We did what Mr. Smith walked out. So, we'll start and then we'll recognize him as being back at the table to begin with the quorum. Uh, okay. Good evening everyone. Uh, thank you. Today is Thursday is uh Tuesday, May 5th. Um, we are going to get started with our meeting. Um, we are going to open the
meeting initially as a committee since there are four members of the board sitting at the table. But I know we have a fifth here for quarum. So we'll we will then recognize the meeting as a um for business uh when our fifth board member is present for roll call. So u Mr. Linsky, would you please call roll?
>> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Mrs. Balomo >> here. >> Mrs. Carrerero >> here. >> Mrs. Gundy, no. Mr. Hyatt, no. Mrs. Shankski. Mr. Lansonsky >> here.
>> Dr. Msitz. Mr. Smith. M. Mr. Cohen >> here. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And when Mr. Smith does come in um then we'll recognize him through roll call and we'll we'll be at a quorum. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh I would just like to point out as for everyone for the agenda purposes this
meeting is being held pursuant to open public meetings act uh and that adequate notice has been posted on our district website. Uh for the purposes of videotaping and public portion of the public of our e meetings um we do videotape and they are available on our website. There are two opportunities for
public comment um during our board meetings that that will be uh available for the community. And since we are conducting our business on a school property, our policy is no smoking or vaping on school grounds. That includes both inside and outside. Can we all
stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I want to thank our board
members for um adjusting their schedule and accommodating um our meeting starting an hour earlier this this time um so um we can conduct our training. Um the first item on on our agenda is a presentation by the New Jersey Coalition
Against Sexual Assault or NJ CASA. Um I'd like to welcome them. Um I would just like to recognize the two people who are here. Miss Denise Rodriguez and Denise holds a PhD in English in from the graduate center uh of the City University of New York. Um as well as um
a BA in English from Wagner. Um she began her career as an English professor at the college of Mount Sinai Vincent. Um and she later transitioned into nonprofit leadership. Um serving as a grants manager and community liaison at Hope Academy. Um she is now the director
of the of she's now the co-director co-director or director co-director co-director of NJ Casa. Um but I'm also very excited about the fact that she has been a board member. She has served on the Bradley Beach Elementary School Board, including a term as vice
president. So, thank you for being here. And Mr. Robert Baron, um, Robert is a graduate of Ruckers University, has been with, uh, NJ CASA uh, since 2015 and serves as the co-director. And prior prior to joining NJ Kasa, Robert worked extensively in behavioral health sector
with individuals who experienced and were recovering from trauma. Interesting conversation that we had earlier. Um, from this experience, Robert developed a keen interest in providing healing opportunities for survivors at the earliest opportunity. Um, and for more than 15 years, Robert has been working with survivors to support healing,
advocating for more equitable systems designed to meet their needs and promoting strategies to prevent sexual violence from occurring in the first place. Um, I want to thank them both here and I want to invite you up. Um, they will be providing us with um, some um, sexual harassment and awareness
training today for the board. Um and um we appreciate um your partnership with us. So welcome. Uh before you start, can you just call um just recognize Mr. Smith? >> Yes. Um roll call. Mr. Smith
>> here. >> Thank you. We have a quorum. >> We now have a quorum. We can conduct business. Thank you. >> I am going to turn the next hour over to you. Do you have an extra mic? >> Can you hear me? >> We can give you two mics. How's that? >> No, that's okay. I just didn't want to
stand behind the podium because it's too short. >> Sorry. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for having us. Um, so our presentation today is sexual violence 101. how to recognize, address, and
prevent as leaders in the education system. Um, and we appreciate all of your interest in this topic because obviously it is very important. Um, so kudos to all of you for uh an investment of your time um in having us present
today. So, as we've already said, my name is Denise Rodriguez um and I'm the co-director along with Rob. Um, you wanna >> our average our average height is about
5'6. Um, yeah, I'm Rob Baron, also co-director with Denise. Um, and thank you already for the the thorough introduction. I don't think we get to belabor that part. >> Yes. So, who is NJ Kasa? Uh, NJasa was founded in 1981 and we are the statewide
organization focused primarily on sexual violence. Uh we are the capacity building organization um that works across the state to provide advocacy, training, technical assistance and
collaboration. And we currently have 31 member programs in our membership and who are these programs? So, one of these programs, well, a couple of these programs actually are here in Mammoth County, but we have all 22 county based
um sexual violence programs. Uh I know there are only 21 counties, but we have two Is this working? Yeah. Okay. We have two um programs now in Union County because the services in that county are now bifurcated um with two different
providers providing two different areas of services. but all 21 county based um programs and in Mammoth County that is 180 turning lives around. So that's your local county based rape crisis center. Um these programs provide counseling,
they provide crisis intervention and they provide prevention education because while we want to of course first and foremost serve all survivors of sexual assault, we also want to end sexual violence. Um, and we always say that we want to put ourselves out of
business, right? And we can like, I don't know, go work at a shelter with puppies instead because that would be really cheerful. Um, so we also have eight culturally specific organizations. Those organizations were invited into our membership. Just a few years ago was
the first time we expanded our membership. And those organizations provide sexual violence support services through a culturally specific lens. So, programs that serve the Latino community, programs that serve a program that serves the South Asian community,
um, and programs that serve the Haitian community. So, that's what we mean by culturally specific. And then the last program, which actually was one of our founding programs, uh, is Rucker University Office of Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, uh, in New
Brunswick. And it's good, I think, for you all to know that all of these programs exist because in addition to coming to us, you know that for instance, you can come to um your county based program should you want prevention
education or other uh resources that may they may provide >> and just two of those eight culturally specific programs are based out of Mar County. So we have Mercy Center and Community Affairs Resource Center, Clark Kark G, Asbury Park. So you are well resourced uh with with our member
programs in Mammoth County. So we're going to be talking about sexual violence. We recognize that these while we will be talking about it in an academic fashion, these are not academic topics for a lot of people. We will get to some of the prevalence and how many people in New Jersey have actually
experienced sexual violence. But whether you've experienced directly or not, just to recognize that these are heavy topics. So we just like to not jump right into it. We like to take a moment to just acknowledge that and certainly if anything strikes a nerve, if anything just feels out of sorts, um,
you know, we don't take offense if somebody needs to like pretend their cell phone is ringing and go into the hallway and just decompress for a moment. So, it's okay to step away. Another topic we're going to be talking about is just the need to be to be aware of how you are responding not just to a presentation like this, but when you're hearing about instances that have
occurred in this school when you're hearing about students being impacted by the issue of sexual violence. Um that you're being mindful of how that's impacting you as a board and as an individual. Um we don't want people to become robotrons or I guess AI would be the term now and just like not react to
these in a human way. These have human impacts and we'll be talking about that. as before we jump in. >> I I app especially appreciate that because I think it's important for our community that's watching this online that they understand that the content itself could be sensitive and they want
to maybe you know um you know withhold it from the the the children who may be watching it with them. So thank you very much for that explanation >> and I appreciate that acknowledgement too to folks that are watching outside of this space. Um there's no obligation to have to sit through if it becomes triggering or traumatizing. um and we
don't try to sensationalize anything. We don't try to like you know showcase the trauma but still we will be talking about trauma. So thank you for that. So today's objectives we want to talk about get gain a shared collective understanding of how we define sexual
violence. Uh we want to talk about as I said before the prevalence of sexual violence so we recognize how common these experiences are. We want to spend some time talking about the impacts and the responses that a survivor might have to sexual violence. Discuss some
trauma-informed practices. Talk about what it means to approach sexual violence prevention from a primary prevention standpoint. And then again, just why these concepts are important for folks that serve on the board, folks in the community, folks that care about the the culture and the environment in
which their their students are learning. So, we're going to start with a question for all of you. What do you think sexual violence means? >> What's your hands up? Uh, Mr. Smith. >> Okay.
And I'm sorry if your hand wasn't raised. I just >> I saw a flash, but I want >> I jumped on it. >> Something unwanted. >> Okay. Something unwanted. >> I I I would I'll pick up on that. I mean, it's the it's the unwanted It's an unwanted act that could be either
physical or not physical. >> That's a very in either way. >> Anyone else want to give a try at a definition? All right. Okay. So, sexual violence is any type of
unwanted sexual interaction. So, that ranges from unwanted sexual comments when you think of like cat calling to actual sexual assault. So, there's a spectrum. This is a broad
definition of conduct that causes sexual harm. Now, statutory definitions are much more exact. There are limitations to relying solely on statutory definitions, however, to assess the level of harm an individual may experience, which is why we want to talk
about that wider gamut. Um, because all of them uh harm individuals and can have a lifetime of impact. And it's important to recog I love that you already are thinking about the non-cont forms of sexual violence. A lot
of people do often think of sexual violence. We think violence. We think of it as aggressive act. We think of it as something involving that physical at least physical contact. Um, but when we think about non-cont, we can think about things that people don't even have to be in the same room for with today's digital age. So that could be digital
based forms of violence, harassment, stalking. Um, we now live in an age of technology where things like deep fakes are popping up and impacting school communities. Um, I forget what school it was, but recently there was a school that had a an issue with deep face where
like publicly available photos were taken and run through AI and turned into explicit images. Um, there's things like what's called revenge porn where somebody is posting explicit images that were shared consensually, but then they didn't want that to be shared and broadcast out to other people. So,
again, those non-cont forms can be really damaging, really severe, and again, folks don't even have to be in the same room for that. Uh and then contact forms of sexual violence such as groping. Forced or coerced penetration, being forced or coerced to penetrate. Um
because sexual violence doesn't only occur to folks who who identify as female. They can be men and boys as well. Uh and when you think about cases where there's like a female teacher that has sexually assaulted a male student, that's somebody being forced to penetrate. That's somebody who's in a
position where they can't give consent. They can't withhold consent. There's that power imbalance. Um, and that's why we like to make sure that we explicitly say it's not only being forced being penetrated by force, but also being forced to penetrate. And sexual violence typically either creates or it exploits
an existing imbalance of power. When you think of a school setting, who are the folks that have power in a school setting? Faculty, staff, uh, coaches, and the folks who do not have that power are typically the students. Um so when you look at that exploitation of that of
that imbalance of power or sometimes when sexual violence occurs between students where it might be like oh their peers it can create an imbalance of power that might not have otherwise been there. So we'll talk a little bit about the statutory definitions that apply here.
So New Jersey law talks about sexual assault being sexual penetration no matter how slight. So there's no determination. Well, that was kind of super enough. There's any kind of penetration that includes
vaginal penetration, anal penetration, um oral penetration, all of that can count. Sexual contact is defined by the intentional touching of intimate parts is how they define it. We like to be very explicit. Intimate parts, breasts, buttocks, groin, inner thigh, primary
sex organs by either the actor or the victim being coerced to do so. uh and the purpose the act is determined to be for the purpose of sexually gratifying the actor or degrading or humiliating a victim. So those are important legal definitions
by New Jersey statute. Um and when we think about and we'll get a little bit into consent a bit more explicitly, but New Jersey law requires that affirmative and freely given permission for sexual activity be obtained. not just well they didn't say no that
somebody actually said an enthusiastic and affirmative yes. Um consent cannot be obtained through physical force exploitation or by an exploitation of that position of of power. And we'll touch more on consent in a little bit. Now Title 9 applies to educational
institutions um and they have other diff definitions that involve some additional nuance. So per Title 9, sexual violence is legally categorized as a form of sexual harassment which is itself a subset of sex discrimination because title 9 talks about sex discrimination.
So it views this form of violence as a form of sex discrimination is defined as physical sexual acts perpetuated against the person's will, I'm sorry, perpetrated against the person's will or where the person is incapable of giving consent. So if somebody is impaired
either through like a developmental disability or they're impaired due to a substance um that they're incapable of giving consent. So when we think of sexual violence, it's important to think of who does it happen to. And the truth is that it can
happen to anyone. It can happen regardless of your age, your identity, your background, your socioeconomic status, your educational background. And in a school setting, that means it could happen to a student, it could happen to
a staff member, it could happen to anyone. Um, and it could also be caused by anyone. Again, same regardless of age, regardless of identity, regardless of their background, their socioeconomic status. And it could really occur
anywhere and at any time. Um there is a propensity for us to think that these are things that you know people place themselves in harm's way or you know you're walking alone down a dark alley. But that is not often the case. And
sometimes these things unfortunately happen in places of trust in places of community um and places where typically you would least expect them. So, it's it's important to keep all of that in mind. >> Do you know the name Dr. Larry Nasser?
Does that ring a bell? Who was he? >> He was the Olympic Is that who you're talking about? Yeah. The Olympic. >> The team doctor for the women's gymnastics team. Um, and worked out of University of Michigan and he abused
children for decades. And in the 90s, people came forward and said, "He was harming me. He was doing this to me." because he was this esteemed doctor in this privileged position. People he they believed him when he said I was just performing a medical procedure. I was doing an examination. I was doing the therapeutic intervention and they
disregarded what these survivors said because they were children. They believed what this doctor said because well he's the authority. He's the professional. And after those cases that were reported initially in the 90s, he then continued to harm people for decades following that before he was finally held accountable. So again, this
idea that it can be caused by anyone and it can occur kind of out in the open um and still needs to be taken seriously when we think about that exploitation of that power. >> Another example of that is when you go to colleges and they have the blue
lights and the idea being that you know you have a student and they're walking down this dark path in the evening and they have somebody jump out at them. Statistically speaking, that's less likely to be the way that a person encounters sexual harm.
