Miss >> Mr. Lee, Miss Middle, and Mr. O'Keefe are absent with notice. Dr. Snider >> here. >> Mr. Coach here. >> All right, let's stand for pledges
to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right, for those of you joining at home, our microphones uh aren't working
for the electronic use of connection at home, so we're using the stand microphones. Can I please have a motion for executive session? >> Motion. >> I have a second. >> Thank you. Any questions?
Whereas Lil Harbor Board of Education public body is subject to requirements in New Jersey open public meetings act where pursuant to OPMA all meetings of public body is required to be open to the public except as provided in NJSA
104-12 where the public body may exclude the public from that portion of a meeting at which the public body discusses certain specific matters and whereas the board has determined that it's necessary and appropriate to discuss certain matters in private executive session. of which the public shall be excluded.
Now, therefore, it be resolved that the board members enter into executive session for the purposes outlined by our Good evening. The board will be going into close executive session to discuss matters of attorney client privilege, personnel negotiations,
grievances, and other labor union negotiations. The board will be in executive session for approximately approximately 8:00 p.m. this evening. The board will not be taking any uh formal action in executive session. To
the extent that the board takes any formal action this evening, it will be done out here in the sunshine after executive session. Thank you. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. >> All right. Thank you.
appropriate for the board to directly answer questions during the public comment period. Each speaker is allowed a maximum of five minutes to make their statement. No one may speak more than once on the same topic. You are required to give your name and address before
speaking. Please keep your comments respectful and non-defamy and maintain the level of decor appropriate for a public meeting where minors may be in the audience. Right. See presentations. Part-time par profofessional model presented by Dr.
Charles director of special That's true. What's up? First, I want to start by saying thank you to the board, administration, staff, and the district for hiring me last year. It's been a privilege part of the
community. So, thank you guys so much. Um, you know, although I've been here less than a year, I had a very good job listening to learning and working alongside a wonderful state community, one thing very clear, the district has tremendous potential
in supporting our students and continuously improving the services we provide. And so before I get into our model tonight, I want to first recognize the incredible work professionals do each and every day. They are a critical part of our schools providing
consistency, compassion, flexibility and support for our students during some of the most challenging moments. Their dedication is valuable and I want to see them. Tonight's presentation is about growth opportunity for
change can be uncomfortable but change is also more concept education. As the needs of our students continue to evolve, we must evolve them. I believe the challenges that are opportunities there opportunities to strengthen our consistency improve support for our
students and staff to build a more effective and sustainable model for our future. I'm excited to share tonight's proposal because I believe it requ So first start out with the legal framework. Um so under IDA which is
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It's our federal law special education New Jersey regulations. I just cited up here New Jersey administrative code title 6A chapter 14 which governs um special education laws and federal.
So tonight we're talking about par professionals and what's going to end up being our new model for next year. So when you see a PAR professional, every par professional is assigned to a student based on our IES. Okay. So
after it was announced the position we're going to go for full-time and part-time, one of the first questions was if we're going from 80 power full-time, that means we need 160. So I want to, you know, clear the air and state the facts that that is not true
because if it were true, that would mean that we have 160 students that require power professionals. So based on our numbers, we only require 80 power professionals districtwide. So it's equivalent to a classroom not being able
to go say above 25 and one teacher. I would love to have three teachers in our room, but we don't do that because it's based on our environment. So it's the same thing with parents. Every power is assigned to a student based on the law. So that has to do with an IEP and it has
to do with a parent signing consent. Without a parent's consent, we cannot put a parent into the IEP. Okay? So up here you'll see there's 1:1 and 2:1 ratios. When I got here, I saw IEPs with 3:1 and 5:1 ratios. So imagine one
person trying to uh oversee three children or five children. It's it's impossible. It's really a juggling act. And so one thing I want to do for this district and services department is make sure the IEPs are aligned to our student needs. That's the most important thing.
Okay. So I put up here that these needs can vary transitly. For example, everyone that I've talked to and I've asked many questions about one to ones. Most people believe that a one to one is full time, meaning full debt. That's not true. So one to ones are only written in
the IEP the way they should be written. For example, we have around 40 one to ones, but not all of them are fulltime or full debt. They might only be for the man or the buses or transitions. Okay? So that's that's like a myth that I want
to dispel that one to ones are always fulltime. That's not true. Um same thing with 2:1 for power ratios. Okay, we have some power ratios that are in in class during ELA or math and that is all. Um
and then they flow to other things. So this can vary drastically and it's necessary to understand that special ed the goal of special ed is independence at all cost. It's always independence. So we don't want our students to always
be fixated on having a power professional. Some of our students absolutely require them, but the goal of special ed is independent. So as they get older, we are going to do our best to try to alleviate that maximum support because the law says appropriate
support, not maximum support. Okay? So faith is very inappropriate to follow and basically what that is is that a child has to have a parent and they have to have a parent. Okay. So again it depends on how the IED is written. It
doesn't matter my thoughts are it matters what the needs of the students are every student is unique. Okay. So the first thing we start with safety safety in the school of instruction. So, if a student requires a one to one and it's in their IE, we legally have to
follow that. People have been asking me questions, Chuck, um, you know, if if our powers are going to be part-time, that means we're not going to have full-time coverage. And that's just not true. And in fact, in this staggered model, which I'm going to talk about, I believe will work even better than our
hybrid model, which is now. And I I'll get to all the reasons why based on my experience. But another to understand is we have two to one and 3 to one pairs that help with a little bit aggression. We are doing away with 3 to one power
professionals because one person cannot be responsible for different sense. Okay. So again this is about appropriate support. It's not about maximum support. All right.
I want to actually highlight our numbers so we get a real sense of the power professionals where we are right now. If you look up here, we have 391 child study team children. That means they have all had or been evaluated by
our child study team and all classified. Remember, you cannot be initially classified without parents initial consent. Okay, we have 20 new process. We have 55 C total. So that means out of all we have five sets. That means at
minimum they they have 55 just for them not including the special ed at CSC. So there's two types of IE there's child study and there's speech only. The speech only is getting speech but also they're getting child services. This is
important. We have 472 total classified students on paper but out of them only 17% require professionals. So, as an outsider who's going to be less senior, that tells me that this district overall has done a great job with your special
ed programs. I believe that the teachers and the child team have worked and in Paris have worked exceptionally hard to maintain the level of support that most districts cannot do with these type of programs. But we have been successful
and that's why I'm really proud stepping into this. But we have to be realistic and understand where the power of professionals are. So again, if we have all these numbers up here, the parents are responsible for up to 80 students,
not 472 students. Okay? Here's our actual numbers. So we had 41 right before today and we lost two students that transitioned out. So we have 30 power professionals that are
what we would consider one to one. Okay. Again one to one depends on the child's IEP. It could be full bed, it could be martial, it could be the bathroom, it could be transitions. Um we have three ones right now that are going to be two
to one pairs. So that's 33 part time because the two ones are the part time and then you have classrooms which are four. So, we have them over at preschool. Um, I'm very happy to say that right now the numbers that we have are about 80. We should have 80. We have
about 78 right now. And next year turning, I've already interviewed or seen 71 applicants. Now, if we have 40 children come in that absolutely require one to ones, by law, we have to get 40
people because our numbers are based on the law. So I want everyone to understand that we are at the mercy of the students. That's that's what gives us our power professional numbers. We have oversaturated some of our groups with power professionals. Um at one
point I believe we had 103 this year and we only on paper needed 80. Okay. So we have to keep that in mind. Um and then down there is percentage of 17%. So 80 out of 472.
