way. when you see them, I'm telling you, this board works non-stop. They're not paid.
So, this is the Let Grow initiative from them as they'll evaluate themselves. Courtesy busing because I know um my friend and board member over there, Mr. Pepe, took some unwarranted heat on social media from some people about
courtesy busing. ridiculous. We didn't say we were doing it. We said it was a goal that it was my job to find the information. Thank you, Sharon and Kevin and Vinnie again. And here you have it. It's not recommended, but what does courtesy
busing mean? Means Kennalon's been giving courtesy busing for eternity because of sidewalks, but that's not a rule. That's called hazardous routes. And the board would then have to work with the chief. But here's what we found. Out of 1462 students, not
including our seniors because we know they drive. Students within a K8, the students in K within a two-m radius, you see how many aren't eligible compared to eligible.
And then in the high school and PRM talking about currently on the books right now 525 students are receiving transportation that we as taxpayers and the board has to budget annually at a cost that constantly increases.
That's the tune 337,000. So again, might not seem like a lot, but when you're really fighting hard to save programs in budgets that are tight, where we have no revenue and we have no ratables, it's hard.
You cannot leave any rock unturned. And that's why I said in my alert yesterday, please put your children on the bus. It's one of those things that when it's gone, it's not coming back. Now, it's not recommended, but I'll put it to you like this. If we were in a hole this
coming budget in 2627 to the tune of $400,000, and you had a choice, PRM sports, right? PRM sports, it's not high school sports, PRM, and some activities or courtesy busing.
Which one would you go with? Right. That's a hard question. Those are questions that my office and the board face every day. And then you'll get your special groups that come to meetings and they yell and
they scream. I get it. Okay. Please use the buses because if I keep watching, I'm going to recommend it. Doesn't have to be next year. It could be the following year. Please use the
buses. We're not Burger King. We can't always have it our way. I want to thank the transportation department for that work. I know that I drove them crazy. Trust me, was not easy. And then the last one, the strategic
roadmap. We presented the strategic plan in October here publicly and the board, I believe on the 18th, it will do some ethics training and some self-evaluation. So that's really it. I knew we'd get into it with Stonybrook. I tried to make it as simple and straightforward with the
information you have telling the story and I'm done talking about Stony Brook. So you could tell everybody to please that it's over. If they have the information, look at it, read it. You got a question you want to call me. Some of you know me, some of you don't. That's okay. That's one thing. But I'm
done. It's not a budget item. Anything that's not budgeted, including courtesy busing, anything that I said not recommended, that's the way it stays. But I put it you that way because these are not easy decisions and you need to have that understanding. Well, what
would you do? Which way you want to go? If the buses are half empty and you need this money, you want to lose sports at PRM or do you want to lose busing? Now, I'm just saying sports at PRM because I know we're a sports town.
Well, it could be anything. Put them back up to each other. Whatever those things are, not easy. So, um, one thing's for sure, this board does not leave rocks unturned. So, if you see them, appreciate them.
Thank them. You don't have to thank me. That's not what that's about, but thank them because we work. And I know that it's not easy for them. And I want to thank that parent that said uh what she said at the CAC meeting
because um sometimes it could be the smallest thing that lights a fire under me and that it did. So I thank that. And before I sit down, I also want to be remiss if I didn't thank uh Ralph Burroughs that I put in the message, our supervisor of buildings and grounds. He worked 24 hours straight. His
maintenance crew that were with him for 19 hours straight clearing these parking lots from 7 o'clock Sunday night. And then also our custodial staff after they got themselves out of their own homes to come in here, work all night long and be here yesterday to be here tomorrow. Without them, the buildings don't open.
It's a thankless job, folks. They are working hard. So when you see them, remember that. And um that's it. Mr. President, the floor is yours. Public comment. That's it. I'm done. Thank you everybody.