The greater chance is you go back to somebody's room for a study session and it's somebody that you know. Um, so we have to kind of recalibrate our thinking of, you know, who this happens to, how it happens,
where it happens. Um, now let's talk about the prevalence of sexual violence here in New Jersey because it is staggering. Um, so in New Jersey there are approximately 2.7 million survivors and that's of contact sexual violence.
So that doesn't include sexual harassment like workplace harassment. It doesn't include um stalking. It doesn't include cyber harassment. This is actual sexual contact. Um, so that's one in
every three people about in the state of New Jersey. That means that the chances are that you may know someone, you know, could be your neighbor, it could be someone in your family um that has experienced sexual violence. Over 30 p
37% of women have experienced contact sexual violence and approximately 15% of men have experienced contact sexual violence. And that's important too because we talked about it earlier. Statistically, yes, it's it's higher in women, but we
see that men are impacted too. And the prevalence rates are higher among individuals with historically marginalized and minoritized identities. And when you think of the risk factors for those individuals, whether it's, you
know, that they are more vulnerable, whether it's that they are less likely to be believed, there are a range of factors that impact those prevalence rates. For example, um in the disability community, there are much higher rates
of sexual assault to individuals um with disabilities. And you think for instance of circumstances where unfortunately they may depend on somebody to be a caretaker and their dependence on that
person um may create one of those power dynamics that can be exploited or unfortunately a lot of times individuals with disabilities may be infantilized and therefore not believed um when some when they come forward and say that this
happens to them. No one would do that to you. And these are incredibly stigmatizing um realities that individuals have to endure in addition to the abuse. So prevalence of sexual violence
according to the CDC's youth risk and behavior survey data summary and trends report from 2013 to 2023. So it's fairly current. 13% of female and 4% of male high school students were forced to have
sex or a 9% total. Now, 17 of LGBTQ plus students reported being forced to have sex. And again, that's where you see some of these disparities um influencing those totals. 11% of high school students were forced
to quote unquote do sexual things, including touching, kissing, or being physically forced to have sex. That's 17% female, 6% male, and 20% LGBTQ plus. >> And this is why we appreciate you
bringing us in here because a lot of school districts like to say, "Well, this doesn't happen in our school district. Our students are not engaging in this. Our students are not causing this kind of harm." But when you look statistically, it is happening. And as we said in that previous slide, it can happen anywhere, any place, regardless of, you know, the the median income of
the households in the community or um where you're located next to a major city or not. Like this this happens and it happens in schools across across our state. >> That that data was national data, right? >> This was national. >> Thank you.
>> So sexual violence is best understood within the concept and in the context of consent. So what do we think we mean by the term consent? Someone who is willing to participate in
um or someone so sexual violence. So if somebody is not willing to participate, incapacitated um yeah cannot can unable to consent minor um all of those things would be
the context of that would influence consent. >> Yeah. And the other thing that's important to think about with consent is that you may consent and then decide you know what change my mind. Um and that's
really really important to remember. So when you say is this okay that's not a rhetorical question right? that can change at any point and that's really important and it's a really important things for kids to realize right because
we're not socialized if we look at the media and we'll talk a little bit more about like the media influence later but we look at media representations sometimes I'll watch 80s movies with my kids and I cringe because I think we've
come a little way not as far as we should but there is no representation a lot of times in some of those films of consent. Um, so it's a really important it's it's fundamental. It's rudimentary
to these conversations. >> Feel like your hand was was up for real this time. >> Sorry, I missed your hand. Yes. Explicit. >> Explicit. Some people say enthusiastic. Explicit. Um and
and again ongoing consent >> and not that blanket consent like well you agreed to come to my room what did you think was going to happen they agreed to come to the room >> right not implied that's great >> so understanding consent consent only
exists if it can be freely given so when we talk about those power dynamics Again, you you have to keep those in mind. Can can you know a teenager ever properly consent when we're talking about you
know a teacher or an older adult? No. Because the power dynamic is such where there is a tremendous amount of control that that teacher holds. um it is absolutely inappropriate and and it it
goes against the fundamentals of consent. Um it can be freely withheld, right? Again, you can change your mind at the very last minute and you have still said no. Um and it can be freely revoked uh if individuals change their
mind. So understanding the impacts of sexual violence is really important. The FBI, this is such a staggering reality. The FBI considers sexual assault the second most violent crime, second only to
murder. Just think about that for a minute. The second most violent crime, second only to murder. And when we think of the long-term repercussions of an sexual assault on an individual, the lifetime
impact and you think about that statistic, it really does all make sense, right? So the severities and complexities of the trauma associated with sexual harm are unique. Each individual is different. Not any two
survivors are going to experience um the aftermath of a sexual assault the same way. They may want different things, which is why it's really important not to tell a survivor what to do. You you have to report this. You need to do this. Um because
every survivor responds differently and some may need more time. Um so um additionally the reactions a survivor may have in the midst or immediate aftermath of a sexual assault can be
counterintuitive. They can be unexpected or even surprising to witness even to the survivor. And this is where sometimes unfortunately survivors aren't believed. What do you mean you don't remember? Then it didn't happen or what do you
mean you're this this feels out of sequence? So this you must you must be making it up. A traumatic event, which we'll talk about a little later on, can really impact a person um to the degree that they have a hard time processing
recalling information, putting information in sequential order that it happened, remembering specific details. Um it just can be very hard. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. uh it means that it's really hard for that individual to process such a traumatic
experience. >> So I don't want people to get scared when we say the word neurobiology, but nobody's going to leave here being a neuroscientist, but it can be helpful to think of a trauma reaction as through a neuro neurobiological lens. Um, and when you're thinking about like how somebody
who's made a a report, somebody who has said that they've been sexually harmed, how they reacted in the immediate aftermath or while it was actually happening, um, we can look at that and it can seem very counterintuitive like that's not what I would do if I was in that situation. It doesn't seem reasonable to think that this person
would would respond or not respond in that way. And what we want folks to leave here with is understanding it is actually reasonable if you understand just a little bit of how the brain responds to trauma. So you may recall back to your anatomy and physiology days dissecting a
frog maybe in biology class um learning about the the systems of the brain. The lyic system is our basic some people call them the lizard almonds in the brain. Um they are the part that we share with like all invertebrates from fish to reptiles to birds to ourselves
and they're the parts that have kept us alive through eons of evolutionary history. Um it includes the amydala which controls sensations of emotions such as fear, anxiety and anger. The hippocampus which is crucial in forming memory. The phalamus which pro processes sensory information like sights and
sounds and smells. Um and all of these get activated and triggered when somebody is experiencing a trauma when somebody perceives a threat. Also what happens is that your prefrontal cortex shuts down. So your ability to kind of like choose and rationalize your behaviors starts to
shut down while your primal part of the brain activates to keep you alive. So when somebody is has that going on with those systems of their brain, they might not be able to recall as Denise said certain details. You might ask them like, "Well, when did this happen? Was it between home room and first period or
second period and third period?" And they're like, "Well, I was walking through the hallway and I knew it was chicken patty day cuz I could smell that coming out of the cafeteria." Um, and you're like, "Well, I asked you what time it happened." You're like, "Well, I remembered I was wearing the shoes that squeak a lot when I walked
down the hallway." They're remembering very finite and clear details that don't seem relevant to the questions you're asking. And a lot of folks will interpret that as somebody lacking credibility because they're like, "Well, they're evading my questions. I'm asking them a very clear question about what time of day this happened and they're not giving me the details. So, it's
important to recognize that as a sign of trauma rather than somebody being evasive or somebody trying to be deceptive. Um, and the other thing too is when somebody experiences like the fight, flight or freeze response, they might not recognize why they
responded the way they did um so they might see it as very counterintuitive themselves or just they they don't understand it. So, how many people have heard of fight or flight? How many people have heard of freeze in that? How many people have heard of
fawn? So, fight and flight are very kind of self-explanatory. You're either fighting something off or you're running away from it. Freeze, you kind of become immobile. And I don't know if anyone ever watches Shark Week. Been watching it for over 40 years. Ever
see what happens when you turn a great white shark onto its back in the water? It goes still. It becomes docile. This apex predator cannot move. You can draw blood from it. You can take measurements. You can pull a tooth from it. And it's just going to lay there. It
can't control it. It's called tonic immobility. And sometimes people when we experience a trauma, we go into that same state of tonic immobility. If it can happen to Jaws, local Madawan celebrity. Um, if it can happen to Jaws, it can happen to people in that
situation. And you will hear survivors say, "I don't know. I wanted to fight them off, but I couldn't. I don't know why. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't make my mouth work. And they question and judge themselves and blame themselves for what happened to them because they think they should have stopped it. No, their body just went into this state that they can't control.
And then fawn is, we hear this from survivors, too, where it's you're almost placating the person that's causing you harm. It's like, I don't know why I did this, but I was rubbing their back saying it's okay. The whole time they were harming me, I was telling them it was okay. I was reassuring and and
soothing them. Um, and these are not conscious decisions. They're reflexes. And we might think we know how we would survive. But if that lion came alive right now, we don't know how we would respond. It would jump out of there. It would be
like this high at the shoulders. It would be staring us down, hungry, snarling. And some of us think, well, I I I'd grab a chair and I' I fight it off. No, you might grab that chair and run the other way while still holding the chair. Some of us might freeze. Some of us might actually try to fight it off. And some of us might be like, "Oh,
I've got some beef jerky. Are you hungry, little guy? Like, let me try to feed you and calm you down." And why these evolved and survive in us is because as a group walking across the savannah, depending on the temperament of that tiger, that lion, some of these responses would serve most of us well.
If I run, that tiger, that lion's uh predatory instinct might kick in and he might go after me first because I ran. If I stay still, he might be injured. He's like, "Oh, easy meal. You froze. I'm going to pick you off on YouTube." If you try to fight it off, it might be protecting its young and that might be like trigger a greater aggression. So,
we evolved, our brains evolved to keep us alive as a collective, not to provide testimony, not to share the experiences of our trauma in a chronological way, but to keep us alive. So when you're hearing reactions from people that just don't seem to make sense, keep that in mind that our brains evolved responding
to threats in a way that has benefited all of us. We're all here and all of us, whatever a reasonable person might do, needs to take into account all those various responses to trauma. >> Okay. Okay. Just just curious about the phone. So, are you saying, if I'm understanding correctly, are you saying
it's it's sort of the victim's sense of that they did something wrong to bring this upon them in some ways and that they're trying to rationalize it? Is that is that a fair is that a fair way of characterizing it partially? I mean, I know there's probably other ways of of
>> Yeah, it's a great question. Uh, so sometimes based on that initial response, a survivor might say, "I should have stopped it." Maybe not that I brought it on, but I should have stopped it. Now, the things that could make a survivor start to think, "I did I should have made better decisions before
it are how people typically think of sexual violence prevention, which is you're going to hold your keys like brass knuckles when you go through a dark parking lot. You're going to make sure you have pepper spray. You're not going to go to a party alone. If you go to the party, you're not going to accept a drink. Um, you're going to be mindful of what you wear." All these things that we think we're telling people to do to
keep themselves safe, which starts with the presumption like you're going to be harmed, so you need to do whatever you can to reduce your risk. We're going to talk a little bit more about like prevention from a different model because when a survivor has who has heard all of those messages throughout their life then experiences harm, they
start to go through that checklist and say, "Well, yeah, I get I I know this person is somebody I grew up with, but I shouldn't have walked home from the library with them or I shouldn't have gone up to their room or I shouldn't invited." They start to second guess what they did because they've been told that the responsibility for preventing
harm lies with the person who had been harmed. instead of flipping that narrative to it should fall on the person who caused the harm and let's look at those risk factors. So great question and we'll we'll get a little bit more into that in the prevention and what Rob has just been talking about
are the impacts immediately in the aftermath of a sexual assault. But what we know is the impacts are very longlasting. Right? This is not something that somebody can
just brush off. And sometimes when you are addressing the needs of a survivor, the instinct may be you just want them to feel better, right? But you have to be really careful not to minimize a person who has experienced an assault
because the trauma is so complex and can be so longasting. Um so some of those impacts are social right it is obvious that after an assault a person would lose trust especially say for instance
it's they were assaulted by someone they knew which happens as we said earlier very often um lack of intimacy because obviously now that experience has been tainted by something that um is the
antithesis of what it should um boundaries. When your boundaries, like imagine like how great of a violation of your boundaries of sexual assault is. And think of how we navigate
just our daily lives and all the boundaries that we want to maintain to keep ourselves safe and happy. um and how triggered um now basic interactions where we may feel, you know, somebody
wants to hug us and now we don't want to be touched. That's a boundary that feels violated all of a sudden. Our mental health, right? Anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder,
these are all very real responses. um especially when we think of you know what Rob was just saying about people aren't believed and how that can um exacerbate what is already such a terrible experience
and these then have systemic impacts financial vocational education think of a student for instance who experiences an assault are they going to want to come to school if that happened, you
know, if the person who assaulted them was another student or a teacher, of course not. They're not going to want to come to the school. They're not going to want to see that person. Also, are they going to be able to do their homework and focus on studying when their mind of
course is elsewhere? So, their education um can be at risk. Um, for somebody in a work setting who has experienced sexual assault or sexual harassment, not wanting to go to that job or even if
they didn't experience it at that job, just do you have the wherewithal after an assault to get out of bed and go to a job when you're so overwhelmed um and are trying to process your trauma. So thereby, there are financial impacts to
this too. Uh the CDC estimates that the lifetime cost of sexual assault to the individual is over 120,000 and that statistic is from the from some years ago. So when you think of inflation and
the cost of living it's probably even much higher than that. that is to the individual because of things like you know an interrupted education uh a job loss um and other factors. The cost of um
seeking help which by the way the services across our membership are 100% free and confidential. Um but for anyone legal fees for example can be very expensive. There are pro pro bono
services out there. Um, but a lot of folks who end up wanting to go down a legal path and pay for their own attorneys, very expensive. Um, physical health, right? Poor sleep. I mean, I know when I don't get a good night's
sleep that I don't feel great. And that's just one good night's sleep, right? If this is it, you may have nightmares, may just have a hard time falling asleep. substance misuse because that's a way out for people, right? Could be a distraction, unfortunately.