So, I'm going to get into some other districts that are doing the model that we're going to propose and they have way higher numbers than we have with accurate success. So, our current model is running a fulltime state. And you might say to
yourself, well, this is great. We have both. But in reality, it's not it's not working because as we continue to evolve as a district, our programs have changed. We have more than 21 special ed students in this district. Okay. We have
some significant disabilities. Some of our students do require one ones all day. Some require educational. There's there's a bunch of things I've heard about autistic children. People say to me, "Well, they all need one ones." True. I have students that have autism that do not have any parents at
all. I have students in resource rooms that have parents. So again, it comes down to the actual student, right? Everyone is different. So here's the problem with our care model. There have been a ton of communication challenges. Every day when I come to work, other
administrators, our secretaries, our power professionals, when we call in CSC, we are at the mercy of our staff coming in to Okay. So when I hear I get calls that we're out of compliance on,
we're not out of compliance. We have the staff that we need, but we don't always have the inconsistency of our staff. Okay. It's caused inconsistent patterns in staffing. It's caused a lot of issues with adjustments and flexibility.
The efficiency across our buildings has been a challenge, significant challenge, and um just trying to fill the gap dayto day has been a challenge. Okay? And this has nothing to do with whether someone's full-time or part-time. This has to do with people coming to work and showing
up in the system. Okay. So I highlight attendance and accountability because when I look across the board there is there there is an issue with our attendance and we can see this on a daily basis. We have the data to prove
it. So, one thing we want to do moving forward is is try to figure out a way to make our culture more sound and have our absences improve, which I really do believe we can as long as we work together with some of the stuff we've been proposed. Okay. One of the main
issues we've had too is what we call services. So, if we've had pars out, it's caused a lot of issues with our student services. Some of our students cannot go to the tier speech without power. Okay? And so if they can't go, they don't need services and we have to
pick them up. So these are all factors that have been a challenge with the hybrid model. And it's nobody's fault, but we evolved with our program so much that it's hard to not recognize these facts. We have to bring them to life.
Terry, can we go to the next slide, please? So here's where the additional score. I've heard people say things like, "Oh, I read in the paper that MOSC is paying all this money for people and powers being pissed." That's not true. That those hirings are based on
full-time staff that help them left. So, if somebody was a full-time parent left and they were a oneonone full-time the whole day, we lost that person and we are having a challenge trying to find people to put that aside. So, each and every day, that's that's what our goal
is. the spot. All right. So, the one thing that we've done effectively is moving people around. Uh we don't always want to do that, but we have to do that. So, again, if um we have students with significant needs that need power over a
student that might not need as much, we might have to hold that power for a little while or maybe hold that. It just depends. Um, we have M CS and we have a new company that we've reached out to acquire, however you want to pronounce
it, they say multiple ways, but they have been pretty good with communicating with us and they're willing to assign people to us for the future, which should help us. So, here's the proposed model. This is a model that I created out of thin air.
This is a model that was developed out of uh you know communicating collaborating with other local districts. Uh also in my previous district we had the same the same exact model almost the same numbers actually. So how does it actually work? Well if you take just for example on schedule
right now you have 825 to 325. We uniformly have two groups of people for the day. a group B and group B and the group B would come in at the time that you know about 10 15 minutes before the day starts and some of them might
even start earlier than that depending on if we have a one to one need for the bus which we don't have a ton of students that need more bus but we we might need to adjust some of the times the point being is if you look at the model group B will come in a little
after group A so let's say an hour and a half Well, that will cover the entire day plus extra time. Right now, the problem we have is we have a Monday. So, imagine if a full-time person calls out. What happens to a student that has a
one-on-one all day? We give them a part-time person, but the part-time person might only be with them for a couple hours. And guess what? The part-time person could be pulled from another building. They could be pulled from a different class. I mean we do this constantly because we are having
challenges and so when you have a staggered model the most important time the instructional time during midday has a perfect overlap in time there's no gaps in coverage at all because if someone
comes in we're here for 5 and 1/2 hours have seven hours of debt that's one person team B would come in and they're here to for their full 5 hours or more wherever it's going to be 5 hours. So our students are going to have the
right support they need. But here's the caveat. Caveat is that we need people consistent to work because we will not be able to no matter how. So the districts that I'm talking about,
some of them have for years with way more numbers than us. And when I looked at their models exposed to me, one thing I asked was, "Well, what happens if you have a a ratio par
with a student? What do you do?" They said, "Well, you disclosure, they go everywhere. They can go anywhere." And that's how they do it. So, great as it seems, it might not make that much sense, but once we get into events, it really will because what you're going to
see is will be here at the point. Somebody will come in about an hour, hour will come in the entire day. I have a slide that actually shows the time. We have 5 hours and 45 minutes a day of instructional time. Okay. Our one par
will be here for at least 5 hours and 30 minutes each day. So they'll cover almost all instructional time just one person. That's when you talk about transitions and all that other stuff. they might not need anybody to cover
that. So again these these are all based on the needs of our students not what the assumptions are or speculation every single parent is dictated by the okay so if you stagger the model you can easily
confidence but we need to so here's the strength of it it's intentionally aligned to student right now We are picking people up and moving them places. They might not have
the most training. They might not have any wherewithal on that room or that program at all at all. But we're trying our best to stay compliant. We're doing the best do we can with what we have. All right. By going to a model where
there's a group A team and a group B team, everybody's going to know their exact expectations, their role, what room they're in. If one person calls out, is it an A person or a B person? Who is their backup? These are things
that have to be done to ensure existence. If we have a student that requires a one to one full deck, our main objective is to have parents two parents that are working investing each and every single day. We're not we don't
want to pull people from other roads or other buildings. So that is why we need to not only implement this with fidelity but again we have to have accountability as well. So coverage is distributed strategically and what I mean by that is we have to
start at the top with the most needy students. So students that have one ons maybe in wheelchairs feeding tubes we start with them. Who is the two people that we think are going to be the most success with this child? Right? And then if one of them is out, who would be the
back? These are things that have to be addressed before the schools because if there if it's done that way, then we already know the expectations. I can't tell you how many times I reached out to Paris or I reached out to
Mus and people get frustrated. I understand that but we have to follow the law and the law is whatever's in the IEP is what dictates our practice and our students. So this sector model will promote equity and equal distribution of
our students. We are pairing students with people for quality. We're not pairing them for quantity. It's about the quality. Okay. So I'm going to get to the next slide. Here's the local pictures that have used
the stagger model or are going to the stagger model. At Stanford, I've had in-depth conversations with Stanford and they went from fulltime 250 powers to parttime 250. Again, they didn't go from 250 to 500.
They went from 250 to 250 because 250 is what's required in the IEPs. They sagely schedule based on the IEP needs. So our child sets work diligently to figure out
who is going to require a power for one period or two periods. After those two periods, that person, they can move. They can be put elsewhere. But if a power is supposed to be with somebody all day, they'll be with the woman for the entire day except for about an hour
to an hour. The other person and then you also have a certified teacher. Okay. So Stanford's up there again because they're at 250 and here's here's something I want to talk about with MC. So I've been doing a lot of
interviews since I started here and I love doing interviews. I'm really happy to say I'm proud to say that our district is actually getting a lot of calls. I interviewed somebody from Abs and she told me everyone that I work with is excited to see this post. You
know why? because they understand that districts are part of parttime and they're paying less. This this person I interview was on set five at $20 now. So she would be going up to 25 and would be
an amazing addition for district. Okay. So here's all districts and there's many more. All right. I come from a district that had more than eight parts. So I understand this game. I know how it works. It takes time. It takes consistency. It takes effort dedication.
So if we're all in the same world success, but everyone has to make understanding that our powers are based on the numbers of our students. Now we have 80 powers and 80 students. Of course, we're going
to have five extra parents, whatever. But we can't predict who's going to send back. Okay? But what we can do is be proactive and that's that's what we're doing. All right, next slide please. So this slide works well. When you
stagger your hours intentionally, you do have full coverage, but you're not the right way. Okay, again I talk about we have power ratios right now in our district that could easily be moved around and we do move around every day.