Hopefully uh no snow next week. Thank you so much, Mr. >> Excellent. All right, we're gonna move forward with committee reports. Um, would you like to start with finance? >> Kelly, I'd love to start with finance. It's great. I mean, Dave stole a lot of my thunder, but I think it's great
because we're gonna hear a lot of things that we're reiterating about responsibility. Um, you know, putting a bow on a couple things Dave said in my terms. When you think about operating cost of the maintaining 1.2 million in head,000
that's $2 million that exists on the table in case there's any type of other so I love that they've clearly recommended it but it was very nice to go through the analysis and know that exists so you know the future versions
of us that have to look at this now have a dollar amount there in two or three years whenever it comes due So as we go into the committee meeting, uh we actually had two finance facilities and security committee meetings. One was a focus on our capital
projects and preliminary look at that February 11th. Dave Sherry was part of his superintendent update. I think a lot of great things guided some of what we did as well as things that we want to be proud of with our school. So looking at things like a
new school, new school board, new flags, you know, better walkways and facilities, um, you know, have the added benefit of driving some level of retention. When we got to the when we got to the Wednesday, February 18th meeting, there was a lot going on and I
don't know if I want to go uh into 30 minutes of detail. I'm not going to. Um, but we actually started with uh Mr. Zeleleski coming in uh and discussing um a KHS behavior program update. Um and in
essence uh there's certain behavioral reasons that we send kids out of district at a cost to our budget uh and Greg had an idea that if we had this program um it would provide better learning opportunities uh for some of the kids with behavioral problems. It
could be a cost avoidance of not potentially having to send these kids out of district and if successful after a year or two could be an opportunity to bring kids back into district. So from a finance facilities and security perspective uh you know we recommended to kind of go forward and continue to
look on that. Um also you know mentioning there that it's a drain on our implicit resources. So some of our fixed costs like administration uh that's dealing with some of these challenges on a day-to-day basis. So, uh, nice presentation by Greg and the group. Uh, and we discussed that going
up to kind of some more regular recurring business. Um, we need to, um, replace some of the cameras at Stonybrook. Um, it's about 60ish K. Half of that's for installation, half that's for the cameras. Uh, obviously Dave said we're not going to talk about Stony
Brook anymore. Those cameras would be movable if need be. So, uh, it wouldn't necessarily be an investment that would be wasted. Um, Vin, Mr. Chis brought up, uh, a shared transportation agreement with Quanic in a state of emergency. Uh,
so it wouldn't add any cost to us or them. Um, but it's, uh, to help both schools if we needed, uh, transportation and it was unavailable to us. Um, stop the bleed course is going to be happening on 39. Mr. Chis is going to
run that. We also took a look down or we took a look um at our lockdown system. It's just good governance um to ensure that there's testing and continued to refinement. Um so we went through those tests at all the schools over the last
couple weeks and we continue to refine um because we of course care about the safety of our children. Uh Mr. Mango already discussed the alignment of the start and end times. Um so I think you know that's going to be a benefit for us in the future that provides flexibility should we need for educational or
financial purposes uh therein. We you know had a deep discussion about the um class 3 contracts and we have an offer out to them and we of course care about safety uh of our students but we also want to make sure that we're being thoughtful uh when we're negotiating you
know what the class three contracts look like. Um, we discussed a little bit about updating the rates for a certified sub. Much like everything in education, it's getting harder and harder to find subs. And we realized our certified subs
um were slightly underpaid. Um, and we also realized that the cost of having a teacher cover it would be more uh than simply increasing the cost of a certified sub. So, um, we we built out what that looks like and it ends up being a more thoughtful approach, more continuity, less strain on our current
teachers. um and just smart use of our funds. Um after that, uh Mrs. Trombetta discussed uh the summer math academy which we need to approve. This is where we in essence uh provide a a paid um
summer math academy offering three courses. This happened for se past several years will happen again. So we need to kind of approve that. Uh this year it's intro to algebra, geometry, and pre-calc. Um, we had a poolled insurance renewal
and that's not for the teachers insurance. That's kind of the insurance like our for our property, things of that nature. Um, we talked about the Stony Brook Boiler repair which we just unfortunately need to do and because of the size needs to be approved. We
discussed the bids on the culinary arts project. Those are in the formal minutes and we have recommended what we should go forward with. Uh again that project was I guess approved by uh the board in years past. We've already started working towards it. Um part of our
retention is offering some of these uh really really good um electives. So you know more now the we had a number budgeted we solicited our bids and now we have to select uh the one which we'll recommend later in the board minutes. Um
Mr. Mango, our superintendent, uh discussed the timing um of our budget, which we went over today. A lot of that's driven by our state aid numbers and then we'll and then we will uh coordinate and have our preliminary budget hearing on the 18th um with hopefully our final budget meeting on
the 31st. As a quick aside, Caitlyn and Mr. Mango are doing a great job keeping us a breast of where we are with the budget, working through all the machinations as we're getting updated numbers. Um, we reviewed the capital projects list. So, I'm not going to go
that into detail. Um, and then kind of the last thing we touched on was the increase uh in our benefits cost. Uh, which at the time of the meeting notes, we had an estimate of about 30%. Um, as of the update today,
you know, that's 23%. uh that increase in benefits cost um for a town that didn't uh didn't grow our revenue or our tax base or hire um you know a bunch of new teachers is about 1.4 million uh
against our budget. So, you know, when you hear the board and the finance committee and and Dave and Caitlyn talking about why are we saving money, um, you know, it's not because you're going to see a direct reduction of your taxes, but as in any business, and we're not a business, our school board, as
costs go up, you need to find ways to offset those costs thoughtfully while still ensuring we have the correct programs to be, you know, best-in-class education. Um, that's really all we talked about at finance, facilities, and security. Uh, it was a lot. It was heavy. Dave touched on it um as well.