Changes in appetite. So, these these are all ways that this event has this ripple effect across the person's lifetime. So, impacts are not only experienced by those who directly experience sexual violence. And that's really important to
know, too. When we started this training, Rob read a statement early on about taking care of ourselves and, you know, watching our nervous systems and possibly feeling triggered and it being okay if you needed to step out if any of
the information was too triggering because this is a triggering topic. It could be that you know of somebody who's experienced an assault. It could be that somebody has experienced an assault themselves. Or it could just be that as human beings, we care about what happens
to other people and are hurt um and upset when we see someone suffer. So bystanders and observers um can be very triggered by um seeing or witnessing um an experience of an assault. Family
members because this is your loved one. So of course this is impacting you. um and those who receive disclosures or have to invest in investigate complaints. Um it may be your job but it doesn't mean that it's not um traumatic.
U we have in our field we do um u kind of like vicarious trauma trainings and sessions for our membership. um because our colleagues are in these fields and they're they're
speaking to survivors day in and day out and we know that they need self-care and they need to be able to step away. Um so these are all important things for us to be conscious of as part of a school community. >> And I'm realizing I should have added a
bullet to this community members as well. There could be people that were not in the near vicinity of this, but they find out about it that this impacted somebody in their school. And that can trigger and be very traum traumatizing for folks in the community at large. >> And when we're talking about this, what we're really talking about is what we
call vicarious trauma. And vicarious trauma is the emotional and psychological impact experienced by individuals who are not directly traumatized, but who are indirectly exposed to the trauma of others. And as
members of a board that reviews and evaluates cases involving sexual violence and m misconduct, it is important for you to be mindful of that impact. Um because it could happen to you, right? Um, and it's it's important for you to realize it can happen to your
colleagues in these spaces and to just kind of take care of yourselves, take care of each other uh when uh in the unfortunate instance that this this comes up because it can be difficult for people who are not the survivor
themselves to also navigate. >> So, we said we'd talk we'd start to reframe the the paradigm of of sexual violence prevention a little bit. So again, we're not going to turn you into sexual violence prevention coordinators, but uh hopefully it helps to understand and also where some of the traditional
approaches that we look at and have come to rely on to prevent sexual violence might be flawed in some ways. Like we were talking before, they can cause somebody to internalize the blame for what happened to them. So our view of sexual violence is that we want to prevent the harm before it even occurs. If somebody has to pull out their pepper
spray and fight off an offender, they're already being harmed by that attack. whether the person is able to successfully complete a sexual assault or not, that caused harm and trauma to that individual. Um, so we want to prevent it before it even gets to that point, before somebody even needs to take one of these risk reduction approaches. We also affirm that sexual
violence as a public health issue is 100% preventable. And I'm curious how that feels. I see some smirks. I see some heads. I see some eyebrows raised. Um, so how does that land for us to say at NJA that sexual violence is 100% preventable?
you look like you're going to say something. So, I don't think it's going to happen in our lifetime. Um, I think, as Denise said, we probably have job security for a while, even though we really want to put ourselves out of business. Um, but because it's a behavior, unlike other
public health issues like lung disease or cancer or Alzheimer's, where you can take all the lifestyle choices you can to try to prevent that from happening, and you might still develop one of those because of a genetic predisposition. When it's somebody's behavior, we can change that.
I grew up in the last quarter of the 1900s. It's a long time ago, before the turn of the century. Back then, people didn't always wear seat belts. Does anyone remember that time where you'd get in, you'd be riding the back of the pickup truck, sliding around like with the picnic table back there? Um, but
now, how many people c can you even get into your car without your muscle memory reaching for that seat belt and clicking it in place? We have changed behavior dramatically from the time I was a child to now. The other thing I look at is like anyone who who's a dog owner and you walk your dog and your dog does its
business on the sidewalk, you probably clean it up. They sell all kinds of products to do that. Now, that wasn't always the case, but we do that now not even to help ourselves, but to help the next person who's walking down that sidewalk. We can change behaviors. We can change these social expectations of behavior. I look at those as examples that we can do
this, but there's a lot to overcome. So this video kind of shows how you can start having prevention messaging with young children without >> hearing a lot about sexual violence in the news. It's really important that we're finally talking
about it, but it can be overwhelming. So let's discuss some good news. Sexual violence is 100% preventable. The reality is that we all want to create and live in a better, safer world. So,
how do we get there? First, let's recognize that we each have a part to play in asking for and receiving consent in our day-to-day interactions. >> Can I play next to you? >> Yes. >> And it's never too early to start or to encourage that behavior with the young
people in your life. Every day, we have the power to model positive behavior. >> May I hold your hand? No, thank you. >> That's okay. >> Behavior that will help create a world free from sexual violence. We can show today's children the steps
they can take to create a safer tomorrow. To grow into caring adults who respect people's choices. >> I thought I wanted to go down the slide, but I changed my mind. >> Simple things like not forcing friends to do anything they don't want to do can
help create a world free from sexual violence. Think how the world can be. We can do this. We can create a safer garden state. >> Go to njcasa.org today to learn more.
>> I forget how cute that is. >> I know. I never get sick of it. >> Um, one of the first projects Denise worked on when she joined MJ classes. So, kudos to Denise and and a great consultant. Um, so what that showed is like we we don't always do a good job teaching children about consent, but it
would be really easy to and they don't have to talk about it in a sexual context. Um, like that example of somebody climbing up to the top of the slide and deciding, I don't want to go down. And instead of being pushed down the slide, they're allowed to change their mind. I already committed I walked to the top of the stairs. And somebody could say, well, you walked to the top
of the stairs, you're going all the way. But how does that same dynamics manifest when when youth and adults are starting to navigate sexual dynamics and why it's so important to to address things early on? Um, lifelong New Jersey residents in here
might remember a certain death trap up in North Jersey called Action Park. Uh, there was a ride there. There was a spectacle there called the Tarzan Swing where you waited online for hours. You then got to the front. You held on to this rope and only then realized you didn't have the body the upper body strength to hold yourself
before plunging into a pool of water and your the the line of people became spectators egging people on. And if you tried to change your mind when you got there, you're ridiculed, insulted, called all sorts of salty New Jersey slang words. Um, and it was like, no, you you waited online, you got there,
you're going, you're not going to be you're not going to wuss out on this now. So again, this whole social experiment that was action park showed like how badly we understand consent and how we try to coers people into doing things with threats or mocking and things like that. Um, and these are
things that we can deprogram and start to teach different messages as early as on the playground at early ages, >> which is why it's so great to work at a school, right? because you're working with kids that are still very receptive
and impressionable and um who can be receptive to these mindset changes. Um so what we're trying to do when we talk about shifting pro uh approaches to prevention is preventing victimization moving towards preventing uh
perpetration. And again, what we're looking at is the difference of, you know, the self-defense C classes and the pepper spray and the whistles. It is not to say that those things are bad. It is to say that you are then meeting a
situation already at a point of crisis versus taking it many, many steps back where nothing has occurred and just reinforcing positive behaviors. Why is it so wrong for a child to change their mind and not want to go down the
slide? No harm done, right? Absolutely, you can. You don't have to. Or the boy who asked to hold the girl's hand, no thank you. That should be enough. Right? So, it's it's about taking those opportunities much earlier on in safe
settings and in in learning settings where you can model that good behavior um and change those um those practices that have become sort of socialized and ingrained in us over the years. So this
is the sexual violence continuum and you can see that at the top you have like physical um so that's assault and unwanted touch and then in between you have verbal and again we talked earlier about cat calls and sexist jokes and
media representation and then at the very bottom is where you have those attitudes and beliefs right sexism which you know creates this binary of you know often oftent times men are better than
women, right? They are smarter. Uh they are stronger and all the ways that that can um impact and influence how boys and girls see themselves in relationship to each other. Uh racism, right? the way
that we can um exploit people because of their backgrounds or think less of them in a way that can again create these dynamics where it uh it can become
easier to see that person um in a way where you're not um treating them like you would your own your your own relatives or your own friends or something of that nature. Right? So these are the foundational um
issues that we have to address. Sexism, racism, homophobia. These are the foundational issues that we have to address so that we create caring, loving um individuals who are going to then be
respectful of everyone around them. >> I grew up watching James Bond movies with my dad. James Bond and like the Shan Connory, Roger Morers and he was not a great example like the sexism, the the jokes and cat calls and comments and all that and then the actual physical
assaults. Look at Goldfinger when he is trying to seduce the protagonist of, you know, Goldfinger's right-hand woman whose name is Galore. Enough said. But he wrestles her to the ground in a barn. She resists him, resists him, resists him. He finally forces a kiss on her and then she melts in his arms. Oh,
James. And then she betrays the villain to support him. What message did that teach me as a little Rob sitting at his dad's knee on the couch watching this movie? These are the attitudes, the verbal, and the physical all kind of in one example. And we like thisam this
this illustration because if you can chip away at the base, like any pyramid, if you chip away at the base like the sand castle at the beach and the water coming, it's going to wash the whole thing away. So if we can address those early on, they don't turn into those overt forms of harm. And the beauty of it is that it also um just creates
happier, healthier environments, too. So, not only are you addressing the problem of sexual violence before it occurs, but you're also addressing so many other issues um that are caused by these biases. So, we can start teaching
consent at an early age to make consent the norm. And that's really important. Um, so what are things that undermine consent? Perfect example, give your grandmother a kiss, right? Like, of course it's nice, right? It's grandma.
But some kids just don't really like a lot of, and I I'm a mother of three. I have one hugger, one person who freely gives hugs, and the other two who are delightful children, and I'm not saying that because they're mine. They really are delightful people. >> They are delightful. Fantastic. I mean,
my one child does not really enjoy hugs and I respect that, right? I don't hug her. I tell her I love her. I express what is expressed through a hug in other ways. I'll leave her little notes. Um,
but I just know and I'm and I'm not disappointed. I don't think that it means she doesn't love me. It's just not who she is. Right? So we have to be really sensitive to the fact that children may love that physical contact with an
adult, a grandparent, a parent, or maybe they don't. And that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them, and it doesn't mean that they should be forced. Um, another example, girls can't wear spaghetti straps or short skirts, right? Then they're asking for it. Um, and again, that that comes to that sexism
piece, right? um and the placing the onus and the responsibility on the person who who is harmed, right? Um posting pictures of family and children online without their
consent. Um and just another basic example like again my kids are have never loved you know me posting pictures of them on social media so I just don't right but it teaches children a sense of
autonomy. It respects their boundaries and in doing so it reinforces how good that feels and how they may want to then respect the boundaries of others. And with the second example, when you think about how school dress codes are often enforced, often it's the person
who is deemed like, oh well, you're wearing something too revealing. It's disruptive to the class. Therefore, you're the one who's going to be disciplined instead of the people that are being disruptive because of what somebody's wearing being held accountable. It's like, oh, you're not responsible for your behaviors because of what that person was wearing. Again,
when we think about sexual dynamics, how problematic that message is and how consistently that's often conveyed to youth going through educational systems. >> So, consent education for youth. So, focus on teaching youth how to seek
consent versus how to give consent. Foster the development of empathy. Again, going back to that pyramid, racism, sexism, homophobia, if we're raising kids who are empathetic and caring, they're going to be taught to
love their classmates, their friends, right? To not um resort to these biases and instead love and learn uh from individuals. Um prepare youth to respond to rejection.
Right. the little boy in the video who didn't have his handheld, right? We have to teach kids that it's okay. We've come to a point where like everybody needs to win, right? Like that mindset. Everybody's right. Um and children need
to accept rejection and disappointment. It's it's not the end of the world. They need to be supported. It could be disappointing for sure, but teaching them how to navigate early on that it's okay to be rejected then creates
opportunities as they grow older to not uh overlook a rejection and take advantage of someone. Uh address disparaging comments. They're stuck up. They're approved. Um again, that's that
bottom tier. like we can start early on to just reinforce how to be kind. I know it sounds really trivial, but it's really foundational. How to be kind. Um how to be a good classmate, how to be a good
friend, how to be a good neighbor. Um and all of those um being reinforced over and over again in school, at home, um in other social settings, in sports helps to kind of
build up um that understanding over time. So equip youth with vocabulary and ability to communicate with partners, right? Going back to the consent example, right? that and the idea that consent can can be changed like you
could just decide no, right? Make sure that kids know that they need to ask permission. Uh you don't just take something, right? Um in the example of the little girl going down the slide, in the first image, the little boy decides to push her. In the second image, uh
which is what we hope for and want, he lets her come back down, right? Um so those are good communication skills that are foundational. uh reinforce the need to always make uh to always seek consent not just initially. Partners can change
their minds, right? So when kids are playing sports or when they're doing an activity in school, just kind of reinforcing like maybe this person wanted to play the game initially and maybe they got tired or maybe something
happened and they're not kind of into it for whatever reason anymore. Maybe they don't feel well. It's okay to change our minds, right? So, that's an another important lesson that can be reinforced in many different ways. Um, particularly in a school setting,
and we'll kind of go through this quickly, but responding to disclosures to from survivors, just some key points to bear in mind. Um, listen and affirm, hear what they're saying before we start interjecting with a whole bunch of questions.