Um, health and safety at the top. Okay. And what's really good about the model is is that when you have a team A and a team B that we know precisely what their routine is and their expectations we are able to monitor attendance and that's the accountability that we have to
monitor everything just like teachers and administrators our parents our exceptional our workers but if we don't have it with our students our students are really struggling okay so this will help us be more
reliable more responsive, more supportive, grow consistency, positive climate, sound culture, and I believe talent team with an absolute structure that makes people feel valued,
appreciated, and trained correctly, which I'll get to. >> So, here's the hydro model for Saturday. Right now we have people that are working seven hours a day or 35 hours a week. They get a total of 45 minutes on
set break. They're working 6 hours and 15 minutes. But I highly instructional time because when we go through our IPS every one of our students have to have proper support during instructional time. But the interesting is that we
have students that are classified that they might not have they might not need any support on instructional time. Like I said, they might need time to launch recess or on the bus or transitions. Okay. So, if you just do the simple math, if someone's working five and a
half hours a day, one person, they're already covering almost all instructional timeline 15 minutes. You bring another person in that's working five and a half, you can have their wave and they're not only helping with coverage, you are actually getting over
coverage. Um, right now that's something that we cannot say because we have a hybrid model that's not aligned. It's not congruent and it's just not working. You know, a full-time person, a part-time person cannot follow a full
one pattern. They just can't do it. So, another thing up here is, you know, our staff will make more money obviously and it will help them and they will they will be working as hard as they always do. Um, but I think it also helps our
parents because they the ones that don't need the benefits. It helps with the financial piece, but ultimately it is about the students. And so we're doing what we can with what we have. And this
is the best model for based on the research, based on the conversations, based on experience. Okay. If we did not go in this in this fashion with a part-time staff, it would be nearly impossible to cover because again all it
takes is one full time person to be out in a room with full time part. And I get calls literally every day of people saying to me, Chance today and I said, I understand and we'll do the best, but I'm really confident
staggered schedule we will be a lot better. So that interview I had interviews of all the powers from fulltime to parttime and I asked three questions. I asked you know How does this impact positive,
negative, neutral? The overwhelming majority told me these things up here. I wrote them down as I talked to them. Now, of course, there are people that said to me, I do not like this independence. And I actually understand that I don't. But I want to get a feel
for what people really thought. And I got a lot of positive feedback. And I I am proud to say that we did hire 33 part-time people this year and we've retained almost all of them almost all of them. Um so you know I'm very proud
of this that I did hear a lot of positive feedback and um it gives I think it gives us hope and the number 71 is important to remember because right now we have 80 patterns and we already have 71 people that want to work next
year. So our goal at minimal. So we will get there. Um as far as we're probably going to have to turn down some kind of professionals because our numbers might not be as high of enrollment students and also too
we're looking at IEPs and some of our students they they have IEPs they have parents in their don't require that anymore. So, it's a matter of my child making sure that they're consist. So here's what I
want to have. I think this is extremely important and not only is important but we can pay for it. I'm very very happy to say that behind the scenes when we talk
uh I've been working with some other traders on money and if we were to start out all on the same page with the right training CBI CBR special ed law we would make a
tremendous impact. Imagine if our parents could come in in the summer and meet the power of professionals that their children are. That to me would be ideal. Um and so I put a proposal forward on this and what
I would like to do is is give a voice to our paris um leading the way with certain trainings training parents I train teachers training parents administrators okay because
when we hire somebody we give them professional we try to train but that's just not enough They need more. They need to be heard. And I really love for us to come together and develop this
teaching all 14 areas of special education all all the classifications and why they matter. If I asked everybody in this room, you know, tell me about autism, I will get a different answer from everyone. But I probably would never get the same
two answers. If we train people with certain behaviors, certain mannerisms, all those things that matter sensory, then our staff will be equipped much better now to handle stuff. And I am very happy to say that
training over 100 people this year. Our our injuries are dead across the board. Although they do happen, they're still dead. So I want us to really consider our professional model. uh like a like a
I really want to do that because it will put everybody on the same page and um will provide consistency. So that's something that I put up there lots of different things up there but just
overall we go to the next slide. So I do believe as well to do this effectively we should have an awards recognition program for Paris because And we do have teacher awareness
and just like our secretaries and so they need proper training and the proper system and um and that's what I think would be the most beneficial for everybody. You know I want to spotlight stories. I want to hear about things
that did not go well and how improve on them and get honest. Next slide. So here's why the academy would matter for this model because right away we're getting into the standards the roles the expectations of
everybody teachers child team parents administration. And so when when a child when when a parent is out, we have we have a special line of communication goes from secretaries to
the teacher to the child and the parents and we're all on the same page. Right now that's not consistent because again our hybrid model is struggling. Okay. So we can provide all these things different differences between special ed programs and these
things all matter and this is why our powers are essential because again they're put in groups where we have teachers that have four five six years of education and training and so we need to help them and um again this will help
everybody outside the community and give all of our professionals the right support the right guidance resources and the confidence I've heard many people say over the years in my career that you know parents would say something like I love working with children but I just don't have
enough training I don't have enough exposure to disability well that will support because again when people are trained and they feel value they are likely to be retained that's
how we can retain our talent we exceptional. A lot of people do things they do things outside the scope that so I'm going to end the presentation with that
for anybody out there. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Um, so just a couple things for me. Uh, you know, from everything you said, it sounds like the most important thing is what is not really full-time or part-time. It's the par showing up on a consistent basis. Uh, what have you seen
so far as far as numbers on average of, you know, daily call outs? >> Well, it all depends. I mean, some days we have more than 20 hours call out. Yesterday we had 60 plus staff members
call out. Now that that impacts obviously, right? So it's a combination of call outs. Um we do have numbers of 20 25. Uh I did do a random sample. I just I
think it was 20 people and the average >> is there is this a pattern on that or that >> that's why I brought up the accountability part moving forward because we all start on the same goals expectations then next year this time we
have people that want to see 2530 and we need to address that we just can't sustain any model whether it's a hybrid staggered if we don't have consistency of our students, you know, >> and assuming there is good attendance
with this new model, it seems like that there's built-in coverage for each student and so there will always be a consistent that's 100% correct because if you have a student that requires full again they get off the bus 25 there
10 minutes the parent can spend 5 and 1/2 hours out of seven hours with the other person will come in and they might come in say an hour later or 45 minutes later. Well, guess what? The great majority is covered with them. But
again, it comes down to consistent roles. So if if Chris, if you and I were going to work together and serve as a student, you know, we strategically do it as who would be better with the server in the morning, who would be better in the afternoon. And then we
have a core backup person. each one of us is out in the air. That's why I love the stack model because it makes us really reflect on everything like who's going to be the best fit. Remember, it's appropriate support. It's not maximum support. It's appropriate support. We
want them as independent as possible. >> It sounds like in this new model will have basically 90% coverage of the day. I was I mean I don't know exact calculations but again I mean you're talking five and a half hours five and a half hours because if they work five if
they're 550 a day 20 minute break then so that's correct >> and we've also heard how under the current model certain parents can't take lunch breaks because their student requires them all day has this model
addressed that >> yeah so if um again one of where students require power all day and one calls out. This is why ahead of time we're mapping out who is going to cover in case someone is out. So there has to be a backup plan. We don't have that
right. We fly by the seat of our pants because we do not have something in place. This will allow us to strategically place people and students because remember we have 40 40 let's say one but they're not full. Some of them
are full. A great majority might only be instructional time. The rest of the time it be moved around. So we will have the support. We just need Do you have a number on exactly how many students require one of those?