So, you know, thanks for thanks for letting me have the mic, Kelly. >> That was great. Thank you so much. I know with the preliminary budget meeting coming up next month, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of meetings with that committee. So, thank you for capturing all that. John, personnel negotiations. >> Yep. And if if it's okay, I'll take them
both next. I'll try to combine them. Um just because Carl chairs the um personnel negotiations committee. He's not here, but I am. And we do a lot of overlap obviously between the committees. So um just in terms of
highlights because it's already 8:20. Um in personnel, we are obviously still working on some of the outstanding contracts and negotiating with different units. So that's ongoing and we were always open and ready to uh get an agreement with the outstanding matters.
Um we also looked at some substitute stuff that uh Mr. Pepe discussed and also uh long-term leave of absence and in the you know creative ways we have to cover those things. um summer math academy. On the board's agenda, you'll
see the sick day bank policy which is something that came uh from the KA and we think it's a great idea, you know, members helping each other and we'll, you know, moving for that to try to make that work, you know, to everybody's benefit. Um and also looking at the ES
uh renewing the ESY coordinator um position as well as um adjusting uh some of the language about lead teacher things. You know, we're we're going to lose somebody soon. And just in terms of making sure that
everything's covered. Um, so that'll be on the agenda. I'm just give me a second. I have to switch my notes to the other one. That was personnel. And then Ed. Um, and I gotta say,
um, in this current board cycle, um, been on the board for three, four years, and this is my first time, um, with the ED committee, and I'm fully appreciating, you know, how much goes on over there. Uh, I've been in the finance and the policy side a lot, and then, um,
now it's ED, so everything goes on. It's education and student activities. So, it's a big catchall. Um again in summary, you know, we had um a good conversation about the athletic department and covering some of the um needs and um possibilities for co-ops
with softball, girls wrestling. Um baseball assistant coach coming on. Um had a chance to meet her last week. Um and what a what a resume. What a find. Uh I think she's going to be a real big asset to the to the team and that
program. And also um also up is a an initiative for a coach mentorship program um pairing some of the coaches you know more experienced with less experience to try to build confidence and competency. Um again you know best of luck with that and I think it's a
great initiative. Um we talked a lot about things that have been said about the budget and the start and end time. Um, forgive me. Uh, we discussed and are in favor of a program that Mr. Mongan is um
has brought to our attention about a kindergarten screening program. Um, which we're going to look to do at the end of the school year in those half days. Um, but you know, something that had been done fell off and is, you know, recommended to come back. We think that's a great idea to make it happen. I think it will uh really assist those
young ones coming in and also the district preparing for those young ones coming in. um the change in the March um PD days. Uh I know we've already got an announcement out on that, but that was discussed and the reason, you know, just clashing with the state testing
schedules. Um Mr. Mango mentioned in his update um and just as a reminder that the upcoming health curriculum um as they rotate, you know, this is a great opportunity for parents to review the curriculum as is their right. um that opportunity is there and also if they
want to opt out for any sections that's also within their right but now is the time. Um and then we also as Mr. Pepe mentioned we look at that uh proposal for the KHS um behavior program um and I think we're
recommending you know at least the committee level recommending hey let's let's go for it you know it's going to serve our population well and use the resources that we have. So just in a nutshell I know that didn't a nutshell, but we were there very busy all night and u thank you very much.