When asking questions, try to avoid the ones that maybe are not serving a purpose to kind of gain more information. Avoid the victim blaming we said. Don't start asking questions about what were you wearing? Why did you go there? Why did you make this decision? Start asking what happened and what they can remember without starting to impose
what you think they should have done. Um, be very familiar. You're all schoolboard members. Um, we're not Title N experts. We we connected folks with the title N experts um who could maybe give more information on this or or your your attorneys, but be familiar with
what your school and state policies are and regulations on your role as mandated reporter. Are you designated by Title 9 as a mandated reporter as a confidential uh report? Can you be somebody that somebody can disclose to you and it doesn't have to go any further than there or are you obligated then to elevate it and make a report uh in a
Title N complaint regardless of what the person telling you might want to happen? uh you should know what that is before you're in that situation to be prepared and you should be able to communicate that to somebody who might be making a disclosure to you so that they can make a decision if they want to disclose to you that informed consent. That's
another example of consent that they can choose to tell you fully understanding what the ramifications of disclosing this to you are. Um and you should be able to regardless of all the other stuff be able to link to external resources. As we said when we kicked off, you're very fortunate that you have three great programs in this county who
are specialized in working with folks um who have experienced sexual violence. You also have a lot of other resources. I started my career down the road at CPC behavioral healthcare over under 34 Aine Counseling Center. Um they're great at dealing with a range of mental health issues. Sexual violence, as we said before, is a very special form
specialized form of trauma, but you should know what resources are out there for folks that might need services. And you should question now and with this information to think about what you can do differently if you've never received a sexual a report of sexual
violence. What you might do if you ever experienced that or if you have to think about how you might respond differently the next time. Both as an individual, as a board, as a school district, as a community. Because all of those are different layers of response to somebody who makes
a disclosure. We just started a little late, so I hope we didn't go too far over our 60 minutes. >> You were right. You were right on time. >> Almost like we know what we're doing. >> Thank you. >> But it's open to questions. We covered a lot. We tried to kind of breeze through some of it, but we're here if you want
to ask additional questions without I know you've got an exciting budget presentation, the third or fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh one. But >> let me let me see if any of the board members here have any questions for you before we um wrap up. I I do have one question and I think
it's more for our attorney than it would be for you. Um are board members mandatory reporters? >> That's something I would deal with close session with you guys. >> Thank you. >> It would be attorney client priv um advice. So he would have to deal with it. he would deal with it in the context
of um executive session >> because it would come with an explanation. >> So I I do want to thank you. Um you have offered us at least at least offered me a lens and this type of education and awareness that I did not have within the
educational community. I had it in the context of workforce and being an employee within a company or an organization but not within the educational community and focusing more on the the the education piece of the child and that was very helpful for me
to put that into context. So I do want to thank you. It also it it does create sort of um questions in my mind to go back and look at our policies to make sure that we are in fact have the the best policies we can have to protect our
students, our our staff, our community in this regard. So, thank you very much for that. I appreciate that. >> And we appreciate you having us in and your commitment to addressing this this topic, this this issue with with care and consideration. Thank you.
>> And I just want to say, you know, from a school perspective, when you think of, you know, social emotional learning and so many of the foundational tools that schools use um to introduce concepts um to to children um are utterly aligned
with everything that we're saying. So really, I know that this is a lot of new content, but if you look at it through the lens of what as educators, I know many of you are already doing and as as uh as schoolboard members are already
doing. Um it really complements all of that work. Um and it just stren strengthens it really. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, we are going to continue with our agenda. >> Mr. Cohen, I'd like to um enter a point
of order and make a motion um this training. Uh I want to just thank uh Valentina Mendes and Annette who is here with us tonight as well as Annette Seawart. Um, as we all know, as a community knows, this training comes on the heels and was proposed um after
a an incident that happened within our school board. Um, the purpose of this training was to reflect and become informed so we can better serve our community. I want the community to know that Mr. Chad Hyatt came 10 minutes after the training was supposed to end
and Mrs. Adidi Gandhi did not come to this training which we've known about for quite some time. Um >> Mrs. Jenowski also came after I came. >> In that for the record in saying that um Mr. Hyatt has been not only involved in
a text message where my breasts were discussed um and did nothing to stop it, report it um or bring attention to it. As well as making comments such as, "You look horrible in those photos. You're everything that's wrong in this world.
You're a stain on our community. All l lending to every single thing that we heard, especially in the pyramid of verbal um discourse, attitudes, and beliefs. It causes hatred um and also a target as well as creates an environment
for a victim that's not able to serve the community um and has to kind of sit amongst this every day. Um Mrs. Gandhi uh had immediate family involved in those same exchanges. To not show up to this training is not just signaling,
it's doubling down. Um we learned today exactly what to do and how to act. Um and not coming today is a complete dereliction of duty and uh it breaks the oath that we committed to our children, to our community, and to families in
this district. If you cannot attend se sexual assault training and sexual harassment training, how are you going to serve children? God forbid this becomes an issue. We've seen many issues in this district. We discuss many topics both publicly and privately. This is a
training that every single person on this board should have been at and some on this board have proven that they really did need. So, I would like to enter a motion um and enter into a vote of no confidence for board members Chad Hyatt and Adidi Gandhi that they cannot serve this community if they are not
equipped to become knowledgeable and learn about what we need to do to best serve the children that we claim to protect. >> Okay, just as a point of order, um that should be under new business. So, can we bring that up under new business, please? >> No, I I may not be in attendance under
new business. So I would like to have the point of order right now and enter a motion and a vote of no confidence. Okay. So with with due respect um according to our attorney that's a out of order motion that should be done under new business. And I apologize if
you're you're not going to be here and can't bring it up then, but someone else could bring it up for you, but we'd have to take that under new business. >> We've had motions made after uh agenda items. This is a listed agenda item on our agenda. We are in order. We have a
quorum. We took attendance. We should be able to enter a motion after an agenda item. >> I I don't I don't mean to belabor this and I wouldn't want to make you um restate your motion again later. um in the meeting, but this was an agenda item
only for um training purposes. It wasn't for action purposes. >> Can you show me where that's noted on the agenda? >> There's no roll call vote listed after it. >> We've had many motions entered throughout my tenure that didn't have a
roll call. It's an agenda item on our agenda. Uh, I would like my motion to stand and I'd like to enter a vote of no confidence for board members Adidi Gandhi and Chad Hyatt. >> This is your call as board president. >> Again, I I think I I understand your
point, but again, it's new business and we're going to take it under new business. We'll move on. >> We'll move on. Thank you. >> Okay. We'll move on. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. I would like to at this point I would like I
would like to at this point I would like to at this point I would I would like to at this point out that at last meeting we had um recognized and celebrated the career
of a individual who works here at >> I don't understand how you can just move on so quickly. >> Excuse me. I I I don't understand that as as a leader of this community who's taken an oath for >> I did not shut you down. I simply said >> we just learned how how >> Thank you very much. This is
>> so basically everything we just learned in that in that training. You're now trying to silence someone. >> I'm not silencing you at all. I'm just asking you to respect the order of business. The community knows I'm asking you protecting children and women and the community. >> I'm asking you to respect the order of
business and this be on the new business. If you're not satisfied with that, I apologize that you're not happy with that, but that is the order of business. Thank you. >> I would like to go on. >> We have we had last meeting celebrated the success, the career of an
individual, Miss Liz Walsh, um, and recognized her for her her her many years of service here. I think at that point it was 31 years. Um, and we all had some some wonderful comments that were made about her both from the community as well as from board members.
Um but it's with sadness and deep sadness that I need to announce that uh Miss W Miss Walsh had passed recently. She was a dedicated member of our district for over 31 years. She joined here in 1995. She faithfully served as the
administrative assistant to the business administrator supporting generations of district leaders with professionalism and care and that's also includes board members. Um, Liz was known for her warmth, her storytelling, and lasting relationships that she built across this
district, and she will be deeply missed by many. We expend on behalf of the board in the district our heartfelt condolences to her family and her loved ones. So, please join me at this moment in sort of remembering Miss Walsh with a moment of silence.
Thank you. >> Moving on. Mr. Balone, you have announcements. >> Can I can I just ask a quick question because about the order of the agenda? Um, in the past, like when things have to be changed on the agenda, whether it's a number that needs to be changed or an employees name that has to be
changed, you just change it. Can you make an can you make a motion to add a roll call to that agenda item or no? Can that be done? Like can I make a motion to add a roll call vote to that agenda item or no?
>> There's no real action to take with respect to that. Um, I mean, I guess you could theoretically move to accept the training, but that doesn't really >> there's no action to be to be taken. You
received the training, >> Mr. Balone. >> I don't have any announcements. >> Thank you. Next item is communications. >> None. >> Thank you. HIV report, Mr. Bologn. >> Yes, this is the HIV report from the
time period April 17, 2026 through April 30th, 2026. There were three incidents reported. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is our meeting dates. That's our next meeting is Tuesday, May 19th, which would be a regular meeting. And the following meeting after that will be
Tuesday, May June 16th, which will also be a regular meeting. Uh at our last meeting, we had um voted as a board to approve the minutes for the March 24th meeting. Um we are going to need to um reapprove the amended minutes of March
24th. Um there was an error in one of the numbers. Could you like to please point that out? >> Yeah, there was an error in in the minutes >> in the minutes. in the minutes >> where a number was represented as an eight >> an eight instead of a nine >> and it was corrected and I I
>> Okay, so with that a motion please to accept the minutes. >> Miss Carrero, I need a second. Mr. Hyatt, can I have a roll call, please? >> Yes. Thank you. Mrs. Palumo. Um Mrs. Carrero. >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Mrs. Gandhi is not here. Mr. Hyatt. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Jenowski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lansonsky. >> Yes. >> Dr. Msawitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Cohen.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. >> We are up to the part of our agenda which is the public hearing of our 2026 2027 school year budget. Okay. Okay. Good evening. Can you hear me?
Okay. Good evening everybody. So, tonight is our official public hearing for the 2627 school year budget. This is a culmination of many many months of discussions with administration um district leadership and board and
then public presentations. So today is our our budget hearing. So we just want to reiterate that you know there were goals we wanted to to make sure we met when developing the
budget. Obviously, academics through all through all of the aspects, special ed, gened, intervention, enrichment, curriculum, everything, everything that's important as a board and as a
district. We wanted to represent in this budget to the community. We wanted to be fiscally responsible, efficiently, use our resources to maximize our budgeted funds. Um we are very proud of the budget that we have we have worked hard
to to present to everyone safe well-maintained facilities. Obviously school the academics are very important but it's also very important for the safety of our staff and students to have our facilities well maintained.
And then transportation obviously we transport everybody in the district. Um we don't have any walkers. We have no courtesy busing. So for the 4600 students we have, it's important that this is a priority.
We started this budget trip back in December with our f first budget discussion and then we went month by one, month by month, two budget presentations um a month. We did it departmental
to make sure that we we kind of hit everything. And we all the budget presentations are on our board website. We are now we we had the preliminary adoption in March after we received our state aid numbers and now we are we are
at the final adoption. The challenges there were so many this year. Um obviously the big one health benefits. State health benefits is projected to go up 33%. That's the driving factor in our budget increase this year. Um the 2% tax levy cap
obviously um we recommend taking it. It's important to maintain the district, but the health benefits created us to have to exceed that cap. We'll talk about that revenue and expenditures this year in
our general fund $109 million. That's fun to see. The local tax levy is $96 million of this. 88% of our district budget is paid for by the local taxpayer.
It's a large number. State aid is 8 million. It's about 7%. And then there's various other other funding sources. But as you can see, the local tax levy is is a large is a large
piece. And we know we understand as a board and as a district, but we our job is to educate your children and we want to make sure that we're doing it the best way we can. Tax levy increase of 2% and then the
health benefit waiver is an additional 5.77%. Which comes out to 7.77%. Here are expenditures. As you can see, salaries make up $63 million of the $109
million. Salaries and benefits make up 80 almost 83% of the budget. General administration 2.3 million technology close to a million. security half a million B&G is 8.3 million
transportation 2.7 special services and curriculum is 3.4 and our school based based budgets are 700,000. I wanted to show you this slide because I want you to understand you know I think as a district we do a very good
job at cost containment. We really do. Um, I wanted to put some comparison data for you. In Marorrow, this is the budgetary cost per pupil. We're at 19,205. The state average for like districts is 20,589.
We're the 23rd lowest out of 73. Administrative cost per pupil, we're at 1947. The average is 1960. We're the 25th lowest out of 73. Studentto admin ratio
the state average is 145.8 students per administrator. Marorrow is at 179 the eighth lowest. So that shows that we our administrators work hard. Faculty administration rate ratio state
average 16.3. Marorrow is at 19.3 10th lowest. So I think that this helps to demonstrate that um you know we we try to focus our efforts on the classroom
as much as we can and not as much of administration. I just want to talk about property taxes. Marorrow is an eye district. Um it's considered a wealthier district in the state. wanted to do a comparison of the other
eye districts in Mammoth County to show you with the average taxes. Um you could see here the average tax bill in Marboro, this is for 2025 was 12778. That's relatively low compared to other
eye districts. I'm not saying it's low for you everybody. I understand. But for other eye districts, I think Marvot does a good job. And the other ones on this side are just other districts that we've been compared to in the past that people talk about.