>> Yeah, we have exactly what we had 41. It's the difference is that again some of them are some of them are period. Thank you. Um that's something that I learned
that even the ones on may not be all day required. Is that right? >> That is Yeah, that's exactly right. Um I don't have the exact number of all day one ones, but the majority wouldn't be the entire day. Like I said, we we have
parents that will be on the bus with our medically fragile students and they'll have nurses throughout the day, but a lot of our students have more than once more instructional, you know, or if they're in our like an multi disabled group, they would have a power, but we are starting at the very top with
students who require oneonone all day first and our IPs are being developed that way again. That way we know exactly the scores we truly need. So there's no confusion about how many powers we need. Right now it's all over the map. We have
five ones in some of our I don't I have no idea you know how that's possible. person has double five students. >> Thank you for all the data and the goal. >> Yes.
>> Exactly. >> Yeah. Because they're going to be adults one day. You know, look, I taught at the collegiate level for a long time. you know, students will come up and you don't have an IEP at the CL level, you have a 504 and so, you know, getting to that point of independence is very
important by the age of 21 or even 18. So, we each year are trying to develop our students with our parents. But here's the kicker. We don't want our students to become dependent on our parents, you know, and our powers are phenomenal. But I think after a year or
two if we do have students that say we we kind of have to change that because we want it. >> And so you said you've worked in this system before in other school districts. You're not reinventing the wheel. actually use as well.
>> That's exactly right. So, um there's there's a multitude of districts throughout. So, I live in Loser County, uh county and um you know, there's lots of districts that when I came here and I started to meet all the directors in Ocean County, I was really surprised
with already how many were doing. Like I said, Stanford, I've had many conversations with Stanford and um you know, you're doing this with 200 model. I said, well, that makes sense because I'm used to the standard model. The only thing with standard model is
done is we just have to make sure you know that we are positioning ourselves successfully and by doing that our students need to be familiar with our parents because we are asking them to
have essentially two people throughout the at least >> um I believe it's 10 but >> much more than that. >> Yeah, the average sample size is
but again that's just sample 20. >> My last question is this is very important information for parents. How are you educating the parents? Would there be something districtwide going out that >> Yeah, I mean so One thing is I've I've
done the presentations a couple of community already. Um I've also offered to have anybody come in at any time with me. Uh I can always do a voice over presentation that's easy. But I think it's important for everybody to be
educated not just our parents but our staff really education. That's why I propose I really want to power because we need to all be on the stage. So I'm willing to do whatever but you
know I'm my doors will do it anyway. >> So with that pair professional academy um are you seeking funds from the district or have you applied for grants? >> Yeah great question. So, um, I've actually been talking with Harvard, Mrs. Gallagher, and we were talking about
money from RS and, uh, you know, looking at some of our IDA money, stuff like that. So, you know, I'm very confident in the numbers we have looked at. Uh, but there's still some work to do. You know, there's still some logistics to work out. It wouldn't be everybody. It would be majority of our parents, a
couple poor special ed teachers, some of our RBTs, administrators were already here. And so, that is a psychologist. I do 20 different trainings with our parents. We can do CBI training. So then when school starts, we have two power
professional or insert days. Um and and whoever is able to attend the academy, we would bring them in, you know, and we do that. But but we want CPI train almost everybody CPI trained at the same time because our certificates are all over two years. And right now we have
people, you know, trained in October, November, December, January, February. We need that's kind of >> All right. Our next presentation, transportation update. Sorry.
All right. Uh, tonight we're doing the transportation for 2627. Uh, so hopefully I'm going to be able to answer all the questions that have been said for the past three or four months regarding this stuff. Hopefully put to
rest some of the rumors and misinformation as insurance. A lot of questions you got, why are we going in house surveys back in the day? Why we went to outside contractors? The reason we're bringing it back in
house uh these are a lot of the main reasons. Uh we consistently had timing issues with all of our buses due to being tiered with other school districts. Uh and every time we are
delayed, especially at dismissal, our staff isn't catch the contract times. And right now we're looking at this year is about 15,000 just in overtime just for staff to be here to make sure kids are safely on the buses before they
pulled out of our parking lots. Uh the other big one too is our behavioral concerns uh with having the initial and five pound students. So having K through 2 and 36 on the same buses. Uh it's one of the big reasons
why we're switching as well. We're also looking to eliminate the extra time that our students are on these buses uh in the morning and afternoon. Uh students are on the buses for an average of 20 minutes just sitting on the bus doing nothing which is typically
behavior start. Uh so right now in the morning when all the buses arrive to official 5 students are sitting on board roughly 20 minutes before heading down to this building and then in the afternoon students are on board for an extra 20 while they sit
opposite afternoon. Uh we're also looking to increase the educational instruction by eliminating a lot of downtime students who spend on buses. Um we're not going to eliminate completely, but we are hoping to decrease the parent
transport. Um and also have less traffic on the post school properties and obviously on the roads at the same time. Uh another key factor is to have better operational control for our district. Uh we're not going to be dependent on other
schools making decisions for us, especially our calendars, study dates, and everything else. we do it to make decisions that are best for our students and our staff. Uh also bring this in house. We are going to have faster and direct communication with drivers.
There's no middle demand anymore. If a parent calls in with a concern, a question um I will be able to go directly to the driver immediately and uh get more information. If a student forgets something on the bus, again, I
direct communication to the driver to uh you know, have them go back around, bring it to the office, just a lot faster as far as communication goes. Uh overall too, obviously, we are in budget mode. Uh this is a huge savings for our
district. Instead of paying roughly 2.5 million um to an outside contractor, we're basically taking the profit that the contract will make and we're keeping it in house. Uh we looking at about $500,000 in savings. Um with doing it in
house and that's about picking up and other schools that's just us doing our own thing and then with having our own fleet, our own drivers, our own buses. Uh this does give us a lot of opportunities to generate outside revenue uh which we're already in talks
with other school districts uh for both the summer and for the start of September to bring money into our school. Uh and then again control our district calendar. Uh I know we have high school district other elementary
schools as well where we kind of do our own calendar and then call the other schools. Uh this model also is not new for Lil um having separate fleets and putting school on separate start times. This was from what I'm told for the
buildings were built until 2019 and all of a sudden so that plan to put all schools on the same start time which ultimately been a disaster since day one and that's the call after call that we've gotten from parents that it just doesn't work. the kids on the buses for
too long. And as you I'm sure see our parent pickup lines and drop off in the morning at this building are all the way down road and finish all the way down 539 and into the park to come. So hopefully we
will be able to fix that next year. Um another huge thing too is obviously everything's always geared towards the students by having our own fleet. This brings field trips back to the students. Uh the biggest cost for students to go
on a field trip is always the busing. To take one grade out to a field trip is around 22 to 2500 for buses. Uh where next year that cost will be eliminated other than a few hours for fuel to take
to the aquarium to do where they want to go. We're already kind of charged on staff. Um and then it's just a small also has to get to where they want to go. I'm sure the amazing people that we had a lot of questions about what it
looks like for the drivers on a daily basis, what they have to do and complete. Uh so this is for next year we need 24 daily rout drivers. That's 24 part-time drivers. That includes the big buses and our bus drivers. They will all
be part-time drivers at 29 and a half hours per week. Obviously, no medical benefits. They are part time. Uh each driver is 35,000 for the school year. As of September, uh they go through extensive safety training, which we're very proud now to