>> Thank you so much for uh summarizing both of those committees. >> Sure. >> Um so policy and governance is next. Um we spoke a little bit more about the parental bill of rights and we've decided that we're going to keep working on it diligently. Um take our time with it. It's something that we feel really
strongly about and we want to make sure that it's in alignment with all of the, you know, standards and policies that we currently have in place. And um we set a date for June. So we're going to hope to adopt that in June. We're going to put that up for vote. Um we also had six
HIVs that we discussed. There were um three first readings, three second readings. I wanted to thank uh Mrs. Yosfites for attending the meeting. Um I think the administrative presence is really helpful to kind of guide the process, let us know about the investigations, what's going on, and
answer all the questions involved in that. So we appreciate that she attended. Um and that was it. It was pretty simple meeting. Um, all right. That moves us down to delegates. Um, New Jersey school boards. My Mr. Myers is not here tonight. Morris
County School Boards Association. >> I have nothing. >> Okay. Uh, the legislative representative. >> Yeah. Um we did have a meeting with the uh we've combined the Morris County school boards
with the state um NJSBA legislative committee. Um just trying to get more traction and also get more people to help you know reach out to their their legislators. So that's one big development. I also shared just uh yesterday because we had the snow day um
I shared with our committee at the Morris County level like hey you know I know it hasn't been an initiative to date but why don't we uh find some recommendations for the legislature to let us use some of those emergency days as remote days >> as Mr. also mentioned um again just
that's that's kind of the point is like feedback up you know to say hey this is a need that we could use if the law change so um that's all >> okay great um I know that the Morris County Educational Services Commission
has not had a meeting um community relations and the KEA has not had a meeting KAR's KF has not had a meeting um petitions and hearings of citizens on any agenda items. Is there anybody that wants to say
anything or has any questions? Come on. Do you mind just going to the microphone, letting us know your name >> and address, please? >> Hi, Christine Keratello, uh, 155 Miller Road. Um,
this is all about some of the stuff that was discussed. Um, and I promise it's not about Stony Brook, but um, there's the the statistic of the N 19.1 decrease in enrollment. Um, can you just help me understand what that really looks like?
Is is that do those students exist and are just not enrolling or are they not are these children? >> Good question. what your enrollment was in 1415, year-over-year there was just a drop. So
as whether it was families moving out of town or disenrolling their children or seniors graduating and then families moving out and then you just not coming back in. Okay, >> that's what it it represents. Okay, >> so kind of um different but same like
nearby Jefferson. right now. Jefferson is an S2 district where um that's where I was when I I shuttered my last school in another district in Warren County. We were an S2 district which meant for years we were overfunded in state aid. Then when the state caught up and they
leveled the playing field, now you didn't have that extra money, what do you do on top of your demographics dropping? So I saw the same thing in another district where I started with a thousand in a K8 and in five years I was down almost 400 students which equates
to an entire building, >> right? >> So that's where it's that's where your budgeting has to come into play. You don't have they're not coming back. You don't you're not replacing them every year in those big kindergarten classes, >> right? >> What do you do? How do you manage that? >> And so that's why I wanted to make sure
I was understanding that as a key metric. >> Sure. knowing that we're looking at that in terms of some of these retention goals >> as well. So that's that a followup then would be around any retention strategies
and I know that we've talked about a lot of the the facility enhancements and obviously a lot of the electives um but was curious if there is a broader strategy for retention that goes
from the very beginning of like discovery and analysis you know straight through to the implementation of like what have we found out why we're not getting the enrollment's happening and people you know the retention of some of the students who may be going private
As far as conversations, Second. Second. >> Excellent. >> C and D Okay, great. Um, >> would you mind calling the board? >> Of course. No problem. Uh, Mr. Eisenhire? >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Geyser? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leonard? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pella? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay, that made things nice and easy. Uh, moving on to committee of the whole. Um, I don't think there's anything
there. Is there any unfinished business? Nope. Okay. Is there any new business? Nope. Okay. Um, correspondents, any emails, comments, anything from our virtual audience out there this evening? I don't think so. We just checked with
Jay. Um, do we have any petitions and hearings of citizens for non-aggenda items? Nope. Okay, great. Board member comments. Who would like to start? >> Dana, >> I I really don't have any comments. My