So for next year, we're estimating the average home in Marboro is assessed the assessed value, not the for sale value. The assessed value is about $500,000. The average increase next year is going to be about $389
for that or $390 for a $500,000 house. Um that's with the 2% and the h the health benefit waiver. So all in all, I think that
we have the district has has demonstrated and we've tried to demonstrate the importance of of taking the health benefit waiver this year. We understand the impact to the public. Um but I think that
we have tried, you know, to we've tried to make cuts. We've cut over $2 million in other reductions just to get to where we are through attrition, through retirements. Um, Mr. Balone has done he he tries to
foresee the future and he not foresee the future, but he tries to take advantage of things that might change with your crystal ball, right? He tries to take advantage of things that come through to save for the next year. Constantly looking forward. We're
constantly constantly trying to get to where we're not going to be in a position where where we have to close a school or have to do anything like that. That's what's important here. Um and this is why we are recommending this tax levy and this
tax increase this year. So if you have any questions, please let me know. But um we appreciate everything and all your support this year. Chris, do you know um we know what our increase is. Do you know what that would
be with combined with Freehill Regional and the township? What we're looking at? >> I don't I'm sorry. I don't know. >> That's okay. Okay. >> Any other questions for Miss >> So, this is a generalized question and I know it can't be addressed really tonight, but >> is your mic on?
>> It is. >> Okay. what are we doing to address the uh universal healthc care benefits because that is such a strain. Um I know there's a lot of conversation at the state level and I know a lot of districts are pulling out of that program. >> Um can we start conversations now in
preparation for next budget season? Um I know it's a very >> enduring process um to just explore some options and see what kind of things we can do >> um to pull out of that because it it's draining our budget. Absolutely. We
we've been trying. We twice a year we have our insurance broker. We pull our claims experience from the state and they shop us around to see what they can do. Um our claims experience unfortunately
is has been um very very high. Um and it has not gone down at all, but we're hoping we're going to pull it again in July and continue to to explore it. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> You're welcome.
>> Any other questions for Miss Jenowski? >> I'm sorry, Jalinsky. >> It's the Jay's. >> It was the Jay's. I apologize. >> Uh on that uh staffing and efficiency slide? >> Yes. >> Um
>> do you mind just clarifying that um what what these numbers are truly telling us? Uh from what I'm gathering is that we do have more students per our overall administration and which means that we are I guess um >> I mean
>> handling a lot more as compared to the average. >> Yes. >> That's exactly right. We have less less administrators um than maybe some other districts similar to us >> which generally saves cost. >> I mean it saves costs. I mean that's you
know it definitely saves costs. It it allows us to put our resources more into the classroom. >> Okay. >> And for student direct, you know, directly for the students. >> Thank you. >> My last question.
>> You could go ahead. I already went once. >> Follow up on your question. Following up on on Danielle's question, >> are we are we restricted by one? We have insurance broker record, right? We deal with our insurance broker. We restrict it by only getting quotes from our insurance broker or can we go out and
and go to the field and you know >> will they shop it through all the different >> shop it I get it right. >> Can we go to more than one insurance broker to see if there's a a better deal out there for somebody else? Are we allowed to do that? Are we only going to have one insurance broker of record? >> If you were to appoint another broker of
record, >> who's your broker now? >> Um Brown and Brown. >> Brown and Brown. um not to um you know advertise for Brown and Brown, but they do a pretty good job at chopping things up. If you were interested in going to a different broker, you it's certainly something you could look into in a point. >> But you can't do more than one broker at
a time. >> It I don't know that it operationally works out that well, >> but I can share with you with the board after the next round of of shopping, you know, what it's looking like and
what they're actually looking at. Uh, I don't know if you can answer this. Do we offer um health benefit waiverss? >> Yes. >> Yes, we do. >> We do. And that that must save a lot of money. >> Yes. I mean, unfortunately, because we're in state health benefits, um, if
somebody else's health benefits or state health benefits, the state doesn't allow you to take the waiver or to pay out a waiver. But it absolutely, I mean, does allow people. We do have a lot of waivers. So, if you have two teachers in
the same district in this district who are married, they each have to take the health benefits because they're both covered under >> they they don't have to. They just wouldn't get a waiver. >> They wouldn't get a waiver. >> Yeah. >> Okay. My last question. Um, again, it's probably something that's a discussion
more preparing for next budget season, but we are getting an increase of students coming into our schools uh through the new housing that's being developed. A lot of those students come in through the pilot program, so they're not paying their portion of their school taxes. Do you have a readout of
approximately what the projected amount of students is going to be that's going to enter our district? Um, and what the price the per the price per pupil will be that we are going to have to kind of rectify as we get more and more increases as those units get finished.
So I do have um Michael and I actually looked at this over the past year. We actually our enrollment has not gone up. Those developments have actually kept our enrollment stable. >> Yeah, I I understand that. But we do
have a lot of children, we looked at the the numbers last meeting that are unenrolling and going to private schools. Um those students paid, you know, for the majority. I'm not speaking as a whole. I I don't know everybody's, you know, each student that left. Um, but if they're
taxpayers, they have a a portion of their taxes went to our schools. Several of the units that are being proposed fall under a pay in le of taxes. Uh, they don't the their portion of school taxes do not come back to us. So, it's not a onetoone uh on student lost,
student gain. So, our enrollment may stay steady. However, the price per pupil is going to go up if the students that are coming in are not, you know, contributing to their portion of school taxes. So, it's not really a numbers game in sense of quantity of students,
but a numbers game in in the sense of, you know, who's paying taxes and how we're going to alleviate the loss of a a per pupil, >> right? And I guess we will see over the next year or two with the numbers what our per pupil cost is. You're welcome.
What I think we won't know based upon the the question that Miss Balo asked, what we won't know is whether or not those students are children of parents who own homes versus children of parents who rent homes because if they're renters, they would
not be paying property taxes. The owner of the property would be paying the property tax. >> Correct. the apartment complexes that are in town now, some of them are taxed obviously and the other ones that are pilot. Not as many pilot actually that I thought as I thought there were, but that is true. We wouldn't know which
specific students, but we'd be able to monitor the per per pupil cost over the next few years to see if it looks like there's, you know, >> a growth >> a growth without an enrollment um change per se. >> Thank you,
>> Mr. Cohen. Thank you. Of course, >> Dr. Miss >> um Mrs. Jolinski, not Janowski. You normal, you would normally do that anyway, don't you? You're monitoring the, you know, the coming in and leaving
of the children. Just that's part of your job. >> Well, and part of our I mean the district, >> not I don't mean part of your job, but part of the process, >> right? I mean, part of the enrollment projections that we look at each year are based on, you know, some calculations and live births, but we're
constantly looking at enrollment because when we have to project for the following year, we have to look at those numbers. So, we're constantly looking at enrollment numbers anyway. >> Anyone else for questions? Seeing thank you for once again for
>> what? Gad >> uh just on the um health benefits when when do we go out to or have our broker go out to market to try like how how does that process work? >> So state health benefits um renews every January. Okay. But they start to do a
shop in around October. >> Um but they're already going to look at it for mid year. So, they look at it twice a year anyway to see if they can get us out because right now we're in state health benefits and um we think it would be if we could get out
it might it might help us a little bit with stabilization but with our experience unfortunately there's not been anybody willing to quote our business. >> And to Mr. Lansonsky's point, is there
any way that we would be able to run it past other brokers and perhaps the board could could be aware of like different bids that we are receiving or how does that process work? Is it like a >> Well, I can share once my when our broker goes out for the book of business
to different bro to different whether it's GIFs or whether it's different I could share that with all of you. you know what the but most of them um in the past I think couple of years no one has even bid they won't even put in a proposal for our book
>> we approved the >> we >> yeah can you hear me >> can you hear me yeah sorry um we approved the broker tonight that's that's an annual contract in the reorganization >> it's usually like 3 to five years >> okay so we're approving a three to five year contract so we would reapprove it
every year at the reorgan correct renew it >> right So that's when we would if we wanted to go with a different broker, it would be reorganization. Correct. >> Right. I would have to go out for an RFP and >> Got it. >> Do we know when Well, it's I know it's in the agenda, but do you know do we know when this broker's contract is up?
>> It's so it's professional service. So it's technically not up. We just as a board choose to go out every 3 to 5 years for a new broker. I don't know the exact year that we went out. I think it was three years ago. So, >> okay. >> So, just just to clarify, it's not a
three-year contract. It's just the board goes out every couple of years and says, "Okay, let's re-evaluate this." Right. A professional service contract is a one-year term. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we could go out for I I can absolutely go out for RFP next year if that's what you all want me to do.
That's not a problem. Are we able to use or ask other brokers to come in with offers before we decide to go with them? >> It wouldn't be offers. Basically, you would go out for a proposal for services, >> right? >> And then once they were in, then they
would they wouldn't like come in saying, "I can get you this price or I can get you that." >> In a professional service, you go out. It's almost like when you go out for an attorney or you go out, you go out for a service, >> you bring the service in, and then they would then shop your business. >> Okay. So, so just so it's it's clear for
all of us because I want it to be also be clear for me >> when we talk about our broker, the broker for this particular case goes out and shops all the eligible in health insurance company providers in the state of New Jersey and gets us quotes from
those who are willing correct >> to provide quotes to this district based upon whatever data or whatever composition we want. >> Exactly. they go out to the companies and they also go out to GIFs to um self insurance you know different insurance funds so it's not just they don't just
go to like Etna or Horizon they also go to different funds throughout the throughout the state to try to get them to quote but when you have a a GIF or a fund and your and your experience isn't very good it's very unlikely that
they're going to want to take us in so >> but it's not like you know You you have a broker who only deals with this subset of the providers in the state and that's all you're getting quotes from. You're getting quotes from the entire >> Exactly. >> universe of it and then you have to figure out
>> which ones we can afford. >> Correct. I mean if someone else actually would would actually quote on it then we would evaluate it and then we would obviously have to take it to the union and it would be a whole process. It would be equal to or better obviously
because that's how they shop it. But um Brown and Brown is actually very large. So they have a they they do have pretty much a wide stretch. But we can absolutely always look at it in the future to change if that's what you wanted me to do. >> How long have they been our broker? Do
you have a sense? >> Since I started, >> but they were a different company at first and they they I forgot what they used to be called. Do you remember? LDP LDP Consulting. You're right. So >> Okay.
Thank you. Any other questions on the budget presentation? Seeing none, we're up to the next item on our agenda, which is public comments. Can >> Mr. Jolinsky, >> we have We don't have anybody that's signed. >> No one signed up. >> No one signed up.
>> Would anyone like to speak? >> I don't think so. Is it coming on? >> No, I don't. Is it now? Can you hear me? Okay. All right. First off, can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I wasn't going to speak before, but I am speaking
now because I was I just whatever. First thing is is that back when I was on this board and I'm reciting history so that the community knows. So when you support candidates of Mr. Cohen, Miss Gandhi, Dr. Mskowitz, Miss Curaro, I don't know
about you yet, Chris, I'm still feeling you out, and Mr. Hyatt, I'm going to tell you where we are. Zero accountability, and I mean zero. When I was on this board and Miss Balomo was the subject of conversation about her breasts and her nipples by Mr. Hyatt,
who was in the chat, he maybe didn't say it. I don't know that. But he didn't shut it down to Miss Balomo's point. Miss Gandhi did not play a role, but a family member was involved. Calling your names. You can absolutely speak if you'd like. After I took it to Mr. Balone, Mr.
Cohen, Mr. Gross, multiple times, multiple emails, meetings. What are we doing? Requesting that he be removed from a leadership position. And while you're huffing and puffing over there, I'm going to tell you right now, you not showing up, Mr. Hyatt not showing up,
Dr. Mr. Mscowitz showing up late. You weren't involved. But these two, that's an embarrassment. And Mr. Cohen, I'm looking to you because you are the board president. And though you can't mandate they sit there, we all think it's a joke. And Miss Janowski wasn't here. A, she wasn't on the board when that
happened. B, she had a commitment for her son. Don't care what these two had because they should have been here because that's a joke. So when these people come out and support candidates that are running, this is what you're going to get. Zero accountability. Mr. Cohen did absolutely nothing. And then
Miss Balomo put up a vote for no confidence for Mr. Hyatt and Miss Gandhi, which if I were there, I'd vote yes. And I know some of you would. And therefore was shot down. That was your chance. This attorney here tells you you can't. But you actually could, Mr.
Cohen, take it out of order because I had done that to you as board president if it mattered to you. I know you're taking notes and not going to address it, but I'm just going to say flat out, you could have done something and instead you chose not to. I'm going to put it under new business. You as the president could have moved it, but you
didn't to protect your friends once again. So, forget about what's going to happen cuz Danielle, you already know it's getting voted no, even if you put it up and everybody was sitting here because you got all nos besides probably two yeses, which are Michael and Carrie, and then three from yourself, and that's
it. So, zero accountability. So what I will say is forget all of that. Public should know nothing was done. It was raised multiple times. Mr. Hyatt sat in his leadership position as VP and committee chair. Miss Gandhi sits there huffing and puffing like I'm saying some
lie that didn't really happen, though it did. And so I'm letting you all know right now that's who you get when you vote for people that these people support. You may not like me. I really don't care. What I'm telling you flat out is zero accountability from any of these people. So know when you vote.