have a in-house safety trainer, uh which is already hit the ground running doing wheelchair safety training, child checks, um training to make sure that we're looking for students at the end of every run. Uh She's doing all this stuff now too. Uh all of our drivers go with
random drug testing. We are actually the only staff in the district that goes to random drug testing. Uh so not only do they get drug tested to be employed by minimum uh it's every two years medical certifications and we test that
and we also move to regular fingerprinting. So once every district however the transportation driving staff at has to be printed every two years to the new license. Also having our in-house drivers helps
us accommodate for schedules uh for students who may be uh moving from one foster home to the other for a short time. uh we have to be able to adjust those schedules and go get them. And then also we transport from a lot of out
of district schools. We have schools in mainland field for the river. Uh so that we extend per district could be anywhere between 350 to 500 a day to transport. So with
our own that you can also ask questions on the bus as well. Uh so this has been a lot of questions either I've heard at board meetings or I've had staff members stop the buses or is always open. Uh biggest question is
who's going to maintain all these buses that we're getting in August? Uh all of the maintenance is done through Shephard as we're releasing these buses through that includes brakes, tires, blades as you mentioned. It does not matter
responsible as part of these. Um another one that people sleep over was where these buses can park. Uh we use our school parking lots. Uh we're already talks with places in town if we need to park them during the day. Uh it's a few hours from the time we get done
finishing dropping off our last school till we start doing this again. It's probably five 6 hours plus sit during the day already several places for that. Uh another thing was the shorts cost. Uh
somebody got up here and said 4,000 to make sure buses not enroll uh is about $7.95 per bus and that's because we have a fleet insurance policy with the district bus. U we're not buying land. We thought
not to build a bus depot where we're not buying. Um, as far as getting fuel for these buses, uh, we have a couple things in place right now. We have shared, we will have shared sources for the township. Uh, we have fleet fuel uh, accounts and
then we're also have a co-op uh, fuel purchasing program as well, which save us a lot of money, especially tax. Uh, again, the savings with these in-house buses is roughly 500,000. Um, that's just a start. That's before
we bring in any revenue. Uh, so the other things that we're I want to talk about is that we're spending 6.9 million on buses. Not sure that came up to. We're not spending $6.9 million on buses. Uh, we also don't need
30 buses, big buses to pull us off. Uh, we currently have 30 buses. That might have been the future. Uh, by separating schools, we no longer have 30 on the road at one time. will be at about 15 or 16 big buses on the road at my garage
school and school with our 54 passengers. That's just bus uh all the maintenance is done by them. Uh we don't need a maintenance garage. We don't need a mechanic right now. Everything's done through uh through if the bus were break down, we would have
the bus here ready to go. We would go swap it out and then she would already be improved with a new bus to take one road down back to that again. The insurance u policy of the district covers all district vehicles
and 795. uh general responsibilities to allow what these drivers do for the time that they are here. Uh so as per DOC regulations uh they have to do a pre-trip and postrip inspection. Uh in
short that basically is done checking to make sure the bus is operating correctly. All the school bus lights are working uh all the emergency doors are working when they open the doors off. So we have to give every driver a minimum of 15 minutes to preach and close the
bus. Drivers drive to St. B every day probably pretty quick because you know our bus probably 15 minutes too. And then obviously their job is to transport our students safely to and from our school. Uh they need to clean and sanitize the
buses. Um especially we buses kids doing what kids do. So we need to make sure buses are clean at all times. Uh they'll also be driving a lot of field trips. Hopefully I'm excited about that for next year. Hopefully we get all the grades out of the building
and some fun trips. Uh they don't have a district transport. So a student this was a question that we had a couple times. If a student lives in low lake and for any reason moves under any circumstances they
become homeless or anything and they go get put in Terra Seaside Newark doesn't matter where they go we have to by transport them down to our school district and that's where the cost can get crazy for transportation uh like
when I first started it was roughly 380,000 a year just to transport handful students having uh and this year I'm excited to say that as of November one we have no had no outside contract everything's been in
house uh drivers also go through DOT which is just transportation and all of our district training requirements we have in house training now along with myself going with drivers um safe driving winter driving um everything goes with the the
requirements to drive the school bus and also removal. We got hit pretty hard this year. Luckily, we only had eight muscles clear off a lot here. So, the garbage that as well.
So, this is the 26 27 school times option A, option B. This is what a lot of questions are coming out. Uh before I get to that just as a reminder from in 2016 2017 would have been the last time we had the separate school start times.
Uh was 7:50 to 250. George was 8:45 to 3:45 and the ECC preschool was 9:30 to 3:30. So for next year these are two models that we're looking at implementing. Um,
option A would be fine starting at 7:30, dismissing at 2:30. Visual would be 8:30 to 3:30 and then the preschool will be 9:30 to 3:30. And then option B is just honestly same thing just 15 minutes a little later. So
7:45, 8:45, 9:45 for the arrival of this. Uh tomorrow at some point we do have an email going out to all of our parents to kind of take a quick survey as to which option they will work best. the people we wanted to
see with it. >> Um, yes. Um I'm assuming that frog uses more buses than George Mitchell so that George Mitchell and ECC can accommodate buses at the same time.
Yeah. So right now is looking at about 16 big losses will be about 10 and ECC will be eight. So at dismissal then ECC will dismiss at the same time a few minutes for
and how in the past so in the past to my knowledge ETC's always been at at 9:30 since it's been in existence in anyone >> was it always at 9:30 I don't think it's ever been at 9:45 was it
>> currently 9:45 just seems very late. >> So the difference with the the schools though it's short of transportation is because the product and George are 7 hours school days for students whereas
the preschool is 6 hours school days. So, we've either got to bring in uh the preschool with visual and then send them home separately or behind it. Now, with the preschool, they can't come in at the same time.
Yeah, it's the first time I've seen it. So, processing >> questions. Uh, this time last year, I believe we were talking about discipline incidents on the bus and for some reason,500 sticks in my mind. Is that what it was
last year? >> I think it was around 1500 is what the school typically is. I had guys a lot of work to death with not having 5-year-olds.
>> Well, that's one of the things that we said was how can we address that and at the time the discussion was to separate the sixth graders from the kindergarteners because they were all busy. >> So that this is accomplishing that. >> Yes. So third grade through sixth grade
one less useful. Now, what if parents I don't know what the number would be, but what if parents have someone in prek and someone in pond and they use bus and jacks
and one or two in the afternoon depending on I can't guarantee that will be realistically right behind each other. We could have for >> Yeah, I process my question. >> Sure.
>> So, what will this mean for pickup times? Because that would be my big question. What time are the children being picked up at their indicated bus times? >> Yeah. Uh at school or bus >> in the morning? >> Picked up.
>> No, no, no. Like, yeah. So, let's say your child took the bus. What time should I have my shot with the bus stop? >> Okay, so obviously the earliest bus times are going to be 516 because of the first building coming in. Uh when I took
a quick look at our routing, we only had a small portion that would be about 6:25 to 6:30 time. That is the farthest out which would probably be students. Most tri students are looking at the 650 to
655 and then some obviously that closing the building less time pick up as they get closer to the school and then to answer your question about parent pickups the afternoon
question. So with this new model is having a separate fleet we can do buses and parent pickup almost at the exact same time. So there really should be no need for parents to be here before also this long students are not going to
be on the buses this long. So if I'm I if I had a student in the schools and my student is leaving the building either 2:30 2:30. >> So you're saying that parent pickup would be roughly 2:30 3:30. So mostly we
would start at whatever building again this is up to the principal to decide this but 10 15 minutes prior to the bus and the reason we do that is in case a parent calls that can't get there.