intention before I came and I I didn't do it was to look up and to count the number of days between now and the Saturday of Memorial Day. That's it. I just can't I'm done done with the winners. I hope everybody's fairing well. >> Yeah. Um,
>> I think everybody's ready for some nice warm sunny weather. >> There you go. >> Thank you, Mrs. Utel. We needed to hear that. >> John, do you want to go next? >> Sure. Um, not to blavor any points. Just two
points of thanks and and recognition. One, just to reiterate, thank you to um the staff that, you know, really busted, you know, what to get the snow cleared. Um a lot of other districts just called the whole day today. Um we could have
done that, but we didn't because they're, you know, those guys really came in and worked hard. So, thank you to them. You know, a lot of times they're unrecognized because, you know, it's like, oh, teachers and we wouldn't be able to do what we do
without them. So, we need to make sure that they know that. And finally, um, somebody I wanted to thank especially Mrs. Thomas um, just because, uh, she's going off on an adventure and, um, I won't say much, but you know, you
deserve thanks and, uh, you know, on behalf of us, thank you for what you've done with us and good luck. >> Great. Thank you so much, D. >> Okay, Frank. Oh, similar to what I was talking about
on the finance, facilities, and security meeting. Um, but you know, we're doing a lot of work here to ensure that we are stewards of the taxpayer dollars while giving the best programs we can for our school district. Everybody's sharpening their pencils, putting a lot of work in,
and being thoughtful. Uh, so I do appreciate uh all the work that's going in um from everybody uh under Dave's remitt um being thoughtful and trying to find ways uh to ensure that we have a balanced uh budget and that we are being
fiscally responsible. Um, if you turn on News 12 like I do, um, every single day, not a week goes by where you're not hearing about Mon people say, what were these people doing or thinking about? So these tough
discussions are had and always very supportive that we can do it in a thoughtful way. Um so just wanted to reinforce that. >> Excellent. Thank you so much, Frank. Um I just wanted to say it was just really great meetings tonight between the CAC and the board meeting and there is so
much work happening right now behind the scenes and it's really nice for it to be kind of showcased and talked about. Um just a lot happening and and I thank you Mr. Mayo because that was a really great update this evening. Um I wanted to say I'm so excited about the homeschool
association streamlining. Uh I think it will just make for just everything to be so streamlined, so efficient. Um I'm really excited about the big gala that's that was spoken about that's coming up. Um I think that's going to be really fantastic for all of our students in all
of our schools. So thank you so much for the hard work that's going into that right now. Um, I wanted to say that next weekend is the play Mama Mia. Um, and I know that we've actually had some uh the theater, the Cedar Crest has a theater group and they've been coming down to
kind of advise and work with our staff. So, I just know our our kids have been working so hard and also, you know, they had that extra support. So, that's a great great showstopper. Everybody loves that one. So, come down next weekend for that. Um, tonight we actually uh just
approved a $4,400 donation to our fishing club by the Pure Fishing Company. So, I just wanted that to be recognized, too. We have a phenomenal fishing club this year. Um, we have guest speakers coming in. We have derbies that we're going to. We just have a um a really enthusiastic uh lead
on that. So, if our kids don't know that we have that at the high school and you're into fishing, definitely join that. It's a great club. Um, thank you to our transportation department for all of the valuable information that they gave to Mr. Mango to be included in the um, superintendent's update tonight.
That's really valuable information and we can't make decisions without that data. So, it's it's crucial for us to have. Um, and I just wanted to wrap up by saying um, Mr. Burroughs leading our maintenance crew um, just did a phenomenal job. Once again, this winter was nothing that any of us anticipated.
Um, I believe he worked for over 24 hours straight, slept here in Kennelon to take care of us. And like you said, John, you know, a lot of a lot of towns couldn't get their schools open today. So, I just wanted to thank our maintenance crew, uh, especially Mr. Burroughs for that. Um, it was really phenomenal. Mr. Mango, did you want to
say anything? >> I'm a little talked out. I just I hate snow, but I feel a lot of love in the room. So, again, like Olaf, it's the winter's almost over. >> That's it. Okay, great. Um, we do have an executive session this evening.
Whereas the open public meetings act NJSA 10411 permits a public body to meet in a closed session to discuss certain matters. Whereas the said law requires the board to adopt a resolution at a public meeting before it can meet in such an executive and private session. Be it therefore resolved that the
Kinolan Board of Education has determined that it necessary to meet in close session today, February 24th, 2026 to discuss negotiations. Be it further resolved that the Kindlean Board of Education reserves the right to discuss other matters. Be it further resolves that the minutes of this closed session be made public when the need for
confidentiality no longer exists. No action will be taken. Can I please have a motion to go into close session? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you so much. Just have a goody thing.