Goodbye. >> Every board member's name was just mentioned. So is anybody have anything that they would like to say? I will take them in order as I see it. Miss Gandhi, >> I just want to thank you for your commitment to come here every single
board meeting. Leave your family at home just to come attack us. So thank you very much. Anyone else? >> I would like to thank you, Val. Your commitment to protecting women and public servants and our community is something that should not be taken for
granted. Um, just because you don't like a person, uh, doesn't mean you're not accountable for your actions. So, I think you you nailed that right on the spot. Um, you know, they say that if there's remorse after an action, it speaks a lot for someone's character. And there has been zero remorse for
something that has impacted me. Uh, so if we're going to sit in trainings and learn, we need to take something out of that, Mr. Cohen. We can plan all the trainings we want in the world. But you heard what the council that you brought in had to say to us. The coalition that you
brought in had to say to us. Mr. Hyde and Mrs. Gandhi chose not to attend that uh but come immediately after it was over. Um and what we learned is that by not acting when someone reaches out to
you, you're not performing your role as a community servant and an elected official. So Val, thank you again and thank you for staying committed to protecting the community that you served and hopefully one day we'll serve again. Any
other comments? >> Um, I just want to one I do want to apologize and I was going to make this statement no matter what. I did talk to Mr. Cohen and in fact Mr. Balone um about my not being able to be here on
time. I had full intention of coming to that training. On Thursday, my son's coach put a home game on the calendar for tonight and made it senior recognition night. So, um, having my oldest, I've never been through it before. It's a huge to-do. So, uh, I
could not imagine my son being there and not having a parent there to give a rose to or to take pictures with, um, see his board. So, um, for those that voted for me, I did want to explain my absence, especially during um, a very important training. So, I do apologize, but I
would hope that it's very understandable why I missed that. So I just and I appreciate the support that you both gave and encouraging me to be at my son's stuff without any judgment. So um thank you very much and thank you for saying that. So I everybody would know
why I didn't come. So um it was definitely not out of disrespect. >> Thank you. I look forward to hearing about the game. Anyone else? I I'm going to figure out the best way to say this. So, I think it's important
for the community to know the truth behind all of the shenanigans, all of the lies, all of the stuff made for political gain. Every single uh
the police department dismissed everything. There was nothing there. There wasn't really an investigation. The um superior court decided nothing. There was nothing there. There was no threats. There was nothing. All those lies.
The TPO dismissed because there was no evidence provided to show there was any threats, anything happened. Then I had to go out and get a protective order against Mrs. Balomo for the harassment that she put me and my
family through for months and months and months. And the woman that sits there and talks about, you know, fighting for the children took a photo of my child and posted it on social media with negative information, falsehood, and
that's the person that this community voted. So when people come up and spread lies and they still try to bring up the the information that when nothing really happened and they try to use that to defame four families of our community,
the community to understand that this is serious. This is all for political gain. And that's that was done purposely because pictures were taken of a private message. Again, nobody from my family was part of that. They did not have any
communication. Mr. Hyatt wasn't part of that. He didn't respond to anything. There's no evidence. There were tons and tons of evidence that they were going to provide. Nothing was provided. And after the this was all brought up to get an
unpaid board of ed seats. That's how low some people will go. And quite honestly, that is what the community needs to remember that these people brought shame to Marorrow, brought shame to our board of education, brought shame to our community, all because they wanted to
get seats on the board of ed. So when they support candidates, keep that in mind. Couple of things. I'm not here to debate you. I read the court transcript. I actually have a copy of it, so I have it. So you can say what you want. Second thing, nobody defamed anybody sitting up
here. Defamation of character. Look it up. Third, when you said that somebody attacked you, I didn't attack you. I actually just stated plain fact. Third, unlike you who attacks people online and your friends sitting there, Mr. Hyatt, I'm looking you right in the face. I
don't talk about you behind your back. I don't talk about you with fake profiles like the two of you do and your family members. I'm looking you dead in the face. You could say what you want. I don't have to hide behind anything. So, what I'm telling you is you could sit there and lie and cry and say all you want to say. I read the court
transcript. It was requested and I have it. So, whatever happened, I understand with the police department still doesn't change the fact of what was said about Miss Bulmo. That was in fact said. And so, what I'm saying to you is I didn't defame you at all. I just stood here and
said something I read. I didn't say anything bad about you besides what I read. So, I'm going to let you know flat out. I don't hide. I'm looking right at you, and I'm ready to address it with you. But I'm going to tell you, putting you aside, my comment was to Mr. Cohen. My comment was that nothing was done for
months, and nothing is still being done now. And so, all I'm saying, and by the way, when you said somebody got a seat, who got the seat that put the text message out? Cuz I don't see anybody sitting up here that did. I'm not there. And then >> your your minutes, if you can just wrap
up. I'm I'm looking at the time, so >> I know they put 3 minutes up. They didn't put one minute up. >> Okay. Well, that's fine. Anyway, I'm just sitting here to say it wasn't about you and Mr. Hyatt besides that the two of you didn't show up. It was to Mr. Cohen that nothing was still done and no
respect was shown to somebody whose nipples were talked about. I I do have a response because she mentioned me again. So since you had the transcript, I strongly urge you because obviously everything was put out, there would be
text messages that were shared as part of the court transcript by the whistleblower um Mr. Pucherelli, who I can mention because everybody else has. >> Um and and that those messages are very
critical because um it kind of really speaks to Mrs. Balomo's character and I'm going to leave it at that because to sit there and make a big deal and I I agree 1,000% that that comment was not appropriate. But you guys should listen I mean you guys should actually take a
look at those text messages by the whistleblower that Mrs. Balomo had in front of her while she was making a big deal about the other text message and was supported hanging out with this person. It's very interesting. I think I think the community would really benefit
from seeing that. So, since you have the court transcripts, you should really share that because you guys have no problem sharing everything else on on social media >> then. If you have read it, Mrs. Mrs. Mendes, and you should know that the other text messages by the whistleblower
were far worse. And that's what you should be sitting there and and instead of sitting there and supporting and fighting, you should that's that's the person you should be targeting or whatever it is that you're doing instead of hanging out with him at every single board meeting that I see you do. >> Miss Gandhi, we've we've got
>> my name was mentioned so I'm going to speak now. >> I'm not going to debate this here for legal reasons, but I will say confirmed by the Marorrow Police Department. I want to slaughter her. Confirmed by the That's from your husband. Confirmed by the the Marorrow Police Office. I'm
going to leave her to die alone. Confirmed. Sent by your husband. Um confirmed by the Marorrow Police Department. Um that Mr. Chad Hyatt and Mr. Matesh Gandhi were in the chat. This needs to die and speaking about my nipples and breasts. That's all
confirmed. You can say lie. Oh, and by the way, we were never in superior court. It I so that's another lie. Uh, the lies just continue and continue and continue and continue. But I have never lied. This happened. It's real. If you
want to, if you came to the training, you would know that what you just did and continue to do is actually against every single thing that we just learned about. And I fear I fear deeply that when it is a child that we have to
protect, this is what you're going to get. someone who makes excuses, someone who has no accountability, and someone who will shame the person who comes forward and says, "I'm not going to stand for this. This is my life. This is my livelihood, and I deserve as a woman
to be able to serve without your husband wishing death upon me and my breast being discussed in a group chat from 15t away from me." Okay. So, thank you. That's all I have to say to you. >> Did he ever send a text to you? >> Can Can I'm sorry. We We have board business that we
>> Absolutely. I understand that. But you, she does not get to sit here and lie about community members. She's a board member. She needs to be more responsible. She's talking about children and protecting children. When you attack parents that have not
done anything that impacts the children when you put a photo of a child on Facebook, >> I I'm sorry. Where >> that's fine. I can I can wrap it up here. Like I said, it court. No, she's talking about the text messages. She's not talking about those messages that
she has from the person. I'm not going to stop. I don't need you insulting and insulting. >> You have no control over this meeting. You have no leadership. No leadership on this board. Well, you know what causes all of this. >> Thank you. >> I know I'm stuck with it and so is and
you're failing them. >> Would anyone else like to come up and speak? Yes, please. Good evening. I'm here on a happy note. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. You're welcome. Um, some of you may know me, some of you um, uh,
may not. My name is Cindy Barreu. I worked here many years ago. Uh, actually six years ago. I was a former business administrator, but I'm here tonight to congratulate Chris Jalinsky. I hired her back in November, December of 1998.
Um, uh, we've had a long tenure because I, uh, retired in 2019. Yeah. 2019. So, it is wonderful me for me tonight to
see, as I say, to see the child that I brought into this business because she came from the Port Authority. um and uh to see her blossom and to become what she is today. So I want to
congratulate her and congratulate you for being smart to hire her. So congratulations and congratulations to you. >> We'll get an opportunity to do that again when we get it onto the agenda for
but thank you very much for speaking. Can I just say something quickly about that? >> I think that's amazing. It's a testament to Chris and the fact that someone came out just to congratulate you. That's amazing. So, congrats. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else who'd like to come up and speak? Well,
>> I'm sorry. Did you want to add >> public? I I just had a comment about everything I just heard, but I if you wanted to go to the audience, whoever >> if you don't if you can just wait till like till I close. Yeah, of course. Thank you. Anyone else would like to speak? Seeing no one else on the public comments. Can I have a motion to close
public comments? Miss Carrero, can I have a second? Mr. Smith? All in favor? Anyone opposed? Okay, Mr. Linsky, you had Miss Jenowski.
Wow, tonight is just a night for me. Thank you, Miss Jenowski. >> It's the Jay's. >> Yes. Um, just kind of hearing all that and taking it all in. I just um I want to like focus on how all of that could come across to children because that's
really who we represent children and their families and being someone that's worked with them for my whole adult life twofold. One, you know, I don't even know all the details, but you know, keep using the word whistleblower and things
like that. To me, a whistleblower is someone who may have done something wrong, but has remorse for what they have done wrong. And it's okay to have remorse and say, "Look, I was a part of this. I feel really guilty about it. I want to come clean and I want to do right." And that's what we try to tell
teach our students that if you find yourself in the midst of a situation and you're not standing up against the bully, there's always a chance in that situation that you can change your mind and you can come forward and be better than everybody else and you can do the right thing. Even if you've done the
wrong thing, you can always make it right and come clean. So I think there's a lot to be said for maybe somebody who came forward and said look I did wrong but I want to make it right and I apologize for my actions. And then also I I think in this day and age you find
children less and less apt to apologize because parents are afraid an apology is an admission of guilt and therefore we don't want to be held responsible. We don't want to get sued. We don't want to have a lawsuit. We don't want to go to court. And really there's nothing wrong with apologizing and seeking
forgiveness. So, I don't want it to come across to the children and families in this district that apologizing is a sign of weakness. It's not. And that's what we try to teach our students all the time. That you can apologize, you can ask forgiveness, and then you give the other person a chance to show mercy and
grace. And that's really what it is all about. It's not about avoiding lawsuits. It's not about constantly taking notes to see how we can use this against you and things like that. People make mistakes. you can apologize, but I just don't want it to come across to the families in this district that it really
just comes down to that trying to avoid being gotten. That's all. I want to respond to that quickly. I think that's a very very good point. Um, but I think equally important that when you're going to bring something in front of the
public or discuss something or discuss something, you know, a person being attacked, it's very important whether the whistleblower apologizes and is remorseful for his actions or her actions or not, that the entire story is put in front. You can't just pick and
choose because you want to attack certain people and because you want to get an a certain outcome. When you purposely only focus on those things and those people because you want to make a point and you want to make their lives miserable and you want to attack them
and destroy them in every way possible. Leaving very important details out, that's not fair. Because if you're going to sit there and put everything out in front of the community, whether the community comes and talks about it openly, there are no I don't know whatever profiles they're talking about.
But when you put out just a part of the story of the picture, it's not fair because here there's not just one victim. There are four more. And those four men plus their families were victimized by the lies because the full story was not put in front of the in
front of the public. And that's the problem that I have sitting there and saying there was no text messages. You know, again, it's the way the stuff is communicated. When you sit there and say this text message done by your husband, nothing was sent ever to Mrs. Balo.
People have private messages. They don't I'm not saying one way or the other, but the reality is this, okay? When you go to three different parts of like, you know, the legal system and every single one says there's nothing there, there's nothing there. And then you still sit
there and keep harping on it. It doesn't make it true. Just because you're allowed, just because you keep saying it over and over again, and everybody else that are family, men, and families, they just keep their mouth shut. It's not out of fear. It's just because we don't care anymore. Because it's not the truth. And
I think the community knows that. Just because one person or a few of her friends and whatever they keep because they're allowed again, that doesn't make the story true. People know 1 + 1 is two, not three, >> right? But just because something is
criminally not true doesn't mean that it's not hurtful and poor judgment. >> Here's the thing. They're blaming people that were that didn't even say anything. Nothing. You're sitting here and you're you're talking about whatever she's mentioning. Chad Hyatt, Mr. Hyatt has
served this board very well for the time that he's been here. And I'm going to say that not because I was his running mate, but it's true. The amount of work that he has done behind the scenes that nobody sees for the last three two and a half years has been incredible. And quite honestly, the fact that he sits
here and doesn't say anything shows the kind of family and family man that he is because he's not going to sit here and attack a woman for sitting there lying about him and lying on him. Show me every single for months and months and weeks and weeks. It was we have so much evidence. You know why they didn't
produce anything else? Because Mr. Hayyatt didn't say anything. >> Gandhi, I'd like I'd like I'd like to let Dr. Msquitz have the final word. >> Right. Doc Doc Dr. Mskowitz. >> Dr. Won't be the final word because I'm going to speak afterwards. >> I I I have a comment.