>> Some of the other things we touched on bus drivers will now be our employees. So that means we're going to to a higher standard than if they were door. >> Absolutely. Uh the second we have anything I have direct access that's a
little bit of our issues now I don't control who you know drives the buses unless they're hire any contract hires through the same printing and everything else that we do. Um, but there's definitely a huge benefit where it's my environment coming into the office to
speak to me versus me calling an office to go see the driver issue >> and they're designated some sort of transportation uniform or some kind of jack. >> Correct. So our all our drivers are
issued DOT competit because we're the ones that are outside these buses doing their trips wheelchairs on the bus. So we have to provide them safety attire and then all our buses are issued and our drivers for the summer are all
safe as well. And with the parking lots, uh, will the buses be taken on staff? >> So, the big buses will park overnight in our parking lot and then we will find a spot to only park for a few hours before
we start business. And regarding the revenue, uh, we took a trip down to Absin, a smaller school district, and we saw firsthand how just the revenue part brought 150 to $200,000 just revenue that they didn't have three
years prior. >> Correct. So, with having our own buses, um, which will be my job to kind of look at the hours of ours have, which is how we were able to get them to do field trips and then take on other school districts as well to pay us. any price
that we give them is going to be much better than anything that by transport regardless. You have to have a service way around it. So we're able to make money for our district and also other districts try to
>> Yeah. What they said was they increased field trips, sports teams, and even extra tutoring. They were now if they had an extra tutoring program after school, they're now able to get the kids home. >> All right. So, uh, we also don't have sports teams here. It's only, you know,
six, but um, I will be talking to finance. I know they've had issues in the past with getting their teams transported issue with buses, drivers. That's something to finance district. Last thing, the um last slide about
option A versus option B. Uh that's going to be distributed districtwide tomorrow and will be closing when what when are we asking to do that? >> By Sunday. >> So then by next Tuesday, we should have a good idea of which option we're going
to do in the fall. >> And just one more thing, the random drug testing, >> who's going to be in charge of that? >> We have that. And so they do the run the computer program that it's random randomized. >> Yes. So what happens is every one of our drivers is first gay employee here get a
road test obviously um and get a license test and then uh every single driver is uh inputed to basically the site with their name address their name their license number and their date of birth and the drug company
then call me and say we want these five drivers and drivers it does not matter why they have >> does it happen on a daily basis. So weekly basis, monthly basis, like how is it going to happen? >> Uh it usually minimal but >> at least twice a year random
>> random state normal. We are the only >> um yeah I have one question as far as revenue goes. Mike um what other ideas you have for revenue as far as besides transportation? You have any other ideas
you throw out there thinking of discussion here just >> I know we have times are constantly looking for shuttle services we up too weekend or the driver owes us a few
hours because you know each week a little bit of time we can utilize them to where we charge whoever the district >> and just Sorry. You're good. Just one more thing. I think the major question that all of us have or at least I have
and I is what drivers are going to be dealing during their downtime. It's not a question of whether there is not >> the way our way our routes and stuff are these drivers are only 5 hours
5 to 9 hours a day in the morning talking about preschool being transported. That's over 3 hours transportation that's there. And then we have our afternoon runs to go and then all our pre-trips, our post trips. So I mean it's kind of the same as we have our our teaching staff. So it's a seven
hour school day with the children for like 5 hours and 15 minutes or so and then the other time they're fresh to get ready for >> so have time off during the day because 9:45 it's not close during that time of the day.
>> Okay that's not how it was originally proposed. So that's why I'm just trying to figure out what's changed. So any bus driver when they come in they go run and then they run they won't they won't like they're not looking at our drivers won't come in at 6 and leave
1150 they're coming in doing their their morning runs they go home and come back and complete their 500 hours the rest of >> currently don't we have drivers that are doing tasks around the district that what's currently happening
>> so the confusion might be that currently with only our mini buses, our routes are somewhat scattered. This schedule here is regarded large buses the entire September. So currently right now if we have a driver that has down yes they
have to do other taxes come September all the hours. So for all drivers since no drivers will be cut any additional pass in the district as far as we can tell right now all the routes some can explain this
better some of the routes are longer than others. So depending exactly that driver that route someone might be at their full 5.9 hours somebody else might be at five hours because their route is short. So if there is any down
that person or the time will be banked and will be utilized for field trips other students and possibly more students and $500,000
per year, right? >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Yeah. So all of our part of our release all the come with a camera system that I will have direct access to. the camera question
system footage review it and give it to the appropriate principal to their participant all >> I got one more question for the parents is there going to be some type of app in place that they can track where their kids are at
>> so we are actually in the process now of upgrading the bus system have uh tackles which serve a lot of uh services for us so one of the things um texting for safety because anytime you get a backup driver or a subd driver and say you can
go this route typically they're driving with a piece of paper in their hand and trying to see what they talk about next. So the table will act as a GPS system. So actually tell them in 500 ft turn right and actually tell them you know what stop is coming up next tell the
intersection. Uh and as far as the parent app goes, uh the parents will actually be able to get a real time notification saying your bus is two stops away. You know, get your student ready or it'll say your bus is 12 minutes late
traffic is the bus. So it gives us real life tracking and then it tells us on screen in my office see where the bus is and all. So parent calls and I can say no problem.
Excellent. >> All right, that's the end of presentations. Now moving into board work session discussion of May 19th agenda. We're going to start on page three. Page three, May 19th agenda.
Starting with the minutes correspondence, the action items. >> Can I ask a general question? Except some things have been moved between agendas.
Um I see that for all contracts moved moved to the 19. Um what about the attendance officer? support because we did not receive a notice that it was
>> very requested that we notify things. >> This is very very >> I appreciate that but you could have mentioned it in executive or before the start of this meeting because this is how I miss something and I potentially vote in a correct manner and I can only
do it based on the information that I'm giving. So, I have asked repeatedly. >> So, I would appreciate the future. >> Did you ask that it be removed? >> The reason why >> No, I did not. I did not ask for it to be removed. I just asked for I was looking for it so I knew where to vote.
Just on that, D and I had a discussion um was brought up and I agree that before approving the attendance officer, we wanted to hear from that individual and see what results have he's accumulated in the past few months to
see if it's even worth doing. We hear great things, but we want to hear directly from him. We can do a presentation. I'd asked Lisa to see if that was possible. She said she would remove it in the meantime to see possible. So before we approve him, I'd like to hear from him what he's
>> about. I did not ask for, but I said keep it on there and we'll see if that next >> I didn't ask. >> I just asked what um I think I
just wanted to hear. I I wanted to find out what what has happened whether it was more reactive proactive and where we were do we still have a corrective action plan that requires this because there's been some misconception talking to board
members individually that this money was grant funed intended for this purpose and that's not the case. It's grant funds that can be used for other purposes but was used for this purpose. We approved it.
>> We'd like to see what the results are. >> So, Dr. is going to look to see if Tuesday. >> Do you have any other general questions? Anything else on page three? >> Moving on to page four.
Page five. six seven. Take the whole agenda. Any other questions? We're May 19th. Okay. Probably um
the um expense for reimbursement per policy. Is it per policy that you have to submit it prior to the attending of a workshop? Because we've always been told like to go to if you're school work convention, you have to put it in prior in order to
get neighbors for just our travel. >> It's always good. But somebody can be afterwards. >> It's the >> You mean for the registration? >> No, I'm saying like if I wanted to put in for miles because I
>> So typically you wouldn't pay you would put in prior and then you submit receipts whether it's tolls or things like that. >> So what do these represent? That's not this one. Is it prior or authorization or >> what number? Where you at? >> I'm at B on page five.
on the digital link, but they don't line up. >> Yes, that's what we're doing. So it's under number two personnel letter. >> Yes, >> but I don't see a link on the
>> that's I see I just pulled it up. So they are two people 521 and 527. So it is prior to them attending >> and still missing something. Um and just one other thing. I'm sorry I must have missed it. I can't find it online. Um
what is the 3250 for the divid assets? Yes, that's the company that we're using for our fixed asset tagging program which by law we have to have we have a
prior company called Chrome that's been with the district for a while systems been antiquated spreadsheets are antiquated this system now is on the internet scanning device so all our asset tags to all everything that we
have to do it's much cleaner more efficient system for purposes. >> All right. Any other questions? Okay, moving on back to tonight's agenda. 10 action
items. Recommend motion to approve school business administrators non-personnel items A through Z. Please have a motion. >> Second. Sorry.
Any questions? >> Yeah, I just have a general question. Sorry. Um, is it accepted to roll over grant funds? I always thought that they were kind of as use them or lose them.