>> Dr. Mskowitz, >> I think what Mrs. Janowski said about whistleblower is very different. I think the word you're using whistleblower in the wrong that it's not >> Oh, I didn't call him that. They were calling him whistleblower.
>> Yeah. Yeah. But I'm just saying your thing with whistleblower and you talking about whistleblower is two different things. Two two Yeah, it is. It is. So, I just want to make sure that you realize what she's talking about something very different. same same
process, but your whistleblower is not the same thing that the two of you were talking about. >> Mrs. Womo, >> your your your final, please, and then we're moving on. >> Yeah. Um, so I'm going to take as much time as I want because that was what was
afforded. Luckily, I don't have much to say, uh, because this isn't a court. Um but the amount of lies that were just entered into the public record and were allowed is alarming. Um again I stand behind the fact that every bit of detail
uh and everything that was produced was not three branches of whatever she said not not a true statement. um did happen were attested to and confirmed and they the repercussions
of what went on. This board voted on training as the first step towards repair and I think it speaks volumes to our community that the two board members directly involved chose not to attend tonight's training.
And I'll leave it at that. Thank you. I get sexual harassment training every year at work. Every single year for the last 15 years. >> On to the next item. I can train Mrs. Balo on it. That was the last comment. >> We are up to we are up to personnel matters. Mr. Smith, as the newest member
of the board, >> u would you mind reading personnel matters? >> Each of the employees too. >> We start on page. >> That was attorney. That was board attorney humor. I page starting on page four.
>> Uh personnel matters. The superintendent of school submits the following resolutions for approval. One, retirements. Two, resignations. Three, full-time teaching staff 2026 2027 school year. >> You go to page 17.
>> Four. Part-time teaching staff 2026 2027 school year. Five school psychologists 2026 2027 school year. Uh six certified administrators 2026 2027
school year. Seven operational administrators 2026 2027 school year. Eight non non-aligned certificated uh administrators 2026 2027 school year. Sorry, was that Oh, yeah. Nine is at the
bottom. Sorry. Nine non-aligned non-certif certificated administrators 2026 2027 school year. 10 non-aligned support staff 2026 2027 school year. 11. Secretarial Personnel 2026 2027 school
year. And uh 12. Bookkeeper and Clerk 2026 2027 school year. 13. Special Education Instructional Assistance 2026 2027 school year. 14. Kindergarten Basic Skills Instructional Assistance 2026 2027
school year. 15. School Monitors 2026 2027 school year. 16. School aids 2026 2027 school year. 17. Building and ground staff mechanic. groundskeeper and maintenance mechanics
2026 2027 school year 18 head custodian and head custodians and night custodial supervisor 2026 2027 school year and uh a couple more 19 courier 2026 2027
school year 20 bus drivers hours and salaries 2026 2027 school year 21 bus attendance hours and salaries 2026 2027 school year. 22 computer technicians 1 2026 2027 school year. 23
computer technicians 2 2026 2027 school year. 24 district network test uh technician 2026 2027 school year. 25 res uh registered nurse 2026 2027 school year. 26 permanent floater school nurse
2026 2027 school year. 27, unpaid leaves of absence. 28, job description. Uh, I so move. Oh, yeah. >> Nope. You have now read the longest section in in board agenda history. So, congratulations.
Can I have a second, please? Mr. Lansonski. Any discussions on any of the items in this particular in this particular section? >> Seeing no discussions, can I have a roll call, please? >> Yes. Okay. Mrs. Carrero,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Gandhi, >> yes. >> Mr. Hyatt, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jenowski, >> yes. >> Mr. Lolonsky, >> yes. >> Dr. Mskowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Balomo,
>> no for one through five. Yes to the rest. Oh, I'm sorry. Never mind. Hold on. Sorry, I'm on the wrong page. Uh, yes. Thank you. >> And Mr. Cohen, >> yes. Thank you. >> Moving on to the organizational matters.
Miss Janowski, would you read that? >> The superintendent of school submits the following resolutions for approval. One, board secretary. Two, board attorney. Three, board attorney for special education matters. Four, insurance consultant. Five, insurance agent. Six,
board auditor. Seven, school physician. Eight, board designign. Nine, public agency compliance officer. 10, district section 504 coordinator. 11, section 504 coordinator for program accessibility. 12, approval of qualified purchasing
agent for bidding, purchasing, and sale of property. 13, procurement of goods and services through state agency for the 2627 school year. 14. Purchase professional services. 15. Open public records act.
16. Designation of legal newspapers 17 tax sheltered annuity companies. I so move. >> Thank you. Could I have a second, please? >> Miss Gandhi, any discussions on any of the matters under this section? >> Yeah, I would. I have a couple comments.
Um I just wanted to take a quick opportunity um for number 16 to thank our wonderful SRO's. I was very happy with um the way the board moved. I think the security, the safety and security of our children is the most important and
I'm glad that we recognized that and made the necessary changes to be able to um secure those services. They provide an invaluable service to our district. Um and I also want to offer similar comments for number 11, Chartwells. Uh I'm really ex happy for that contract
renewal. Chartwells has been phenomenal. Mr. Pomeary, uh am I on the wrong section again? They Yes. Uh he's he's done a phenomenal job. >> It's the next one. >> I'm sorry. Agenda is I got it. I'm all I'm all mixed. >> Okay. I I thought I was missing.
>> There's a lot. No, I had it out of order. Okay. That's okay. >> So, you're going to hold your discussion to the next one. Thank you. Any other discussions for this item? Seeing none, can I have a roll call, please? >> Yes. >> Okay. Mrs. Gandhi. >> Yes. Yes. And officially
congratulations, >> Mr. Hyatt. >> She's not until we roll. >> Yes. And congrats, >> Mrs. Jenowski. >> Yes. Well deserved, >> Mr. Lansky. >> Yes. My pleasure, >> Dr. Mskowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith.
>> Yes. Well deserved. >> Thank you, Mrs. Balomo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Carrerero. >> Yes. Congratulations. >> Thanks. And Mr. going >> thinking about it. >> Yes. >> Yay. >> And before we move on, um I get the
opportunity to sort of just say a few words. And then I also want to give Mr. Malone an opportunity to do that as well. Um Chris, um and I usually refer to you as M. Jalinsky. But Chris, >> Chris, >> uh, congratulations to you on this
appointment. Um, I I've had an opportunity to work with you in both roles for a short period of time, and in both situations, in both cases, you are the the consmate professional. You're welcomecoming. You're you're
smart. You know it. And what you don't know, you find out. And those are all the qualities of the right person who needs to be in that seat. And I'm very excited and happy for you as you take on this new role. And I know that your
experience for so many years will not only be of value to the board and to the district, but to the various different departments within this this school district that report into you. Um from the BA's office to transportation to facilities, they're all lucky to have
you. as their new leader. So, congratulations to you and thank you for taking this seat. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Mr. Malone, um I give you a chance if you'd like to say a few words, but also I would like to sort of also open the opportunity if you have some comments
about our recent recent retirements. >> I do. This is not about uh Chris retiring. So, >> no, she's not allowed to. >> She's not allowed to retire yet, >> although she can. Um, I think it's worth mentioning this board understands and
knows um the process that um I'll say we uh underwent as a school district to find the next business administrator, which is not an easy task. Um, we posted far and wide and, you know, I I even sat
Chris down day one and I said, "Nobody in this school district gets handed a position regardless of how long they've been here." And um she took that and said, "I know I but I'm ready." Um she went through a
very rigorous process through uh multiple rounds of interviews with multiple committees and she rose to the top. And I know I kept the board informed, but the community doesn't really know that. Um, and the community should know that
because from an objective standpoint, you know, someone could argue and say, "Well, Chris has been here so long, so that's why she got the job." That is not why she got the job. She earned this um fair and square. And um I'm very happy to be working with you again. Um and I
you you've done a phenomenal job. She's actually been doing the job of two people for the last I'll call it six months. It's really only five, but it will be six. And um I know Cindy, you're in the audience. Thank you for coming. That I that means a lot. Um Diana
means a lot for Chris. I know. And and your husband Mike as well. Um who has his own board meeting I think on Thursday. So he came to ours. So know that you have the support Chris. Um, one thing that I've really seen,
um, that really benefits us, I think, with your your leadership in the business office is you are willing to listen to us and say, "Well, how can we okay, I I know you you need this and it costs
money. Let's figure out how we can get there." Um, and and Chris and I talk about this all the time. She's she's getting better at not saying no. >> However, she is still um being fiscally
responsible for this in the school district as as I am as well. And she mentioned before we are both the two of us I feel like are really uh marching in tandem to uh look to the betterment of this school district for the future. This budget really is was somewhat in
the rearview mirror for us. Um, we are looking forward two, three, four years down the road to make sure that we are not in a position where we are sending good people home. Other school districts are where we're not closing schools,
other school districts are. And where we're not cutting programs for students, other school districts are. So, notwithstanding the 7.77 tax increase and we fully understand the impact to our community, um we have not changed
the face of this school district, u or at least I shouldn't say that yet. We are not recommending to do that and I'm I'm hoping this board votes to to pass that budget. So, thank you, Chris. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm
very excited to step into the role. So, thank you. And now for some retirement comments for three individuals who are on this agenda. The first one is uh for Miss uh Marie Battle. Marie Battle began her career in transportation as a school
driver 25 years ago. Over the past two decades, Marie has been a dedicated bus driver to her students, parents, and colleagues. She worked hard every winter removing snow and worked for the recreation department during the summer. We wish Marie the best in her next
chapter of life. Congratulations, Marie, on your retirement. Next comment is for Patricia Shore. Mrs. Patricia Shore has served Marbor Township Public Schools since November of 2013. Beginning her career at Marbor
Elementary School, Mrs. Shore has subsequently touched the lives of students at the Abbott Early Learning Center and now Robertsville as a kindergarten instructional assistant. She made a successful career as a teacher in Harlem, New York for nearly 40 years prior to joining us in Marboro.
Her work with students, patience, and ability to reach students at their level is something respected by all staff. We wish her well as she heads off into retirement to enjoy her family and friends. Congratulations.
And finally, retirement comments for Maria Sylvestri. Maria Sylvestri began her career in the transportation department in 2006. After 20 years, she will be retiring this June to enjoy time with her friends and family. Mrs. Sylvestri will be
missed by her colleagues, students, and her driver. We wish her the best of luck in her next chapter. Congratulations, >> Mr. Malone. Thank you very much for sharing those comments and congratulations all those um who are
actually retiring this year. Um your service to our district has been amazing. Uh for those of you who like when we keep track and account that was 58 years that represented that experience. >> Great people. And um if you take Miss
Shro's experience even before she came to the district um I think you said it was an additional 40 years that's nearly 100 years of experience um that our district had benefited from. So congratulations to them. >> May I make a comment? >> Sure.
>> Congratulations to all the retirees. But Mrs. Shore um had both of my children. I believe they were both in her classroom and they made a huge impact on their lives. So I wanted to thank her for that. >> That was very nice. Okay. Um, our next item is financial and
business operation matters. Miss Carrerero, would you read that? It's page 40 if that'll help. >> All right. The superintendent of schools submits the following resolutions for
approval. One, final 2026 to 2027 school year budget adoption. Two, adjustment for health care costs. Three, capital reserve withdrawal, other capital projects. Four, maintenance reserve withdrawal. Five, travel and related
expense reimbursement 2026 to 2027 authorized six authorized signatures. Seven, uniform minimum chart of accounts. Eight, claims auditor prepayment authority 2026 to 2027 school
year. Nine, afterchool sports enrichment programs. 10, renewal of contract educational data services for purchasing procedures for the 2026 2027 school year. 11. Contract renewal year five food service management company FSMC
contract. 12. Harassment intimidation bullying HIV report. 13. Approval of agreement E-Rate Consulting Incorporated. 14. Approval of addendum to extend the professional service agreement between the MTBOE and
ESS Northeast LLC. 15. Approval of agreement landscaping services. 16. Approval of contract with Marorrow Township for police officers for the 2026 2027 school year. 17. Approval of agreement with Marorrow Township for
school resource officers for the 2026 2027 school year. 18 source well cooperative purchase carrier commercial service for chiller repairs and rentals. I so move. >> Thank you. Can I have a second please? >> Mr. Smith,
>> any discussions on these items? >> Um try to go Oh, sorry. >> Sorry. Number 14. That is um the that's to keep our agreement with ESS to keep that contract going, right? I just want to make sure I'm understanding that.
Okay, >> Miss Balomo. >> Yeah, I just I won't repeat what I said about our SRO's, but I did want to just mention Chartwells. Um Mr. Pome is very good with the PTO's with helping out uh the parent organizations. Um anytime
I've come to him with concerns about the health of our lunch food uh and the nutrition behind it, he's been so receptive. He takes feedback from the parents and from the community. and I am excited to um see another contract on the agenda for for Chartwells. >> He's amazing.
>> Yeah, he is. Um going back to uh number 14 ESS, Mrs. Jillinsky, I know we've spoken about this in executive. Um but again, forward thinking in preparation for the next time we get to approve one of these. Um, I would love to be able to explore the idea of bringing substitutes back
inhouse onto Marorrow's payroll instead of the outsourcing to provide some consistency with substitutes and a little bit more um selectiveness with who we bring uh into our schools and how they adapt to to the different schools. >> Okay. >> Thank you.