>> Any other questions? >> All right. Roll call, please. Mr. >> Yes. >> M serp. >> Yes. >> Dr. Snder. >> This is just 10 A. Correct. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Phil. >> Yes. Motion pass recommend motion to
approve personnel items A through D. I have a motion. >> Any questions? >> Does this cover every employee that's listed at all? So you're doing okay.
like every employee that's listed. I'll clarify. >> All right. I I just noticed this and it's just in my nature just because I know that uh this is one group along with our physical therapists who have shifted
from a master's program to a doctorate program. Um I believe this I'm assuming this is a new hire on three. This is from three um for an occupational therapist. Um,
they're on the teachers page. I'm on page five. >> Page five position. I would just suggest that to the extent we're talking about the characteristics or qualifications of individual it
>> I was just asking uh what group they fall in so much of each speech >> that's fine that's totally fine >> you know does the speech pathologist fall under the teachers guide >> do occupational therapists fall within
the teachers guide not believe I believe they're not aligned, but I would want to check that. >> Oh, okay. The resolution says not so, >> but there's steps with that are not aligned um contract.
I don't have >> if if there's a step on there. >> I'm trying to see if it's not had we had this. I I did I just saw this and that's what
made me think of it. So was on the spot because I just see anyway I'm just curious getting that it's a different degree um and if that is within the steps that's the whole
question. Right. But that's at the same level as a masters on what I read here on this that we're so that a master's >> even it's the same.
That's why I'm confused. question of how it falls. >> Any other questions? >> Yes, I do. Um what what is actually the um on page 197
um clerks what what clerks do I see that there's a two clerks in DC one in so there's ask I mean it's not a secretary so I don't
page 191. What text? What's the type? What's the job description for a clerk? >> Clerks assist in the office with the secretary. So, they'll answer the front window, they'll answer phone calls, they'll the door they ask for ID things
like that. So why don't >> they have none rock has one PCC has two and there's none in >> right now they don't have >> that was one of the positions that was eliminated last year not
>> they have secretary Um I just think I mean something for the windows I think is a safety measure also. >> But does ECC have ECC has two >> just seems
>> one is for health office >> and it is part time also. Oh yes, there you go. >> It's not a negotiated contract. I will not And that's on recruiting also. >> Something to look at for the future. >> All right.
Roll call. Roll call, please. Mr. Shone, >> yes. Miss >> Dr. Snider, >> yes. >> Mr. Phil, >> yes. >> All right. Public comment. The board is
now open to the members of the public. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues. Board request that each statement made by participant is limited to 5 minutes as policy number 0167. There's signing sheet located at the
podium. Please sign me. Good evening. I am come up every month. As a 26 year teacher in the district, I am writing as both an experienced educator and a proud union member who
cares deeply about the direction, the priorities, trans uh transparency of this district. My intention is not to discuss the work of any individual, employee or any department, but rather to ask clarification and accountability
regarding compensation and decisions that are inconsistent. After reviewing publicly available employment contracts and salary information presented at all recent meetings, I am struggling to
understand how the district is justifying salary progression of the transportation supervisor position. According to the contracts, the hire date was uh April 15, 2024.
During the 2425 year, the salary was 55,000. Contract of 2526, the salary rose to 56,650. A raise of $1,650. Short time. As of July 1st, 2025, the
retro salary, it jumped to 65,000. an $8,400 increase. The same contract for that same year had two different contract prices. So that's why I'm a little bit confused.
Then it got revised again and the contract for 2526 is 65,000. This year's contract for 2627 is 67,53435. This represents an increase well over or close to about $10,000 within
approximately two years. Two years of being in position. At the same time, teachers in this district negotiated a contract in which educators including highly excuse me, experienced staff members with advanced degrees, multiple
certifications, specialized training, and decades of service sort increases that were much smaller over entire three-year contract. I did sit on negotiations, so did some of the board members present tonight. In many cases,
the highest increase over the life of that threeyear contract was approximately $6,000 over three years. That's about $2,000 each year. By the time it's in my paycheck, it's about $200 a paycheck,
which really comes down to nothing over the three years. As educators, we're told that the district has financial limitations and that difficult compromises were necessary. We were also constantly told directly and indirectly
that transportation was not a financial priority for this district. However, the compensation uh decisions reflected in these contracts appear to communicate something very different to all of us.
In addition to salary figures for transportation staff has risen, further concerns regarding the district priorities with all these departments. I come up every month and say the same thing and I really don't get much answers to the
questions. I did get some threat to the presentation finally. I did go back to when you told me the book at February third. I couldn't open anything. So if it's public knowledge, I myself or anyone that public and I was unable to enter it.
But a part-time bus driver is going to get approximately $35,000. A part-time age is approximately $26,992. Part-time bus drivers approximately $18,000. Last month for last meeting, we
definitely tabled the ESY drivers and the ESY buses. It was tabled brought to be in discussion. It's brought back on this agenda tonight for the same exact thing. The only thing that changed is no longer 165 per day. We broke it down to
where it's going to be per hour and hourly rate. It still comes up to 165 a day and $100 a day. The question that Mr. ask was what does the driver do between those hours? Same thing with PSY. If they are
dropping off and PSY starts at 8:00, what is the driver doing in between the 8 to 12 time where they're getting paid that amount per hour? They're not with students.
A regular power is with students for the four hours. If I teach the SY for $200 to $200 a day, I am with the student for direct hours. So, I don't know what that answer is
since I have not gotten it. I've asked it several times, too. The discrepancy between the driver and the aid is substantial. Despite aids also being responsible for the student safety that was definitely brought up through the new bus plan, they need no
support, supervision, and the day-to-day care of some of our most valuable decisions. I strictly ask the board to clarify this following. What is justification that support the board that the sanitation supervised
salary has increased salary over $10,000? >> Yeah. Sorry, we're on six minutes. >> I'm sorry. >> We're on six minutes already. >> Would you like to continue for me? >> That would be
Okay. And then coming finishing, was this increase tied to the additional certifications? If so, what ones does he have? There are more responsibilities, but the trip but the transportation plan hasn't started yet.
It is market comparisons to other transportation supervisors or is it experience? If so, can those factors be publicly explained? What message does this send to the certified teaching staff who invested years into advanced degrees continuing
education professional development while receiving comparatively modest increases? How does this compare to what is just done to our parents? If transportation is not considered a district priority, how do these figures align with that position?
Again, this letter is not intended as criticism of any individual employee. Every member of this district deserves fair compensation. However, transparency and consistency matter. When large salary increases are approved in one area while other professional staff are
asked to accept limited increases under budgetary restraint, it naturally raises questions regarding equity and priorities. As educators, we teach our students that actions speak louder than words. Compensation decisions are among the
clearest indicators of what an organization truly values. I speak on this topic. She speaks on this topic at every meeting and nothing seems to get answered or changed. I was told to go back to the February language. Unfortunately,
it didn't open. Part-time bus drivers 35,000 approximately $195 per day. Part-time power 26,992.50 approximately $147 per day. Student contact. Part-time buses 18,000 about
$100 per day. Drivers make more than power. So, how can you say transportation is a priority? Numbers don't lie. I appreciate your time and respectfully request clarification so that staff and community members can better understand the rational behind
these decisions. Hi question. >> See your name. >> My name is Edward Lucas tax. I have a bunch of questions here for transportation. Now um I know that in the past like Harbor
has had transportation, their own transportation, their own buses 30 years ago, you know, 40 years ago that was the transportation. There was no dorm. There was none of that. However, they had a big yard
to keep the stuff. There's no place to house 15 buses. First off, if any of you have been around the school during the day, I beg you to find 15 parking spots for fulls size buses, first off. Second, um I'd like to know how this is going to
reduce parent drop offs. How is it going to do that? If anything, it's going to increase it. When you have a school time starting at what, 7:30, you're gonna have kids out on the street corner at 6:45. It's dark half the time
of the year at that time. Forget about the out of district kids. Forget about the out of district kids. You know, the ones you have to pick up in Bricktown or Manchester. What time are you picking them up? 6:15 in the morning.