>> Are you you're proposing to do that as a more of an in-house approach rather than a outsourced >> Yeah, correct. Any other comments on any of these items? >> I had a question for Mrs. Jolinsky. Um,
when you keep substitutes in house, isn't there a really huge cost implication? Meaning because when you're a substitute, you're only called upon when you are needed. Correct. When a teacher is absent. >> Yes. So to keep them and the reason we use a service is because they work with
a lot of different school districts. Correct. >> Yes. We used to have in district um prior to co >> and how did that like how was that? >> I mean for years it worked well >> it did work well and then when co happened it was very difficult to get
subs at all and then that's when we started to explore ESS. Um, so it's absolutely something we could explore again. >> And budget wise, it's it's >> Yeah, we would have to obviously >> Okay. >> do the math and >> Yeah. Okay. That's I just want I was just wondering about that. So Okay. And
how many did we have uh for the la for the four years that we did have them in house? How many substitutes did we have? Do I mean if you don't know now, it's fine. >> Michael, do you know when we had our own subs? >> I don't know the exact number, but we can get that for you. >> Yeah. I was just curious though. Thank
you. Can you also you know when when you are ready to bring this analysis to the board because I think it'd be helpful for us to understand the historical >> Sure. >> and then sort of how it's operating now. >> Okay.
>> Um but I'd also appreciate if there's a scan of like what other school districts are doing within Mammoth County. >> Okay. um and what reasons they're seeing the pros and the cons because I think it would be helpful for us to understand where this is where this can go or what
what hurdles they had to go through. >> Okay, no problem. >> And if I just want to add one more layer to that like just um I guess not their degree but just whoever they have a substitutes like what their background and how much experience they have that's important as well. So I'm just curious to know do we get better when we go
through a service or is it better to keep it in-house and we get like some really strong you know again having the same substitutes obviously there's benefit to it but I'm just curious to see that piece as well. Okay the experience. Thank you. >> So just to to piggyback on you know the
point of view um that I've looked into this uh heavily and the requirements for an ESS substitute are minimal. Um, when you bring substitutes back in-house as a board administration, they can make
their own standards for substitute teachers as long as they follow the state criteria. It allows us to as a community employ that fit uh with our schools and our administrators can call on and they get to know the community and an effort to keep control local at a
schoolboard level, it helps to build uh rapport especially with the students and substitutes. I I know there's a a long list of ESS subs and some are repeat subs and and you know I I know how it all works. However, um with younger children having new faces every time
there's a substitute, it kind of starts back from day one. Uh instead of building rapport and respect for substitutes that they see often. So that's my thought process for just wanting to explore the two options. >> No problem. to to that point, do we have do we set a a a criteria with
ESS as to the level of expertise or the skill set that we want for our substitutes or do they basically say we'll send you who we got and that's what you get. >> So I would have to read the contract to see specifically, but the requirements I
think are the same for all the districts that ESS works with. >> Okay. We don't specify anything for Marorrow. >> All right. And then I guess my follow-up question would be just to to to the point that Miss Palmo made is if we can set the criteria for the experience
level that we would want with our substitutes, could we do the same thing with ESS? If we wanted to raise the bar in the quality of the substitutes that we do get? >> Um, >> maybe. I would have to check. >> Okay. Brian, that's that's precisely what I was asking about like their, you
know, um what experience they have because that's important. And then just to go back to um I would think and I would imagine that in Mammoth County, we're pro we're probably seeing the same substitutes even though they're coming through an
organiz you know a different like a vendor. >> I mean probably >> I'm sure there's some changes but we probably have the same to keep the continuity. Correct. So that we're we're careful about that is what I'm saying. I just I'm just hoping that that's happening already. >> I mean, >> as best as you can. >> I think that, you know, I there's a few
districts in the area that use the SS. So, um, you know, I'm sure substitutes have their preferred district that they want to sub in even if they're in the SS sub. Um, so I do know we have a lot of the same. >> Okay. But you know, you you do have out
of, you know, town and you know, different areas. >> Yeah. Come in, >> you know, for the pool. >> You may not if you if you're restricted to that level, you may not find enough people. >> Well, that's that's the thing like depending on what how you know how if the more you restrict
obviously the smaller the pool's going to be, >> right? >> And the more experience you require, the more expensive it's going to be. So these are all the things we would have to look at. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And I just wanted to mention I actually worked for one of the outsource it was like outsource for teachers I think it was and yeah source
for teachers and um they required you to like I was certificate certificated like they required to see that get fingerprinted so a lot of it was and then they had certain scales of payment so it's so and they had I know lots of different um >> districts that they were a part of and
all of that. >> Are they a competitor to ESS >> um >> here in New Jersey? >> How I don't even know how prevalent they are anymore. I haven't heard about they used to be really big. I don't know how big they are now. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just real quick I'm I'm in favor of doing a deep dive looking into the ESS
versus doing our own subs as well. So >> Okay. Uh any other discussions on any of the items in this particular Thank you. Um, can we have a roll call? >> Okay, Mr. Hyatt. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Jenowski.
>> I'm going to say no to one through five and no to number 14 and yes to the rest. >> You said one to five and 14. >> And 14. That's a no. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. Lolanski. >> No to one through five. Guess everything
else. >> Dr. Msquitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Balomo, >> no to one through five, number 14, yes to everything else.
>> Mrs. Carrero, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gandhi, >> before I put my vote, I just want to say um I've had many conversations with Mr. M with Mr. balone about the budget and with you as well, Mrs. Jolinsky. I know you guys did an incredible job. Um, I'm
a taxpayer as well in this community and nobody wants to see, you know, your taxes go up, but I need to make sure that my kids and the students in this community have a good education. And so for that and to keep Marbor schools
where we are, knowing how much work went into all of the budget planning and the cuts that you made, every single place you possibly could and this was truly not in our control. And it's really important for the community to know that
that every single person in on it, you know, between you, Mr. Balone, and Crystal Linsky, you guys really looked at every single thing that you possibly could. The board asked some hard questions as well. privately, you know, sometimes two or three people got on the call together, whatever it was. But we
did ask the questions and this is the only option because I do not want to see what happened in Middletown and other neighboring districts to shut down schools and, you know, increase class sizes. So, as difficult as it as it is for me as well, because it hurts my
pocket too, this is the right decision for our community and for that reason, I vote yes. >> Thank you. Okay. budget passes. >> You didn't ask me. >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> okay. We'll pass anyway. But Mr. Cohen,
>> um >> I got excited. I'm sorry. >> So, um I am going to vote yes and I'm going to vote yes to all the items, but I just also just want to offer just quick comments and I echo some of the the points that you made, Miss Gandhi.
Um I I 7.7% increase is not simple. It is pain. It is not painless. It is painful. And it's painful for everyone. Our lowest income earners, our seniors. Um it's pain. It's painful for everyone. But I
do want to say that um in the context of the facts, um this is not about trying to expand our district to bring in programs that we can't afford. This is about trying to address the
structural grow costs associated with growth. This is about the fact that the state where in other school districts they're giving them 6% or more and in our school district we're getting under 4%. And that doesn't cover the costs of
items like 33% increase in health care costs or even a three and a half% salary increase that's part of contracts. It doesn't cover the cost of labor. It doesn't cover the cost of increased doing business every day. Commodities like cleaning the floors and cutting the
grass or keeping the lights on. Okay. It doesn't cover that cost. What I do want to say is I want to I want to recognize both Mr. belong your leadership as well as Chris your leadership in the fact
that the board asked you to find savings and it wasn't saying hey we're going to cut programs or cut staff you found ways to save nearly $2.1 million in our in our in our annual budget which is not a
small amount of money if I'm understanding correctly that's probably the equivalent of saving 51 teachers or staff members. That is significant. So I I look at this and I say it is it is hard to understand. It is hard for
some people to to sort of embrace, but it it shows that the district's trying to do responsible spending. It shows that the district is focused on students. It it you found the cost savings that included not just sort of
programs but administrative cost savings where everyone used to always say well the administrators are not doing their part. You found ways to save on the administrative side. So it's for those reasons and then to your point Miss Gandhi I looked at what other towns are
doing around us and I don't need to mention their names but I will mention the impact. One local town had to raise their t their tax base by 7% and cut 26 staff positions from their schools.
Another town raised their taxes 9.5%. All right. Another town nearby received the full state aid, the full 6%. But still had to eliminate courtesy busing to their district. These are hard decisions.
And then yet there are other towns that had to consider closing schools and probably needed to close schools but can't. That was never a discussion here in Marbor. So thank you for being responsible.
Thank you for for finding the difficult things to do. Um it is not easy for us as a town, but at least we're not creating a problem down the road. We're not kicking the can. and um future boards, future students, future
homeowners in this town will be better off for it. So, thank you. So, those are my reasons for voting yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um we are up to >> Oh, Brian, is okay. Just to ride on your coattails a little bit. No, I wanted to also say that I respect so much the last
meeting um or the 20 the mid March 24th meeting about you never standing for cutting um you know teachers or not giving them raises because happy admin happy teachers equal happy students. So I give a lot of respect for for both of
you with that budget. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And just to thank you echo everyone's comments. This is a tough decision, but you guys are extremely transparent, extremely thorough, and you're physically responsible. It's very clear the way that you did this budget, and we're in an unfortunate situation,
and I think it's fiscally irresponsible not to pass this budget because it's going to kick the can down the road, and it's going to cause us to balloon in terms of degrading our schools, and that can't happen. So, just thank you both of you for seeing that process through. I know it's not it's not easy. It's not
easy for us either. So, thank you're welcome. >> Thank you. Dr. Squitz, >> I'm just gonna say bravo. >> Okay, any other comments? Um, we are moving on to the next item,
curriculum matters. Mr. Lansonski, curricular matters. The superintendent of schools submit the following resolution for approval. Number one, curriculum matters. I so move. That's the shortest resolution in board history.
>> Thank you. Any discussions on this item? >> I'm sorry. Need a second. Miss Carrero. Any discussions on this item? Seeing no discussions, could I have a roll call, please? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Jenowski? >> Yes.
>> Mr. Lolanski? >> Yes. >> Dr. Msitz? >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Balomos down. Mrs. Carrero, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gandhi, >> yes. >> Mr. Hyatt, >> yes. >> And Mr. Cohen,
>> yes. >> Thank you. We are up to old business. Is there any old business that needs to be covered? >> Seeing none, any new business that needs to be covered? >> For old business, I had a question. >> Yeah. Um, for the Y, you know, how we
were going to do a survey. Are we I just wanted to see if there's an update on that or Yeah, thanks. >> Um, yes. So, I reached out to uh the YMCA and and obtained their survey questions. Um, our next communications committee is going to discuss an
internal survey from from us to the community and we we will send that out and um hopefully get a lot of responses. And I mean we haven't obviously heard anything from any parents. So um sometimes nothing you know over the last
year is always good news. I think we were just experiencing maybe some growing pains or whatever in the beginning. So um >> which always happens in the beginning right? >> Yeah. So well that's promising. So >> so are we sending out their survey collecting the data then sharing with them or are we just sending out their a
link to their survey and they're collecting the data? So, I don't think we should send out an identical survey that they just sent out. Um, but I I wanted their questions to inform the communications committee to um inform our own questions. Um, it wasn't
terribly long. I think it was maybe eight questions, some something somewhere around there. Um, but I think the communications committee should sit down and and devise um its own survey for our internal purposes so we can send it out. We just, you know, we we've been
discussing ways to u increase participation, right? And people a lot of times people if if they're happy with something, they they don't fill out a survey. They fill it out when they're unhappy. Um but we we have had I think they had it was probably maybe just
about 20 or so responses and I think we haveund >> 80 families something like that you utilizing. >> Sounded twice. That's that's probably typical for a survey. >> It is typical. Yeah. >> Um so you know some of the things that came out um and I'll I'll share it with
the communications committee to you know ultimately share out with the board um when we meet. But there are a few things um where there were low marks. The parents actually just didn't understand some of the changes we made. Uh for example the delayed openings. There was
a parent who didn't utilize it but didn't just never saw the communications. So we rectified that. Um, but but we we will put out our own survey and hopefully get more responses. >> So, did I hear you correctly that one parent came and talked about it and you
actioned it right away? Is that what I just heard? >> Yes, we actually did that proactively last year. >> Thank you for that. >> But this year, for some reason, the parent didn't see the communication that we made the change and then filled out the survey this year saying, "I'm still
having that issue." And so we just had to direct the parent to say we actually made the change. So you must have missed. >> Okay. I was going more in a positive direction that you actually listened to one community member and made it happen. So yeah.
>> Do we plan on incentivizing in any way? Like I mean I'm thinking even like a small gift card and like a raffle for those that >> So the YMCA did take my recommendation on that and um they they I I think they incentivized I can't remember if they
did a free drop in or >> but they did they did incentivize it and it it didn't do much for the response rate. >> Lunch with Jenna. >> Lunch with Jenna. >> Yes. I will go to a lucky winner to go to lunch.
Okay. Um, any will those questions that this the commun I don't go to the communications meeting usually, but will the questions that the communications committee work on be shared with the full board before it goes out?
>> Thank you. That's helpful. Any other old business? New business. Okay, we're up to the to the to the second round of our public comments. Do we have anyone signed up? >> No. >> Would anyone like to speak?
Seeing no public comments. Motion to close public comments. >> Miss Gandhi. Second. Mr. Hyatt. All in favor. Thank you. All right. We are at the point of our executive session where we will be going into executive um an
executive session for the evening. We expect it to be about 60 minutes. Um, we will be discussing matters of attorney, client privilege, personnel, and student matters. We do not expect to be coming back out to conduct business. So, this would be the um the end of our public
portion of our meeting tonight. Can I have a motion to go into exec? Miss Gandhi, can I have a second? Miss Carrero. All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? Thank you, everyone. Say hi to my
>> Oh, yeah.