Come on. a little common sense, you know, and this is something that you all need to think about, you know, before you've already voted and thought, you know, but this is something you need to think about. You know, it looks great on paper, but you know, they have real
world consequences here. You know, these are children 6 to 12 years old. You know, think about them first. Anyone else? Yeah,
my name is for when I started here I was there part out of district um started very early and many kids around
school from um the times that it took to bring their all those children in and maintain a part-time status This 29 and a half hours is what I wrote back. I had a
coworker and then when that coworker left after the pandemic, everything changed and I was still doing that same job because they did. If anything, more got displaced and more got more challenging. I pretty much did that job and worked
hours that I didn't get worked because the children need to get to school. you're going to run into that same problem. Now, I am ecstatic about having transportation, but trying to do on part-time hours is not going to happen,
especially with the staggered start time. You might have one household that is displaced and you might have to go back and forth to the to we've done it before, seaside four times a day. Well, actually, it'd be eight back and forth. How many How
much time does that take? We just recently had kids in Point Pleasant Beach. We had to work to 6:00 at night getting these kids back. A lot of people do it. A lot of people feed them because these children are on the bus for hours.
Hours. We take money out of our own pocket. How are you going to maintain that on part-time hours? One of those things that you breeze over was me on one of the full-time bus drivers. One of the two. and I'm losing my job.
And all I did for the last six years is give this district mainly the children every single day. I have never pulled out. I have no moving violations except a light off a dig, but that wasn't me. Okay. But I have never done anything but
give to these kids. And I truly believe this is not going to work. Not without some fulltime bus drivers. You're going to need more than two that you're letting go. It's going to take a lot more if you do the times. What we're saying the times in those just add up
those hours just in the morning. You're almost at 5 hours to get those preschools done just in local. Can anybody answer how how that's going to work with that? I mean, just it doesn't work. How it's
just it's sheer numbers. And then you have to bring them all home in the afternoon. And we're planning on doing field trips and doing all this stuff, taking on other districts. There's only so many hours that you're part-time pay. That's it. And there's
and I have nothing to do. People that we're hiring are amazing people. They're all great. The powers, everybody. But what is going to end up ultimately happening is you're going to have a lot of people working and not getting paid because they're doing it. And that's the type of people you have a bus driver. do
it for kids. We don't do it for anybody else. And that's true. So, it's something to think about when you're letting good employees go to get ones that you don't know if they're going to decide or not. >> All right.
Sure. >> Okay. I'm just asking if we can review the delay. Um the non-aligned contract because I am looking at it. There's no indications of stats whatsoever in this. Um and the part with degrees that says
it does not account. for people and it does not go past the masters. So I was just wondering where these steps come from. So we can look into that and someone can further clarify because um individuals are being hired on the non aligned agreement
um but at a step but there's no steps in the contract. So just review that for next week. I appreciate that. I just the doctor, right? There's nothing in there >> and when I went down and only went to masters and that doesn't even I think
qualify for those individuals. >> So my question is like how are raises even determined for this group that language? Well, also I'm pretty certain that that account I found somewhere else for that step aligned with
um masters and that's where I have an issue. The individual has if that position has a doctorate requires a doctorate um unless they received it greater than 10 years ago maybe. I forget when they actually switched their
program. Same with PT. Um, so I just want to make sure um that position is being compensated accordingly based on the degree the degree that was earned and to see um why there's a statistic there. Okay, that's
okay. So I um just want to say um some thanks to the teachers for last week. I know we weren't here for teacher appreciation week and um I've been thinking a lot about this. Um I've had students this year that have
had some things in their lives happened that I have never dealt with as a teacher and things like that. And I just wanted to say how grateful I am for all of you and for teachers. You're part of a child's childhood. You're part of
their memories. Um, and you might not think about that all the time, but it really is and they remember. Um, my daughter, I was talking about something about preschool and she's like, "Oh, don't you remember we had the Q and you wedding?" And I don't know if you still
have it, but they remember it. Um, they, you know, remember the par it actually used to be kindergarten. That's how old I am. My son had kindergarten aids and I really miss those. She was a lefty. He was a lefty.
She taught him how to write. Um, and um, Mrs. Strang helped my daughter learn how to tie her shoes because she was remembering it because she was talking with her friends since they're 17 about what method each one of them uses to tie their shoe. So, they remember all of
this and um, the gratitude words are not enough. Like there's nothing I can say um for all that you do. So, just know that you're remembered always and you're part of their childhood and you'll carry a
special part in their lives um forever. And they do remember the little things, too. Um and I think that's all that I have. Thank you. I don't know how the color was, but I hope it was a good success.
Thank you. I just want to say great presentations tonight that were very educational. Had a lot of good information back in the presentations. Uh looking forward to uh some of the stuff that was discussed in that um especially the power professional
educational program training. That's pretty cool. and I like hearing a lot about transportation, some of the ideas that were brought up and hopefully it's going to benefit us. I think it is. I really feel like it. So, with that being
said, you just what Christine said, thank you to all the teachers, teacher appreciation week, and you said, uh, teachers are always part of your childhood memories. I would probably say my most favorite year in school was probably fourth grade
and my teacher was Miss Kimberly Lawrence. And something that really sticks out to me uh if you ask anyone in my from that class who I still actually talk to a lot of them see the Walmart and stuff but the big thing that we would do uh was
camouflage and then at lunch we go play football. So it was towards the end of the year of fourth grade and I remember distinctively that we went outside to play and the teacher uh she brought her brother in to play with us. His name was
Mr. Todd Lawrence. He had just graduated from college and he came back and played football with us and I always remember that when I became a teacher for a few years and so I kind of followed his model in playing football with the kids
at recess uh because he did that for us. I still remember that fourth period that he would come out and actually play football with us during recess a couple times. So you're right, you know, 40 something years later, you still think about teachers make a huge difference and you
never know how far your example will go. And the other thing I just want to say was that we got an article um this week, yesterday actually. It was in New Jersey.com and the title was New Jersey school districts slam with health co health costs are laying off teachers and
it was talking about how all over the state school districts are dealing with these cost increases. But I thought it was interesting in the article, uh, Susan Young, she's the head of the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials, said basically last year the
talk was about state aid and trying to get more state aid and by not having the state aid, we're not going to be able to meet the challenges. This year, the problem is completely different. This year the pro the core problem is this quote the core problem lies on the expense side of district budgets where
costs for health benefits special education and student transportation have grown dramatically and largely beyond local control. And that's two out of the three things basically all three are what we address tonight
solutions to address this problem that the entire state is dealing with. And to your point, we had great presentations of explaining what the plan is going forward. Now, you may not like the plan. You may not think the plan works, but our district has put forth a plan that
we believe as a board will address the problems that everybody's dealing with in a way that we believe will responsibly improve the student experience here in Lake Harbor. So, I know a lot of work, a lot
of um a lot of meetings, a lot of discussions have been had in the past couple months about how to address these issues. We put forth a plan to address the major issues, the healthcare costs, the special education, and the student transportation. And we'll see a year
from now, we'll see what the results are. Uh but I think we are headed in the right direction. It's been a difficult past few months and uh we'll see. I think brighter days are ahead. We'll we'll be here next year. We'll see if it work. But thank you for everybody
that's, you know, stayed this late to hear this board meeting. You know, it's past 7:00 yet again. You're here. Comment. Miss Lucas, something that you said that stuck out to me was that you never called out in six years. And
>> my husband was diagnosed with cancer on the Tuesday. and we thank you >> and I have not stopped and I managed to get through everything and myself and all my kids to school with very minimal help. The time when I first started I was transportation. I didn't have
anybody. I was I did everything. So >> we thank you. I just want to acknowledge you and thank you for that consistency because that's what the students need is consistency. So >> that's why I'm so >> So with that,
can I have a motion for a journ motion? >> Can I have a second? Uh, can I have all in favor? Right. German at 10:09 p.m. Thank you.